Recent reviews by Blueberry Beard

Don't be fooled by the simple graphics - Hidden in Plain Sight is an excellent couch coop for when you've got people over. The best mode is a race between loads of NPCs. They randomly inch forward, and one player is the sniper who has three bullets to shoot the player characters hidden among the NPCs. It evolves such a level of meta that you've really got to think about how you're playing.

I've enjoyed this game on and off for years, and I've just dug through my library to find it again now that steam has remote play.

This truly is the game that keeps on giving. You unlock something and it makes an entirely new style of play. Then you think that's it and they throw another genre at you. This is how all games should be made. It's full of humour, passion and beautiful, understated art.

If I'm being perfectly honest, there are a few pesky pathfinding bugs and UX issues which make the game a little less than perfect, but they're things I can overlook when the team has a platform for bug reports and are actively patching with updates. It's hard to criticise for the fact that the game just keeps giving more and more stuff that in other decades or under other publishers would be about five DLCs - and I've not even reached the end of finding half the stuff after 64 hours of play.

I can't recommend this game enough. If you liked two Point Hospital but felt the gameplay was linear, if you liked Rimworld but felt it was too grimdark, if you like exploring underground science labs, the bone beds, the ocean, the netherworld and yes, even space, and bringing back artefacts to show in your carefully decorated museum... this one is for you.

A quick-cycle multiplayer online platformer-puzzle game. Help other players with the platform challenges and get rewarded with good karma. Play a variety of animal-based classes which are slowly revealed non-linearly over the course of gameplay.

A sweet and endearing game.

Great pixelart, creepy soundtrack, wonderful physics - but it's lacking the same action as the demo.

I wanted to like this game a lot, and after playing the demo I was pretty hyped for more of the same. However, the gameplay has become slow and tedious, and the few good combat scenes were shortly over with. It felt like the AI wasn't nearly as impressive as it was in the demo.

The puzzles and gameplay are easy and linear, with plenty of Metroidvania. The gameplay loop is as follows:

Enter room. Kill things in room. If you can't kill things in room, go the one or two directions you're allowed to move in. Kill things and pull switch. Go to newly opened door.

If you get disoriented, you can spend fifteen minutes trying to find where that door you needed was. In case wandering around aimlessly isn't your thing, they also added a clumsy human character to control to really slow down the pace of the game to a crawl and extend the play time.

Great pixelart, creepy and depthy soundtrack, wonderful physics, REALLY impressive marketing (the dev is currently playing the game dressed in a full creature suit). But where's the thrill? Where's the hunting? Each of the rooms where it's prey vs monster feels like it's over before it's begun.

I enjoyed the demo much more than the finished game.

(I should add I played the demo a few weeks ago. It's possible the game seems empty because the demo was basically the first hour of gameplay, but it really feels like all the extra rooms have spread the thrill of the hunt too thin like so little butter on too much bread)

Pros: Be a dwarf in space. Mine materials and fight off hoards of dwarf-eating bugs
Cons: Sometimes other players aren't very good and that can kill everyone on the team
Pros: You respawn at your space rig and buy everyone beers and try again and teach your new member how to play.

Pretty wholesome game with a friendly playerbase and devs who care about their product. Really fun way to blow off some steam in the evening.

Gauntlet is one of those games with simple mechanics which combine to make a complicated whole. The game has a thriving playerbase, and it's not often you have to wait for long to play with others in the online mode. The game is complete and had an entire graphical and gameplay overhaul not long after launch. Unfortunately the steam page didn't get the treatment and still shows old graphics.

The game is best played with friends. My advice to new players is to complete the campaign mode first, then enter endless. Endless takes a long time to set up for higher levels, and very much depends on the team. If you're not familiar with the game you might find yourself kicked early on for using up too many coins.

This is my favourite game of all time. The balance is just so spot-on.

(See bottom for TL;DR)

I have a lot of respect for the artist. It's visual, bright and interesting to look at. But the gameplay has some serious flaws. What is displayed as a quirky concept is reskinned basic Unity coding. You jump repeatedly to fly. The collisions are iffy. Your character is clunky to control, and above all the camera is very hard to place. In a game where looking at your surroundings is key, this is a big issue.

I like the concept of having jam-like drawing concepts. It's a mechanic not often seen, and having new, unusual tools at your disposal really pushes you to be creative. Was it necessary to place all the drawing tools in such a way that it takes repeated backtracking to find them (keeping in mind the clunky controls and slow movement speed)? Is the migraine-tempting noise of the skybox important?

This is a game which should've been a demo or a free concept piece - the type of project before the artist met with a coder or team that had the strength to carry out what had been promised in the trailers.

TL;DR: Visually impressive. Fun assignments and prompts. Arduous and exhausting to explore. Half-baked execution. Doesn't live up to the hype.

I would argue that "The Beginner's Guide" is an improvement on the introspective of "The Stanley Parable". It was an enjoyable, harrowing, sorrowful journey through someone else's mind, and it brought with it all the narrative twists and turns I've come to expect from the writer.

Even though you're expecting the ride, it still takes you and holds you in this emotional grasp.

Thanks, Davey. Know you are a good human.

This is exactly the kind of game I was looking for - and one that met my expectations even as they were evolving.

"This game would've been SO GOOD if they'd let you sail by using the wind." - bam, turns out that's next in the ship upgrades.
"This game would've been SO GOOD if there was more than just this limited map" - bam, I sailed to the west, new map loads.
"This game would've been SO GOOD if you could fight for ownership of the map." - bam.

Again and again with these pleasant surprises. I've always loved little trade games, and it feels glorious to sail beautiful ships and get into the roleplay of sinking enemy pirates and the wonderful flavour text that pops up.

To balance out my glowing review, I'd like to add that while the music is nice, there are only six songs that are too short and don't blend very well. I'd recommend finding a 'pirate sea shanty' mix on youtube and mute the in-game music after a while

If you're on the fence about this game, just look at the glorious screen shots and imagine building towers and lighthouses to defend your territory. A slow starting game (one might say it eases you in) and very very enjoyable.