Recent reviews by Hobbes

In a very far future technomage styled setting, you are a Harbinger, a being sent forth to cleanse the land (yeah, stop me if you've heard this one before) and to wipe out the corrupt in a campaign that will take you across planets and ever more complex battles as you eliminate your foes and assert your dominance over the Golem Gates.


In a very far future technomage styled setting, you are a Harbinger, a being sent forth to cleanse the land (yeah, stop me if you've heard this one before) and to wipe out the corrupt in a campaign that will take you across planets and ever more complex battles as you eliminate your foes and assert your dominance over the Golem Gates.

It's not going to set the world alight with original storytelling, but what is here is very well told, and done with more than a hint of menace, this is not a terribly nice world, and even the good guys (which you are supposedly fighting for) feel more like the good guys who cleanse by exterminatus as opposed to the "We save the world with hugs and happiness" as you might expect from a more black and white game. It honestly feels like here it's evil and slightly less evil.

Your job is simple, you control a hero, and you are able to summon minions which you then control and send around the map to secure capture points, these capture points generate energy and/or unlock specific map features (such as spawning big controllable minions) which in turn fuel your ability to churn out more minions and spells (techs as they are known here), with the overall objective of burning down your opponent before he does the same to you.


God no, thankfully *actual* MOBA's stay off the menu for the forseeable, that involves the internet, the thing about Golem Gates is (at normal and preferably hard) it does have a decent enough AI to keep you busy at skirmish level, and there's a decent campaign plus trials plus survival mode, so you don't explicitly *need* to go PvP'ing if you don't need to, the rewards are not tilted to force you into multiplayer (probably for the good as right now the community is a bit sparse).

That said, this does check a lot of the MOBA boxes, you can summon in unique heroes, which have specific capabilities and need a clear understanding of how best to utilise them properly, you have a wide variety of minions you can spawn in, who work as cannon fodder to soak up damage and capture control points (enough of them *can* bring down an enemy summoner but you'll probably want a Hero or two along for the ride).

The energy capture point system is very reminiscent of say, Dawn of War's control point system, summoning relies on having "clear sight" to the area, which is generated based on what you or your minions see, so there's incentive to keep searching and spreading out over the map, concentrating your forces limits your ability to react to emerging threats but at the same instance means you've got your firepower available if say, a big load of nasty is about to hit you.

The graphics are serviceable, the sound is actually decent, bordering on good, the whole thing adds up to a competently executed package which in the moment to moment play would be good enough save for the one neat twist to this, the deckbuilding system. As you win games and progress you'll pick up cards which allow you to do the summoning and spellcasting, these are not purchasable with money so you'll need to work on earning the deck you want. The deck is something you finesse out of matches and put to work in matches, so there's a strategic element too, working out synergies and deck elements that play well together, this elevates the game from being decent to something worth investigating


I nearly missed this, frankly that would have been a crying shame because in a world of derivative sequels and janky indie experiments this is a seriously good game that hasn't got the attention it's rightly deserved. It's an honestly excellent game that likely won't get the Multiplayer audience it quite deserves, but the rest of it stands up on it's own well enough that you won't *need* there to be a booming multiplayer community.

Definitely one to have on your install list to dip into, thrash out your frustrations against the AI, and come out feeling a lot better about the world.

Verdict: Highly Recommended

Synthetik is an odd beast, a 2D tilted overhead view roguelike where you, a far future android, get to blow stuff up and are to find the Heart of Armageddon, a doomsday machine that will usher in the end of humanity. Yeah yeah, find big nasty, blow up big nasty, win game.

Fires up game, pauses...

... Two buttons for reload? What sorcery is this? You actually have to press a button to *eject* clips? And a third (though you can do it with the "R" button if you want to be dirty) for an active reload?

Initially the mechanic seems entirely counterintuitive, games like Enter The Gungeon already got the whole reload idea down to a fine art, except when you play the game, it rapidly becomes second nature, and the eject button is a conscious choice because in this game unless your weapon is modded the right way, reloads waste the remaining clip which means if you are one of these people who tends to reload obsessively to keep your gun topped up on the offchance that there's a big firefight around the corner, this can get very, very ammo expensive in a hurry.

The Eject button suddenly stops being the thing you press automatically and something you size up at the end of a frantic firefight - do you have enough in the clip to really *need* to toss a bunch of ammo simply to get the benefit of a full gun, are those last few rounds going to cost you down the line? For some guns this is much less of a problem (SMG's in particular you can ignore nearly half a clip and merrily be on your way as long as your ammo total is good), Sniper rifles? You'll be counting each and every shell as if it's a precious child of death that you need to cling to.

