Recent reviews by Mißgunst

Divinity 2 IS a very good example of what high fantasy RPGs should strive for: A dense, living world with all unique characters and small stories to tell at every corner. Wherever you go you'll find someone to meet or a conversation to listen to, it might devolve into combat or not, you might be rewarded or create an even bigger mess than what you started with!
I've spent a good while exploring all the locations you journey through, amassing a whole 120 hours in my first campaign, and potentially seeing about somewhat more than half the content available. Lots of interesting characters are always nearby, ready to provide you hints about the world surrounding you or directing you to a quest altogether, of the which almost all of them feel handcrafted and unique, with plenty of different outcomes. Whereas I found the 2nd act's location to be the one most rich on missions, you'll never feel like you're roaming empty space of wasting time by pointlessly walking in search of something to do, or at least I always found myself discovering new things everywhere I went.

Quicksave is always possible, of course, but I've found that Divinity 2 is most enjoyable by living with your mistakes, although, sadly, a few encounters in the game that might surprise you can be hard to clutch, and very few times it'll be a necessity to engage combat with previous planning, even though in a roleplaying sense you should face them with no previous knowledge, but luckily this is mitigated in the late game.
Talking about combat, how is it? It's fun, it has depth and it most certainly doesn't hold a punch back.Once more, save often, before every battle you might expect: If your enemies can make a move that'll ♥♥♥♥ you over, they most certainly will do it, but you have all the same tools they do as well. Divinity 2 allows you to play clever very often with a very small elements/surface systems, which allows you to set oil and poison alight, put it off with water, blood or ice, creating vision-obstructing smoke or steam that you can electrify, as you could as well with blood and water. This small mechanic along the positioning, the wide repertorie of skills for every school of magic and synergies they might have, and plenty more for melee as well make combat rich and deep, and even though source spells are a bit more scarce, their special effects plus the effect of curses and blessings on these substances will allow you to gamble the creation of healing fountains for your heroes that foes might potentially use, or that can be cursed to not only to remove thier benign effects, but also to instead grant debuffs.

Story wise, the game is pretty straightforwad while it directs you to divinity, although the way other characters and factions see the acquisition of the so desired throne of the Divine and their methods are where the juice is at, as all of them have different motives and wishes to grant not only for themselves, but to shape all of Rivellon in order to see them done. Make no mistake though, the closer you approach to the seat of power, the more you'll have to consider once the fate of the world rests on your hands.

About your character, I personally found the visual customization to be rather simple and not too interesting, but it heavily compensates with the depth your character can be created with. Plenty of magical schools, attributes, talents and even tags that'll shape your avatar's personality are key pieces to the immersion of roleplaying, not forgetting the wide options available on dialogues. While you might see the different schools as something that only defines the skills you have access to, I think they can still mean something more: A character of a noble background might be someone at a seat of power, but if you decided you'd invest into the scoundrel abilities, the which allow you to sneakily take down foes, that might mean they earned and keep their spot in the hierarchy with the help of dirty deeds, made by their own hands.

After playing through Divinity 2 I can safely say that this is one of, if not the best experience I've had with a turn-based Roleplaying Game. This is probably the closest you can get to a pen-and-paper RPG experience in a videogame, and it's helped me satisfy it, considering my bad luck for never having more than session 1 at any DnD/Pathfinder group I've met with for factors out of my control.

10/10
Perfection is subjective, and for me, a mistake or two are barely a consideration in the grand scheme of things, and this masterpiece sure is grand.

Space puppy!

In a world full of high-fantasy roguelikes, Curse of the Dead Gods manages to bring a breath of fresh air with a bundle of well-polished gameplay, an iconic setting and art style and a balance that strikes that perfect spot of punishing without being unfair and rewarding when it is well deserved without making the player invincible.

