SIDE EFFECTS is a gambling horror game developed by Free Lives.

You play in a Singleplayer or Co-op mode where you take randomised pills with a chance of having a Death, Placebo or Healing effect. You spawn with 4 Lives (Hearts) and 5 Resistance (Shields). If your Shields go down to zero, you lose a Life. At the start of each game, you can take 2 out of 4 items which you can use at the start of your turn. You can only have a total of 5 items in your inventory. There are certain unlocks which you can easily get by playing a few games. Such as the ability to reroll items, which will use up one of your shields. You can complete a Pill Quest in which you have to collect all the required pills in order to gain a life back; other players can also complete the quest before you which will reset the progress. When a player dies, it decreases the Shields for everyone.

The game has a creepy art style. The player model changes and mutates as more pills are taken. The sound effects are good and build tension. The game runs smoothly minus the bugs. I didn't have problems with crashes. Music is appropriate for the genre. The UI is consistent and works well together. I like the stylistic choice of the select screen for Solo mode especially. There is a good range of unlocks and use items. The game is able to be played in Offline mode, but only Singleplayer. We need to be able to play LAN Co-op.

The main issue is the huge game breaking bug that is both prevalent in Singleplayer and Co-op modes. Your screen gets stuck, and you're unable to move your camera. You can't click items. You're not able to progress, at all. The only fix is to restart the game. I've had this happen on several occasions. You can't join existing games either. So you can't just re-join mid-game if you experience this bug. It really breaks the experience. There isn't much of a story. It would be great if we knew something about why we're doing these experiments: Who runs these trials? I think there should be some more cutscenes added such as the organisation, lab or corporation that is conducting these trials. This would help build some interest and lore. Reveal some of the backstory of the facility. Experiments and unethical motives. What happens to the survivors? Are they freed or recycled into new trials? Maybe Singleplayer could add some Story mode elements. Add some environmental storytelling; such as graffiti, reports written by other patients or even a patient backstory - since they do seem somewhat distinct from each other in terms of player models. This would give the subjects some more personality. It would be nice to have some sort of customisability options for the player models. A way to make your character unique. You should be able to deselect items if you haven't used them and you click on it by accident. For example the hammer which destroys pills. It can be used with a lobotomy pick, but you have to select the pick first if you want to use it. Or you'll be forced to use the hammer to destroy the pill. It makes it a little unintuitive. For a game that's supposed to be all about social bluffing there are no communication options in-game. There is no time limit. Which can make joining a random lobby feel daunting. There should be an option to make custom servers with your own parameters i.e. timer, pill ratios, play with bots etc. The game would be much more interesting if the pills had actual Side Effects from being taken together instead of just chamber luck. What if instead of a one-off, different pills in combination had different effects. Chemical synergies making some of them beneficial or harmful. Or various effects that lasted throughout the rounds. And we need some more variety instead of just harming, death and healing. Why not a re-wind time pill or reverse turn order? Something of that nature. When you take a pill, you should feel it. Adding some audio-visual effects, UI distortions, audio hallucinations, or camera perspective shifts. Something different needs to change because the game can get stale fast. Right now the most exciting thing that can happen is either you die due to your Shields going down or because the pill is bad and you don't know which one. Or using different items in combination with each other. You can't play the game with a controller and there aren't any real accessibility options such as being able to change the contrast or allowing a colourblind mode.

Overall, the game isn't terrible. I did have a fun time playing but as of this writing the bugs make it so I cannot recommend this game to my friends. The only Side Effect I'm feeling is me being angry at not being able to play this game as intended. People call the game unoriginal or uninspired, a Buckshot Roulette clone. I think it could be a standalone game with a loyal fanbase if some important quality of life and improvements are made. This game really should've been an Early Access release. I'm sure as time passes more will be added and the bugs will be fixed. I look forward to the further development of this title.

4/10

I Am Jesus Christ is a demo for an upcoming faith based adventure by Space Boat Studios.

It follows the respectful retelling of the life of Jesus Christ as we learn more about His upbringing. The game begins by telling a story from Genesis and then an angel speaks to you and you wake up as Jesus. The game is true to Scripture and invites the player to learn more about the Bible.

