Recent reviews by CigaRat

I love Ashen and have played through it several times on Epic Games, hence the few hours on Steam at time of writing.
Elephant in the room, Ashen seems to get bad rep for two main reasons:

1) It looks like Absolver, but it is nothing like Absolver. This is true, but nothing about the game's promotion would lead you to think otherwise?

2) It looks like Dark Souls, but it is not much like Dark Souls. For one, unlike FromSoft games, it is designed specifically so you and your friend can play through the whole thing in one go, instead of having to constantly bonfire back and forth. It 100% benefits from being played that way, as opposed to playing it on your own and bumping into people at tough spots as one might be inclined to do.
This decision seems to me to compliment another essential difference; in the Game of Thrones/Dark Souls era of grim-dark "actually all options are bad, you idiot, you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ buffoon, and being anything other than cynical makes you a moron", Ashen dares to have a heart.
Think of it as if Dark Souls was inspired by Shuna's Journey instead of Berserk.

Understandably disappointing if you are looking for Absolver's unique fighting system or Souls' series sense of oppression and desperation.
Excellent, one of a kind game if you're looking to share a wondrous journey with a friend or significant other.
There's nothing else quite like it out there, save maybe Outward, and what it strikes out to do it does wonderfully.

Love this game!
There's a little confusion as you hop in that lots of people seem to get stuck on - it doesn't do the best job of communicating its mechanics, but the mechanics themselves are finely polished and incredibly fun.
This is nothing to say of the worldbuilding and the little flavor-jobs you can do on the side on many places.
Bonus points for quality and ingenious features such as map zooming out the higher you fly, or the fantastic way the braking/cobra is implemented - so many games tried to accomplish just that and failed miserably.
10/10 need more

A fantastic game made by a single (very active!) developer with loads of depth, replayability and quite a steep learning curve.

The game is still in EA, so don't expect a polished product, but there's already SO MUCH in here!
Each component of each mech can be customized and tweaked for specific performance, your mobile base is huge and requires a lot of care to keep running, your pilots need to be look after and can be levelled up in complementing ways - there's an emphasis on planning several moves ahead and picking your battles carefully, so on and so on.
Definitely treat it like a roguelike; you will fail miserably, and the joy is generally found in discovering new mechanics and approaches and strategies between your runs and generally optimizing your play.

Personally, I think the developer deserves every penny, but if you are considering a purchase, I'd like to stress it again that this is an EARLY ACCESS game that's still in development. There are a few bugs (vast majority have no impact on gameplay, but I have had the game crash a few times), some exploits, some unfinished scenarios and a definite lack of balance when it comes to late game (I'm pretty sure the game cannot be "won" in its current stage). The learning curve is steep and mean by design, but there are also a few places where it just communicates its mechanics poorly or not at all - but seeing how the mechanics are still being refined and could be changed entirely, it makes sense to not bake them into tutorials yet.

Either way, loads of fun, and scratches an extremely specific itch I've been trying to reach for years!
(I'll update this review from time to time to reflect the development progress)

UPDATE: combat has been completely revamped, giving player far more control over the missions. You now control your mechs directly, like you would in any strategy game, with a bunch of classic commands like "move here" and "focus fire there".

Main mechanic is taking ♥♥♥♥ pics, 10/10

But for real, a great little game to play with a friend. Absolutely love the visuals.

Disclaimer: the game is in early access. Lots of things aren't implemented, and there are bugs. If you are skeptical/have had bad experience with EA in the past, I suggest you wait until the game is fully finished :)

Even in it's present state, I find the game to be a wonderful experience and a breath of fresh air.
Do not go into Book of Travels expecting your usual MMO/RPG; the game is experimental/innovative by design, and clearly based off of the developers' previous game, the Meadow.
It's aimed at a specific kind of player who's after specific kind of experience (one that I would compare to the feel of the anime Mushishi, if you happen to be familiar). The idea is to wander and wonder at a beautifully executed world inspired by the paintings of A.J. Casson and look at the clouds go by as you smoke a pipe. It's a uniquely relaxed and meditative experience, much like Meadow before it.

I'd say it's a safe bet that you will love this game if you enjoyed Journey, Kentucky Route Zero or Proteus.

You will not find a journal or quest markers in BoT. You will have to pay close attention to item descriptions and NPCs dialogue to uncover quests, points of interests and secret areas.
Events, NPCs and encounters are largely random, with some being tied to specific times of day, or even specific days of the week. Thanks to these mechanics, the exploration remains fresh and full of surprises even though the current gameworld is only a fraction the size of its intended scope.
Rare skills, abilities and equipment are often tied to the kinds of NPCs that are the hardest to find, allowing your character to take on truly unique ability that makes them stand out in a crowd.

