Recent reviews by Tziva

I've only played the demo for a game that isn't out yet, so take this review with a grain of salt if you're reading it at a later date. [note: my hours are not accurate and are inflated as once a process for the game kept running overnight after I had closed it]

Overall, I quite enjoyed it. I like word games, I like birds, and I like low intensity games I can play while I'm having dinner or watching tv.

The game feels a little too hard right now if you don't get lucky with RNG. I played all 50 demo attempts allowed on my bird and never made the full migration. I feel like the game may need some minor tweaks such as one more feather slot, or one more letter drawn.

Despite the fact I never came close to winning (I think my farthest travel was 11 stops), I did overall enjoy the game and I will probably purchase it upon release depending on price point.

I made a friend as soon as I logged in!

It is important that you understand that you can name your ducks.

Made me sob, but also made me very hungry.

The original Oxenfree is one of my top ten games ever so I have been anticipating Oxenfree II for a very long time and bought it the day of release.

You don't need to have played the first to understand this one, but having that backstory makes the story more interesting in my opinion. This game has the same spooky vibe, beautiful art and sound design, and interesting characters as you encountered in the original. The game is polished, the controls are simple and intuitive, and I have not encountered any bugs even as a day 1 player. I did occasionally have issues when trying to click on interactions moved my character rather than interacting, but this was infrequent, and probably be attributed more to user error.

The story in Oxenfree II didn't resonate with me like the first one, but I still thought it was well done and interesting. The dialogue is well-written, the main characters Riley (the character you play) and Jacob (her partner) are believable and likable. However, I think the game needed more depth with the minor characters; I found it hard to care about any of them. Even though this won't top the original for me in terms of the story itself, I still give it a hearty recommendation to anyone who likes this genre of games, or anyone who played and liked the original. Oh, and you CAN pet the dog!

Similar to the first, I imagine that I will also get a lot of extra time hunting achievements and alternative endings.

My only two complaints, both of which I hope are patched in later:

The indicator for when you hit save checkpoints (there is no manual saving) flashes quickly on the screen and is easy to miss, and save checks seem too infrequent, so leaving the game usually means you're going to have to replay through stuff you've already done and relisten to a lot of dialogue you've heard. There needs to be more save checkpoints, and there needs to be more obvious or intuitive where is a good stopping point when you're playing. Guessing when I could safely exit meant having to replay a lot of sections twice, which was not super fun.

Second, the game pauses when it is not your dominant window, even in Windowed mode. This is frustrating when multitasking, especially since a large part of the game is walking or listening to dialogue, where one might want to use that time to interact with whatever is on their second screen. Maybe in an ideal world, you'd be giving the game 100% of your full attention all the time, but in reality when there are work emails and discord messages and occasionally cute cat memes on social media, it would be nice to have the ability to interface with those while you wait on your character to scale a cliff wall.

Based on the few negative reviews of this game verses the positive ones, there seems to be one determining factor as to whether you like this Beacon Pines, so I'll just lay it out up front:

This is a visual novel that has one true ending. It is a "choose your own adventure" type story, but it is one that intentionally winds you through a bunch of bad endings on the way to the "correct" one. Your choices do not actually impact the ultimate conclusion of the game, but they will lead you through a variety of alternative universes where the fate of the characters was very different based on what decisions are made at key moments, but then it will rewind back to that determining moment, and have you choose again. So while your choices don't impact the conclusion of the game, they still impact your experience with it.

For me, the design of this was a massive positive and not a downside. Normally with "choose your own adventure" type stories, I feel compelled to play the game a bunch of times to see all possible endings. I loved the novel way that this game intentionally allows you to discover these organically along the way, so in a normal playthru you will see many or most of the possible endings. Additionally, makes it easy to change course when desired, whether because your choice was bad or just curiosity. If you do make a definite "wrong" choice, you find out almost immediately without wasting a lot of hours moving ahead in the story only to find out that a choice you made ages ago set the tale down the wrong path, and it puts you right back to that critical moment to choose again. I loved that by the time I finished the real story, I had only missed one single alternative outcome, and that in a few clicks and a few seconds, I was seeing what happened with that selection. Literally the only downside of this arrangement is that the game doesn't have any replayability unless you're going back for any missed achievements.

