Recent reviews by Hexblithe

Do you:
💠enjoy action-y twin stick shooters
💠appreciate a tower defense now and then
💠love the Amplitude Studios art style and are also an Endless universe fan
💠have friends who share these traits
... then welcome to my after-100% entirely subjective recommendation of Dungeon Defenders Endless Dungeon!

Note that there is another game by Amplitude called Dungeon of the Endless. I will not be comparing the two, as I others have already done so.

Right, then... Endless Dungeon, a gorgeous hybrid of gaming genres. The art style beautifully allows for easy readability during chaotic times. The music excellently sets the theme of a difficult time-is-of-the-essence space western. It also plays a big part in making the Saloon one of the hubs I can vibe for hours in. The sounds amazingly communicate events while not feeling like too much is happening at once. The gameplay proves difficult to master. Practice makes perfect. I am very bad at this game but I still have fun most runs. Companions help with the latter. Also, the lore is endlessly nice but... insufficient in my opinion #MoarLorePLS!!!

Before you draw your own conclusions about Endless Dungeon, please consider that it's easy to have false expectations about what you'd want a game to be versus what it really is. Looking at what others have to say, I think the scope and complexity of Endless Dungeon are misunderstood. It is not a bad game, but a difficult one with a lot of moving gears. I'm a big fan of Amplitude Studios and of everything Endless, I've been hyped about Endless Dungeon since they announced it, and so it gets a big recommend from me... But no game is (objectively) perfect so here's the Good🔷, the Bad🔶, and since there is no Ugly (apart from Denuvo Anti-Cheat, yuck!) you'll be getting my unsolicited advice💠instead.

BE WARNED - reading from this point on may lead to your own joy of discovery being spoiled.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3145199708
HEROES
🔷Hero passives, actives, and ultimates matter; remember to use them.
🔶unlocking all Heroes takes time.
💠solo-play picks: Comrade, Zed, and Shroom; Co-op picks: Comrade (Amp, don't nerf plox!) w/ Bunker & Blaze, Cartie & Blaze, or Cartie & Zed.

QUESTS
🔷see Steam achievements for Hero pairings; they get extra dialogue lines between Zones; quests bring both unlocks and lore.
🔶not enough voice acting during quests; the texts are great but mini-2D-cinematics or audio would be better; skins look awesome but Saloon models don't update and they don't have 2D art portraits.
💠1st priority: unlock Heroes and do all of the quests! you can work on up to three quests at once per run, use the Weather Eye to plan; do not try to rush the end-game.

CHIPS
🔷Chips are expensive, figure out Heroes and weapons before spending any.
🔶farming Chips is slow.
💠break colored barrels, open chests; bosses always drop currency; expensive Chips aren't always better.

LEVELING UP
🔷level 4-9 upgrades are stronger and based on level 1-3 picks.
🔶you won't have three level 9 Heroes in every game;
💠get a 'carry' hero to level 9 before the Core; Fire Rate upgrades are good, there's synergy with Critical Strikes and Heavy Weapons; favorite level 4+ upgrades: Bullet Hail (Fire Rate) and The Mechanic (Wit); favorite CB upgrades: speED.

WEAPONS
🔷Light Weapons have average higher Fire Rate, Heavy Weapons have average higher Damage.
🔶each increase in weapon quality only adds +1 to damage.
💠don't knock Knockback; with a Heavy Weapons only team, chests and shops won't spawn Light Weapons and vice-versa; favorite weapon: Photon Cannon (or any Light Element); favorite devices: All4Oner, Mental Blinds.

THE SHOP
🔷Shops have 5 items to choose from; weapon quality in Shops increases with each Zone; devices don't have qualities; it's efficient to buy good items earlier on.
🔶shop rerolls require Dust #RarelyWorth.
💠equipped devices and weapons won't spawn in the shop again; want to gamble on getting an equipped weapon upgrade? drop the weapon and then reroll.

TURRETS
🔷elemental affinity is efficient; nests colors on minimap show the weakness (note: light green is Light; neon green is Acid).
🔶turret range and HP end up mattering a lot more than elemental affinity.
💠#AlwaysBeSmackingTurrets; favorites: Acid Sharpshooter (range!), Amplifier (stacks!), Laser Blinder (share zone with Jellyfier); for kill-rooms: Diagnosticator.

RESEARCH
🔷researching triggers a wave; if a wave is already ongoing, it reinforces the wave.
🔶every research is more expensive than the last.
💠on level 1, getting Science going on 2 generators early gets you 2-3 turrets researched at a point where you can defend with just Heroes; level 1 is the only time I'll consider picking a bonus Science Wildcard; turret rank 3 is rarely worth it.

ZONES
🔷2nd priority: unlock all zones; 3rd priority: get Core Defenses down.
🔶if you rush the Core before 3rd priority, the Defenses will make you cry #notworth.
💠there's lore and chip currency to repeatedly collect; all Zone are worth revisiting; the later you unlock a zone, the bigger it is, and the more rewards it has.

