What a whimsical and ambitious game! But, what a confusing allegory (Cagetown). The royal families aren't villainized, though they're wealthy & the wealth of monarchs comes from taxation. The Baron, an oligarch, seemingly taxes people? Is this an anti-taxation parable? It's not antigovernment, so long as that government is a monarchy, it would seem.

The commentary on immigration was similarly confusing. In the game, none of the reds or blues chose to migrate to the Underbox. They were forced, and didn't want to stay. They came in modest numbers, didn't rape or traffic minors, didn't crash cars into Christmas markets, shoot up Jewish beach goers, etc. and ignoring these severe, ongoing downsides to open borders comes off even more dishonest than ignoring that migrants are being funneled into a few specific countries by NGOs nobody voted for.

I understand that you're German, and that an infamous Austrian painter did some seriously unfortunate things which you still carry guilt for. So it tracks that you are only able to have a certain set of political opinions, regardless of what the facts are, and the most grotesque of those facts must be stubbornly ignored to preserve the morally appropriate opinions.

But, it's a head scratcher to make capitalism the bad guy in a game you're selling, for money. You nod at this hypocrisy when an NPC mentions how generous you are with bonus content, but I'm looking at the store page for this game, and it isn't free. You apparently don't consider yourself a bad guy for expecting to be paid for the fruits of your labor. Your game directly competes for dollars with other games, so your gain is necessarily someone else's loss. But you nevertheless poured all of your talents into making this the best game you're able to make, rather than sabotaging its quality our of solidarity with less talented devs, so as not to take too many sales from them.

Germany did suffer under fascism, which makes sense of the ridiculously slanted immigration parable in this game. But, Germany (the Eastern half) also suffered mightily under Communism, which is why the anti-capitalist themes in this game caught me off-guard.

Yes, yes, it's just a silly brightly colored fun game, it's not meant to be a political manifesto. Surely it would be difficult, intrusive, & harm the pacing if this game attempted an accurate, nuanced political message. But in simplifying it, you've caricaturized the opposing view, while conspicuously ignoring very strong, currently relevant points against yours, to an insulting degree. I cannot help but wonder if it wouldn't have been more tasteful to not attempt political messaging in a game of this kind to begin with,

A superb entry in the Metroidvania genre, but it overflows into several more genres too. Whimsical, funny, charming, and creative. Janky in places, but as a direct consequence of how much freedom it gives you to solve puzzles in different ways.

The good:
-First 20 minutes is cinematic
-Exploring the base is a treat for Thing fans
-Improved textures/shaders/lighting looks great

The bad:
-Anyone can thing out now, which sounds better on paper but isn't in practice
-This game is an action shooter & REALLY should've been survival horror
-Too many annoying small enemies, PS2 era jank

Recommending because of the good work that went into remastering a very flawed but interesting game. I can better appreciate the dev's original vision now, it's just a bit superficial of a mechanic layer sitting atop an otherwise garden variety PS2 over the shoulder shootemup

Why is this rated mostly positive? Assets look fine. Mechanics are...fine, if basic. But what is this story? What is this writing?

Metroid Prime meets Bioshock meets Tribes

Another Szymanski classic. Improved noticeably over prior works, tough but fair, some depth to combat. A few things I wanted it to have that it didn't: 1. Power tools. Maybe for NG+? 2. Dismemberment, 3. A couple inhuman enemies near the end. 4. Alt ending if you time your swing right, when the Watcher rushes you. 5. A stealth section or two, ala Pigsaw.

I do not like the smug aura of this red panda. It mocks me

Superb art style, writing, story telling, just decadent rich chocolate cake across the board.