Recent reviews by Snowmind

Disclaimer: This is not a review, others have already posted detailed and informative reviews, which will provide a well rounded opinion of what to expect. This is just a rehash of my older forum post which for some reason seems to have been deleted.

-----
WARNING: Achievements are still broken in 2023 (abandoned)

Not a single achievement has been triggered, even after a recent 9+ hrs playthrough (no spoilers). Tried on PC and Steam Deck.

Traditionally, storyline achievements should be, by default, unlock automatically when reaching or accomplishing a particular story event or task; but even something as simple as the unavoidable storyline 1st achievement "Sudden Awakening" (Come to your senses after the Big Sleep), for some reason has only a 43% success rate in the global achievements table!

Unfortunately, INSOMNIA: The Ark seems to have been abandoned, as the last patch deployed was on 12/05/2020, so avoid if achievements matter to you.

A lot of people calling Everspace 2, Diablo in Space! It is a very well made looter-shooter, with smooth and tight controls relevant to each ship type, many side-missions and a lot of grind, it will certainly keep you occupied for a long time.

I started grinding a lot initially, due to enjoying the open-world exploration, and the mini-challenges. Each area you visit has an optional puzzle to be solved, if you want to earn some good loot and the area's achievements. And you do need to keep upgrading constantly, to keep up with the never-ending enemies it throws at you.

Having spent 100+ hrs playing, and almost at max level/end of storyline, I keep yearning for more and hope perhaps some future DLC will extend it further. And yes, I do recommend it, if that wasn't clear enough ;-)

-----
TLDR: Highly addictive, thoroughly enjoyable looter-shooter with an interesting storyline, for anyone that enjoys an action-adventure with some (light) puzzle elements thrown in.

Ode to Subnautica!

From Aurora to Pod5,
out in the ocean of cold,
From Seamoth to Prawn,
down to shroom caves of old!

Through abandoned bases,
to lava zones and rivers of poison,
With the Cyclops Snowdynia,
charging through dangers of all!

Blighters, mesmers, warpers,
squids and reapers to behold,
Onwards with a Neptune,
to the stars, eternity,
above and beyond!

-----
My message in a bottle, left behind on planet 4546B

I like Outriders and the time invested so far can attest to that. But unfortunately I cannot recommend such a bug ridden game to anyone in good conscience. I will not go through the many bugs encountered, as other reviews have done so more eloquently than I could ever do. For me though, two game breaking bugs forced me to stop playing:

- The _constant_ disconnections from the server. When I am playing solo, why is there a need for an always ON connection? There is nothing more disheartening than having gone through an expedition and at the last moment you get disconnected without any loot drops or resources to show for it. And it happens A LOT!

- Co-op gaming is so buggy, I spent more time trying to connect to friends' games and via versa, rather than actually playing. Often when a connection is established, and a party has formed, a crash to the desktop follows. And today my inventory was wiped clean after such a crash for a good measure.

Most of my friends are so fed up and annoyed with Outriders, that stopped playing some time ago, some even mid-campaign. Having lost all my items is a sign that I must move on too and a warning to all that still play this buggy mess, that this could happen to you at any time, so beware.

TL;DR : Singularity Roller is a frustrating "demo" made out of default Unreal Engine library assets, which does not worth $0.1, let alone the current steam price of $5.

In the name of fairness, let's put everything it has to offer to perspective:

---
Positives first (the glass half full section):
---
+ You control a roller ball with some sort of energy field around it, which "might" wow you for the first 10secs
+ The excitement of having to hunt through a maze for "something" -> initial impression
+ Achievements (I kid you not, 515! TSA points from this! Mind boggling)

---
Neutrals to balance it out (the couldn't think of anything else section):
---
= Reminds you why spring-cleaning your library off games you will always regret having is important
= The need to start SteamVR for no reason at all; why not? (though if you exit SteamVR it still works)
= Not saving any options, why have them at all? (added for completeness)
= Hardly optimised, with a massive 5.3GB hard disk footprint for a 10-15min demo of a game
(a single resources "pak" file is found, named LandscapeMountains - perhaps there is more to it?)

