Recent reviews by dani_karleen

Short and bittersweet like the story itself.

It might have just been a case of me not fully understanding what I was buying, but this game was underwhelming. The art is quite pretty, however there just wasn't nearly enough substance to be worth even the $8 I paid for this game on sale, let alone full price. The "puzzle" tag especially feels misleading, as there is virtually no puzzling to be had, just matching pictures to other pictures.

I completed the story in under 2 hours, it felt almost creepy in the middle which was not the vibe I expected, and the story wasn't exactly my cup of tea. I'm always hesitant to give a negative review, but I was disappointed and would like to prevent others from spending their money if they went in with similar expectations as me.

Short, simple, and not too repetitive. A lovely series of puzzles set in a slightly unsettling - but still beautiful - little world.

An overall joy to play. Even in early access, this game feels incredibly well balanced, thought-through, and polished.

It's astonishing how much variety the devs have packed into a seemingly simple premise. Every time I thought I'd seen all there was to be done, I was surprised with a new side quest. Just when you're about to hit the point of tedium, a perfectly timed upset shakes things up.

There are a lot of buttons to press, but they feel intentionally chosen and natural, unlike some titles where you're expected to span the entire keyboard with one hand to hit seemingly arbitrary keys. There is a slightly more-than-necessary amount of mashing, but it's not strictly required and didn't detract from my experience.

The story is cute and doesn't go deeper than it needs to - just enough to add interest to the characters, and not enough to be boring. Animated cutscenes and random minigames are fun and extremely well-executed. I didn't go into the game expecting any of it, and was so pleasantly surprised by the humor.

This game 100% deserves the high ratings it's received up until now, and I have high hopes for the full release. Looking forward to even more great content.

Forced myself to finish the main storyline before reviewing, to see if at any point it gets better. Spoiler alert: it doesn't.

I wanted so, SO badly to like this game. I like management games. I like cozy games. I like story-focused games. I even like repeated fetch quest games. Bear and Breakfast is all of these things rolled into one, and somehow fails at all of it.

The pacing feels off from the beginning, as you're dragged through what feels like a 7 hour tutorial of how to build and manage your resort(s). However, by the time you've finally been introduced to all of the (extremely tedious) management mechanics, you only have one resort left to open and you're 85% done with the story.

Every aspect of managing your resorts feels like a chore, and the devs seem to know this, as they allow you to eventually automate every task. You're either slogging around or doing nothing, never in between. Many quests require you to do absolutely nothing but wait, as you can do nothing to speed up guest generation to satisfy their demands. As other reviewers have mentioned, on multiple occasions I found myself leaving the game open and leaving the room to pass the time so I could advance the story.

The visitors to your resorts look fun but lack personality, variety, and interest. I wish you could interact with them in literally any way.

Even running around, which this game demands you do constantly, is painful. Some scenery objects are solid. Some scenery objects can be walked through. There is little to no indication as to which is which, and the ground is COVERED with them. After 25 hours of gameplay, I was still constantly running into all of the tiny little things in the way. For a game with so much ground to cover, and so many items to pick up, this was incredibly frustrating.

All of this could have been overlooked if the story was engrossing. Too bad.
A host of fun, well-designed characters is put to waste in a vague, underdeveloped storyline with far too much dialogue. Most characters appear once, are ignored for 20 hours, and then are suddenly needed again for a final fetch quest. Your sidekicks from the promos and the first quest disappear and aren't useful again until the very end of the game. The ones you're able to recruit for your resorts do not appear at the resorts, they simply remain where you found them. Interacting with characters who don't have a quest for you results in the same boring dialogue line they've always said and always will say.
Most underwhelming of all, after you've spent hours deciphering a handful of suddenly vague quest hints after being hand-held with arrows through the entirety of the game up until that point, the story ends completely abruptly and with no indication you've even finished the game.

There is no incentive to revisit or replay, especially with the grind of the first few (up to 8 or so) hours looming over you. The only choices you are given are how big to make your bedrooms. There are no end-game goals past the ones requiring you to wait for guest generation. Nothing to keep you coming back.

When I first started playing this game, I thought along the lines of some other reviewers - "this might be really fun after a few updates." However, after finishing it, I am convinced that a major reworking of large portions of the game would be required for this to be a game worth coming back to. As it stands, I do not recommend it.

I've played probably 8+ Lego games over the years on various platforms, but didn't pick this one up until recently. As other reviewers mention, the style is very different from other Lego games (it's the only one with this style out of every game I've played) and I was severely disappointed. The levels feel like the bonus levels from other LEGO games, not the typical story-based playthroughs. It felt unfinished and odd.