Nylige anmeldelser av [SANE]

Reviews will have spoilers in them.
Visual novels often get repetetive and stale, so it's nice to see one with a more vivid and imaginative story than most others. It plays on your expectations and has some interesting mechanics, but little else. It's not a game with "gameplay", as is common for the visual novel genre, but it's a great example of how far you can go with a very very simply made game.
The characters are great and feel very human, the story tackles serious issues without fetishising them, and it takes itself just the right amount of seriously. Honestly it takes the anime waifu visual novel and just tells a regular, well-done, dramatic story that engages the player, which is extremely refreshing considering how cheap and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the majority of similarly-styled VN's are. Great experience, and it's free!

Honestly solid. It's a short, B+ game that's well worth the price tag and I had a lot of fun. There's not much else to it, really. There's very little to dislike, and it's not a game that's meant to be played too much after completion anyway. Secret hunting was fun, the gunplay is solid, and the levels are good. Fun game all around, would recommend!

I'm really happy I played this game. Yeah, it's short, with very little replay value, but the time i did spend with it was very enjoyable. There's little that can be said without spoiling it, but it has a great succinct story, it's well made, and the art style (simplistic as it is) is great to look at.
There's really not much to be said, it's just a great example of a good indie game. Definitely recommend putting in the half-hour needed to complete it.

Great short, fun little bullet hell game. Is it particularly complex or intricate? No. But a nice, fun bullet hell all the same. I enjoyed it, and it's free. What more could you want?

After 100%-ing this game with a 1:1 AUD/hour ratio, I can safely say it's a nice solid, B++ game. I'm a sucker for movement shooters; Dusk, Ultrakill, Titanfall, Doom, the list goes on. This one fits nicely among them as an experiement in game design and movement, It is good, no doubt, maybe even quite great, although it has positives and negatives that must be balanced when deciding whether to buy:

PROS - Unbelievably polished, I didn't encounter a single glitch, bug, crash, or technical error. Equally, every
action was consistent, and the gunplay and movement was smooth. Rendering was great, all the cool
stunt stuff was super fun, and the campaign and bonus campaign were a good time (although not
entirely worth the price tag on their own, as there are other gamemodes and features). Put simply, it's well made, fun, knows essentially what the player wants, and delivers bullet time action very well. One of the best examples I've seen of great, fast-paced gameplay. As an arcade-style game, with Rogue Steel and Firefight modes, it really really worked wonders and became something intensely enjoyable. The card combos, high-intensity scenarios, and level design of the bonus levels are all near-perfect game design. As many issues as I might have with the game, the developers clearlymade something that they wanted to make, and then went the extra mile in changing the game based on requested features and community input; you love to see it! There are a few issues i have outlined below, but it's important to understand every problem with this game is very tiny. Personally, I say it was essentially worth the price I paid, and I'd definitely recommend getting it when it's on sale!

CONS - The flagship element of slowing down time goes so far to undercut the basics of a first-person shooter gameplay loop, to the point that it's a bit sad. It's still fun, but there needed to be more cohesion between in-bullet-time and out. The sound design could also be a bit better. It's well done no doubt, being clear, crisp, situational, but the noises themselves, particularly enemy screams, bullet firing, and general ambient noise, are feel like the headache you get when children bang aluminium with hammers. Tiny gripes include an over-invasive HUD (however this can be edited very easily and thankfully), and lack of diversity in the "Rogue Steel" cards, but nothing really goes far to ruin the game. By far the biggest issue is the visuals, which flip between hyper-detailed enemies and block-based destructible environments which lack anything that makes it feel like you're in the world; no details, no objects, just blank walls and shiny floors, making some spots feel unfinished. The story is unengaging and essentially irrelevant, but honestly the gameplay more than makes up for it. Who cares? You still get to do cool tricks and shoot the ♥♥♥♥ out of stuff.

Overall, solid game, fun, enjoyable, does everything an arcade game is supposed to. Is there improvements to be made? Yeah, but it's great as is. Catch it on a sale!

I have now beaten this 50 times.

There is something indescribably ethereal about playing this game. While crawling, pushing through the seemingly neverending task thing game entailed, I felt my soul was irrevocably changed. That, in conjunction with the first-condescending, second-cathartic narration, created an experience like no other. This is not a rage game, this is a game of unequalled joy and hope. In the struggle there is something amazing and perfect. There is no compromise, no shortcut, no cheese. Nothing changes. It's incredible.

And beating it, oh my god. The first time I completed this was unlike anything. You do grow, in a way. And after 50 completions, I look back on my former self with pity. How was this ever that difficult. Months after completing all 50 i still have the muscle movement, the patience, the repetitive dogma, sewn into the sinews of my knuckles. I have grown. I am a better version of myself after completing this.

I'm not taking the piss either. I'm not parodying anything, or subverting, or exaggerating. This is what it is to grow. This game unironically has catalysed my desire to be a better version of myself every day. I am reminded now, of Sisyphus, and his eternal task, his boulder. I hope he feels the same joy in the struggle, catharsis in the pain, and release in the torment, that i do. I hope you will know it too.

