Lobotomy Corporation | Monster Management Simulation
This game is really great. I don’t usually play games like these as I usually go for FPS and multiplayer games, but this was a nice change of pace. My friends got me into it and I blame them for my addiction. Managing all kinds of abnormalities and trying not to let everyone die was a fun experience. The only qualm I have with the game is when it bugged for me. At certain points in the game you gain more abnos in the facility to produce energy and learn more about them to make the game easier. I had a glitch that would just kind of yoink abnos and department research. I restarted the game multiple times, asked for help on reddit and a discord server, but all I got was “That’s Lobotomy” and one guy who tried to help. It’s a bit glitch so I understand that weird stuff happens and nobody can really help, but that set me back a bit. I just had to uninstall the game for a bit apparently. I can’t wait to continue my journey in more games.
– Real player with 116.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Difficult Story Rich Games.
I stopped playing for a few months and when I got back a patch broke my game so it wouldn’t boot up. Angela refused to let me start it for a week straight and gaslit gatekept girlbossed me into a month of unpaid overtime when it did work. I am writing this review from the Shelter of the 27th of March because I forgot how all the Abnormalities worked while away. Ha ha.
I’m going to die down here! Ha ha.
– Real player with 106.8 hrs in game
Cultist Simulator
I’m a writer, and I fell in love with Alexis Kennedy’s imagery and lore. I was never into videogames, but the storytelling and atmosphere really spoke to me. I recommend it to dreamers and problem-solvers alike.
– Real player with 1273.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Difficult Story Rich Games.
This game has to be the single most difficult game I’ve ever played, I wont lie.
Like it’s one thing if a game is hard as balls, but this game physically hurts to play.
It’s not even a matter of frustration or anything like that.
All I have to do is look at the game board, and then my head starts to pound.
No game I have ever played before has had me slam my head down on my desk after winning because winning means I don’t have to torture myself anymore …until my brain decides that starting a new run is a good idea, that is.
– Real player with 90.7 hrs in game
Rap simulator
Rap Simulator is in basically a production with a great deal of humour. The action starts in the 80s of the last century. The player takes on the role of a rapper who sets up his first music studio in a rented apartment. Our task is to break out of the underground and become a part of the mainstream for good, opening our own label or creating the best clothing brand. Beefs, chases, money, green leaves, shootings, gang wars or maybe a softer way to success? The way the player chooses to reach the top will depend only on him/her. At the beginning of the game, the player’s budget is limited, so you have to decide which aspect of the production you want to devote more attention to at the cost of the other elements.
Our musical works are reviewed by the industry press, which affects our sales results. The tastes of listeners become more and more sophisticated every year, so we have to constantly create newer and newer things and use the best possible equipment. As the complexity of our music projects increases, we will be forced to hire more staff and change our premises to larger ones.
Real hip-hop events take place in the background, so if the player’s story goes well, he or she will be able to record songs together with hip-hop legends or start beef with them, which can change the history of hip-hop. Additionally, the players will be able to learn about the history of foreign hip-hop. In the game you will find, among others, elements related to the legends of rap. The rap songs by various artists, which will be played in the background, will complement everything.
Game elements:
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Start a game in the 80s as rapper
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Editor (create new character, edit other npc/rappers etc.)
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Change the history of hip-hop
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Research new technologies etc.
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Move into bigger music studios
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Unlock secret characters
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Multiplayer
Read More: Best Difficult 2D Games.
Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!
Updated for v0.95/1.0 in comments
While Cook, Serve, Delicious! was already one of my favourite games, small things about it left me wanting more. The food options were very limited, there was little variation between days, and progression boiled down to how many days you completed rather than your skill. Despite that, CSD! is so unique that it’s hard to find other games like it.
I was incredibly hyped for Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! prior to release, but was put off by the changes to the formula. Recipes couldn’t be carried out rapid-fire if you remembered the keys, you had to press a key to go to the next page of steps. The menus and level select were obtuse to the point where I had to click blindly to navigate. The preset menus of the restaurants were brilliant as scripted level sequences, but made it difficult to justify working in my own restaurant when that contract work felt like the ‘real game’. Unlocking new foods felt incredibly slow. Serving more customers faster than ever was problematised by the need to still hit specific keys to start and serve orders, and that speed made slip ups way more common. The continuation of chores didn’t mesh with the new rapidity. Customising the restaurant was cool but I was also inundated with cosmetic unlocks I didn’t feel like using because, again, I didn’t feel compelled to work in my own restaurant. I return to CSD frequently, but CSD2 felt like experiencing Icarus flying too close to the sun.
