Recent reviews by Drakiah

I've currently only played Tomb Raider 1 so far, but I can already see that this is a remaster that has had a lot of love put into it.
It's no simple texture job, so many nice new details have been added, making it beautiful to explore, and re-experience the tombs in a way that your brain remembers them from childhood!
It's exactly what I hoped it would be.

However, as a long time Tomb Raider fan myself, playing them since they released, I would only recommend this either for fans of the original versions, or for those patient and willing to learn to deal with the tank controls. The original control style is integral to how these games work.
The new modern controls, at first, seem nice and comfortable. However, there are some moves that you cannot perform, which are practically necessary for passing many precision requiring sections of these games.
Honestly, I can't fathom how they thought these new controls were good enough. It feels like they were made by people who are either inexperienced in these games, or just didn't care, because there's no way they test played through them with the modern controls.
That's how it seems to me anyway.

Other than that, the only problem I can think of is that the key items are tiny, and sometimes blend in with the ground (I was lost in a level for like an hour because I missed a grey key on a grey floor). I feel they should have made the key models as big as the original sprites, to make them stand out.
But I'm pretty satisfied with these remasters (so far)!

I don't know how they continue to do it.
5 games in, you'd think they'd be running short on ideas for Trine by now, yet they've somehow managed to make the longest game yet (I think), and keep it fresh and interesting.

- The visuals are beautiful, as one would expect from Trine. The characters especially looking better than ever.
- Same in the audio department. Every game has perfect music, and the voice acting is always great too.
- A large selection of powers to unlock, old and new, making for all kinds of new, clever ways to solve puzzles. The combat is better in this game too, back to having the enemies placed within the levels themselves, unlike in Trine 4, where every combat zone was an enclosed area with spawned platforms, which made them all feel the same.

My only complaints I can think of relate to multiplayer:
- Somehow, the camera in this game feels worse than all the others, with it sometimes trying to focus too much on one player or the other, making it very awkward to see what's happening, or interact with puzzle elements.
- In one particular boss fight, objects were not interacting as they should, making it unwinnable unless the host does it (presumably it will be fixed some day).

I've loved this series since the start, and this might be my favourite one yet (Or if not, it's very close after Trine 2).
If you're a Trine fan, you can't go wrong with this!

It's insane to me that this is all made by one person.
You've heard of "Jack of all trades, master of none." This person is a master of all.

The movement is fun.
The weapons are all satisfying and useful, and upgrading them gives even more reason and rewarding feeling for secret hunting.
The music is great.
The story is quite interesting, especially with the new Interlude level.
Even the extra Survival game mode is more fun than I tend to find most survival modes, due to the addition of randomly spawning mystery crates and a store system.

About the only negative I can think of is that the basic common cultist enemies can be hard to tell apart sometimes, from each other and from the backgrounds; Muddy brown and grey robes in muddy brown and grey environments. Luckily it doesn't cause much trouble most of the time, at least.

This is just a solid, good feeling game, and a blast (literally!) to run through, popping heads left and right.
Can't wait for Chapter Two!
(Please charge more for it. Chapter One is criminally under-priced for the quality.)

It's rare that I have nothing bad to say about a game. I struggle to even find anything to nitpick.
This game is just a charming, fun little adventure, with just enough variety to keep it interesting, and the perfect length to not outstay its welcome.


Often times when games go with these stylised cartoony visuals, it can come off as just an excuse to be lazy with making graphics, or arty. But while it looks cartoony and simple, this game has a lot more variety than I expected, especially with the cosmetics and effects. The world is beautifully detailed and colourful, and, while many pieces of equipment serve the same purpose, the devs went all out and gave many of them different animations, visual effects on the world, and more. Most other games would just reskin or palette-swap, and call it a day.

The sound effects are cute and serve their purpose, and each piece of music for each area is catchy and playful. Some of them have come to mind randomly even a few weeks later.

The controls are responsive, and you have plenty of freedom of control, as well as a bunch of gadgets for different ways of getting around, keeping it fun to wander about the open world at your leisure, climbing, jumping, gliding, in search more cute childlike adventures with friends, and treasure.


If anything, people might take issue with the amount of dialogue in the game. There's a LOT of it. But I found almost all of it to be wonderful and amusing to read. I'm very hard to make laugh out loud, or even chuckle (I'm a very internal laughter kind of person), but this game got me a few times. The story even made me feel emotions, almost making me cry towards the end.

I never expected this to be such a special experience. Thought it would just be a cute little play-and-forget deal. But I love this silly game.
Helps that I love reptiles, especially crocs/gators, and this is the most adorable gator I've ever had the pleasure of playing as!

There aren't enough good first-person melee games out there, but this is definitely one of them!

A surprising variety of weapons, which - although a few serve pretty much the same purpose - manage to mostly feel different enough to all be worth using, each varying in speed, power, and some even having an extra effect attached to them. They also feel nice and weighty, especially the larger weapons, slow and heavy, and so satisfying to make contact with!
Plough your way through hordes with heavy weapons, blocking attacks. Or strategically parry with lighter weapons and counter. They're all viable.

There's also a bunch of upgrades to unlock through a levelling system, adding more abilities to your repertoire, and allowing for a nice variety of options in dealing with your enemies!
You can even use the level itself in some cases, such as smacking an enemy off the edge of a high place, killing them instantly!

