Recent reviews by ZephyrFloofyDerg

This game is truly phenomenal, I started going into this hoping for a tavern management simulator with some mild harvest moon/stardew valley type elements. For me it delivered exactly what I was after in an indie management sim with beautiful pixel art graphics. At the start there is a lot to see and do, you'll have to do some graft in order to get your tavern in ship-shape and also get your resources in order. After the initial period of time, you'll start to really get a feel for what's going on.

The game truly opens up when you reach level 6 and you can start hiring help to assist you with running the tavern. While you can save a lot of money by doing things yourself, having 75-85% of the workload covered by your staff definitely helps and frees up a lot of you time to be able to farm, gather, craft beer/wine and later on do some expansion and open up a hotel service for paid guests. The recipes themselves aren't too hard to follow, most of the base resources you can get in town itself for a small fee or you can make combinations yourself with the right equipment, tools and blueprints.

Some parts of the game do get a little trickier like when certain crops are available in certain seasons, needing to get reputation so you can unlock later functions and recipes. When the game opens up later on, it REALLY opens up and you suddenly have a lot more freedom in terms of what wine/beer/spirits you stock, your food options and how you lay out your tavern. You'll really want to have large tables with benches and later on, expand the restaurant area especially the long walls so that you can put a lot more decoration on the walls. I like how you get diminishing returns on decoration, meaning you have to really have an ecclectic mix of different items, being able to theme certain areas including the guest rooms is really nice too. In the late game it's about having enough casks for beverages that will last you an entire season along with micro-managing your staff skills, my top tip is go after the staff who have 'reduce wages' as one of the perks. It is SO useful and you will always want the highest level unlocked and enabled, so their wages will become a lot lower.

Honestly this is a phenomenal game. If you enjoyed Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley there is a lot to see and do here, the social aspects will be coming later with a future aspect. If you're curious about the tavern/restaurant management side this game fully has you covered and there's so many unique recipes to learn and combinations to make. Combine that with fishing, item crafting and upgrading items... there is so much to see and do. Worth every penny.

Such a straightforward tool that does exactly what it says it will do. It's great for people running a community via livestreaming and gives the chat something to focus on and enjoy together. Great value for money and I will still be using this for as long as I can. The graphics are nice and the integration is super simple. Doesn't seem to use up many resources either which is nice.

This game puts in a lot of effort to make the core gameplay loop fun. The different classes go together well and the devs are keen to keep working on the game to make it the best it can be. The variety of characters in terms of species, voices and mechanics work together well and you can tell the community really cares about this game. My hope is that this game does get the recognition it deserves and people keep playing it for years to come. The free battle pass is generous and there's different skins along with weapon customisation. You are definitely getting good value for money, especially when you play with friends.

A great third-person shooter game with a lot of story content, seasonal content and co-op opportunities as well. I dived into this game expecting something similar to The Division gameplay wise with gacha elements. While that is true, the story is pretty well crafted and there's a lot to upgrade, acquire and different team synergies you can work towards. When you hit the max level cap that's when the game really opens up and the content it has to offer is enjoyable. If you like the look of this game, it doesn't hurt to try it out and see what you think of it. The free content is pretty generous and the game does a lot of giveaways, some even for the top-end characters.

This is a phenomenal game collection for many reasons. I love the unified art style and the choice to lean heavily into pixel art as it really allows the artists to express themselves. You're getting tremendous value for what you purchase, each of the games are fantastic in their own right and no matter what genre you like the most, there will no doubt be quite a few that you will enjoy and some which you will treasure. The presentation is outstanding, even just with the game collection which shows off the games really puts you in the right mindset and gives you ways to sort games along with marking games as 'favourites'. The sound is spot on and really captures that retro vibe. The game looks fantastic and especially suits portable devices too such as the Steam Deck. Whether you're on a smaller-screened device or a massive monitor you will love the visuals.

For me the two games that had me hooked for a while were Avianos and Party House. Going into more depth, Avianos is turn-based strategy at it's finest with some impressive real-time battles featuring your armies. The different units play into each other really well with shield units absorbing arrows, flying units being able to bombard swordsmen and each troop has their own best and worst matchups respectively. While numbers do help a lot with the armies, the composition of the army is very important as a massive shield wall could easily take down an unprepared foe. Mechanics like surprise attacks, teleporting and magic spells can easily transform the battlefield and your opposing armies. Having to choose the best deity that will not only generate resources effectively but also build up your army strength really does get you planning your moves effectively and reacting to the AI or another human player really does give this a massive amount of depth, even if there are only 20 board tiles on the map. The limited number of moves you can make in a turn really does emphasis making every single turn count.

Party House starts fairly simple but becomes more complicated as the game goes on. Your objective is to build up your popularity and money in order to add VIPs to your rolladeck and expand the house to allow more guests. The constant balance of keeping troublemakers away while also trying to bring in the resources you need is a constant battle. Playing to certain guest's strengths is so crucial and often winning or losing can weigh heavy on which guests you added to your deck and which order, along with the random order of the way they enter the house. It starts simple but really ramps up and makes this challenging but manageable.

Briefly touching on other games I enjoyed the most, Waldorf's Journey has a Jump King vibe as you send your walrus hurtling through the sky, frantically flapping to try and stay on a nearby platform. Buying items with collected shells gives you bonuses as well which can help, but watch out for flying obstacles and immovable walls! Onion Delivery puts you in a retro Grand Theft Auto style world where you follow the blips on your minimap, try not to hit objects or get lost and try to make it back home in one piece. Combatants is a real-time strategy life sim where you try and get your ant colony thriving and conquer against the evil red army, each mission gets slightly harder forcing you to adapt your strategy and outlast your opponent.

