Recent reviews by Chum

Stellaris is a pretty good game: if you don't pay full price for it. If you like Sci-fi world-building/roleplaying and 4X strategy games it's a decent recommendation, but I do not recommend anyone wanting an actually reasonably budgeted experience to pay anywhere close to full price for all the DLC. Be selective about which ones you buy, and for the love of god wait for your favorites bits to go on sale. Otherwise, leave it be.

Not just an absolutely rock solid FPS hoard shooter as a foundation, DRG is one of the best examples of a progression game crafted by loving, talented developers rather than soulless greedy suits. It is a diamond in the rough, where the developers used the early access model and cosmetic DLC in a pro consumer way, fostering a seriously positive relationship with their fans effortlessly. It might not be the most perfectly polished experience ever made, but it is a source of hundreds of hours worth of fun and enjoyment. If Space Dwarves FPS sounds like a fun time for you, then you'll not regret your purchase or your time. I sure don't.

ROCK AND STONE!

What a stellar game this turned out to be!
I didn't use to be too interested in board games, but using simple, clever mechanics and clearly defined rules, this game turns something boring like chess into a seriously amazing rouguelike experience. Its paced at just the right level to keep you hooked and interested with what comes next, and with some careful planning, learning, and puzzle solving you'll find it's surprisingly easy to master without too much awe inspiring depth to drive you away.

It's an excellent little game that teases your brain in ways that are both fun and challenging. Well worth the price of admission.

Factorio is a game made for people like me. People who want to micromanage every detail, build and create with expert precision, measure every ratio, address every bottleneck, and create a finely crafted machine of incomprehensible proportion. It might just be the apex of management simulation games. You'd never think a game almost entirely about logistics could be so addictive and fun, but the developers have gone above and beyond with this game.

Play this game if you love to tweak endlessly, build carfully, and accomplish astonishing things one step at a time.

Even amongst its peirs, Risk of Rain 2 stands head and shoulders above other indie roguelikes, demonstrating excellence in design and unparalleled mechanical polish. It's quite simply one of the finest games I've had the pleasure of playing, and I don't plan on stopping.
It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're itching for some rougelike action, I don't think you can get any better than this.

Short version: The game is good. Still has some issues which need addressing, but overall it's actually surprised me how much 1.0 improved the game. Play it if you like base building, crafting, and exploring planets that don't have much else to them other than being pretty.

I'll elaborate more once I'm done typing up my full review.

I’m going to do something that I don’t usually like to do here: I’m going to refrain from going too in-depth. The reason for that is a simple but possibly unexpected one: I don’t want to spoil the game’s story.

I’ll summarise by saying this: It’s very good. Seriously, I’m not usually one to praise a game for it’s story mostly because I rarely care about them beyond the surface level context, but the game’s pacing, character arcs, worldbuilding, and overall narrative is unexpectedly captivating.

The pacing is probably it’s biggest achievement. It starts off pretty innocuous and typical for games of it’s ilk, but slowly and methodically over the course of the game builds up the tension and intrigue, before eventually catapulting into a jaw dropping finale that by the end will have gone so far off the deep end you’ll have to ask yourself “WHAT GAME AM I EVEN PLAYING ANYMORE!?"

The gameplay, while pretty solid, is a bit less noteworthy. It can be a little obtuse at times: there were a few cases where I got completely stumped and had to look up a strategy or tip, and finding secrets is a bit more of a challenge than I’d really like. But overall I enjoyed it and it served its purpose well enough: It’s focus on puzzles more than on combat is a refreshing change of pace, it’s bosses are both visually spectacular and challenging fights in their own right, and the overall challenge of the game ramps up appropriately to reinforce the context of the game’s story. It’s an amazingly polished experience, I can definitely say that the nearly a decade amount of work Sandburg put into this absolutely paid off.

I went into this game expecting something fun, challenging, and scratching that metroid Itch and while I can’t say that my expectations were fully met, I certainly would never say that I left the game feeling disappointed. If you’re like me and just want something fun to play, I do still recommend this game. Just be aware that it will go places you would never expect; and that most certainly is not a bad thing.

You crash land on an alien world covered in water. You are alone, everyone else is dead. You have to find a way off the planet. Subnautica is gripping from the very beginning, setting up a simple premise. But with that comes the challenge: How good of a game is it? The answer: Very.

