Recent reviews by kater

This is a charming little idler game that is very relaxing.

The game is structured into 12 different paintings tied to months of the year, each with 4 stages. The goal is to match the paints ("Color Spirits") to 1 or more of the same kind to eliminate them. Each stage sends out 100 Color Spirits to float through the scene and in order to pass the stage, you must get 60 points (1 point for each one you eliminate). Despite the simplicity of the concept, there is slight increasing of difficulty within each month's painting stages. My favorite thing about this is the collision. You can send the Color Spirits sprawling into other, non-matching ones which can send them flying. This allows for a couple strategies. You can create chain reactions if the Color Spirits are placed just right! Or you can use non-matching ones to try and push Color Spirits into others of the same type within the line of floating spirits! But be careful; you can also push them right off the screen, which means you won't be able to match them, so that's fewer points for you to accumulate.

The music is upbeat but relaxing and charming, even if repetitive. The repetitiveness doesn't bother me too much because I can zone out to this game with the music and gameplay. I really love relaxing games for when I'm feeling stressed and this one definitely serves that purpose for me. The art is very cute and the emphasis on white space actually visually relaxes me as well.

In the Author's Preface in the game, the developer Zuo Yan says this is their first game. It is definitely a charming game with cute art style, and a relaxing atmosphere, and they should be very proud of it! I haven't yet come across any bugs that are game-breaking. The only thing I noticed was sometimes the game doesn't load the next Color Spirit in the cat's hands right away, but it never gets fully stuck, it just takes a couple of seconds to load the next one. At the time of this review I've only made it through 5 months' paintings, but I'm looking forward to finishing the rest and replaying when I want to wind down.

Edit: After the Steam Achievements were added I finished all 12 months' levels. The addition of the achievements gave me a sense of purpose, even if they are just for passing the final level of each month. I really like that the achievements were added. My impression of the game is still good. It doesn't have much replay ability other than it is a game to pull out when you need to relax.

Fantastic story, lovable (and hate-able) characters, beautiful music, scary stuff. 10/10

This game is truly a wonderful game. In helping others with their requests and sending words of encouragement, I also get a boost to my own mood. And people are so loving and send such wonderful responses to my own requests.

I have not received any sort of negative messages from anyone, so I don't believe it's typical to experience that. There is an in-game report feature as well if this does occur, but so far everyone has been so lovely.

This is a fun short puzzle game akin to Hook. It does a good job of introducing mechanics early and building on them. My only disappointment is that it's only 50 puzzles; however, it makes sense given they are working within the framework of constellations and the story of a cat taking a trip to see the stars. Very cute art style. Challenging, but not too much. Fun game. Support the devs!!

Cannot recommend this enough. So much fun.

Edit 2 [12/2023]: It's in a better place now but players on both sides can still be incredibly toxic. Enjoyable if you don't take it seriously. BHVR seems to be listening to the community more (though they still miss the mark quite often). It's a meh game unless I'm playing with my friends. I still have major issues with their monetization scheme. I'll recommend it but I wish there was a neutral option.

Edit: I no longer recommend this game due to the route that devs have taken in many areas. The new UI design is not user friendly at all. It's becoming too much of a grind and the devs don't care about the playerbase's enjoyment. It has become increasingly monetized in ways that FREE TO PLAY games are, which does not suit this kind of game--you have to buy the base game AND all the DLC if you want access to all characters/perks without having to grind them in the shrine or with play time. Bad decisions on the devs' part. I'm kinda done with this game.

I have played this game for almost 2000 hours and still hadn't written a review because I honestly don't know what to say about this game. I have a love-hate relationship with it. The community can be pretty toxic, which makes me hate it, but I also have a lot of fun and get good adrenaline rushes in the matches. I absolutely would NOT suggest playing this game without friends because solo is so much more frustrating and not nearly as fun. The cosmetics they added a while back reinvigorated this game for me; I really like being able to customize my character. They recently added The Archives, which involves completing challenges to unlock lore records. It is accompanied by The Rift, which is basically a Battle Pass system; as you gain Rift tiers, you get rewards. The Rift has a free tier and a premium tier, which you can unlock any time until the event is over, and it will retroactively give you all premium rewards up to the current level you achieved on the free track. This new aspect of the game also reinvigorated my interest in it.

TL;DR Buy with caution. Play at your own sanity's risk. Try not to take it so seriously.

I can't get over how fun this game is. I love how much character variety there is, with different special abilities; you can try a whole bunch of different play styles based on their "Hyper" cards. RNG can be frustrating at times, but when isn't it! You can play against others and be competitive, or you can play co-op to take down bosses together. There are minigames you can enable that pop up on the boards randomly, and you can randomize the maps, etc. to keep gameplay fresh. the game offers daily challenges with certain parameters you must meet to get more of the in-game currency. This currency can be used to buy cosmetics and card packs, among other things! For a digital board game, it's very engaging.

TL;DR Buy this game already!!

This game is a lot of fun. I don't care much about the story, but I enjoy online where I can create my own character and do whatever I want basically. I love it enough to have it on both Xbox and PC.

Just a warning: the one problem with the PC version is the hackers, ruining the game by making it impossible for you to stay in the session. More often than not you do have to find a new session, unless you're creating a private session for friends only. This isn't really an issue if you spend most of your time doing the races, etc.

Despite the frustration I feel about the hacking, I still recommend this game. P.S. Watch some GTA Roleplays on Twitch, they are hilarious and surprisingly good.

This game is a phenomenal work of art. It starts out as a psychological horror with hints of a story. As you progress, you learn more and more of the tragic narrative lying beneath the surface. While it starts off with heavy horror elements, these elements become less of a focus as you burrow down into the character's psyche. Many people consider this a negative because they expected and wanted horror throughout; however, I still enjoyed it despite the fact that it calmed down towards the end. I became so engrossed in the story that I no longer cared whether it was terrifying or not.

Overall, Detention is a fantastic game. I highly recommend it.

TL;DR: Great game, a few flaws, just play it.

I will preface this review with the disclaimer that I don't think I will be able to express the beauty and wonder of this game in words. I will do my best, and I will keep it short.

Immersive and subtly complex, OneShot perfectly executes a difficult storytelling technique to pull off: involving the player in the story as a character but in a way that makes them forget the world built by the creator is simply a game. It feels real, the characters feel real, the player feels a part of the world and comes to care about them as though they are real people. Unlike a lot of other immersive narratives and games, OneShot is more than an escape. It is a transformative experience, a story that is dear to my heart and feels like a real part of my lived experience.

OneShot is more than worth it. Niko is counting on you.

After all, you only have one shot.