Recent reviews by [SANE]

While it lacks the atmosphere or dread of Szymanski's other projects (Music Machine, Wolf in Autumn, Fingerbones), or Dusk's expansive combat, it still holds its own as a relatively short horror shooter. The main gimmick, being the usage of light, is implemented just well enough that you don't get bored simply because the game is too short for it. The gameplay is good but not new, the horror aspects are a nice addition to the setting but don't really build on anything. The game's highlight is easily the story; the little notes you get have a mix of humour and a colourful story that is enjoyable and gives the game its substance.
The game runs well, plays alright. The most i can really say about the game is that i enjoyed it. Go play it, but don't expect anything mindblowing.

It's pretty easy to see this as "Ray-traced Doom" but the game builds its own identity very quickly. Project Warlock is very, very good. The map design is great, the visuals are good, the combat is fun, and the creative design is enjoyable.
There are a lot of games you can call "modernised doom" but this one nails that premise exquisitely. Everything about this style of game is done well: The weapons system allows for choice and variety but never leaves you empty handed or defenseless, the map design has the nonlinearity of Doom with memorable and challenging combat scenarios, the enemies are creatively designed and each one presents something new, and every single kill is satisfying; the animations are perfect. Even the secrets are implemented well.
The two main drawbacks are the bugs (mainly the one where the player is liable to phase through elevator floors) and the sound design, wherein certain enemies have disproportionately and agonisingly loud noises associated with them, to the extent where even a low volume would hurt my ears. Neither issue is prohibitive. I also found some other bugs but they weren't that bad.
Good visuals, good combat, fun gunplay, creative design, good music. A huge recommend for anyone interested in this style of boomer shooters.

A logic puzzle taken to the most stylised extreme, Return of The Obra Dinn is pretty much everything you want from a detective game. The music is great, the voice acting has character and the visuals are striking. The best element of the game is the determinism of the choices you make; there's no guessing or conjecture. The game runs excellently, it plays well and the puzzles (or puzzle) are/is intricately and phenomenally designed.
The singular issue is how the game requires constant backtracking. True to its roots as a logic puzzle, you find yourself constantly revisiting pieces of information, and the way the game is designed makes this quite a tough job. That being said, the game is still wholly enjoyable despite this minor tedium, the uniqueness of each puzzle solution and the constant but solvable challenge is great.
Good artstyle, good acting, great music, and most importantly, very very good puzzles. This game has a very specific task and it nails it. Go play it.

Where most visual novels are bland, repetitive, or downright soulless, STP shines as an enthusiastic, otherworldly experience that sets itself apart with its creativity, ingenuity, style, and consistency. It chas character and personality, and there are subversions and surprises around every corner, and there are a lot of corners.
The game is as phenomenal as a visual novel can be; every choice has tiny ripples and you can constantly find that seemingly redundant decisions subtly affect conversations and interactions way down the line. The game never allows itself to fit into one box, betraying even the premise you see in the trailer in favour of something more complex and interesting. The story has real moral complexity, and thoroughly explores themes like death, choice, agency, change, and purpose magnificently, always while allowing you to impose your own personal philosophy onto the world.
It has humour, romance, body horror, a killer artstyle, and an obscene amount of content, such that you can see a lot in the relatively short runtime, but the replay value is staggering. It even avoids that cardinal sin of choose-your-own-adventure stories where you're forced to replay the same thing over and over; there is a balance of brevity and expansiveness that is addicting.
Texturally the game is great, too. The visuals are beautiful and there isn't a single careless drawing or frame without thought in it. Brandon Boone's soundtrack is brilliant and instantly memorable, with outstanding range. The animated segments (few though there are) are fantastic. The voice acting is also very enjoyable, the two leads fit their characters brilliantly and despite the admittedly tedious acts of constantly listening to narration (mostly bad due to my own attention span), they're a joy to share the story with.
The game is an easy recommend. Great art, good acting, intricate, well written, morally fascinating with a fantastic story. Go play it.

I mean it's free. The game itself is a fun little project that blends styles and has good humour. There's nothing particularly special about it but you can't fault a game that's cute, enjoyable, and completely free. I can't promise you'll find what you're looking for but there's no harm in having a look.

Finally freed from the shackles of the iconic Dread X series, the standalone version of Squirrel Stapler is just everything but more. On the surface it is just a simple remaster of an already great game, but it adds some welcome finishing touches that enhance the horror and comedic aspects of the game greatly.