Curse of the Dead Gods is quite appealing just from the looks: A grim looking game in which darkness surrounds you at all times and an artistic direction that feasts the eyes. Another feature that makes CotDG easy to distinguish is his mesoamerican setting instead of the usual medieval dungeons and represents it faithfully at all times. The cel-shading not only makes the game pretty, but it's also used as a tool that improves gameplay in several manners, using the high contrast to make enemies distinguishable in the environment and with easy to read graphic effects that telegraph attacks. Graphics not only make this game look good, but also makes it an experience that is easy to understand and react to, allowing you to learn the signals and cues practically immediately.
Of course, a game should also be fun to play, and this is a department CoTG doesn't run short on. During most of the game you'll be running around the temples in an issometric perspective, keeping your torch up to spot traps for intruders and find your path before switching to your weapons in combat, hoping of course to leave unscathed and fighting against the curses the ancient gods lay upon you. CoTG has plenty of unique mechanics that are relatively simple, but that have depth and have been polished to be meaningful at all times: Fire and light not only allows you to see traps, it prevents you from taking extra damage and can help to deal with your enemies more easily, either by simply setting them alight or by activating traps with it; Corruption will give you curses after it exceeds a threshold, and many of them will limit some of your abilities, but not everything is grim under these hellish influences; Weapons have several classes, and RNG might bless them with buffs that could be simply used to poison your enemies, or that you could build to then deal critical enemies to these poisoned enemies that'll be increased by another 20% if you fight in the darkness. The game also challenges you to obtain more gold by chaining kills together, defending yourself by dodging or parrying and playing risky. If you fail though, you might have to sacrifice your purity for rewards instead of gold. All in all, along with passive perks, a couple variations of the many explorations and a good mix of RNG will make all runs as unique as it can be for a roguelike, and with more content being added, it can only get bigger.
This is what is most remarkable about this little indie gem, and at all times you feel the honest dedication of its team and the love this idea has been nurtured with. The few cons I can think of is how rooms might feel repetitive, but of course there is a limited amount of rooms, even if they can be combined in so many manners and how limited movement feels with a keyboard. Other than that, I dare say this game deserves a 9/10, even when only half of the minimun full-release content is available

Noita is quite an interesting game. On its own, its pixelated aesthetic but solid physics make it an attractive game to begin exploring. it's mildy challenging and confusing at first, but even though it makes the first runs frustrating and monotonous, once you find the path you should be going and the way the spell crafting works, in a couple of hours you'll already be praying to find trigger spells and modifiers to either make your favourite synergy of a shotgun that fires dynamite or discover new ones, like orchestrating a gigantic explosion on your own by creating a cloud of flammable gas by transorming water into acid or bathing the monsters in oil before shooting a fireball. The levels/biomes with all sorts of different materials make every spell potentially more useful or a little more limited as well, for example: Levels filled with liquids or metallic tiles will allows you to do much more crowd control if you have spells that create electric charges, but will make digging with explosives almost an impossible task. Varied enemies also make every area much more distinctive and present their own opportunities at tricking them into a quick, clever death or using their projectiles to your advantage (and potential demise too!).
Where the game already presents lots of depth with endless combinations of magical projectiles, casting patterns, modifiers and bonuses, mods have made the experience even more unique. Sure, you could cheat and get yourself a mod that erradicates the shuffled casting wands have or by making you OP in different ways, but there are plenty of mods that add lots of new spell effects, enemies, that slightly tinker with the alogrithm to create new biomes or improve the current ones, or that randomize your starting loadout even more.
The few things I can point negatively about this game are that you'll end up reading a wiki to discover Noita has a small bit of hidden lore you'll easily mistake by breadcrumbs of in-game triviality and that the same environment will usually backfire if you're not careful when making your way through, which could sometimes look miles more punishing than what it should be.
All in all, Noita is a game that is pretty, deep, entertaining, hard and that can even end up slightly addicting if you have a particularly strong curiosity, and all is very well boosted by the mods workshop has at your disposal. Noita gets a solid 9/10 from me

I wished I could slap this game with a neutral review, but sadly I tend to think negatively of this game. I bought this game a couple years ago, it looked quite cool. The game was short, it was moderately fun, and the sole gore was part of the entertainment, back then I would have given it a thumbs up for being an early access after all. Fast forward to the present day and... Nothing has really changed. Sure, the game looks prettier, it has more languages, a couple more spells but story wise we still have the same handful of levels and, for the little that I saw in my short paused 2nd playthrough, no real changes or improvements.
Now, I really like the idea that the devs have in mind: A small 2d shooter with randomized events and key-search (potentially leading to some micro-roguelite) sounds fun, even if for playing for little more than a hoof-ful of hours for at the price of pocket change, but the problem lays on the progress of development that doesn't compensate for the few cons this game has. The game is incomplete as they have stated, and the lack of levels and clunky start make it hard to look forward to making progress, as the lack of weapons from the 1st level makes a very boring struggle of fighting the sprited hitboxes because the only way you can get through the tight corridors is by running into enemies, baiting them into an open (but still tight) area and surrounding them to get ahead of them, and their short attention span makes you run back and forth to be able to achieve it. Health mechanics are also a nice touch despite their simplicity, definitely more interesting than only having a physical-state health and personal hell gives you a small break if you died to a tight situation and gives you the chance to get some better PSYCH for when you return. Again, problem is that all the fancy and cutesy experimental things are obscured by being the same game it was two years ago with zero relevant additions, and even like this, the devs have decided that it's a good idea to set a prequel that, despite looking fun and interesting with the same feeling of D'Lirium, is very likely going to get itself stuck into never getting significant additions if it happens.
Of course I'm a brony, and of course I enjoy me some colourful little horses on the store page, but as much as I'd love to support this game, I can't recommend something that won't be done in a decade and dares to branch out to another project either way.

