Recent reviews by tootstorm

I love the bizarro style and writing in Arctic Eggs -- would probably rate a 7 or 8 / 10 if this was just a stylised walking sim -- but the gameplay loop around cooking using intentionally bad physics (a la Goat or Surgeon Simulator) is so obnoxious and awful that I regret playing Arctic Eggs and cannot believe how highly rated it is.

It's effectively just another game made for Twitch streamers and YouTubers.

Overboss is fixed! Overboss is fixed!!!

It's a great implementation of the board game with a lot of visual flair. It's not quite Monster Couch or Dire Wolf when it comes to the flair, but it's a few steps above the majority of board game adaptations on here.

It's unfortunate that the initial outpouring of negative reviews due to bugs may have cursed this game permanently. If you consider yourself at all a fan of board games like Cascadia or Calico from Flatout Games, Overboss carries the same tile placement DNA. It's a bit more simple than those two in strategy -- and, if I'm honest, the gameplay lacks the polish of either* -- but there's certainly room on the digital shelf for it.

One of the biggest bonuses and let downs is the inclusion of a solo campaign mode, with limited chances to complete three challenges across a series of levels. Here's where I hope the developers are able to put more work into it and take some nods from Monster Couch's Calico adaptation, because as it stands, the challenges are far, far, far too reliant on RNG. I keep coming back for more, but it doesn't mean I'm enjoying having to put down three castles all occupied by vampires when RNG means I never see three of either total, and subsequently just lose a life. A bit silly.

* (I really wish they Brotherwise dedicated some time to expansions and improvements more consistently beyond the Duel implementation, because if we got those...Overboss would be a strong contender against the aforementioned titles. The style and gameplay loop don't need improvements, just the tile balance and asymmetry.)

Calico is one of my absolute favourite board games, bridging together a killer theme (cute kitties napping on quilts) and brain-burning gameplay. Following on Wingspan, Monster Couch are still at the top tier for adapting board games. They supplement the loss of tactility that inherently comes with the territory by adding novel little touches -- in this case, cute kitties that walk all over your game board, a story mode more meaty than the series of quality challenges Flatout Games are known for, and the ability to add and dress up your own kitties.*

Calico makes for a much more challenging and tight experience than you'd expect given the look of it. It's frequently compared to Cascadia, and while I love Cascadia, I think Calico is simply a better, tighter game.

I've only played this solo so far. It's an essential adaptation if you're in any way a solo board gamer. Flatout Games' solo challenges are retained from the physical game on top of the above mentioned story. Fantastic work, Monster Couch!!!

---

* Compare it to, say, Spirit Island or Gaia Project, which are as close as you can get to adapting the physical game with zero flourishes. As great as they still are, I wish they were more in line with Wingspan and now Calico for building on the physical game.

One of the best digital adaptations of a board game out there. I think I actually prefer this to the physical game.

Offers both a faithful recreation of the automa deck, as well as options for AI opponents if you're a fan of solo boardgaming. Can't wait to see the followup adaptation of Calico. :miao:

My only gripe is the *long* wait we've had to endure for additional expansion content. The European deck is fine, but it's the Oceania expansion that really opens the game up!

An important note: Trying to start RTJP without having played through the base game campaign gives a warning that *this* campaign is for experienced players. Nonsense. Jump in to RTJP if what you want is 1993 Jurassic Park nostalgia. I enjoyed my time with JWE and this expansion, but also kinda wish I just dove in here and didn't spend the ~25 hours playing the base game. While some of RTJP's missions are a bit more complex than the base game, most of it teaches you how to play the game as you go. Just the same as before.

Return to Jurassic Park is a short narrative expansion for the base game that streamlines and simplifies the park management aspects to make it resemble the park we all saw in 1993. Really, it cuts out the fat of having 10 different types of buildings that all serve the same function. The number of dinosaurs is also reduced, with focus given to those we saw in the original trilogy. That sounds like a negative, but the base game has more dinosaurs than anyone can squeeze into their park -- the flashy ones from the movies are the only ones any fan is interested in, anyway. The streamlining this expansion introduces is thus for the better, imho.

So...the narrative. RTJP brings back Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Sam Neill. I have no idea how they got these three to come back for this expansion and I can't help but wonder how much of the budget it ate.

It's amazing to have them back, and it helps feed the absolute nostalgia overload this game brings, but...there is barely a story here (much like the base game), and it's not a good story in the least. Just excuses to loosely connect a series of simplistic goals that teach the game's mechanics or imitate scenes from the films. None of it makes sense, and everyone with the exception of Goldblum acts out of character and phone in their lines from beginning to end.

