As much as I enjoyed playing this game, I cannot recommend it due to the horrendous performance issues. I tinkered with the few visual settings available in the game and nothing resolved the absolutely bonkers stuttering/FPS drops on both my desktop and Steam Deck.

The visuals and music were good enough to make me suffer through the choppy gameplay. Check it out only if (1.) you like collectathon games, and (2.) it's heavily discounted.

Pros:
Indiana Jones
John Williams music
Story is decent
A few cool environments
Voice actor did a great job on Indy

Cons:
Bugs
Incredibly easy puzzles
Archaic fast travel system
Confusing maps
Terrible/repetitive/boring combat
Backtracking constantly
Slow platforming
Switching between first and third person for no reason
Anything involving the boat

Collecting everything in this game is a huge headache, because you have to constantly click between different map filters to see the things you need, instead of just allowing the player to view all of them at the same time. On top of that, you can only fast travel to and from predetermined areas that are often useless, resulting in lots of backtracking. The backtracking is incredibly difficult, because most of the maps are not named/labeled in any way, so you don't know which area the map is of (yes, the devs didn't even make maps function as maps). Many of the maps connect to each other in ways that are completely unclear while looking at them, resulting in either Googling interactive maps or running around to find out how they connect. Navigating the maps to get the few things I missed was more difficult than any puzzle in the game, and I mean that with the utmost sincerity.

The vast majority of the puzzles are not even puzzles. There are safes with padlocks littered throughout the world, but 99% of them have a note right next to them that either (1.) have the password right on it (literally, it'll just be like "the passcode is 1274"), or (2.) have a puzzle so simple, you will figure it out in the time it takes to read said note. The only somewhat challenging puzzles are in the last main area of the game and the DLC. The tombs/temples themselves do have pretty neat puzzles that scratch the exploration/adventure itch, granted they are all very easy to solve, and there are not nearly enough of them throughout the game.

The combat is incredibly limited. I actually ended up turning the combat down to the lowest difficulty level just to completely trivialize it, because all the combat does is slow down the game. Using guns alerts all enemies, so it's best not to use them (?); as a result of that, 90% of the combat consists of sneaking up behind fascists and knocking them out with an object. It gets old fast. You can use the whip to disarm and stun enemies, and there are a couple throwables, but in general, the combat is incredibly generic.

The game feels very clunky and dated, and I'd only recommend it to hardcore fans of Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider, and probably at a price of $30.

Jigsaw puzzles

Most fun I've had in a soulslike that's not by FromSoftware.

This game overstays its welcome longer than anything I've played before. It takes entirely too long to do anything even remotely interesting with the singing mechanic, and the narrative becomes uninteresting after interacting with it for a few hours. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone other than children, as it doesn't provide a story, platforming, or puzzles that most adults would find engaging.

Boss fights that go on way longer than necessary.

Unclear objectives.

Unintuitive level design.

Bubbles

*My reviews do consider the significance of gameplay, story, music, etc. before I assign a score (e.g. walking simulators don't have much emphasis on gameplay, but I wouldn't let that reflect negatively on the individual game being reviewed).

===[Audience]=== ☐Kids ☐Everyone ☑Casual players ☐Pro players

===[Graphics]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☐Good ☑Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Gameplay]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☑Good ☐Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Story]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☑Good ☐Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Music/Sound]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☐Good ☑Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Requirements]=== ☑Minimum ☐Average ☐High end

===[Difficulty]=== ☑Very Easy ☐Easy ☐Medium ☐Hard ☐Very Hard

===[Game Time/Length]=== ☑Very Short ( 0 - 2 hours) ☐Short ( 2 - 8 hours) ☐Average ( 8 - 12 hours) ☐Long ( 12+ hours) ☐Endless

===[Bugs]=== ☐Game Breaking ☐Many Bugs ☐Few Bugs ☑Nothing

===[Others]=== ☑Single-player ☑Achievements

===[Additional Comments]===

Perfect Vermin is a minimalist game developed by Maceo bob Mair and Angad Matharoo that was first available for free on itch.io. In Perfect Vermin you play as a person that is going around an office smashing things with a sledgehammer, searching for vermin that disguise themselves as common office objects. It has a pretty minimalist story. This game is not acceptable for children because it features lots of violence/gore.

Perfect Vermin looks beautiful. The minimalist pixel artwork looks great, and the gore/destruction is a real pleasure to look at.