Gameplay Wise it’s a pretty typical survival game but with an expected aquatic twist. You have hunger and thirst you must manage, but also air that you run out of when you aren’t on the surface or in a base. Unlocking new recipes for new things to craft is satisfying in the best ways. It isn’t simply finding more and more resources to feed your hunger over and over as you grow your tiny base one room at a time. The game opens up as you unlock new tools, new ways to approach problems, new ways to explore, and new ways to keep yourself alive. Almost nothing you can find and make won’t be useful in some way.

Where Subnautica truly excels is its ability to set up a harrowing, chilling, gripping atmosphere of terror mixed with wonder. You can barely fight the creatures, your piddly hand knife is the only true weapon you have, everything else is a tool for survival or some kind of non-lethal self defence option. There is no map, and barely what you could call a tutorial. The game won’t be holding your hand, it’s up to you, your intuition and knowledge to find your way, remember where you have been, and figure out where to go next.

It’s use of sound is also quite admirable. Monster calls from the depths, wails of giant creatures, small chirps of each tiny fish, the sounds of your PDA punctuate the haunting silence of the deep blue. The game makes you never truly feel safe. There is always something dangerous lurking out in the waters, always a threat that you must face in order to survive and make it off the planet alive. There is something scary, yet truly beautiful about the places you will be exploring.

What a shame then that my immersion was broken so often with bugs, weird audio problems, and animation glitches. These issues, while infrequent, were bad enough to draw me out of the experience when they happened; especially the pop in which sometimes got really bad. It’s not a deal breaker though, and for the most part the game runs smoothly and sucedes at drawing you in and keep you hooked.

Subnautica is the new standard for survival open world games. It might not be the most marvelously original idea ever conceived, nor is it a flawless bug-free polished to a mirror shine product, but with everything it needed to get right it excels at masterfully. It’s gripping and atmospheric from start to finish. I highly recommend it.

If you know me, then you know that I like the 3D platforming genre. Describing games like Rayman 2, Banjo Tooie, and Mario Sunshine as “My childhood” is an understatement. What luck then do I find a kickstarter for a game that claims to take inspiration from not only that genre, but the mentality and spirit from the Golden days of my youth. Naturally, I backed it and began to patiently wait. Come about half a decade later and it’s finally here, a bit after the other large kickstarter 3D collectathon revival game Yooka Laylee. If you’ve read my review on that then you’ll know that while not terrible or anything, that game failed to really hook me and I left it quite disappointed. I then began to fear that the game I kickstarted before was going to end up as a similar flop.

Thankfully my fears were averted as I booted the game up for the first time and began to play. Exploring the controls was a bit of a challenge at first, and figuring out the quirks of our protagonist’s moves took some getting used to. But once I got the hang of it I found myself dashing, double jumping, sprinting and animation canceling my way all around a quirky and playful word that enticed me to find all of its secrets. The game’s music and world is what really sells it, I found myself simply standing or sitting around and appreciating the game’s atmosphere, something I rarely do in any game.

What I like most about the game is how much it loves it’s inspiration. You might scoff at that and think “But Yooka Laylee did the same thing and you didn’t like THAT game!”. Not to sound elitist, but no it did not. Between the constant fourth wall jokes and taking the piss out of itself, YL felt more like a parody of its contemporaries rather than a revival. It felt insulting and disrespectful: while at the same time blatantly pandering to the nostalgia blinded fanboys who claim Banjo Kazooie was flawless and any evolution is heresy.

But I digress; Hat in time shows it’s love for those games not by simply parroting them; flaws and all; but instead finding the best in them and figuring out what worked, while also taking a critical eye to what didn’t, or might not anymore. It isn’t lost in the past while making fun of itself, it trusts that the player will meet it halfway and give it a chance, and deliver it does. I haven’t felt this way playing a game since… well those games from my childhood actually.

The missions are varied, the progression is relatively open ended while also being quite simple, the moves you earn as the game goes on are always useful at any time in the game (With MAYBE one exception that feels a little contrived), the characters are sometimes funny, often sympathetic, and almost alway charming in their own way. The voice acting was an interesting touch, but I’m not confident in saying that it was essential, and frankly sometimes it can be a bit trite. Thankfully if you don’t like it or just don’t care you can turn it off, or even replace it with something a bit more nostalgic if you find the right secret.

