Recent reviews by Cinnamon Toast King

Beautiful visuals, a even more beautiful soundtrack and a story that will leave you crying at the very end. What more could you ask for?

Again the visuals are so beautiful the story telling done by just visuals alone and then you have the musical tracks that add so much to what is happening and are more then a joy to listen to!

I will always strongly recommend games that are a visual feast that get unneeded negative reviews for being "short" or not being much for game play because some how people though it was going to be more?! To name a few Silt, Papertura, and a current one Stray. Where its clear what you are getting by the videos you see. Hell even a game like stray where some parts overstay there welcome at least its controls nice, feels nice, and things felt fare. But for Scorn I don't understand the good reviews and I can't give this a good review on visuals alone because I don't and everything but the visuals feels horrible.

But I can't I just can't recommend this game.

The Combat: The combat is so sluggish, slow, infuriating, just down right bad and feels bad. I either tried avoiding everything or dying because without spoilers though they thought it was fun to throw a Charger. spitter, and crawler all in the same room. Oh did I mention if the enemy shoots they have god like tracking so YOU WILL GET HIT EVERY TIME!!! Oh you get a gun? Well unless you STAND STILL which if you played this game is not an option in combat and the reticle takes forever to get small for precise aiming. Oh and you think getting a gun will make fights easier? Enjoy the 12 shots you will waste on the next 2 enemies you run into. Then you have to go back to using the THRUSTMASTER 5000 that can only attack 2 times and then has a 5 second cool down. You want to juke the enemies? Not gonna happen your taking a hit. Oh don't worry if the enemies take off 1 or 2 bars per hit you can heal right? Yeah enjoy the 4 heals and hope you never get hit again or you are doing that over again! Again the trailers make the combat look somewhat decent or good but let me say its way way worse and feels worse then it looks. Oh I almost forgot! Say the enemy needs one JUST one more shot to kill but you nee to reload. ENJOY RELOADING EVERY SHOT THAT YOU CAN"T CANCEL!!!! You have to sit there and watch your dude slllllowly put each bullet slowing you to a walk meaning you will take damage...........GOD THIS COMBAT IS THE WORST I HAVE EVER PLAYED!

The puzzles: ♥♥♥♥.....they all over stay their welcome like the VERY FIRST one takes an unseeded amount of effort and should have been a warning sign. Later in the game you have a 3 part puzzle where you rotate they cylinders shaped in like a diamond formation. The typical move this one and it rotates that one so you have to sync them up so when you finally rotate them all its syncs, easy enough right? WELL the last one I just about wanted to quite until I BY MISTAKE selected the TOP cylinder. Want to know how? Well on all the others I moves around selecting left and right like no problem. Then they introduced the top one I can move left.....right....up cant move up I guess I have to move that one by moving others.....NOPE i had to keep selecting left or right till the TOP was highlighted. But I can't even explain that there was even an extra bit of that where you are sitting there saying WELL I did the puzzle why is it not complete?! It's still hard to explain how boring and unneeded these puzzles are to pad out the game. None felt good to complete, they just like the combat all feel bad and I feel bad even after completing them.

The Visuals: What can't I say about them? They are a masterpiece and I can't imagine the time and effort put into making them. If you are a fan of body horror or HR Giger you will love everything you look at. BUT THIS DOESN'T make up for a game that feels bad in every other way!

Like I said most visually beautiful games though "lacking" still feel good to play. This game at every moment does NOT feel good to play and feel like a chore. Watch someone play it and save your money.

This game has such a beautiful style that I could not get enough of it! I can't understand annoying complaining that this game is short. If you played through this game you looked at all the hand drawn practically everything! So I don't know why you think the insane amount of time it must have taken to do what this game has was not good enough. Also the price alone is well worth the clear effort put in if not just for the "experience" When I drop this kind of money on a game especially one like this I know what I am getting myself into. I would rather play 100 games like this then pay the same price or way more to get less time of entertainment from a movie.

Pros
1. The incredible hand drawn art style (I have become obsessed with this artist now)
2. Immersive sounds and music
3. Creature designs that will leave you feeling in awe to uncomfortable
4. The whole areas you see and visit are just amazing to explore

Cons.
1. Personal opinion of course but you are going to get a cryptic story. I would at least have liked to have someone what of an idea what was happening. But this doesn't take away form the game in the slightest!
2. Very few "puzzles" felt annoying (spent some longer time then I would have liked but can honestly blame myself for that

For those saying this game is short and also compare it to the price can't even begin to understand the amount of work and dedication went into this amazing game. Not only is the world one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. IT WAS ALSO ALL REAL?! The story is simple yes, but I'll tell you what it was cute as hell and the environments were jaw dropping. This was well worth the price to have an experience I think many will not have and appreciate.

Pros:
1. Beautiful world
2. Perfect sound effects to go with it
3. A calming soundtrack to go with it

100% worth the buy for anyone in awe with the process and time put into this to give the Dev money they deserve

Let's just start with what will keep you playing this game till the end!

Pros:
1. Characters - From main characters to the copy pasted ones the unique models and styles are just amazing! Like I said even for the copy models they do vary them up enough to make the towns feel unique and full of people which I'll take over 4 models and the towns/areas feeling dead.

2. The voice acting - ....ohhhhhhh the voice acting is out of this world! Again as above the whether the main characters or the filler characters every single one feels like they have a complete personality that is unique to that kind of model and town your in. I don't know how many people worked on these voices but all of them deserve so much credit! I have never played a game where I enjoyed talking to literally everyone just because I want to hear more! Hell they even have gibberish talkers as well.