---
Negatives for last (no nails or coffins have been hurt in this section):
---
- Take a cuboid, hollow it out, add 2 wall cross-sections in it, some steps on the side and ...
call that "the level"
- Now add a very loose control to a funky roller ball, you know the "move + jump" type and ...
call that the "gameplay"
- Spice it up with 50 other static balls, each for a cool steam achievement of Epic TSA proportions and ...
call that the "motivation to play"
- Sprinkle it with tons of bugs (how can such a sort game have so many bugs?) and ...
call that the "challenge"
- Finish it off, with the pièce de résistance (or cherry on top for some) with the last achievement still being broken
and call that the "freaking frustration" **

- Go on steam, pass the approval process and this piece of trash is then called "a game"


-----
Personally, Singularity Roller infuriated me so much, it actually made me wanna go out, even though we are still under lockdown and risk cv-19, rather than having to spend another second chasing that 50th achievement (for closure).


** As a postscript, I would like to thank @In-sight- for the solution to the 50th cheevo bug, which was by hitting "K" when starting and pocketing 48/50 "non" roller balls immediately (can't get back the time I spent on it but you are all welcome to use it for sanity's sake)

-----
Credit here: https://steamproxy.com/app/684820/discussions/0/1698293255130806215/

EDIT Nov 2022:
Having confirmed that most of the security concerns have been addressed by Bethesda, I am now happy to recommend DOOM Eternal once again. The Battlemode with friends has also been a blast.

-----
OLD review:
I really enjoyed DOOM Eternal and streamed it from start to the delight of many. But sadly, after the latest update and the forced installation of "Denuvo Anti-Cheat kernel-mode driver" which gives admin rights to your system, I will be removing it for the sanity of my mind ( (patch notes here: https://slayersclub.bethesda.net/en/article/2zHgbzsIV8gTzFUZ75ADGx/update-1 ).

Keep in mind this is not the same as the "Denuvo DRM" system, which mainly obfuscates the code to make reverse engineering more difficult (note that it was cracked within 24hrs of release by STEAMPUNKS).

It looks like Bethesda just doesn't want to learn any lessons and for the past two years has gone from bad to worst, as if in competition on claiming the crown from EA for the most hated gaming studio.

As such and with heavy heart, I am unistalling DOOM Eternal (just while I was about to finish it mind you) and could not any longer recommend it to any of my friends.

As an early adopter of Conan Exiles, I was excited when it finally got released in early May after a long wait. And even though most of every aspect of the game was vastly improved, my playtime was riddled with game breaking bugs (dumb AI, item duplication, skill points abuse etc), to broken mechanics (decay, unbalanced purge mobs, unresponsive thralls etc) and minor other glitches galore.

But honestly, since my time on Age of Conan (almost a decade ago), I missed the hardcore fantasy theme genre and gave Conan Exiles quite the leeway, expecting most of the problems will eventually be ironed out. Initially hopping official servers due to them being full and after trying some private run servers (which fell foul to admins having their personal vendettas against some players), I decided to start a local server and try the game solo.

And for a while, it was a bliss and all was well with the game, until...

Finally, here's the reason why I haven't touched Conan Exiles the past few weeks and the reason I will be removing it; the "Red Shell" spyware found in-game. I cannot in all seriousness fathom how Funcom thought it acceptable incorporating 3rd party spyware in their game, especially when GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was about to become EU law, a mere 2 weeks after the game's release!! And why would anyone bother with spyware that tracks you "outside" your game, like your facebook, twitter, youtube, web etc habits you might ask? After all Red Shell fashions itself as "[...]a means for video game makers to 'uncover' where their players come from through 'reliable attribution'". You would have thought Funcom would at least have learned a small lesson from the Kerbal Space Program's 3rd party "EULA spyware".

Bottom line, I cannot recommend a game or a game maker like Funcom, which thinks this practice is acceptable. To be fair, after they were found out, they removed Red Shell from Conan Exiles but I ask myself, do I trust them anymore? As such, I cannot recommend Conan Exiles or other Funcom games to any of my friends, without a huge red-flag warning for their shady practices.

But if you think the above is water under the bridge and does not apply to you, then please support this developer with your hard-earned cash because you are a better person than me.

Sorry Funcom, you were caught red-handed with spyware and as a top athlete failing their drug test, earning my trust would require a lot more than idle excuses.

Zup! 3 is another enjoyable minimalist puzzle, which utilizes simple block physics and challenges you to place a ball within a predetermined winning place. Zup!3 improves on the already successful recipe of its predecessors, with more fun and logic based puzzles, where planning and good timing solves levels, rather than luck. If I had one criticism, I'd say Zup!3 has way too many "trash" achievements, which detract from the overall value of the game. Recommended to everyone.

