Within the blade

Within the blade

This game is something special. I knew it was going to be a relatively short game, but I was stunned by how fast time flew when I actually played. I finished this entire game in roughly a day.

And I’d do it again, because its really fun.

I first heard of this game when I saw it on one of TeamFourStar’s streams. I believe Gaijin Goomba introduced it to the couch? Either way, I think he’ll be pleased with how authentic the mechanics in this game reflect a real Shinobi experience.

The inventory system is unique. You get no descriptions for what any of your items do outside of context clues from the names of the items. You might have to consult with google or a thesaurus for some of the item names, because they use words like ‘soporific’ to describe a smoke bomb for example. Which, btw, means ‘to induce sleep’. So its a sleepy smoke bomb. Awesome!

Real player with 21.2 hrs in game


Read More: Best Crafting Platformer Games.


This game is GOOD but unpolished to Oblivion. (Finished it 3 times to get full skills. Game stopped leveling up with me after level 52 and I couldnt get the final skill to unlock the damn achievement since your damn leveling character asks you to get more levels. Yes you can’t open the skill tree without a shitty character, and mid way of the game you can’t level and have to finish first run to re-learn more skills in the next play-through (unnecessary BS))

Before we start, to let you be aware This game REQUIRES you to finish the Tutorial before even starting the game. I didn’t know and i finished first run without knowing half the moves. Why didn’t they put the tutorial at the beginning of the game you ask? They did but the full list of skills/moves requires you to enter the tutorial which is separated from your game. How do I know no one used the tutorial? Because there is a FU(king skill that is within the tutorial and gets you achievement (Flying Dragon & Tornado) and only 1.6% of players got it. So the problem is why did they put half baked tutorial in start of the game which logically makes you wonder why do I need a stand alone tutorial hence explaining why no one did it. Again, it is REQUIRED because dropping weapons was part of it and I never knew it even entering the damn controls to check it and found nothing until I finished the first run and then found it out.

Real player with 18.0 hrs in game

Within the blade on Steam

The Sandbox Evolution - Craft a 2D Pixel Universe!

The Sandbox Evolution - Craft a 2D Pixel Universe!

The Platforming was fun and the levels I played were short. I normally am not a huge fan of platformer games but the short levels and easier difficulty were more my play style. With that said they do have harder levels, and you can use your credits to automatically beat them if you end up on the struggle bus for long. Beating Levels and completing quest in game give you more credits to use. You can also build levels to share with others, the tools are easy to use and after a few minutes you quickly figure things out. You unlock everything using credits, once unlocked you can use them in your level design. Early on I still had a ton of credits and no problems getting the items / monsters / materials I wanted to use, but I can see where the free to play isn’t so free once you get into it. With that said I have no problem forking over some cash for a game I’m enjoying and spending lots of time with. So check it out on steam, it’s free to play and you should be able to many hours of play out of it before you hit that first $ roadblock. #tsbevolution

Real player with 11.7 hrs in game


Read More: Best Crafting Destruction Games.


The artwork, character controls, interface and general stability (on PC) are obviously much better than The Sandbox, but it doesn’t quite capture the magic of the past game.

In particular the temperature system isn’t as well balanced. It’s easier to get a runaway temperature reaction (eg dropping one ice in a body of water and forming a glacier). You could do that in the previous game, but the ice was much more likely to melt if you only dropped one, and it was easier to erase all the ice and get your water back. In this game temperature tends to stick around and you typically have to erase a lot of the surrounding solid blocks in order to get

Real player with 8.4 hrs in game

The Sandbox Evolution - Craft a 2D Pixel Universe! on Steam

Kenshi

Kenshi

I have a lot of games in my library. This one has the most hours.

There is just something to say about suffering and struggling and every bandit pwning you for days. Then one day you are standing victorious while unconscious enemies lay piled around you.

Take the fight to those holy nation sanctimonious bigoted jerks, seriously those guys suck.

Shoot the tax man when he comes to collect, and when he returns with muscle I shoot them too.

After being beaten nothing says I win by making your own rules even if the NPC says no.

Real player with 805.3 hrs in game


Read More: Best Crafting Building Games.


Simply the best game of this genre I’ve played, which is no contest because Kenshi is the first of it’s kind. I stayed away from it for years because I kept saying “ew, graphics.” I couldn’t have cheated myself more with that sentiment. Kenshi is far and beyond anything I expected. With a handcrafted world full of history, it’s up to you and lady luck to decide if you create a story of untold triumph, or utter defeat.

Wanna be a bounty hunter? craftsman? farmer? wandering samurai? Robin Hood? Maybe you just want to found a city, you can do almost anything! Additionally the modding community is very active to this day, heck, the game comes with it’s own built in modding tools so you can make your own mods!

Real player with 438.1 hrs in game

Kenshi on Steam

Spellsword Cards: Demontide

Spellsword Cards: Demontide

It’s not finished so maybe this review is not fair but it’s not in early access.

I finished only the 1st chapter because the 2nd is not done.

Pros:

  • creative monsters, unqiue enemies

  • long campaign (example: longer than the Northmark’s campaign)

  • autonavigation in quest menu

  • some art is nice

  • gauntlet / puzzles minigames

Cons:

  • the campaign is not polished

I couldn’t finish the 1rst chapter when my hero was a warrior because I couldn’t defeat two monsters (stirred up & in flight),

and I don’t like the slow grind (job board)

Real player with 22.3 hrs in game

Sometimes I think what’s happening with Steam and why there are so many negatives. One reviewer says that ‘it needs a pass over with someone who understands card games’. Really, mate? Dev has just designed the whole card system and is good at it. Dev is often active and updates the game, but it seems that you want to push him away.

The game is good, it has a really interesting character development, cool story and well-designed battles in which you have to tune your deck. It is a deep system, not crossing the line of ‘read the fine print’, check the guide here to see it yourself:

Real player with 12.0 hrs in game

Spellsword Cards: Demontide on Steam

Spellsword Cards: Origins

Spellsword Cards: Origins

So I read through a few of the other reviews and I can see how some may find it negative. No it is NOT flashy and doesn’t have ‘interesting’ characters, but to be honest, it’s kinda refreshing. I’m an old school gamer and I’ve played Many card games, rpgs, whatever and I have to admit I’m addicted to this for some reason. I’m determined to beat the stupid lich with all my characters if possible. That being said, it’s also VERY frustrating and will P1ss you off many times! The cards are a bit unbalanced, for example I’ve reached the lich with no access to mana or healing cards depending on who I choose. This makes it a bit unfair, as well as not being able to meet the boss with a full health. No matter how hard I try to finish the previous battle with as high health as possible, it just doesn’t cut it. There was one game I used to play a lot, had over 400 hours until some new dev, crappy pants, redid the whole thing and made it vegas like…I truly hope these devs Don’t do that to this game at all! It’s a game unto itself and Yes it Does need work but it can be challenging and fun if you know how to use the cards given to you. I noticed the new game from these makers and I wanted to give it a shot thinking it would be similar to this style, but I think they already headed to the slot machines….

Real player with 170.1 hrs in game

An interesting take on Card Game / RPG / Roguelike hybrid. I like the mechanic of dumping cards to the discard pile to gain extra action points (earned quite a few 1 turn kill combos that way). I do like the card combinations and various synergies thus far, and I due appreciate the card upgrades system as well.

EDIT: Some previously written issues turned out to be user error, and thus deleted that portion of the commentary above. Other than that, the above aforementioned is exactly the same prior to the deleted, and erroneous (on my part again, sigh) critique.

Real player with 26.8 hrs in game

Spellsword Cards: Origins on Steam