Recent reviews by Billob

Did you know I went through 90+ hours of gameplay not realizing the Arbalest class was even a thing, because Antiquarian also starts with an A and sucked so I avoided it..both apparently?

Good example of how I'm not observant sometimes, anyway, great game. Highly recommended. I love me some Darkest Dungeon.

Given to me as a joke for my love of Crabs, and it turns out it is a surprisingly fun little game. Play through 30 stages, upgrade each level to get more and more powerful... or die and start over.

What I like about it is the fast movement, running around, double jumps, things flying everywhere kinda arenas. It's not ground breaking and you may only play a few runs get a couples of wins and then move on. But it's a neat little game, and you can play with a friend too.

The board game is also a lot of fun.

Fantastic game, one of pure adventure and exploration. My only recommendation is to go in the game blind and don't look up anything, just have at it. Seriously, everything is so good in this game, its beautiful, the soundtrack is beautiful the ideas are unique and exploring is just a blast.

The DLC is also fun, though I preferred the base game. Plenty of fun without the DLC, not necessary to play but if you love it, its fun to check out. I had some issues with it though (too dark in places annoyed me)

It's a tower defense game, it's alright. Negative because I can't just pick an "okay" option, but I wouldn't recommend the game unless you really are super into playing every TD game there is.

Almost every map starts with only a few positions with the game telling you exactly where you can build the unit, then about halfway through you can start placing them where you want. Seems a bit handhold-y in that way. I prefer the maps that lets you create mazes but there was only a couple of those.

The city building aspect was just tedious to me,luckily the game lets you go into an auto build mode, but you still have to go through spending all the different resources for upgrading your units and such. I think it was a bit too convoluted and the menus could have been neater. Also each level has challenges, which helps you get some resources to make yourself stronger, it all feels a bit grindy for tower defense, though you can get through the game without having to do any of the challenges, I did a few to help me get through the final level but that's about it. Overall, it was alright, just felt like it hand holds how to build too much throughout the entire game.

Darkest dungeon 1 was better. Even though I'm about to put more hours into this game than I did the original + the DLC's, the original kept me hooked more, the need to keep exploring, leveling, and the stress of keeping my guys alive.

DD2 is more of a fairly linear game, where you do runs to get currency that will provide permanent upgrades to continuously make runs easier. Once you unlock all your characters, abilities and items, it feels pretty hard to lose a run before the boss and the runs are just 2-3 hour adventures to build your party up for the final boss fight of the run.

At this point I've completed all 5 acts (90 hours) and have been working on winning each act without losing a hero, and I finally just unlocked the hardest difficulty torch for my ride, so I'll be working on doing hard mode next as well. Each run keeps me engaged but as soon as a run is over for me, I usually don't want to start another one for a day or so, so its not the constant pull that the original gave me.

I wish the game moved quicker too, I don't see the point of having to watch my caravan go down the road, when I select my next destination just move me there, instantly heal the distance and give me some items along the way instead of driving through debris for them, to speed things up a bit.

So far the game has 12 heroes, though the bounty hunter is a temporary hire hero, so really you can pick with 11 starting ones. Pretty much all of them are usable in some capacity but in a game with a hero roster, there is always going to be a bell curve of best to worst. I can tell they are going to constantly try to fix the balance- and this will probably get annoying, but there will always be a weak hero, which to me right now is the Occulist, while still usable he's definitely the weakest and not very fun to use for me right now.

A large part of the fun of the game is playing with different team comps and seeing how they work together through the runs. Once you unlock everything it creates a lot more depth than the beginning of the game has to offer, so it takes a few runs of collecting candles(currency) to make a good team.

