Recent reviews by The Excel Wizard

Very good game. All the complex building capabilities of other ARPG's but with half the wind-up.
I'd like to see the skill tree fleshed out a bit more with additional benefits to other scaling types than crits and cast speed, but overall the game is in a good spot.

Sequel is most certainly not a flop. The upgrade system pushes players to interact with and explore the world. The new slime designs are amazing and incredibly detailed.
The World and levels experiment with verticality in ways Slime Rancher 1 didn't even dream of.

Current content is a bit limited, with drones, 2-way teleporters, and other quality of life tools missing (at least where I'm at with 7 hours in a single save.)

I think when the game comes out it's fully worth it's current $30 price, but it's still worth $15 with the content that currently exists in game in it's early access state as of this review.

Multiplayer not being in the game is still a major miss, and I do wish Monomi would invest in an engine or talent with the skills and capabilities to make Slime Rancher multiplayer compatible.

Overall if you liked the 1st one you'll feel right at home. If you haven't played the first one, I would recommend getting it first and experiencing the full content that exists in that game. If slime rancher 2 catches up to that amount of content, it will be a prettier, better, more interesting, and better game for it.

Very good game. Story is fairly thoroughly developed and the gameplay is a mix between realistic and arcade flight controls. Tech tree is very fun and encourages good replay ability. Incredible value if on sale.

It's Lit. Slay the Spire + Darkest Dungeons + Friends

Please please please pleeeeease turn servers back on. Great game, never needed to die. Keep it free to play, add pay for COSMETICS NOT CHARACTERS and let everyone have fun again.

Incredible game. No Predatory micro-transactions. The paid packs don't give you an in-game advantage over other players and the cosmetics are simply cosmetic. It's a free to play game with ways to get the premium currency daily without ever spending a dime. That makes me really happy.

As for cheating. I'm not at the highest level of gameplay but I've never encountered any cheaters yet. Further on that, The developers are very open with communication about initiatives to prevent cheating and punish only players who cheat while avoiding false positive bans. They even give you your loot back if you die to a cheater.

Learning curve is a little steep. I strongly recommend the wiki + Youtube guides, but man once you get into this game It's an absolute BANGER.

It's like prison architect but survival. The main gameplay loop plays like a dungeon keeper, but has RTS elements. The decision making is real, the adrenaline rushes are real, the graphics are fun, but still tell emotional stories. Mods are absolutely game changing. I've been playing multiplayer with friends and we each made a custom character of ourselves using the EDP Prepare Carefully mod. It's been so much more investing having an icon of ourselves to protect and utilize.

UI is good. Management is good. Tutorial could use some work and some mechanics could be better explained, but overall really a solid 9/10 overall with a 10/10 if you are okay to use outside guides and mods.

Hades with Friends. Very Good. The Speedrun Mechanics really help with pushing to do better and make the game very fun. I'm not normally a player in this genre but I'm loving it.

Guardian Shield block builds are fun. Your friends will say you're playing the game wrong. Block + Counter them.

Developer releases massive content update that is a little rough around the edges and sells it for half off knowing the issues.
Developer proceeds to gather community feedback and fix every major bug within 3 weeks of release.
Does not complain about players. Does not make excuses. Just works hard and gets stuff done.

Hopoo Games is one of the BEST game development studios in the Indie market right now. Hats off to them and their products.