I could easily go into more detail here but there really is a wide breath of games to sink your teeth into. There's many other games in the package including a betting simulator, platformers, shooters, sports games, metroidvanias, adventures, puzzle games and arcade-style games. Most offer a singleplayer experience while a few are playable with another player and some also support co-op gameplay too. I highly recommend this game, especially if you are a huge fan of retro gaming and high-quality pixel art.

For poker fans and roguelike-enjoyers, this is a match made in heaven. What starts as a typical poker score-based challenge becomes something else as you juggle synergies, tweak your deck and try to see what you will unlock next. The different starting deck colours all have different pros and cons, you unlock them gradually so you end up with a lot of choice. Not only that but there is an endless mode and options to play the same decks but with additional challenges for extra rewards. The game keeps track of how many jokers and other cards you've acquired during the runs so it's always exciting to find something new and see what it does. There are some hidden hands to find which are beyond the typical legal poker hands. Overall this is a brilliant game that I keep coming back to time and time again. Works great on mouse or with a controller. This runs really well on the Steam Deck too.

I've enjoyed going on missions with friends and having a lot of fun shooting bugs and robots. I like the feel of the game, the gung-ho nature of the player controlled faction and the game setting. Visually the game is stunning and runs really well on my machine. The variety of weapons and abilities is really cool to see and the progression is nice, it feels easy enough to get started with but there's still a lot of depth that warrants switching up loadouts. Co-operating with teammates is crucial especially at the higher difficulty settings. The sound is well done and the shots and attacks feel weighty and realistic. With regards to the PSN account linking I can understand the backlash and it's good that Sony is willing to walk this back as it does have large negative impacts on countries where there is no option to create a PSN account. I know the game devs were put in an awkward situation and hopefully they don't get too much negative criticism for things outside of their control. Fingers crossed the future of this game will be bright and wonderful.

Cobalt Core really is a phenomenal game in many respects. Inspired by other deckbuilder games and roguelikes out there it really does shine on it's own merits and provides a replayable and expansive experience that gets better each time you play.

The dialogue is witty and insightful, particularly your main crew of characters who always have a quip or comment on major choices you make throughout the run. The storyline of a time loop really fits in nicely with the roguelike mechanic and each run offers opportunities to embrace risk and try out new strategies. There are some incredible synergies to be had with certain card and character combinations which warrants multiple playthroughs. The secret character at the end achieved after obtaining all the memories is well worth pursuing for. Similarly the unlockable ships and bonuses really do encourage replaying the game. The normal difficulty is about right and still requires a decent amount of skill to beat. The harder difficulty settings provide a greater challenge for those who feel they are pro-level players.

The music is phenomenal, one track in particular I could listen to on loop. The way the music fades in and out of combat and when combat ends is really well done and the audio mixing is done well. The sound effects and character speech noises are just perfect.

The combat mechanics of moving the ship around, lining up your weapons and missile bay add extra strategy and it's not impossible to get in an unwinnable situation if you make some rash moves. It rewards careful planning in terms of which cards you keep or remove, what order you play cards in and what characters you pick. The characters each have different starting decks and acquirable cards which can dramatically change how the game is played. Certain rare cards can often give you a massive advantage and save an otherwise scuppered run.

Overall this game is incredibly well made and is something I come back to time and time again. While it runs nicely on PC, it is a natural fit for the Steam Deck due to the crisp vibrant visuals and the controls which fit the typical xbox button configuration really well. The rumble is a very nice touch as well.

This game is a really neat concept and the execution is great. In a sci-fi dystopia, you are tasked with taking photographs of a range of different subjects. It gives photographers and casual snappers plenty of simple steps without turning away pros either. The way that different lens types are handled is very nice and there's plenty of options that satisfy all tastes. Little collectables help flesh out the world and picking up film canisters gives you the opportunity to take bonus shots.

It has great vibrant 3D environments with puzzles and some subjectivity in terms of how you take the photo. For the most part it doesn't penalise you for thinking outside of the box or getting a unique angle. Do you leave out the messy paint can and graffiti or do you keep them in the frame? You may have to take a photo of 10 solar panels for example, which means getting into the right position. There's some basic parkour which gives you access to some of the best angles and this is a key part of getting around the maps. There's enough under the hood to keep people engaged and there's a world ready to be discovered and unearthed. I'm super excited for the future of photography videogames.

My experience with the game so far is a very good one. As someone who has been playing Magic the Gathering for the last few years and card battler games like Inscryption, I can see the game has influences while not being a direct copy of any one game in particular. The card variety is great and there are different cards to suit multiple playstyle. The cards have good synergy and for the most part, there aren't any 'broken' cards or ones that need a big nerf. The enemies you face have different decks and relics which may sometimes mean you need to reconfigure your deck in order to proceed. This is not a flaw, this is designed to teach you about the importance in knowing when to switch cards out and improve your flexibility. The in-game currency you earn from battles lets you acquire more cards, craft ones from resources and unlock new relics to equip.

The art style is very stylish overall and has a lot going for it. The variety in character design and the cards are really welcome. The story is compelling and gives you a reason to keep playing. I like the sound of the roguelike option and there's talk about a multiplayer feature later down the line. Honestly this is an excellent game and well worth your time if you like deckbuilding games.