The scenery is lovely. You really feel like you're there. The soundtrack is relaxing and appropriate. The map of Galilee, Samaria and Judea is accurate. In the Codex, you have access to Bible quotes that you encounter. You can replay them and read them. They are relevant to what is happening. The environments are immersive. The livestock are true to life. I wish you could interact with the animals. The gameplay feels engaging. It is a mix between puzzles, story, there are some objective markers and places to explore around the map. The puzzles are interesting, but I wish they were more complex. The game runs smoothly, there aren't lag spikes despite a big map. However, the game uses a lot of power usage. This may be due to graphical settings. I had mine set to the highest. The UI is good and easy to navigate. You can use a controller or mouse and keyboard. The movement in the game feels good. You can jump on top of rooftops, and the game doesn't hold your hand. You have an option to do the objective that you want to.

The main problem is that there is an AI voiceover and for some of the textures. Presumably, due to a lower development budget for the game. I would prefer to see real voice acting if the game does well on full release. Even if it meant a higher price tag. I think it would be worth it. Sometimes the NPCs are next to each other and they say the same voice lines. Would be nice to have more variety of the market stalls. In the fish miracle, there isn't a lot of fish in the boat. It would be more accurate if it was overflowing with fish. The game has locked cutscenes. It would be nice to have more travel options such as by donkey, cart or boat. There is no swimming in the game. You can't go into any of the water. The animations are somewhat stiff. For both the NPCs, and during cutscenes. I feel like the Apostles or Mary should have more expressive poses. Sometimes, the NPCs can block your path. I would like the option to climb ladders or interact with the environment more. It would be nice to have achievements in the full game. I would like to see more interactive characters and side stories. I would like to see a day and night cycle for the map.

Overall, the game demo seems very promising. A wonderful retelling of His story. There are some creative liberties of course but it is Biblical. The full release is due to come out in the first quarter of 2026 (if it doesn't get pushed back again). I know the game has been in development for a couple of years now.

7/10

My Singing Monsters is a free to play casual creature collecting game developed by Big Blue Bubble.

Originally released in 2012 as a mobile title, it released on a number of platforms including PlayStation Vita. Collect monsters and fill up your island to complete the island song. You can get daily login rewards; a daily free spin. The memory game; which lasts 9 rounds and you can get different prize tiers for reaching each level. Login daily to complete the Collossal Conundrum to get a big reward. Monsters can give you coins or shards. You need food to feed and level up your monsters and you need coins to make food. You can breed monsters or buy them to unlock new ones. Each monster has a different elemental sign, breeding different elements produces different results. This is an idle game so a lot of time is spent waiting for breeding or incubating eggs. Every island has a Mirror island which is an alternate version which you can use as a money farm.

The main appeal is collecting distinctly loveable monsters and filling up the islands which feels rewarding. The island songs are nice and it feels rewarding to unlock each monster for each island. You can decorate your island and make it your own - every island has its own theme. Monsters can drop with different rarities or costumes. There is a surprising amount of lore told through the monster or item descriptions as well as over the years. The game isn't pay to win, but DLCs can make your breeding faster or speed up baking. You can compose your own island song using MIDI-like principles on the Composer Island. You can Battle other players' monsters in a Pokémon-style battle with different attacks depending on their level or costume. You can collect your coins from the island by the 'collect all' button. Easily readable font size. It has a lot of replayability if you don't mind sparing a couple minutes of your time each day to do daily chores. You can speed or slow down each island song.

As for the cons; the graphics are nice but somewhat dated. Not much thought has been done to upscale the graphical quality for the PC port of the game. There is no cross-platform play between the Mobile and PC versions of the game. You cannot transfer Mobile progress on the Steam version or play with Mobile players. There is no controller support. No accessibility options such as the ability to adjust contrast, adjust interface, no colourblind mode. The UI can feel unintuitive. You have to double-click to do something simple like lighting a torch, or sending a friend request. There are no communication options for Tribes and you cannot do a live Battle against your friends for the Versus battles. The rare monsters cost a lot of diamonds. Late game is all about maximising your breeding % rates with lighting torches for a higher chance to get rare spawns. Or you have to fill up containers to unlock Monsters like the Wubbox. It can feel very tedious and time consuming. Same for the Wublins, same for the Amber or Celestial Island containers. You can't transfer monsters between islands aside from a few like the Colossingum, Gold Island or Shugabush Island. You can't move buildings or decorations between islands. There is no easy list of every monster you have on that island and how many there are of each, which would greatly help with organisation. Sometimes you need to look up a breeding guide online, especially for rare or seasonal monsters.

