Recent reviews by RattyRattington

Plays fairly identical to Grounded 1 which is awesome since there's plenty of familiar elements. I was skeptical of the buggies (pet mounts) at first but they're not as strong in combat as i expected and much better at just being a distraction. The mobility of the mounts seems kinda crazy to me since it speeds up exploration dramatically (and also lets you flee from predators easily) but if they're going to make the world bigger than Grounded 1's then it's a necessary evil I suppose. My main complaint is that if you enter certain zones the developers don't want you to with the buggy (cold areas or labs) they just auto send your buggy home without warning (apparently you can call them back with T which I was unaware of, so it is but a minor inconvenience).

One thing worth mentioning is that 2 handed clubs combined with the smasher mutation seems to just outclass any other weapon in the game. I was using the tier 2 Red Ant Club you get fairly early on through the entire game and nothing seemed to outperform it. Not even the tier 3 weapons. The damage you do when something is stunned is an insane advantage to any fight combined with the fact that clubs will stun something quite quick. I also had the ambush mutation so that I could crit the first hit on unaware opponents too. If sneaking up on the enemy wasn't an option I'd just bow & arrow the first hit for a good chunk of hp gone for free before I went in with the club. It almost felt too strong but I guess Grounded 1 was similar with the Red Ant Club as well. I didn't do a full ranged or mage build, but I did use bows and staves on the side and they seem vastly improved over Grounded 1's and were useful for some scenarios and cheesing.

Tech issues from the upgrade to Unreal Engine 5 aside, a very solid foundation for the future. It was playable for me solo and I explored every nook and cranny until i was satisfied. I cleared every ranger challenge and completed all of the early access content that is currently available. I think I'll back off now and let them cook while i slowly forget everything. I trust these developers alot and hope they iron out the performance issues and give us a big juicy world to explore and a fun story just like Grounded 1.

For those completely new to Grounded, there's no rush. Just go play the first Grounded, It's finished and a complete gem (one of the best survival games ever made imo).

For anyone jumping into Grounded 2 early, do expect variable framerate, crashes and a fair amount of bugs.

Rare Konami W.

Never thought I'd see the day... No longer do we have to crawl on dodgy sites for roms and emulators to experience three of the best Castlevania games out there. This is probably the most optimal way to play the DSvania games now and they play SO smoothly.

They handled the pen touch screen aspect (forced gimmick really) of the Nintendo DS counterparts by letting you control a cursor with the other thumbstick or you can just use the mouse. Dawn of Sorrow's infamous magic seals now lets you just use a button sequence instead of the janky seal drawing feature from DS. Map and enemy/stats screens are split on the right side of the screen by default and it works very well but you can also customize the DS screens in alot of different ways if you'd like.

Now we just need Symphony of the Night and also Harmony of Despair.

I would recommend this collection a thousand times over. It's a great starting point as well if you're new to Castlevania. The price is absurdly justified for these gems. BUY IT.

CHARLOTTE JONATHAN CHARLOTTE JONATHAN CHARLOTTE JONATHAN CHARLOTTE JONATHAN.

This game is likely going to become viral in the near future. It's a simple concept, you risk your life to find and sell scrap to meet a quota before a deadline in abandoned procedurally generated buildings on moons.

Absolutely get Lethal Company if you have a group of friends to play it with. Ideally 3-4. Duos might be doable with difficulty but solo will not be a good time. Don't use Discord for voice communication, there is excellent proximity voice chat which enhances the experience greatly. Most importantly go in BLIND and have fun.

This is actually a decently fun ghost hunting game among all the ones that have spawned after Phasmo. It has quite a satisfying photo system and you can exorcise the ghost after identifying it by crafting the corresponding bullets and offing it which is also satisfying. Fair warning though the game is EXTREMELY grindy. There's 3 ghost guilds to build reputation for but the XP grind is ludicrously slow. Good luck trying to 100% the achievements. UI and keybinds are also very alien and confusing but you get used to them after a bit. I can deal with these my main issue is below.

Unfortunately I have to give the game a bad review because over half a year later and they haven't fixed this random obscure low level fatal error crash that just happens randomly for no apparent reason and I've tried absolutely everything I can on my end to fix it. Game runs 100% fine and you can play several matches without anything going wrong and suddenly bam. Crash and you lose all your progress on a mission with a low level fatal error. Me and my friend who play this game both have this issue and I've never had this issue in any other game. Probably some dev-side oversight with unreal engine and GPU drivers.

Solo dev and he's french so there's a language barrier and he doesn't seem to know how to fix this issue which is a true shame for an otherwise alright ghost hunting game. I dunno if it's just me either but I've posted about it in discord and steam discussions and I can no longer find any of my posts so it kinda gives me a bad vibe of the whole thing being swept under the rug.

