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Honsoku
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This user has reviewed 17 games. Awesome! You can edit your reviews directly on game pages.
Hero of the Kingdom II
Created on 31 January, 2024 06:22
Hero of the Kingdom II

Meh Casual/Mobile Tier Adventure Game

This is the overly similar sequel to "Hero of The Kingdom". While I didn't expect a major departure from the formula, I did have hopes that at least either the writing or the UI/UX would improve, but these hopes were rudely dashed against the rocks and lays amongst the other shipwrecks dotting the shore (if you squint, you might see it). I gave the prior 3 stars in part as it was a first release. The lack of improvement along the fundamentals of the game makes this release disappointing by comparison, hence the lower rating. Like the prequel; this is basically an all-ages-appropriate (content wise) browser/mobile adventure (not an RPG) game without the paywalls endemic to the genre. It is pretty middle-of-the-road for that kind of game, but effectively zero stress. No timers, no RNG, no planning builds, etc. Pros: Effectively stress free. Cons: Some poor UX/UI items; only main questline is tracked (even that tracking is a bit a spotty), can only buy/sell one item at a time (really only matters for grinding cash), etc. Story is very generic and linear. Conclusion: If a casual adventure game is the ask, this will do the trick adequately enough. The game almost certainly won't excite or thrill you, but that isn't always a bad thing. Full price is a bit high for what it brings to the table though, so save it for a sale. The game took a bit longer than the prior's 4 hours, clocking in at 6.5 hours. If you noticed; yes, I copy and pasted large chunks of this review from my review of the prequel. Just another indicator of how little the game evolved between installments.

5 gamers found this review helpful
Hero of the Kingdom
Created on 21 January, 2024 02:30
Hero of the Kingdom

Ok Casual/Mobile Tier Adventure Game

This is basically an all-ages-appropriate (content wise) browser/mobile adventure (not an RPG) game without the paywalls endemic to the genre. It is pretty middle-of-the-road for that kind of game, but effectively zero stress. No timers, no RNG, no planning builds, etc. I was looking for something to wind down at night with and this fit the bill. Total game length was just over 4 hours, with 90%-95% of the core game done (a very conservative run though). Pros: Effectively stress free. Cons: Some poor UX/UI items; only main questline is tracked (even that tracking is a bit a spotty), can only buy/sell one item at a time (really only matters for grinding cash), etc. Story is very generic and linear. Ending feels rushed like the developer(s) ran out of budget/patience. Re-reviewing cleared ground for new items to pick up can be a bit tedious. Conclusion: If a casual adventure game is the ask, this will do the trick adequately enough. The game almost certainly won't excite or thrill you, but that isn't always a bad thing. Full price is a bit high for what it brings to the table though, so save it for a sale. Gameplay Hint: By the end of the first 1/3rd of the game or so, you can effectively print as much money as you want through making bread and selling it as long as you have at least 35 gold to begin with.

11 gamers found this review helpful
HunieCam Studio
Created on 30 November, 2023 00:56
HunieCam Studio

OK Casual Fare

This game is at about the level of a higher-end free browser game. It isn't bad for what it is, but it is short, rather simple, and fairly repetitive. It kind of plays like an idle, but doesn't have the automation mechanics to actually be an idle. If you like that kind of thing, this will probably keep you amused for a couple of hours. Game involves a *lot* of dragging icons around and you are always working against the clock, so using a mouse (not a trackpad nor controller) would be advised.

1 gamers found this review helpful
Dragonview
Created on 11 September, 2023 03:43
Dragonview

Exactly as on the Tin

This is an open-world fantasy-RPG hybridized with a brawler, which is an interesting mix. Gives a feeling that your success is more than just having bigger, badder numbers. This is it's big selling point. It sounds small, but it is actually quite important. A large percentage of the game is spent in combat and it is your primary interaction outside of moving. Of related note, (over) leveling (within reason) isn't a chore. This allows you a lot of freedom to set your own difficulty level. The game feels pretty forgiving overall, like the designers generally tried to give the player every reasonable way out they could. (though this didn't prevent them from lobbing a few curveballs) The story is probably not going to be compelling and boils down to; child-of-destiny rescues loved one from evil wizard. The writing is pretty typical fantasy fare (overwrought by today's standards) with the occasional bad joke. A person can probably complete a first pass in 10-20 hours with a guide. There is at least one guide and a 'let's play' available as of this review. Overall, I found it to be a generally pleasant & well put-together experience, with some marring caused by the lack of a manual and the occasional platforming. Pros: Solid progression rate. Generally satisfying combat. Cons: Overworld travel is a bit clunky. Utilizes save points. No in-game volume control. No manual. Hints: You can push (some) statues. Sometimes you have to fall into a pit to advance.

29 gamers found this review helpful
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
Created on 01 October, 2022 02:22
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Big and Bland

Skyrim was an ambitious project and a minor cultural milestone. A game with this size of a static (neither random nor generated from a seed) world was nearly unprecedented. While this later edition improves on the buggy mess that Skyrim was, it doesn't address the core major flaw; Skyrim was highly repetitive and thus dull. The rubberbanding of encounters to your poorly-conceived 'level' helps keep you from feeling like you are making progress and creates major problems with learning certain skills. Don't get me wrong, if you haven't played it before you'll probably have a fine time for the first 10-20 hours. However, after the 10th 'turn the pillar' or the 5th claw puzzle, you'll start to wear. You'll start to notice that the devs didn't have enough ideas to fill the massive space they created, so they repeated a very small bag of tricks with minor variations hundreds of times. That the game balance is rather easy to break, in both directions. If you go down the modding rabbit hole, you'll find that mods can help paper over these core flaws, but that the mods can only really mask the problems, not fix them. This is a game that'll drive you nuts if you are a completionist. So buy it without expecting to ever finish it. When you load in, remember that while you are learning to pick flowers, the Draugr are training. (google the last four words)