Overall, My Singing Monsters is a fun, much beloved game to spend a few minutes each day on. Very appropriate for all ages. There is a huge amount of monsters to collect with new releases being added to this day.

6/10

10 Seconds is a short horror puzzle game by ithinknotM8!

The game premise is simple: you are stuck in a time loop with a monstrous creature that tries to chase you in the dark. You have to solve the next step of the puzzle or evade the creature or you have to restart.

I do appreciate the novelty of this idea, for a horror game I think it is rather unique. You're stuck in a research facility and all you have are the objects left there at your disposal. When you respawn, the items are where you left them last. It does feel relatively scary when you're being chased. There are two game endings. The puzzles are simple but somewhat satisfying once you learn what you need to do next. The monster design is decent.

The lighting is poor, not just because it is dark. Most horror games usually have a brightness slider that allows you to adjust how much you can see. This helps people who might not be able to play in ideal light conditions or just the way their monitor displays darkness and light. There are no settings. You can't adjust graphical settings. You can't rebind the controls. The lighting is unpolished. There's no post-processing. The textures are inconsistent. This looks like an asset flip. Some items are modelled better than others. The overall feel of the game would be better if the same amount of detail was put into everything. The UI is just very simple white text. The sound effects are clunky. There's no in-game music, only the blaring alarm in the background. The monster's AI isn't very complicated. Once you learn the walk pattern it's easy to evade. The game cuts off abruptly for the end screen. There are no animations for holding the objects or firing the gun. Most of the puzzles are just taking an item to a place, you get a click and then you have to find another item. It would be really cool if some of them required a minigame.

Overall, this game is a good idea that just lacks a lot of polish. I'm not going to hate on the indie developer. I do think the game could be improved considerably with some more experience. As they continue to brush up on their design and technical skills.

3/10

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Siege X is a First Person PvP tactical shooter by Ubisoft.

The game has cross-platform play; it uses the Ubisoft Connect launcher. I play on PC with mouse & keyboard. My review will be mainly based on my experience in Quick Play and Standard matches. As of this writing there are 76 unique playable operators including the most recent being Denari. You play as teams of 5v5. There are operator speciality roles to fill such as anti-entry, crowd or map control, support, intel, anti-gadget, breach, trapper, front line.

The gameplay mechanics are fun. R6S has a lot of tactical depth and destructibility. You're rewarded for teamwork. Many floors, walls and hatches can be breached. Strategy is very important as well as aim. The gunplay feels responsive. And movement has the right amount of weight to make every action deliberate. One of the main positives is enormous roster of operators. Everyone has their distinct tools and fills their own niche that allows for experimentation. It keeps the gameplay fresh and encourages you to learn multiple roles. When you die, you can still operate observation tools and help your team with call outs. While there are balance changes through patch to patch, Siege manages to maintain fairly decent balancing. The meta is constantly evolving. The environments are detailed but functional, operators are recognisable. Audio plays a main role. The sound design is great. You can hear footsteps, gadgets, and gunfire which carries meaningful information. Although Siege is mainly a multiplayer experience, Ubisoft has managed to build a surprisingly rich lore around the operators. There's a lot of replayability, no two matches feel the same. Even after hundreds of hours. On PC, Siege runs pretty well. It's well optimised and offers a lot of accessibility settings like colourblind modes and customisable HUD elements. From launch until this day, the game has been constantly evolving. It keeps it from being stagnant. The monetisation isn't too bad. While R6S does include cosmetic bundles, seasonal passes and premium skins, the core gameplay and all operators can be unlocked through play. However, not all operators are available from the start. They need to be unlocked through points. It is a little tedious to get enough points to unlock the operators but I'm not awfully upset at that. Matchmaking doesn't take very long to queue most of the time.