When I started I skipped the tutorial as I usually do, plus I figured my knowledge of the first game would be enough, but the game did change a lot in this sequel to make it a different game (with the same great combat) so if you're coming from the first game, here's a few quick spoiler free tips-

1) Dying isn't the end of the world so never reset a run no matter how beat up your team is, unless you're down to 1 hero and facing literal impossible odds, I would not reset. Just keep pushing and see how far your run takes you, this will reward you more, resetting the run doesn't help you in any way.
2) You heal as you drive your route, so healing isn't as big a deal in this game, though still very useful.
3) Stress healing is just as important, though for relationship reasons in this game (also losing most of your health if you meltdown sucks) The more stressed you are, the more strain on your relationships.
4) Relationships are important, find ways to improve them.
5) There are 5 acts in the game that each end with a boss, you'll probably lose to some last bosses, take notes of how they act to help for future run planning.
6) Focus early on unlocking characters abilities at hero shrines, it allows you to unlock their potential and you get to experiment with each hero as you do so

Anyway, while I don't care as much for the overall style of the sequel compared to the first one, I still am having a blast playing it, just don't go in expecting the first game, its a new experience with the same great combat. Once you get used to the changes and play a few runs and unlock your characters abilities I really started enjoying myself, worth checking out if you're a fan of the first game.

*EDIT - The developer has made some fixes that I complained about below, so good on them for addressing the issues quickly. They fixed the pause issue, the game saving issue( I mean how can a game not saver right?), and they apparently made keymapping better. I can't check this because I had the game refunded and well, these issues weren't the main reason for my bad review. The game was still generic and just boring to me, nothing new here. see the original review below:

Very disappointing.

I picked this up as a huge Contra and Castlevania fan, hoping to see a great mashup. But all we got is a lesser Contra with a Castlevaniaish aesthetic, a bad control scheme that was confusing to remap because of terrible menus, no ability to pause and apparently a game that loses all my progress without the ability to return to where I was. The only menu option is to "start game" and it puts me at level one, despite my history showing I beat the first two levels. I didn't care enough to replay these levels, so I requested a refund.

The game play itself was OKAY at best, kinda generic Contra style, nothing exciting happening. It's fast paced but at the same time boring. You get arrow power ups, weapon power ups and some other kind of helper that I never was able to figure out, I hit every button mapped to my PS4 controller and I never figured out that third power up, and never got around to figuring it out because the rest of the game left me at "Eh".

Yeah, I don't usually quit games or request refunds, but I wasn't feeling this game and its poorly designed menu options just weren't doing it for me. Hard pass.

This review is specifically for the new King of Cards Dlc, you can get the full version here:

https://youtu.be/tMkAeyF99nc

If you already own the treasure trove series, you get yet another entire game from the creators of Shovel Knight.

As you would already expect from this series, you get another beautiful looking retro graphics game with tight controls and fun platforming.

I have always found shovel knight on the easier side, they give plenty if checkpoints in small sections and keep things very fair.

Well just like all of the rest of the series, King Knight keeps to its fairness but adds a bit of challenge to the platforming with a great new way king knight moves.

King Knight has an interesting moveset, he has a shoulder dash attack but whenever he lands the dash against objects or enemies it throws him into the air into a spin jump which you can now use to jump on objects and enemies. Everytime the spin jump lands it gives you the option to do another dash, allowing you to string these together. This makes for some interesting platforming, I feel they could have gone even further experimenting with these moves, but it was still really fun in game.

The level design works with this move set well, and the levels are shorter than you are used to, however we get a lot more levels too.

You also get an added card game which you can optionally play throughout the maps. The card game is pretty fun, a more unique in game card game I've seen and the AI seems to make the right moves. This adds time to the game making it the longest dlc I've played for shovel knight.

In all, King Knight ended up being the most fun I had with this series, I think they did a great job with the new DLC and this is yet another reason you should get the treasure trove.

It's barely a recommend from me, but I did have fun for a few hours with it, but I wouldn't get it at full price.

If you prefer watching a review and seeing some gameplay, check this out:

https://youtu.be/rRZFPnqu37w

With that said, let me go into some more details for you. The game just barely came out, and it has a few glitches, some that are game ending. Though since games only last 18 minutes, its not devastating to lose your game. That's right, it's a rogue-lite game, so death ends the game and you start from the beginning while each run is at maximum 18 minutes. It has a lot of Dead Cell vibes to it, except instead of buying upgrades during the run, when you die you get experience and levels that automatically unlock upgrades (to both you and the enemies). You don't get to pick your upgrades, it just happens. It took me probably less than 7 hours to unlock everything in the game and complete a whole run.

