Golden Krone Hotel
Latest (Experimental) Update Review
The updates for this game have elevated this game to the status of roguelike gem in my eyes. Before, I would have recommended this to anyone who is interested in roguelikes. Now, I would say it is an absolute must-play for any roguelike fan as well as point to it as THE quintessential introductory roguelike. I would say it is certainly better than the standard introductory roguelike recommendations (Brogue and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup) because of its streamlined controls, well-implemented mouse control (you can do everything there is to do in the game with a mouse), well-designed menus (best menus in any roguelike I can think of), high customizability (can play with 4 directional or 8 directional movement, with mouse+keyboard or controller, with tiles or ASCII), rebindable controls (surprisingly not common in roguelikes), gameplay that isn’t dependant on spoilers (lots of roguelikes require spoilers to progress), difficulty settings (so a new player can actually see the end of the game and learn of mechanics that would otherwise kill them), great visuals (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has static and admittedly subpar tiles while Brogue has ASCII that Golden Krone Hotel simply beats with animated 8-bit tiles), music and sound (once again, not common in other roguelikes), and just the fact that it presents interesting mechanics and gameplay to players much sooner than any other roguelike typically does (a common complaint with Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is that the game isn’t interesting until you reach Lair).
– Real player with 85.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Difficult Dungeon Crawler Games.
Disclaimer: This review is for version 1.8 of the game which is the only one that I played. My understanding is that the game has improved significantly since its release and some of the features that I talk about here have been added after the original release (for example controller support).
Pros:
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The music is great and fits well with the vampire theme of the game.
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I love the controller support. This is very uncommon for rogue-like games and allowed me to play the game exclusively on my tv.
– Real player with 63.9 hrs in game
Nosferatu Lilinor
At first glance, you might think Nosferatu Lilinor is a cute pixel platformer, like a kiddie Castlevania. Quite to the contrary, it’s a nail-bitingly difficult, heavily retro-inspired puzzle/action game, far closer to Solomon’s Key. It makes no apologies for its skill ceiling, which requires you to outwit a variety of stronger, faster, and deadlier enemies, despite having various vampire powers at your disposal. Undoubtedly fans of 80’s arcade games will find a nostalgic satisfaction here, but modern gamers may have a harder time to appreciate its value.
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Difficult Female Protagonist Games.
Akatsuki Uni 3
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
Undead Souls
COOL INDIE GAME
beauty pixel art and so hard to win really, still="" playing="" here="" bizarre monsters with cool weapons
good for make a little competition with friends
my best score 57 –—and yours? /really,
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Difficult Co-op Games.
Summary
An arcade twin-stick slash and shoot game that’s asset flipped from “Gun Brothers” and “Massive”.
My Gripes
- I wrote a pretty big list in the suggestions. It’s lengthy… http://steamcommunity.com/app/667170/discussions/0/1470841715961920074/#c1620599015882084367
Rating
Not broken, but has a long way to go to become something that sustains my attention for more than a few minutes of gameplay. At $10, I just can’t recommend it at this time.
2/10
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Humans Took My Neighbors!
In the small town of Monsternett, monsters get ready to celebrate their biggest Holiday, halloween, as Anthony and friends prepare for the special night, strange portals start to appear all around town curious monsters went in only to never come back out as the portals disappeared…
Then the portals reapered bringing strange crazy creatures looking to destroy and capture the monsterkin, and only Anthony and friends can stand up to them on Halloween’s eve.
Humans took my neighbors is a 2D top down action game inspired by classics like Zombies ate my neighbors and other top downgames, you’ll go through the neighborhoods saving as many monsters as you can, fighting humans ready to take every monster they see, and as you progress through the levels maybe find the cause for this invasion.
Anthony Albescu
He is a friendly and protective vampire especially when talking about his sister. He is competitive and loyal, he started the monster squad with his best friend and neighbor Fenrietta and when they started school they met Elsheip and Frankie who became the new members. He dreams of becoming a Sentinel like his father and be part of the Monster Council.
