Recent reviews by Vi-El

I did not think that I would like this game as much as I did. This game combines two things I really really love.

The first is the combat of Armored Core. Fun, engaging, skillful and dangerous if you aint paying attention. The other is Exploration of Megastructures and practically dead worlds.

What it comes down to with this game is a mix of Dark Souls 1 inspired level design which is absolutely chefs kiss because it feels like people actually playtested them to the point of frustration which is amazing to see. There has not been a moment where I was like "Wow this feels so dumb, why is this here" and more so moments where I said "Huh you know this came just in time. Thats great."

The tree serves as your central Bonfire of a given area. And there are not many of them in the world. You gotta find a way to get back to one eventually via shortcuts. Yep. You read that right. Shortcuts. Ya know, like Dark Souls 1? Connecting the Undead Parish and the Cathedrial with the Spawn Hub? Yea. That kinda Shortcut. Its great.

And the bossfights? They do seem easy at first. But they feel more difficult than they are. However take this with a grain of salt. By the time of writing I only fought 2. But so far its just genuinely been super fun as an experience. This game genuinely feels like the Level Designers took great Inspiration from Castlevania, Metroid and Dark Souls 1. And it shows.

Im thoroughly confuc*** and I love it.

This as a mystery game is a stroke of genius. Not only is the mystery itself ever present but also you gotta make sure you actually move about and find the various smaller mysteries which then lead onwards into other mysteries on their own or lead to possible helpful ways that will help you as a whole.

Overall I am just thoroughly confused. Like its a constant state at this moment. But its fun. Its very very fun. And there is a lot of lore and story and such a heavy ambience? This place feels alive and abandoned at the same time and I love it.

Do not buy this game. Its not 1.0. The devs didnt want to put off 1.0 for longer. This game is unfinished and needs more time to cook. It plays like its still in Early Access and it has a reason. Cause it is.

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Update: I uninstalled the game out of frustration. There is... SO MUCH more ♥♥♥♥ that is wrong with this game. And I cant write about it. Too little space. Im just not having fun anymore with this sh**show,

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Forever Skies wants to be the Next Subnautica so badly that it forgets that its Raft but in the Skies.

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Welcome to Forever Skies. A game that is honestly kinda fun but the mountain of actual crap you have to deal with inbetween makes it a fun and also frustrating experience.

I am now writing this review before I have reached the actual ending of the game but I feel that adding double my playtime onto my previous review makes it a fair case of “I should probably update the review finally. So what is there to say that I havent said previously? I will start with the good cause no one likes only the negative things. However I wanna make this very clear:

This review is EXTENSIVE. If you dont like reading… Dont expand. That being said, let us begin.

Also BEWARE! Spoilers ahead.

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The good:
- Ressource Gathering is not tedious. As a casual player you will have fun. As an experienced player you will feel a slight but of frustration cause you will not care for just building a cool ship first and will just railroad progression to have it easier later.

- Recharging the main tool, the extractor on your hand, is simple and effective. However some upgrades feel rather redundant and I feel this could have been handled better using permanent upgrades instead.

- Snapping Furniture and Items to a Grid is amazing cause it makes it far simpler to align storage objects or decoration.

- Crafting is made very very simple as it just grabs from all inventories.

- We have staircases. Thats it.

- The friendly insect you can adopt is not just a pet. It doubles as a companion you can take with you. Love that.

- Stuff unlocks as you play. You wont find endgame early on and the only way for you to find more endgame related items is only when you can actually unlock the item its tied to already.

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The Bad:
- Models Pop in alot. Models also clip a lot. Much more to the point that its immersion breaking. Like there was a point in which I went into the Underdust in the Wild Habitat and a nearby root model that generated close to the area went straight through the corridor that I wanted to walk though. I couldnt. So I had to leave. The root of the other object was straight up in the way. Wtf.

- You need to play Detective on each new platform in order to get every single thing available. And the worst part is, there is no indicator if you got everything on that specific platform. It gives you numbers which means, yea there is more. But where? And what? Yea I can move into the Study logs but thats another menu I have to open.

