Recent reviews by Deadhands Dan

9 hours in and 3 HQs defeated so far:

AHI is basically everything I'd want from an Alien Hominid sequel in terms of mechanical quality and polish. All the gripes I had with the original Alien Hominid are cleaned up, and in general it's a lot more forgiving while also increasing the skill ceiling.

The roguelike elements were a complete surprise for me coming in - I really had no idea this was going to be using so many roguelike mechanics. You can turn off losing all your equipment - for playing this solo (which I am) this feels almost like a necessity, because the difficulty of enemies and fights keeps scaling no matter how many times you die: in other words, the game basically keeps getting harder like you're accruing loot regardless of whether you actually are or not. I'd call this a negative, but the game is also very clearly designed to be played 4 player, and I'm not really playing it "correctly" in that regard, but I'm greatly enjoying it nonetheless.

A full run takes about 20 minutes, you play through 5-6 normal levels completing objectives to get to a boss. However, the end of each successful run has a new boss and additional story akin to Binding of Isaac, for something like 12 runs? (IDK haven't completely finished the story yet obviously). Despite each run theoretically taking 20 minutes, you're probably going to screw up and die a lot, so don't expect to beat the whole game in 4 hours. Filling out your little guide of powerups, weapons, enemies, and cosmetics does feel very rewarding.

If I had a small complaint perhaps, it's that I expected destroying an HQ to open up a new area like the original Alien Hominid, going from City to Snowy Soviet Russia to Area 52 Desert. Alas, you are always in the city, though the backdrop does change quite heavily: Sometimes you're fighting on a train, in a sewer, in skyscrapers, in suburbs, construction sites, and so on. Levels all use the same color palette and time of day, and sometimes have rain or fire or gas. HQ fights have a ton of verticality, which is way more crucial in this game than in Alien Hominid. And despite how it sounds, I still haven't gotten tired of combat and traversal and fighting in the environments, which are laden with background gags and interesting hazards. I could see getting a bit tired of environments once I'm closer to finishing the game.

The design can be a little rough in spots - things like popping into a level and getting a 1up, only to get immediately stunlocked by a ton of enemies during a bossfight and die and immediately lose the 1up is pretty annoying and feels like a death tax, though it happens rarely. Till recently, I also had a lot of trouble with the Keybots as a solo player, and they basically spelled instant death. These scenarios don't happen that often, but more than once I've had my screen completely covered with projectiles and I'm getting stunlocked and bounced around in the air and can't dive and dig and thus I just have to accept I'm going to die, which is frustrating. Dying and having the game over screen have the same stupid "you didn't roll enough" tip every time is kinda the cherry on top - initially serving as a tip for newcomers and then becoming a bitingly sarcastic taunt when you're dying from being so stunlocked as to be incapable of rolling.

As far as the roguelike randomness of weapons and items, I think it's a very welcome change to the Alien Hominid "formula" - lots of interesting new weapons, status effects, powerups, and so on. There's loads of ways to customize your character, though as a solo player, I've basically geared myself around health regen and crits using the endgame laser beam. I could easily see a Castle Crashers sequel taking a very similar approach to this game (and it probably will honestly, if it ever comes), though I think I'd be disappointed if every level took place in the same environment with the same faction of enemies like it does here. The new environments and factions are what made Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers feel like they had a sense of progression, beyond just new abilities - Spelunky and Binding of Isaac are able to do it, so I'd hope for the same in the future.

That being said, the enemy variety of this game is very, very high - definitely not a complaint on my part at all. I've mostly enjoyed them, though some of them have the annoying habit of climbing higher into the air and becoming impossible to jump on or shoot, and some enemies move at incredibly frustrating angles that make shooting them feel impossible. I haven't faced all the bosses yet, though I have to say that fighting them during a run is a lot harder than fighting them at the end of one at an HQ.