-----
+ Level difficulty ramps up as you progress
+ Levels are very well-designed; more than a few have that "wow" factor
+ Very enjoyable progression, egging you to keep playing "just one more level"
+ Hidden achievements within levels already completed motivating you to replay them
+ Steam achievements and trade cards

- Trash achievements galore (1708 at the writing of this review)
- Classified as "spam game" from popular ranking sites
- Crashes when exiting, leaving a background instance running (requires manual termination)
- About 1hrs worth of playtime but due to the above bug, overall player times are skewed upwards

BLOK DROP NEO is a casual physics-based puzzle game. Well, calling your single "falling" block mechanic "physics-based" gameplay is stretching it quite a bit. More accurate description would be, a luck dependent puzzle game. Most levels are based on logic to solve but a handful of bad apples require trial and error (many many times) until your good luck kicks in and lets you have it.

BLOK DROP NEO would have been so much more, if it had more levels expanding on the idea of different types of properties for blocks, such as the late blue bouncing one, which in the end felt as an afterthought only appearing in a handful of levels. Recommended to all puzzles lovers, the rest buy it on sale.

-----
+ Relaxing puzzle game based on a new novel idea
+ Most levels are well-designed and require some logic to solve
+ Steam achievements (easy 100%)

- What is it with the ALL CAPITALS attention seeking name?
- Too short, 30 levels possibly will provide 20-30mins of distraction (pending on luck)
- Puzzles are all the same with no added gimmicks or mechanics to spice up the gameplay
- Crashes when exiting, leaving a background process running (apparently I am still playing while writing this review)
- No steam cards?

TL;DR: Circularity is a decent puzzle game riddled with bugs, which ultimately lead to a lot of frustration. I would recommend it to any puzzle lover due to some pretty ingenious levels but for the rest, I'd say stay clear till the bugs are fixed.

-----
Circularity - Minimalistic Adventure! as its full title is given in the about text, is a minimalist puzzle game, with equal positive and negative sides to it. It claims to be a "Relaxing puzzle with interesting game mechanics [...]" but I can only attest this to be true for some of the levels, especially at the early stages.

It's important to note that the levels are not increasing in difficulty as you progress but are arbitrarily thrown in. So you will also encounter some early levels that require many attempts to get right, if you want to 100% the game achievements. And that is the biggest problem of Circularity; whereas other puzzle games adapt by adding new mechanics as you progress to spice up the gameplay (see Hook), Circularity stays the same from start to finish, leaving behind this feeling of not caring if its level 21 or level 72.

On the flip-side, there are some levels which have ingenious solutions, not seen until you try and fail a few times (to par with Zap!3 that often triggered that blank stare of disbelief at the way a puzzle was completed).

In addition, the minimalist design is quite unique and pleasing but again with the annoyance or perhaps better described peculiarity, of moving to the next level even if you haven't completed the current level. That's forcing you to wait until the next level is loaded, quit that to the main screen and re-trace which level it was, re-load it and replay it. Forcing me to always move forward the levels was extremely frustrating, negating the "relaxing" mood, especially when re-trying missed levels for the achievements. Again, it could be easily fixed if an option was added to not auto-forward.

Lastly, the bugs encountered on many levels, with circles disappearing, achievements not triggered, right down to a couple levels missing completely essential mechanics to complete (see levels 53 and 72). For a simple puzzle game, these bugs are inexcusable, especially when they seem to have been introduced at later updates/patches.

To recap:

+ Minimalist puzzle game but not an adventure
+ Interesting new idea/concept with a decent execution
+ Pleasing, unique and uncomplicated user interface
+ Some levels are very well-designed
+ Lots of levels to keep one occupied for sometime (1.5-2hrs for 100%)
+ Steam achievements and cloud saves

- More difficult levels require cat-like reflexes and a good mouse (found these impossible to complete on a laptop's touchpad)
- The UI needs improvement, adding a way to replay a level, without always moving forward to the next
- Levels difficulty is random and not incremental, detracting from the overall experience
- Too many bugs and a couple completely broken levels at the time of this review
- No steam trade cards (why?)

-----
PS: For 100% achievements, the broken levels such as 58, 72 etc currently require to enable the steam console and download an older, working, version of the game from the steam depot, which is an unnecessary chore.