Recent reviews by Gadnalf

I tried to order three shillings worth of ham and copper wire with Uzult, the ink in which the First History was written, and the game stopped me, chastised me and told me that this was improper use of an Ink that can alter reality and to go get a lesser ink lest I embarrass myself.

9/10, game has a lot of heart. The audio and visuals are impeccable. The whistling of wind atop the high spire, the creaking floorboards, the pattering of summer rain. You are comfortable, at Hush House. (Just don't linger in the depths)

I do wish the UI was less clunky. Arranging books on bookshelves tends to take seconds longer than it should, and zooming in and out is a pattern that does not suit me.

If you do play, keep a notebook on hand! Having a place to organise your thoughts, excitedly scrawl notes in the margin, and keep references as you pore over fresh lore is incredibly helpful. And the feeling of pen on paper is quite satisfying besides.

The Ship of Theseus asks: If you replace every member of a squad, is it still the same squad?

Three weeks, 31 casualties and 21 "successful" missions later, I can confidently say — yes, but only because doctrine points carry over.

This is an incredibly polished game.

Under the cute minimalist artstyle, there's stunning tactical depth. Good command of your troops makes or breaks your defense, and the game gives you lots of fun tools to work with and decisions to make.

What impresses me most, however, is how clever and capable your little soldiers are.
Infantry will pre-emptively shield themselves against archers, and the rearmost soldiers will cover their squad during a retreat.
Pikemen will ready their spears toward chokepoints ahead of time and use them to hold off dozens of enemies.
Archers will opportunistically pause to shoot volleys at enemies en route to new positions.

I love the little guys, and love the game. I think you will too.

This game is not worth your time, let alone your money. I wouldn't recommend playing this game even for free.

Don't be fooled by the excellent art and animations, this game is about torturously ferrying coins around. It's like Desert Bus if it was poorly disguised as a tower defense game.

For a game that is entirely about moving coins from the left side of your screen four screens to the right and then back, they made the fascinating design choice of having horses full gallop at two miles an hour, and to give all the mounts asthma so they struggle to run 300 feet without needing to stop and catch their breath.

Oh yeah, and there's a *pathetic* carry limit for coins, just so that you get to keep making trips for as long as possible. Mind you, you still *pick up* coins, they are just immediately trashed.

Progression is primarily characterized by the increasing frequency and length of trips.

Every gameplay and ui element feels like it was tuned to slightly annoy you. In no particular order:
- Building a tier 5 wall requires building a tier 1 wall. Then waiting for it to be built. Then tier 2. Then wait. Then tier 3. Then wait. Then tier 4. Then wait. Then tier 5. Then wait.
- The above takes enough gold that it can't be done in one sitting. You have to trudge back across your kingdom to beg each of your citizens for more gold.
- Every time you upgrade the wall, it destroys the previous wall. This leaves you defenseless and evaporates any buildings that were relying on it, every single time you do this.
- Half the screen is water, which does nothing but distract you with a too-bright reflective surface effect
- Just like the rest of the game, spending coins is slow, and the length of time you are forced to stand there for *scales linearly with the cost of the building* while it plays four ascending octaves of coin-adding noises.
- Despite sitting on the slowest horse alive, everyone else is somehow *even slower*.
- You can't control your units and four archers will miss a single enemy a dozen times because the enemy keeps bouncing off your walls at the same rhythm that they fire
- Some portals let you choose their destination. Others blink you instantly to another one. There is no visual difference between the two, and there is no indication of where they'll send you.
- Winter exists only to slow down progression and force you to trudge even further to ferry income around. Also, it lasts **two real-time hours**.

It's a truly beautiful little game. The combat's really fun, specially early, and the early game progression's really well designed!
Extra points for having my favorite cooking and fishing mechanics of any game in this genre.

Great game for co-op, if you want to idly farm or fish or build houses while your buddies are busy killing Wizard Hitler or whoever, you're free to relax and do so.

Do wish the automation had a bit more going on though. If you could factorio a little bit this game might just have been perfect.

turns out child labor is just a skill issue

this game really makes you FEEL like you just got sent flying thirty meters by your buddy's orbital artillery barrage

brilliant visuals. brilliant sound design. very crunchy. there are tons of things in your arsenal that feel great to use. (special shoutout to orbital airburst strike)

as with all things, Helldivers is better with friends, so bring as many as you can. it's tough out there, and you'll need 'em.

digging, killing, and beer. what could be finer?

It's a rhythm game that's secretly about making you dance and it's great. Never thought that this would be the most enjoyable VR experience I'd have, but it is bloody amazing.

None of the difficulty comes from what you'd expect and the game is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.