Recent reviews by Serow

Sort of a combination of idle game and Battle Network, which I'm loving so far. Adjustable so it doesn't have to take up a ton of your screen and you can actually do other things, but also so that you can make it bigger and really watch what's happening, which is fun. Functions perfectly well either set to always on top or with it disabled so you can just alt+tab to it when you want to check on it.

Quite enjoyable so far, and I'm looking forward to even more of it in the future!

Hard as heck, certainly harder than Hollow Knight, but fun and interesting to explore. If you like Hollow Knight's aesthetics and lore, you'll like Silksong's as well. If you struggled with Hollow Knight, Silksong may feel like diving into a meat grinder - But while it doesn't have built in difficulty settings, modders have been hard at work on making the experience more accessible, so if you don't mind that, I'd still recommend it.

Absolutely insane how interesting this game has been so far, considering it's still so early on. I highly recommend it, but with one caveat - at the time of this review, March 20th, we're on patch v0.14.3.6 and the game is still very buggy and can be rather choppy and prone to oddities. Consider it more of a playground at the moment, and approach it with the goal of making your own fun and embrace the fickle nature of early access, or alternatively... Wait and play it later when it's more polished. But either way, now or later, it's something worth playing!

Skyrim play-ability with Devil May Cry combat style. Highly recommended.

A wonderfully cute game that's fun, peaceful, and ultimately a deeply enjoyable experience.

TL; DR: Extremely lacking in content, with a lame "Now there's a timer!" hard mode locked behind normal mode that adds nothing to the game. By the time you find out that hard mode adds nothing, you're past the refund window.

The Long Part:
I beat the normal mode campaign, which was pleasant, and went into the Hard Mode campaign only to be presented with a new limited oxygen system. This isn't mentioned in the sales material nor does the loading screen tip about hard mode bring it up. This system essentially adds a timer to every level. You can no longer take things at your own pace or explore for loot, as taking too long means death. As a warning for anyone else with anxiety that doesn't like timers in game, this system has rendered the game unplayable for me beyond the normal campaign. I attempted to get a refund, explaining my situation, but was rejected due to my play time - Play time where I was unaware of this "feature".

In addition to this, while the game is enjoyable at it's core, there is a severe lack of content. A few different themed areas, introducing new hazards or more difficult/annoying enemies, and a handful of attachments for your ship. While you can attach whatever you like to your ship, you're limited to two active weapons at once, with two different ammo systems (Energy / Ammo, shared between weapons that use them. Energy refills on it's own, ammo needs to be collected.), so no really crazy ships firing all sorts of weird weapons here. Not that you really could - The ship parts are very limited, there's not a lot of variety here, which is critical for this sort of game.

Perhaps the most surprising thing to me, however, was the lack of bosses. The game's difficulty ramps up on a slow climb where the only two factors changing are that you're going up against tougher versions of earlier monsters with each theme shift, and the number of enemies on the stage climbs as well. But you'll be cruising along, kill the last batch of enemies and then... The game is over. There's no boss, no climax, no payoff.

I wanted to like this game. I really did. I enjoy the base concept of it. But between the severe lack of content, the lack of variety in what you do (There are only a handful of enemy types), and that the hard mode (the bread and butter of any roguelike sort of game) adds a timer and increased enemy health but nothing else just makes it impossible to recommend. The fact that this is hidden from the player until normal mode is beaten, which will take you longer than the two hour refund window, seems like a purposeful design.

★☆☆☆☆, 2/10, two thumbs down, all flash and no substance meant to waste your time until you can no longer get your money back.

This game had a lot of potential, and a lot of people saw that. The game's kickstarter made a ton of money ($751,920 - With a $120,000 goal!) and seems to have sold well afterwards. However, the devs apparently blew it all, as the game made barely any progress and is entirely and obviously unfinished. Many stretch goals were simply not delivered, core features of the game were barely developed, and it remains terribly buggy.

The devs then had the audacity to say the game wasn't being abandoned, that it was finished. They admitted to making mistakes, but instead of continuing to develop the game, the devs instead passed the buck to a community mod - Distinctly without any access to source code or an ability to actually further develop the game.

Avoid this game, and keep an eye out for Radiant Entertainment in the future, so you can avoid anything else they may half-release in the future. Though, since they're owned by Riot at this point, there are plenty of other reasons to avoid them anyway!

Lots to do and explore, and it seems like there's a ton more to come! I'm 62 hours in, and I've just started collecting and processing oil. I'm terribly unoptimized but honestly, I don't care, I'm enjoying everything!

Speaking from the point of view of an early access player, the game has some of the issues you might expect, but, the amount of enjoyment I've derived from this game far outclasses any issues I've had. This game has been incredibly fun, and I can't stop playing.

Pros: I like the story. The characters are fun and funny. Gameplay feels solid.

Cons: If you're looking for more XCOM, this isn't really that. The multiple encounters in a mission system breaks up the combat experience in ways I'm not crazy about. I miss the self-made narrative feeling from XCOM. I've heard of worse glitches but have only encountered minor UI graphics issues myself.

If you're going to get this, don't expect it to be XCOM 3. This is a spin off, and they're being adventurous with the gameplay and trying new things. If all you want is XCOM 3, wait. If you're okay with things being different, give it a try. I bought this on sale for $10, but I still feel like it would have been worth the full $20 price.