The game presents itself as a "tiny mmorpg"; the idea is that encounters with other players are rare, and cooperation is incentivized. You won't find a group to travel with on your every session, but as a result, when you do, your shared adventures become truly memorable. It is obviously possible to meet up with your friends, though I would recommend to everybody to at least try and make use of the in-game pictogram-based communication methods; they offer an experience that is strikingly similar to that of Journey :)

Book of Travels places lot of importance on roleplay and immersion, with many skills and abilities serving only to give your character an expression. While it offers a wide variety of pasttimes, ranging anywhere between exploration, tracing down rare materials for unique items over immersive quests to hunting mythical beasts, the main appeal of the game is clearly intended to be "vibing" - if you're looking for a cozy place to escape to, look no further!

Last but not least, the developers are being incredibly nice, kind and hard working. I don't think I've had such a pleasant, even inspiring experience of any other developer in all my years of self-medicating with games, and I cannot wait to see what they have planned!

Edit:
Some reviews are blatantly untrue in how they describe the game mechanics, so I will elaborate.

Inventory system: you start out with basic 4x4 inventory. Contrary to what some people would have you believe, you can easily obtain more slots that will tack on to your inventory by purchasing larger bags.

Trading: now this is where the game really shines, in my opinion. Each item has an arbitrary value, true, but each and every NPC values different things; barter therefore becomes a game of intrigue and scheming, where you are trying to figure out how to trick each trader into selling you their most prized possessions for (sometimes literally) peanuts.

Permadeath: it is true that, in its current stage, there IS permadeath in the game. This is supposed to change down the road, but for the time being, know that death is basically a choice you make: every character starts with a FLEE ability, which is 100% successful every time, no dice rolls. This means that, when you're on your last life petal, nothing is easier than to just skip all combat until you've restored yourself to full health and can plunge back into combat without running any risks.

Hope this helps!

Immediately fell in love with this.
The game is deceptively simple to play, but has a plethora of factions each with their unique units and research trees and therefore available strategies, and I personally found its scale and depth to be just the right amount in every regard.
The only comparatively lacking department would be diplomacy, which is largely determined by the game's narrative. Edit: turns out I played a faction that was a vassal to someone else. Playing other factions offers normal diplomacy like you would expect :)

Some reviews mention this as a negative, but i actually found that it added to my experience and enjoyment of the game; it is not fair. The AI is cheeky, it deploys reinforcements behind your fleets and so on.
To go off on a tangent; other, more robust strategies like Stellaris "suffer" from this funny effect where, after a certain point, the game is basically won, nothing can challenge you anymore, and you're just mechanically mopping up the remaining enemies to claim victory.
Not so with Chaos Galaxy, thanks to several factors.
One of them is certainly this cheeky AI - another would be that your power is not directly proportional to your resources. You can have double the planets of other players and be drowning in resources, but that will do you little good if you don't have commanders to lead your fleets.
Commanders can't be recruited, rather, they have to be encountered in the wild or else wrestled from the enemy, meaning you have to be very creative with your overall strategy, and that you cannot simply rush planets and max out their trade and industry.

My only genuine complaint would be that the AI can behave a little funny around your cloaked ships, but once you accept this as a reality, it is very easy to work with this in mind and still get a significant advantage using your cloak-able vessels.

Tl dr, surprising little gem that scratched an itch I've had for decades, 10/10, can't wait for the sequel!

A charming game, and a pleasant surprise. Allows you to experience the "humble power fantasy" of making positive change in a small city.
It's hard to put into words, but sorta... re-centers you? Words fail me. It takes about 30-50 minutes, just play it.
Also keep an eye out on the devs other work, he is one of a kind!

I came for Foddy's insightful and at times touching monologue, but incredibly and against all my expectations, the game quickly stopped being a struggle to the top of the mountain/next audio clip and instead became a meditation on the present moment and each carefully executed movement of my journey. I suspect this game might have just taught me more about dealing with frustration and taking things easy than anything else in my life.

Certainly not for everyone but precious and valuable.

Depth of game mechanics on par with Dwarf Fortress - that alone can provide fun for hours upon hours of playtime.
However, Caves of Qud is set apart from other games like it by virtue of its unique world building, with heavy focus on flavor texts. The writing of this game is something very special and very precious, love and care radiating from every oddly yet carefully chosen word; a feast for the imagination! This is very well complimented by the incredible OST, which has ingrained itself deep into my mind and it's enough to hear the first notes of "A Tasty Dish" to make me feel safe and cozy and at home.
To make things even better, the game has a fantastic modding community.

A must-have for sure!

Refreshing art direction in a time when all games wear the same hyperrealistic drab, well-paced and surprisingly deep progression, engaging combat system with stamina and dodge rolls and, last but not least, wonderful and intricate building system. A blast with friends, a pleasant, meditative challenge on your own - heartily recommended!