– Real player with 145.9 hrs in game
I’ve played the first two CSD games and I love the first one. The second was okay, but lacking in terms of charm and progression. This game, however, blows both of them away, and it’s still in Early Access!
CSD 3 manages to keep the strengths of the first two games while avoiding their weaknesses. The first game was great because you were always working to become a top restaurant. Although you no longer have one in CSD3, your new goal is to travel through all the territories to Nashville and also upgrade your food truck to the ultimate cooking machine. Eventually there will be options to customize your truck but these are not in the game yet.
– Real player with 141.2 hrs in game
Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!
CSD2 is enjoyable as a fast-paced cooking sim game, but it lacks the focus, charm and elegance of the original.
I’m left with the impression that too much focus was put into the restaurant customization and the breadth of food options available, at the expense of honing the experience and flow of the game.
The Good:
The gameplay core of fast-tapping gameplay is altered a bit with a new page system for ingredient management, and somewhat more emphasis on putting things together in stages. It also adds Holding Stations, a new element of play which has become a core focus of the sequel and offers a new dimension of time management which is mandatory for some foods, optional for others, and unavailable for the rest. Drinks become maintenance chores rather than serving orders, and drink+side+perfect gets you a bonus.
– Real player with 133.6 hrs in game
I was a huge fan of the original CSD game and I’m disappointed to say the second one just doesn’t live up to the first despite some good new features.
The Good:
- The game still fundamentally plays to the system of “everything’s chaotically messy and you’re trying to solve orders as fast as you can”, which is a fun game mechanic even if it can be stressful. Unfortunately a bit part of the “run your own restaurant simulator” is the progression, which isn’t great and I’ll be coming to later.
– Real player with 40.5 hrs in game
Cook, Serve, Delicious!
I want to start here: I love this game. The review that follows may sound critical at times but only because this is an “Icarus” game for me, i.e. it fell apart only because it got so close to the sun.
I’ve heard some people complain that the game is too difficult, but I disagree. The difficulty felt a lot like Guitar Hero. Do you remember how you could barely keep up with songs on easy or medium the first time you played? But after trying a song on hard a few times, suddenly going back to medium felt like a cake walk? CSD is a lot like that. You can barely keep up with the small customer queue and simple orders at first, but you get used it and CSD has a wonderful, smooth difficulty curve. Eventually, you’ll find yourself humming along quite nicely with an 8 person queue and all kinds of complex recipes.
– Real player with 58.9 hrs in game
Cook, Serve, Delicious is not your average restaurant sim. Instead of waiting tables and clearing checks, you’re more of a line cook who owns a small restaurant in a business tower. Your main goal is to achieve what every chef wants, a five star restaurant. Each day, customers order off your customizable menu and you prep and cook their food by hitting the corresponding keys to each item, such as ‘L’ to add lettuce on a burger. This sounds relatively simple but can certainly become challenging when the clock is ticking and customers are getting impatient.
– Real player with 40.2 hrs in game
Mammon: Devil Help
[THE 5 STAGES]
-“Break them!"
Each victim goes through the 5 stages of grief, at each stage. You
may affect up to 4 Parts of the Victim World:
*** Body, Mind, Soul, Life**
[CONTRACT]
- ”Promise them the whole world, and make one hell of a Deal!”
*** The more desperate the victims are the less you have to offer, and more you could ask for.**
[But Who Are You?]
-“A nobody”
A nobody that lost a bet with the Grim Reaper and now you’re in hell Forever!
Well, it seems not even forever isn’t as long as it used to be…
Since you got out with the help of a Devil named Mammon, but of course, it wasn’t for free.