Meanwhile, you can enjoy some rocking tunes, which make you feel like a badass on a rampage to become the most powerful champion! Or something like that.

My only complaint is that it's a little on the short side, with 3 levels (though I hesitate to consider the last one much of a level). My first playthrough took maybe 6 hours, with thorough exploration. Add maybe an extra hour to that if you want to master all of the weapons and abilities in the codex.

But, short and sweet as it may be, It's extremely satisfying. Enough that I played through it 3 times within 3 months.
I wish for an Elderborn 2 some day. It would be a day-one purchase, without hesitation.

(Early Access review)
In the ongoing trend of retro FPSs making a return, Prodeus stands out as one of the most polished and consistently enjoyable, in my opinion.
The level design is some of the best I've experienced in a game of this type, old or new.
The music... Well, it's Andrew Hulshult as usual, so it's awesome!
The gameplay is also great fun so far. Almost all of the currently existing weapons feel and sound perfect. Movement is fast and smooth. The enemies, while 90% basically copies of Doom enemies, are mostly fun to fight (though I'll never be a fan of hitscan).
And the level editor is so easy to learn, and it's quick and convenient to browse the creations of others, so there should be many, MANY hours of extra content here, hopefully for years to come!

Extremely worth it, even in Early Access

Simply amazing!
Trine 1 and 2 would probably be in my top 5 "indie" games, and while I did enjoy Trine 3 well enough, it removed a lot of what I loved about the series.
I'm so happy to say that Trine 4 goes right back to how things used to be, and somehow manages to be even better!

The visuals and audio are as great as they've ever been. Magical lands to explore, beautifully bright and colourful, with magical glows and sparkles to feast your eyes upon, accompanied with the usual, wonderful music that the series has never failed to deliver upon.
The characters and cutscenes are even more good looking than ever before, taking on an almost Disney/Pixar look and feel, very befitting of the light-hearted, fairy tale feeling of it all.

As for the gameplay, it's back to the good old 2.5D, with focus on creative puzzles involving a variety of special abilities that you unlock and enhance throughout the 10+ hours of adventuring. It's always satisfying when you manage to cobble together a combination of floating objects and contraptions tied together with ropes, or somehow figure out a silly way to mess with the physics to bypass sections.
It was especially fun in co-op, with 2 or more people causing utter chaos for each other as we try to work together, often leading to accidentally knocking each other into pits, launching each other away with physics, and other hilarious nonsense.

As for negatives:
- It could perhaps do with less frequent combat. It's nice for variety sometimes, and the battles never take long, but they often feel very similar. They appear in single-screen arenas with platforms of various heights, whereas as in previous games, the enemies would be positioned in the levels, allowing use of the terrain, nearby traps, pits to knock enemies into, etc. (The bosses are great though.)
- At launch, co-op had (and as of this review, still has) some bugs with loss of unlockables, unless you're the host. My co-op partner lost their collectibles almost every time we started up to continue playing. Level progress and experience/skill points were kept at least.

That about wraps it up, I think!
Overall, VERY recommended. I think this is my favourite Trine yet.
I don't know how they managed to keep the puzzles fresh and creative this far into the series, but Frozenbyte really outdid themselves!

The first time I played Trine 3, which was co-op with a friend, we enjoyed ourselves, but mainly because of the co-op shenanigans. Other than that, we were generally "Meh" on the game, largely due to the move to 3D and the various changes it brought.
Perspective/depth perception problems, simplified puzzles, no character building/improving. The game is short too, and ends suddenly on a cliffhanger (presumably to be continued in Trine 4).

However, upon revisiting it in preparation for Trine 4, I had more fun, knowing what I was going in to.
The levels and music are still beautiful, and the fairy tale feel of it all is still endlessly charming, as well as the three heroes and their fun personalities and interactions together.
I will always prefer Trine 1 and 2, and the removal of some features which I loved in those still makes me sad, but judging it as just a game on its own, the quality and effort they put into Trine 3 is apparent, and is worth experiencing in my opinion.

Within 1 hour of play, a girl sat on my face just because I collected some food for dinner. Video games make it seem so simple.
I mean, obviously this was an accident, of course. I just wanted to help with dinner, and be friendly, I'm not actually into this stuff, b-baka...

On a serious note though, it may at first seem like one of those low effort hentai games put on Steam just because they can now, and in some ways it kinda feels like that, lacking a bit of polish here and there. But for what it is, it's a decent bit of fun, and it's free, which is rare for an adult game, so that's cool!

I thought it was just gonna be another typical stylish looking indie clone of an old classic game, but ended up actually surprising me.
It's not very long, I finished all the levels in about 40 minutes, but it's a good bit of fun if your brain can work fast enough.

Starts off simple enough, asteroids coming in slowly, and you must shoot ahead of their path to destroy them when your shots get there. But within a few levels, you'll be seeing new enemies that take multiple shots, split apart, and more sneaky things!
Luckily, the game provides what you need for the enemy variety. There's only a few weapons, but it becomes a lot of fun to juggle between them rapidly as you take out groups of enemies, and figure out the best ones to go for based on threat level, and distance.
The last 5-10 levels of the 30 that exist get pretty frantic, and you must put all your skills to the test!
There's even a few bosses which each require different tactics, and full use of your various powers.

For it's short length and low price, it's a decent bit of fun, but prepare for pain if you're not confident in your ability to think fast and stay calm under pressure!