Recent reviews by Dial-up brain

TL/DR
100% fanservice. I'm a fan, I feel serviced, I'm happy.

THE DETAILS
Wow. Wow, wow, wow, talk about doing your homework. Techland took DL2, took the criticisms it faced, and used it as a foundation to create a much more vibrant, thoughtful and satisfying world.

How DLTB addresses the criticisms of DL2

Criticism 1:
The world of Dying Light 2 was, well, dead. No pun intended: the automatically generated maps featured clusters of similar buildings with identical rooms, making the world truly lifeless and unremarkable. To this day, if you drop me off in the middle of Villedor and tell me to find my way to a certain location, I will be hopelessly lost unless I get a map.

What changed:
Castor Woods is a lovingly crafted valley with a little town, a rich neighbourhood, an industrial area, and farmland. The houses are mostly unique: sure, the layouts of the apartments can be similar, but the idiosyncrasies of their former inhabitants shine through. There is an apartment with a pack of cigarettes hidden on top of the wardrobe - you can easily imagine a parent hiding it up there from their child. Some of the apartments have decals on the toilet lids, and I found that little detail so endearing: I can practically see someone on the design team remembering their grandma's apartment and adding that little touch of personality to a mundane object.

Criticism 2:
While the gameplay loop of DL2 was designed in a way that encouraged exploration in order to level up, some players felt that needing to collect hundreds of rare zombie heads to level up their blueprints was a bit too tedious and grindy

What changed:
Players still need to explore the map and get into restricted areas in order to get the parts needed to level up their blueprints, but the amount of work needed was massively cut: all blueprints now only have 4 levels, and leveling them requires collecting "Old World Manuals", which are a guaranteed spawn in dark zones, making the process much less frustrating.

Criticism 3:
I'm not sure if this criticism was widespread in the community, but it was a massive pet peeve of mine: while the DL2 map showed "forsaken stores" that one could loot, it didn't mark which store was which. Good luck remembering which one of them's a pharmacy (best place for looting oxidizers) on a lackluster map, have fun visiting each one to find them.

What changed:
The maps now show store types (and the type of loot most characteristic for each). Thank you, Techland! I can now go directly to the stores I need instead of wasting my time swinging by every store in town!

Criticism 4:
A lot of fans felt that DL2 strayed too far from the "horror" elements of "survivor horror". When the game first released, there weren't even any Volatiles in the streets - they were only summoned by screamers, who could easily be taken out with a headshot from a bow, making nocturnal gameplay a stroll in the park - literally. This was soon changed, but Volatiles in DL2 are still nowhere near the apex predators they once were.

What changed:
You want horror? F U, here horror. Nights are now absolutely pitch black: you literally can't see a thing without a flashlight. But the light attracts Volatiles, who are incredibly fast and extremely tanky. Oh, and you can no longer craft UV flares - you can only loot them. Good night and good luck. Personally, I don't find the new nights enjoyable - I find not being able to see where I'm going more annoying than anything, and I feel that crafting costs for certain items need to be adjusted to make distractions more accessible, since the nocturnal gameplay loop is now more a lot more evasion than combat-focused, but different strokes for different folks.

Criticism 5:
Some players wanted to see more night hunter-like powers within the core gameplay rather than just in boss fights.

What changed:
Techland listened and introduced Beast Mode (franchise-specific Fury Mode from Dead Island with some local spice).

What else

Story and structure
It's a Dying Light Game by Techland. What are you expecting, Mark Twain? It's fine. It's serviceable. It even has some elegant moments, but mostly it's, well, Dying Light: clumsy, but earnest.

Secondary content
DL2 introduced murals as collectibles, which both fleshed out the world and gave a fun reward for exploring. Techland went absolutely ham in DLTB: murals, statues of beavers (the mascot of Castor Woods and one of the things Poland is known for in internet culture), podcast recordings, audio diaries - all serving to bring the picturesque little valley to life and enrich your experience. Does it feel like the trees are whispering? It's more than a feeling. Additionally, Techland introduced "treasure hunting": throughout the game you find sketches of locations that had not yet been looted drawn by other survivors. Find the places in the pictures, find your way in, and to the victor go the spoils.


Overall
This may just be my age talking, but I ended up playing this game more like Death Stranding than like Dying Light. I rarely drive, I mainly take slow walks taking in the scenery (and searching for "groves"). It's easy to imagine Kyle starting a new happy life in Castor Woods, gradually cleaning it out, fostering a thriving community, and healing from his trauma. Farming management X Meditation sim DLC when?

BOBER ♥♥♥♥♥!