So the game itself is a slow-paced hunting sim, although the brevity and clarity of the game helps it avoid the tedium that usually plagues the genre. It's more focused on creating an enjoyable experience than it is on anything akin to realism or challenge, and you just have to love it for that. The horror aspect is surprisingly well done for how often it mixes in overt jokes, although considering the dev's legacy, that's no surprise. There's not much replay value, but it's not designed with that in mind, and honestly it's no issue. It's uncomfortable, weird, but undeniably a great experience. It's Dave Szymanski. It's stapling squirrels to your wife's corpse. It's exactly what you think it is, and a little more. Absolutely recommend.

Undeniably one of the best experiences I've ever had in a game. I need to state the obvious preface that for full enjoyment, one should avoid spoilers of any kind, including in reviews, so I can summate my thoughts with an extremely emphatic recommendation.

So the game is split into the main story, the phenomenal DLC, and the extra stuff you can do for achievements, and they're all perfect. The story is just so immaculate in every way. Despite its lack of linearity, there are so many moments which pop out to you, puzzle solutions that go beyond simple code-cracking and become iconic memories. These, combined with absolutely mesmerising environmental design and a stellar soundtrack, blanket an indescribably enjoyable plot about the nature of explorers in the universe, and the value of appreciating the time you have. It's sad, joyous, captivating, everything. There's no replay value beyond achievement hunting and some hidden secrets, but who cares? You'll hate that you can't replay it for the first time, but it's well worth it to have had this experience. It's challenging, beautiful, perfect.

There's something very elegant about simple arcade experiences. QUICKERFLAK is basically a stripped-to-the-bones shooter, but undeniably a well made one. With only a few little tricks, the game is fun, replayable, challenging, and very addictive. Achieving this in such a barebones premise is truly impressive, and with it being the price it is, there's really no reason not to give it a crack. The combat is fun, the music is good, the level design (although randomised) is well done, and it's a satisfying one to beat. I don't plan on playing much more of it, but i did really enjoy the time i had.

A short, concise, and well-made interactive audio-visual story. It's not "fun" to the extent that your more classic game might be, but the story it tells is interesting, enjoyable, and it does some clever things with what it has to work with. The character is enjoyable, the aesthetic is phenomenal, and the writing is very fine. With a 100% runtime of 30 min or so, what more can you need?

Plus, you're the only one the Lighthouse has.

How did we get here?

Let's tell a little story:
-Blizzard as a company builds itself up on good, cheap games, but as the years move on, their game design undoubtedly pushes the boundaries of exploitation in the gaming industry; pioneering (among other things) lootboxes, live service, and many other features designed to wring as much money out of you as possible, but it's certainly not as bad as other studios and the games are pretty good.

-You release a game that is pretty well accepted, however it's extremely obvious that comparable games can be found for better prices. But the game is fun, and the community is solid.

-As it turns out, following a two-year investigation by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, there is rampant sexual harassment, and visceral gender-based discrimination happening at the offices of Blizzard Entertainment, with the official report citing "constant sexual harassment, unequal pay, retaliation, as well as discrimination based on pregnancy". The investigation specifically identified what it called a "pervasive frat boy workplace", with constant unfiltered and unaddressed allusions to rape and sexual objectification of women in the workspace.

-As an element of this, and as one of the most horrific things I've ever read, Activision Blizzard covered up and suppressed information about an employee suicide caused by male employees sharing pictures of her vagina as well as her boss bringing sex toys on a work trip. Blizzard blamed the DEFH for this, and called them exploitative. They lied about this in order to maintain their stock and look better for Microsoft purchase, and as such lied to investors. It worked. The investors didn't care. So much happened here, you can barely scratch the surface.

-Next, a player in Taiwan used his time at a live competitive event to support the fighters of the Hong Kong protests, and share sentiments against a government that routinely enslaves and organ-harvests the members of said protests, as well as constantly threatening the political identity of the country they were in. He got banned for a year by Blizzard themselves, forfeited all winnings, and disqualified, as were the shoutcasters who conducted the interview. When many other players expressed similar sentiments, they likewise were punished and censored. Blizzard somehow denied that they were supporting the Chinese government, and several small-scale investigations were launched by independents.

