Recent reviews by EvilGoodGuy

As someone who never played the original, but played most of the famous games from that era, I'd say it's alright.
Not terrible, but not great. If you enjoy oldschool games from the 90's I'd say you should at least pick it up on a sale.

It's kinda like a watered down Deus Ex and mega watered down Prey (which makes sense since Prey is a spiritual successor to System Shock).

The combat is extremely basic. Most enemies only move slowly in a straight line, and some don't move at all. So you can just cheese it by standing near a wall corner and using the lean ability to peak the corner to shoot at them between their predictable fire patterns.
The final boss fight is also extremely simple and easy, which felt kinda lame.

The guns are really great though! Everything either has alternate ammo types or secondary attack functions; and some even have 3 different attack functions. They all have upgrades you can find as well to improve their stats.
The guns all feel great to use and even though the enemy AI is pretty lame, killing them is very visually satisfying, especially when you get headshots and their brains splatter like giant eggs full of red goo.

The game doesn't hold your hand at all, which I love in a way, because too many modern games hold your hand too much. Granted at times I feel there could have been a few ways to subtly improve player awareness of the objective that they missed out on. If you don't listen to and read all the logs carefully, you will absolutely not be able to proceed and be wandering around for hours accomplishing nothing.

The graphics are fine. They went with a sort of semi-pixelated art style to try and emulate the oldschool aesthetic from the original. It's not gonna be everyones cup of tea. I definitely would have preferred a more sleek modern aesthetic, but I don't mind what they went with.
Things look modern from far away and pixelated up close.

The cyberspace gameplay, which is a 6 Degrees of Freedom shooter gameplay, felt like it could have been fleshed out way better. I always felt like I wanted to hit SHIFT to boost, but there is no boost. There are only 2 weapons in cyberspace and 2 other item pickups.
You also can't quicksave in cyberspace portions, which felt really weird. If the cyberspace gameplay was more fun I wouldn't mind this as much. Feels like a missed opportunity to make something special.

The map layouts are fairly extensive and confusing. Each of the levels has a slightly different theme than the others, but almost all of the levels have a repetitive visual theme throughout, which makes it hard to navigate since all the rooms essentially look the same. You'll need to use your map constantly.
The map generation could also be improved a bit. Some walls are not drawn on the map properly when you explore, which can lead to red herring situations when you are trying to find where to go and spot a place on the map that looks like it could be a door or hallway you haven't explored, but it's really just because the map didn't draw the wall properly.
There are lots of secret doors and rooms like you'd expect from oldschool games, that you can access to get extra items.

You can manual save whenever you want (except in cyberspace). There are also autosaves at various points like when you use an elevator or a medbay. There are also respawn points that you can unlock in the levels, although this mechanic feels useless, as you respawn with no penalty whatsoever as far as I can tell. I only let myself respawn once the entire game. Every other time I died I just chose to quickload instead. Feels like they didn't think this through.

The game has a recycling mechanic, where you can recycle junk you find in the world and bring back to a recycle station in exchange for credits. It's a neat concept, but it's executed quite poorly. The recycle station has EXTREMELY limited space, so you are forced to waste more time at the recycler, doing tons of recycler loads, when you should just be able to do 1 or 2.
You can choose to bring items back to the reycler for credits, or break them down into small pieces of vaporized chunks to save on inventory space so that you don't need to make as many trips. This lowers the value of the items though, and no junk items stack in your inventory, which feels weird since you can stack other large items, like medkits for example.
So the game feels a bit like it's trying to force you to pad the gameplay time by getting you to make more trips to the recycle station than you really need to.

Inventory space is quite limited and the 2 upgrades only unlock 1 extra inventory line in total. I wish there would have been a 3rd upgrade to add an additional line.
There is a cargo lift that goes between the levels where you can store items, but it is EXTREMELY limited in space for no good reason as far as I can tell. This forces you to just drop guns and items on the floor or store them in crates on various levels, which forces you to backtrack and pad the gameplay time. The cargo lift storage should be doubled in my opinion. It's especially goofy because physically speaking, the cargo lift is visually large, but the storage slots for it are extremely few. So it just feels wrong.

There are 2 kinds of puzzles you'll find in the game, which have tons of different "variations". They are all randomized with each playthrough, so you can't just cheat and look up the solution. They are pretty straightforward and simple for the most part. If you're not a puzzle person, you can set the puzzle difficulty at the start of the game, or skip a puzzle with an in-game item.
With that said, the very first puzzle I encountered in the game was unsolvable, despite people online trying to gaslight you into thinking the game can't glitch out and create an unsolvable puzzle. In this instance I simply restarted the game and solved the newly generated puzzle with no issue and the rest throughout the game were a breeze on medium puzzle difficulty.