The gameplay itself is not too bad, you kill everything in a room in a contra like/bullet hellish game to advance to another one while looking for the best weapons to drop. It's not always clear what weapons are better than others, you have to experiment to see how much damage the guns do, there isn't much an indication on how strong each weapon is. But once you find one of the OP weapons, the games pretty much over, you just rush to each of the bosses and end the game as quickly as possible. There are 4 areas each with an end boss to clear, then a final 5th boss before the game loops back to the beginning.

What increased my enjoyment of the game was being able to play cooperatively with a friend, and with steams new remote play together, you can play it with any of your friends to let them try it out with you!

In the end, the game is just okay.. it has some cleaning up to do with glitches, some balance issues with guns to fix, it needs to define some features in the game better, implement better menu navigation, and finally add more boss and enemy variety to it. I hope they really grow this game some more, and fix it up. It's still a little game that's fun to play with friends, but I'd only get it on a deeper discount.

I do admit, I did really enjoy that soundtrack though.



You can also join my new Discord gaming community, talk about all sorts of games with cool people:
https://discord.gg/Pthm7cg
Also you can follow my Steam curator page for more recommendations:
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/steamstore/curator/34871138/

If you prefer a video review, check out this link-

https://youtu.be/V7avI2e__xI

Disco Elysium coming from a small developer has been receiving a lot of buzz about being the best game this year, and its getting a lot of hype, so lets take a look into the game and see if its worth all the hype.

People keep saying this game is very unique, and I'll agree its different in many ways, but it plays a lot like an Isometric RPG and adventure game fusion, both of which are not really that unique. But they twist together nicely and they do a good job.

Getting into Disco Elyisum you have to realize you will need to be prepare to read.. A LOT. The game is purely dialogue and skill check based. There is no combat in the game, any kind of altercations would be solved with a skill check. Any kind of physical activity can be avoided as well with the proper skills and dialogue choices.

So the important thing with a game that's dialogue based is the writing, and they really shine with this here. The writing is excellent, they had a team of 8 writers and the head writer has written a book which will be translated to English next year to go in the same world as Disco Elysium. He is planning on building a world, I feel this is the start of a great gaming universe.

In just the first 30 minutes I found myself laughing more at the writing than I have in a game before, the writing was just that good. You have several different choices and you can act the way you want to in this game. The choices effect different parts of the game and you really build who you are as a character.

The background to this story is you wake up with amnesia (Hello planescape: torment?) and you are a detective in this noir inspired game. Your job is to solve the case of the murder that happened in the poorest area of the city, one that is divided by two police districts. So you must work together with a partner from the other district to solve the murder and be the cop you want to be.

The skill system in the game is pretty cool too, each skill is a different part of your brain and each with varying degrees of usefulness. The game is set so you can pick the skills that interest you and you will never have a character that will fail, I never once saw a game over screen in this game. The skills are all about playing the way you want to be your character, and that's just a lot of fun. The challenge comes from solving puzzles, like in an adventure game, but through speaking with people.

That is where I feel the "flaws" of this game come in, and I say that meaning they aren't that major of a deal for me. Every character in the game despite how difficult or how much they dislike you will end up telling you everything, it doesn't take too much convincing, everyone just tells you everything. It seems a bit odd, but it works for the game to help you advance along. The other issue to me is the red herrings, you will find them all over the place, things that seem important end up just being filler. It's all well told filler so.. who cares that much? But it feels weird when you look at the overall picture.

TLDR:
So overall, is this game deserving the hype it gets? Pretty much, it's not the greatest game of all time or anything like that, but its a new developer that came out with a well made game, a very well told story and an all around fun game. If you like reading, isometric or adventure games, don't hesitate to pick this up. Within a month of the game being released we already have a %20 off sale, how can we say no to that?