Recent reviews by Reenee

As someone who prefers to take their time to explore and be thorough, Path of Exile penalizes me for my play style. The game is designed to regenerate a map instance every 15 minutes if it is left unoccupied for that period of time and this inconvenience made itself apparent when it was required I had to backtrack to an area I had previously fully explored and cleared of its enemies. This is pretty jarring for someone who's played Torchlight and Diablo 2/3 beforehand, which is especially surprising since Diablo 3 doesn't do this despite requiring an internet connection even with having just as much of a player load like Path of Exile's. That, and Diablo 3 came out before PoE.

I also consider it egregious PoE doesn't allow a way to quickly sell off vendor junk. Torchlight solved that problem years ago when it first debuted.

Quality of life goes a long way and this game fails at it in these respects. Thankfully there are other ARPGs out there that respect my time and style so I'm not going to lose sleep over the 22 hours I've put into PoE over the years I've stalled on really investing my time into it.

If you go into these with the mindset that they were designed around the limitations of the PlayStation 1, you should be fine. The Spyro games are gorgeous, kid friendly platformers offering a sort of modest challenge and playing just as they did when they first debuted in the late 90's.

Having said that, there's still some QoL and technical issues. I don't necessarily attribute these to Toys for Bob but beginning with Ripto's Rage, the games start introducing unfair elements and it gets even more frustrating in Year of the Dragon. The infamous Trolley side mission doesn't clearly show what track you're on and where you can switch tracks though that's about the worst of it. YotD is the very obvious offender here by setting you up in races where one mistake is so costly that you may as well just restart; this gets worse with skateboard races where the jank physics comes into play so you'll end up either crashing on tricks when they really shouldn't be or hitting parts of the environment in a way that kills your momentum. It's all problematic trial-and-error stuff where you can have to figure out the nuances so the stupid physics doesn't ruin your attempt.

You may also find it weird that Spyro doesn't gain any new abilities in YotD. Rather, the original devs (Insomniac) opted to introduce new companions. That's fine and all but they're relegated to their own areas (or worse, a brief minigame) and only one time do you get a chance to actually play in Spyro's area as a companion. Even though the levels are made with Spyro in mind, I don't think a simple swapping mechanic would have hurt for the areas the companions could handle.

This last bit is tangentially related but I cannot in good faith recommend purchasing anything published by Activision. The Toys for Bob who made this game has been dissolved and is relegated to the Call of Duty sweatshops. Activision themselves are just a gross company and I encourage you to look up news of their horrid monetization schemes and utter disrespect for their employees. The fact this game was made and avoided having microtransactions is astounding in itself. If you insist on buying Spyro Reignited, shop around for a deep discount.

Absolutely beyond asinine they won't flip the switch to enable the anti-cheat so the game can run on Steam Deck.

A good clone of Picross 3D, with editor and workshop features. Soundtrack is unusually dramatic though despite it being out of place, I actually don't mind it.

Fun Dead Child Simulator 2021

I cannot recommend anyone to play Sonic Lost World. Having played the Adventure duology, Generations, and Colors, the physics in Lost World are outright friggin' busted. And I can't emphasize enough I actually used a mod partway in my playthrough to improve (NOT fix!) those physics and I still found it frustrating.

I personally don't mind the shift in the style of gameplay. What I take issue with is the lack of being able to make fine, minute adjustments and the erratic acceleration/deceleration the game presents. The simplest of maneuvers like jumping on capsules are a chore to perform, inconsistent behavior with homing attacks, and bizarre design decisions like using the dash on certain ice surfaces disabling homing attacks just add on to the mess.

I ultimately made it to Sky Road before finally giving up on the game. Even the few bugs I ran through weren't anywhere near as bad as the controls. Lost World is definitely leagues ahead of the obvious trash like 06 and Forces but it just doesn't handle well.

Some of the music was decent at least.

It's hard.

It's really, really hard. And it's randomly trash at times.

Yet it's still fun, especially if you've played the first.

I'm gonna be honest, I'm doing this for the Steam Awards badge. But from what I've seen from Nothernlion and Vinesauce Vinny playing this, it's a seriously good time. Consider this more of a comment of support than a review.

A kart racer that soundly surpasses Mario Kart and stands near, if not equal to, Crash Team Racing. Thanks to all the kart loadouts, you can pick one set to your preferred driving style while racing through amazing renditions of popular and lesser known Sega franchises. The game runs well and offers challenging difficulty.

A bit of a divisive expansion due to content not seeming as substantial as what was provided in Afterbirth. Still, with all the booster packs provided and the addition of Apollyon and gameplay-changing Forgotten, it's become a worthwhile addition since it was seen as lacking by the community when it first came out.

I'm still playing Isaac after 1,500 hours. Reptentence is on its way and I eagerly look forward to it. AB+ will keep me going in the meantime.