10
Products
reviewed
0
Products
in account

Recent reviews by buffermail

Showing 1-10 of 10 entries
3 people found this review helpful
0.2 hrs on record
Early Access Review
You spend more time reading incredibly bland and basic instruction text than actually playing the game.
Posted 5 April.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
5 people found this review helpful
220.4 hrs on record (112.1 hrs at review time)
My play time is how long it takes to find the first secret.
Posted 8 October, 2024.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
2 people found this review helpful
1.7 hrs on record
Early Access Review
The vampire aesthetic is the only good thing about this game.


Let me preface this by saying I only played "singleplayer", i.e. a local server game. For anyone wanting to play the same, keep in mind there is no "pause" or anything like it and your game must run for crafting to advance.
- The tutorial can well take more than 2 hours and I didn't find any way to disable it, meaning you are locked out of essential crafting recipes until you progress through it.
- The crafting is as basic as can be, you don't even "craft" anything so much as put it on a queue and it gets done regardless of what your character is doing.
- There are buildings that consume a resource to produce a beneficial effect that must be manually turned on and off. For example, at the start there is a type of brazier that burns bones to create fog in its vicinity in order to provide shade for protection during the day (this brazier can only be built in your castle. Because your castle won't have a roof for a long, loooooong time.). You have to manually turn that brazier on and off, meaning if you are not in your castle at dusk the brazier will burn bones for nothing and if you do turn it off and are not there at dawn you will burn until you reach it to turn it on. The night is quite longer than the day.
- Each crafting station has its own inventory and you can only deposit/use materials that are in your character's inventory. The stations do not output items anywhere and even though you can create chests they are not accessible by the stations.
- The combat is as straightforward as can be and all enemies have, at most, two attacks, including bosses.
- It is very easy to kill even enemies that are much stronger than you. A treant spawned right next to my castle and he had a skull in place of a level indicator, leading me to believe he is supposed to be deadly to me. Him having only two attacks it was just a matter of hitting him, running a little bit away and repeating for 10-15 minutes, because I was dealing insignificant damage due to the level disparity. The same was true for the first boss I encountered that I didn't even realise was a boss, because the treant was much more difficult. The boss took quite more time because, I guess in an attempt to make him a challenge with only two attacks, he was unreachable/untargetable for 2/3 of the time.
- While the enemies aren't really a challenge, they are a huge annoyance, because nearly all of them have amazing mobility, while you have nearly none. You start with one (1) mobility skill that allows you to dash and dodge attacks/projectiles and I haven't been able to unlock a second one. Said first skill is on a noticeable cooldown so taking down enemies is a game of huge patience. The enemies I mentioned in my previous point took so long because if you don't save your dash skill for the exact moment - you die.
- Your castle must be constantly fed a resource that you get from killing stuffs at such a rate that you'd need to grind/feed it at least once a day or two. Meaning you have to dedicate constant time to this game, which might not be a con to people who want to pay for the opportunity to have a job that doesn't benefit them in any way.
- There is no "fast travel" or similar system, if you in the middle of the map you must walk back there on your own. There are teleport waygates but they are very few. This means once you die it's a whole time-consuming endeavour on its own to go back to pick up your corpse.
- There is a "blood" system that affects your gameplay based on what type and quality blood you consume. I have no idea how it works, because it's not explained, lacks informational tooltips/descriptions and parts of it seem to be random and/or have no clear effect.
Posted 20 May, 2022. Last edited 29 May, 2022.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
40.0 hrs on record (11.7 hrs at review time)
This is an outright and absolute upgrade to the previous game.

The colours are saturated and vibrant, the art is beautiful to look at and the world is divided into different, distinct and pretty zones.

The gameplay is very fun and well balanced, you have secrets that are not too obvious but also not impossible to find, enemies with very different mechanics, meaningful upgrades and a lot of things to explore!

The only thing I didn't like was that there isn't much of a story and it is quite straightforward.
Posted 18 February, 2022. Last edited 18 February, 2022.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
5 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
0.6 hrs on record
The only good thing about the game is that it's about a fish that controls an olden style robot.

