MiSide

Oh my Mita(s) will I ever get enough of you... A weird mix of romance dating sim and horror story focused game, sound like a recipe for failure, BUT IT WORK! Hours played: 7.9 Hours Finished the game, and got the (peacful mode) unlocked. The Good: - A memorable and querky set up that pulls you in almost immediately. - Has strong psycological horror and charming Dating activities. - Very well balanced between the horror and romance parts. - The indie feel of the game is very noticable in a good way. - I had (a lot of fun) with photo mode. The Bad: - Needs some serious quality of life regarding the saving mechanics. - The build up to the game actual start should be given a tad bit more marination. The game IMO starts a bit too fast. - Lacks some (freedom) which is integral to any romance sims, although (peacful mode) is promising something, but, if you know, you know... - It would help the game tremendously if it has better decesion trees with multiple endings, sadly the game is a bit too linear. This game can get upto a 10 if it has nicer graphics, stronger gore, deeper romance sim and real decision trees with mutliple endings. This genre of dating sim X horror is a golden gem for people like me!

Slots & Daggers

A charming and beautifully polished deck building slot machine experience. Hours played: 9.6 Hours Finished the game, got all achievements, and reached 123K in arena mode. The Good: - Beautiful and compelling package (art, feel, and overall experience). - Very easy to get into and very fun deck building variations. The Bad: - Criminally impalanced (though it doesn't hurt the fun until later). - The grind is a must to beat the game. - Some lack imphasis on the enemy design and story. - I see almost no replayability to the game after beating it (due to balancing issues) This game can get upto 9.5 if it was able to get over the balancing issues and give enemy design some more attention and character. Slots and Daggers was really easy to get into and was geniunly fun to see through till the end.

Antichamber

A 4D geometric brain fuckary maze game with minimal decoration. Hours played: 5 Hours Aquired the Red gun. The Good: - Undeniably unique puzzle gimmic. - Some few puzzles are satisfying to solve The Bad: - Many puzzles are frustrating to deal with. - Maze is more abstract than it should, being lost and finding yourself (teleported) beck to a starting area feels unnatural most of the time. - Progression doesn't give enough reward to encourage beating the game. This game, done by a sole developer, feels more abstract and a demo than a complete commercial game. The visual and vocal elements are in a relatively bad state to support the artistic presentation of the game. The game can go up to 7 if it has better graphic and perhaps recognizable bioms that rewards you for progressing. Antichamper was a relatively headache inducing game that could use a lot of polish and (charming fillers).

UFO 50

More than just a solid collection of games across almost all genres that are well worth its price tag. Hours played: 9.9 Hours Player all 50 games, didn't gold or cherry any game. The Good: - Games spans multiple genres generously, you'll definitely find a game that you'll like, maybe even love! - Games are actually connected through some good lore, adding more cohesion to the total experience. - Many games are actual full games that takes hours to beat, again, talk about bank for your buck. The Bad: - Not all games are made with equal quality, some games feel too simple and or not fun to play, while others feel too sophesticated and polished. - Lack of a deep cohesive narative of universe. Games are not connected enough. The game can go up to 10, if most games are made with the same level of my favorites while introducing a much more connected menu, universe, lore, and perhaps some story or gameplay outside the 50 Games. UFO50 was indeed a very wild ride that I'll probably revisit one day.

Opus Magnum

A satisfying mechanical geometrical puzzle where almost no two correct solutions will look the same. The Good: - The game has a clear and solid core and it does it right, the geometrical puzzle delivers what it seems to promise. - The game delivers enough shortcuts and debugging tools to facilitate building the solutions. - UI UX is good in some areas (in the gameplay puzzle) The Bad: - Despite the solid core, the game lacks charm. It's barely inviting, with an added story that was ill introduced, I happen to just skip its dialog. - The tutorial, despite being ok, ended up being a bit lacking with many mechanism not sufficiently explained. For me, this caused wasting some time building system that ended up not work because I was effectively still learning and discovering what works. The tutorial gave me false signals of what could potentially work and what couldn't. - The game is a bit too monotonous and feels like a grind to play, apparently my brain was lacking some serious stimulation that wasn't provided. - UI UX is lacking and uninspiring (in progression and story elements) The game can use a lot of polish and charm elements to be elevated to 7+. For an 8+, I think the game's puzzle could be the main game loop in a story game about building, where I genuinely care to build and optimize the puzzles (with in game rewards) rather than the abstract nature of the current state of this game. Opus Magnum? not quite the magnum opus that it suggests to be.

Mewgenics

A massively RICH rouge lite strategy with tons of riz. Hours played: 5.8 Hours Successfully completed the sewer stage, had 4 runs, 2 successful 2 failed. The Good: - The game keeps on giving content, time flies by, very inviting and rewarding to open the game. - The game base and difficulty is done right, gives you just enough challenge to make you have fun. - The grind is - surprisingly - not as bad as I thought when I first played the game. - For the most part the game is easy to understand with enough mystery that encourages exploration, I think this gives the game more life time and helps keep its content even RICHER. The Bad: Although the game is polished admirably, some polished decisions hinder the experience for me: - The cat (mewoing) sounds for the most part feels a bit forced and rather than fun, feels cringe. - Hit impacts (cat paws, basic magic, projectile hit, etc...) feels too week and can take a lot from the experience. - Boss intros are soo cool but they go fast I almost missed all of them. - The main game mechanic of breeding cats unfortunately serves the marketing material, not much so the game. The game can go to a 9 if the breeding mechanic has much more value to the game loop, and more polish to the combat is introduced, and cat sounds go replaced by (real) cat sounds instead.

Brothers A Tale of Two Sons

A cleaver control scheme wrapped in a puzzle story game package. Hours played: 2.8 Hours Finished the game once (Alone). The Good: - The control scheme is quite smart allowing the game to be experienced alone or better with a close partner. - Nice and smooth pacing, easy to play throughout, didn't feel boring nor exisively filled. - I really loved how the two characters can interact with the environment differently, this touch took the game up a notch. - The last part of the story is really good. - Big bro didn't die virgin. The Bad: - The story only gets good towards the end. Otherwise, it's quite predictable and somewhat boring. - The game can use good amount of polish, many sequence transitions are rough and do take from the immersion of the game, and the graphics are a bit mid for such a story heavy game. - The puzzles and navigation can feel a bit repetitive if only for a little bit, especially if played alone. - Dad crying like a bitch towards the end of the game. This game could go to 8 if graphics are improved drastically, transitions are smoothed out, slightly better puzzle variety are included, and more environment interactions are added.

What Remains of Edith Finch

WARNING: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS. A story masterfully delivered in a video game medium. Hours played: 3.8 Hours Finished the game and got all major characters unlock in the tree. The Good: - The basing, environment progression, and few character episodes are honestly masterful. Specifically: Barbara (The star), Gregory (The baby), and Lewis (The canestry worker / video game lover) are outstanding mini experiences that sat the bar so high, almost everything else feels like literally (fillers). And oh, the final baby coming out got me, I felt that sequence was unique and the messaging was powerful. - The story made me care about the family and what's happened to them for the most part. The Bad: - Edith's voice acting. Almost all other voice actors are good enough, except for her, she was mediocre at best and too flat at worst, which was the majority of the time. - The story is haunting, depressing, and for the most part not convincing enough. The whole (who killed her) in Barbara's sequence was a cool potential turning point I thought the story would turn into uncovering some secrets akin to doing some detective work, unfortunately, it fell too short being nothing but (oh! the family is cursed and shit). The story writing shows a relatively mediocre writing skills, however, the video game aspect of telling the story boosted the overall experience masking its lack luster impact. - Some retarded character deaths hurt the story the most, some felt way too forced almost comical, and not in a good way. Walter (the train death), Sam (The deer death), Edie (alcohol death), and Gus (The tornado death), felt rushed, weak and relatively forced. The Milton remained a mystery (could be an easter egg for unfinished swan) so it may not totally be ignored, but for those who didn't play it - like me -, may not get the memo, which isn't that bad. - I experience a mini out of bound bug that I needed to close the game and start it over, fortunately there are well placed save games that it didn't affect me much. This game could be 8.5 to 9.5 if there was a better Edith voice actor, a better written story and better character episodes. Remove all other finches episodes and give me a longer baby, video gamer, and Hollywood star sequences and that'll make me almost twice as satisfied.

Peglin

A unique and colorful rogue like, a marriage between peggle and slay the spire. Hours played: 3.8 Hours Played 3 Runs, Successfully completed 2 Runs with 2 different characters. The Good: - The game is easy to play and progression is smooth and rewarding. - The game seem to have A LOT of deck building veriety and game play styles for those willing to invest more time into the game. The Bad: - The game starts with a bit of heavy termenologies that looked exciting to learn and use, fast forward playing the game for 2 hours and finishing 2 Runs, still around 50% of the terminologies (which describes effects and game mechanics) are not yet fully understood by me, therefore, I naturally didn't care about them. - The feeling I got after playing my 3 Runs was that it was a bit fast as well as anti-climactic. - The undeniable chaotic nature of many of this game's levels makes playing almost equivalent to a dice roll, which IMO introduce too much randomness almost invalidating and strategic thinking put into deck building. This game could be a 7 or even an 8 if it would allow you to control the pepples after launching them. Think like Fanst in the edges of the map, that you control to open and close them to nudge the pepples ever so slightly to the desired direction. This would drastically reduce the overwhelming randomness affecting the game and the user urgency could incourage the player to learn more about the effects as well as adding a strategic layer that complements the current game experience.