FINAL BOSS
🔷the final boss is an absolute pain, good luck! (Red Dead Eye best boss)
🔶invulnerability phases never stop being annoying; the far and wide teleportation is forever aggravating; the room darkening is most times infuriating; good luck!
💠have patience; you're gonna get'em eventually, take your time, learn the moves; you got this! Light Element weapons and turrets help; Amplifiers help; an ample amount of First Aid Kits and related power-up bonuses help; good luck!

BEVERAGES
🔷If you wanna flex on Discord, finishing a Beverage run on Hard difficulty will give you a special sticker on the drink menu #GottaCatchemAll
🔶finishing a Beverage run on Hard difficulty only gives you a special sticker on the drink menu.
💠misery loves company, convince your friends to help (not me though, I'm done xD)

WILDCARDS
🔷Wildcard effects stack; Drawbacks only affect one Zone at a time; after a few games you're gonna realize which Wildcards fit your playstyle and which don't.
🔶not all Wildcards are designed equally.
💠Special.Turret.Slot <3

In closing, after more than 200 hours with it, I found Endless Dungeon to be ultimately endearing while also challenging. It is a worthy addition to Amplitude's Endless universe and I will watch its further development with great interest.

💀 💀 💀 💀

Amplitude Studios had its 13th birthday on January 21st (bonne fête et longue vie!) and I really wanted my after-100% small but eloquent wall of text to be ready by then. Alas, grinding through opening 10,000 doors took a while longer than I initially thought.

On a personal note, this is my third recommendation for 2024 and I'm still hoping I can somehow miraculously get four of these babies out every month. The positive reacts on Boltgun and Kill The Crows omg!!! It is humbling to see that that my words are seen and appreciated and it's motivating me to keep going. Thanks for (the Golden Unicorns ^.^ and) all the positive support!

Well, Friend, you've made it to words' end!
I hope you enjoyed and I wish you the best!
So I'll meet you in the next one,
𝓢𝓮𝓮 𝓨𝓸𝓾, 𝓢𝓹𝓪𝓬𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝔀𝓫𝓸𝔂...

...was considering "Howdy, Pardner!" for this one but found it too on the nose... Do you:
🔷 have ten minutes to kill and nothing to play in that time
🔷 miss going to the Arcade
🔷 enjoy both arena shooters and pixel graphics
🔷 wanna find yourself saying "It's hiiigh noon..." while the bodies of your enemies collapse unto the dust
🔷 still have that ol' Dark Country/Blues Saraceno playlist from like a decade ago
🔷 want to play a grim western that doesn't have "West" in the title
🔶 not care about story as long as the gameplay is solid
🔶 sometimes enjoy minimalist design over a plethora of unnecessary features

... then welcome to my After-100% Entirely Subjective Recommendation of Duck Hunt Kill The Crows

I wandered unto Kill The Crows' Store Page back in September. I liked the screenshots, the trailer was atmospheric and cool, and the price felt more than fair. A few days later, I got to see Splatt play it, and I bought it.

Starting out, I was bad. I repeatedly shot at the crates and walls. I dodged into attacks while trying to evade others more times than I care to admit. And when it comes to the number of times I heard my gun go 'click!' instead of 'bang!' all I can say is... yikes! The skill issue was a special type of infuriating. Got a bit better after a couple hours as I found my mojo. The enemies felt challenging but not unfair. Tried out every unlock as soon as I got it. Didn't mind dying as much, I knew I could get farther in the next run. And that's when I realized...

Kill The Crows is fun! Yes, I'm bad and yes, it's difficult, but it is nevertheless fun. The rounds are insanely quick with almost no downtime. There's a feeling of accomplishment that comes with getting better at a skill-based game like this one. You can run and 'finish' the whole game with the starter pistol and no other unlocks if you're skilled enough.

I got 100% completion in a weekend and ended on a high note. I hadn't bumped into any bugs, everything felt polished, functional, fun. And I thought that's where Kill The Crows and I would part ways... But then in November 5minlab released a patch: balance fixes, more unlockables, more enemies. Neat! And then another patch in December: new bosses and an arcade-y story mode to bring a level of finality to the game.

Both of these patches, came at no extra cost. Maybe I've been exposed to too much corporate greed, microtransactions, inane and unnecessary DLCs, and just overall toxic and predatory cash grabbing but I was both so pleasantly shocked and simply impressed. Kill The Crows was a hidden gem from release, and thanks to the devs' hard work, it had just gotten a lot better... with no added cost, something I like to call "a No Man's Sky event".

Sooo yeah... Replaying, getting to the new 100%, and writing this recommendation were unavoidable.

Kill The Crows is gritty tale 'bout gettin' revenge and rootin'-tootin'-shootin'-puttin' a whole lotta people into the ground. The Crows are this cult of seriously twisted folks who decided that the best way to get the plot going was to murder town after town, as sacrifice and tribute to... something. Turns out, they got what they wanted all nice and wrapped up in a bow of careful-what-you-wish-for. Izzy (she's referred to as both Isabella and Isabelle, so Izzy it is) died with enough hatred in her heart to be chosen and brought back by the Eye, the latter presenting itself as a manifestation of the aforementioned something.