For the cons, despite Ubisoft's efforts - balance can still swing wildly between seasons. Certain operators or weapon combinations can dominate the meta until a patch arrives. The constant shifting can be frustrating for long-term players who invested time into mastering an operator just to see them get nerfed in a later patch. While the maps are well-crafted they can still suffer through awkward layouts or cluttered sight-lines. It may be difficult for a new player to know the map layout unless they've put hours into gameplay. Some of the maps feel like a maze. There is a map layout gamemode where you can learn maps though, I'll give them props for that. The core modes - Bomb, Secure Area, Hostage; have been around since launch and while they are well-designed, the experience can feel repetitive. R6S has near-infinite replayability but the steep learning curve can be overwhelming for newcomers. Understanding operators, gadgets and map call-outs can take dozens of hours. Matchmaking can be inconsistent. Pairing veterans with new players or creating unbalanced lobbies. There is new content released regularly but some players feel there isn't enough added or that community feedback isn't always heard. Some design changes can feel out of touch with what the player base wants. While Siege's roster is undeniably diverse, the way some of the operators are presented can feel like corporate pandering rather than genuine representation. Ubisoft prioritises showcasing an operator's identity traits rather than integrating them naturally into the World. As a final point, I'll mention their QB / BattlEye AntiCheat. It has some privacy related and practical concerns. It also requires mandatory updates to be difficult to install, especially over unstable internet connections. I've been locked out of playing the game because I can't install the update and I've had some major issues around that. This only started happening more recently, which is rather disappointing. As of this writing, the issue persists for me. I would also like it if the game included more options for Offline and Single-player.

Overall, the game is challenging and rewarding but suffers from balance shifts, steep learning curves and some technical issues. I do enjoy coming back to play it when I'm able to. It is one of my favourite tactical shooters. I love the environmental destruction and using gadgets or rappelling from rooftops. There isn't another game that scratches the same itch for me. Even if I have a sort of love-hate relationship with the game. I do come back for the new updates and when I'm not having technical issues and playing with friends I'm having a lot of fun.

6/10

Overwatch® 2 is a free to play hero shooter by Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

The game has cross-platform play; I have only played on PC through Steam and BattleNET with mouse & keyboard. My review will be based on most of my experience with Quick Play, Competitive and Arcade matches. I have been playing the game since 2016 so my Steam hours don't reflect all the hours I have on BattleNET.

To start off with some positive points: As of this writing there are 44 heroes, including Wuyang. Overwatch has an array of characters that are easy to learn and hard to master. There is a high skill ceiling and a variety of heroes to suit your style. The game has a lot of interesting lore including all of the comics and character in-game interactions or video shorts. It would be awesome if they made a movie or show based on it. The character designs are great and well thought out. Most of the map designs are inspired by real life locations and they're fairly well-balanced. The dev team did an incredible job at making maps and they're all great to look at. There are a variety of game modes to choose from and they are cycled out. There are always a lot of events throughout the year to look forward to. And each season comes out with new updates and balance patches. The game really excels at sound design. You can tell exactly what is happening by hearing footsteps or abilities before you see them. There is a lot of localisation options and support for full voice acting for a number of languages. There are also accessibility options which are a bonus and a lot of different custom settings. The new UI is alright but I still prefer the old one from OW1. Music is fitting but a bit simplistic. Would be better if there was more variety between maps. There is a lot of player customisability between skins, weapon charms, emotes, sprays, voice lines, weapon variants etc. If there is a player on your team that was toxic, you can choose to ignore them for 7 days so you don't get matched with them again. They added a map voting system where you can choose between 3 maps and hero preferences as well as bans. I'm not partial to this system but it can be useful sometimes if it doesn't get abused. The new mode, Stadium brings new ideas to the game and shakes up the gameplay loop. There is a lot of replayability in the game. Every round is going to be different with almost infinite hero pairings and abilities. The characters are fun to play, once you have made a good build and you know what you're doing.