20 gamers found this review helpful
Beyond a Steel Sky
Created on 05 August, 2021 05:51
Beyond a Steel Sky

Solid & Scenic, but not Inspired

After 10 years, Foster returns to Union City and finds it bright and gleaming. He starts at ‘look at what Joey did with the city.’, progresses to ‘what did Joey do to the city?’, and ends at: “JOEY, YOU DID WHAT TO THE CITY?!?”. To be clear; this is an adventure game. It is story heavy, and low intensity. There is effectively zero combat, timed puzzles, or much other than dialogue, cut scenes, walking around, and interacting with objects. I don’t know why this game has an ‘action’ tag on it. This game is about as much an action game as Driving Miss Daisy was an action movie. To the game’s credit, it does keep the story moving at a brisk pace and avoids a common adventure game pitfall of item overload. Almost all temporary items get used fairly shortly after being found and my final inventory wasn’t extensive. The game also has a built-in hint system. So this is an easy game to get into if you aren’t generally a fan of ‘click everywhere, try everything’ adventure games. Gameplay will probably run you 6-10 hours, with a lot of dialogue & cut scenes. It might be a lot shorter if you use a guide and skip everything you can, in which case, go play something else you heathen. The game certainly has its share of issues. The dialogue is decent, but predictable. NPC pathing is a bit wonky and leads them to be slide-walking into you at times. Some of the gesture animations are poorly timed, screwing up the impact of the dialogue. The NPC character design suffers from ‘Current Year’-itis. The built-in hint system isn’t very context sensitive, so you can get hints for completed parts of the current objective. It can be an annoyance at times to get to the correct menu choice on a NPC before it wanders away. None of these are show-stoppers, just pebble-in-your-shoe irritants. I don’t typically play adventure games, but I found this decent enough, if tepid. On the gameplay & story alone, this game is a mid to low 3, but it is getting rounded up to 4 for the art.

14 gamers found this review helpful
Enclave
Created on 07 January, 2011 01:09
Enclave

Good ideas poorly executed

Unlike a lot of the reviews here, I came to this game totally fresh having never played it, let alone heard of it. As of tonight I have finished both the light and the dark side campaigns, having played though them both on medium. The game has a lot good things in it. It has a great atmosphere that oozes style and personality along with a lot of good ideas trying to shine through; the multiple character options and armor is actually worn and not just a general damage reduction. The result of the latter is that armor has spots it doesn’t protect, and you can aim for them. It’s quite satisfying to take down the knight who’s charging you while decked in full armor because you shot him in the eye. However, this is all marred by one gigantic flaw: the combat. The combat in Enclave is rough at best and infuriatingly broken at worst. For a hack and slash game, a game in which the core mechanic is combat, this is an unforgivable sin. It would be like designing a sports car with a two cylinder engine. The problems are largely due to two issues; flakiness in registering a hit and AI behavior. I’ve had numerous occasions where my attacks simply pass right through the enemy or some missile fly through a solid piece of scenery. This is doubly egregious when I’m using a ranged weapon because the targeting rectile will tell you when you are on ‘target’. Seeing one of your very limited high-end arrows fly right through an enemy head as if it had all the substance of a modern celebrity inflames all the wrong kinds of passions. The enemy’s diet must consist of coffee and jumping beans because they are terribly prone to twitch juking and jumping around as if the world was a trampoline, even while wearing full plate armor. Now this isn’t too bad in melee and not too awful in ranged combat when you have weapons that traverse the distance effectively instantly. However, I had none of those things for I was playing the ranged class and relying on arrows. When the enemy is in full kangaroo on a sugar high mode I can easily spend four arrows for every hit at medium range. Now before you think I’m just someone who can’t hit the broad side of a barn, I would point out that such jumping behavior is either looked down on or forcibly restricted in almost every single multiplayer FPS precisely for how it makes the jumper nigh unhittable. There is a third lesser issue with the combat and that is some of the hostiles seem unbalanced. For example, in the light campaign there are enemy sorcerers whose primary attack is a bolt attack which will sap half your health in one hit. Oh, did I mention that these bolts are homing and that a single sorcerer can have several of them in the air at once? I have two final nagging issues. Firstly, the game still uses checkpoints. This wouldn’t be surprising in a console game, but this is still in the computer release. The usage of checkpoints seems to serve the sole purpose of providing a mechanic for the player to lose coins on death (which will happen at any difficulty above easy). Nothing else happens you die. All the enemies stay dead, everything stays collected, and switches stay pulled. You only have to lose some coins and walk back to where you were and I can’t imagine the checkpoints are there to make you walk for a couple minutes. So the continued existence of checkpoints feels wrong. If you die before reaching a checkpoint? You have to restart the mission. This last bit is a sore spot for me because some of the levels don’t have a checkpoint, or the checkpoint is after a boss or some hairy fight (when it should be before), which means if you die you have to replay the whole mission. Secondly, the in-game cutscenes can’t be skipped, which is a bit of a nuisance if you have to replay an area a few times. The game does have a very unforgiving difficulty curve and with the reliance on precise aiming I can see how this would be a nightmare to play on a console. While there are a lot of good ideas in the game, the ideas are rough around the edges and don’t fit snugly with each other. I keep being tempted to bump it up to a three, much like you might feel inclined to say that your abusive ex wasn’t *that* bad, but then I keep remembering about the flawed combat. For all the game has going for it, I still can’t forgive that.

205 gamers found this review helpful