All the story there is can be found in boss dialogues and unlock descriptions. There isn't a lot depth or text, but I savored every word.

Visually, and functionally Kill The Crows is both simplistic and exceptional. The arena looks good and feels tactical. There's enough enemy variety and density to keep things spicy for the <20 minutes an average round takes. The models are easily discernible in the arena without feeling out of place.

Every sound is clear, crisp, and well chosen. I can listen to someone else playing with my eyes closed and can easily tell what's happening at every point. The single repeating music track is the only negative, see remark about Dark Country playlist.

The achievements only ask for progress, skill, and minimum grind.

The Steam badges are clean and sharp, with well chosen names. I like the Desperado a lot! Gunslinger is great as well but I find it a bit too cluttered.

Be warned, reading from this point on may lead to your own joy of discovery being spoiled.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3064128585
This is the golden rule. You die from one hit, but so do your enemies.
💠 swapped keybinds between 'dodge' (to right-click) and Showdown (to space) and I had a good time with it.
💠 there's only one arena and it has good zones; there's no strategic advantage to staying in the center, so roam often, find reliable cover, as well as opportunities to funnel enemies.
💠 reload often; The Crimson and the Leather Bandolier make no-ammo reloading more efficient but apart from those there's no reason to not reload whenever you have the chance to do so; melee enemies don't always need to be taken out as soon as they're unobstructed.
💠 rather than just pushing higher kill-counts, focus on getting unlocks; unlock conditions don't retroactively trigger so rushing to get to 600 kills won't unlock anything if it's not required.
💠 perfect dodges come with a sound cue and a brief time-slow.
💠 don't bank more than one Showdown charge; you won't ever need two consecutive Showdowns to progress.
💠 aiming Showdown comes with a brief time-slow window; take advantage of this by quickly choosing your targets and then spending the rest of the timer looking for the next priority.
💠 Showdown doesn't use your bullets; in addition to that, using Showdown (except Cursed Gaze) also reloads your weapon.
💠 as long as there's a clear line of sight, one Showdown bullet can take down any non-boss enemy; I like to use Showdown to quickly get rid of Barriers, Snipers, and Magicians.
💠 you can't shoot through gravestones unless you have Cursed Gaze ghost bullets; to quickly deal with Reaper (1st boss), after the dialogue, hit one of the green crows, wait for the boss to crow-burst-move-respawn, bait an attack, rush after the attack is done, hit the 2nd green crow, dodge-tumble around the gravestone wall, and kill Reaper while still downed.
💠 Shaman's (2nd boss) large area of invulnerability means that they only have a limited number of places where they can spawn; don't reload during lightning bolt attacks as the slowdown will kill you; dodging can save your life from a lightning bolt, but it won't help get distance from them as the spawn is always centered on where you are.
💠 you thought this was a cute arcade western but after 300 kills, you'll learn it's a survival horror; getting the heebee-jeebies just thinking about it. #killitwithfire
💠 Hunter (3rd boss) is scary... and pretty cool; don't dodge too early, the dash attack has a bit of a delay on the claw swipe; get as many walls and obstacles as you can between you and them while you're hunting down the blood shields.
💠 if you want to see all the dialogues get ready to kill 900 Crows
💠 my favorite loadout: Pocket Cannon, Cursed Gaze, Leather Bandolier, Old Harmonica

In closing, Kill The Crows is a short and sweet callback to an older era of gaming. Its minimalism and character are ultimately charming and its replayability value lies in fast rounds and skill-based progression. I hope it does well and I happily recommend it!

💀 💀 💀 💀

Well, Friend, you've made it to words' end and for that you have my sincere gratitude. Until next time,

𝓢𝓮𝓮 𝓨𝓸𝓾, 𝓢𝓹𝓪𝓬𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝔀𝓫𝓸𝔂...

⠀
Lemme start this one with a quote by SsethTzeentach

Do You enjoy Violence?
Of course You do.
It's a part of You.
And who are You to deny Your own nature?

Now, if that caught your curiosity and you also
💠 do not dislike boomer shooters
💠 have a hankering for mid-90's gaming nostalgia
💠 also think that Die Hard is a Christmas movie

...then welcome to my After 100% Entirely Subjective Recommendation of Wolfenstein 3D Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun!

I finally got around to booting up Boltgun on Xmas morning and it was #HomelanderPerfect. Playing Boltgun on Xmas'23 gave me the same joy and delight that I got by playing Quake on Xmas'96. The nostalgia bug bites harder around the holidays, that's for sure. Also, I don't consider myself to have boomer shooter bias in the first place.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3133099031
Boltgun was the right game at the right time and it felt like the 'remaster' of the Game That Never Was. The cinematics are peak Saturday Morning Toonami flavored. Textures and lighting are retro-gorgeous. The movement and gunplay each deserve their own chef's kiss. The level design is out of this world (pun intended). The audio processing on the effects is vintage-crisp. Finally, the music is just flawless CatJam. For all of my playtime, I felt that Boltgun was made for me. Kudos and thank you to Auroch Games 💖 You've made something truly outstanding here.