Now onto the negatives. The team behind the hero designs admit that they use a phrenology-esque tool to assign each of the heroes as being more or less diverse. When they come up the new heroes they assign them scores based on; culture, race, cognitive / physical ability, body type, facial features / beauty, gender identity, sexuality, morality and socioeconomic status. This really seems like forced diversity. Using marginalised groups for the sake of representation rather than their individual qualities or contributions to the game universe. They retroactively changed information or details about characters like Jesse McCree being called Cole Cassidy due to real life backlash from the employee he was named after sexual harassment charges. Which they tried to lazily fit into lore reasons. The game feels like rock-paper-scissors, but the perk system has shaken the meta slightly. They promised and didn't deliver on PvE content like it was hyped up to be. Which was the main reason they made the new game to begin with (at least now it seems to warrant the changes, but not initially). The PvE mode is locked behind a paywall. The abilities meant for PvE were recycled into the new Stadium game mode. The dev team likes to change the meta by buffing or nerfing characters each season. Sometimes they completely change a heroes' kit, like in the case of Sombra. When a new hero gets added they'll usually be overpowered and unbalanced. Sometimes they'll put them on level 55 of the BattlePass or unlocked instantly by purchasing the premium BattlePass. There are clear signs of power creep. The new hero kits are very complex instead of a character like Tracer that only has a few abilities. A character like Rammatra has a lot more abilities and it seems like it takes away from the original game design. Something that can't be ignored is Blizzard's rampant and insatiable monetisation tactics. They release mythic skins, overcharged bundles and lazy-reskins. They make skins primarily for their own biased hero preference and whoever looks the most attractive. Kiriko gets new skins every update while they ignore community picks and look to what sells the best. It is sad there is such a bias when you like playing an underappreciated hero and get significantly less content. Finishing the BattlePass doesn't give you progress to the next one? They took away lootboxes but only brought them back due to other game competition like Marvel Rivals. The game can be confusing sometimes for new players when there are a lot of ultimates or abilities going off at once. It can get very visually cluttered. There is a lot of toxicity amongst players including people that intentionally throw the game. If you don't get enough kills, prepare to get yelled at or blamed by your team for losing the game. If you play Competitive, prepare to meet a lot of smurf accounts or occasionally bots. The matchmaking system is awful sometimes. It feels like it prioritises finding games quickly instead of matching people of the same 'skill'. Through no fault of your own you can be put into a match where you'll win or lose and it's a 50/50. The report system is broken, you could get reported by multiple people that dislike you which can get you banned for 2 weeks off voice chat. Even if you don't break any ToS or guidelines. There must be some automated system that doesn't work as intended. There's no easy way to appeal it. There is a lot of in-game censorship. You can't say certain words even if you're in a party with friends. The game records voice chat and requires a phone number to just to play the game in order to combat 'disruptive players' is an overreach. They removed the ability to find groups which was a big mistake. It was one way to find new friends to play with, and exactly the type of player you're looking for. Custom Games were pretty much abandoned which is sad because it would've allowed map makers to breathe new life into the game. Hero Mastery was forgotten also.

Overall, OW2 is a game that was beloved by many since the release. It seems to go through these cycles of ups and downs. It is really a shame because this universe always had such a lot of potential. Now it seems like a husk of its former self. Playing 5v5 is okay when you have a good team. Playing 6v6 was better to have more of an individual impact. Right now there's a lot of hate towards a single tank if things don't go well. People usually end up banning the same heroes which is a bit annoying if you want to play them. The game isn't dying, but for a lot of reasons many players have moved on. It is still fun with friends, but it can also be rather frustrating at times. Many people have a love-hate relationship with the game. A lot of people mostly come back to play because of the daily challenges or whenever there is a new BattlePass season. Many players feel like Blizzard doesn't care to fix the underlying issues and that they only care about how much they make in profits. Even if it means a lower quality of gameplay. Nobody can seem to agree what would be the one thing that would improve the franchise at this point. Sometimes I wonder if they kept the OW1 servers, how many players would prefer that to the current OW2 gameplay? Which one would have more of a loyal community? A lot of the issues with the game aren't the developers' fault but whoever makes decisions at Blizzard. The game is fun but it would be nice to see it in a better place.

6/10

Kewter's Showroom is a dress up game with some horror elements.

The game is inspired by early 2000s flash games. You have to design your outfits for 7 days. Each day comes with a theme. Then you have to score a certain amount to pass.

The game UI is fitting, and reminiscent of a lot of older dress up games for young girls. The character base design is good. The voice acting is fine, but loud. It has full audio and English subtitles supported. Would be nice if other languages were also localized. The controls are OK during character creation but you can't go back and choose a previous clothing item once you've made your selection (this is an intentional feature). One thing I like is for the NPC outfits they choose one at random so they're not all the same every time. Te soundtrack and sound effects are good.