Simple, straightforward little horror with jumpscares. Very solid, considering it's from a solo independent dev (if I've understood correctly). The sound is the best part: highly recommend playing with headphones. Some pacing issues, but that is forgivable given how short the whole thing is. In and out in one evening, basically like watching a horror movie - but with greater immersion.


Only flaw: can't pet the kitties >:c
However, judging by the achievements, you can feed them (which I didn't realize), so the dev gets a pass on that -_-

I normally write massive structured essays to share my opinion of a game, but "I'm tired, boss", so this will have to do.

I want to like this game, I really do. The core premise is right up my alley - but the gameplay itself is just so damn tedious. I played it to scratch the itch left by Dysmantle. And while fundamentally I am Future is very similar - there are several misses in gameplay design that make it irritating rather than satisfying, from constantly running from one end of a perpetually expanding territory broken up by loading screens (elevators) to another, to one object requiring different items to construct depending on where you are on the map, just to make things more "challenging"; from a blueprint that "connects all your storage chests in a single network" - but leaves out the storage areas for large building materials and the ones associated with workshops, to access to areas one can explore and loot with a drone being limited both by the drone's battery AND the day of the week. Ah, yes, a park that keeps business hours in the post-apocalypse. Sounds like the company where a friend of mine works.

As you can see, I sunk 24 hours into this game. It DID suck me in at first, I'll give it that. But while running to my workbench for the umpteenth time because I was missing one lousy microchip and that is the only place you can craft it, I simply stopped, said "I don't want to do this anymore", closed and uninstalled.

If you want a mindless post-apocalypse crafting game - skip this and play "Dysmantle". It has its flaws, and some major QOL is paywalled behid the DLCs, but it's definitely nowhere as irritating as this.
If you want a cozy crafting game with some brains to it, the publisher who released this game (TinyBuild) also released "Graveyard Keeper". Which, to be fair, also involves a lot of running back and forth, and key NPCs can only be approached on one day of the week, but automation is much simpler, and, once you unlock the speed potion, you'll just be zooming around the map.

The ability to put a moustache and cat ears on a robot is nice, though, thumbs up for that.

Yes and no.

Pros:

1) it's a solid background game, as in it's simple and meditative enough that you can play it while listening to a book or podcast you want to actually pay attention to (finally clearing up those 5000 "Watch Later" videos accumulated on YT)
2) diggy diggy hole
3) 3 euros for 8 hours of chill gameplay is objectively a steal (I excavated the entire pit, bar a few boulders I left as insurance)

Cons:
1) I maxed out my upgrades not even halfway down the hole, so there were no milestones left until I reached the bottom, which left me feeling a little demotivated - but this is subjective
2) I was puzzled by having only unlocked 2 achievements out of 10 after excavating the whole thing and completing the game - but then the game told me that the rest of the achievements are unlockable in NG+ challenges which reset your pristine hole. I JUST cleaned it out, tf you mean it's packed again? Might as well rename it to "Bottom simulator"

I'd recommend this game to people with a massive backlog (of podcasts) who've completed everything in Powerwash Simulator and need something mindless to play until a new DLC drops.

TL/DR

A more grounded Viscera Cleanup Detail with a plot, a wide variety of tools, and a sense of humour. Currently feels half-baked, but what they already have is a solid gameplay loop for players who enjoy this type of game. I hope the devs will keep building on what they already have to make the experience more fun and fulfilling.


GAMEPLAY

Basically Viscera, but with less sci-fi, more diverse tools, and mechanics that, in some places, tone down Viscera's crazy MO, but, in others, miss opportunities that one would expect to see in a game like this.

Example: in Viscera, you spawn endless buckets of water and dispose of the dirty water by burning the whole bucket (or spilling it and burning just the bucket, spawning another bucket to mop up the spill). In CSC, you have one bucket which you refill as needed at taps, with the dirty water simply disappearing. Where does it go? Nobody knows, but a former cop mate told us that if you try to flush blood down the drain, it's gonna stay there for a while. Just an FYI. Yes, this is a cherrypick, but this sort of half-baked state permeates the game throughout. Why are we not getting rid of the bodies? We can pet the dog - which is a massive, massive positive - but we can't feed him or refill his water, leaving him with empty bowls every time we go to work. PUT SOME FOOD AND WATER IN DEXTER'S BOWLS, FOR THE LOVE OF DOG.

Where this game really shines is in the puzzles. While the levels start off simple with fairly obvious "secret locations", they get more complex and demanding, from obscure hidden panels to figuring out which room of an art gallery a misplaced piece is from.