- Harvesting Flowers at the start alone takes 3 hits with a knife. Full Stamina leads you to harvesting max 4 flowers. Why is this bad? Cause youll do this alot. You later get a better knife. By this point you no longer have to harvest flowers like this.

- Death itself in this game feels extremely punishing for no reason. You can lose half of your inventory (as in half of all items in it per item) for the stupidest reasons. And its frustrating every single time. Cause sometimes these deaths come on the way back to your ship. Meaning looting every object and harvesting every thing. Now you have just lost half of that.

- The Recipe progression in this game is confusing at best and atrocious at worst. Why is that? Cause its showing you what you need but that at times before you even found it. Every POI to a beginner, could now hold that new item. Going into the menu and having to read up where to find it, is bad game design. Raft did this too although it did it miles better as it was also a lot less punishing and confusing.

- You need to scan every little fricking thing even if there is no direct reason to do so. If you dont, you are screwed. Need a keycard to continue and cant find it anywhere? Scan the scanner and somehow be rewarded with a keycard recipe you have to now use to craft the keycard. Sorry but how would the scanner be able to give me a keycard recipe? Thats kinda… bad? Like this is an extreme security risk for what is supposed to be a locked off system?? O.o

- Recycling Items functions as its supposed to. It works, it gives you items back and its great. It also is crap cause at times it takes 1 item, at others 5 and at others again 10. This is entirely random and based on different items and values. For some reason. Why we cant have just a blanket “10 per recycle” with a box to carry all the results is beyond me. Cause you also need to actively extract the items now before you can continue to recycle.

- The Med Bed you can upgrade to is great. You know what isnt great? That you dont know that you have to actively make use of it while lying down. Yea, you have to use your mouse in order for that thing to actively heal you. And if you dont and just lie down, you will waste ressources doing so until all of them are gone. And those ressources arent easy to get.

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The good. The Bad. And whats left? Depression. Ok no. But the Ugly really. So… Lets dive in.

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The Ugly:
- The game is already poorly optimized but to a point where its a gigantic effects issue that even cutting down plants or breaking locks can give you an effects overload to give your game a major FPS drop down to 1fps.

- The objectives in this game are fine. Until they arent. Tells you that you need to fix up Noahs Hideout and turn on the PC. But it doesnt tell you where the bleeding thing is and how to power it up. Cause that thing is offline. So you look around until you can find a VERY WELL HIDDEN powerunit. I walked by this thing like 5-10 times cause its hidden by the vegetation!

- The first Great Enemy, the Mantis, you can fight has a spit attack. It can get stuck very easily. As in, not hit you at all due to geometry. Fun fact, it can also get stuck in the ceiling. In a corridor. A corridor low enough for you to be hit by the spit in the ceiling. A CORRIDOR LOW ENOUGH FOR YOU TO BE HIT BY THE SPIT IN THE CEILING! WHAT!?

- Movement in this game is garbage. You get stuck on so many things. And it causes so many deaths. Ill get into that. There is a big one. I rage quit BECAUSE of this.

- Getting out of bounds is very easy in this game in the Dust Areas. Why? Oh cause some parts just… have Walls missing. Insert sighing here.

- Hey you like having a backpack? You like having a bigger one than your first? Ok. Save your game and then relog. Then equip the new one. No, Im not kidding. No, this is real.

- Bottles are a neat mechanic. And for some reason the game values your filled bottles far more than empty ones. So much so that if you have a 1/5 bottle and a 0/5 bottle and you want to drop the former, the game will drop the latter. Im… What? WHAT?

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And now. Now to the moment you all have been waiting for. The hideous. The truth. The reason why I ragequit so that I am making this review now before reaching the end.

In the Overgrown Lift, the Suburbs Dust, there is a hole. Said hole is covered by a grate. In the hole there is a ladder. So you can find an object to open the hole, get in, grab stuff and get back out. Cool.

