Siege of Centauri

Siege of Centauri

Siege of Centauri is one of the best looking tower defence games available and as a tower defence aficionado, I would say it is worth playing.

Forgive the comparison, but Siege of Centauri was clearly made by and for people who are looking to scratch their Defense Grid itch. It turns out that Siege of Centauri has some fairly obvious references in it that pay homage to Defense Grid, namely the interface looks almost like it was lifted from Defense Grid and some of the music too. It also has a similar story with advisers popping up between missions to brief you on what the mysterious enemy is up to.

Real player with 48.6 hrs in game


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I don’t play many tower defense games. It’s essentially a puzzle, where you try to figure out the most efficient combinations of towers and placements to defend your base. There are features that let you see what is coming, and once you learn the units and iconography, you can definitely develop strategies and plans ahead of time. There are terrific controls for difficulty, as well as mechanics that let you customize and upgrade your available tower selection. I also see capabilities for a survival mode (defend as long as you can) and custom map development. I think there might also be an intent to support steam workshop, so that mods and custom maps can be shared.

Real player with 41.2 hrs in game

Siege of Centauri on Steam

Swarm Universe

Swarm Universe

In one word, this game is “Perfection”. You’re like a swarm of angry bees.

Pros:

  • Simple to learn, hard to master

  • Runs smoothly considering you know what you’re doing

  • Modding = Infinite possibilities

  • The story is hilariously rushed but funny

Cons:

  • The serious modding is BRUTAL.

  • Did I mention how much I hate the Scorpions and Penta-Turrets?

! The early levels are a bit lewd at first glance, because the first enemies look like sperm, and you are a swarm “egg”.

Real player with 439.1 hrs in game


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I didn’t know what to expect when a friend recommended this game to me.

Now I’m enthusiastic. Maybe because of the funny guide through the game or the music that drags you into this challenge. The drone-thing is a nice idea by the way. There is so much to improove and discover…. gotta go back to the swarm universe!

Real player with 13.8 hrs in game

Swarm Universe on Steam

Knockout Checkers Chamber

Knockout Checkers Chamber

Cute! Nice little game. Not really checkers per se. The pieces have different special powers. Other than that it’s a physics-based knock-em-out-of-the arena type game. Well worth the price (under two bucks in the Summer Sale).

Real player with 2.5 hrs in game


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First off, this is carrom on a checkers board, not checkers the turn-based board game. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course, but unfortunately this is essentially a game demo rather than a full game. Expect to complete the game in maybe half an hour.

Incidentally, the achievements are very buggy and you will fail to unlock them quite often.

Real player with 1.1 hrs in game

Knockout Checkers Chamber on Steam

Curious Cases

Curious Cases

My friend and I completed this together, both in VR. The graphics are good, the environments are well-designed, and the puzzles are interesting and mostly fair. We encountered a handful of bugs, but nothing game-breaking. Occasionally one of us would pick up an item and it would appear in the other’s hand. Once, we entered a correct code, got the “success” noise, but the door wouldn’t open. Luckily, we were able to reach inside and remove the items through the door anyway.

We were stuck for a long time in the first room on a puzzle that requires a numeric code. We’d just played this developer’s Tales of Escape, which is very similar. In that game, every lock requires exactly 4 digits. It wasn’t until we relented and got a hint that we realized this one needed 5 digits. Also, the code in the hint had two digits transposed.

Real player with 4.0 hrs in game

I would say this is a great escape room-like puzzle game with friends, it might be tedious or annoying by yourself.

It’s got some rather interesting puzzles/riddles, and it’s well worth it’s price for what it offers, so I’d recommend it.

As for a VR experience, it’s mediocre at best, but works. That’s my summary of the review, if you want to read a bit more, see below.

One gripe I would have would be the sync between players in your game. You could’ve thrown an object across the room, yet the other player sees you drop it, the other player picks it up, then drops it normally and it falls through the ground for both players, requiring you to reset items. Or, items just wouldn’t be there for one or both of the players, causing you to reset items. You will be doing this often.

Real player with 3.1 hrs in game

Curious Cases on Steam

Star Control®: Origins

Star Control®: Origins

I have broken this review into a few sections, because I feel like what you need to know depends on where you are coming from.

You played Star Control 2, and liked it a lot?

You should like this game. It basically follows the same formula in terms of story and gameplay, but with some welcome improvements, such as an automatic story log where you can review key details of past encounters, and a searchable star map with the ability to add your own bookmarks.

There are also some other subtle improvements. Enemy factions have more than one type of ship you will encounter, bringing added variety to combat. Your own allies will only provide one kind of ship, but your flagship can be equipped with a wide variety of different types of weapons and other abilities.

Real player with 79.2 hrs in game

tl;dr; A beautiful and very funny adventure which is drowning in grindy, under- or mis-developed mechanics. [Verdict: 2/5]

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I have bought the game myself and completed it.

Let’s list all the positives first:

  • Very good art direction overall. Graphics, animations, aliens: all are very well done and a joy to look at.

  • Good story. Nothing super-original, but good enough with some minor twists and turns.

  • Interesting lore: using the main and also side quests there is a lot background information which enriches the world of this game.

Real player with 59.5 hrs in game

Star Control®: Origins on Steam