Recent reviews by DaMu

Updated: 20 hours later, my rating stays the same. If you're hesitant or want an FPS that holds your hand, this is NOT the game for you. This game tests you well, it's very good for the fanatic, not the casual. In between each major update, new characters, bosses, enemies, weapons and droppable buffs in the field are introduced. There's a lot of variety, polish and passion put into this game compared to when I first picked this up months ago. It's coming along very well.

This game is very tough for me to recommend. If you like Roguelites, shooters and friends, pick this up now while it's in EA.

I bought this game along with Hades and Dead Cells to get a good fix of Roguelites. Start with one hero with a starting pistol, an ability and a sack of grenades and use randomly dropped weapons or power-ups from chests to proceed through randomly generated levels. Some levels have secret passages for more goods at the risk of facing tougher enemies. Plentiful enemies are unique in attacks and movements, and healing in between chambers is rare. On death, lose all your weapons and power-ups and start fresh from the beginning, but use accumulated spirit points to increase stats RPG-style.

The shooting mechanic feels very smooth and robust, especially on keyboard and mouse. Any modern PC shooter fan will fit at home against the challenging AI. My challenge with the game is the long period in between death and reaching the furthest point again. The only changes that have happened are the stat increases, and those are very insignificant per rank. Not only that, if not enough spirit points are retained to use on the skill tree, all collected points are lost, so there's a plateau to the stat boosts earn if not enough progress is made. No other items to collect or places to go; it's a linear adventure, although something clever with progression is found in each room. There are many doors per room, but only one random one will open per clear, and this makes progression feel different each time even though the areas are roughly the same in terms of enemies and layouts. Many roguelites already exist which have many other changes to your stats aside from a skill tree to help on the next run; the skill tree alone does not make the game accessible for others to have a chance past the first boss. But is the only way to git gud?

No, the way to progress is online co-op, something that came late into EA. This game does not feel balanced at all for single player, even before co-op was added. This is perhaps good news for FPS fans who want a challenge, but for the unique and interesting world I play in this game, there's nothing more demoralizing than dying over and over, not knowing exactly why and hitting that plateau in an RPG-style progression system. Co-op partners are required to have a chance in progression because there's no one else or nothing else in this world to improve or motivate a single player. If anyone needs a co-op partner for this game, hmu, but unless you think you're hot ♥♥♥♥, don't pick this up alone.

UPDATE
So I've played this for an additional 20 hours and find it hard to put down. Turns out I'm a dummy; if you use your Soul Essense on the left side of the skill tree immediately and rank up as many low rank skills in between each run, you are then able to carry over leftover Soul Essence for the next defeat; and the first rank in this alone gives a foundation of progression that I've been missing in the first couple hours of the game. It is definitely possible to progress, but you need to put in the work.

Everyone with a VR headset and controllers needs to play this game. Best escape room I've ever played, no locomotion or standing required.

Falcon Age is the only VR game that has ever given me a genuine and original connection with a virtual pet. That being said, I highly recommend everyone try this game in VR to accomplish that specific niche void in all of us.

To start out with the game's quirks, this was originally an Epic Games store exclusive, built-up as a basic Unity game and expanded from there. While this game is compatible with Steam VR, it does not feel like it's built for this platform. I'm using a GTX 1060, baseline VR hardware, and I needed to tweak with the options during the Prologue to adjust the game's performance while compromising visual resolution. The game should boot and be configurable natively with Steam VR Bindings, but in case something's weird, there are some other toggleable options to force the game to let Steam adjust. One other yellow flag happens every time I close the game, either in the main menu or by Alt+F4; the game never closes gracefully without having an error. Save data's not affected nor does my computer crash mid-game, but problems when closing this game are odd things that always happen.

Despite tweaking visual options in VR mode, the world and character models feel standard and minimal. There is polish and this feels like a finished game, but not enough depth and detail has been placed in both the world and the characters around me. Yes, there is a world of life, but I never intrinsically feel a part of it, nor does your companion bird. It only feels that enough has been put to show off what the bird is and can do. Supposedly the Falcon Hunters are a dying breed in this world, but there's not enough detail in the overworld to suggest that any others besides my own falcon were here at all. As for the story, erm let's say there are two. First story: I play as a female prisoner on a remote planet (I think) inhabited by robots exploiting humans for labor. With some help from a baby falcon, I escape and find a refuge to recover and train how to fight back against the robots, and I cooperate with the Resistance to destroy key operations of my captors and save/escape the planet! Second story: baby falcon gets assaulted by robot, mom sacrifices life to save baby. Baby falcon grows up and plots revenge against the robot race who killed her mom. Which story sounds more interesting? I knew you'd pick the bird's.

