Recent reviews by shrewdlogarithm

This is a pretty simply game but what it does, it does rather well

This isn't Transport Tycoon - your job is simply to connect existing stations in a way which gets passengers and freight around efficiently

There are a handful of game modes and a handful of levels and it's quite charming and well made - signalling is automatic (and largely works)

I'd love to see this developed with more features but as-is it's well worth the price if you fancy a simpler logistics title...

Whilst the game has it's moments, the save system is completely broken which means you will lose progress

Ask yourself about a developer happy to sell a game in this state - ask yourself whether you should support that?

I've been playing Last Epoch for many years - it's weird to see it launched but it's absolutely worth your time.

The online issues are unfortunate but the devs will learn from their mistakes (hopefully) and there is always offline mode if you need your LE fix...

8/10 of our 2 dogs are happier when I'm playing Last Epoch

This is a recommended BUT it's not without some issues and it's NOT for people who don't like grind...

Upsides are that it's pretty with some interesting roguelite/ARPG mechanics, decent combat and a story!

Downsides...

The head of the family (sword and board) is relatively weak - his (ranged archer) daughter is VASTLY more powerful - this seems to annoy people early-on. I think they designed the game to be played as melee/ranged CO-OP - melee chars are poor solo (and you must play them to progress) - worth knowing before you buy perhaps...

The story drives things along well but it's a bit preachy - the narrator is a bit "childrens book" - some bits make no sense.
Example: we are told the family worry about their son's safety but we've already seen that when you die you're just brought back 100% intact so - erm - why?? Also - the "father weak - children powerful" thing is a bit silly...

Grind - there is much grind - no savepoints within levels but you get to keep loot when you die so no 'wasted time' (unless you Alt-F4 perhaps)

Summary - pixel-pretty, fun, grindy and a bit preachy - I'd pay money for longer loot-pickup-range too...

I've tried hard to like this game (owning it since early-early access) but it has too-many fundamental issues which just drive me nuts.

Biggest amongst them is the way you unlock tech - there are 3 trees with multiple branches and many of the different nodes require nodes in other branches or other trees - to the point it's almost impossible to work-out what to research (and a recently added search feature hasn't helped as it doesn't really work properly)

Then there is the economy - what your competitors and customers are doing/demanding- it just feels like a lot of random messages intended to panic you into making rash choices and it often makes little actual sense.

Then there's lots of things which don't match how actual cars are made - manufacturers do not research things like ABS and Heaters, they buy that technology in (and indeed are forced to include some things by law) but this game lives in a "everyone invents their own wheel" universe which is just silly.

All the elements of a car factory building game are here but none of them really work together - there should be a challenging min/max/optimisation game here but that part of the game is clunky whilst the more fun 'Factory Tycoon' game which some people would prefer is rather limp.

There are 2 types of games - those which enable players to make their own fun and those where the developer knows what the player wants - this is the latter but it's nowhere near what I want...

YMMV

Update: I checked after Patch #1 and all these points still apply - they fixed some obvious bugs but the UI remains obtuse, music and sounds grating and game illogical and annoying)

There's a fun puzzle game in here somewhere - some interesting new ideas - but it's largely obscured by awful design

The UI is terrible to the point of frustration - there's no Undo, everything requires FAR too many clicks - I suspect this is down to it being on Switch but that's no excuse.

The music and background sounds are repetitive/grating in a game where you'll spend long periods just trying to figure things out - you can turn them off - you WILL turn them off!

The 'efficiency' scoring system is a "hidden requirement" system which they just made easier when people complained - it's still illogical and annoying

There are other issues, but those I've mentioned make me save/quit/play something else all-too-often so it''s a"Not Recommended" at this point.

Super fancy Solitaire - Period Drama Edition

Lots of fun here - you will need the support of RNGesus at times and some of the 'RPG' bits are - well - tacked-on shall we say

Still recommended if you enjoy solitaire and want a BIT more than just 'lots of games of solitaire'

Super polished game with amazing visuals, fantastic music etc. etc.

So why "Not Recommended"?

Because first-and-foremost it's a memory test rather than a game of skill.

The game even recommends you start on the lowest difficulty to "gain the experience you'll need later on" which is another way of saying "work out the only way to get all the power-ups/save the humans"

or "safe" the humans as the bloody annoying voice keeps saying - "All Humans Safed" - drives me nuts...

Rhythm games work by asking the player to sync music and visuals with actions - effectively you 'play along' and your score indicates how well you brought everything together.

Thumper doesn't do this, sadly - outside of offering a tempo, it's music' is created by your actions instead of guiding them

When the music doesn't tell you what's coming, you're waiting for the visual clues instead of anticipating them/learning the motifs etc.

If you're happy to practice and rote-learn - you'll find a challenge here AND the atmosphere is really quite cool

I find the need to learn an absolute chore tho - other games have shown this can be done SO much better (see the 'Bit Trip Runner' games in particular) - so it's a "Not Recommended" from me.

p.s. I also struggled with the feeling the game was out-of-sync - sadly, there's no in-game latency setting/testing that I can find which, in the era of wireless peripherals, multi-monitor setups and VR, isn't good enough either.

It's a simple puzzle concept which develops in clever ways and it's all wrapped in some really smart design ideas.

I've banged-my-head for a while on some puzzles - chuckled at the humour - I'm glad I picked-this-up and I'll likely play it on-and-off for a while - it's one of those games...

Well worth a peek if the idea of a slasher-puzzle with a Videostore design motif is your thing (no really!!)