⠀an excerpt from the Lexicanum

Also referred to as the Bolter, it is the standard weapon of the Adeptus Astartes, commonly known as Space Marines. The Boltgun is a holy symbol of the Emperor's wrath.
A .75 caliber weapon, the Bolter works similarly to a grenade launcher, firing a relatively small explosive; an initial ballistic charge launches the then self-propelled explosive, commonly called a 'bolt'. Once the bolt penetrates its target, it explodes.

This is the starter weapon and the power fantasy goes only up from here.

But no game is (objectively) perfect so here's the Good🔷, the Bad🔶, and there is no Ugly. Be warned, the following may spoil your own joy of discovery.
🔷 no crashes, no bugs; no Early Access Hell; no Season Pass or DLCs (yet).
🔶 Dear @FocusEntertainment, gimme Boltgun Trailer Floppy Disk as merch pls, kthxbai~
🔷 no cash shop, no cover system, no aiming down sights, no vehicles, no regenerating health, no stealth, no skill trees; just you, the music, a horde of heretics, guns, 'nades, ammo, health packs, and your Contempt for the enemy (AKA the armor); also, in-game idle animation, saving indicator is a floppy disk, and the cursor is an armored gauntlet (if you know, you know).
🔶 no weapon modding for custom builds; no character customization, no skins, no portrait in the HUD, no reflective surfaces, no boots when aiming down (gauntlets do look righteous af tho).
🔷 you are John McBoltGun Blaskowicz Malum Caedo, Ultramarine, and part-time silent protagonist (there's a taunt button, Rahul Kohli voices over a hundred lines, they're all amazing!); on the planet Graia, attempting to secure a MacGuffin powerful enough that it also carried the plot of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine; yes, Boltgun is the canon spin-off sequel to Space Marine and if you have't played the latter you can still enjoy the former.
🔶 the Full Detailed Plot:Purge all Heretics, get MacGuffin!
🔷 Along for the ride is Incomodus, a Servo-skull who uses Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus-style speech (Praise the Omnissiah!); He's a well-designed AI companion, delivering minor mission exposition, staying out of fire, making remarks on nearby pick-ups, paths, and doors, and he's got a bit of a funny bone too.
🔶 no local or online co-op; all of your squad-mates are dead on arrival.
🔷 retro-levels in graphics can be tweaked; give each chapter their own visual identity and it can feel like they released in different years.
🔶 your weapons and ammo do not carry over from one chapter to the next so don't stockpile.
🔷 Malum's Chainsword can be bullet-time aimed at moderately-far enemies in order to dash-leap on them for rip+tear purposes; this makes some of the platforming really fun; there's the Chainsword, the Bolter, and seven other weapons and they're all neat...
🔶 ...except the Shotgun; leave it to Boltgun to have the best weapon in any boomer shooter be its worst; also, half of the fun arsenal is not available in the the first dozen levels; no melee kicking available.
🔷 the walking sounds and head-bobbing are amazing! Walking, jumping, dashing, and Goomba-stomping enemies feels good, fast, and powerful; Malum is a wrecking ball with a toggleable auto-run option...
🔶 ...which I advise to use on a per-level basis, in some areas caution and finesse win over speed; oh, and sadly instead of actual jetpacks, we get jetpack-skinned launch-pads;
🔷 a lot of love and care was put into the the level design, architecture, and scale, as most of the areas in each level have their own distinct theme, look, and feel and oh boy is it grimdark and awesome! The levels also have Secrets, some well hidden, most out in the open; these 'Secrets' are all OP power-ups worth looking for;
🔶 there's NO MINIMAP in this game and the levels are not small; time will be spent being lost, as well as falling while exploring, running, secret-hunting, or just being pushed in combat; navigation is a big part of Boltgun's challenge.
🔷 the max difficulty, Exterminatus, is intense but manageable; if not considering the repeated falling off of ledges (which by the way can sometimes be avoided due to an awesome ledge grab animation) as dying, I technically had a no-death run; regarding enemies, there's a Name and Health Bar UI displayed for whatever the weapon's pointing at; thus, I got to set my crosshair opacity to zero and enjoyed the extra challenge and cleaner UI; quick sidenote, weapons have power levels, enemies have toughness levels, and the UI has colored chevrons for quick reference; other than that, some weapons work better on some enemies (shoutout to the Volkite Caliver hilariously making Plague Toads pop like pimples).
🔶 Aspiring Champions exist and knowing them is knowing true fear; I recommend the Heavy Bolter early on and ultimately switching to the Emperor's Delete Button AKA the Melta Gun.
🔷 'Darktide-lite mode' AKA Purge Mode will have some areas lock down while Malum sees red, and you must thoroughly de-heretize the area before being able to progress; while in Purge Mode, take note to look for one or two 'Secrets' as these proportionally generate dopamine and carnage.
🔶 there's a large number of different enemies but due to density it won't feel like that; you'll never meet an enemy only once.
🔷 The Steam Badges are some of the most beautiful I've seen to date; the Achievements are simple no nonsense, no grind, no time wasted; with a strong internal compass and a knack for finding secrets, the average completion time is around 10 hours...
🔶 ...but I have neither, so to 100% enemies, secrets, and Achievements I needed twice the time #worth

Ultimately, Boltgun is the result of all its Goods and Bads together, an exceptional and charming cohesive whole, one that was crafted with a strong sense of passion as well as respect for all the original sources of inspiration, leading to a clear, gorgeous, and individual game identity.