You get 7 fairly long and involved missions here across a couple maps, but it feels a lot shorter than it should be. The content comes to a close and lets you play with the sandbox right as it's getting good, which might be fine if I wasn't so burned out with JWE as a whole by the time I got here. On the plus side, the map that opens the sandbox here is easily the best map in the game.

Yes. YES. YES!!!

Take a Building Full of Cats' hidden cat gameplay and:
* Dramatically improve the art.
* Add animations.
* Add an adorable story. That ends with snuggies and wuggies.
* Fill the game full of side quests and purrsonalities to befriend.
* Add a map.
* Add a final...boss?!?!?
* Add flippin' Metroidvania elements. M E T R O I D V A N I A. In a hidden object game.

It works so well. Too well. And of course it ends with a lovely message about caring for your cat friends and helping out with shelters &c.

Add Devcats to the essential indie dev list, please, as well as any sequel to this here game. Can't wait for a Tower Full of Cats.

Heckin' yeah. As an obsessive cat person, this game -- and the entire dev team, tbqh -- is my jam. Very thoughtful puzzles and message for caring for your kitty friends (#AdoptDontShop, e.g.).

The experience is short and sweet -- taking about 50 minutes to 100%. There are 5 -- sort of 6 -- floors to explore, plus a bonus one added as free DLC later. Each floor simply has you hunting for (usually) 50 cats spread across a living space and a bathroom. Each floor also comes with a slew of hidden kitties to find on top of the kitties -- *plus* Fofiño, who you get the pleasure of adopting at the end. The whole experience is just super cute and worth it if you need a relaxing night away from your worries and surrounded by kitties.

The only downside I can think of -- I immediately jumped into a Castle Full of Cats, and it's a *massive* upgrade to this that partially makes this feel like a demo product for the real game. While I really enjoyed this, can already tell that I'm going to adore the heck out of its sequel.

The Outer Worlds has a bit of an identity problem. It combines all these excellent ingredients together -- biting satire of capitalism, a sense of humor, a complex loot system, classic RPG mechanics and level progression, companions to customise and develop relationships with, gorgeous graphics (on some planets), and a wealth of side quests -- but not a whole lot of it clicks, and by the end of its long runtime I was burned the heck out and ready to move on.

The satire against capitalism is nice in theory, but the writing mostly beats you over the head with the same point again and again while keeping it on the surface. The deepest we get is the dire Spacer's Choice tale in the Peril on Gorgon expansion -- which is fantastic -- but the main game recycles its surface-level satire too much.

The loot system is my main issue. It is exhausting. You waste so much time picking up trash to sell or sift through in your inventory. So much is thrown at you -- thousands of weapons and armour, limitless ammo, and 500 consumables that all do one of five effects which, for some reason, the inventory system refuses to combine. If this were an intentional aspect of the satire, it might be brilliant -- but it doesn't mean it's fun to play. I never used anything by the basic adreno to heal because I just could not care to explore all this junk, particularly since the game is quite easy. (I'm quite baffled why there were so many stores and perks centred around the stores when you never needed to buy a single thing...especially not ammo.)

I didn't really mind the game's difficulty since I mostly play games for fun stories and role-playing characters, I just think it clashes with the game's other issues like that awful loot and inventory system.

Companions...they're a fun bunch. Their questlines are a mixed bag, some of which hurt the characters and their development rather than benefit them.
. Felix's story felt incomplete to me, and I consequently never really used him.
. S.A.M. had no story -- no one cares about S.A.M.
. Parvati...I was excited to play with Parvati as a companion after seeing some articles laud her for LGBTQ representation, but, while I applaud some of the unique choices about her character (and I also liked that she's just Kaylee from Firefly even if it is unoriginal), her questline is just hot garbage and I struggled through it start to finish (while dropping her as a main companion for Ellie). Her *entire* questline is just setting her up on a date with a strange lady who met her for two seconds in a professional setting and then dumped a barrage of love poetry on her as well as ramblings about one of her exes. That itself is not the problem, it's that it goes from 0 to 100 in 3 seconds and stays there with no development, all while Parvati just infodumps her own personal life while gushing over her new crush with no build up, either. It's lost potential, is what it is, and it hurt.
. Nyoka is possibly my favourite for gameplay reasons, but her personality felt a bit under-developed despite the more involved side quest. I think her personality almost felt separated from that quest.
. Max is deeply flawed and interesting -- both annoying and likeable.
. Ellie was the Han Solo of the game, and subsequently a champ. Used her and Nyoka for most of the ride.