STORY

Simple premise: you are Stanley Kowalski, a janitor who goes to help your dead friend's not-so-bright son out of a pickle, only to stumble onto a crime scene, which you promptly take care of. This attracts the attention of a local mob boss, who starts using your services himself and giving your contacts to his associates. You are handsomely rewarded for your work, which allows you to pay your bills, your sick daughter's hospital fees, and transform the messy bachelor hovel you live in into a neat, trendy home with a full fridge (you don't make any home improvement decisions - Stanley does it all himself off-screen). The story ends.... It simply ends. It's building up, the easter eggs are getting increasingly insidious, you're expecting a climax - and then it just pulls a Grandpa Simpson and walks right back out of your life without so much as a "boo" in your direction. I'm gonna go ahead and assume that this is just the unfortunate result of the devs rushing to put this out, and future updates will fix this.


MUSIC

Throughout the game you collect audio cassettes with music the people whose corpses you're removing were listening to at the time of death. This will definitely evoke a warm fuzzy feeling in millenials, as long as you don't stop and think about why cassettes and what are they even being played on. There seems to be quite a variety of tracks that you can then choose from on your tablet as you play, from Mozart to grunge.


All in all, solid foundation, story needs fleshing out, mechanics have room for greater immersion, platforming could do with a bit of streamlining. Nothing fundamentally wrong (that I've noticed) that can't be fixed with a few updates. Dobra robota.

A lovely little game showcasing a variety of gameplay mechanics, ensuring that no two mazes are alike.

Personally, I don't feel a sense of achievement after completing the game, because most of the puzzles hinge not so much on the player's ingenuity as on them actually paying attention, and, having the attention span of an ADHD golden retriever, I took way longer on some of those puzzles than I think would be reasonable - but I am genuinely delighted by the game's whimsy and range.

Unfortunately, no.

TL / DR
A fun concept that overstays its welcome, turning dread into boredom.

The details
The premise of the game is simple: as a proctologist, you move linearly up the intestines of your patients, one per day, for a week, - each new gut holding increasingly bizarre and disturbing secrets. Remove obstructions, cauterize wounds, flush out foreign bodies.

The game uses old-school graphics, which works really well in this scenario, since going through a dark fleshy pixelated tunnel successfully creates a feeling of discomfort and claustrophobia that I feel we would not get with an anatomically accurate colon with RTX and all those other fancy graphical innovations. I am guessing older gamers will also be taken back to the days of old horror classics.

The music is oppressive and unsettling, elevating the feeling of discomfort.

The problem is that it's just too damn long.

Each colon level consists of three sections separated by loading screens. Once you complete the final objective, you are teleported out of the colon and back to the doctor's office. While trying to gradually build a sense of dread, it just becomes tedious. Encountering a new colonial (pun intended) horror, I felt not fear, not excitement - but relief, since it meant that I'm closer to completing the level. I didn't even play the last level, despite my curiosity, because I dread the thought of going back in there. Because I know how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boring it will be.

Some of the treatments feel a little counterproductive (like having to simply yank out a piece of barbed wire embedded in the colon wall instead of cutting it out - but fine, not a dealbreaker). Personally, I would have preferred more diverse and complex treatment with the option to return manually, double-checking for anything I may have missed, to extend the playtime, instead of crawling at a snail's pace through three colon sections and zapping away 30 of the same anomalous growths (yes, we get it, this man has [SPOILERS] in his colon, oooh, spooky. We don't need 30 of them. At a certain point, the unsettling becomes mundane. The game vault jumps over that point and sprints off into the sunset, dropping corn kernels).

The game just launched and has room for growth and improvement. Here's to hoping there's light at the end of the tunnel for it (pun very much intended).

Yes and no, this game is definitely not for everyone.

TL/DR

Imagine if Cookie Clicker and Death Stranding hooked up at Last of Us's house party and had an illegitimate child. This is that child.
Walk around the map and hit things with a stick to break them to get materials to upgrade your stick to be able to break bigger things. There are zombies with plant growth.

The full version

I enjoy zombie games, post-apocalyptic scenarios, open worlds and crafting, so Dysmantle was on my wishlist - but I hadn't gotten around to buying and playing it until I saw Iron Pineapple review it in his "Steam Dumpster Diving" series (link with timestamp here). That led me to buy it and play it - and it sucked me in. I highly recommend watching it if you want the opinion of a seasoned gamer.