The story is really nice and simple and there's a ton of text and audio logs that are enjoyable.
The ending wasn't as satisfying as I was hoping, but the journey was great.


I know I mentioned a lot of negatives, but all in all I enjoyed the game. It's just one of those games that has a ton of potential that it didn't quite reach. So naturally you focus on all the ways it could have been amazing, because you enjoyed it and wanted it to be as good as it could have been.


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Edit on April 4th, 2024

Looks like a new update just dropped for the game, which increased the amount of recycler slots, made the final boss fight more interesting, and improved the general AI movement.

Guess I should have waited a couple weeks before doing my playthrough lol

You can read about the update changes here:
https://steamoss.com/steamstore/news/app/482400/view/4104540932632136261

It feels, looks, and sounds like a game straight out of the late 90's and I loved it for that.

It's a narrative-heavy horror game that moves you quickly from one puzzle/mystery to the next, using quest items you find and acquire along the way.
You play the role of a detective in a distant dystopian future, who gets wrapped up in an inter-dimensional cult conspiracy while investigating a murder.

The game uses a 3rd person camera, but also mixes in a first person aiming/shooting mode which makes it feel quite unique. The first person mode also can help you navigate the environment and locate collectibles and interactive items.

There's a lot of text to read, but unlike a lot of games, I didn't mind reading it and didn't get bored.
The game is mostly linear, with a little bit of player option about the sequence of events that can be taken at certain points.
There's very little hand holding when it comes to the solution/order of events needed to solve a puzzle and progress, which is actually something I liked.

In terms of combat the game is extremely easy for any half-competent player. If you loot environments properly you'll have way more ammo and medical supplies than you could ever dream of using. Enemies also die rather easily.
Your flashlight has infinite battery and you have no stamina bar so you can sprint as much as you want.

If you enjoy retro horror games with a narrative driven story that focuses on using your brain to put clues together to advance the story then I think you'll find this a relaxing and enjoyable game.

At the time of writing this I played the early access version of the game which is restricted to part one of the game.
You can check out a (2 part) livestream I did here: https://www.youtube.com/live/wwsvJp1XcOg?si=StlfPj2AWfXml1ed

Riftbreaker is a fantastic mix of the Action RPG, Tower Defense, and Survival genres, while also having strong elements of resource management and a base-building RTS that make me feel at times like I'm playing Starcraft or Command and Conquer.

There's an in-depth looting, crafting, and leveling system that has an extensive skill tree for you to research and unlock as you progress through the game.

There's a TON of weapons, ranging from machine guns to nuke launchers, and from laser swords to flame/acid throwers.
You can mix and match any 2 weapons at a time to play the game however you see fit.
Likewise, the selection of base defenses is also very extensive.

The story is decent and the gameplay is excellent. It took me around 50 hours to leisurely complete the story campaign with all the DLCs. Once you're done with the story you can play survival mode to challenge yourself.

Tip: I recommend playing the story on at least Hard mode the first time around. On Normal difficulty the game is a challenge for the first 25% of it, but then you'll be coasting through the rest like an unstoppable murder machine if you are a competent video game player.

The visuals are vibrant and great to look at. The game takes place on a large alien planet with lots of diverse locations that you travel to. Some locations look like Pandora from Avatar, others are covered in lava, snow, toxic acid, etc, etc.

As with every other aspect of the game the enemy selection is very diverse and are well designed.

I did experience a few bugs during my playthrough which were a bit frustrating at times, but I believe most of them were fixed by the devs since then, who are clearly passionate about updating and improving the game.
The only bug which has yet to be fixed for me, is ironically a game-breaking one that prevents me from performing the final wave defense at the very end of the game. Bit of a big bummer, but it seems like I'm the only one with the bug. So I wouldn't expect to get it if I were you.

Anyway, this review is already really long and I could keep going on about how great this game is, but I'll just end it saying you should definitely pick this up.
This game deserves a lot more attention and recognition.

Probably my all-time favorite platformer!
It's the Doom Eternal of Platformers, basically.

The music is heart-pumpingly excellent, the dialogue/lore is cheesy that gives me Portal 2 vibes, the environments are simple but distinctively pleasing to look at, and the game has a very nice introduction to each of the creative game mechanics (which there are a lot of).

The difficulty has a nice escalation, with the first few worlds being quite easy and then ramping up from there.
If you enjoy platformers that offer a satisfying challenge then you'll love this one.

There are also multiple ways to finish the levels. You can choose to follow the designated path or be adventurous and creative to find an off-trail path to the end goal.