Before reading this, I'd advise you to go in blind, although the review won't contain many spoilers apart from gameplay and playtime.

This is one of those games that does something different. Yes it's a walking simulator, and for many, this mean's it's not for you. Regardless, this is a game that does something new and interesting, it takes a surreal and bizarre approach to telling its' story, and it is enjoyable for it. There's little-to-no replay value, but it doesn't matter. It's a short, sweet, morsel of a game that does subtle things no other games do.

It truly feels like it is (and addresses the creation of) a game which was made not for the purpose of success, but of the joy of creation and expressing. It's the kind of game i wish there were more of, and I absolutely loved it. There was a moment in the game where my monitor died; I couldn't see anything but I could tell i was clicking things and interacting with things. I played like that for 15 minutes thinking "this is absolutely brilliant", because that's the headspace the game gets you in. It's insane.

I'm not even halfway through and i'm already disappointed that this game doesn't have a bigger fanbase. It isn't just an homage to a fantastic series of classic games, it's the PERFECT homage. It takes what they do and doesn't reinvent it, or twist it, it improves it. What you're playing is a cleaner DOOM, and though it lacks the same speed-based level designs, it makes up for it in arsenal and style. It isn't as good as the games that it is based on, but that doesn't stop it from being fun and engaging.

The game's selling point is its modernised take on retro gunplay, and its world. Every enemy, every weapon, every environment, feels so grotesque and stylised. If you get a weapon, it's going to look weird, play cool, and handle well. It takes a while to get going, but once it does, it is able to surprise and delight.

There are flaws, and they need to be addressed. Primarily, one could argue there are too many levels, as without engaging "what the ♥♥♥♥" enemy combinations and reveals, some parts get a little tedious. And yeah, at the start the game feels unkempt and thrown together. The most egregious flaws by far are sparsity of ammunition and physical level design, although neither are that bad.

It's definitely not fun having no ammo for a few levels for a certain gun, and it's extra not fun when the movement which hails from games renowned for smooth, flowing sprints, is inhibited by parts of the level. Things like these would be solved, I think, by having more diversity in ammo pickups, as well as having more open level design, with less narrow hallways and giant holes in the ground. By far my biggest gripe is the soundtrack, although it is not 'bad' so much as it is pure ambience. There are very few instances of full-blown music, although they are pretty good when they do happen (although i do again feel the need to reiterate i have not finished the game yet). If Quake can get away with a 90% ambience soundtrack and still be a pillar of modern game design, i'm more than happy to cut Shrine II some slack, although i do think that many designers underestimate the importance of a good score to a game.

That being said, as critique is necessary for a good review, this game is good and worth the time investment. I certainly enjoyed it, and as an aspiring game designer myself, a boomer shooter with this level of polish and flow is something to be enjoyed and immensely proud of by the community and designers respectively.

Great short horror game
I won't spoil anything, but i really wish i didn't severely ruin this game by getting spooked and retreating into a discord call. The game itself is great, with the highlight being the visuals and atmosphere, and it does exceedingly better at being a scary experience than many other horror games. This is easily the best D. Szymanski horror game i've played, far better than Iron Lung in my opinion.
Again, no spoilers, but i would absolutely reccommend this for a short quick scare.

After 112%-ing the game and getting every achievement, i can safely say this is one of the best, if not the best metroivania I've ever played. The visuals are excellent and tonally consistent throughout, the exploration element is so smooth and so incredibly engaging, and the soundtrack is some of the best I've ever listened to, my god it's great. The combat against np-enemies and bosses is phenomenal, with the majority of boss fights being indescribably fun. I beat every boss hitless, and only two bosses actually roved to be unfun. The absolutely intense difficulty is so rewarding, and unlike other souls-likes, feels fair and balanced as opposed to being tedious for the sake of difficulty. You can play through the main campaign, which offers its own challenges and rewards, and you can play the additional content which offers some of the most insane quests and things I've had to overcome. The game is ahead of its time, with features such as Godhome displaying the developer's commitment to providing the player with a replayable and fun experience.

The story is the usual souls-like mystery, where you are forced to piece together an incredible and deep lore. The characters and NPC's are so engaging, with instantly iconic designs and fun personalities that make you fascinated by them, but never give you enough so that you can fully understand them. I cannot recommend this enough.

There are one or two drawbacks. Some exploration elements aren't incredibly well explained, meaning massive areas of the map can be missing for you until the lategame, though this is only really a minor drawback. Some may feel that the bare minimum story is somewhat unsatisfying, because you have to know and appreciate the lore to understand the emotional impact of everything that happens in-game.

Ultimately, however, Hollow Knight is an actual modern classic. Any fan of metroidvanias will understand the masterpiece of game design that this is. It's widely considered an honourary member of the souls-like lineup. It's just incredible, and at the price it's offered at it's pointless in waiting for a sale. For triple the price it would be a bargain. I cannot wait for the sequel, Silksong.

If it ever comes out