Aside from that, the game doesn't allow for a lot of creativity with making the outfits. A personal gripe I have is Kewter's design doesn't look like she fits into an early 2000s character design style. It uses stylistic choices from the current era but doesn't really have the nostalgia factor. You have to choose at least some of the starred items to design your outfit otherwise it will be an automatic fail. All of the in-game sounds are way too loud; even if you turn them down through the menu it still sounds bass boosted. The sound effects don't add anything to the scare factor so it seems unnecessary. Had to turn down the game sounds manually through the voice mixer on my PC. I'm not a fan of the storytelling in this game. Every day is different and the closer you get to the end the more weird stuff happens; but it just reads as generic horror elements that try too hard to seem scary. There's no replayability aside from when you're trying to earn achievements, and you can only get them if you get the random chance to unlock bonus events at days 4 and 6. You have to restart the whole game to get those, you can't just reload from a previous save. Day 7 is odd too, you are just in an empty room. Your only option is to get to the far side of it. You're not being chased by anything. There's no sense of urgency. The controls aren't good when you walk. It feels awkward on mouse & keyboard because the way the camera moves. One thing I hate is that the controls also don't allow you to skip dialogue. You're forced to the whole intro sequence without being able to fast forward.

Overall, this is a short horror game which leaves much to be desired. It's a shame because it has a lot of potential to be good. Right now I cannot rate it higher because it feels very unpolished for mostly technical reasons. I feel like it missed the mark.

3/10

Pirates of Gensokyo is a yuri visual novel choose your own adventure game by DemonChuuckle. It is based on The Touhou Project series. It is strongly recommended to have some background knowledge about the characters and setting; before you play this fan game, or you won't understand the references.

The game is set on a flying pirate ship, The Palanquin. Stolen by Marisa Kirasame and her crew. They embark on short adventures to find treasure. Along the way they meet an array of characters and stop by different landmarks. We find out about the character's inner dialogue. The game is set from the perspective of the four main characters and their feelings about each other.

The controls are fine as for any visual novel. There are a good amount of saves. This is a choose your own adventure game but it is still fairly linear aside from some variation on the main story sequence. There's not a whole lot of replayability but it's short and sweet. The character designs and sprites are based on the Touhou series but slightly re-imagined to fit this game. They are consistent. The music is fine, but not very much inspired by the original Touhou soundtrack. There is no voice acting. I did like some of the dialogue. Some of it was an interesting spin on the original. There's even a part that is very poetic. The yuri themes are relevant to the main story line. The story pacing is fine. The character development is good. There's a lot of character introspection. The UI designed well.

The last chapter art seems rushed. For both the characters and backgrounds. The game ends with sketch drawings instead of the usual art style found throughout the game. Some of the character interactions seem slightly awkward. The way they talk to each other seems unnatural or out of character at times. You could say this is down to the fan interpretation, but it seems inconsistent with the story progression. And the character personalities seem to bleed in with each other. Sometimes it's hard to know who's talking. Sometimes the music or sound effects stopped at random. Some of the references seemed overdone too. Like constantly bringing something up. The four different endings are short and almost identical. One thing is that there's no CGs for the scenes, only the 2d sprites. I wish the game was translated to other languages.

Overall, the story is nice and I enjoyed playing it. Although I played this while not having a lot of experience about the Touhou characters; I did some research about each character and it made the story way more understandable. I would recommend this free game to any Touhou fan.

7/10

Acts of Blood is an upcoming beat 'em up martial arts game by the independent game developer Fajrul Nurfitryansyah.

The game is set in Bandung, Indonesia and follows the story of Hendra; who is seeking revenge for the death of his family. There is a story mode and an arena mode. In the story mode, you start in your apartment then you go outside and find an illegal factory. This serves as an tutorial stage as you learn the controls and progress through the level. In the arena mode, you fight an endless onslaught of enemies until you die.

The character controls feel fine; you can walk, run, dodge roll, punch, kick, parry and shove / throw items. It feels satisfying to get a combo going and the finisher attacks are all unique to the weapon. Sometimes it's hard to time the counter for attacks. The graphics are fine. The character design was okay, but there wasn't much variety for the enemy designs. The textures are nice. The UI is okay. Sound design is decent. The game has replayability especially if you want to get a high score in the arena and unlock different cosmetics.