💀 💀 💀 💀 💀

Well, friend, you've made it to words' end and for that you have my sincere gratitude. Until next time,

𝓢𝓮𝓮 𝓨𝓸𝓾, 𝓢𝓹𝓪𝓬𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝔀𝓫𝓸𝔂...

[Early Access][Steam Awards Nominee]

Hi there, friend!

Imagine you're having a conversation with another person, a friend, an acquaintance, a brand new stranger all shiny with bells on, and, as you're talking, one thing leads to another and somehow you end up their unofficial therapist - all of their woes, their worries, their griefs, all that heavy stuff, that's now spilled all over the conversation. How does that make you feel? Would you like to help them? Would you like to give them some relief, be it long term or merely temporary? Would you like to physically reach inside of their mind and wipe away all that sadness, s̴̰̞̐͂n̷̛̬̟̝̉u̵̫͛f̷̪̜͈̔̂̚f̶̰̳̑ ̵͙̈ó̷̧̥u̷̳͝t̸̛̟̯͖̂ that depression, cleanse and p̶̬̞̟̀u̵̞̲̟͒͝r̴͍̓̊͋į̶̗́̊̂f̷̬̯̌́̒y̷͍͉͂̈́ ̷͖̦̖͑t̸̡͕̅h̶̯̍͝ǒ̷͖͝s̶̼̖̒̈́͘͜e̵͙͖̕͝ ̸̲̄f̸̼̗͒̓͑i̴̪͕̤͑͋͗l̷̬̟̼̎̔ṫ̸̡̯̾ḣ̵͉̩̺̊̈́y̴̹͙̬͆̓̈, unhealthy habits, r̴̡͉͙̮̐̉̏̒͘i̸̼̳̋̓̾̿̈p̵̰̋̒͆̾̚ ̷̧̩̳͚̫̍̂̌a̴͍̎͑̍̈́̒̀ǹ̶̮̺̪̫̙͘͝d̸͎͛͑̽͑̈́͜ ̵̜̬̫̪͋̌̈̂͂ͅt̴̮͕̏ě̶͔̻̜̹͐a̵̫̪̪͎̓̎̍͑̾r̶̡͍̺͌̎̇ ̸͖̠̀̆̽̚t̴̻̫̺͎̉ĥ̴̛̯̊́̏̕o̴̡͑̉̿s̴̲͍̟̙̿̾̐ȇ̴̝͖͍̝͍͋͆ͅ ̶̣̩̇̿̑͜V̴̳͚̖͚̻̝͚̠̩͖͚̙̀̌̊ͅI̶̢̙͉̮̘̭͎̺̻̰̭̥̭͆̈́͋̀̃̾͆͌̓͘ͅO̴̖͍̼̰̠̜̘̦̫̐͑̀̋͐͋L̶̨̥̣̠̠̙̰̬̭͘ͅÈ̴̳͔̝̣̻N̴̩͈̗̤̠̳̘̭̾͌̿̋̀͌̌͠ͅͅT̸̡̨̡͚̼̫̣̂͌ͅ ̶̺̬͑̌̌͐͘ͅu̸̼͊r̷͇̓̒g̵̘̻̫̭̭̱̅͌̂ȩ̸̤̪͔̐̈́̚s̵̨͎̘̲̠͑̐? Then, you should definitely try out Kind Words Wantless: Solace at World's End

So dust off your datajack and grab your most neon-y hacking deck, equip your spinny-est dream totem, and take the red pill as you prepare to follow the white rabbit farther and deeper than Freud ever got. These are violent delights, and you are their violent ender.

Welcome to Wantless, friend! Your name is Eiris and the world you find yourself in is pretty bleak and depressive but that's okay because at least you're not alone. You have friends, companions, and a ship, the Alterthought. Your job is an interesting hybrid. Part therapist, part hacker, part tactical gladiator.

You craft your own skills, an easy to learn and interesting to master activity, and you take those skills along into the sleeping minds of your patients. You find and save memories worth saving, but it's not all rainbows and sunshine because the mind is a dangerous place where every negative thought, every bad habit, every vice, and every sin has a form, a function, and their very own set of skills. Luckily, they also have a health bar which means they can be disposed of. Unluckily, you also have a health bar which means that along with those skills, you need to pack some caution. You won't succeed every time but you will learn, you will get better, and you will also keep whatever you grabbed along the way which means that every mission will have at least a partial reward.

By the way, when it comes to character, enemy, and location art, this game feels hand-drawn and gorgeous. I don't think the screenshots do it justice.