Fenrietta Brunt
She is a young wolf who loves nighttime and the outdoors. Her family moved to Monsternett when she was a young cub, as her mother was transferred to the Elite Castle guard of Dracula, they moved next to Anthony’s house and they became friends. Her father works as a professor in MonsterCademy . She wants to be a great warrior like her mother to be ready for any menace.
The game is currently in development stay tuned for devlog updates and more!
BloodRayne Betrayal (Legacy)
If you are familiar with the Bloodrayne series, then I must first warn you that it plays nothing like the previous games, an open mind is required should you decide to purchase. This is a challenging platform brawler that has 15 stages in total, not a Metroidvania with free roam. You can obtain secret skulls that can extend your life bar or bullet count, but you won’t unlock new move sets or level up.
In terms of graphics, I feel the screenshots didn’t do it much justice. While it may look like a flash game in still frames, the animation is extremely smooth and pleasant to look at. The stage backdrops are detailed and befitting in most cases, while the blood splatters never gets old. I do have some gripes on the lack of variety though, as every single enemy of the same type will look the same every time, not even a colour swap, this was just plain lazy.
– Real player with 25.8 hrs in game
OK, look at screenshots. That’s it. End of the story. BloodRayne: Betrayal is one of those rare games that look almost exactly as they feel. What can you expect from something that looks like this? Naturally, a tiny little spin-off that has pretty much nothing with the original series. Might & Magic Heroes, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles, HALO: Spartan Assault, Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet… You know the drill. And even though this game is not really important as a part of the BloodRayne series? Gameplay here sure does deserve your attention. See, BloodRayne: Betrayal is a game from WayForward Technologies. The guys who made the very first Shantae, Contra 4 and surprisingly great Aliens Infestation. And even though BloodRayne: Betrayal is not as good as those games above… it tries. It sure does.
– Real player with 22.1 hrs in game
Blood of the Werewolf
This is one of the most underrated games that I have seen. I have no idea why it only has mixed reviews. It is a really solid platformer that I enjoyed just as much as highly acclaimed games like Trine, Guacamelee or Shovel Knight. Maybe it is slightly worse than those 3 but definitely not as much to justify such a huge difference in rating.
The game has 10 regular levels and 5 boss fights. The boss fights don’t really have any replay value but the regular levels have a ton of it, which is one of the biggest strengths of the game. I replayed all the levels many times because I was motivated to get all the collectibles and complete each level in a fast time and without dying.
– Real player with 24.3 hrs in game
Overall 7/10 - Hunting the achievements down is addicting as there seems to be a challenge for everything.
Pros:
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I got the game for $0.99
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Devs just put out a big update for free
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125 Achievements
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4 Steam Trading Card drops
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Good gamepad support
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Rebindable buttons/keys for both gamepad and keyboard
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Multiple resolution options + Antialiasing + Windowed/Fullscreen + Framerate cap options all working as they should
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Voice acting in all level transitions
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3 Game Modes (Normal, Score Rush, Endless)
– Real player with 8.2 hrs in game
Damsel
Overview
Damsel is a small indie action platformer game created by Screwtape Studios. The game shines in fast-paced action, which will not let you breathe on the hardest difficulty. Although you play as a Damsel, the only ones who are in distress are the Vampires you fight.
Pros & Cons
Pros
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Hothead difficulty offers the best experience as it is required to be fast and precise.
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The variation of enemies and environmental barriers is satisfying enough for the whole game.
– Real player with 19.3 hrs in game
Let me preface this with a statement, I am not usually into sidescrolling platformers, and am inexperienced with other games of this genre.
I went into this game really unsure of what to expect. It had a badassed looking vamp hunter with corporate zombies. I liked the humour of it, I went head first into a rabbit hole.
I can’t stop playing! For a new game, it is getting regular updates and the changes that are being made is only making it better. The length of the levels means you can put in a good 20 mins of gameplay in between whatever you are doing and feel acomplished, however, on many occasions i’ve accidentally sat here for a couple of hours, trying to beat my high scores.