There is no story or immersion or dialogue or information of any kind.
The only "story" is that the protagonist ran an old robots (folks) home and is portrayed as a gentle, loving soul. Who then proceeds to abandon the helpless old robots and genocide anything he comes across (all presumably sentient robots like him that are not even portrayed as bandits or something).

The entire game is just swinging a sword, the combat is devoid of complexity or variety, it is, literally, just pressing the attack key non-stop. Needless to say it gets old quite fast.

The levels are horribly designed and the enemies respawn, leading you to question if you've already cleared an area before and/or stumble around trying to find the correct ladder to climb to progress.

The save points are few and far in-between, meaning if you die you have to haul ass for 5 minutes trying to get to where you were last.

For some annoying reason, whenever you get hit the game freezes for a solid second.

Often there are things that are counter-intuitive, like bombs with a lit, hissing fuse that only explode after being remote-detonated, doors, that normally get destroyed by bombs, being impervious to them when convenient, etc.
As others have noted, none of the "upgrades" or "effects" of the equipment pieces seem to do anything.

No info about anything, there are quite a few game mechanics that you have to figure out yourself, but not in a fun way. For example, enemies drop some sort of scrap and you can pick it up but, 30 minutes in, it doesn't do anything. There is some sort of bar that is totally missable, being coloured and designed in a way that makes it blend with the rest of the screen/UI. That bar seems to fill up when you pick up scrap but so slowly you can't really tell even if you're looking at it. Yes, perhaps it's some sort of experience/level up shtick but if for 30 minutes of non-stop decimation you've yet to gain a level, it's far more logical to ignore the scrap as it looks like something the developers gave up implementing halfway through (like the equipment bonuses).
Similarly the equipment bonuses give you no information. There are things like "Overheat capacity" but is that supposed to increase your overheat threshold or lower the heat you accumulate with each swing (as far as I've tested it actually does nothing)? And by how much? There are no numbers or any quantifying information about the bonuses. In one instance, there are two pieces of equipment, both for the same slot, both listing the same bonuses, but costing different amounts. No way to know what the difference (if any) is between them.
Finally, there are three buttons in the control schema that don't seem to be doing anything (for at least the first 30 minutes, if ever).

The enemies lack variety. Or subtlety. Or imagination. Or any meaning.
Posted 10 February, 2022.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
5 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
0.2 hrs on record
Game has been made in the 18th century and has stayed there.
Default resolution is 800x600 and it only gets worse from there.
Posted 24 January, 2022.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
5 people found this review helpful
1.1 hrs on record
Completely unfinished.
Posted 20 March, 2020.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
5.9 hrs on record (3.6 hrs at review time)
Played Amnesia, found it dull.
Played this, refused to play it with no lights on.
Posted 27 December, 2016.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
23 people found this review helpful
74 people found this review funny
2
83.9 hrs on record (9.2 hrs at review time)
In fielty to the God-Emperor, our undying Lord, and by the grace of the Golden Throne...
I declare reverence towards the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine game.

I hereby sign the purchase order of an entire Collection Pack and condemn a dozen DLCs to entertainment.

May Imperial Justice account in all balance. The Emperor protects!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It is human nature to seek culpability in time of sales.

It is a sign of strength to cry out against discounts, rather than to bow one's head and succumb.

Inevitably many shall fault the hands upon the sword which fell my wallet, the Steamus Valvecus.

But Valve merely performs the duty of its office, to further fear them is redundant, to hate them - despisable.

Those more sensible will place responsibility with those who forced the hands of Valve.

With some fortune they may foster this hatred into purpose and further rule their own fate by coming to the Emperor's service.

Yet, ultimately, it was I who set these events into motion, with a single click from my button - Purchase Now.
Posted 4 January, 2016. Last edited 4 January, 2016.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
1,460.9 hrs on record (473.0 hrs at review time)
Terrible game. Don't play it.
Posted 18 January, 2014.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
Showing 1-10 of 10 entries