Recent reviews by Perlune

I'm always on the lookout for hidden indie gems, and I know a good one when I see one, and boy was I not mistaken. This game is absolutely gorgeous from head to toe. I'm always critical regarding games that sell their pixel artstyle as "amazingly retro" or something, to hide the fact they had no proper 3d artist, but this--THIS is how you make a game with minimalistic artstyle guys, take a lesson. The vibrant colors and music come together to create a unique atmosphere for each "world" that you visit, that is reminiscent of classic old fairy tales, and taking the tour through Chants of Sennaar's world is reason enough to play it. The interface is slick and smooth, and as a fan of the very first point & click adventure games, I really appreciate the inherent simplicity to it and the ease of navigation through the diary. And the ending, THE ENDING guys, is a rare thing--like sometimes, you finish a book, and you're so blown away by the ending that it gives you an incredible sense of satisfaction and completeness to have taken the adventure that far.

My only issue with this game is, sadly, what initially sold it to me. The deciphering of the multiple languages felt WAY too easy. WHat I like about deciphering languages (and more generally, cracking secret codes) is that you have to speculate and cross-reference clues, and the more you struggle with it, the most rewarding it is to see it all make sense in the end. However, here, that pesky diary just throws solutions at you unsollicited. I would go through the first minutes of the game, figure out the first few symbols, then moments later, get a blatant confirmation of my hypotheses, and I was like: wow, that was fast, hope this is just the start and it gets harder later. Spoiler alert: it does not. It's like a murder mystery where, whenever you find a clue, the game tells you "oh, this would make a nice murder weapon" and "oh, did you know this item belongs to the main suspect?" and then "just to make sure, can you point at the item in your inventory that is the murder weapon so I can validate it and you can't go wrong about it anymore?". Yeah, game, WE GET IT. Let us think for ourselves, pretty please. Long story short, the language deciphering part felt more like a hidden object game, where you have to collect symbols and sort them in your sticker album, than an actual investigation game--and it really pains me to say this, because otherwise the game is so awesome it deserves more than a half-baked recommendation.

All in all, a huge thumbs up to Chants of Sennaar, even if it felt short of a challenge (to me at least). This game is a true masterpiece and it goes straight into my all-time favorites list (yeah, I do have an all-time favorites list, so what?).

If you guys ever need another developer/game designer for your next project, please give me a call.

A trading game that is small but very nice. The storyline is pretty basic but that's not what hooked me up. Rather, it's that sandboxish aspect, where you can set your own goals in-between and build your own successful trading empire and be happy with it. The fact that you're not competing against other traders, for instance, and there's no deadline whatsoever, lets you wander off and experiment, and it can be really rewarding to see yourself rising from a second-zone local merchant to worldwide entrepreneur.

On the downside, the interface has some flaws that can be a hassle sometimes, but nothing too major. But this game like you would buy some local product to support their creator, as it was clearly made with love.

This is one of those game where you initially raise an eyebrow, like "tower defense x twin-stick shooter? oookaaay...". Then you play it, and it's so smooth and fun and well-balanced, you end up wondering why they never combined the two genres in the first place. I'm not describing X-Morph: Defense as a "tower defense combined with a twin-stick shooter" anymore, I'm describing regular tower defense games as "X-Morph: Defense but without the twin-stick shooter part".

Love the gameplay, love the story, love the graphics, love the coop, love everything. Would definitely annihilate mankind again. This game is a must-have.

Good game, lots of fun. Teamplay is critical, but play with a friend you'll be just fine.

The thing is, when you're used to online gaming and trying hard to get better at games, you quickly find yourself yearning for more. We played like 20 missions with my friend and now we're beating red missions with S/A reatings for breakfast. Please devs, more varied challenges and more difficult missions. :)

This is not a game, this is a piece of art. It's the kind of games where you have that moment of "oh my god, this is perfect, the mind behind this is pure genius". It's not just original or fun or beautiful, it's a perfect combination of all of these, just like a dish from a 5-stars restaurant has a perfect balance of flavours. I didn't play Braid like I was solving a puzzle game (which it is), but like I was looking at a gorgeous painting, trying to find hidden clues and make sense out of them.