Anyway, visually and mechanically this is incredibly polished and generally handles great and looks wonderful. I haven't encountered any stupid bugs. The music rules and definitely hasn't gotten repetitive or annoying for me. My playstyle is likely not going to be the standard experience, but do be prepared for the difficulty to climb pretty quickly. And the game is really addictive - it's been very easy to pour hours into the game, often without blinking. Grab it and grab some friends if you can. And, yes, it's as funny as any other Behemoth game - the intro cutscene gets a laugh out of me every time, and so does the weird swedish chef muppet speak of the various FBI grunts and generals.

I can't recommend it enough - atmospheric, free roaming, and loaded with life. The music of this game, unlike High Hell, basically carries you through the world of the game on a cloud.

I think one of the best aspects of Vellman's games is that they're so incredibly loaded with a sense of the character themselves - in High Hell, it was seeing yourself in the mirrors, burning money, vandalizing things as part of your objectives, and rescuing animals.

Here, the little touches are what make the entire game have a soul. I've never gone out and tagged IRL but this makes me wish I did, and you feel like you're the character. You're walking around smoking, drinking energy drinks, getting high and hanging out on top of high buildings, breaking into stuff, causing shenanigans, talking to friends, getting accosted by weirdoes, and just living life.

The collect-a-thon mechanics are only one aspect of the game, because it's really just a vehicle to make you experience the world that Vellmann and Doseone have made. It feels unmistakably cool. There's a whole lotta games that wish they were this game, and not very many that actually are. The things that make this game are the extremely precise sense of humor and worldview in a fantastical environment that feels incredibly relatable, and all of the visual gags that don't try to force themselves on you. There's a very strong sense of play, and the open-ended nature of the gameplay makes it extremely rewarding to find these things yourselves.

Also, god, wear headphones for this. You absolutely need to experience this with bass blasting. It has such a huge impact on it.

It's a blessing that it's so easy to play through in a sitting, and that's been part of why I revisit it.

As close as you’ll get to trick-or-treating virtually besides whatever Animal Crossing trend every year winds up being, this is an all-ages trip down nostalgia lane.

Is it childish and corny? Yeah, but it’s made for kids.

Is the gameplay groundbreaking for a turn-based RPG? Not particularly.

But it’s adorable and the aesthetics are extremely on point. Skip the DLC and sequel, which IMO almost entirely take it out of the Halloween setting and kill most of the charm. DO check out the comic, which does a better job of appealing to adults and remains a very breezy read.

An Appalachian twenty-something drops out of college during her sophomore year to figure out what to do with her life and herself as she grapples with the economic turmoil that currently is chewing her family and friends to pieces in this side-scrolling adventure game. Also, it’s set during fall, there’s cultists lurking about, and it’s absolutely adorable because everyone is a beautifully illustrated and animated animal. Hard not to recommend for autumn vibes, with an absolutely wonderful soundtrack and incredibly smart and funny dialogue that certainly had a hand in helping it win the IGF.

This game has been a huge influence on me in general - not only the beautiful art, animations, and touching/funny writing, but also it's sense of playfulness. The music is playful, the interactions are playful, the characters are playful. Night in the Woods is a story-driven game that's a visual smorgasbord that also still remembers it's a game and they need to be FUN to play. It oozes charm and is incredibly rewarding to track down all of it's many, many secrets and hidden conversations and interactions.

While it owes a LOT to Kentucky Route Zero, it also manages to be very distinct, and to get at the sensation of confusion early in adulthood when confronted by just how irrelevant everything you're doing feels compared to everything happening around you.

The most polished early access game I’ve had the pleasure of playing, it mines the aesthetics of Junji Ito’s comics in combination with a rather complicated 1980’s Apple interface and aesthetic to create an atmospheric and randomized horror campaign.

It’s not really scary in the traditional sense, but it takes the design of something like Betrayal At The House On The Hill and turns it into a single player game, becoming both difficult, delightful and filled with tiny background easter eggs that you’ll want to explore through numerous playthroughs.