I've played a good couple dozens of hours despite the counter and I'm glad I could finally purchase and finish the game for good (as unexpectedly quick as it happened today). This game is a hit or miss and it's quite an experience too: Receiver 2 feels like a mix of very well settled (and unexpected) element of horror, a simulation game that'll teach you at least in a basic level how to properly handle a gun and, the most important part, a strange semi-sci-fi setting that is meant to deliver a self-help message, or that is as best as I can phrase it.

Into the game itself, you play as another faceless target for the threat, i.e. yourself, but one of the few that will become receivers. You go around the randomly generated level collecting tapes that carry messages, some will talk about the sidearm you carry or firearms in general, they could carry a message that will improve your "mindtech" which is just the game's way to give you a small lesson to strenghten your own psyche or that talks about how the threat can attack other people a little more rarely; there's also the chance the threat itself will attack you through the tapes, and you will definitely notice. The environment will change and so will the tapes as you sharpen your mind's eye, tapes and ammo become more scarse and the challenge grows, but facing and beating these challenges builds the mental fortress that every receiver needs.

Receiver 2 also looks pretty nice, sometimes even feeling somewhat photorealistic, and the sound design is just as good: You'll always know what you're hearing, whether it is an enemy, if they've seen you, if they've lost you and even the subtle hint of the hidden tapes nearby; Hell, with some attention maybe you can hear if your gun failed to feed before the *click* of the hammer on an empty chamber sends you a cold shiver of terror through your spine while a drone quickly rushes towards you. Even though ballistics play a smaller role in the game (Or at least I never found bullet drop to be a bother, or penetrating soft walls to be that useful), it is quite immersive to see bullets' trajectory distorted by glass or a soft wall, whether it is your own rounds or a turret trying to hit you. Lastly, I think the ending is actually decent. People probably found it dissapointing by the fact the game just ends without any real head-wrapping revelations after a level that is combined to be the worst of the worst: No turrets to give you ammo that is already a scarce as is, lots of drones and a special enemy that is made only to tell all the nearby drones to shock you and is only possible to kill by wasting a precious round, but I think this is quite important too. To keep it as spoiler free as posible, the very last insight on the fabric of reality's nature is a tape that mostly searches to reach to you through the 4th wall while staying in touch with its "multi-realm sci-fi setting" and wants to make you reflect upon the fact that you've listened to all the tips and story the game has transmitted to you and that thanks to it you've beaten a challenge that is beyond normal human capabilities and it should be proof for you to know that the perseverance and inner strenght to reach a goal is fully developed within you. The resilience and self-awareness of your thoughts are now well settled for you to use to act and make yourself a better future by fighting against all odds. The game wants to make you realize it before the tone of awakening calls you, an ending much more strenghten by the addition of the tone and a self-killing command that will send you back to your desktop to feel still stranged to the nature of the threat but very likely with a small sensation of empowerment at the very least.

The only couple negatives I could point out would be the ridiculous fall damage, the way you die in a single hit or how easy it is to shoot yourself in the leg. You eventually find that dropping off of anything isn't too common and there's usually paths to do so in a way you can drop almost unharmed, and it's even easier now that the W spam to sprint can be disabled. Considering the nature of the killdrones, a single shot should be enough punishment for being either impatient or for letting your mind lose focus and probably the same goes for not holstering safely all the way through , although I can't tell for certain if bullets that have gone through a wall are also an insta-kill.