So fine, this game has one of the most realistic (for a game) ammo reload systems I've seen, that's cool, it's still a... wait what headshots? In a 2D game? HUH? I have to *aim* at the enemies heads? And there's a modifier that gives them realistic hitboxes?


Okay, so yes, I'll admit, I went into this expecting a far future version of Enter the Gungeon, the reality is probably somewhere between a 2D version of CS:GO plus Teleglitch plus EtG welded together in some kind of strange, beautiful experiment that has resulted in an almost perfect union. I say almost because there's a few issues with the game, some of which don't actually connect to the gameplay itself, but design decisions like for instance - LET ME TURN OFF THE ONLINE CHAT AND LOBBY NOTIFICATIONS, ALL OF IT. Some of us do not need the constant prompting that there's lobbies going up, we don't need a reminder that global chat exists, just give us a tickbox in the options menu that says "We're antisocial, let us get on with the game."

Also - locking a high tier starting pistol behind that survey is annoying as all sin. It turns out said pistol has some hefty damage alpha to it and is way, way ahead of the ones you get as the class base, so that scores you a negative mark. The 1,000 data cost for it was deliberate to get people to go to the survey, not cool.

Those are the only two significant blemishes on the game. I can't yet speak for the boss encounters (expect my review to be updated once I have) but the moment to moment gunplay, the grabbing of various upgrades and the fact the levels include enough variety to keep you interested regardless of whether it's the first or tenth or hundredth attempt shows testament that they've tuned their design exceptionally well.


There's a *massive* variety of guns to play around with, as of the time of this review there's four classes to play with (There needs to be a Pistol+SMG specialist class possibly marked as "Soldier") and there's an ungodly level of depth once you get into the whole "Upgrade your guns with things that can drastically affect their behaviour" during the game. Enemies too come in a vast number of varieties and variants, and their elite versions quickly force you to think strategically and time your reloads in cover.

This is a game that is built around, and specialises in gunplay, and it does this with superb style and aplomb, given the 2D nature this is particularly tricky as translating the weight and power of weapons can be a real issue, but suffice to say, it's been executed excellently, along with a solid soundtrack that keeps you engaged and perfectly fits the edge of armageddon vibe that's going on.

For the price of entry? You're going to get a lot of replayability, and if the devs support the game post release with extra classes and content, this game is easily one of the picks for the first half of 2018.

Verdict: Highly recommended.

FTL was Subset games surprise hit, out of nowhere was this finely balanced, brilliant game that could run on anything and was both accessible to just about anyone with a vague understanding of "Man go here" and "Zappy lasers make boom" but allowed for the kind of finesse and theorycraft that a hardcore strategy game would actually lift an eyebrow at. Not -both- eyebrows mind, but one for certain.

It was such a success the poor developers had to duck into hiding for a while as the sheer awesomeness of the game (which, by the way, if you don't own it yet, FOR THE LOVE OF DOG FIX THAT) literally blew them away, this was also backed by a seminal soundtrack by Ben Prunty which has probably seen him become the hottest thing since sliced bread as far as game soundtracks go (if not, again, that's a crime against humanity). He's back, much like Subset games, the three man band once more, making a new, and completely different game, rather than play it safe with "FTL the second" (HELLO AMPLITUDE, NO HIDING AT THE BACK, WE ALL KNOW WHAT YOU DID WITH ENDLESS SPACE 2 AND IT WASN'T FUNNY), they've been bold.

Very bold. And dear lord has it paid off, welcome to the end of the world, the planet is overrun by giant godzilla size nasty things that come out of the earth like an episode of Earth Defence Force and you're pretty much the last one standing, so the only fix? Go back in time and try to find a timeline where you don't suck. This may take a few goes. You get to select a mech team of three, all with clearly defined roles, and a named pilot (the other two spots go to Redshirts, competent redshirts mind, but definitely redshirts).

This is "hard" strategy in the sense that your enemy sets up their moves first, your job is then to mess up their plans as much as possible during your turn before they execute theirs. It's a blindingly simple formula that works effortlessly, you have perfect information on what your enemy is *going* to do at the start of your turn, you have limited resources (each unit has one move action, and one use action) and you must maximise their efficiency to protect the board resources against an ever growing threat.

