Recent reviews by Mist

Yeah, I'm gonna be real. One of these things needs to happen:
-Add a non-roguelite mode. (Lose money and/or reset to day 1 of current R.E.N.T. on death)
-Delete or rework the reactor module. It only exists to waste inexperienced players' time.
-Give the ability to skip first R.E.N.T. It's boring, and again, disrespects the players' time.

TL;DR below

As it stands right now, I don't feel the motivation to start the first rent cycle again because I know that 40 minutes in when I see a reactor in the 2nd cycle, the run is over. I've read the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ notebook 3 times over, every time I try to defuse it, I die. Not to mention the first time you encounter the reactor module you are guaranteed to die- because you have roughly 10-15 seconds to figure it out, and then upon reading the book next run, are graced with the message: "Read this before you accept the next job you idiot!" Cool. Yeah. Good game design.

This game really would've been better if it wasn't a roguelite at all, to be honest. It adds nothing except "stakes", of which there's only one, the dread of restarting to day 1 and having to do the most mind numbing jobs for another 30-60 mins. That's not enjoyable or interesting. The permanent progression isn't game changing in the slightest, it's all just minor upgrades and quality of life, like WHYYY IS THIS A ROGUELITE?? Who on the idea team insisted on this? It doesn't make any sense?!?

Literally if you took this game and stripped all the shoehorned in roguelite elements, IT WOULD BE A BETTER GAME. Nothing about this game screams roguelite. It would be much more enjoyable as a one time experience, but noooooo. God forbid you don't spend an extra 10 hours in the beginning of the game, you gotta get those playtime numbers up! Don't want people to think your game is short, no no no, make them do the same thing over and over after 1. winning, therefore punishing the player for doing well and 2. a long exasperated death due to not making rent or a quick cheap death due to pipe bombs or reactors. Yes, you guys know exactly what I want to do after a hard fought victory/loss or a cheap death? The most boring ♥♥♥♥ possible. Yes. Thank you. This makes me feel good.

Oh, but Mist! You earned funny meta tokens last run! what are you gonna spend those on? Ahh, yes, I think I'll spend it on one of the 6 different upgrades that do absolutely nothing on focused mode. That's right, there's a bunch of meta progression that does absolutely nothingg ooOooOo. Oh, but what about the ones that do stuff? Well you've got the choice of A. cheap minor stat boost or B. extremely expensive perk that actually does something (wowie zowie), but due to the price, is equally as uninteresting! Since you have to either pick the minor stat boost now, or wait 2-4 runs (multiple hours with no progression, feels awful) for a singular perk! So interesting, and cool!

Don't get me wrong, I love the game. I know it's very easy to see a wall of angry text and say "wow, this guy must really hate this game"; but that's not at all true. In fact a rant like this only comes from a deep passion and frustration with something enjoyed. Those gripes and bumps ruined a game I was extremely excited about, that's why it hurts so much.

Edit: Upon finally passing a reactor, it's not that difficult. It's just the pressure from the beeping, the stress of potentially failing and the air of the unknown around the entire thing- it feels so scummy. Especially when you get surprised with a reactor as an unlisted or mystery module. My statement stands.

TL;DR
The reactor module single handedly killed my enjoyment for this game, and I'm not alone.
The roguelite elements (meta progression, permadeath, etc.) feel shoehorned in, further reinforcing that dying to a pop quiz on a 10 second timer is strictly an annoyance.
This game disrespects your time with poorly implemented and lackluster meta progression, cheap deaths, and empty victories.
You are punished for winning and losing, as the game forces you into the braindead 30-60 minute 1st R.E.N.T. cycle with no real way to speed up said early game.

I play a lot of shovelware so I'm used to playing really bad games. That being said-

wow.

Never have I ever been so jaw-droppingly stunned. I have no words.
I recommend anyone seeing this review to play it themselves. That's the only way you can understand.

I wanted to take the time to review this game since it doesn't have that much coverage, and I personally enjoyed my time playing.

Marimoth is a Galaga-style bullet hell that runs for about 5 levels and 5 bosses, with 3 powerups and 1-2 potential revives. It's really fun! It's simple and easy to understand, there's the constant tug of war between wanting to dive for coins and dodging bullets, as one who doesn't typically play these kinds of games, I was pleasantly surprised.

I also took the time to earn and complete the secret level, which was a great challenge that put my skills to the test. In order to get to the secret level you have to play levels 1-4 without getting hit. I had to change my entire play-style to adapt to this. I would precisely shoot down enemies in the first stage to farm for coins, hoping to earn an upgrade per level in order to focus solely on dodging by the fourth stage.

Although, thank god you don't have to flawless the fifth stage- cause it highlights a couple of my main gripes with the game. Some things are just impossible to dodge lol. There are enemies that move/shoot almost completely horizontal, forcing you into a corner where you can be easily targeted by any of the homing units or overwhelmed by any of the spread shot ones. My other gripes are little things like problems with visual clarity, coins flying all the way across the screen so you can't catch them, or that tabbing in and out is a little bit finicky.

But other than that, solid game.

fishin'. byeah.

cute chat room game that psychopaths like me strive to 100% complete, forcing ourselves to bash our heads against a wall for days trying to get a 0.333% chance (or lower) fish for that sweet sweet colored fishing rod.

would recommend for the socially awkward and clinically insane demographics

I can't recommend a game that ties performance to the size of your Steam block list. Unplayable on its own, only made enjoyable through community mods and patches.

While it was fun to replay the old flash games, the lack of effort put into making these things at least PLAYABLE (frame drops/stuttering, blurry graphics, and awful 'gameplay' COUGH COUGH run elephant run COUGH) makes this really hard to recommend over just getting a flash plugin and playing them for free.

edit: even though I can't recommend the collection, I still love and recommend these games; and I gotta say that I really loved the lobby music switch, it was awesome and the last thing I expected

This game rules, perfect party game to boot up at a local or over remote play with some friends. It really deserves/d more attention than it got.

Only gripe I have is that some of the achievements don't unlock despite fulfilling the requirements, but that's just the completionist in me

fantastic game, can't wait for house 2

insane that this has mixed reviews.
fix the stutters on the final boss and it's a nearly perfect addition.

An adorable and often humorous Zelda-inspired game where you play as a gator going on mini quests to make friends and unlock new tools for easier exploration around the island; with an underlying story about the passage of time and spending it on what's important.
good game.