Recent reviews by MartinQ

I've spent some time with this in Early Access, & it's scratched the card game itch fairly well. I feel the price has been worth it for the quality of enjoyment & raw hours I've gotten out of it.

I'm interested in seeing where it goes as the developers hopefully continue to add/refine mechanics, cards, characters, etc., while addressing the expected glitches of Early Access (which for me has tended to be when I click in quick succession on things that bring up different menus/transitions). The core gameplay loop as it is right now is solid - potentially hours-long runs of adding/removing/transforming cards to form a deck to synergize with your characters' specific talent cards & level-up perks while random events modify your resources/characters/obstacles. Once you've unlocked more cards & gotten used to standard gameplay you can add challenge modifiers to multiply your score (for personal goals/community competition - the game doesn't force these drastic changes in your gameplay).

The anthropomorphic animal characters and clean, painted style are reminiscent of the Redwall books or grittier classic Disney movies (although some art for more recently added cards/events I suspect to be placeholder sketches - they look good in their own way, but they are inconsistent with other artwork).

You can thank Twitch broadcasts for showing this game off to me & grabbing my interest!

Into the Breach is a turn-based strategy/puzzle game from Subset Games, the makers of FTL. The setting is basically time-travelling Starship Troopers/Pacific Rim - bug-hunting with giant robots. There's some customization with choices of teams/pilots/equipment/classes to find out what works for each player & keep things interesting by switching around.

This game is much more deterministic than FTL. While randomness gives games more replayability through unpredictable situations, having more set outcomes for your decisions gives great satisfaction when there is appropriate feedback to reward players who study & plan around mechanics. There's room to test things out with an undo function to let you take back anything that isn't an attack & a once-per-mission complete turn reset if things aren't to your liking.

I appreciate its scale & how complete it feels - people may always ask for more & more of what they like, but when a dev team knows their limits & what they want to do, it's just great to see their vision fulfilled. In an age of games as a service & microtransactions, a solid game with proper ambition & complementary design is refreshing.

Dead Space 2 is a direct improvement from the original Dead Space, preserving the action/horror experience. The atmosphere is still uneasy & tense, with the expected additional enemy types & setpieces, while you have even more options to fight back, manage your resources, & change how you approach situations. The DLC suits/weapons kind of get in the way in the item menu (it takes some annoying storage juggling time to clear them from the shop window), but they do offer some min/maxing of stats/effects if you're ok with messing with your item progression. Isaac Clark becomes a voiced protagonist, with enough personality & quips to be likeable.

It's a shame things only got worse for Dead Space after this, all the way to EA's closing of Visceral. Still, I've enjoyed many hours of this fine game.

This game lets you command a spaceship as close to Star Trek as we have right now, and it's ruthless and random. To mimic my Binding of Isaac recommendation, it's a wonderfully crafted roguelike.

The Advanced Edition is a free update with many expanded options (for you AND enemies) to make each playthrough that much more unpredictable.

Shoot-em-up game based on your musical choice: you can't really complain about this game's soundtrack.

You get to be a space admiral. Pretty sweet deal.

Another randomized dungeon crawl - silly writing, nice character leveling, and a bit of a haphazard crafting system, but it's great fun. Basically fun in all the ways Binding of Isaac is, but turn-based. :D

In case you're comparing it with Fallout, it has less silliness and less RPG aspects, but the scavenging/survival aspects are great, and the gunplay is based on your control, no computer targeting. It makes a romp through radioactive Russia seem fun. O_o

Indie randomized Dungeon crawler with random upgrades, guarded by weird, evil beasties. For cheap. <3

Alright, if you haven't gotten into Beat Hazard, this is the alternative, while the sale's up. Have fun gaming with your music, guys!