The gameplay is also pretty good. It's surprisingly fun to just go around smashing things (ignoring the goal). I didn't quite know what I was doing at first, but caught on after a level or two. The achievements were generally fun to get, and the speedrun one was a challenge; I found myself not getting a good scenario pretty frequently (vermin spawning in locations that were too far away to get a decent run), and I struggled a lot with the jump to the secret room. I enjoyed the challenge presented by getting all of the achievements, but if you just want to play through the game, it's extremely easy.

The story in Perfect Vermin is very minimalist as well, and it leaves pretty much all of it up to your own interpretation. At the end of the game you discover that the narrator has lung cancer (foreshadowed by the ash tray that piles higher and higher) while you're in a doctor's office. How exactly that has anything to do with going around an office and smashing furniture/vermin is where it's your job to read inbetween the lines. I think that the game kind of represents invasive cancer treatment (smashing good furniture looking for the vermin), but I've read other interesting perspectives in the forums.

The music (by Daniel Shypilov) and sound is pretty great. The menu theme is great, and it's fun to hear the music kind of just progressively degrade in to chaos. Most of the tracks have a very cool pulpy b-movie horror vibe.

The game is super short. It took me about two hours to finish it and get all of the achievements (the bulk of that time is the repeated attempts to finish the game fast enough for the speedrun achievement). In all of my playthroughs I didn't experience any bugs.

I would recommend Perfect Vermin to anyone looking for a quick distraction, or anyone that enjoys minimalist/arthouse games. Again, this game is not acceptable for children.

*My reviews do consider the significance of gameplay, story, music, etc. before I assign a score (e.g. walking simulators don't have much emphasis on gameplay, but I wouldn't let that reflect negatively on the individual game being reviewed).

===[Audience]=== ☐Kids ☑Everyone ☐Casual players ☐Pro players

===[Graphics]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☑Good ☐Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Gameplay]=== ☐Bad ☑OK ☐Good ☐Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Music/Sound]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☑Good ☐Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Requirements]=== ☑Minimum ☐Average ☐High end

===[Difficulty]=== ☐Very Easy ☑Easy ☐Medium ☐Hard ☐Very Hard

===[Game Time/Length]=== ☑Very Short ( 0 - 2 hours) ☐Short ( 2 - 8 hours) ☐Average ( 8 - 12 hours) ☐Long ( 12+ hours) ☐Endless

===[Bugs]=== ☐Game Breaking ☐Many Bugs ☐Few Bugs ☑Nothing

===[Others]=== ☑Single-player ☑Achievements ☑Trading Cards

===[Additional Comments]===

Drop Alive is a cute 2D platformer developed by Invi Games. In this game, you play as a drop of water that changes between water, gas, and solid as you progress through the 12 stages and collect coins. You can use the coins to unlock a few (also cute) skins. It's totally kid friendly, but might be a little difficult for them at times (adults probably will not struggle with this at all if they're even remotely familiar with the genre). The game has leaderboard, achievement, and trading card support.

The game is decent looking. It has a cute hand animated style that I like, but the budget constraints do leave it looking very minimalist.

The gameplay is alright. It's nothing spectacular, but you can't expect much from a totally free game. The controls aren't as tight as I would prefer in a platformer (particularly the ice levels), but it feels fine. There is enough diversity in the levels to keep them interesting enough to finish the rather short game, but I could see it getting very stale if the game was much longer. Some of the collectibles can be a little bit of a challenge to find/get at first, but it was enjoyable to get them all and unlock all of the skins. I admittedly didn't know they unlocked skins until I had already collected all of them and finished the game. The music and sound is alright. Again, it's nothing spectacular, but it's way better than what I would expect from a totally free game.

Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone that wants to play a quick platformer while they are in-between other games, or perhaps people that are looking for something to play with their kids (though, it is singleplayer).

*My reviews do consider the significance of gameplay, story, music, etc. before I assign a score (e.g. walking simulators don't have much emphasis on gameplay, but I wouldn't let that reflect negatively on the individual game being reviewed).

