Recent reviews by Graeldon

I'm reviewing Steam games in alphabetical order, and you can watch my review here: https://youtu.be/IIZl0K0Wx4M
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100% Challenge is an Arcade style... well arcade game.
You control a circle and need to touch the same-coloured circle in the field, while avoiding everything else. As you make matches, a barrier forms around you, which takes 10 matches to complete before resetting to zero, and this pattern continues every 10 waves to round 100, hence the name.
Making incorrect matches builds a coloured ring on the inside, which can be reduced by matching the coloured ring with same coloured enemies. This creates a nice push and pull dynamic between the two systems as you attempt to catch the correct enemies while avoiding the problematic ones.
100% Challenge also creates an audio-visual experience with the enemies and stage pulsing to the time of the music, including little particle trails behind the enemies.
At the end of each round you earn points which can be spent on upgrades for better mobility, shields etc.
There are additional game modes, including a co-op mode, which will add a bit extra to the total play-time, however you can expect 1-2 hours from this game.
Overall it's a fun, fairly polished arcade-style experience that I recommend giving a try, especially because it's free!

I'm reviewing Steam games in alphabetical order, and you can watch my review here: https://youtu.be/IIZl0K0Wx4M
Prefer to read?

Playing 100 Years' War is like taking an 8 hour long history lesson from the most boring person you've ever met, and even they aren't passionate about it.
This is a hex-based strategy game, which is meant to focus on historical battles. In reality, it's got the first part, and the second is used just to loosely tie together campaign battles. It's also worth mentioning that this is a mobile port, and the mobile version is cheaper.
Ultimately this game is simply boring. The base game and mechanics are fairly solid, there's a wide range of units with varying armour, weapons and movement types, but everything fails to feel impactful due to a lack of connection with anything happening in the game. Maybe it's my bias and preferences showing, but battles felt unsatisfying because the odds of a successful hit were rarely above 50%, and both sides were often the same. There is little you can do to gain an advantage in battle, and what mechanics exist are very poorly explained with several UI elements either never being touched on, or not even appearing on the screen correctly. Archers and ranged units are over-powered due to their mobility and ability to counter-attack (maybe true to the historical period, but being able to kite a melee unit indefinitely doesn't feel fair).
The biggest miss is the lack of any kind of multiplayer support, which with the English vs French setting would've made sense to include.
This game fails to be a fun strategy game, and fails to be a fun history game.

I'm reviewing Steam games in alphabetical order, and you can watch my review here: https://youtu.be/IIZl0K0Wx4M
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Yet another point and click logic puzzle game from Peaksel that is actually a mobile port to Steam, where the app store version is cheaper. That said, there is a substantial amount of content here, the UI translates well to PC, and everything is well presented. I honestly think this is one of the better games Peaksel has on offer. Most of the puzzles are well thought out, but be prepared to be stuck on various sliding puzzles for a while, unless you decide to take advantage of the generous skip system. The hint system is poor though, just providing the solution to the puzzle rather than giving clues as to the solution - it will literally show you how to enter the code that is the solution to the puzzle, rather than help with the puzzle itself.
If you enjoy slower paced puzzle games then you will likely find some enjoyment here, however I recommend picking it up on sale. This game is recommended, but only just, and only for puzzle lovers.

I'm reviewing games in alphabetical order, and you can watch my review here: https://youtu.be/IIZl0K0Wx4M
Prefer to read?

100 Vacas is an arcade style, fast paced "twin stick shooter" where you play as a cowboy defending his farm from bandits. The game consists of a series of single-screen levels where every bullet matters because every dies in one hit, and your previous cows are likely to be shot by stray bullets. Precision and quick reflexes are key, and you will likely die a lot, but thankfully resets are fast enough that it's not painful.
This is a short and sweet experience, so don't expect a lot of depth here. It does come with a speedrun timer built for those wanting to put their skills to the test though!
I'd recommend picking it up on sale, as you'll likely get an hour or so of playtime from this one.

I'm reviewing Steam games in alphabetical order, and you can watch my review here: https://youtu.be/IIZl0K0Wx4M
Prefer to read?