Definitely one of my best gaming experiences of all times.

Just two things that bothered me:
1- this game is too short. You're having such a good time you end up cursing at the developer for cutting your pleasure short.
2- finding the 8 hidden stars can get ridiculous at times, and frankly the reward you get from them doesn't make it worth your while.

Stardust Galaxy Warriors is that type of games where you inevitably end up disappointed, because it's so much fun you never get enough of it. Easily one of the best scrolling shoot'em up/bullet hell of all times.

What convinced me to buy it in the first place was the customizable difficulty, because I was looking for a game that might be easy enough to play together with my 7yo son. I reduced all speeds and firing rates to 50% and he can manage just fine (actually he's grown quite proficient at it in just a week of play). I expect we'll still be playing this in ten years, gradually leveling up the difficulty to see how far we can go; and it might just be the perfect couch game when he invites friends over in a few years.

To sum it up: buy and play, and then you can die happily.

Simple but effective. Challenging but rewarding.

Some frustration around the fact that power-ups and skills can actually drag you down; since you have to deliver exactly the right number of blows to the left and to the right, not one more, not one less, things that kill enemies more easily than expected mess with your timing more than they help.

But all in all, a must have.

This game is the work of a mad genius. If Frankenstein had made a video game, it would have been this.

Play at the expense of your own sanity. But do play it, because you wouldn't want to miss it.

9.99/10 (short 0.01 because we want MORE)

I will give Sethian a recommendation to reward the concept and the effort of creating a brand-new language, but frankly the game itself left me rather disappointed.

It seems to me like the developer gave it all to the creation of the Sethian language, which is honestly interesting and exciting to decipher (in the few parts of the game where you actually HAVE to decipher it)—and then, he was tired and wanted to wrap up his product quickly, so he programmed a quick conversation with the computer and there was the game.

The strong suit of the game: you get to experience the sweet sensation of reward, when the computer understands your question, and when, in turn, you manage to make sense out of its answer. To base the gameplay entirely on interacting in an alien language you get to learn on-the-fly was a bold premise, but it's actually so cool.

Now for the cons:
• way, way, way too short
• the notebook tells you everything, and at some point it leaves you completely on your own, with no clear objective or sense of what direction the game wants to take you—for this reason, I deem the game too easy, and at the same time, too twisted, because the difficult part isn't about deciphering the language, but getting a sense of what you're supposed to say to advance the story
• the computer always says "i don't understand" when no response is programmed, so you never know if you built a grammatically incorrect sentence, or if you're just not supposed to ask this
• half of the symbols are actually useless, leaving you with the illusion of a vast language to be explored, while in fact you just need a few keywords to complete the game
• a tiptool with the meaning of symbols appearing on mouse hover would have been appreciated

In short, language is awesome but deserves a way better game.

Please make a sequel with better storytelling, a smoother learning curve, and a wider area to be explored.

I haven't even finished the game at the time I'm writing that review, but it just hurts my chest so much I've gotta let it out: THIS GAME IS A GEM.

An incredible story-driven experience packed with combat scenes I could describe as somewhere between Life Is Strange (for the story) and Rise Of The Tomb Raider (for the combat). Except there's no stealth/infiltration aspect, but instead you have to take advantage of your time manipulation powers to get the upper hand while fighting hordes of goons at the same time.

So, what can I say?
Story is mind-blowing.
Gameplay is incredibly fun.
Graphics are stunning.

I'm usually very picky when it comes to video games, but I loved every last bit of Quantum Break.

And at the time I'm writing this review, it's featured in next month's HumbleBunble (8-10 games, that one included, for as low as $12). So drop whatever it is that you're doing and go get it at once!