But why? Why do this? Well, they say that helping others is its own reward. If that's not good enough, then I say that there's an immense satisfaction to be had from getting to go deeper and seeing what's really there. Not all enemies are built the same and while you will encounter similar faces, there will be some faces that you won't easily forget. Personally, I found a dopamine mine in the modularity of skill-building. Skills have at least four components and each of those components can be upgraded, either in tier, or rarity, or both. The name and the icon of the skill also changes based on the order in which you assemble your effects. Additionally, higher rarities come with a number of minor secondary effects, which will ask to be mixed and matched with other components. It's not mandatory but there comes a time when you just have everything you need to create 'perfect synergy', and if you're like me pure synergy makes the happy brain juice overflow.

The combat is turn-based so skills have an activation cost and a cooldown. Some skills come with an imposed cooldown but for most of the attacks, you can get away with having low to no cooldown. Apart from space on your hotbar being a delimiter in regards to how many skills you can have, there's also something called Discipline. Better and more complex skills end up having a higher discipline cost and discipline is limited by your level, and your perks. Therefore, not every skill is gonna end up being a nuke. But there's enough discipline to experiment.

There's a lot of skill effects to try out and in the same time you'll be getting them, you'll also be leveling up and investing your levels into a 'little' skill tree which can look a little bit intimidating at first but no worries, you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. Apart from experience for levels you'll also be gaining reputation which in turn will give you a chance at rare patients with nastier issues to solve. No added risk comes without added rewards though as those levels will have better loot, better experience, more currency, and bigger meanies to test your shiny new skills on.

Apart from that, there's also a story to this world. It starts out well enough but I can't honestly say much about it at this point. In tune to Wantless being an Early Access game, this is also an Early Recommendation. That's right, I haven't yet 100%'d this one but I'm definitely going to by the end of the year. I'm hooked! Everything the game has from its art, to its design speaks my language. However, I can't say much about the story but at least for now I'm having too much fun leveling up reputations and upgrading my skills. Have I hit a difficulty wall? Nope. Is there more game for me to explore? Oh, definitely. To the latter, #soon(tm)!

As a parting note, I know there's a hesitation when it comes to Early Access games. I genuinely don't believe that this game warrants that hesitation. The devs are nice, they're taking feedback, they're actively working on improvements. Apart from that, the game is working just fine. I have over 30 hours in it so far, and I haven't crashed once. There's a lot more content for me to explore, so if you're going by the rule that a game's price needs to at least give you that many hours of enjoyment, this game checks that box. Nevertheless, this is still a work in progress. There is more to come so if you're not into the idea of giving an Early Access title a try, maybe wishlist it or follow it instead. This is a small dev team working really hard on something that I believe has some insane potential. I got this key for free and I'm forever thankful that the universe provided. I would've missed out on something great. I enjoy this game a lot, you could say that when it comes to Wantless, I definitely Wantmore (I'm not apologizing!)

Well, you've made it to the end of the review, friend, and thus you have my gratitude for your curiosity and the luxury of your time. Good luck out there and see you Space Cowboy...

Psst! Hey You! Yeah You, the one with face! Do You...
... enjoy fast-pumping non-stop gory Violence?
... adore gorgeous looking pixel graphics?
... love getting repeated seizures from lighting and effects that can only be classified as Hell's Sunday Rave?
... wanna crank up to 11 a soundtrack that absolutely slaps?
... fire guns with sounds so crisp that they should come with a veteran's PTSD trigger warning?
... crave the rapid and explosive murderizing of characterless enemies, over and over again just for the all-mighty high score?
... think that You've easily figured out the meta and that this game's easy, only to quickly realize that this game has bosses, that they hurt, are no joke, and have interesting, unique designs that separate them from each other as well as the rest of all the other enemies?
... wanna spend more time than You'd like to unlock 100% of achievements because repeating the same level and grinding high-scores is a "fun and engaging mechanic"?

Then You wanna play Hotline Miami Let Them Come!

Unfun fact: The controller support for this game is a-s-s! I personally feel that's a shame, mainly due to my preference of playing as many games as I possibly can with a controller. Luckily, the ol' faithful mouse & keyboard will do the trick... as soon as You rebind 99% of the keys! Personal suggestion, set right-click to Q, set Space to W, and set middle-click to right-click.

Read the 'bestiary'! The enemies aren't just spoopy-looking for the spoop factor, they do different things. Knowledge is power. I've seen tweets longer than the lore this game has...