If anyone finds a solution to this low level fatal error issue that seems to affect a small percentage of players, let me know but until then be aware because if you're unlucky this issue can go unnoticed past the point of refunding. I peek the reviews once in a while and still see people mentioning the low level fatal error so it clearly has not been fixed yet...

Basically Vampire Survivors but free and with cute vtubers. Can't really go wrong.

The gameplay is so fun that chances are you'll like it even if you don't care about vtubers or know what Hololive even is.

Out of nowhere they've censored and butchered the game to make it suitable for "modern audiences". After 10 years of this game being out it makes no sense at all. If this is what modern people want then I want no part of this.

I'm not big on fighting games, but I got this game ages ago because the art style was appealing and also slightly ecchi but nothing crazy and it looked pretty solid overall (+ it had music from the Castlevania composer). I was planning on finishing the story mode at some point but now they've started altering and removing stuff. It's not often I'd even consider using the Steam refund system, but this is one of those times where I genuinely would if I could.

I cannot recommend a censored game if there's no way to opt-out of this madness therefore I will be not recommending Skullgirls in its current state. A paid product should not have stuff removed nearly a decade after release. A true shame. I thought the game was popping off when it suddenly started getting updates again...

I got addicted to the needy girl.

A creative take on livestreaming/vtuber culture. You live with and manage your girlfriend's livestreaming career and she does everything you tell her to in hopes that you will lead her to success. (She's also a bit unstable, has some mental issues, is very unpredictable and things might go horribly wrong out of nowhere). It's a surprisingly deep game with loads of endings and kinda strikes some of the same notes with the psychological horror-y stuff as Doki Doki Literature Club. Music slaps and the pixel art is godly. Needy Streamer Overload is easily one of my favorite games of 2022. My only regret is not hopping on the train sooner. I didn't go too in-depth in my review since I believe it's something best experienced mostly blind, but I highly recommend it and I'd say it's worth full price too imo.

🙏 BLESS 🙏

Also if you liked the game, they have a lovely animated Steam background for 2000 Steam points:
https://store.steampowered.com/points/shop/c/backgrounds/cluster/0/reward/159433

The beloved 2012 RPG Maker classic Ib is back. I highly recommend it for old-time players seeking to relive the nostalgia and new players alike.

Some of the key differences in this remake are some of the level layouts and puzzles being changed, removed and even brand new additions to make the Art Gallery make more sense and be less difficult and more streamlined. The graphics have also been improved and a zoom mode was added which I didn't use much, but it's cool that it exists. Plenty of UI changes/art improvements too.

However the best feature of this remake in my opinion is the talk to your partner feature. It's really interesting hearing Garry's thoughts and opinions on various areas, events and puzzles and learning a bit more about him (Mary too!) and seeing their relationship with Ib. A TON of dialogue has been added via this feature alone, I recommend using it alot. It primarily feels like fanservice for old-time Ib players and might be a bit tedious to new players though but it adds alot of life to the game. I just kept talking to Garry after doing literally anything lol.

Oh and a useful piece of advice to keep in mind is that there's an achievement for seeing all 150 of Guertena's artworks, so be sure to interact with everything (and with Garry present if possible since they don't count if Ib's 9 year-old brain can't understand the words).

There's a few minor downsides(?) in my opinion, though I don't even know if I'd actually complain about them, but I thought I'd list them anyway. The UI is different and while I'm all for it, I do miss the old health system of seeing the rose decay and wilt with missing petals the more damage you've taken instead of the color just fading like it does now. Mary's theme also seems to have changed due to copyright, but I ended up warming up to her new theme in the end. There's also a chase sequence which was alot more intense on the old version (loads more enemies), but it's super dumbed down and easy on the remake.

Basically Ib modernized but a bit more easy with some additional features and some new content. Interesting for old and new players. The original is still free, so you could always just play that too. If you're brand new to Ib, you could go with either version honestly but it's nice to support the creator after such a great game being free all this time.

All in all, pretty solid game and the best of its genre (that Pacify kinda pioneered) currently. It started out with 1 map, but it's since gotten tons of free updates that don't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Devour has seen the addition of several maps (new monster on each), some characters, a hard difficulty, a battery item, a perks system and some customization since it came out. With the price of only being about 5 dollars, you can't really go wrong.

The gameplay is basically just sacrificing 10 objects of some sort with some steps in-between (usually collecting fuel of some sort to burn said objects) against a cultist possessed by Azazel that gets faster the more you achieve your objective. They also have minions that increase in number. Your only tool of defence is a UV mode on your flashlight with limited recharge that can burn away the minions or temporarily stun the Azazel (and even completely pacify them back to passive mode temporarily if stunned enough times) though it's faster to just have a teammate get caught and revive them if doing co-op.