I did that. Until I tried to get back out and left it at trying. Why is that? Cause going up the ladder gets you stuck in the ground as you leave. Cause the ending of the ladder is… slightly below the ground level. Moving left, right, forward, doesnt do anything. But you can walk back. And fall into the hole.

And Die.

And lose your items.

Too few people play this game. Or games like it. It may be short but it is not without promise or challenge.

Not without thought or reason.

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I think when it comes down to games like this, we always see people go mad about "Walking Simulators" because they dont add any real gameplay to whats going on. It ends up being an interactive story if anything and yet despite there being clear gameplay via Gunplay being in this game, it still does not feel too far from being a Walking Simulator as a whole.

It is strange to me. Like in general. We play games like Half Life 2 in which we walk from Point A to Point B. And just because we get to shoot enemies inbetween that changes everything. But technically we dont need to shoot anyone to continue the story as a whole. From a meta perspective I mean btw, of course we need to shoot enemies in order to proceed. But it isnt us who kills them, its Gordon. We play as Gordon. His story is that of a Survivor in a world that no longer wants him around.

Then we have games like this. Or games like "Everyones gone to the Rapture". They dont differ too far. Just that their story medium has gone in a different direction.

So why do I feel this game still differs from Half Life 2 despite having gunplay? Because it just doesnt feel the same. The Gunplay, the actual fighting you have to do does not feel like it is opposing you but more so part of the world. When you are Gordon you know who is the antagonist. Those are enemies out to get you cause they are the actual antagonist of the story. In this game? You wake up. You walk around. You find some people. Suddenly they shoot at you. And you shoot back.

You arent a "survivor" and the world isnt "out to get you". Its just life. And its probably been that way for the protagonist for quite some time. Making what is happening here, despite you actively having to kill enemies, feel more like walking through a world and story rather than actively playing an FPS game.

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Games like this. Games like Lorns Lure. Games who dont know where they are heading feel more and more like something gaming needs. Cause to be fully honest, despite having a clear ending in either mentioned game, there is still an air of uncertainty by the end. Cause it doesnt truly end. It gives you enough to understand the world. Gives you enough to know whats happening. Enough to understand the end even.

But it still isnt enough to know where you are heading. Not enough to understand where its going. What the world will be like from here on out. Why you even did it in the first place.

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This game costs roughly 6 bucks. And its well worth the price. I think the dev made the very much right decision here and knows exactly what they are doing. And I kinda hope that, same as with Lorns Lure, the devs of both games keep making more. More like this.

Maybe in the future Metal Garden has a bigger version of itself. Made in a different engine. Made with more fluid gameplay. Made with more indepth and immersive storytelling than it already does. Made with more to explore. More to try and understand. More to ponder on. More to take in.

Hey. One can dream right? One can hope to climb that tower once again. For whatever reason there may be.

We all shall ascend to the Toilet Of God together!

This game ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks I hate it!

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Ok originally I wanted this to be just a joke review but in all honesty its a good game. But if I would sit here and say "Oh its perfect its great its lovely" I would be lying. This game requires attention and patience. Mostly the latter.

If you play this game without thinking you wont go anywhere.
If you are greedy and stupid you wont get anywhere either.

The biggest issue this game has is that it has a skill ceiling. And I have yet to reach it without putting my hands on a cursed fricking chest! ITS JUST 10 KILLS! HOW CAN THAT BE HARD TO GET RIGHT? LOL IM JUST GONNA DIE REPEATEDLY CAUSE I HIT ROLL TOO LATE!

This isnt a game.

Its a simulator.

And its not a bad one, its a good one. For it to be a solo project of one guy in a very short amount of time, all code, assets and music in it by this one person, this is great work!

However while it is only 5 bucks (depending on your currency, it is 5 for me) it also feels like it just doesnt have enough to really justify the price. You notice that I said "Feels" right? Yea thats the issue here. Im conflicted about this one.