Even in its early access state this game is a lot of fun and I can't wait for the final release.

Tip: if you are having trouble with some of the later levels, try going into the options and lowering the field of view down to 90. This helped me a LOT in some of the later levels where you need to accurately dodge moving objects at a very fast speed.

GET THIS ON SALE!
Don't get me wrong, this new DLC was visually great, immersive, and was fun... but it is certainly NOT worth $15.

$7 or $8 would have been much more reasonable, although to be honest I didn't expect it to be paid in the first place.

You get 3 new maps to play, with new enemies, and environmental hazards, which can be completed in less than an hour and half.
It is a fairly easy campaign on the standard difficulty setting for veteran players, and you should be able to complete it just fine by yourself.

The Prestige experience levels are a total let down, because they only reward you with cosmetics, which I personally do not care about at all.
I was really hoping they would allow you to unlock more Perk slots and ramp up the difficulty in the new missions to account for that; especially considering there are some cool new modifiers.

I really want to support this game because I want more DLC and more replayability, but they need to make their pricing reasonable.
If they keep updating the game so that levels are a bit less linear/repetitive, and open it up for levels to have larger branching paths or dynamic events, then i'd probably not be quite as let down with this pricing.

They tease more DLC at the end of this, but if they make that paid then I think it's gonna be a huge mistake. They need to just make the next campaign DLC unlock for free if you purchased this one.

Anyways, as I said at the top, it's a lot of fun, just make sure to wait for a sale.

It's a fun little indie game that is basically on par with a lot of free flash games that you can play on your browser.

Let's be real, the main selling point is the humorous satirical theme of the insane Leftist political stances in our current times... in particular, the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and all that jazz.

There really isn't anything new or innovative or deep here. Just fun old-school repetitive nonsense.

With that being said, the game really does need a few things. For starters, there needs to be an options menu, especially an option to adjust volume. Currently there is none to speak of and the game is VERY loud.

It could also really do with some better controls, a skill tree of some kind, and more varied, larger environments.

I've only played to level 11 so far, so I haven't experienced all there is to yet, but I can tell it's gonna get old really fast.

I don't mind spending the $5 on it because the humorous theme is entertaining and I like to support artists that are willing to be brave and go against the grain of insane Leftist ideology.
I wouldn't personally recommend paying for this if it's not on sale.

Hopefully they will take the money they earn and continue to update the game with new features to make it truly worthy of its price tag in its own right despite the theme.

Very short, but fun. If you enjoy the base game, I'd recommend picking this up.
With that being said, I don't think it's worth $15.
$7 would be more reasonable. so i highly recommend waiting for a sale, since it doesn't really have anything story-critical that you need to know.

-It's about 2 hours of content and is much easier than the base game, so you'll most likely breeze through it
-Has really great music (as expected)
-2 very nice boss fights
-You have some small changes to movement and your abilities
-Additional backstory for the HEL project and lore about Jack and the Climbers
-A couple new enemy types
-Introduces some nice new puzzle mechanics
-No Hardcore mode, sadly

A casual RTS indie game that is fairly reminiscent of the game Bad North.

Despite having very casual and basic controls it pleasantly offers a bit of a challenge at times during the main campaign.
For those that want more of a challenge than normal, there are "Expert" missions available after the main campaign which ramp up the difficulty by a large margin.

The game can be a bit rough around the edges at times, but it runs smoothly, is pleasant to look at, and has enjoyable music and sound design.

The gameplay is easy to pick up and learn and new units are presented often enough to keep the gameplay fresh and provide the player with various strategies to victory.

The developer of the game is very friendly and open to constructive criticism/suggestions to improve the game and is quick to fix bugs and other various problems.

The primary "rough around the edges" points at this time of review are that sometimes the visibility can be a bit poor, due to the heavy use use of post-processing visual effects and the dense fog when you are zoomed out all the way (which you will be most of the time).
With that being said, it didn't ruin my gameplay experience at all. Just potential areas for slight improvement.

I'm an oldschool RTS gamer who has been playing RTS since the 90's and I managed to get a solid 3 hours from the main campaign and it appears I'll get another 3-5 hours from the Expert missions.
So if you're new to RTS you'll probably be able to squeeze even more than that out of the game; especially if you plan to replay the campaign and experiment with different strategies to win.

If you're on the fence about it, i'd say it's definitely worth it to at least Wishlist the game and wait for a sale.

If you want to see some gameplay of an early build of the game, you can view a Lets Play I did for the game: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr_flXTmUgvc8lK1uOMc0QzJ0OaTp2VvF

PositronX is a FPS roguelite that has a fast paced oldschool shoot-em-up feeling, while mixing in modern day progression systems, abilities, and a wide range of weapons that all have unique alternate fire modes.