Basement
Well, that was 30 hours of weird. This game is so…odd that it’s really hard to parse my thoughts on it. It’s fun and the achievements were actually fun to 100% (and it’s one of the only games I’ve ever bothered doing that with), so I’d have to recommend it, but it’s also a bit buggy and stupidly hard so I’ll need to add some disclaimers.
At its core this is a fun “easy to learn, hard to master” management game, where you run a drug empire starting small and snowballing your way to a roller-coaster of an ending with a final level that was not fun, but was definitely an experience. The game eases you into the mechanics over the course of several levels, and there’s a lot of midlevel twists that can screw you over, but also add a lot of depth to the characters and some challenge. It punishes inefficiency, but rewards thinking ahead. The difficulty is over the top at first, but once you understand how to play the game it all falls into place. You’re always given the tools to solve your problems, if you manage your resources and employees correctly. What RNG does exist in this game usually falls in your favor by way of lucky loot drops from defeated enemies.
– Real player with 29.7 hrs in game
General Opinions about the game.
- Opinions
The game is certainly interesting nothing like what I’ve played before. I will take a second to mention that i have played for 24 hours so i feel i know the game pretty well.
From what i have played and experience this is a snow ball of pain, along the lines it starts easy and ramps up in difficulty dramatically in a short amount of time due to there only
being 12 levels.
It has been an enjoyable experience but a grindy one, it should be said the later levels become stupidly hard to the point we’re you might be trying to beat levels over and over again slowly building frustration.
– Real player with 24.9 hrs in game
Motorsport Manager
(Note: Do not let the amount of time Steam says I’ve played this game fool you. I’m almost always offline when I play. Besides, I don’t believe I could unlock nineteen achievementsat the time of this writing.)
Management sims are my favorite genre of games and I love Formula One, so this game immediately took over possession of my heart, life, and soul. I strongly recommend this game to any fan of management simulations. And what if you don’t like Formula One or auto racing? Then you’ll be more forgiving of some of the game’s flaws than I am!
– Real player with 682.9 hrs in game
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- Update - having been too busy to play for a while (a 5 week period) I had another crack at this and have been blitzing it again recently…
I also become a bit of a Team Principal god, with 5 WMC team championships under my belt… I was starting to get a little too used to the routine of my seasons though (not bored, just too familiar) and so I changed teams and decided to have a crack at a mid tier team in the WMC, to pull them up by the boot laces.
This has re-ignited my passion for the game and having now completed 5 races in the new season, I have secured 2 podiums already. Loving it and considering I won 5 WMC titles in a row (with a Red Italian team), including one season where I achieved 15 out of 16 wins (30 podiums that year too), I cannot believe that I am now again just as pumped to finish a race, avoid a DNF, get some lowly points and grab two (lucky’ish) 3rd place podiums. My target is 6th overall this season, following years as the Champion… this is weirdly as exciting to me as winning week after week.
– Real player with 588.0 hrs in game
The Shrouded Isle
My my…this is certainly a game that casts cynicism upon religious belief, is it not? Apparently “ignorance” is a virtue, boys and girls!
So what the hell IS this game? Well, it’s a strategy game/management simulator, in which you basically have to keep a bunch of aristocratic houses onside, while finding one poor soul to sacrifice every season to the mighty deity Chernobog! (A sly reference to a certain Ukranian nuclear power plant disaster, perhaps?) To do this effectively, you must interrogate potential candidates and keep abreast of their various vices and virtues, in order to decide who is most worthy of such sacrifice, and who is more worth keeping around to undertake morale-boosting tasks. But be careful! Target a single house one time too many, and there might be nasty consequences…
– Real player with 16.0 hrs in game
I got this game at launch. The premise seemed strong, the art direction was compelling, so I took the jump.
Positives
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Simple to learn - the mechanics are easy to get used to. The fundamentals are not bad, so you don’t need much time to get going. The important thing is how you apply them.
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Very hard. Go into this expecting to lose but have fun. Treat it more like a choose your own adventure crossed with XCOM or Darkest Dungeon.
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Art is amazing. The minimalistic use of colours looks top notch. The game allows you to switch between colour palettes, as well, so you can go with whatever feels best. I believe the limited usage of colours was a strong choice in making the game look a bit otherworldly.
– Real player with 9.2 hrs in game