Recent reviews by jspsfx

Art : 50/50
Gameplay : 50/50

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Art
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At first the illustrations and paintings in this game appear charmingly amateurish, like well received pieces by a talented but untrained artist on the second page of deviantart. Despite that initial impression there is an obvious touch of polish to them. As you immerse yourself in the game and experience all of the visuals, you find the art has clear direction with a through-line of original style. The designs themselves and the rendering methods behind the illustrations are refined even if they seem to be a veneer to something basic and cartoon-like. Eventually I found the aesthetic both professional in execution and original in style.

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Gameplay
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The tactile mechanics are intuitive and satisfying. The deck-building options are varied, providing a diverse bevy of conceptual routes that can be viable through the whole game. The enemy types are equally diverse and feel original while also being thought provoking and sensible. Playing Slay the Spire is an addictive experience. Like many of the best games its gameplay loop is smooth, satisfying yet challenging at the same time.

The ultimate strength in this game is its devotion to a core theme. If you grew up during the satanic panic, if you are sensitive to the symbolism and ritual of catholic self loathing, if you're familiar with the archetype of the self-flagellating sinner seeking salvation through penitence, or monks denying their body to find enlightenment... Then you may appreciate the theme which drives every element of this game.

The gameplay, combat, puzzles, and mechanics are all well and good. No glaring mistakes, but nothing particularly innovative. It's the singular theme exploring the ugliness and violence of extreme penitence, and how it is supported through visual motifs, character designs, dialogue, world building, etc that make this game compelling.

Even the story itself isn't so much engaging, or even interesting, as it is a peripheral vehicle to drive home how dreadful and demonic regimented self-punishment can be in a religious setting.

Overall I found the experience rather enjoyable. I could see someone finding it all too miserable to engage with. But if you lean into it and embrace the dedication to the theme, the game is rather addictive.

Hollow Knight is the kind of game where after beating the final boss you'll want to wander around the game world collecting secrets and slicing up random enemies because the gameplay feel is that satisfying.

Adore's learning curve feels daunting at first, but once you grasp the core mechanics of the game it will all open up to you. This initial difficulty is in large party due to the novelty of the gameplay itself. The combat and it's mechanical loops were something I had never experienced before. And that was a very welcome experience!

It is refreshing to play something that feels 100% unique. That is a feeling I rarely have in video games anymore.

It's every great video game trend from the last 10 years wrapped into one experience. Skyrim meets Minecraft meets Dark Souls meets... Valheim.

Every session feels like an adventure.

A game exuding charm from every pixel and sound.

The artwork harkens back to oldschool pixel art, but it is refined, distinctly stylistic and extremely detailed. The music and audio is vibrant, immersive, incredibly catchy and addictive because of its emotional resonance. The pacing of the game is superb - there is never a dull moment, progression happens on a smooth curve. The projects you take on seem immense, but altogether manageable and there is plenty of motivation to explore. Each activity is enjoyable and rewarding.

The game never wastes your time, in fact, a huge reason the game works is because it encourages time management and planning ahead. Even if for one day. You dont have to make it a science, its not complicated. It's fun. The game makes productivity compelling and more entertaining than idling by.

You are a hot bead of sweat rapidly carving down the mountainous brow of Satans forehead, ultimately plunging over his metallic eyelid and into the wormhole that is his pupil. There upon you will butcher and decimate your way flowing through a labyrinth of fat steel cathedrals inhabited by hordes of demon spawn all eager to have a dance with you, doom slayer. Equipped with more tools than you can remember to use, you burrow and demolish your way through the body of hell leaving nothing unexamined by your destruction.

10/10

Destiny 2 is a collection of several slightly different gameplay modes each extracting about as much diversity in experience from the core mechanics as possible.

You will quickly find there is a depth of character customization, whether practical or aesthetic, worthy of your interest and investigation. And a vast array of paths to achieve that customization. In general this game is filled with quests upon quests, menus upon submenus - goals, items and options you may not realize were available for tens of hours. Stuff to do at every turn. The game delivers a constant stream of content if you let your mouse wander.

But I must re-emphasize. All of this content is just slightly different in core experience. Over time the novelty of each mode relents and you are left with the core gameplay exposed for what it is. And in my opinion that is fun. There's nothing wrong with that. I won't pretend Destiny 2 is unique in that it's gameplay loops are all navigated by the same core mechanics. When the main hub of this game is all mentally mapped out and youve landed on each world, you will find a pretty streamlined hub for booting up whichever space marine arcade level you're in the mood for looting.

If there were anything negative I took away from this game it's that I only felt half-interested in the story. The game itself doesn't seem worried about that. Granted, there is a lot of optional lore to this game. I respect that the gameplay itself seems to take top priority. But I'm not convinced the story is anything but an obligation the developers are meeting based upon the conventions of big budget game design. To be fair, the writing itself is not poor. There may be plenty of passionate, quality writing behind the lore but it's obfuscated by the games lack of interest in telling that story to the player.

Overall this game is a lot of fun. I recommend it!

If you're playing this right you will flow like a bead of water from enemy to enemy all the way down hell's windshield. This game's smoother than baby cheeks. Mechanics wise and performance wise. Not to mention the hardcore music makes the whole adventure truly, demonically epic. So satisfying to play. 10/10

I enjoyed the little time I was able to explore this game. Compared to Arkham City I noticed better lighting effects, finer texture and graphic details, a more immersive environment with greater architectural scale and a convincingly snowy atmosphere.

I was less impressed by the voice acting. In previous games Thug dialogue was very entertaining in part because the tone sounded genuine. Here it fell flat.

Then there were the glitches and choppy animation quirks. I ran into a number of issues within a very small amount of playing time. Most frequently I would experience interruptions in the flow from brawling to a final finishing move. Finishing a foe that was dazed on the ground would have Batman's character model swiped from one position to the next in a bizarre sliding levitation move. It seems the game would reconcile where it wanted Batman to be for a new animation, and where Batman actually was by just moving his model rapidly into place. Simply put, there are times when there is no animation between the movement A -> B. Usually the effect is quick but it is jarring, just visually wrong.

Aside from the choppy animation, on one occasion I bugged through a railing I wasnt supposed to pass. Luckily I was able to recover.

About 2 hours in I entered a room where two people were fighting off in the distance. The entire environment quickly disappeared leaving only some Thugs cheering and the two people fighting off in the distance on top of a pitch black void. I restarted the game, and when it loaded batman was falling through the void. At a great distance below me I saw there was a tiny little square. I dive bombed toward it, and kept falling for maybe a minute before the tiny square finally grew larger and appeared as a single light blue platform suspended in total emptiness.

Well I missed the platform - didn't quite land on it. And that's how the game will end for me. Restarting from the last checkpoint doesn't work. I see no way to load earlier saves.

TLDR ; Every time I try to play this game I just get Batman falling through an eternal abyss.