People also complain about the length -- and, sure, the main questline itself is really short *for a story-driven RPG* and if you stick to it, but if you go after side quests to any degree, it adds an *exorbitant* amount of hours to your journey. Unfortunately, I think I would have preferred a more succinct adventure. The side quests were largely forgettable fetch quests and padding with nary any development or interesting stories to tell. The more I played, the more bored I got with it. The amount of content I think is perfect -- both for the main story and the side stories -- I just wish the quality were more consistent.

The Outer Worlds is an enjoyable RPG from Obsidian, but I'm a bummed to admit it is not among their classics -- and it's one I'll likely never return to. It's the very essence of 7 outta 10. I felt fairly similarly about it as I did Fallout 4, but it wasn't quite as exhausting with filler content.

Kind of baffled by the time it took to finish. Steam has recorded 66 hours with both DLC included (both added 6 hours to my file), and, sure, I had my first kid the day after I started this game leading me to leave the game running for an untold number of dirty nappies, but the in-game timer seems way off at only 44 hours. But, sure, why not.

It's been over a decade since I've replayed the GOAT -- Deus Ex. This is my first time with the revision mod (obviously), which spices up the classic game in a myriad of different ways, including much-needed QOL updates for newer hardware. Oh, and you can finally play as she/her J.C., complete with the original VA that was cut from the game.*

It's amazing to me how much Deus Ex holds up. Still. Every time I play it, I'm blown away by the vision that was so far ahead of its time. The writing is everything you've heard and more -- the silly game-y stuff like I SPEEL MY DREENK plays a strong counterpoint to the philosophical bartender explaining the strengths of big government one floor down. The world is littered with real ideas -- real literature, real science, real statistics, real political and technological philosophy -- which none of the sequels have ever come close to repeating. Even Invisible War by the same team mostly replaced the real stuff with a parade of jargon that never really comes together to mean anything. Human Revolution and Mankind Divided would later repeat that approach, leaning the more grounded sci-fi of the original into sci-fantasy.

Really, though: Props to a silly video game for getting a pretentious 14-year-old to read G.K. Chesterton. & Gotta love the dry text and conversations on regression coefficients.

One thing I'm not fully sold on are the new level layouts which affect -- just guessing here -- about 1/3 of the maps. More than anything, they left me feeling like something was just off with my game. I remembered most of the layouts, but not everything. The level design changes were subsequently more disorienting than refreshing. Glad I tried them, but not sure they're always improvements -- there are certainly some I was not happy about.

Still, if you haven't played Deus Ex, you're missing out on one of the greatest games ever made. Stick with the dated gameplay -- the earliest levels really exaggerate this sense as J.C. needs to upgrade their skills and unlock a slew of powers before the game stops feeling so archaic and clunky. Revision is assuredly the best way to play it today.

One final moment to really appreciate and boost the work of Sheldon Pacotti, too. The lead writer behind much of what makes Deus Ex so danged good. The big names like Spector and Smith get a lot of well-deserved credit, sure, but Pacotti doesn't get enough. If you at all enjoy the writing of Deus Ex, take a moment to explore his self-published fiction. Demiurge and his short stories that date from around the same time as DX are solid, but his more recent novel Gamma truly shines as a bit of a spiritual sequel to the ideas of Deus Ex. Brilliant sci-fi, and I'm still a bit burned *for* Sheldon for having to self-publish it to zero fanfare for frankly sad reasons in the end.

* (It's still a bit buggy and incomplete, and male JC randomly interjects at times.)

An instance where I wish I could give a neutral rating, but will lean positive as I really love supporting Szymanski's work.

Heavy on concept, light on gameplay -- I found Iron Lung to be quite enthralling, but also underwhelming to play.

The world-building is as good as you'd expect from the dev -- ridiculous, but...interesting.

95% of this game is just blindly steering a submarine on the surface of a mysterious moon's *blood* ocean. Yes, an ocean of blood. As you're blind, you're working off x-y coordinates and double-checking a map every minute or so to ensure you're not veering off course. You're only down there to photograph unknown objects that were detected and the wreckage of a prior vehicle. While you do all this, you're occasionally disturbed by the local, er, wildlife. I enjoyed the lore and coming upon the mystery objects down there, but the physical gameplay of steering the sub is just...not very fun. And that's most of the game between the spooks and scares.