-Bizarrely, it comes out that Blizzard has invested a significant amount of time and money in creating an algorithm that would generate the most diverse cast possible for Overwatch in order to foster inclusivity. This in of itself is fine, but they drew widespread criticism as the dev team is almost the opposite of diverse and Blizzard's hiring practises became hypocritical. Additionally, the algorithm itself cemented the sentiment of diversity as an outlet for the company's profit gain as opposed to genuine expression on behalf of the artists creating the characters, although it may be argued the virtues of diversity regardless. Or it would be, if Blizzard themselves hadn't done everything possible to pretend this tool never existed.

-Then, Blizzard decides to attack neutrality and user anonymity by requiring full real names and phone numbers through their Battle.net software. Users demonstrated the stupidity of this by doxxing one of the first Blizzard employees to proudly proclaim the software was safe. As childish as this move was, it illustrated that Blizzard was absolutely willing to compromise the safety and privacy of all of its players, many of whom were children. Staking, harassment, employment discrimination, would absolutely increase as a result of this move, and many theorised it was an attempt to intimidate Blizzard's critics. Thankfully, this idea was killed due to the immense backlash.

-Battle.net itself is ♥♥♥♥♥♥. Blizzard controls reviews on their platforms, so the vast majority of player opinions on Overwatch aren't visible to the public. As you can see, that has changed, but it's important to realise that the game was still pretty highly regarded at the time.

-So, of course, with dollar signs in their eyes, Blizzard sees the comparisons with it and TF2 and decides they, too, can switch to a free model, but need to make up for losses with a live service model akin to Fortnite. So, they decide to make a sequel, promising a more complete game. A full story, invasive modes, better challenges, better PvP. They get to work, and take an extremely long time in developing this.

-And the game drops, and the very first thing people notice is that it's pretty much exactly the same. What were they doing all that time? Where the ♥♥♥♥ was the budget if you just remodelled some things and copied the code? Yeah they changed some small details, but there is NOTHING that warranted the budget. "Relax", they tell the community, "All that gud ♥♥♥♥? We're almost done, you're going to love it", and so the community enjoys their new free Overwatch while they wait. Or do they? At this point, the game has become something rare, where the whole fanbase is having a lot of fun with a larger playerbase and a free game, but they hate the game itself. Surely nothing will happen to exacerbate this dichotomy?

-And it's gone. The PvE? Cancelled. Any hopes of a campaign? Gone. So people begin to ask; "What the ♥♥♥♥ was the point of this sequel? Why was it made? The only new things that were promised are gone? Why should I play it? What does it really have over Overwatch 1?". But everybody's here now, and people start getting pissed. They feel scammed, rightfully so. Four years for a copy-and-paste sequel? Not to mention that playable characters are locked behind a stupid ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Battle Pass and you STILL have to use the outdated, dumb, third-party launcher.

-But there's a glimmer of hope. A Steam release. Opening the game up to the widest market possible. Alongside this, Blizzard teases a compensatory addition to the game to make up for the PvE being cut. As the game eagerly awaits a revival, holding their breath, the player base can't wait to see actual new Overwatch content. Is it what we were promised? No, but it'll be fun. They spent years on it after all.

-And then it drops as a paid DLC, and we have come full circle. To play the new content, the content that was promised as being free with the free game, the content that was integral to why people bought in to Overwatch 2, you have to pay more than it cost to play the original (at least in my country). For the price of these DLC's you could buy any of some of the greatest games ever made, and I'm sure these reviews are peppered with links to them. For many, this is extortive to an unprecedented degree. A paywall? For content we were promised would be free? Especially given predatory in-game prices? It's a horrifically depressing testament to the state of the top-side gaming industry.

-But something absolutely glorious comes of this. Remember how everyone loved playing the game but hated the game itself? That is wayyy past breaking point, and now, unhindered by suppressed reviews, the wider gaming community has come together to, for the first time in Overwatch history, be completely honest about the game. The sea of bad reviews you're seeing this in isn't just a criticism of one horrific company and their antics, it's an indictment of the wider gaming industry, and how absolutely awful big-studio releases are becoming. If you want to spend your money, don't spend it on DLCs. Give it to nonpredatory indie companies. Foreign Gnomes, Hello Games, Team Cherry, New Blood, people who actually care about delivering complete, well-rounded experiences. Use that money to support the future of gaming, not the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ present, as the Overwatch profits are going into the hands of rapists and corrupt elites.