3. Scenery - Each area/town is so beautiful! I would spend a fair amount of time just looking around enjoying what every area looked like. As with the models and the voice acting the extra care that is taken to make them feel full and not just some copy pasted tile sets is another major props! All the places are twisting and turning in directions and the right size to no feel like you have to run 30 miles to turn in a side quest. But large enough to make them feel like what they should be.

4. Story - With everything I said above you will be enjoying this story from begining to end regardless if you know the story or think you know where the story goes. The story may feel like its dragging if you do talk to everyone since there is a lot of extra dialog that just builds up each towns history and such. But you can still get an amazing experience if you stick with following strictly main story markers (marked with a yellow !) or side quests (marked with a green ?). You will still meet awesome characters and get through the game at a more comfortable pace then trying to talk to every single character.

Cons:
1. Controls and gameplay - This is a deck building/dice rolling game where you start each encounter with no weapons and use "perfect dodges" and your sling shot to have enemies drop "energy" for you to start pulling cards from you deck. Once you pull the max amount of cards you can roll the dice for a number this number is the amount of points to spend on cards with certain point values.

This can start and stay with PAINFULLY SLOW combat if you don't build the right deck. You can when not in combat swap out cards to hold a max of 15 to play around till you have something you fancy but synergy is a must if you don't want fights to drag on forever!

Tip* - what I highly recommend and made this game 10x more fun and the combat a lot more engaging was using all 1 cost cards especially these 2 cards; one that will reduce the cost of all cards in hand by 1 aka making all 1 point cards free and the one that increases how fast you gain max cards. I had zero issues with any fights and certain parts where rolling over and over is a must these went by much faster and never felt like a drag,

They have an almost perfect game if not for a system that could use a little extra love but is something I have never seen before so understandable its rough around some edges. But these don't stop this gem of a game from shining and I only regret not playing this sooner!

Its free and made by/for fans of Jerma and his work/streams. Is it the best game out there or decent by any means? No. But I'll tell you what, it leaved me with a smile on my face and that's more then I can say for most games.....

So thank you for bringing a smile to mine and others faces.

As many will say the "drift" (aka the icon at your feet showing how much you rotate slowly being off by more and more) becomes a very big issue especially in games where you turn A LOT (H3VR take and hold mode). I got to the point in my 4 hours of testing where it told me to turn so much and it tangled my cords more then ever!

This has the ability to be an amazing tool but man if it needs some work.

I have made it to World/Tome 3 before making this review and yes I will compare this to Banjo Kazooie as this was supposed to be the spiritual successor.

The quick and dirty info:

Pros –
- Amazing Soundtrack
- Great Characters
- Beautiful Visuals/Scenery
- Funny Dialog
- Good Controls
- Fun Skills/Moves

Cons –
- Cut and paste enemies
- Repetitive mini games
- None or lack of “unique” mini games
- Flat Feeling worlds

Overall, I would give it 3/5 but still find the game very fun

The specifics:

What I think the nail in the coffin for this game will be is the negatives I specified. The enemies and mini games are so freaking repetitive along with a flat world leave me wanting more. I wish and HOPE they make a sequel with all this ironed out.

Amazing Soundtrack:
The music always seems to fit the world you are in perfectly and what adds to the magic is how it changes depending on where you are like being underwater. It is these slight changes and mix-ups that make the soundtrack never feel “dull” or repeated. I felt like I was playing Banjo again because of this

Great Characters:
Yes, the characters may not feel memorable yet….game is still new and I am taking my time enjoying it. I do wish certain NPC’s gave more of a back-story, but they all feel interesting and well thought out in my opinion. I am always excited to run into a new one because I am so fascinated by what they could come up with.

Beautiful Visuals:
From the colors to models nothing looked bad to well…..look at!

Funny Dialog:
To honestly compare this to Banjo I think the dialog is exactly the same. Yooka is Banjo and Laylee is Kazooie and basically talk the same way they did. Although maybe a tad different which is not bad I loved the silly remarks made between characters and random NPC’s. Almost all the dialog maybe because of the noises they make when talking just threw me right back to the good ol’ days.

Good Controls:
I felt the characters and camera controlled very smooth and never ran into any crazy camera moments. If I did, I may be used to it? I guess if I had to complain the swimming underwater feels a bit off ….. maybe because I am use to having a fast and slow swimming option as well tilting the stick up and down to go up and down.

Fun Skills/Moves:
I have nothing bad to say for the skills, they all felt new, fresh, and fun to use. Yes some had very limited use like the Green fisher boots from banjo, but still fun. Yes again some things feel similar to the moves in Banjo but they are changed up enough that it feels new.

Cut and paste enemies:
There are maybe what? 3 different enemies in the game?! The only thing that changes between worlds are the colors and slight model differences other than that they act and do the same thing. Little to no variety.

Repetitive mini games:
If I have to do another timed loop race, it will be too soon. Enough said.

None or lack of “unique” mini games:
Stopping the chompers from eating the light bulbs, the alligator mini game, and things like that would have really prevented getting pagies feeling like a chore. Any mini game in Yooka –Laylee could be thrown into any world in this game or another like it….very sad.

Flat Feeling worlds:
As beautiful as the worlds feel they also feel very flat. With little to zero hills the only thing that changes height are structures. Other than that, it is flat ground, walls, and buildings no iconic landmarks in any world like the Snowman or Banjo Sphinx (cannot remember his name sorry).