For one I played it for 2.5 hours and I got exactly what was advertised. I dug a hole, got treasure and dug to the bottom. But Ill be honest, thats literally all there is to the game. Your upgrades are not very varied. You have 4 to max out and by the time you have, you just... continue to dig for more treasure to sell. Which I suppose is kind of the point since its "buy this house and get rich" but then you have other games that did the very same and... they have more to do, more to go through, more to play with.

And some of them... ARE FREE.

Enter Motherload and Super Motherload. The latter of which is a practically sequel to the original flash games made entirely... FOR FREE. Well... the flash games are for free. The sequel isnt. However the sequel also has done far more than the flashgames. It adds storymoments, more gameplay, multiplayer and so on and so forth.

In comparison even by price this one feels... and this just honest feels just really crap to say... too expensive for what it gives you. Dont get me wrong. I dont regret buying this game for 5 bucks. It just doesnt feel worth 5 bucks if I had to recommend to anyone else.

I am a bit torn between feeling ripped off and having enjoyed my time with it. But for as much as it matters, unless you are into speedrunning, this game just doesnt have any replayvalue to offer. You can dig the hole once, dig the entire pit once and then also speedrun it. Thats it. There just isnt more to this.

A game about digging a hole in which you do exactly as its advertised. Least its not a scam. But at the same time 5 bucks just doesnt feel justified for the gameplay it provides when we literally have actually free alternatives that are, I really apologize to the solo dev cause again this is not at all a bad game, better in comparison.

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This game needs more of... honestly everything. More upgrades, more tools, a detector you can USE after certains over it just being automatic, actual hole variations, endless mode for highscore cause Ima be honest... No one is gonna dig this hole more than once unless its for speedrunning or actually painful challenges. Makes for funny content on youtube. No one else is gonna do that.

Yea idk. Buy it on a sale. 2.5 hours is at best how long this game takes to get through. And I know I havent gotten to the big chest at the end. I know. But I cant be asked to get past creatures via trial and error in which I just respawn back up top. Sorry not sorry, this is just also part of the problem.

First impressions:

This game is mid. The gameplay feels very fun.
The writing and introduction as of right now? Is ok.

As in, its passable at best and weird at worst. I already know whats gonna happen in the story so Im not gonna come in with high expectations but I did not think to be taken offguard by how mid the start would be.

Edit: Ah right. Because aparently it needs to be said again: The game has no guro fetish. If you wanna label it as such, please actually look up what the word means and also question your own preferences because to recognize a fetish you must have been in contact with it and also liked it to some extent.

Is the game Gory? Yes. Extremely. I wont sugarcoat it, it is to such an extent that I could say "I can live without it". Its not for me, specifically one particular part that many who played this will probably understand. But its not a fetish. Its there. Its part of the world. You brutalize and get brutalized.

So please for the love of all things holy, unholy and pretty much ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up in the void of creation that is our lives, stop calling this ♥♥♥♥ a "Guro Fetish" when you dont know what a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fetish is to begin with. Or Guro. Like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

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The first game was just a prototype to this absolute gem. And ngl? The first one was still amazing.

I cant put into words what I truly think yet. Its too fresh.

But this game does everything the first does and does more of it and more. It makes you play automatically as intended. I dont really know how to explain it. If you engage this game, the way you play feels natural. Slow and methodic. Fast and Aggressive. Once you are in it for a bit, you just know what to do and how to play. Its weird.

I played this way back when it was on a browser. I ended up using Cheatengine. Now I am playing it again just for the sake of nostalgia and cause it was genuinely fun.

Now I paid money. Honestly looking back on it, it feels a little scummy that I used Cheatengine on it. It felt justified but with what the devs have created here and with how much content that they actually give players? Even free content? Like you can straight up just play and pay nothing and still get everything via dailies or buy it outright.

Its the Azur Lane approach. And I cannot think of a single reason as to why these devs should not be supported for what they do. So I suppose take the money I spent as a "Sorry" for cheating way back when, devs. Glad you guys made it further than the browser c: