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I was sent Brotatoas a review code. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I will keep my review honest.
Brotato is a top-down arena shooter available now on Steam. Play as a potato and survive endless hordes of aliens. This game has no story. You choose a potato and do your best to survive.
The mechanics are simple, move the potato around the arena, and your potato does the rest. You start each round by choosing a potato. Each potato has unique skills and traits that affect the gameplay. Usually, they’ll have a boost in a stat at the cost of another and some kind of gimmick. You unlock additional potatoes by playing the game and unlocking achievements.
As you kill aliens, you pick up XP to level up your character and currency to buy upgrades. At the end of each round, you chose an upgrade for every level you gain and buy items or weapons from a shop. The upgrades and items you choose from are random. While some of my runs were easier than others, I felt the RNG was fair.
The character auto-attacks, so you only have to worry about the movement. I preferred using a controller, but do whatever is comfortable. Where this game gets complicated is in the choices you make for upgrades. These choices affect how strong your potato gets, so choose wisely. Often, you will have to choose between picking up the resources you need to get stronger or simply surviving the round. As simple as this game looks, it can get pretty technical.
I loved Brotato! The art is cute, the music is great, and the gameplay is fun. It was hard to put this game down because the more I played, the more I obsessed with my strategy. This is a great casual game to pick up because it is engaging enough to keep your attention, and you can return to it without having to remember anything. Brotato is $4.99 on Steam, but it is on sale for $3.99 until June 30. Grab your copy today! The game has been announced to for the Switch, but no date has been set.
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I was sent the Battle Shapersdemo to review, but it is unfair to review a game that is still this early in development. While the game looks fine, it isn’t finished. Instead, I will write about my impressions of the demo.
Battle Shapers is a fast-paced arcade shooter for PC where players fight off hordes of robots as they try to take their city back from the evil overlords that now run it.
This demo is not the best start for this game. If the goal was to spark interest for the game, it fails to do so. I wasn’t able to enjoy the demo because it stuttered so badly that it became unplayable. It isn’t a hardware issue because my computer can easily run this game on the highest settings. I tried playing the game on the lowest setting, but encountered the same issues. It might be an issue with Windows 11, but I am unable to test the theory. I forced myself to play this game as long as possible, but the constant stuttering ruined the experience.
If ignore the performance issues, the game play is okay. I enjoy the fast pace, there is an interesting melee mechanics, but I can see it become a bit repetitive. You make your way through areas, clearing room of mobs, and gathering loot. Unless the full release comes with different areas, mobs, and bosses that introduce different mechanics and require different strategies, this game is doomed to grow stale. It’s a game that sort of reminds me of Borderlands, but I would rather be playing Borderlands. At least based on my experience with the demo, this opinion could change at release.
It is a shame because the game looks cool. I love the art style, I enjoy fast pacing, and it has a fantastic sound track. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend it because it isn’t a good demo. I can only hope that they patch the demo and start working closely with the community to make the game better, or at the very least playable. I’ll keep an eye out for future updates and try to get my hands on the full game, but as it stands, I am not impressed.
Evil Wizard is coming to the Xbox and PC on May 25, and it might be something to look into if you like classic RPGs. You play as the villain as you reclaim your castle from heroes. You fight bosses, save your minions, and even pet a dog or three. Evil Wizard appears to be a fast-paced, silly adventure that might be a lot of fun. The art is cute, the tone is dark but not without its silliness, and the gameplay looks solid. I love the pixel art and the dark fantasy aesthetic, but I am a bit partial to this pixel art resurgence we’ve been going through. The combat looks pretty solid, especially if you are a fan of the traditional beat-em-ups. I am really digging the magic system and am interested in trying it out.
A price hasn’t been announced yet, but you can go wishlist Evil Wizard on Steam to get the notification. Make sure to join the official Discord and follow the game on Twitter for all the news!
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I got to play Liberte at GDC this year and liked it enough to try to review it for my site. I was lucky enough to have been given a review code for this game, but this will be my honest review.
Liberteis an ARPG with a unique deck-building mechanic. Instead of finding gear and customizing a skill tree, you play with a deck of cards that give your character weapons, items, and talents.
A revolution has broken out in France, and Rene finds himself in the middle. You must navigate between the four factions, choosing sides and fighting the good fight. But there is something strange behind the revolution. A mysterious plant has sprung up, turning people into monsters. Will you be able to solve the mystery, or will this be the fall of humanity?
I liked the story, but I will keep it vague to not ruin the surprise. You can figure everything out early, but I want to avoid spoilers. I love the flavor of the lore and how the game gives you choices. You choose the factions you help out during your missions, but this only affects the flavor of enemies you fight against and the rewards you unlock. I suggest you pick whatever you think is coolest since it doesn’t affect the story.
There are four factions in Liberte: the rebels, the crown, the church, and the Tribe. Each faction has a hero you can play with and unique cards you can unlock. My issue with this mechanic is that it takes a long time to unlock all the heroes. While it may be good to allow players to live with characters for a bit, I would prefer that I could choose the class from the start. There are a total of 5 classes to choose from, but I imagined Anna because she fits my playstyle the best. The character you choose only affects gameplay. You will always be Rene for the cutscenes.
Combat is what I liked most about this game. The RNG made it so I was constantly having to change my playstyle to adapt to whatever cards I pulled. This gave the game its wavering difficulty. I had the most fun on the harder playthroughs where I wasn’t pulling the cards I needed because of how safe I had to play it. The dodge and parry mechanic felt fantastic, and the kiting was very satisfying. Liberte controller support, but I preferred the accuracy I got with the keyboard and mouse.
There is an undeniable clunkiness to this game. Some hitboxes are too small, and my abilities wouldn’t go off. It isn’t so bad that the game is unplayable, but it is hard to ignore. If you run multiple monitors, you can click out of the game. This will minimize the screen without pausing it. Most of the time I was able to get back in time without dying, but not always. Dying means you have to start leveling your character all over, but you don’t lose your progress in the story. Make sure you make an offering at the altar before starting a new run for a nice little boost.
The grind for this game is the barrier to entry. To unlock new cards, you need to find blueprints, complete faction reward tracks, and farm for materials. When you get blueprints for the cards you need, you will find that you don’t have enough materials. You can increase the difficulty of each run to have better drop rates, but it will take you longer to get through the story. This wouldn’t be a problem if you weren’t constantly running through the same missions on the same maps. I found comfort in the reputation and felt the RNG did enough to keep the playthroughs fresh, but different maps and quests would have been better. The game does have a story difficulty that makes things a lot quicker. You get access to a full deck, and it is harder to die. I still found I needed to try during combat, but there isn’t as much risk involved. I suggest you try this mode if you don’t have enough time for the grind, but still want to enjoy the story.
The game is still in early access, and I find it unfair to complain about the bugs and performance. There are bugs, but the game is playable. The devs are working hard to make the game better. The launch date has been moved to May, but no specific date has been announced. It does need some polish, but the story and experience are solid. If you don’t mind the early access nature and the grind, I recommend you go pick up your copy. The aesthetic is fantastic, the flavor for the story and lore is nice and dark, and the gameplay is a lot of fun. You can grab your copy on Steam, or Wishlist it so you are ready for the full release. The game is $19.99, but on sale for $14.99 at the time of writing this.
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I was given Drop – System Breach as a review code. I am grateful for the opportunity, but I will not let it sway my opinions. This will be an honest review of the game.
Drop is a fast-paced hacker simulator for PC that you should consider if you like these types of puzzle games. In a city full of hackers, you must prove your worth. Take odd jobs, join a faction, and test your hacking skills. Do you have what it takes to be the best?
I had to uninstall this game because of how addicted I became to the gameplay. I understand it may not be for everyone, but there is something in its simple gameplay loop that I couldn’t get enough of.
I love the aesthetic of this game. The graphics aren’t high-end, but they are appropriate for the game. It looks like something you would see in a movie or tv show about hacking.
The gameplay loop is simple. You log into a network of computers and start unlocking the network of nodes until you complete the objectives. You will install viruses, steal data, or do anything else a hacker will do. But you will not be without resistance. Systems will have alarms, viruses, and other defenses to obstruct you. The trick to this game is to efficiently manage your resources while you finish the objectives to maximize your profits. The deeper you get into this game, the more you have to mitigate. This game appears simple, but it gets intense.
There is a story, but it isn’t important. There are also factions, but like the story, they only exist to add flavor. If you miss any text, you aren’t missing out on anything important. I read all the messages, and while I appreciate the flavor it added, I noticed a lot of syntax errors. It won’t ruin the game, but it is hard to overlook.
So should you buy this game? It depends. I enjoyed the game way more than I should have, but it is repetitive. The puzzles feel different because the system’s defenses are always different, but the loop will always be the same. If you don’t like the repetitive loop that is common in roguelikes, you won’t like this game. If you don’t mind the reputation, this game is fantastic. The aesthetic is cool, the gameplay is fun, and the soundtrack is fantastic. You can buy Drop – System Breach for $9.99 on Steam. I think it’s worth the money.
Wildfrost is a cute new deck builder coming to the Switch and PC on April 12, 2023. Use the power of your cards to face off against the dangers Wildfrost has to offer to save your friends. Do you have what it takes to end this eternal winter?
I love card games and deck builders so this will be a must-buy for me. The art is super cute and the gameplay looks interesting. If you can’t wait for the 12th, there is a demo for the switch you can try. I might check out the demo later if I can, but I will definitely be adding this game to my collection. Pre-order it today on the Nintendo Switch or Steam.
I want to start out by saying that I got this game as a review code and while I am grateful for the opportunity, I will not let that sway my opinion. This will be an honest review of the game.
Lovecraft Untold Stories 2 is a 2D isometric dungeon crawler for pc based on Lovecraft lore. You start off choosing from three playable characters: the witch, the professor, and the detective. Each character has its own unique abilities, armor, and weapons. You control your character through randomly generated dungeons as you try to solve a mystery.
All pictures are from screenshots.
I was very excited about this game. I liked the art, I liked that the cutscenes were comic-like, and I had fun at the intro level. But once you get out of the intro mission, the game becomes frustratingly unplayable. Movement becomes clunky and slow in the cluttered rooms. I was constantly getting stuck on boxes, holes, and trees, making kiting enemies virtually impossible. To make matters worse, I was getting stuck on the invisible boundaries of boxes and trees. The witch has a cool teleport ability that could pass through enemies but would get stuck on invisible artifacts. I died so many times because my teleport was constantly being canceled by nothing. There are instances where I would teleport only to be trapped in between an inescapable grouping of trees. When the environment is more deadly than the enemies, that is bad game design.
I thought the randomly generated dungeons were cool at first, but that view quickly turned sour. I quickly learned that the room generation was quite unbalanced. Some rooms were laughably easy, with only two enemies standing in my way. Others were impossibly hard, with too many enemies and no way to escape. There was one room I couldn’t even complete because there was a wall blocking the exit. I love the randomness of life as much as any other gamer, but this experience was frustrating.
The insanity mechanic is nonsense. If you get hit by an enemy, you slowly get stacks of insanity. If you get too many, you die. The problem is, there is no clear indication of how much insanity you have, nor is there an easy way to clear it. Because the environment made movement difficult, it was impossible to clear a level without getting stacks of insanity. You either got killed because you got stuck trying to run away, or you died because you gathered too much insanity. This poorly designed mechanic made this game harder than it should be.
I was beyond excited about this game because it reminds me of the Arkham Horrorboard game. I have been desperately trying to find a group to play with, and I believed this game would be my only chance. The disappointment I collected from this game was so painful, I couldn’t muster the strength to finish this game. I forced myself to play as much as I could, but I can only be so patient. This game is broken to the point where you won’t get any meaningful enjoyment out of it. Lovecraft Untold Stories 2 isn’t worth your time as a free game, let alone the $25 it is asking for. But if you don’t believe me, you can buy it on steam.
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