November 23, 2023 - Day 327 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 346

Game: Soundfall

Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 12, 2022
Installation Date: Nov 11, 2023
Unplayed: 12d
Playtime: 16m

Soundfall is part rhythm-based top-down dungeon-crawler, part looter-shooter.

So far, one level in, this musical odyssey feels like a dungeon-crawler in name only. So far the dungeons are brightly-coloured floating islands, adorned with equalizer level bars rising and falling in time with the ear-wormish pop soundtrack.

Existing in a third space between Hi-Fi Rush and Metal Hellsinger, this is an interesting take on a rhythm game, and the only reason I'm writing a review instead of continuing to play is that it's been a tough day, and I can barely keep my eyes open.

The only issue I have with the game is that in spite of having previously needed to calibrate my video and audio latency for other rhythm games, the calibration tool in Soundfall insists my calibration requirements for both are 0ms.

I think it's this that left me feeling like I was constantly slightly off-beat, just enough that it didn't feel quite right.

Even so, Soundfall is already fun, and I'll happily say it's:

4: Good

August 22, 2023 - Day 234 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 254

Game: Desktop Dungeons Enhanced Edition

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Apr 19, 2023
Library Date: Apr 18, 2023
Unplayed: 126d (4m4d)
Playtime: 32m

Desktop Dungeons Enhanced Edition is an updated version of Desktop Dungeons (Nov 7, 2013). I'm not exactly sure what makes it "Enhanced", but it was given away free earlier in the year, and if you owned this, you got the sequel "Desktop Dungeons: Rewind" for free, which seemed like a deal that was too good to be true.

Desktop Dungeons is a top-down bitmap pixel-art roguelike dungeon crawler puzzle game.

It's also a great example of a game where the gameplay overcomes my dislike of pixel-art games.

In one sense, it's a pretty standard dungeon crawler. Explore the dungeon, attack mobs.

However, each square you uncover goes towards refilling your health and mana. You need to explore the fog of war to find mobs, but if you clear the fog of war and then try and kill the mobs, you're gonna have a bad time.

It took me a few goes to get through the first level, but by the time I did, I was hooked.

Between dungeons there's some resource management and basic city-building going on, but the game is designed to be played in short chunks.

Desktop Dungeons Enhanced Edition is:

4: Good

July 14, 2023 - Day 195 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 215

Game: Going Under

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 24, 2020
Library Date: Dec 25, 2022
Unplayed: 201d (6m19d)
Playtime: 82m

Going Under is a roguelite dungeon crawler set in a late-stage capitalist hellscape and I am absolutely here for it.

I got almost 4 hours sleep on Thursday night, and woke up feeling pretty ragged.

When I got home from work I was down to one cylinder, and went grocery shopping, then came home ready to crash.

I figured I could knock 15 minutes of a game out and then write the review today.

Almost an hour and a half later I dragged myself to bed.

Dungeon crawlers are traditionally darkly-lit demon-infested horror-crawls, not brightly-lit, cartoonish, horror-crawls. The horror in Going Under comes from the biting satire of late-stage tech-startup capitalism in a VC-funded world, with nods to anyone who's worked in a knowledge worker / IT-related role.

The game starts with your first day as an -unpaid- intern (because of course it does), watching an introductory video about your new workplace, a recently acquired subsidiary ("Fizzer") of a multi-national conglomerate ("Cubicle").

You've been assigned to Fizzer by the company's AI (of course), and just as the video gets to the explanation of why no Cubicle employee should never enter the dungeons underneath the Fizzer office, your Project Manager boss assigns you to enter the dungeons underneath the Fizzer office to kill the "monsters" that are invading.

The dungeons themselves, and the monsters, are previously acquired start-ups, with names like "Joblin" (a gig worker app), and "Winkydink" (a dating app).

Between the roguelite elements and the quests to build up rep with your "mentors", Going Under really nails that "just one more run" feel.

Going Under is:

5: Excellent

June 8, 2023 - Day 159 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 176

Game: Curse of the Dead Gods

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 24, 2021
Library Date: Jun 7, 2023
Unplayed: 1d (1d)
Playtime: 28m

Curse of the Dead Gods is a roguelike isometric dungeon crawler.

This is the second of the five previously unowned games from the June 2023 Humble Choice Bundle.

I like dungeon crawlers when I'm in the mood, but roguelikes are not my go-to style of game.

As an intrepid dungeon raider, you seek fame and fortune, and you're almost immediately cursed as you enter the temple. Smash things, pick up gold, kill mobs.

Weapon upgrades, spiky floors, strange gods. I feel like I've played this before...?

Wait up. It's Hades with a warmer colour palette, and less dialogue.

That's not to say it's a bad game. If you like gameplay of Hades, you might like this. If you like the storyline & wit, maybe less so.

It's a good looking game, but left me wondering when I'd choose to play this over Hades.

Curse of the Dead Gods is:

3: OK

Apr 18, 2023 - Day 108 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 117

Game: Wizard of Legend

Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: May 16, 2018
Library Date: Dec 29, 2018
Unplayed: 1571d (4y3m20d)
Playtime: 22m

Wizard of Legend is a top-down pixel art roguelike dungeon crawler, and if you've been reading my reviews, none of that bodes well.

The game starts out in a museum that talks about a bunch of wizard arcana and wizards, that's effectively a tutorial level, which I assume was kitted out with a bunch of NPCs who were named after people that crowdfunded the game or something, but there's nothing that says whether you should speak to them or not.

Lots of things to read that do nothing except provide flavour text.

I probably spent close to 15 minutes just getting through that section, and most of it felt like wasted time.

Then I got into the game proper, and it was definitely wasted time.

Apparently a lot of people like this game. I am not one of them; Wizard of Legend was definitely not my book of arcana. It was just:

2: Meh