Recent reviews by Dran

This is a really silly little game that is horribly addictive. Its less about restaurant management and more about meal prep mini-games and surviving a day serving people their orders. The game has a very clever way of balancing difficulty where easier to prepare meals like fried chicken or hotdogs give you less money, while more complex meals such as burgers or salads (everyone wants them done with specific ingredients) bring in more cash, but can utterly screw you over during rush hour when you have 4 burger orders, all of them are different and the timer to deliver said orders ticks down and you are struggling to finish even one order. You can set your daily menu so effectively you make the game as difficult or hard as you like.

As you proceed through the game you'll buy new food items, equipment to deal with chores such as taking out trash or cleaning dishes, improve existing food items... participate in events such as catering for specific food items, while you strive to get a higher rating for your restaurant. There is a lot of fun content to get through and as you play more you inevitably gain some muscle memory for these dishes so its very satisfying to see how progressively better you get at whipping out these dishes. Definitely worth getting if you want to play something different but maybe wait for a sale, it has gone down to as much as a 90% discount at times.

Short first impressions: Game turned out great. Graphics look great, combat is snappy and feels impactful, you don't need a galaxy-sized brain or look through wikis and guides to experiment with your own build and make something effective that will help you blast through content. Crafting, Trading, SSF and Loot Filter systems put PoE absolutely to shame, you can tell from playing it that this was made by fans of the genre who were tired of some of the outdated systems on PoE and D4.

Is it better than D4? Easy yes. Is it better than PoE? Of course not, PoE has been out for over 10 years and its endgame is packed full of pinnacle content, item chases and challenges that LE lacks atm. Still, for what it is, its amazingly good value for money, there's 15 different mastery classes you can make builds for; even if you stick to 3-4 of them you can probably get easily 100-200h of fun out of this.

As for server issues (which is why it recently got review bombed), those have been pretty much solved and the dev team is super communicative on their discord when any issues arise. 10/10 for transparency.

Solid 9/10 game for me. Boasting a total of around 132 puzzles (not including Megastructure puzzles and environmental monument puzzles) this is definitely "more and better" than what Talos 1 had to offer. Most of the puzzles are not exceedingly hard and the game does a good job of slowly ramping up the difficulty until you arrive at the pinnacle puzzles behind the golden gates, at the very end of the game, and some of those are BRUTAL. My play through ended up around 38h so there is a lot of value to be found to make the price worthwhile.

My only complaint is that the story is not as compelling as Talos 1, which focused on philosophical debates on what makes us human; what constitutes the "soul" of a human. Talos 2 takes it in another direction and focuses more on the essence of human society and our relationship with the world that surrounds us - the meaning of life and our place in it. It tries to make the story interesting with a cast of supporting characters (all fantastically fully voice-acted) with whom you can chat and debate with. Its interesting enough but it doesnt quite hit the high notes of Talos 1. Still, just for the puzzling alone, easy 100% recommend.

A fun little communication game, kinda like "Keep Talking" but without the stress of a bomb about to blow up. Puzzles aren't really that hard at all, but the challenge lies in recognizing and relaying information that your partner may need to solve any blocks on their side. Solving these together is actually quite satisfying.

A single play-through takes about 2-3h, and you can re-do it as each players side has challenges of its own that are unique to their side, so there is some replay value to be had at least for a second play-through.

The premise is simple: you can pick up objects, manipulate, investigate, move stuff around to solve the puzzles that will lead to you escaping the room. Puzzles can vary from very simple to myst-level complication, but for the most part are quite logical if you can piece the clues together that you find.

Id say the dev-made levels are fairly fun but easy, but this is one of those games you get for the community-made content. The level crafting is pretty robust and the creative community has crafted literally thousands of rooms to play and puzzle with, and unlike the rooms that come with the game, these can be QUITE challenging. Best enjoyed with friends, this is a very easy recommend for fun MP puzzling!

If you enjoy base-building survival games with a generous dose of exploration and hack and slashing combat... Valheim will be right up your alley. Gorgeous graphics set the mood as you explore a generous amount of biomes to gather and bring back home the materials needed for essential upgrades you'll need to defeat each new boss that will unlock the next tier of tech so you can continue exploring and gathering. Its an extremely addictive loop.

That being said, this is an incomplete game. On top of that, the devs are VERY slow in delivering updates in a timely fashion. They released a roadmap with tentative dates that they have not stuck to at all. So, if you want to buy this keep in mind you will have a blast until the content is over. I got a good 50-60h out of it, and I'm sure the life can be extended with mods and coop servers, if that's your thing. Just wish the devs updated this more often - the game could have gone from fun flash in the pan to an all-time classic, and it feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Simple jigsaw puzzles that slot into place with satisfying click and chime. The music is soothing, the art deco style illustrations are lovely. Clearing each puzzle is strangely addictive, and can take from 5 minutes to 30 minutes each depending on the difficulty. Even the harder ones arent too frustrating enough to make you want to give up, so you always feel like you want to do "just one more".

No drawbacks, really, it does what it says on the tin. You'll get about 50 puzzles worth 10h playtime from this.

UI is terribly clunky and unintuitive, the inventory/storage system is kind of ridiculous and convoluted. Yet still, once you get used to its systems, the game grows on you. You build your little shelter, get some food and water to survive the first few nights, then paddle over to another island with more plentiful resources. You build your little hut, a raft, begin to explore the network of islands that surround you. You find salvage on the scattered islands and diving into shipwrecks, build ever increasingly better stuff to survive, then thrive. It's Survival Gaming 101, and it is done well.

There is zero story here, so it's pretty much a castaway simulator. But the crafting progression is fun and addictive, orientation is tricky with just a compass and a pair of binoculars, but it adds to the immersion. I feel like this game is a bit of a wasted opportunity, could have been so much more (like Subnautica or Green Hell), but it does scratch the survival itch well, and you'll get your 20-30h of tropical survival fun out of it.

Killing bugs, mining for valuables, cooperative chaos, burly dwarves - what's not to like?

While I have almost 50h spent in the game, this will be an early to mid-game review and whether it is worth your time. Spoiler alert: it is worth your time. There are, however a few caveats.

Many comparisons have been made to how the game is a mix betwen Rimworld and Factorio, but it is pretty much a game of its own. It does not have the open-ended nature and research of Factorio, nor is it as merciless with stress and need management as Rimworld. It has enough of both to keep you on your toes but I very much feel like the fun of exploration is somewhat stunted by micromanaging ingame issues. Airlocks arent exactly airtight, sometimes dupes wont follow their priorities list and there is some frustration experienced in micromanaging their actions, especally when deconstructing or digging they are prone to strand themselves in a place where they can suffocate.

Still, there are a lot of biomes to explore, tech to learn how to use and build. Definitely a buy, if building and managing your base is something you enjoy; though your enjoyment may at times be stunted by the nature of some of the games less polished mechanics.

150h Update: The game is slowly becoming my favorite over Factorio. One of the advantages it has is in the diversity of solutions you can design to your base problems of food, oxygen, water and temperature and changing your starting environment completely changes your priorities and experience in your problem solving structure, which makes the game much more replayable than base Factorio. The previous drawbacks of how the dupes act (often stupidly) are less of a bother once you learn the systems to work your way around them. The game has a long learning curve but the feedback loop is very rewarding, and even just mastering early and midgame opens up a game you can play in a zen like state, simply designing, constructing and watching your colony grow. Still enormously recommendable.

Oh, and they keep adding content. Ugh, how am I supposed to quite the game?!