Recent reviews by Dunecat

Forgive Me Father is a great oldschool FPS with a graphic novel artstyle that fits its pulpy lovecraftian setting very well. The soundtrack also enhances this vibe and is the cherry on top of the frenetic action and helps getting into the flow of it.

The games' story is suitably simple and told through story clues found in the levels, as well as motion comic cutscenes, that are executed pretty well. The story can be experienced with two playable characters, although the character you choose does not impact the story at all. I chose the Priest on my first playthrough and unknowingly picked the far easier option (due to his abilities), but I also picked the hard difficulty option and it turned out to be a fun but challenging experience for me (not being the best FPS player).

The gameplay feels very fluid and while running through the eery rooms and dark corridors or facing a horde of enemies in an arena, you really get into its speedy flow.
The games' weapon arsenal seems pretty basic at first, but the simple skilltree comes with the option of upgrading weapons, making them more interesting and introducing some amount of strategy with chosing the ammo some of the weapons use or weighing accuracy against speed. Skill points are gained relatively fast (especially with the EP-boost perks) and respec points are supplied regularly enough to warrant some experimentation.

During a normal playthrough, all levels you have already reached can be selected from the main menu individually, which is great for secret-hunting. After completing the game once, you unlock an the Endless Mode (an arena survival mode with different maps) and New Game +, which has a ton of modifiers to play around with. I was also determined to hunt for all the achievements in this game and it took a second playthrough with the Journalist character (much shorter, because I knew my way around) and some time playing the Endless Mode as well as a handful of select levels with NG+ modifiers to make my life easier.

All in all I can wholeheartedly recommend Forgive Me Father if you like FPS games, especially of the classic/retro variety and/or enjoy the aesthetics of this wonderful Lovecraft + graphic novel combination.

A unique narrative experience about choice, communication and society, Grotto boasts a unique style and captivating atmosphere, which drag you into a complex story about a tribe of anthropomorphized animals who try to live together and make difficult choices.
You are their soothsayer, communicating only through celestial constellations and their associated cryptic sayings to help them decide. Most try to decipher your answers in some way or another and come to very different conclusions, while others just take the image of the constellation at face value. This is a wonderful way to reveal their differing personalities. Most characters have some form of confirmation bias; a hopeful character might twist every answer into a positive message, while a pessimistic one might always draw the worst conclusions. Some even deny your advice alltogether, no matter if it fits with their opinion or not. This can lead to some moments of frustration, but only deepens the characters and reveals the imperfection of communication between individuals.

Having played the game only once, I can't speak to the quality and quantity of different paths the story and characters may take. I thoroughly enjoyed the path I experienced though. There were quite some twists and turns to the story and many of the characters really changed over the course of it, or maybe it was my opinion of them. I definetly felt like I knew them after a while, which led to me being happy when I saw certain ones visiting my grotto and troubled with others... Speaking of the grotto; it is the only location you'll see in the game. And it's not big. You will walk around in the cave and go from your clients to different interactive spots and back (you can also press ctrl to move instantly to certain spots). That is basically the gameplay, only WASD (+ ctrl) and left mouse click are needed.

Don't let that fool you though: Grotto doesn't need complex gameplay or grand vistas. It is a "choose your own adventure"-style interactive fiction with a complex story, great presentation, unique and love-/hateable characters and a lot to say about communication and how we live together.

Atmospheric and creepy. A great way to experience the story again. I encourage you to give it a try - it's short and free. If you liked it you can support the Developers by getting the DLC. I recommend reading the original story first though.

is a charming investigative Adventure game. With an unique visual style and a whimsical cast of characters this game hooked me right from the start.