There's no achievement for unlocking the entire inventory and, coming from a person who spent a lot of Score (score=money, simple enough) on unlocking and upgrading everything, there's no real point doing so... You can only change loadouts postmortem, or after finishing a boss fight. Unlock and upgrade only what You wanna equip. Items from columns 1 and 3 are the upgradable ones. The Purchase button becomes the upgrade button in later levels after the feature is unlocked.
Piercing Ammo is bae! After some tweaking, this can go on left-click replacing the default ammo. It makes a lot of waves easy, fast, and trivial. Add the Charge Mod to the Piercing Ammo and the simple, low charge left-clicks won't consume ammo. Fully charged up left-click attacks will also work great in some situations, and those consume ammo at a recoverable pace.
Explosive Ammo is side-bae. Best right-click any rootin' tootin' alien-shootin' gatling gunslinger could ask for. But just like any good side-bae, it's pretty expensive. However, explosions deal area of effect damage, killing things faster, and also filling up the Combo Meter faster. Every time the meter fills up, You get to pick a random temporary boon. Resupply is a good boon, Unlimited Items is better! Both will let You use Explosive Ammo a lot more often. Also, purchasing, equipping, and upgrading the Lucky Charm passive will lead to EZ-Combo mode, so do that. Combo boons help make the grind faster and easier.
Other passives to consider are Rapid Fire and Cooling. Power Suit is a solid 4th pick, mainly because the defensive passives won't end up saving You from lethal boss damage. Power Suit is also literally a flex, so why not?
For 'nades, Freeze Grenades have some godly area of effect crowd control. They're great for massacre bonus stalling, as well as for slowing down some of the faster, later waves. For the other secondary, nothing really compares to a fully upgraded Hand Cannon... although a Chainsaw is available and sometimes You just gotta Rip & Tear Until It Is Done. The Riot Shield can also come in clutch later on but a full upgrade isn't mandatory. (The Riot Shield isn't necessary as long as the entire loadout is fully upgraded and there's enough Explosive Ammo to go around)

For Combo boons, (apart from Unlimited Items and Resupply which are pretty much the top picks whenever available) there are:
- FRENZY. Prevents overheating, allows for Explosive Ammo spam when combined with Unlimited Ammo. Trippy.
- Double Damage. Double Barrel looks cooler but it uses up twice the ammo and the increase in damage arc doesn't really help clear a hallway faster; getting to have both active is amazing though.
- Score Award. Don't really know how efficient Score Multiplier is. It's good to pick the latter when other picks are circumstantial or bad. Personally, relying on Resupply is more fun than farming score to restock postmortem.
- Leech Life on Kill is better than Health unless You are literally about to die and don't need to restock. Both are circumstantial however, since they do nothing at full health.
Worthy Mentions are Barbed Wire (can last a whole life/level), Explode on Low Health (seems to be a 'permanent' buff per life/level; will sometimes disappear when Enemy Can Explode on Death is picked up; the latter is also useful), Rocket Drone (Gun Drone is weaker but both have a much higher buff duration than other boons). Airstrike is... meh? Never used Change It Up, didn't see the point.
All limited duration boons are orange and while they're active, they will not be available in the boon pool. A mostly perfect but sometimes awesome boon 'claim time' is 0.975 seconds. Do with this information what You will...

Every level unlocks a new mixtape (and upgrades and lore, but the music is the best part). Make sure to add all the songs to the boombox!

The challenges are lame... The respective achievements can be farmed by getting to wave 2 in endless and dying... The boss challenges are tedious but doable. There is nothing to earn from them. Worst yet, the boombox doesn't save after each challenge is done!!!

Let Them Come can offer up 2-3, 10, or maybe even 20 hours of alien killing fun and it's been on sale with every big Steam event. Personally, I feel that the boombox alone is worth it! The biggest sin this game's guilty of is that the soundtrack isn't available as DLC...

Disclaimer: A metric butt-ton of aliens were massacred in the making of this recommendation.
I give it 4 out of 5 Mixtapes!

Psst!!! Hey. Hey You! Yeah You, the one with the face... Do You...
- like isometric action RPGs?
- cherish easy-to-learn-but-hard-to-master game mechanics? With a user-decided adaptive difficulty curve to boot?
- enjoy exploring a different, colorful, and interesting world in the recent wake of a cataclysmic event?
- feel drawn to morally-grey villains and cute-but-deadly scores of enemies that are too adorable to stay upset with?
- appreciate getting to piece together original deep lore without being forcefully spoon-fed bland exposition?
- want Your ears to tingle as a charismatic voice keeps a silent protagonist company?
- yearn to play a game with a soundtrack that's so good, you'll be trying to low-key share songs with non-gamer friends and family for years?
Then You should play Bastion Transistor!

In a 'nutshell' here's a bit of the story:
Cloudbank is a virtual utopia. Citizens democratically vote on everything, from the next big building project to what the weather is going to be. When the polls end, administrators execute the changes from behind the curtain.
Choice reigns in Cloudbank. Large changes occur daily. And "when everything changes, nothing changes." That's the motto of the Camarata. They're interesting because they see Cloudbank as a dystopia.
Grant was an administrator. He executed changes voted by the majority. He also had to ignore his own opinions and feelings on the changes. This drained him to a point where he could no longer go forward.
Asher was frustrated with Cloudbank's shoddy historical records. When change is instant, and everyone lives in the present, historical records become impossible to maintain.
Royce was irked by the fact that everything could be changed on the whim of the majority. None of his designs were allowed to have any permanence, regardless of how much effort he put in them.
Grant, Asher, and Royce no longer wanted change to be a majority vote. They wanted change to happen when it was needed, not wanted. By using his supernerd math skills, Royce found his way to the Process, the entity/source-code used to shape and re-shape Cloudbank. As Royce further empowered the Process, he also worked on a way to control it - the Transistor (hey, that's the name of the game!)
The Transistor is the key to controlling the Process, therefore the key to low-key being God, at least in the virtual world Cloudbank is part of. And in order to be the best possible key, the Camarata decided that the Transistor required several Functions. Functions are obtained by... letting talented people be partially Processed... and then killing or absorbing them with the Transistor.
Cue Sybil, the last person to join the Camarata. As the social scout, she finds and approaches said talented people. And the Camarata abducts them... And then kills them... And forever imprisons a part of their sentience... for the greater good of Cloudbank.
Red, the protagonist, is a talented singer. The Camarata want her Function. What ever could go wrong?

