Fun little game.
very tricky at the start to get the hang of but a fun + challenging game once you get used to it

Its just really really fun. Highly recommend.
Play with friends for a passionate night of hardcore gaming.

Really good for unemployed people.

This DLC got lots of negative reviews due to bugs on launch (and rightfully so) but the bugs were fixed plus the extra content means it makes it a perfectly regular DLC. The Only thing the bad reviews does is make it hard to judge how good the content actual is when working as intended. THEREFORE, heres my thoughts on each bit of content:

Survivors
+ Seeker Survivor (9/10, has group heal and revive mechanic which makes multiplayer more fun)
+ False Son Survivor (8/10, literally if elden ring was a character)
+ Chef Bot Survivor (7/10, hmmm kinda fun but requires skill and im bad)

white items
+ Warped Echo (10/10, what the game needed to prevent one-shot kills)
+ Chronic Expansion (5/10, conditional damage buff, meh)
+ Knockback Fin (1/10, knocks enemies into the air... why is that good?)
+ Bolstering Lantern (6/10)
+ Antler Shield (6/10)

Green Items
+ Chance Doll (10/10, something to make shrines more worth it)
+ Prayer Beads (3/10, gives stats when it is taken from you, very rare to proc)
+ Sale Star (10/10, very fun, gives you two items out of a chest once per stage)
+ Unstable Transmitter (7/10, teleports on low health, saved me many times but can be annoying)
+ Luminous Shot (3/10, secondary skills power up your primary skill, very hard to use properly)
+ Noxious Thorn (5/10)

Red Items
+ Electric Boomerang (7/10)
+ Growth Nectar (1/10)
+ Runic Lens (5/10)
+ Sonorous Whispers (10/10, basically artifact of sacrifice but only for elite enemies)
+ War Bonds (6/10, money item)

Lunar Items
+ Longstanding Solitude (10/10, bad item but it adds a use to all money items which were the worst)

Equipment
+ Seed of Life (10/10, revival item that makes multiplayer more fun)

And like 4+ new stages, new altar structures, new skins for each survivor, plus a new boss (4/10, i didnt like these parts)

nice

I met the Devs at EGX 2024 and they were really cool and funny guys, despite this I decided I would be fair and honest throughout this review.

Really daft and addictive game. I'm not someone who usually goes for precision platformers or collectables but this had me hooked. I found myself spending like 30 minutes to get one hard-to-reach collectable for no other reason than "I just have to".

Gameplay-loop is very similar to mario 64 and crash bandicoot where all collectables are seemingly optional but you need a certain amount of it to progress to the next level. This is a highly addictive format and most games that do it well tend to succeed because you'll be thinking "if I 100% all the gears on this level then I won't have to 100% a harder level" and that turns you into a completionist by nature.

Its also got a silly/goofy vibe and its rare to see games that allow the developers to have so much creative expression and I think it genuinely makes me want to see all the content in this game. I even love the naming scheme of all the characters, makes me chuckle whenever I see something like "Morio" or "Tosla".

Truly love this game and can't wait to see the top-tier speedruns in the coming years.

Fair warnings:

- sometimes a jump may seem impossible, but you were just doing it wrong. Sometimes you think that a section must be doable, but you just haven't unlocked a mechanic yet. So keep an eye out for both of those situations.

- Idk about anyone else but I can only play this a couple hours at a time because its so action-packed and stimulating. I recommend taking a break at the end of each level for full enjoyment

- you may find some mechanics or sections hard to get the hang of. That's alright but don't give up on it

- you may find the game too easy in your first 2 hours, This appears to be teaching you the game, don't worry it steps up in difficulty later.

- sometimes mildly infuriating, but its all part of the fun

TO THE DEVS:

if you're reading this, I love this game but if I had one wish it would be the ability to turn down the voice volume, or turn off the voice that says "Time Extended". I hope that wouldn't be too much trouble, it's just a pet peeve of mine. Thanks :)

Definitely inspired by portal. Most of the mechanics and game structure are extremely similar to the point where I think the devs commit idea fraud. However, I really like portal so I'm glad I got to experience something so similar again.

The puzzles had very repetitive solutions. The devs need to understand that after an hour of the game, we know that one cube can be used in two or more places. Instead of the new mechanics changing the solution, you just end up doing the same solution but with different objects. for example, instead of there being one cube and two pressure plates, theres one lazer cube that triggers two lazer receptors. because of this repetitive pattern, I found every puzzle very easy. I think the main problem is that the rewind mechanic is limited and therefore its hard to do things with it. "you can move things without touching them" seems to be the extent of the ability.

Im glad that aria didnt get many lines, it made me cringe, loved astra tho. E was a fun character but there really wasn't much telling me why they were a good robot, and they weren't utilised a lot.

The story was interesting enough for me to spend time looking around at all the computers but the ending wasn't brilliant. Its cool that its a time loop and everything but usually with time loop stories, you should make it so that aria is trying to find a way out of the loop in some way. she just seems to accept that this is her life now. Also, I don't really get the ghosts and the writing on the wall, she has no memory of the loop so she isn't insane enough to write all that stuff, nor does she have time.

I think a good addition would be to have aria realise she's in a loop, add one to the tally mark, then try to find a way to stop it once and for all.

regardless of this, they managed to make a fully fledged game that was good enough for me to play all the way through to the end and I think its incredible that small studios are able to do things like this.

but yeah, interesting to study the game design, not too fun for paying customers.

also thanks for donating to the jingle jam everyone!