TLDR? They move > You move and act > They act - That's what a turn looks like, by inserting you right in the middle of their turn cycle you get to *react* to their plans and by knowing exactly what's coming, there's no unfairness or BS from the AI. All the information including damage (there's no chance to miss, there is a slim chance for a building to -resist- but if you count on that you're a braver Tiger than I), and zones under threat is served up cleanly and easy to parse. Think invisible Inc but in a much tighter space.

Nothing is kept away from the player, there are no AI fudges, no hidden bonuses or maluses, you know where units will spawn on the next turn (and can even use that information to your advantage), you can manipulate opposing units through push and pull actions depending on what you have equipped (and through use of this you can slam enemies into the terrain and each other), as well as debuff them in a variety of ways, and of course, you can kill 'em.


Much like FTL you're given a massive number of unlockables to unearth, in this case coming both in the flavour of pilots with portraits and skillsets, and mech companies who bring their own unique weapons mix to the table (the first company is, much like FTL's baseline ship, actually pretty competent all round, and as you unlock the more esoteric options, you'll come up with increasingly clever strategies to bug hunt). There's even the option to configure your own custom mech loadout (though the requirements to earn medals from that setup are steep, demanding you show some real mastery of the game at that point).

The opening mech team is effective, if a little weak on damage, and will find themselves in need of serious upgrades if they are to remain capable beyond island two, however, once you unlock Blitzkrieg or the Rusting Hulks, the game opens up dramatically, electric smoke and weapons that can chain through half the map really give you ways to clean up large chunks of the map in a hurry, though with the additional power comes the need to manage positions and be a lot more careful in the use of such things (big weapons mean big messes if you're not careful).

This is a game where every decision really does matter, and every turn is laden with cost/benefit choices, do you protect a city block or put your mech in harms way in order to buy your ailing power grid a little more time, do you make a high risk blitz move to kill some bugs knowing your mech is going to be on nearly no health the next round, who do you prioritise, can you find a way to shove that high health bug into the water, instantly killing it, the game is full of micro-decisions that keep the game tilting between victory and defeat and it never feels like you're effortlessly coasting nor being utterly overwhelmed (except the times you screw up, and then you *know* things are going to hit the fan).


Graphics and sound are very much stamped with that FTL signature, retro graphics but once again to a superb standard, with the kind of soundtrack that's going to have people reaching for the "Buy soundtrack" button again. FTL had one of the best soundtracks for it's time and Into the Breach isn't that far behind it.

It took a long time for the makers of FTL to come up with something and you know what?

If they serve up dishes this good, I'm happy to wait.

Verdict : Buy the everliving hell out of this. They've done it again, those magificent bstrds

It should be noted that this is a pack of heroes, and rings, and an amulet.

It costs less than four skins from some heroes. This represents the correct price for marketing content whereas the skin prices are still out of whack even after they reduced them when laughably they cost more than the game itself.

League of Geeks, sort your pricing and your content out, seriously.

I should not have to keep writing this, but apparently I do.

Get this content pack if you have the game since you'll need it to keep current, but don't hand them money for hero skins until they drop to appropriate pricing.

And as an aside - Your community policing is still abysmal, I just noticed another ban laid down for what I can only deem to be "squashing people who critique your product", you're not very good at this whole managing your community are you?

Using them, possibly.

Lacks Mohammed.

If you're going to troll most religions (and having Jesus going gangsta is about as troll as you can get) then you absolutely need to have our friendly religion of peace mascot in the mix.

Show some #courage hmm?

As one of the earliest supporters, Book of Demons has been a serious win thus far. I'm looking forward to see what comes up in books two and three.

Saves to the registry. This game is therefore potentially hazardous to the safety and stable functioning of your Operating System.

This review is now final on account of the developer actions as intimated at in the developer response. My reviews are just that, reviews. They are not places for Developers to make implied threats regarding community guidelines.

Developer responses are designed for the developer to respond to the reviewer and acknowledge, dispute or discuss claims made in the review, as this has not been done, this constitutes an abuse of the developer response area.

I will no longer be reconsidering my stance on this review.

Update : As noted by the developer, this matter has been resolved, however, I will not be updating this particular review. I will however offer them a fair shake on their new release and approach it with a fresh mentality and with no prejudicial judgment on account of their (eventual) willingness to update their game to stop being a risk to the underlying OS.

Matt settles in for another boring night of reading algabraeic game theory (irony, that's a subject I touched on in my academic studies), and before he's even had a chance to skive off for the first nightly trip to the loo he's stuffed into a Maserati at gunpoint and enrolled into a high stakes heist to rob a very small piece of very expensive porcelain from a very powerful and dangerous chinese family.