The game starts out really difficult, but as you play you will unlock new characters with new abilities, new weapons, and learn more about the different kinds of abilities in the game that all make the game much easier.
Each time you play a session your base character gets more powerful, whether you win or lose, and you learn more about the game and which weapons and abilities suit your playstyle.

This game really requires you to play a handful of sessions before it starts to really shine. Once you figure out your favorite character, favorite guns, and which abilities are worth investing in the game will gradually go from challenging, to a butter smooth experience of you running and jumping around like the energizer bunny while unloading wrath upon the swarms of enemies that dare cross your path.

Every session allows you to earn points from challenges and kills, which you can then use to purchase upgrades for your chosen abilities and weapons. There is also a reward system in place for doing randomized challenges and for completing boss stages within a certain time limit.
There is also a secret room in each stage that offers great rewards.

Each "stage" of the game gets progressively harder and introduces new enemy types, larger enemy groups, and slightly varied environments - most of which are all underground and boxed-in environments.

Each boss has one or two unique abilities, but for the most part they are just larger and more tanky versions of the toughest enemy from each stage; although there are multiple possible bosses that you can encounter on each stage. So you might not fight the same boss each time you play a session.

I have encountered a few bugs here and there - mostly limited to the final stage of the game which involved out-of-bounds areas of the maps existing where enemies would get trapped (and be unkillable unless you had an ability that allowed you to get out of bounds without dying); and where you could actually travel to and fall out of the world into the endless black void.

Most of what the game has to offer is very positive and enjoyable!

I'd say the only 3 things that I think could be improved upon are:
1) Bosses could be a bit more unique and require some sort of environmental interaction to complete. Or at the least make the arenas a bit more interesting, rather than the usual small, 1 level, box room environment.
The final boss in particular was too easy and basically just spammed enemies non-stop, which was not an issue at all because by the time you reach end-game you are already mega powerful.
2) Some of the environments could use a bit more detailing or better pathways for player movement. Stage 3 for example relies heavily on your jump ability to even get up and out of certain large rooms. But if you've tailored your character and abilities to a slow and tanky build then it can be rather tedious just to move around or get out of an area after you have cleared it.
3) The game is a bit too dark in some areas and visibility in general sometimes seems like a chore or a replacement for difficulty. I really can't imagine playing this with the default brightness setting, especially on the final stage. Even with my brightness being jacked way up, the final stage was almost completely pitch black in many rooms. Combine that with the post processing effect layered over it (similar to chromatic aberration) that the final stage has, it made everything a bit hard to look at.

All in all I definitely recommend PositronX if you enjoy repetitive fast-paced shooters that offer a ton of customization and freedom to play in your preferred style.

Lab 7 is a fun 2D zombie survival action rogue-lite which relies on player exploration and resource management in order to succeed.
The goal is to escape a zombie infested underground research lab by repairing electrical conduits on each floor in order to to access each new floor above, via the elevator, until you reach the top. While doing so you explore the mysterious facility, unlock weapons, unlock defensive turrets, discover new items, and discover the lore surrounding the facility.

The game can make you a bit nervous at first because everything is thrown at you all at once right from the start.
The (sole) developer of the game was kind enough to make a short youtube video describing the basics, which he links in the main menu; as well as provides a in-game poster right near the start that you can read which explains the basic mechanics.

I only read the in-game poster and it took me about an hour to get the hang of everything and about 4 hours to beat the game on Easy difficulty. Normal took me about 4 hours as well.
There are quite a few "secrets", optional areas to explore, and special activities to complete which will keep you busy for at least a few complete runs through the game.

Main game mechanics:
-Day/Night cycle. The zombie horde appears every midnight and grows in strength with each passing day.
-Resource Management in the form of electrical power used to operate parts of the facility (doors, lights, elevator)
-Ability to upgrade weapons
-Ability to upgrade character
-Ability to upgrade defenses (turrets and barricades)
-Currency (coins) that are mostly earned by killing zombies, which is used to purchase all upgrades and unlock special items
-Ability to level up weapons for extra damage (weapon levels carry over between deaths)
-Exploration to find keycards, items that improve your stats, items to use for puzzles, etc

All in all it's a very simple, but very fun game. The gameplay is quite addicting and even though there is not a ton of variety with the music, it's all very enjoyable.

This game deserves a lot more recognition for what it is.
Hopefully if it gets more popular the developer can keep improving and adding onto it. It's a good game right now, but it could definitely be a great game if expanded and paced out a bit more.