Playing the eponymous Detective Grimoire, you are charged with solving a mysterious crime, that happened at a tourist attraction, located in the depths of a swamp. During your investigation, you will examine and pick up pieces of evidence, solve basic puzzles, as well as interview the inhabitants and workers at the tourist attraction. While these gameplay mechanics are nothing new, SFB Games make the best of it: Every once in a while you are faced with the task of forming a sentence out of pieces of evidence, characters and phrases (it is a rather simple system, but has lots of possible combinations, making a random success unlikely). This way, the developers make sure that you really understand what you are doing. If you form the right sentence you are rewarded with a "challenge", meaning that you can confront one of your suspects with your conclusions, often revealing important information. These systems are a perfect fit for the game and i found them to be very engaging.
Detective Grimoire's Story is nothing exceptional, but rather well-crafted; the characters are distinct and intriguing with nice animations and well-written dialog. The visual design (most notably character design) is the most apparent selling point of this game and really gives it a special flair. Together with the athmospheric soundtrack it creates the impression of a lovingly created game.

But enough praise, let's nitpick a little!
Being a casual/children's game, Detective Grimoire will be pretty easy for most adult players (, but I think a perfect fit for younger audiences). Also, the game is available on mobile devices, too; which is basically a good thing, but is reflected in the rather low resolution the game is displayed in on the PC. This dampens the quality of the artworks a little and makes the menus appear a little overbearing.
Last but not least: This game is very short. I finished it in two and a half hours, and you might do so even faster. While this does not particularly bother me, many people on Steam seem to be very attentive, when it comes to game length.

All in all, I would still recommend Detective Grimoire, because its flaws are extensively outweighed by its qualities. It is a very athmospheric, engaging Adventure, with some unique gameplay ideas and likeable cast of characters. If you have no problem with its brevity, I recommend it at its full price (6,99€ here in Germany).

Have fun!

Stronghold is a truly unique game, and in my opinion not even it's own sequels (apart from Stronghold: Crusader) can hold a candle against it, in terms of Castle Simulation. Due to it's perspective and it's simple, but honestly perfect (at least for this type of game) building system, Stronghold makes for the most overseeable and precise castle building game ever. Sadly (for the sequels) this game just doesn't work in a 3d engine...

If you give Stronghold a little time, you will have endless possibilities to satisfy your need for Medieval RTS glory. You may play the military campaign to battle against the four rather cheesy, but memorable villains of the game, in a series of 21 story-missions; you may try to conquer or defend a castle in siege mode, or play single missions under the invasion option. If a friend of your's owns a copy, you may even play against each other. If you don't want any violence at the moment, you will be happy to find a purely economic campaign, economic missions and the relaxing free building mode. And the best thing of all is...the editor! You can create a map for any game mode (except for the campaigns), complete with scripted events, and you may even swap those maps with friends or people online.

Stronghold is a very atmospheric game, easily creating the relaxing mood of a quiet village in the woods, a bustling town, a besieged castle, a brutal massacre, and an impending attack, you're not prepared for at all. Presentation, music, atmospheric sounds and the dated, but still rather pretty graphics, all play a part in that.

But Stronghold also has flaws, mostly on the technical side: By now it is pretty antiquated in some ways, like graphical fidelity (although I still really enjoy the look and feel of it all), multiplayer connections are never really stable, there are no official online servers (try Gameranger, Hamachi, Tunngle or similar things...or LAN), but there are some bugs and glitches as well as some historical inaccuracies (obviously). Apart from that, Stronghold is as good as it gets for a Castle Sim/Medieval RTS and one of my favorite games of all time.
I hope you have fun!

Disclaimer: The Steam playtime does not, by any means, represent my real playing time! I have played this for about ten years without steam, and even nowadays, I mostly play it in offline mode, so it doesn't track my time.

The Banner Saga 2 is more...

...more tension,
more surprises,
more survival,
more emotion,
more conflict,
more atmosphere,
more epicness,
and it is still more than more of the same. ;)
I love it!

Grandios absurde Action, ein sehr spaßiges Kampfsystem und geniale Bossfights: damit haben Platinum Games gezeigt, wie man auch mit kurzer Entwicklungzeit ein unvergessliches Spielerlebnis (und gleichzeitig ein Spiel, dass man durchaus mehrmals spielen kann) erschafft!