All in all, Receiver 2 is both an incredibly frustrating but also a rewarding experience for a game. You will die a lot, and you will fail in more ways than one, but the game constantly reminds you that the strenght to get through anything is there in your head no matter the odds and that it is of your utmost concern to exercise your consciousness to be the best you can be, not only for the game. As a person that once was "attacked by the threat", I can tell you that if you decide to actively learn from the tapes, you are definitely taking a step forth to have a better mental wellness through self-awareness of your thoughts. I can give this game a soild 9/10

Thanks to the improved version of the old Golden Source, Half Life becomes revolutionary again. This remake's attention to detail and high quality perfectly revives and improves on the original experience. Tons of assets were remade practically from scratch and don't lose fidelity to the atmosphere, environments nor feel, and largely improves its inmersion thanks to the presence of physics on almost every prop. Half Life's original spirit lives on with this remake: its subtle tutorials, the fantastic mix of action, puzzles and exploration that made its pacing so enjoyable, the fantastic soundtrack and the feeling of encarnating Dr. Freeman as we bring him through a rich sci-fi adventure.
Cons are practically non-existent, and my own personal complaints consist of a sometimes buggy achievements that might not be granted to you, the odd colisions of the recently finished Xen and a couple hitboxes that barely extend beyond some props' models, but make shooting from cover feel a little unviable.
If you didn't play the OG HL for whatever reason, Black Mesa is a great chance to submerge yourself into the universe, even if Half Life was already a timeless classic. You'll find a lengthy campaign full of challenges, an environmental story telling that will grant you as much lore as you want to find and, overall, lots of fun.
For me, this one easily finds itself in a range of 95/100. It's not perfect, nothing is, but it does an impecable job

I know I've played for relatively little time, but a sandbox has as as much to show you as the box of items and tools that it gives you. What it allows you to do? Now that is a whole other deal.
Besiege is certainly nothing to new, but what it plans to execute, it does so in a marvelous manner. Lots of simple gadgets with simple, but well defined uses that can imitate the most advanced machinery you can think of with no more hassle than the thought of its execution. With plenty of mechanic blocks to work with excepting cogs. What the ♥♥♥♥ do you use those for more than to create spinny blocks? you are then handed plenty of weaponry to amuse yourself with: spikes, cannons, catapult ammunition, flamethrowers and little more (including the brutality of momentum mixed with a large amount of mass), then it is up to you how to mix all these elements in order to make the most ridiculous (or solid and orthodox) rolling weapons you can think of. Oh, and there are blocks for making flying machines, so that's a possibility too. All this in favour of a simple gameplay loop that will either see you create the ultimate vehicle, or make hundreds of smaller, more creative solutions that you can fine tune piece by piece to a very comfortable degree.
That's the core, important part. Concerning graphics? It looks pretty, and the medieval aesthetic it has is a little icon that'd help you recognize this game in the instant. Because of the simplicity it uses it for, you're going to need more CPU power than VRam. Sound wise, not lots to say: not horrible, not amazing either, it just works.
All in all, just the core of the game makes for a solid 8/10 at the very least. With some luck we'll see a multiplayer menu that allows connection to strangers' lobbies and help the MP element proliferate, because that's a spot where possibilities just become a denser infinite.

Good game!
But ♥♥♥♥ the embracer group!

Yes, this is a game, but you must understand that there are games which's story is a vessel for their gameplay, and games that tell stories using game mechanics. This is the story of a woman who fought a debilitating mental illness carrying the burden of what ignorance of such a matter brought upon her. The game's main features are puzzles, a few combat segments and plenty of voices speaking to your ears. If it gets boring when you have to walk, you're not paying enough attention, you are demanded to think about what you hear, to imagine the tales of the northmen and to scratch your head thinking both about the stories and her memories, they will both give you plenty to think about and reflect upon, pieces of a puzzle that you put together in your head.
Puzzles aren't mind blowing, and even though they revolve around a mechanic of finding runes in the environment, the areas give a twist to what you do in order to find them. Combat is not extremely in depth, but it feels quite smooth and it'll be entertaining when you learn it from the zero hints the game gives you about it until you master it halfway through the game. Detailed environments and some clever visual effects will immerse you in the Hel she runs through, and I heavily recommend that you play with headphones like the game tells you and alone by yourself in the dark.
All in all, Senua's sacrifice is very entertaining dark story that will leave you thinking for a good while when out of combat and after every puzzle and it takes a well deserved prize as a masterpiece of story telling, even if the gameplay can feel simple at times.