I unironically think Silksong is one of the best games of the decade.

The attention to detail, combat and movement system, the visuals, and the music. Really can’t recommend this game enough. To me, it's a huge step forward in all aspects compared to original HK, especially in terms of how the game looks.

While it has some flaws, some of which are pretty subjective (like wishes or double damage in some cases, or pretty much a matter of preference), the one that really stood out to me: Silksong has a high entry level and for some players that might be a dealbreaker. While I had the luxury of time I could spend on mastering the game, some people may not.

If you are struggling, especially in act 1, don’t fret: ask people, don’t be shy to google stuff, or watch a video with hints. No one cares how you play it, as long as you progress and have fun with the game.

P.S. In total have more than 140 hours on multiple saves across different platforms. Not bragging, just FYI that the review is based on that.

A huge fan of Shadow Tactics here, but was reluctant about buying Shadow Gambit.

And I guess I was right.

While there are some QoL improvements here and there, but it's kinda the same gameplay all over again. Which, by itself, is not that bad, considering you have multiple characters to tinker with.

What turned me away from the game were the general aesthetic, uninspiring characters, story, and dialogues. I started rolling my eyes from the second dialogue between the main characters. Again, there are several games with quirky dialogues that I liked, but combining them with bland and uninspiring characters and you get some of the cringiest interactions in a video game ever.

I highly recommend checking their other game - Shadow Tactics, which has the same gameplay, better story, and characters.

While I really wanted to like this game despite several technical flaws, weird animations, and simply underwhelming (to the point of a nonexistent) combat system, I couldn't recommend it even one year after several major updates after the release.

Technically, the game is still in EA, so something might change upon release, but in its current state, I cannot recommend it.

The game offers little to no progression, the gameplay loop becomes a list of chores that take a lot of time, and the crafting/village management system is abysmal.

For example, there are two variations of a log: a premium and a regular one. Premium ones produce premium planks and regular ones. Pretty simple, right?

If you started building with regular ones and ran out of them, you can run to your Dynasty Wood Storage, pick some premium logs, take them to the carpentry stations, and craft premium planks. The thing is that you can only use them if you use a special tool - adze - to debark a log and then pick up that log. Not even the plank itself - a log!

And the thing is that only the iron adze can be used to debark the premium logs. And those cannot be crafted (at least at my station), so I need to teleport to another village, look for a trader with an iron adze, get back to my village, do the thing with the log just because the game doesn't allow me to use the materials that I already have because I crafted them at the carpentry station and "didn't debark the stupid log."

Some might say that's nothing. But the problem is that the whole game is like that. For every good mechanic, there's some convoluted ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that doesn't add anything to the game, and it's there.

My biggest laugh was when I finally decided to plant some rice and do some farming in general.

For rice, you need a field with water, which you can create as easily as regular water. The other plants need watering, right? So, for this, you need to build a well and get a bucket. My idea was that I would just build a well and then craft a bucket, get some water from the well, water my plants, and refill the bucket. Rinse and repeat until your plants are watered.

Lol no.

You craft multiple buckets, then THROW them into the well, then WAIT, and then come back and pick up the water. Without the buckets, they are gone. You then craft another bucket at the woodworking table and combine the water from your inventory with this newly created bucket to craft a water bucket.

That's just some hilarious game design.

While you can hire villagers to perform most of the tasks for you, in the beginning, you won't have that luxury and will spend a lot of time running around back and forth to your storage and repeating the same tedious stuff again and again. The sense of progression in this game is really slow.

Even 8 hours into the game, I was still running around picking up some grass because I needed a lot of it, and the game doesn't provide you with an abundance of it like other similar games do. Technically, you can make all of your foragers run around and gather some grass for you, but then they won't be collecting other, more important things like shrooms or WASABI.

The Needs of the villagers and production tab doesn't make any sense. What do tabs "Items storage" and "Needs in storage" mean? Do my villagers require 575 firewood every day? Or one firewood is "5" Needs for heating, which you can only see after you click on the item. While I kinda figured out how it's calculated, I still don't know how to produce enough food for all my villagers, and I have 2 giant farm plots, 3 fishermen, 2 foragers, and one hunter. More than half of the population is working to provide food, and still more is needed.

And while you could assign more people where needed, except for farming, all other jobs require new buildings and stations, which is, again, resources and time to build them.

So, in the end, you are just running around, trying to hunt some boars (don't make me even get to the shooting mechanics in this game) to feed your population just so they can eat everything you bought to them in one sitting so tomorrow you can repeat the process again.

Whatever out of 10.

kinda good game after some time in it

The idea behind the game is great. Hope devs will listen to the feedback, but nevertheless great demo.

Pretty interesting concept. Must investigate further.

Fast forward: My eyes!