One thing that wasn't great was the aiming and shooting controls on controller. Some of the game interactions seem a bit awkward; like vaulting over objects, or picking up money you have to click Q several times to get each clump of cash. The introductory opening sequence seemed way too long, it made me bored before I even started the game. I didn't like the camera settings, especially noticeable on controller but still bad with a mouse and keyboard. For instance, when you press the A or D key the camera will continue to pan left or right which changes your character movement and makes it feel unnatural. The soundtrack is pretty repetitive and doesn't help convey the story very well. It makes the tense moments feel like they're droning on. The boss fight in the story mode feels pretty sluggish. The voice acting delivery doesn't have a lot of emotion and seems quite generic, which ruins the character immersion. It sounds pretty monotone. Also the story writing is very linear. In the arena mode, sometimes NPCs spawn right in front of you and it can mess up your run.

Overall, this game does have potential but right now it is a bit unpolished, and the gameplay feels a bit clunky. I have faith in the developer and look forward to the full release. I wish it was a bit more bloody.

5/10

Animal Shelter 2: Prologue is a demo for the new release coming soon (Q2 2025) by Games Incubator. It's a simulator game about renovating a warehouse, and running a pet shelter for dogs and cats.

When you get started, you spawn outside the building and you have to clear some rubble. After that you get started with the missions. Taking in a cat or dog to look after. They'll come to you dirty, hungry, sad and thirsty and you have to bring them back to health. Afterwards you take a photo and you can put them up for adoption. Filtering through adopters and their requirements.

The character movement feels fine; you can walk, run, crouch. The graphics look nice. I loved the Autumn setting and the location outside of the animal shelter. Could use more decorations for the cages but I'm sure the full game will include those. Cats should have litter trays. More variety in the posters would be appreciated. There are a lot of repeating designs within viewing distance of each other. Some of the UI designs don't look consistent. The pets look fine. I was told they look more realistic than in the 1st game. The music is okay, but there was a glitch where if you mute it and sleep, the next day it'll still play music. The game interactions are okay. I'd prefer if there was some more resistance with clearing the rubble since it would take you longer than 1 click to clear something. Maybe putting them in bin bags and putting it into a skip. You can throw a ball for dogs and play with a laser pointer for cats. Ball isn't bouncy and feels like throwing a rock. Picking up the pets makes them feel a bit lifeless in your hands. I prefer petting the animals. The game does have replayability because it is fun playing with the pets and getting them ready for adoption. I wish there were more camera effects for taking photos and viewing them full-size afterwards. Also if you put them up for adoption and use those photos, sometimes they'll be gone from the gallery. Usually the Steam screenshots will look better.

The game missions are okay, they seem a tad uninspired. They all follow a similar pattern and it would be nice to have some variety. Such as a good mix of cleaning, renovation and animal care tasks. Not every mission is well explained; I got stuck at the dog grooming task because the shower head wasn't immediately visible at the washing station. The animals could use more variety for different breeds for dogs i.e. Labrador retriever, German / Anatolian shepherd, Great pyrenees, Cocker / Springer spaniel or for cats i.e. Devon rex, Sphynx, British long or shorthair, Maine ♥♥♥♥. I got the same 2 dogs and the same 3 cats in my shelter. I assume there'll be more in the full release. It would be nice if the pets could come in with different ailments. Or if they had different personality types. You could see if they are more timid to come and play or not. There isn't enough variety in toys. The optimisation is poor. It takes a long time to load in and sometimes the game crashes. I tried playing co-op with my friend and he had problems loading in. Had problems voting to sleep. When my friend disconnected, I still couldn't go to sleep because the game thought he was still there. I had to reload the save file. The NPCs are bad. The cat NPCs act very slow and struggle to get up on the cat shelves. Whenever the next day loads, you'll get a different worker model with the same character name. They change model and can be spawned in with an entirely different race. They walk through walls and the pet cages. It would be nice if you could have more dialogue options between the NPCs. There's also an adoption bug where you don't have a say in whether you want the person to adopt them or not. I didn't decide to give them the pet, but then the NPC stands around awkwardly and the next day my pet was gone. I had to reload my save to prevent them.

Overall, this game does have a lot of bugs. I do have faith in the dev team and assume that in the full release these problems will be ironed out. For now, this is just a preview of what's to come. I think it's still cute and nice.

5/10