Don’t mistake it as nothing but a saccharine romp all the way through. The various places you go all offer up different kinds of experiences and challenges. A surprising amount of levels involve a rudimentary stealth mechanic, some will test your ability to explore and traverse, while others offer straightforward platforming challenges. There’s plenty of skipping around being happy to be sure, but there’s also some real laughs, offbeat silliness, heartfelt sincerity, and even a few actual scares along the way. Against all odds, by the ending I felt myself genuinely touched by the game, and that’s high praise coming from someone like me.

What I can’t say however is that it’s perfect. The sectioned off design ala Mario 64/Sunshine is the kind of structure that I feel was a bit dated, though it’s much less egregious than those examples. Even once you get used to the controls there are a few quirks about them that I feel could have used ironing out. (Ex. Can’t move after you slide, you have to JUMP out?) The camera also sometimes clips through walls or spazzes out if it moves at the wrong angle. Some parts of the game seem like they have a notable lack of polish. The main story seems to be a bit short and not as demanding on players, and overall it might be a bit too much on the easy side, especially if you’ve played the games that it aspires to. Then again, it’s less challenging difficulty suits its overall feel-good atmosphere and childlike tone. It’s not really meant to push your limits unless you seek those challenges out yourself.

All in all, A Hat in Time succeeds where Yooka Laylee fails: Giving that spark of wonder and joy. Short and flawed as it may be, Hat in Time delivers on the promise of what it means to run, jump, and fly through a world worth exploring. The game is overflowing with charm, heart and soul, a passion and love for games matched only by us, the player.

Flywrench (the original, not this remake) is a downright cult classic/hidden gem, and is one of my all time favorite games. Come one day I see that Messhof is remaking it, and I perk up. I saw the trailer, but rather than getting my hype going instead I felt as if it was a letdown: The music was different, the aesthetic was completely changed, the awesome feeling was seemingly absent. I became sceptical, and I decided I'd wait before trying it out. Then I guess I just forgot about it as I never picked it up for a good year or two.

Eventually I saw it had gone on sale and I decided I'd pick it up, as I still remembered the original fondly. My fears that it would be a disappointment seemed to be eroding away, at least partially. The music was just as grating and unfitting as I had dreaded, but thankfully I turned it off and enjoyed myself a bit more. Come a few hours later And I'd beaten it. Much like its predecessor, it's a rather short game. But it's also meant to be played over and over, practiced and perfected.

Flywrench's story is quite rudimentary: You are presumably some nondescript hacker or something and you are infiltrating a security system via a little flying bug that changes colors to pass through gates... Yeah it doesn't make a ton of sense but it's not essential to the game itself anyways and can be freely skipped at your leisure. The strongest aspect is its core gameplay: You flap to not only go up but to turn red and pass through red walls. You let go to fall and be white to pass through white walls. You roll to turn green and become bouncy as well as passing through... well you get the idea. The complexity and challenge comes from learning this subversion of traditional "platforming" mechanics, and applying how each mechanic affects how you move and when you need to use a specific ability to pass through its corresponding gate. It can be difficult to wrap your head around, but once you ge the hang of it its quite enjoyable, and the game does an excellent job of using simple levels to teach you the basics as well as subtle nuances about the mechanics, while doing nothing to hinder experienced players who will blast through them no problem.

That's well and good, but what really makes the game sing is the level design. As I mentioned before the opening levels are excellent tutorials, and later the complexities of the game's' mechanics pile upon each other as new mechanics are introduced in each subsequent world, and each word does a superb job exploring ways to make each and every one of those mechanics interesting and challenging while never compromising its fairness to you, the player. The game doesn't feel like it's cheating against you; Each level might be hard, but they are short enough that you don't lose much by screwing up. The game effectively sets up a promise: A promise that every level will be short sweet and to the point; A simple and straightforward challenge to overcome before quickly moving on to the next one. And unlike games like Super Meat Boy, the game doesn't break that promise by eventually becoming bogged down with long, frustratingly tedious gauntlet levels which have way more obstacles than should be fair, too many chances to screw up, and a habit of wasting your time. (With only one exception; The final level)

It's a very simple platforming challenge game, but with a clever twist on that formula and a lot more hidden complexity than you might realize. Also a level editor and workshop support give the game a bit more longevity than is really needed, but is a welcome addition nonetheless. Buy it on sale, shoot through it in an afternoon, and enjoy yourself.