As much as it pains me to say it after putting almost 600 hours into the game and buying both DLCs, I cannot, with good conscience, recommend Risk of Rain 2 anymore.

Since the update and DLC release that followed the takeover by Gearbox, the game has been broken in several significant and some somewhat hidden ways, such as spawns, physics and behaviour being linked to the game FPS. If you play the game limited to 60 FPS, the issues this introduces are bearable, but that does not keep my impression of the game from having fallen significantly.

Supporting corporate behaviour like this by buying the game is something I can not agree with.

Update 2024-09-05: A fix was released which addressed a lot of the new issues, including most (if not all) of the FPS-linked physics and behaviour. This was definitely necessary, and I appreciate the fact a fix was released within 9 days. However, I still don't believe that a fiasco like the 1.3.1 one is not going to happen again.

Provides exactly what it says on the box. Depending on how well your runs go, you can expect to clear this game with all achievements within 4 hours, or about 25 runs. The quest-giver characters and small speech bubbles with gibberish voice lines add a nice touch to the game. It's nice to see that, while the quests are the same for all ships, there's at least one (Looky) which adds a twist (i.e. literally no weapons save for the engine) that requires a significantly different approach. If that could somehow be expanded upon with the other ships, it would make Cozy Space Survivors even more interesting to complete.

All in all, definitely worth the price tag, and absolutely worthy of a recommendation.

> clear the first world
> I now have 1400 coins
> two hours have passed
> I should be tried for kitsune cruelty

This is entirely on me, though. The game does offer you to reduce the difficulty to a level that respawns you at the point just before you made your character suffer, which is something I haven't seen in other games yet. You can even do that on the fly. I haven't used that difficulty setting yet because I wanted to get through on my own skill (or despite my lack thereof), but it's good to know I have the option in case I ever get really frustrated.

Kitsune Tails drew me in with its pixel graphics and general theme, and I have to say I'm all for it. Just the English voice acting feels a little out of place to me, but that's a reaction I always have with regard to English voice-overs for Japanese-themed content. If I disregard that, though, it does sound quite good. The music and general sound design are spot on, too.

All in all, the first impression I get from Kitsune Tails definitely meets my expectations, and manages to surprise me with some features. I can absolutely recommend the game, and while the price tag is on the higher end of "reasonable" in my opinion, do keep in mind that this money goes to a small development studio. I see it as adding a small tip. Maybe you can, too~

The buttons are so satisfying to click! 10/10, would buy again

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Jokes aside, I really enjoy playing PERMUTER; For me, it's a game I can play for a while in between things, thanks to the game concept (and, to an extent, my personal lack of skill). The music suits the visuals very well (Kubbi is a great choice), and there is a good amount of, as the store description states, "game-changing weapons". You have a limited amount of upgrade slots, can upgrade them to become more powerful, and unlock synergies between them. On top of that, you only have a limited play area, which increases the effectiveness of AoE weapons, and get enemies and bosses that shoot back, too. All in all, I like the concept and implementation of the game, and while I'm definitely not particularly good at the game, I can only recommend getting it.

If there's anything I can complain about, there have been occasional issues with keyboard and mouse input, but I'm not sure if that might be caused by my setup or the fact I've been playing this via Proton. I haven't experienced any problems when playing with a controller, though.

Oh, and did I mention the buttons are incredibly satisfying to click?

Because they are.

clickety click click click

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Full disclosure: The developer is an online acquaintance of mine, and I got to play an early test version of the game for free. That was still a ways away from the final product, but I still feel like I should mention it.

Nice two hours of puzzling accompanied by a short story about fixing relationships. Got the game at a discount of 50%, and in hindsight, despite the relatively short game, I'd have bought it at the full price, too. The controls can be a bit... wonky? (especially rotating things was the thing I often got hung up on) but it's not particularly frustrating.

I recommend the game in case you're looking for a chill time and a total of 14 puzzles consisting of taking things apart and putting them back together. If you're looking for a deep story... well, you can't really expect that from a game with "only" two hours of gameplay. Personally, I don't feel like the money or time I spent were wasted.

Developers are very dedicated to improving the game as well as adding new content, regularly informing the player base about new developments.

Game community can be a bit... eh? but most of the games I've played so far have been okay player-wise. I mean, it is an FPS game. Would definitely recommend playing this with friends, as randoms tend to do Their Own Thing™. Voice chat also helps with coordinating, though from my experience, most people hardly ever use it.

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Update 2024-09-07: So... I've been feeling like Sandstorm has been quite stale for a while now. NWI is still putting out updates, and even adds more content, but it kind of all feels... the same. The (free, mind you) updates mostly give off the impression of being a justification for putting out yet another cosmetic DLC. Issues are being fixed, but a few (like, for example, the PvE AI lasering you through smoke screens without any indication of you even being there) have been there for almost as long as the game has been available, and seemingly NWI can't fix them, won't fix them, or simply isn't aware of them (which I find unlikely). Can't say much about the PvP modes because I don't play them.

All of this is not enough to make me take back my recommendation, but I'm not as confident in it as I used to be when I originally wrote this review.

Funnily enough, my impression of the random players I encounter in PvE has steadily improved, though naturally there are also exceptions to that rule.