Recent reviews by Saandy

The Talos Principle 2 is simultaneously exciting and frustrating. There are a lot of puzzles, and for puzzle fans there is no need to worry about the game being too easy. There are plenty of difficult puzzles here.
While there are a lot of puzzles, it sure doesn't feel like it while you're playing the game. It seems as though I spend more time talking to NPCs, scrolling the "Social Media page", finding walls of texts and audio files that all communicate much of the same thing. The story is good enough, but the simplicity of the story doesn't justify all of this world-building.

Certain puzzles have fail-states where you've locked yourself out of the solution but the game never teaches you that holding 'X' will reload the save-file. It's a nice feature but before I accidentally stumbled upon it, I had to go into the menu to manually reload my save-file which took me out of the experience.

Ultimately, I recommend this game for players who crave a hefty puzzle game, but just know you're not alone if the story feels very secondary.

If you like The Witness you'll like this.
Taiji is a great game worth you time, but it is difficult not to compare it to The Witness since it was obviously heavily inspired by that game. For instance, the tutorialization puzzles were sometimes harder to find compared to The Witness. I believe that this style of game works fundamentally better as a 3D game, since a 3D view gives you a greater sense of space which in turn makes it easier for the developer to point to areas of interest for the player.
In The Witness it is easy to see other puzzle areas just by turning the camera in any direction. Taiji's top-down camera made me feel less inclined to leave a puzzle unfinished, since it wasn't as obvious where I would go instead.

I enjoyed most of the puzzle mechanics once I understood how they worked, but there was one mechanic that I never wrapped my head around even after reluctantly looking up the exact rules: the flower petals. On paper I believe this puzzle is a good idea, but I think it is just a bit too convoluted to be fun. I could never see the solution in-front of me before solving it. There was a disconnect between the colors of the petals and the color of the tiles. In caution of not making the mechanic too easy, i would play around with making the flower petals dynamically change in color depending on the amount of neighboring white tiles, with the goal of making the flower single-colored.

In the end, the worst part was that the game ended so soon. The world needs more games like this.

Overwatch 2 gets a lot of hate, but a lot of it is in my opinion undeserved.
The Overwatch 2 team is one of the best teams when it comes to listening to the players and implementing regular balance patches that keeps the game fresh. There's a lot of fun to be had here.

Shadows of Doubt is a very unique game that captures the feeling of being a private detective in a sprawling city excellently. The procedurally generated cities are full of detail and living people going about their day. It is all yours to use as you please, in the purpose of solving your cases.

It is not often that I find myself a part of a game to this extent, and I feel like I have only scratched the surface. The game doesn't hand-hold you through anything, and it is solely your job to connect the puzzle pieces and to find the logical connections from your collected evidence. I do not wish to spoil any more aspects of the game, but I only want to say that you will need to use the money you gain from your cases to support future cases, and to keep yourself healthy and with a roof above your head.

If you're thinking of playing this you probably already know what you're getting yourself into. Yes, there are plenty of obscure puzzles and it's nice to have a walk-through ready when you get stuck.

You shouldn't feel too ashamed for looking up solutions to puzzles since this game was very much made in a time where people would spend weeks trying to figure it out (and they would be happy to do so). I personally wouldn't be happy for it to take up that kind of time from my life when the answer is easy to find online.
It was worth playing through nonetheless for the charm of the setting and characters, interesting developer commentary and cool time-travel shenanigans.

I have awaited this game for a over a decade, and I wasn't disappointed. Quite an achievement.

Choo-Choo Charles is a wonderful game with a great atmosphere and story. The train mechanic is something I wish we could see in more games, as moving bases are a generally cool concept. The only other game I know of to do this is Assassin's Creed: Syndicate which uses a train as a warp point and as a place to upgrade your character. This game takes it to the next level however, as the entire game revolves around the train and you don't feel safe whenever you leave it to explore the map. You don't have any weapons on your person, and the only way to attack enemies and Charles is to use the gun on your train.

I remember seeing devlog videos of this game like a year ago, and the train monster caught my eye from the beginning. It's just such a unique thing and it's hard to forget it once you see it.
Now after playing I can say that this entire game is memorable, and I'm glad I played it!

For people who want more of The Witness, this is good for a laugh.

FUN

This game is really unique. It's super easy to embody the playable character as you learn things about the world alongside him. This universe is rich in atmosphere and lore, making it easy to find the urge to explore new places. It's difficult to stop playing at times.

The main game and the DLC are definitely unique from one another, but both hold the fundamental game design principles that the developers so masterfully realized with this game. You don't level up your character and there are no physical checkpoints. The only thing that furthers the game and its plot, is the knowledge you gain from exploring new places and finding secrets.

Finishing this game doesn't leave me with a feeling of contentment. I am craving more already the day after beating the DLC. The journey is the good part, and you can sadly only go on that journey once. The end goal is nothing but a motivating factor. It's a shame it didn't go on for longer.