Left 4 Dead has a baby with Alien, Aliens, and the WH40K tabletop game Space Hulk. Play as a member of a crew of space marines in extremely cramped and procedurally generated quarters, patrolling a ship looking for scientists while trying to self-destruct the damned thing and blow up the hordes of aliens pouring down the hallways looking to rip your flesh off the bone like a BBQ rib.

It’s online co-op multiplayer, but it can be run on a toaster and makes for supremely quick and easy short little games thanks to permadeath and a lack of mechanical complexity. In an age of increasingly ensnaring and complicated free-to-play ecosystems, a compact and tightly designed game like SBTF is incredibly welcome.

The top, most helpful review of this game is by a guy who sucks at it. This game is fun, it's quick and easy to play, and the AI are surprisingly clever. If you're a fan of Anger Foot (which is making the rounds lately), you'll probably love this because it's chasing the same high.

This game seems to take a lot from 70s exploitation cinema - mostly of a Kung Fu variety, but with lots of shooting instead. Enemies are surprisingly smart - over and over again I was pleasantly (and frustratedly) surprised by the simple trick of the guy I was shooting at DUCKING UNDER MY SHOT. AI will also run around - not just at you, but to get a better angle or to flank you from behind and surprise you (which got me a handful of times after I'd cleared a room but not all available routes). They're legitimately smart.

While the game is easy to pick up - the levels are open plan, so you can really attack them in any direction you want. Points to Vellmann for putting together clever flanking routes that reward the player - meticulously climbing up piles of boxes and stacked ladders, crouch jumping through windows and over railings, and so on - a fun reward to surprise a whole group of AI facing the other way. I initially thought I couldn't climb on top of shipping containers, and then I was pleasantly surprised that I both could and could climb through skylights to clear rooms.

Other than that - taking care to check corners widely and looking both ways before walking into a room, you should have a pretty easy time. I breezed through it in a couple hours. It's loaded with personality (lighting the bundles of cash on fire is so satisfying), funny side objectives (saving monkeys, puppies, destroying statues and paintings, sabotaging... wifi...) and immensely satisfying loading screens between levels. The way you just leap off the skyscraper to clear every level is also dope.

I will say, probably the only part of the game that was a little weak were the boss fights - which, as a designer, can be tough to nail down. Sometimes death feels a bit like RNG during these, and that'd be my one gripe. I had to look up how to kill Professor Meth, for example, because I just couldn't understand it. But other than that, I think this is pretty excellent and well polished.

This game is like digging into a box of movie candy from the concession stand, or just a REALLY well crafted pop punk song (hey, it's full of them). It's just a blast of pure joy and entertainment, and you can chew it up in less than an hour. As you can tell from my playtime, I loved going back through it over and over again to cue up the perfectly-synced music minigames over and over again (both to get the achievements and because I loved it so much).

Get it! It's worth the price of admission. It's a bundle of sheer joy.

If you’ve come into Cruelty Squad expecting genius critique and verbose postmodern writing, prepare to be disappointed. Cruelty Squad has much of the same ethos as Brad Troemel - with humor that is layered, satirical, stupid, apeish, absurdist, confounding, childish, and grossout. A hotwheels Deus Ex immersive sim updated for the new New World Order, with some of the most fresh and bizarre mechanics I've seen in a game in years. Soundtracked by the sounds of Freddy Fish being pushed down a flight of stairs, it honks and chirps and squeals and farts like something written by Japanese artist Foodman on his toy piano, and is at once jarring and uncomfortable but strangely innocent.

Cruelty Squad is like if the ‘90s had just kept going for another 20 years, and never grew up or changed sensibilities - reacting to the horror of the modern age by simply digging its heels in deeper and only growing more hilarious in response. It is charming in that it is so delightfully evil as to render the entire exercise absurd. And for that I love it. The game is so open, so purely and unabashedly itself, the comedic anecdotes practically write themselves - you can simply describe the game 1:1 to somebody and it'll be funny.