Did you know that you can name the bird? I completely forgot! It's one opportunity post-prologue to name her, but no one (not even the MC!!) acknowledges her by the new name throughout the entire game. Calling her "the bird", how racist...

The bird who accompanies me is the spotlight in this entire game. She can do so much! Idling, she flies above and around me ready for my next command. I can whistle to have her come to me and sit on my glove where I can feed her, pet her, equip clothing or armor, and play with toys. With a point and a click, I can send her to a target to rest on a perch, to fetch a far-away item, to attack an enemy, to drop a bomb on an enemy, and to dig up buried treasure. With a call, I can have her drop an item she's holding down onto me while ready for another command, or she can swoop down to quickly pick up an item I hold and want her to use. These are many of the actions that the bird can do very well, and it's always satisfying to watch her pull them off. Some animations may have needed extra transitions and sometimes the bird tends to look the other way while performing actions, but she is by far the best looking, sounding and acting piece in the entire game.

As for the main character, well she gets to do some things. Her primary defense is an electric whip, with which she can bash or stun ground targets, and the whip can attack or draw in targets from a set distance, somewhat similar to the Gravity Gloves. Physical attacks with the baton definitely do not feel like a crowbar from Half Life, however. It's important to look where I swing, but there are many moments when the swings sometimes do not connect. The bird cannot attack all enemies by herself; depending on the enemy, a certain order needs to be done between the player and the falcon, such as remove the armor, ground them and reveal the weakspot, or stun them. It helps keep the game from being a point-and-click simulator, but the physical combat needed some more tuning to make the teamwork combat work very well.

I started playing this game with the Vive Pro headset and Index Knuckles controllers. Being able to freely look around and use my hands in real time to interact with the bird and the world around me has made this game into a very immersive demonstration of the awesomeness of Falcon Hunters. After a while, I transitioned to the Desktop Mode of the game to play with Mouse and Keyboard. While the keys and mouse look function perfectly, it definitely is not as immersive as the VR option. The hardware limitations are their own downfall in defeating what I believe the purpose of this game is. This is not a difficult game; death is a slap on the wrist with save points in between all key areas of the world, and I'm encouraged to care for the bird if she becomes injured before moving on. That being said, it's worth investing or renting VR equipment to take full advantage of its power to immerse players into a world I do not often see, to fight with a falcon that kicks robot ass.

Every Steam VR user with cables needs this app. The basics are free, and it works! Turn too much in one direction, it beeps in the ear on whose side you turned too much, so turn the other way, then it tells you when you're center again. Definitely helps keep your VR equipment working in the long run.

If you don't like the beeping in your ear, or you need a visual Na'Vi telling you "Turn this way, dummy!", then spend a couple dollars and get the Pro version. Worth every penny!

Have you played Bastion? Have you played Dead Cells? Are you passionate about getting out of hell every single day? I recommend this game to you.

Definitely for people who miss the old days of playing Banjo Kazooie on N64, but not for people who want a new Banjo Kazooie sequel because this is not a new Banjo Kazooie but rather a 3D platformer heavily inspired from Banjo Kazooie.
Guys, ♥♥♥♥♥ at M$ for no more Banjo, not these devs.

The amount of dedication and focus it takes for an independent developer to create such a comfortable, engaging and rewarding experience is rarely discovered nowadays, but this game unimaginably brings it to beautiful light.

As with the majority of independent games, expect no hand-holding and many hints and refrences to the world of the nerd. This isn't quite a game for the casual player; fans of 2D exploration titles such as Metroid will enjoy this, but this game has that gameplay toned down. Average play time is only a few hours, but that is entirely up to how you explore and learn. It's not meant to be difficult or aggrivating; the controls, mechanics and features are all beautifully built with perfect pacing adventure in mind and delivered very well.

Play with a keyboard or with a controller consisting of a d-pad and one button; there's nothing complicated needed to play, so make yourself comfortable with the nostalgia, and prepare to have your platforming skills and mental map imaging handy.

If you really love platformers from long ago and want to test yourself, you will download and play this free game. Don't look up any guides or ask for help. Immerse yourself. It's very rewarding.

10/10 Better than sex

The first dividing game of the Resident Evil franchise, RE5 takes the control scheme offered in RE4 and builds onto it the capabilities in traditional modern 3rd person action titles. The evolved combat system emphasizes on the importance and advantages of shooting enemies in their weakpoints instead of shooting around in general. Unfortunately, RE5 does not provide a "true sense of fear" (unlike its predecesors) with its overly epic story. Nevertheless, the real-time inventory management and new co-op mode add onto the split-second decision making and fast-pased challenge hardly offered in a Resident Evil game. While not a game loved by all Resident Evil fans, RE5 is definately a 3rd person action title worth a try. (Recommend getting a Microsoft account prior to playing)