However there is a large Achilles' heel in the gameplay and it is the major downside of Devour currently and that is the setup. It's absurdly efficient and basically a no-brainer to (for example): run 10 gas cans near where you burn the 10 ritual items so you don't have to hunt for them later when you need them, so you have to spend a good 3-10 mins doing that as well as finding all the randomly spawned keys to randomly locked rooms. You'll basically be doing this EVERY single time you start a map and also repeating this everytime you die. It's an especially glaring issue in singleplayer and it can get extremely boring doing this over and over... There's no threat or thrill, it's just you repetitively holding shift and running items back and forth. It can be faster if you do multiplayer and have competent teammates familiar with the map, but it's basically a "you need friends thing or the game is tedious". Even with friends it can take a bit and it's still just a tedious chore in general. Not to mention there's achievements in solo for each map for each difficulty, but no love for solo players in the game at all. Not even any bonus XP.

I would put this review neutral if I could, but unless something is done to remedy the setup time I unfortunately have to give it a negative review. It just feels like too big of a flaw and a poor game design choice. Not to say the game isn't fun regardless, but it's still unfortunate. I'll be following the game and playing it occasionally regardless.

Really fun game. I've had my eye on it for a while before release. It's greatly inspired by Phasmophobia but it's got its own unique enough spin to stand on its own. In Forewarned, there's alot less waiting around. You can loot up a procedurally generated Egyptian themed dungeon while also collecting evidence on what the Mejai is (this game's term for the AI entity you're up against) as you explore. You can do objectives for gold and XP. You can even just grab the gold and leave to bank it without any risk if you so wish.

When you first enter the dungeon, your goal is basically to explore, loot gold and complete objectives but the big reward comes from acquiring and escaping with a relic which is locked in a room known as the inner tomb which is where the Mejai is sealed. The Mejai is only in spirit form around the dungeon and is relatively harmless UNTIL you open the inner tomb. The catch is that you cannot open the inner tomb unless you know what the Mejai is via the evidence you've collected. Outside of the inner tomb is some panels and a button for you to input the correct Mejai and once you do so you can loot the relic. All that's left after that is to escape. Simple right? This is where things get dangerous since the Mejai gains a physical form. All Mejai have a unique physical form and behavior but fortunately you'll be prepared if you did your research correctly. In addition to the Mejai becoming a real physical threat, the door to the exit is also locked until you find a randomly spawned blue lever somewhere in the dungeon whilst also avoiding the Mejai.

The Mejai variety is pretty decent in terms of gameplay and traits. There's an aggressive silent chaser that hates torches, a loud blind one but with good hearing, a teleporting "no lights allowed" one, a mimic, an invisible to the naked eye one and finally a standard chaser that dislikes flashlights and summons minions when blinded. I feel like they're all fairly balanced with the exception of a bit of jank occasionally from the teleporting one (Necreph). The mimic (Ouphris) is also far too underwhelming. You ward him off with an amulet but his attack is very delayed so he just awkwardly follows you doing nothing in the meantime prior to his attack which is just free time to look for the blue lever. I really hope he gets changed in the future because right now he is the "free win" Mejai.

Forewarned also added a Mejai banishment feature (equivalent to exorcising a ghost). It requires some setup and is optional but the reward is really high and the devs weren't shy on giving you lots of XP and gold for it which I appreciate. Only problem is that banishments themself aren't satisfying even remotely. It just consists of scaring off or burning a few dozen copies of the same enemy but with different variations depending on the map. It may look flashy but it quickly becomes repetitive and has virtually no risk. Hope to see it improved upon in the future.

Forewarned has some decent replay value as well if that does anything for you. Steam achievements at launch and various collectables in the form of 100+ different loot pages and 14 artifacts in addition to an XP and levelling system (+ prestige system) and permanent buyable tool and equipment upgrades. You won't lose anything for dying either except the XP and gold you would have gotten for escaping on a run. You're also able to customize the dungeon size (I recommend Large for the true experience) and you can now also customize many game rules with increased rewards for crueler rules.

P.S. It's got proximity voice chat of the same quality as Phasmophobia. Use it instead of Discord for best experience.

To conclude, this game is really good and very unique. It's a solid solo experience and multiplayer is a blast. Weirdly enough despite being early access I've encountered very little to no bugs. I can't complain about anything technical even if I wanted to! It was such a smooth and polished release. Unfortunately there was only 4 different types of Mejai on launch which was a bit low so the chance of getting the same one in a row was (and still slightly is) decently high, but hopefully there's more coming in the future. This game has huge potential and I will be following it closely. Absolutely grab it if you loved Phasmo and want something similar but more unique!