Recent reviews by Luigi

great game for relaxing. no timer, and just the right amount of difficulty with resource management. took me about 10 hours to get all available achievements, and i had a great time doing so. i see myself playing this from time to time just to relax, as this is the second time i started it up after completing everything just to get a bit of down time in.

This review represents the state of the game as of 29. Oct. 2023
Devs need to rethink a lot of choices. Long and hard. Other reviews accurately point out the issues. My personal main gripes are
- the progression system, which is vastly inferior to how Payday 2 used to be about 2018 or so
- always online, no pause singleplayer gameplay
No pause is always dumb, but works for soulslike games, where you can stand in a semi safe spot. In Payday the onslaught never stops, so idling is impossible.

Generally, the game is just not done. I've seen a waitress serve two patrons at the same time, which would be fine, if not one of the patrons sat two tables over on the other side of the tavern. The font, the interface, everything looks... like an early access game, still missing it's own identity.
When my kitchen counter burned down due to a fire and I couldn't replace it without selling it I just gave up. If something in this game catches fire (low chance, but pure luck nontheless) you can deal with that fairly easily. After extinguishing the thing that was on fire is useless and just needs to be replaced with a new one. Easy enough. But this is where the problem starts. Selling the kitchen counter meant for me to fire my "high" level cook (trained for 1.7 hours) I grew attached to since he couldn't work anymore. He needs to stand at a counter at all times. I could move him to another counter, but I would need a second counter for that, which I can't buy, since there's only one counter allowed. You probably unlock the ability to have more counters later, but I didn't have that yet. You see my conundrum? I didn't just lose the 150 gold it cost me to replace the counter, I also lost a valuable member of my four headed crew just because of a roll of the dice that clearly wasn't intended.
I would let this slide in early access, but in a 1.1 release? Nah. I refunded.

Played this game in VR (HTC Vive) and on Desktop. I'm not a fan of games who use jumpscares to be "horror", and sure, this game still has some in it, but it doesn't rely on them. The lingering sense of dread while playing it is amazing. Let me tell you of an example (minor spoilers to game mechanics following in the next paragraphs, mainly explaining how one tool at your disposal works).

After playing through the tutorial I jumped into a coop game with my brother. I was in VR, he was on desktop. It didn't take us long to figure out which room the ghost was haunting. Having tried a few things we knew we had to check if there's a reading on the "spirit box", a little radio you can use to "speak" to the ghost. In theory you turn it on and ask the ghost a question (through your microphone, you actually have to talk). It may answer. I knew that. But I didn't use the spirit box in the tutorial (the tools you have to use there are random, but an explanation for every one of them is available), and I was petrified at the thought of having to use it, since I didn't know what to expect.

We knew we had to use the spirit box in a room with no light whatsoever. From the briefing in the truck we learned that the female ghost we were dealing with will only react to a single person, it won't respond to a group of people. Since we didn't know exactly how the mechanics work we decided to go the safest route. One of us was to surveil the ghost readings and camera we have set up from outside the house, in the truck. The other one was to try to get the reading. Inside the house. Inside the haunted room. In complete darkness. Alone. Naturally, since both my brother and I are scaredy cats when it comes to horror games, we agreed that I should try to get the reading, since I'm in VR and all, so the impact of whatever happens will be as devastating as possible.

So there I was, inside the room, trying to get my courage up and turn the damn spirit box on. After extinguishing the lights, I tried to get my bearings, when something in the corner of my eye moved. Something was watching me from outside the window. That's when I (exceedingly manly) screamed out loud for the first time. It was my brother, trying to check on me. He nearly killed me in real life. No sound, no real jumpscare needed. I was so on edge.

Getting myself together after this ordeal, my brother positioned himself in the truck like agreed upon. I stood in the middle of the painfully dark room. I took a deep breath and switched on the spirit box. Static chattered. I scraped together the last bit of courage I could muster and asked with a shaky voice "Where are you?". Immediately, the static stopped, and a strange, male voice replied. "Behind".

My friends, I ♥♥♥♥ bricks. I couldn't move a muscle. I stood there, all alone in the world, with an overwhelming, existential dread washing over me. I tried to reach for my walkie talkie, located at my left shoulder in VR, as slowly and as fast as possible. "She's here, come in here, bring light." He came, the hero he is, and flooded the room with light. There was nothing to be seen. Except for me, standing there, shaking like a wet dog in winter.

Long story short, this game has amazing atmosphere. The mechanics work fine, the multiplayer aspect is solid (walking cycles and other player animations might benefit from some love, but they are serviceable), and gameplay as a whole is solid. I haven't encountered any gamebreaking bugs so far, if any bugs at all. Definitely one of the best games I have bought this year, and I've bought quite a few. I will keep coming back to this one. At the asking price of CHF 14.50 (~USD 16.02) at the time of writing, I can wholeheartedly recommend Phasmophobia.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

[edit for formatting]

of course it's functionality is idealized in the trailer, but i still expected it to... feel better. while clashing swords looks amazing in the trailer, actual gameplay is clunky, especially since your arms in game move a lot slower than in real life. i constantly felt like fighting in a dream. it doesn't feel good. in fact, i felt disconnected from my avatar, which is deadly in a vr game. it's an awesome concept, and i'm looking forward to playing games like this a few years down the line. but i think current hardware just can't do this justice.

that being said, i want to end this on a positive note: magic is pretty neat. letting an enemy twitch before you grab and throw them off a bridge is very entertaining indeed. great job on that one, dev :)

I really wonder why this game is in Early Access. It plays like a full release, no features (that I can think of) are missing and I encountered no bugs through my entire time playing this, An amazing game, Niche, but amazing. Multiplayer is solid, no complaints there.
The pricetag (30 CHF as of right now) might be a tad steep, but in my case, it was (and still is) worth it. Don't wait for a sale, by the way. The devs believe in a no sale policy.

Took me 18 minutes to complete with 100% achievements. Cute little game, probably not worth the full (haha) price of 1$, but... well, it was fun while it lasted. Even if just for achievement galore. I mean, 118 achievements in 18 minutes :)

Simplistic, short and sweet. Played it through in about 80 minutes of actually trying. Probably not recommended for hardcore puzzlers since the game really isn't that difficult, but for casual players who just want to take their dusty braincells for a spin it's well worth the asking price (~1$ at the time of this review). You need a bit of concentration and you're good to go. With the rule of thumb of 1$/hour of playtime I can wholeheartedly recommend Hook.