And you thought this game was going to be about a Late Shift as a car park attendant. YOU FOOL.


The game is something between a full on movie and a VN, where the choices occur as the reel rolls in real time, this means every decision has a very definitive time constraint, and every option is going to leave you with a very definite sense of "Cost benefit" analysis as you move through the film. Some of the choices are very throwaway, with only minimal impact on the storyline, others have some impact, leaving imprints on how things play out (a specific point at the end neatly bookends a choice at the beginning). Others will cause the storyline to go veering off wildly into different directions, some of them highly unpleasant.


Broadly speaking this is -not- a kid friendly film, at all, the whole thing can turn very grim in the late stages, with a bit of torture, some violence and a peppering of coarse language but it's used well, and the actors to their credit all play their parts at least competently, with standout performances going to Parr, Woe, Mei-Ling and Matt, each playing their respective parts absolutely pitch perfect at the respective points that you actually get to encounter Woe and Parr properly.


Suffice to say, your choices shape what Matt becomes, and how he behaves, he can try to undermine things and play the part of the "good guy", or he can dive in and become a part of what's going on around him. The game handles the process with exceptional ease, and despite the runtime being around 50 or so minutes, this is a high quality 50 minutes you get to spend in the company of these characters. Whilst it may not stand up to many many repeat playthroughs (indeed, seven endings, and a bunch of them revolve around what happens down one specific branch), the first playthrough alone will leave you thoughtful. That's worth the entry fee.

Verdict: A movie that is also a game, and it's -good-. If this appeals, buy the hell out of it. I found it highly worth the time.

Danmaku unlimited as a series is great. Don't get me wrong. It really is. But it suffers the curse of being put in with a field on Steam that is made up of even greater company. Bug Princess by Cave has the brutal difficulty angle sewn up, Ikaruga has the absolute classic angle nailed, Jamestown has the glorious pixel-art sorted. In order to stand out in this genre, you absolutely have to bring something new to the table.

As good as Danmaku Unlimited is, it does not bring anything new to the table. It brings a lot of -good-, but nothing -new-. The greatest sin here is that if you've played a lot of bullet hells, this is going to feel immensely familiar, and you're going to blast through it fast, nothing is prone to catch you out. At all. Now that may be a plus point, if that's what you're after, but if you're seeking something to change up the formula? Yeeeeee-no.


Mechanically, it works great. You have a ship with a teeny tiny hitbox, same as most "Eastern" BHell games, you have anywhere between "Mildly offensive" and "Absolutely terrifying" levels of hostile fire coming toward you, and you pump out similarly scary levels of fire back, with your only choice generally being "Do I spam the screen with lots of little beams or do I fire ONE BIG BEAM at something that needs cracking open like a walnut."

It has good Bullet Hell music, albeit not outstanding music, it has good graphics, albeit not outstanding graphics, you see a pattern here? If a game could ever nail what I'd define as the absolute essence of an "8 out of 10", this would be it. The problem is there's games out there such as Revolver360 Re:Actor that do -better-.

The problem is that for all the good it does, it's been beaten to it by other games, maybe not in every field, but in each area I can name at least two or three games that stand above it. The one area it does win out on is bang for the buck. It's kinda hard to argue with this kind of quality at this kind of price point. It's a very, very solid return on investment, particularly if you're a bullet hell fan.


Does that make this a "Do not buy"? Far from it. If you're a fan of bullet hells, chances are you already own it. If you don't, eventually you should, but I'd genuinely suggest you look around first, there's a decent market now on Steam for this genre, and there's more innovative and interesting options around. If however you've already consumed them and you need a fix of something fairly solid and fairly entertaining, then sure, this works, it will scratch the itch quite nicely.

Verdict : Buy, definitely worth grabbing on a sale, if only to put in the "To do" list,

All I can say is it took them long enough. Far too long.

I will be updating my main game review with the fact the Bandits are available and not at a ridiculous price.

However the treatment of the community at the hands of LoG has to change if there's to be anything significant in the future, otherwise this may be seen as a swan song for the game as LoG have made it clear they're more interested in low effort, high return work (skins) as opposed to high effort work (content) whilst they focus on their next project.

There's still so much to fix (Dice ordering for instance) but the chances of that happening are at best, slim.

We shall see.

That said, now I can tentatively recommend this game. LoG's conduct notwithstanding.