Potion Craft

A relaxing and quite engaging crafting and trading game. Hours played: 3 Hours Reached Day 6. The art style and game operation mechanics alone especially stand out selling the concept and by extension the game. The first 2 hours start REALLY strong, unfortunatly, the excitement gradually drops afterwards mainly due to the repetitiveness. While the game features explorative concepts, the lack of a good reward hinders the exploration from being exciting which adds further strain on the repetitiveness. I never thought I'd ever say that but, I grew tiered of bounding... those herps and shrooms. The game could be a 7 or an 8 if it has better exploration rewards, even more shortcuts to not having to bound 10 herps because of a stupid mistake you did, and always available merchants (maybe through a city map).

Suzerain

Oh Anton what have you gotten yourself into? A president you say? Wanna change the country you say? bft... so naive. Hours played: 9 Hours. Last point I remember reaching: discussing foreign affairs with my old university teacher. The Good: The feeling of being in the shoe of the president Anton Ryan is spot on. You WILL feel that you're Ryan, and you WILL feel that you're a president. In a way the game has accomplished what it mainly wanted to convey. The Bad: Oh well, everything else... almost... The game can use a shit ton of (gamification elements), not saying that it has none, but the experience and atmosphere is almost completely build through the player's mind, in a way (SUZERAIN) is almost effectively an interactive novel. Things that give flare and engagement such as sound / visual effects, animated sequences, more engaging progress tracker, more visual stimulus that showcases your progress would improve the game tremendously. I did felt the pain and (brief) relief moments of Anton, however, I'd really wanted to see a beautiful portrait of the Maroon palace, the ball room, the meeting room, the finished rail road, etc... The game pretty much happens in your head without much tangible reward. The game pacing could be improved too, I think for most people the game opens too wide and the information that you have access to is overwhelming, the game could (hint) to you what are the important information to study leaving the rest open if you like to read more. I think most players who'll eventually stop playing are those who find the game overwhelmingly massive with info to read. Lastly the game suffers from some quality of life issues like not being able to save at anytime (you have to finish a meeting), for me that was really cumbersome. More than once I thought in my head Ok I have 30 more mins before I finish my play session and the previous meeting took 10 mins, so this one will take a max of 20 so I can have another meeting right? Nope, I ended up spending more than an hour and I had to go through the meeting very quickly because otherwise I'll have to start over which was not a good option for me. Now, the bad of this game is obviously (VERY) fixable. If a bigger budge / team were to fix its (bad) this game is potentially a 10/10 and a contender to be in one of the categories for game of the year, think like (Dispatch).

ULTRAKILL

An engaging fast based doomy indie title. The game suffers from (classical) keybind arrangements that is quite painful to play with (for me). The environments are a bit dull and too samy, most rooms and corridors feels meh to navigate through. The enemy swarms are a bit too robotic with little to no character to them (I'd appreciate some enemy veriety such as enemies that run away from you and they give some perks or something, or enemies that use the surrounding areas to hide or ambush or, etc...).

Lysfanga

A game with a great concept. First hour will be engaging for most players as the main time rewind mechanism is a bit unique indeed. After the first hour the repetitive nature of the levels will get to you and despite the unique mechanism, every next level will be more of a chore than an exciting new challenge to beat. The mechanism and the level structure makes the game a puzzle solving experience with execution to gate keep the puzzle solution challenging. Finally some enemy variety and unique puzzle element makes many of the levels not fun to beat.

Punch Club

Pros: The overall game loop and progression is engaging and quite fun. Cons: The game falls short when it comes to watching the fights take place, even with x4 speed, I find that the fights (which is supposed to be the fruits of my labor) are the least engaging and boy I wished more than once for a skip button. MAYBE, this could be resolved if the game had an (intractable / urgency button) in the fight that allows me to influence things even if for a little bit, think like what (Digimon world) have. I also find it a bit annoying to manage numbers of how much (money / time / food / energy) I have to successfully progress the game. For example, I can't double check on what food is on my fridge so I have to remember, I need to do math to know if I can afford an energy drink and still buy a steak and visit the gym and have enough time till tomorrow to work.

The Hex

A love letter to video game developers. A game that gently explores multiple genres giving it a very unique and memorable experience. The thoughtful, smart and unique takes into its progression makes it a smash of a game. An easy must play for all players especially those pursuing developing their own game.

War for the Overworld

Dreadful UX plus a steep learning curve kills the game. Feels like homework to play. This is my first RTS and it was horrible. Outstanding voice acting from the narrator and catchy enemy SFX.

This War of Mine

Strategy war / shelter survival with HEAVY emotions. The game delivers what it's aiming to in a beautiful art and depressing atmosphere. The game lacks good amount of optimization (my PC fan is very noisy when the game runs), also some good amount of quality of life, I find that keeping count of what I have in my inventory isn't presented well.

Balatro

PLAYED ON PLAYSTATION! Indie game of the year for a reason! The game is a master class of its own genre. My only gripe about this game is it's pretty randomness reliance.

GRIS

Although atmospheric and beautiful. It failed to make me really invested in it. If it succeeded, it could go up to 8.

Die in the Dungeon