– Real player with 11.9 hrs in game
Hunters Of The Dead
This game is hard to get a good idea from looking at it on the store page. It is really good though, I got it on sale and have been very pleased. It’s kind of like plants vs zombies as far as gameplay, but has much less variation in units you control. They do however add new and unique elements to it to make it not simply a boring clone of pvz which is what a lot of these games turn out to be.
The game does require a whole lot of luck in order to beat it. You are not going to beat this early on, not until you have played and died tons of times. Not until you have played and built up enough gold in order to add global upgrades for all new games. It’s good and bad in that sense, it makes it not too easy or short, but also a bit frustrating that it is almost impossible early on. I saw one review that said you don’t run into monsters that often, but I seem to get attacked 1 out of every 2 or 3 moves that I make. Part of winning is just pure luck that you click on a spot and simply don’t get attacked during the round your players are resting. If you run into an attack your first 3/4 or 5 clicks it’s going to be tough b/c your guys will be resting and you can’t do anything which just lets your village get destroyed. You could also start off and not get attacked for 6 turns in a row with time to build up a nice army. This randomness gives me so many mixed feelings on this game. I have had several games that I run into dracula on my 2nd or 3rd enemy encounter and then it’s either game over or nearly game over.
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
The first thing to clarify: it is a rather limited, very mediocre indie game. So, there’s absolutely no rush to buy it. However, if you do get it via some bundle, a big sale, or another occasion… It might be not too bad, for one evening.
Technically, Hunters Of The Dead is a mixture of rogue-like turn-based exploring of the city, infested with the undead plague, and a tower-defense-like real-time action, somewhat similar to Plants vs. Zombies. You have 5 lines with squares to place your troops, your base on the left, enemies move from the right end of the screen, attack your troops, if there are any in their way, or simply rush themselves to the base, to decrease some of its defenses.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
CODE VEIN
The character customization alone makes this game worth the price of admission. But, if you don’t like souls-likes and the honestly pretty generic story and characters don’t entice you, this game is a hard sell. The game is honestly very pretty and the costumes are sick, though. Plus, if you don’t like souls-like games because of the difficulty, this one’s relatively easy when you have an ai companion with you. But real gamers play without a companion after the first playthrough. Anyway, i recommend this game while its on sale for anything above, say, %25.
– Real player with 65.2 hrs in game
Pretty nice anime Soulslike. I just finished the main story, played all the depths maps which are some lite equivalent of the Chalices in Bloodborne (except one i guess) and even beat the first of the 3 DLC’s called Hellfire Knight ( i was/am level 159 and it was still F’ing hard).
Apart from the difficulty of the DLC the rest of the game was not really as hard as i expected it to be based on what i read about this game, but very pleasant and fun to play anyway. Pretty similar to Nioh when it comes to enemy placement/ambushes.
– Real player with 43.6 hrs in game
Bone Marrow
Simple? - yes. Short? - yes. Repetitive? - yes. Overall, if you’ve got a small gap in your free time and just want to kill few hours without investing too much efforts - this will work. PIxel art and music is also kinda good. Gameplay is rather simplistic, but still, sometimes it may require some planning to achieve victory, while getting all the achievements may get really tricky. There are 2 characters to choose + 1 to unlock and four maps, but sessions may be rather long. Each new map has less space to move and harder enemies to deal with.
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
This game has a solid core mechanic, i.e. 2048, which is a puzzle game about merging identicle tiles to increase in levels. It also has nice pixel graphics.
However.
The attempt at merging 2048 gameplay with rpg starts and ends with tiles representing health, attack, and defense. As you increase in level, enemies ramp up but there is no skills or continuation of abilities to counteract the dry slog of checking whether enemy has more or less armor than you. If more armour, aquire more armour. If less armour, allow enemie to kill itself. You win as long as you have 1 HP.
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game