100$ is a sliding puzzle about collecting dollar signs. It's a fairly short experience, taking an hour or less to beat depending on your tolerance for timing based puzzles. Levels are designed similar to Pokemon style sliding puzzles where you continue to move in a straight line until hitting a wall. Some levels shake things up by having multiple characters to control at once, or obstacles such as meteors or landmines.
This wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for the levels that were designed to be as long as possible, and therefore cause the most frustration if you are reset to the start.
The visuals are lazy, as is the sound design. I struggle to find a redeeming feature here, other than that the person who designed the main character has some talent for art - but they should be using it anywhere other than with this company that focuses on cheap cash grabs.

I'm playing Steam games in Alphabetical order, and you can watch my review here: https://youtu.be/IHlv6EL-gvI

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100 Steps is a roguelite dungeon crawler where you have a set number of actions (steps) that is constantly ticking down as you play. There are many mechanics to unlock, lending a decent amount of depth and complexity, however each of these individual mechanics are flawed and don't mesh nicely with each other. Additionally, some core mechanics need to be unlocked via tiles that are found randomly when exploring, meaning that it's down to chance to stumble upon core systems that are required for progression.
Characters are animated lazily, they don't even face different directions, and the sound design is lacking in the details, such as every character having the same sound effects rather than unique ones.
Even so, it's still a fairly enjoyable experience and challenge to beat, with some fun little discoveries along the way. That wasn't enough to entice me to complete more than one run through the tower though.

Many of these issues could be solved through a patch and balance adjustments, but I doubt we'll see that happen, so for now at least, it is doomed to remain a slightly more than competent roguelite.

Played through the first few levels of UnDuster live on my Youtube channel and had a blast - enough so that I've now finished the game in my spare time.

UnDuster is a solid Celeste-like that expands open the movement and momentum mechanics enough that it feels like a refreshing approach to the genre in it's own way. It's a relatively short game, around 1.5 to 2 hours long, but very technical, so depending on your skill level, mileage may vary. I have to give praise to the great aesthetic of the game: The art, music and ambience are all cohesive, but the similarity of the levels does result in them feeling a bit samey and forgettable sadly. I did experience some screen tearing, so the addition of a V-Sync option would be appreciated.

In terms of level design, there are some creative mechanics that are fun to interact with, although I found some issues with passing through the suck-platforms in later levels - seems to be a problem with being too close to them when they are triggered. The final level is a great chase sequence that forces the player to rethink their movement through a level, however the payoff at the end didn't quite feel worth it. A little more visual oomph in the final moment would go a long way to making it feel more satisfying, as well as an ending sequence, rather than just going back to the level select screen.
One final thing I would've loved to have seen is an actual final bill from Gertrude with a $ value on it - even if just for comedic purposes.

Minor gripes aside, this is a great experience, and an awesome student indie team that deserves your support.

I'm playing Steam games in alphabetical order and you can watch my review here: https://youtu.be/whpH4q-uXFQ

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100 Seconds is an arcade style game where the goal is to survive for 100 seconds. It's a top down shooter where enemies spawn in waves and bullets bounce off walls forever. It's an interesting enough idea, however it's never iterated upon in an interesting way, and the only thing to do is to complete the same game multiple times as different colours. They are meant to have different difficulties, but other than the black cube, I didn't really notice any differences.
Unfortunately, although I feel it's got a solid foundation, it's simply not a great game with the current level of content, so I can't recommend it.
That said, I do hope the dev continues to make games as they seem to have some interesting ideas.

I'm playing Steam games in alphabetical order and you can watch my review here: https://youtu.be/whpH4q-uXFQ

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100 RUB: Global Denomination is an incredibly basic 2D platformer with not great hit-box detection. Levels and obstacles are pretty generic, the artstyle is inconsistent, and there is only one piece of music during gameplay (there is a second one in the credits). It's okay time and can be finished in an hour, but it's instantly forgettable despite the attempts of the dev to convince you that the main character, a literal purse, is a main selling point and therefore worth your money.
Unless you feel the need to play every 2D platformer ever made, I wouldn't bother with this one.

I'm playing Steam games in alphabetical order and you can watch my review here: https://youtu.be/whpH4q-uXFQ

Prefer to read?
If you enjoy games with no gameplay, then this is the perfect game for you.
There are two modes: 10 Doors, and 100 Doors. In both versions you simply walk through doorways that act as a teleport to the next room until you eventually find the end. Along the way you're meant to find some fun, but I obviously went the wrong way.