The characters are very endearing, the music is good, the art is beautiful, and I was surprised that what was supposed to be a casual mystery game had a lot of feels. The characters are not voice acted, but the narrator of the story is, and I thought it was very well done. Several parts of dialogue were laugh out loud funny, and I took a number of screenshots of things that amused or resonated with me. People have called the game juvenile, and it's true the characters are all kids and some of the jokes are a little silly, but I'm an old lady and I thought the story was cozy and sweet.

The only negative thing I can possibly say about this game is that there was a couple loose ends at final ending of the game that I expected to be wrapped up and addressed because the world had allowed the potential to do that. However, instead it choose not to, and to leave those things unresolved even though the story had implied a resolution was possible. I thought it was a little weird, but it did not change my overall feelings on the game at all. I enjoyed my time in Beacon Pines with Luka, Rolo, Beck, and the delightful cast of townies. (Shoutout to Dawn, the adorable bat who stole my heart, despite being a minor character).

This game is definitely worth the hours you'll spend in it -- I believe it took me just under nine -- so don't hesitate, especially if you can catch it on sale. If you like story games, visual novels, or walking simulators, definitely this is one to check out. It's the kind of game I played a little of each night before bed when most people would be watching tv shows or doomscrolling on their phones, and I feel it was infinitely better time spent for me.

I'm terrible at this game but I can't stop playing it. I have 109 hours in the game. That says a lot.

Supergiant makes great games. I have enjoyed them all and this is no exception. Fantastic gameplay, good story, great soundtrack. It has a very wide spectrum of challenge for all skill levels. Despite being about relaying the same thing over and over with escalating challenge, there is enough story content and variability with weapons to keep it engaging through all of that.

I don't like dating sims normally but this game is very well done. It is cute and funny and interesting and with a ton of variability in play, with choices that actually do matter, and doesn't feel overly romance-oriented. It is good silly fun. I got the game through HumbleBundle Monthly but immediately went and purchased the DLC after a few play-thrus because I was enjoying it so much. It is definitely worth checking out, especially if you can catch it on sale. The same goes for all the subsequent versions and content DLCs.

Night in the Woods is a real gem of a game. It is a story rich game with depth and meaning, endearing characters, clever dialogue, beautiful art, and stellar music. The characters are relatable, and there are many aspects of the game that will feel identifiable to pretty much everyone.

While still being funny and a bit whimsical, Night in the Woods touches on a lot of very real issues that people may encounter in their lives such as mental health, sexuality, relationships drifting apart, economic depression, etc. The inclusion of relevant social issues never feels token or pandering, but simply a reflection of the diversity of the human experience.

There are moments of sadness and helplessness and existential nihilism. Despite this, the game never feels depressing. If anything, it is trying very hard to be hopeful and meaningful. Your protagonist is surrounded by fiercely loyal friends and family, and an endearing cast of townspeople. The game is evocative but it is also funny and lighthearted at times. It feels real and it feels special.

There is a possum named Rabies the Trash King which alone justifies buying it.

A full play-through took me about nine hours but I've done multiple plays to get side storylines and the bits I missed the first run through. Some aspects of the story are mutually exclusive with each other, so it isn't possible to get everything in one run. This gives the game a lot of hours for the price, especially if you are a person that likes hunting achievements or easter eggs.

As a final note, as of the time of my purchase, Steam had this tagged with "platformer" as a genre. This game is not really a platformer and you may be disappointed if that is the kind of gameplay you are expecting. Although your character will almost certainly be doing a lot of jumping and vertical exploration, that is not the primary function of the game and almost every instance of it is optional if your objective is just to beat the game. This is more akin to a walking sim than a platformer in terms of its feel.

In conclusion, one of my favourite games in a long time. If you enjoy story-driven games, you should check this one out.

The Cat Games is absolutely worth the $2. It's an adorable design with three mouse-controlled games of feline schenanigans. It also has a number of easter egg interactions, puzzles and corresponding achievements. Just finding all the interactions was a delight. This isn't a game you're going to spend a lot of hours on, but I think anyone who likes cats will be tickled by it.

The only really problem is the really awful controls on the billiards game. Getting the right angle for the shot is very difficult (and seems to be an issue in both windowed and fullscreen). I actually like the concept of this particular game the best of the three, too, so it was a bit disappointing that it was so finicky. I hope that can be improved in a later patch because the game is really solid otherwise.

The Cat Games will definitely put a smile on any cat lover's face and give at least a couple hours of mindless enjoyment.