Recent reviews by AllSeeingAI

If I hadn't been given this game I never would have bought it. I had heard about it, with its supposedly air-tight gameplay and massive hype around it, and I was a little curious, but I wouldn't have bought in. And after playing it, I really don't think it's as good as people say.

First, the good: some of the hype is indeed justified. The confident aesthetic, the creative and tight gameplay, the mirror's-shine polish -- people praise these things for good reason, and I respect the work done.

Then, the things that put me off:
First, this is not a poker game -- it's at best a veneer. The elements that make poker so good, playing off of other people, deducing what they're likely to have, none of that applies here. It took me a long time, and I still struggle a little, to remember that the deck is not reshuffled between hands, as is the case in poker. Even basic precepts like "playing the hand you're dealt," don't apply here -- this game isn't about finding the best way to use the cards fate deals you, it's about controlling the deck as completely as you can to make the most mind-boggling score imaginable. Which leads me on to...
Second, the score-attack model doesn't hook me. I understand the appeal, conceptually, of Number Go Up, but it's never been enough on its own, and this game has precious little else. It even works against the game's simplicity sometimes -- I can estimate multiplying small numbers in my head easily, but I don't want to have to pause and calculate how big a number I'm likely to get with this hand vs another one when I'm multiplying three- or four-digit numbers (and beyond) together.
And finally, i'm not sure if this is meant to be a satire, but the game isn't shy about using the same sorts of tactics that make actual gambling so addicting. It's not the full casinomaxed experience, but it's definitely aping more than just the aesthetic. While it's never going to be as harmful as something which actual money -- the well-reported regulatory issues with this game are pretty clearly unfounded -- that doesn't mean I enjoy what we do have.

To sum it up, I respect the creator and his work, but it's not something I recommend for everyone, myself included. I am going to keep giving it a chance, so maybe it's just a slow burn.

Didn't much like it, but it does exactly what it claims to be and nothing more.
Intentionally frustrating, decent in how it builds upon previous challenges -- I acknowledge its strengths while not wanting anything to do with it.

Not a huge fan of games with a meta twist like that. They always feel manipulative.

On a more technical level, it's easy to fall down rabbit holes if you think something has a connection it doesn't. I missed the name of the bird and spent ages going around in circles with the diagram in chapter 3.

There's also the occasional visual bug, like how you can see the letters where you shouldn't on the bird's name.

How to describe Gorogoa?
Trippy? At times. But I think "Dreamlike" is a better descriptor.
None of this is remotely realistic, which for some might smack of old games where the puzzles make no sense. But here it's all so intuitive, as you notice the similarities between things and guide everything to its proper place.
Every puzzle game lives and dies on its "aha" moments, and this game is an absolute master at generating them. There's nothing quite like it.

I enjoy the game, but I feel like making the random options reset when you die makes the game worse.

Many times I'll have a sort of "aha" moment as I get an idea about how to use these tools together, only to find that some janky platforming thing doesn't work as I thought it would, I'm now dead, and my tools have just been replaced.

The game says it wants you to get creative, that it wants you to experiment. A cornerstone of experiments is reproducability.

There's a decent kernel here. It was deeply disappointing to see that the original dev has lost interest in the project, meaning it will likely never be refined in the way it richly deserves.

Do I like it? Eh, probably more than I dislike it. It is what it is and no more. Buy it on sale.

For a free student game it's not bad.

Once upon a time, literal years ago, I left a negative review on the original Bit Blaster. It wasn't a bad game or anything, but I was looking for an experience more like Geometry Wars and I couldn't get used to a rotational control scheme.
Much to my surprise, the dev actually responded, and did so with grace. Even though I still didn't like the game all that much, that always impressed me.
Having come back to the series later on, I've warmed to it considerably. It's still unwieldy, but it seems more intentional, and the sequel, while not a significant improvement, is still better by nearly every metric. All for a tiny price that routinely drops to near-insignificant levels.

In short, the dev is committed, the game is ridiculously affordable, and the gameplay is good enough for what it's trying to be. Give it a shot.

Utterly abysmal.

Everyone's heard the stories, we all know it's awful, but I had to go back and see since I got this one in a bundle. It's worse than I expected. From the nonsensical physics to the antithetical level design right through to the broken achievements (the one that has you kill 1000 enemies must be done in one go ON THE SAME STAGE), this is quite possibly the worst thing SEGA ever did to Sonic. Even their most well publicized failures weren't taking away the chance for something else to be called Sonic 4.

Simply Phenomenal.
This level of excellence, on a free mod, is absolutely astounding. The ambition is similarly mind-boggling, with these guys legitimately tying together the story of Valve's two best franchises.

The only tiny complaints I can even countenance are nitpicks like how the Overwatch voice is very noticably different and the slight meme overdose from the player character, and those are near-meaningless in the face of all that's here. Simply. Incredible.

On its own it's barely better than the original. but getting another go-round at the achievements is satisfying in its own way.

And pairing it with MMOD is excellent.