Recent reviews by Jötunn

Alright lads, Its been three(?) years since my last review. Lots has changed, lots has remained the same. I quit for a year and a half and have only recently come back. After hitting plat 1 despite the aggressively overtuned 2018 scythe, I decided to move to greener, less tilted pastures. Having come back with a positive attitude and a fresh appreciation for the game, I can say with confidence Brawlhalla is as good as it ever has been. With that of course comes some caveats -

BMG is still notorious for overtuned new weapons. The glaring recent example being Greatsword. Wowee this thing is busted. Unpunishable string machine with crazy force on its aerial kit and just... ugh. Yikes BMG, yikes. Now, while they release overtuned new stuff, it does get cut down to size as scythe and gauntlets have. Scythe is still a beast but requires a lot of practice and still is inconsistent compared to the old 7 or 8 hit strings that used to be commonplace.

So overtuned weapons and salt are some staples of Brawlhalla, but what has changed? Well, the community has. Its so much less toxic now, and the friendly players you encounter are great. I was actually distraught that it took me 27 hours of playtime after coming back to receive a patented "ez". People are kind, fun to fight, and equally as passionate about the game we all adore.

My review has been negative since before dashing was introduced and that almost pushed it to positive, but busted weapons kept it red. Now I'm very pleased to give this a massive thumbs up and make the push for diamond next season!

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My previous review is listed below. All of the things in it remain true, and I still love this game. Why am I giving this a negative review now, you ask? Because the matchmaking is broken.
TL;DR: I'm a Gold 1 and I don't appreciate getting the same Plat 5 four times in a row and then a Silver 2 twice.
The matchmaking used to be fine - when it was just elo. That said, you could abuse elo and smurf by purposely losing several matches in a row and dropping a few hundred elo. That needed a fix, I admit. But the MMR system they have in place is pure garbage and it doesn't work at all. Probably about 20% of the time I'll get a match that is actually suited to my skill level and both sides have a decent chance to win. I also can't do any sort of 2v2s with any of my friends who are below my skill level, because it matches us as a pair based on the highest MMR. How is my Silver friend supposed to do ♥♥♥♥-all against a Plat?
This review will remain negative until BMG either removes the MMR system or gives it a massive overhaul, y'know, to make it functional.


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Brawlhalla is one of those games you think is going to be mediocre at first glace. It's an anomaly on my account, being both free to play and early access, but I am so glad I gave it a try. It sucked me in right away, and on first launch I played five hours straight with some friends.

It has a fantastic business model, and isn't pay2win in the least - a rarity with free to play games. Anything sold under the premium currency is purely aesthetic; everything else, like characters, are sold using earned in-game currency.
Keeping with the good business model, there isn't a set of basic characters and then a slew of better ones you can then buy. Characters are on a weekly rotation, making them all accessible at different times. They are also really well balanced! Some are spammier and really quite annoying, but if you're good enough you can match them with ease.

All in all, Brawlhalla is now one of my favourite games on Steam and the developers at Blue Mammoth Games have earned my utmost respect by updating frequently, engaging with their community, and pouring an endless stream of love and effort into their wonderful creation.

Enter the Gungeon is a fast-paced roguelite shooter with many major elements drawn from both The Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne. Full of puns, guns, and general badassery, this game has enough pop culture references to make even the most cultured gamer chuckle every once in a while -- and gameplay that keeps you coming back for more.

Door Kickers is a perfect marriage of tactics and stress, letting you control a squad of 1-4 units as they run counter-terrorism operations. The pause-and-play mechanics offer a myriad of ways out of the sticky situations you're sure to fling yourself into, but still leaves enough challenge to find a completed mission rewarding - with enough mission variety to keep things spicy.
Surprisingly well polished. Excellently executed.

Release Day Review:

While it desperately needs a patch to fix a few game breaking bugs and clean up the optimization, this game is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ solid. I've have never had something live up to its hype so well. XCOM 2 delivers what seems to be an objectively better gaming experience than Enemy Unknown/Within, while still keeping all of the things that make it the rage-inducing, totally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ RNG XCOM we all know and love.

Overall, this game has lived up to my expectations and I'm proud as heck of 2K and Firaxis for pulling it off. Well done, devs. I'm impressed.


UPDATE: In proper XCOM fashion, I beat the game on a 50% shot. GG

I have 113 hours in the game and I haven't reviewed it yet? Huh. Guess I was too busy playing it.

Bought this game in 2016 because I craved the multiplayer I hadn't played in three years. That say something? It says Sticks & Stones to me.

Note: I bought this for $12.49USD on greenmangaming.com because Steam is greedy and won't sell it for less than $40.
Another note: There be CoDfags aplenty.

The love-child of Dead Rising and Borderlands. It's got some weird bugs and the occasional audio issue, but it's a fine marriage of the two games.

A worse PC port than Dark Souls. A game from 2011 got my GTX 970 to hit 80 degrees celsius. Just awful.

A half decent game, mechanically speaking. Breach & Clear has a good turn based system in place that uses indirect RNG to determine the efficiency of your squad beyond your own choices.

I play this muted, because the sounds and music are atrocious.
I play it on the top-down setting, and still have issues with the camera.
I play this using only a mouse because the game's controls are the clunkiest I've ever been subjected to.
I play it very casually because it loses my attention within a half hour.

This is definitely not worth the $16.99 it's listed at. It's just barely worth the $2.54 I paid for it. With polish, it would be a fantastic casual tactics game, but as it stands, it feels like the developers don't care very much about their product or its consumers.

The positive review I'm giving this is generous on my part.

Supergiant has definitely found their niche - and they do it damn well. A technical successor to Bastion, this game is a gem with a brilliant soundtrack to boot.