Recent reviews by catwhowalksbyhimself

A simply excellent old style turn based RPG. A truly engaging strategic battle system where the environment is another weapon to wield against your enemies--and if you don't watch out, the AI will use it against you.

Competent AI enemies, lots of skills and trait choices to make and lots to explore and see.

The one problem I have is it can be very east to click on the right thing by mistake. Enemies move a bit during their animations, making the small ones sometimes hard to click on. Click on an empty space because they just happened to breathe in that moment, and you character moves instead, which can mean the difference between wining and getting your whole party whipped out. Strategic mode probably helps fix this but it's not very obvious that it's even there, so I tend to forget about it.

This game is also pretty challenging, so if you are used to modern hand holding games, you might find it frustrating to replay the same battle five times. Stick with it and you'll find a challenging, deep experience.

Infinite space is back! It's still silly, it's still fun, and it's still the game we all loved. Apparently quite a few people were expecting a completely different game. They would also probably be complaining about that too.

While this game does have some small gameplay innovations, it is mostly an update of the game series with new graphics, UI, and such. If you're happy with the previous game, stick with it. I for one, feel it is a worthy update and as fun as ever.

A strange twist on pinball, where each ball is a character with it's own characteristics and special abilities. It somehow changes the game and makes it strangely fascinating, even for someone who doesn't like pinball normally like me.

There's also boss battles, equipment, mana points, and status effects as well as interestingly designed levels that don't feel like a pinball game. Check it out if you want something different.

I like Tower Defence games. Or, more accurate, I want to like them. I keep buying them. I keep trying to play them, but I inevitably get bored with them and quit after a few levels. Only a few rare Tower Defence games can really keep my attention. Both Orcs must die games and Defender's quest did it and kept me occupied for many fun hours, but I have not found anything I've like since. Until now.

Deathtrap is a Tower Defence/Action RPG hybrid. Like the later type of game, you have loot and lots of skills to choose from. You also build and upgrade traps like in the former. Unlike many games, hower, trap locations and types are fixed for a given level. In other words, you will have locations pre-set that you can only build a specific category of trap in. There are five types of traps for each, though, so you still have plenty of options.

While the main campaign only has 13 levels, you also have additional game modes, scenario only levels, and several New Game plus like modes that feature very diffent trap, entrance, exit, and moster waves for all the old levels. There really is plenty to do and plenty of room for expansion for future DLCS.

If you like TD, ARPGs or both, check out this game.

A puzzle game borrowing some ideas from Roguelikes and RPGs, Desktop Dungeons is a game about killing monsters in as effecient a way as possible, you can level up high enough to kill the final boss. This may sound like a typical RPG, but it's not. Each dungeon dive take a few minutes, with gold earned used to add new options for future dungeon dives.

What is Banner Saga? Banner Saga is a combination of multiple choice style adventure game, resource management game, and turn based tactical combat game. The original, Norse-based world is rich and intriguing and the writing, which dominates the non-combat parts of the game, is very well done.

The real start of the show is the combat system. It's very innovative and very different from anything I have ever seen. A unit's hit points is also it damage, so if your unit takes damage, it won't be doing much of it own and units with a lot of hit points you should tread very carefully around until you have whittled them down some. Armor subtracts directly from potential damage, but you can choose to attack the armor instead, which is independant of your hit points. Choosing when to attack the armor and when to attack the hitpoints is a key part of your strategy.

Another different aspect is that you always take a turn with one of your units, followed by the enemy, no matter how many units each have with the exception of the last unit left standing. This is one thing I've seen throwing a lot of people off. Turn based games train you to focus on one enemy at a time, whittle him down, then turn on the next. Trying to do this is not effective. Instead, you'll want to injure all the enemies so that they can no longer do enough damage to hurt you, then take them all down quickly. It's a very different approach and one that works quite well.

If you're up for a tactical combat game with a deep combat system and a rich fantasy world, then this game is for you.

Castlestorm--Part RTS, part arcade figthing game, part Angry Birds style castle breaking action, and all fun.

The basic gameplay has you with your castle (which you can build and upgrade yoursefl) facing an opposing castle. You can either knock it down or capture it flag, and you can use the ballista, your soldiers, or your hero, or a combination of all three. Using one means you aren't using the others, though, so picking which one works for you and when is a large part of the gameplay.

Add in some silly humor and cartoonish graphics and you have a very fun, very inexpensive game.

Space based 4x game in the vein of Master of Orion or Galactic Civilizations. The first 4x game I've played to successful make colonization a game long event, as well as force a lot of ballanced choices.