Here's an anecdote of the Fatberg Casino level, to convey this:

I, a former SEC death squad commando, barrel into the Fatberg Casino clad in a full body Stealth Suit. It’s acquired a reputation among special forces who wear it, it being made from chameleon bacteria that reeks - the users are notoriously known as (censored for Steam) “turdmen”. Indeed, many of the people I've stumbled past wearing it have asked me to take a shower. I won't.

I waltz past the front desk, whip out my AMG4 light machine gun, kick down the door to the left, and immediately gun down the armed guards on the other side. Panic ensues at the desk, and I hear a loud thud as a door behind the reception is flung open and more security is marching towards me with silenced pistols brandished. I swiss cheese their heads immediately. For good measure I march over to their corpses and coarsely stomp them into pulp, their bits splattering across the walls, and gum around in the mess of their bits to salvage their kidneys and pancreases for later sale on the biomaterial speculation market.

I walk through the back room shipping area and snack on a bag of Super Crunchers™ potato chips next to a few of the backroom staff that are clad in bright yellow jumpsuits. The nearest is repeating a mantra to themselves about how they are a beautiful millionaire, trying to spiritually manifest wealth and good looks. The other remarks that he has zero luck and will never win anything. I guzzle a can of Hungry Human Soda™ with a delightful "mmm" and head to the floor of the casino.

Rather than walk across the floor, I sling my grappendix off my arm (an exterior intestine for swinging around) to the ceiling and deftly land in front of the slot machines, where I proceed to pull row after row of levers. One particularly menacing machine appears to be covered in muscle sinews instead of a regular set of wheels, and upon stopping spits out a skinned, decapitated head through the air, which spirals into the toxic waste moat running through the middle of the room that separates the casino floor from reception.

I waltz around the glass partition dividing the room and notice two fellow members of my employ, Cruelty Squad, guarding another slot machine in the middle of the floor. Without hesitation or sense of comradery I whip out my silenced Mowzer SP99 sniper and blow their heads off, all in front of a largely uncaring audience of gamblers, who have little regard for the geysers of blood as they continue to go about their day at the casino.

I decide to pulverize the guard corpses too, and loot a tactical liver. One of the denizens remarks to me during this that the casino gets you to keep coming back by initially letting you win a bunch. This makes enough sense to me. I step up to the slot machine they were guarding, and another gambler explains that this spits out firearms. I give it a go, but it just pathetically spits out a New Safety M62 revolver that tumbles across the felt carpet, complete with "suspicious 38 special rounds", which is about as useful as a can of spaghetti for how long it takes to fire (although, comedically, anyone shot with it immediately explodes).

Instead I cut back, walking through the unexplored storerooms, killing a few lurking mercenaries and mutants waiting there, till I happen upon the owner of the casino. His swollen cranium is sometimes referred to as a "waffle head" by those with less regard for psykers, but here he makes good use and immediately I am seizing, my vision appearing to be popping out of my head, and I involuntarily spray my remaining AMG4 rounds erratically through the room as my finger muscles involuntarily contract.

Frustrated and spiraling, mouth practically frothing, I stumble over to his desk and unceremoniously punt him into the nearest wall, my vertical entry boosters embedded in my legs putting enough force behind it to render him a splatter of goo and chunks. I pick up his psychobrain for later and galavant out the front door of the casino past the waiting law enforcement (who are gifted a few machine gun rounds from my newly looted K&H X20) and to the exit. I sell the casino owner's brain for $2428.17 retail and use the money to purchase a pair of Gunkboosters, which grant a double jump in exchange for spitting biological goo out holes in my ankles.

Did you enjoy Hotline Miami? You'll love this. Brutal, randomly generated worlds that get continually more difficult the farther you go without dying. There's currently about 8 characters implemented, each with their own unique perks and abilities. Take it for a spin and you won't regret it.