...this is just the prelude of the game. Yeah, the story and writing are actually awesome! Going through the game also serves as some rich food for thought for anyone with a bit of a philosophy itch.
And it's not just the story that's awesome. In terms of visuals, the character design, Cloudbank's many stages, the cinematics, the UI, the HUD, the particles - awesome. In terms of audio, the voice acting, the music, the sounds - awesome. The variety of skill customization, and the way the user gets to set their own difficulty level - awesome.
Supergiant put in a lot of attention to detail in order give us both a game and a one-of-a-kind work of art. While Transistor is Bastion's successor, it is not a sequel. It shows the growth that the devs at Supergiant went through.

Lemme just quickly touch up on what I didn't enjoy that much - the combat. As soon as I unlocked a limiter I enabled it, and I do not recommend this. I did it for the XP boost and while level-ups always felt nice, the many fights did not. I went through the whole game and the recursion without finding a build I was perfectly comfortable with. Having Turn() off cooldown and being forced to run around is not fun. Spending 3 MEM to upgrade a Function with Jaunt() or to just equip it as an active or a passive also is not fun.
I found that Purge() upgraded with Crash() and Breach() let me spam a lot homing, long-range, stun-locking DoTs. However, it dealt almost no damage and the stun doesn't work on bosses and masked enemies.
I liked Void() upgraded with Bounce() and Get() but swapping out Bounce() for Crash() had better results overall. This is a great CC and debuff but it deals zero damage so I threw in a Load() passive whenever I could and just kept spamming until a packet spawned.
I tried out Cull() upgraded with Load() and Void() for good damage but found Tap() upgraded with Breach() and Void() to be more reliable overall.
Get() was a must-have as a passive for me though.
As I gained more Limiters and enemies got harder I found it harder and harder to use Turn(), so I stopped using it. Jaunt () and Ping () became a lot less important after that.
I found the boss fights to be more than just challenging in the Recursion with all 10 Limiters on. I'd advise against that.

Transistor came out in 2014 and it neither looks nor feels its age. It doesn't suffer from outdated graphics or narrative or a done-to-death gimmick. It doesn't rely on community mods or a community patch for the best experience. It features minimal RNG and no grinding. It doesn't have expansions, DLCs, loot boxes, or micro-transactions. Even the achievements feel right...
Yeah, recommended. 5/5 cells, would review again!
See you in the Country. --R

*No Sea Monsters were hurt in the playthrough or reviewing of this game.

Originally posted by The TL,DR Genie:

I installed Orcs Must Die! and played through the first two difficulties with a constant smile on my face, pretty much bewitched by the fun combination of traps and spells I could use during each mission. I refused to let it go until I beat it on the hardest difficulty and got all the achievements. I give this game five skulls (and a horned helmet to boot)!

Orcs Must Die! is not the type to focus on its lore or story more than it's necessary. There's a legion of baddies out there and it's up to you and your ridiculously generous array of traps, weapons and spells to stop them. The simple and funny cinematics and voice acting cover the rest. The protagonist is witty, easy-going, wise-cracking, and arrogant to the point of annoyance. And as such, I lovingly refer to him as Bruce Campbell.

The HUD and menus are minimalistic and have been built for easy and simple navigation with a gamepad. Even so, using a keyboard is in no way inconvenient especially when considering that all of the action is paused while looking through the menus.

The graphics are in no way elaborate or any form of high definition but they are far from being poor or shoddy. Considering the high level of action and running around required, they are quite appropriate as nobody wants to have to restart a mission because they got overrun by orcs while looking at the pretty walls. The sound effects fit with the visual style amazingly well, the music is very fun and needs a lot of time for the repetitiveness to become annoying, which sadly cannot be said by the quippy voice acting which does get old pretty fast.

The controls rarely feel awkward and only become a problem for perfectionists (such as myself) who wish to align all their traps perfectly. The heat of battle on higher difficulties makes for split-second perfect placement which when failed might require users to restart the mission. The Options menu is quite modest but fitting to the purpose of Orcs Must Die!. The Achievements don't ask too much from the user and completionists will get almost all of them by the end. In regards to the Leaderboards, some of the higher scoring users got there with cheats that allowed absurd numbers but ranking among friends works just fine and in real time.

I installed Orcs Must Die! and played through the first two difficulties with a constant smile on my face, pretty much bewitched by the fun combination of traps and spells I could use during each mission. I refused to let it go until I beat it on the hardest difficulty and got all the achievements. I give this game five skulls (and a horned helmet to boot)!