===[Audience]=== ☐Kids ☑Everyone ☐Casual players ☐Pro players

===[Graphics]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☐Good ☑Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Gameplay]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☐Good ☑Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Story]=== ☐Bad ☑OK ☐Good ☐Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Music/Sound]=== ☐Bad ☐OK ☐Good ☑Beautiful ☐Masterpiece

===[Price/quality]=== ☑Full price ☐Wait for sale ☐Don't do it

===[Requirements]=== ☐Minimum ☑Average ☐High end

===[Difficulty]=== ☐Very Easy ☑Easy ☐Medium ☐Hard ☑Very Hard

===[Game Time/Length]=== ☐Very Short ( 0 - 2 hours) ☐Short ( 2 - 8 hours) ☐Average ( 8 - 12 hours) ☑Long ( 12+ hours) ☐Endless

===[Bugs]=== ☐Game Breaking ☐Many Bugs ☐Few Bugs ☑Nothing

===[Others]=== ☑Single-player ☑Achievements ☑Trading Cards

===[Additional Comments]===

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a 2D platformer Collectathon game developed by Playtonic Games. It's a successor to Yooka-Laylee, and goes in to a completely new direction for the franchise (the Donkey Kong Country games being an obvious inspiration). In the Impossible Lair you play as Yooka, with Laylee being your sidekick. Yooka has special moves that are only available when Laylee is with him, so if you get hit you have to collect Laylee before she flies away or you become much more vulnerable. This game features many collectibles, including Tonics (they alter the gameplay/visuals), Quills (the currency in the game), T.W.I.T. Coins (used as a currency as well), and Bees (they add to your invincibility shield for the Impossible Lair). This game has 40 levels (20 different levels with two versions each), 60 tonics, and two endings to unlock. This game is completely suitable for all audiences, though the last few levels (especially the Impossible Lair) will prove to be quite a challenge for younger players.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a beautiful game. The visuals are charming, vibrant, and even better, customizable. Using the Tonics, you can put all sorts of filters on the visuals, including VHS, Rainbow, and Comic. Unfortunately, there aren't quite as many tonics to alter the appearance of Yooka (there are a few, like large head and rainbow colors). Even so, the game is a pleasure to look at. All of the characters and environments are full of personality and color.

The gameplay is wonderful. I found the controls to be very tight and polished, so that every time I died it felt like it was totally my fault. There are only a handful of different moves (and you don't really have to unlock any, though you can unlock modifications for them through tonics), but simplicity is usually better in platformers. The levels all feel very different and it keeps the game entertaining. I do, however, have a few complaints about the gameplay. One thing I didn't care for was the fact that Yooka is really weak by himself; Without Laylee, your ability to reach certain things becomes impossible. I am totally fine with feeling more vulnerable, but would prefer it to be limited to just not having a shield, as being unable to collect certain items and make certain jumps etc. is pretty silly. This seems like a minor complaint, but what if someone wanted to collect everything in the game without using Laylee? As far as I am aware, it's just not possible. The only other thing I can think of that was a bit disappointing was the difficulty curve. Towards the end of the game (maybe the last two or three levels) the difficulty spikes up tremendously, especially the very last level (the Impossible Lair). It feels like a strange bait and switch that could prevent a large chunk of the audience from actually finishing the game/story (yes, completing the Impossible Lair is necessary to see the ending of the game). The developers responded to this complaint by adding checkpoints to the Impossible Lair, making it significantly easier, but it's still in a completely different league of difficulty in comparison to the extremely casual levels prior. Even after collecting all of the bees it did take me about three actual tries to finish the Impossible Lair. Not only is the Impossible Lair pretty difficult on its own, but you can't use any of the tonics you have been collecting throughout the entire game on it, which is pretty disappointing. I feel as though I should mention that you can only unlock the true ending, and the final tonic (not necessary for the all tonics achievement), by completing the Impossible Lair without checkpoints and without any bees, which, obviously, is exceptionally difficult. The Impossible Lair is really not that difficult in comparison to other hardcore platformers (Super Meatboy, for example), it's just a remarkable shift in the game that really catches everyone off guard, and in doing so it just doesn't feel like it belongs.
There really isn't anything noteworthy to say about the story in the Impossible Lair. It's basically a kid's game, and the amount of effort put in to the story is minimal. It's not bad, it's not great, it's just there. If you like the simplicity and childlike charm of other platformer narratives like Spyro, you will enjoy this.

The music in the Impossible Lair is really great. It has a very fun late 90's early 00's vibe which is super nostalgic for me. David Wise, Grant Kirkhope, Matt Griffin, and Dan Murdoch did a great job at putting lots of diverse sounds, instruments, and moods in the soundtrack and I have absolutely no complaints about it.

The game is pretty long; it took me about 16 hours to finish the game and get all of the achievements, though I did not choose to unlock the true ending, because it just doesn't seem fun or worth it. In that time I didn't experience any bugs, crashes, or performance issues. I highly recommend this game to anyone that is looking for a nostalgic platformer experience, or something to play with kids/people unfamiliar with video games (it's strictly singleplayer, I mean a hotseat type of scenario). I received this game in a bundle.