Recent reviews by shrewdlogarithm

If you've played and enjoyed Hexcells and Delete etc. - you'll want to play this for sure.

It's a wall of challenge and the challenge varies a lot which is really nice

it's even decent enough not to force you into solving every single puzzle before the next-one becomes available!

My only complaint is that I open some of the puzzles and a bit of my brain goes "NOPE" and so I play something else instead ;0

That may just be me getting too old for this perhaps...

Upfront I have to say that I cannot recommend this as a GAME - if all you want is an amazingly trippy ride with lots of electronic music and often amazing visuals tho, this delivers in spades!

The problems with the "game" come down to poor controls, poor level design and a general feeling that even the developers weren't sure what they were making (so many game modes which vary from frustrating to - erm - a bit boring...)

The controls are a BIG issue - I feel like I'm fighting with them rather than actually controlling something - the keyboard defaults are scattered at random (cursors to steer - is it 1995!?) - games like this usually excel on a pad but I couldn't make that work either.

The levels are packed with stuff you don't have time to see and avoid and rules often change arbitrarily - you will therefore be repeating lots of bits until you figure-out the "pattern". In fairness, checkpoints are frequent and there's no penalty for mistakes in the 'Story' but I do feel some playtesting and tightening-up would have gone a long way here (some of the Workshop levels are better than the developer's own work!!)

So this really is a trippy visual ride more than a game - I enjoyed at least some of my experience but it also frustrated me hence the "Not Recommended"

YMMV perhaps

It's a not-recommended purely because of the NEEDINESS of the tenants and the slightly odd approach to income, time, accessibility and a few other things which makes the game a bit nonsensical and annoying.

Often, a tenant will demand something they didn't require to move in and then move out LONG before you can build it - no-one would move into a building only to leave in the space of less than 2 days - that's just silly?

Given that you receive income 'daily' - a day being around 20 mins of normal (2 mins of fast) game time - you often cannot react to demand that quickly and that's not considering the time it takes to build the things they ask for - so you're constantly being asked for things you cannot provide in-time.

All this happens from the start of the game and whilst you can juggle it and anticipate some of it - you quickly get overwhelmed and just accept that your tenants are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

In the end I got tired of fighting with it - it's not challenging as much as annoying - YMMV but I wanted to create an efficient building, not manage a box of cats.

It may not be the best way to learn guitar but it's by FAR the most fun!!

I played the first Train Valley quite a bit - I thought it was quite smart and although it had a difficulty curve which sometimes got frustrating, I had some fun.

TV1 was, at it's heart, a train scheduling/points switching game - it was a bit twitchy but it also rewarded common-sense planning and could be played "off the cuff"

Train Valley 2 is VERY different - it's a puzzle and a time management game combined - erm - not that well.

Every level has a build order you'll need to figure-out as the level unfolds - a layout which will only become obvious as the level progresses and then there's the time-management 'running' of that which is basically a watered-down TV1 - altogether it's just more clutter and less fun.

I MUCH preferred TV1's more cavalier/open-ended approach - even when it got buggy or unfair you got better and better at it (wheras every level here is a new learning process)

I'd rather have seen the rough-edges and bugs knocked-off TV1 but this is a new and different thing and one I just cannot seem to enjoy.

YMMV but this is a big disappointment for me - back to TV1 I guess...

There's a theme starting to appear in my reviews - games which offer a lot of layers but which, at their core, just aren't actually any fun to play

The idea here - of a world created from user-created maps - is interesting (if a bit underdeveloped and abandoned) but the actualy gameplay which takes place in those maps is definately underdeveloped and really just a bit boring.

I think developers are getting too wrapped-up in creating the meta bits of their games (levelling, gear, progress, unlocks) and forgetting that the core gameplay (through which you trigger all that) needs to be fun.

The combat here lacks weight, challenge and variety and the whole game relies on you repeating it for long periods - that's normally supported by a lot of 'carrot and stick' upgrading but even that is dont clumsily here (too much junk, too hard to filter and manage)

Can't recommend it

On paper, this sounds like my sort of game but in reality it's a lot of ingredients which aren't mixed properly - it feels unfinished in places too

The core issue is that the actual combat - the meat and fun of the game - is hidden behind a lot of noise and clutter and isn't really much fun even when you find it AND you'll be repeating the same stuff over and over and over. This is fundamentally why I can't recommend it.

All the deckbuilding and progression is just layers of noise - the graphics are over-busy with too much fluff - the sound is a barrage of limp cultural references and irritating effects - everything is just a bit of a mess.

It's a migraine disguised as a game - basically.

My initial "cautious positive" has become and almost full-blown "recommended" but there are a few issues

The key thing is, tho, that the developer is active and attacking most of the issues so the only thing I must say is

"This is great >IF< and it's a big >IF< you can cope with Asteroids controls"

The controls are - effectively - the difficulty here, everything else is "making a cool death machine spaceship" but it's the controls which will get you killed in the end...

This game certainly has a lot of fans and you might enjoy it - but I couldn't actually find any fun in it.

There are 5 difficulty levels - I didn't try the first, the second seems really easy and the 3rd feels unfair/generally not fun

It's clear they intend every fight to be a form of puzzle where you find-out how to position yourself and what order to use your skills BUT there's quite a bit of 'die to find-out what not to do" and doing the wrong thing is generally not recoverable (e.g. some situations have only 1 solution?)

Loot seems to be random and appears to offer TINY improvements which doesn't warm my hopes that you can gear your way through stuff - again, there's a right way and a wrong way and you'll find that by trial-and-error?

As I said above - you might like this but I wonder about any developer who creates FIVE difficulty levels but can't make any of them enjoyable (at least for me)??

I found this game enormously enjoyable- it's simply a nice place to spend a bit of time...

My only criticisms would be

1 - for a pinball game, travelling around the map can be slow and boring at times - more "pinball" action/movement would have been nice

2 - you can complete the main story in about 8 hours but finding all the secrets/collectibles will take WAY longer and they do feel a bit 'tacked on to make the game longer' at times - I doubt I'll bother with all of those...

Don't let those deter you tho - try the demo at the very least, not enough games focus on being 'enjoyable' these days - too much 'punishing difficulty' and 'random death' for my tastes - none of that here!!