What I liked

99% of the objects in the game are destructible, though some items will take serious leveling up and unlocking of new tools and weapons. There is something incredibly satisfying about walking into a town and completely leveling it, leaving only the floor plan. It is a meditative experience that, at least temporarily, got me off the heroin needle that is Dead by Daylight. It even made me more productive at work, as after some time just breaking walls down into bricks with a bat I would think "I could be doing something more useful right now" - and I'd go and do it.

The world itself was clearly designed with love, with plenty of cute details and Easter Eggs, like a little girl's treehouse telling adults to keep out, or a "grave clearly belonging to a great warrior" with Guts's sword as a gravestone.

The Pets & Dungeons DLC lets you get pets that are immortal and help you fight enemies - and you can pet them, too!

What I didn't like

Personally, I had a lot of trouble with controls. I missed so many hits by hitting in the wrong direction. This is not a problem when you're dealing with one zombie - but when you're dealing with several, it can get overwhelming (thank God for the dodge roll). It is especially a problem in wooded areas, since if your character walks into some trees - you can no longer see them. And I absolutely hate bushes in this game. Oh, you think you can run through there? Nope, that's a bush - that looks so much like the surrounding ground that you will only detect it because you got stuck on it.

While I enjoy grinding for resources, what I found absolutely tedious in this game is map traversal. It is so sprawling and so labyrinthine, it got to the point that I simply gave up on several side missions not because of the missions themselves - but because of what a chore it would be to get to them. There is fast travel between certain points on the map, but that doesn't really help when I still need to go through a maze to get to where I need to get, constantly consulting the map and setting markers so I don't miss my turn. I feel like this game would benefit from some sort of navigational assistance for already mapped areas. At least make the "North" arrow slightly bigger - I feel like I shouldn't have to deliberately search for it when I look at the mini map.

I was greatly turned off by the lack of transparency. Continuing the topic of traversal, the map is static - i.e. it won't reflect passageways you've already created, unless they involve interactive terminals. When you start the game, you see a "skill" tree of tools that you will unlock over time, and you think that that's it - however, the game just suddenly slaps new tools on there that aren't even part of the same tree, or that don't even go on the tree. This is frustrating, because it leaves me unsure of what I should work towards: am I simply under-leveled, or do I need a completely new item that will be unlocked later in the game in a different quest? From what I've seen, that's how Metroidvanias are supposed to work (I've never played any myself), but I feel like this map is way too big and has too many obstacles that you can't do anything about (rivers, mountains) for this lack of information to be sustainable.

Final words

I put 84 hours into the game - and I haven't even finished the side-missions or purchased the second DLC. It relaxed me, it helped me with my productivity - but I did occasionally find it irritating. I'll probably go back to it sooner rather than later, since it did soothe my inner hunter-gatherer. Which is why I recommend this game to other white-collar workers whose monkey brains won't let them concentrate on slides and spreadsheets until they've stocked up on berries, fish and rocks.

TL/DR cute and simple point and click puzzle adventure that doesn't take itself too seriously from a Romanian indie dev team with plenty of references to Lovecraft, Transylvanian folklore, and genre archetypes. Not revolutionary, but worth a go if it's something you're into; just don't expect a challenge.

GAMEPLAY
I'm going to come out and say it: I am an absolute dingus when it comes to point and click puzzle games. I do not have the imagination to figure out the unconventional solutions, or the patience to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks, as one tends to do in games like this. Gibbous is probably the first and, so far, only point and click game I've completed in my life without turning to Google even once. This is not to say the game holds your hand like an overbearing parent - but it does leave you more than enough pointers to help you figure things out, be it the protagonist's notes or musings on looking at an interactive object - the latter of which can be highlighted by pressing space. So Gibbous is a good choice for players who are more interested in the story aspect rather than those who want puzzles that will keep them up at night.
I will say that clicking through locations and dialogues felt a bit tedious at times, and some locations are a bit annoying to traverse because of the wonky zoom, but it wasn't really that big a deal for me.

STORY / WRITING
It's a detective story drawing heavily from Loveraft's work (from Cthulhu to the village of "Fishmouth"), with themes of free will, determinism, and the responsibility of the creator / domesticator before the creatures they created / domesticated. I feel like it got a bit soupy towards the end, but maybe that's the idea. Some plot lines ended up going nowhere: setup for possible DLCs, perhaps? There are some nice jokes and pop culture references (private investigator Don R. Ketype flicks a vape pen instead of a cigarette butt; the director of Darkham Asylum "is a real Joker") - but others felt questionable (Vlad Tsepesh's descendant being a dreadlocked rapper watching Scarface; the running gag of Don R. Ketype's shoes).

VISUALS
The art style is very pleasant, reminiscent of old cartoons with soft painted backgrounds and vibrant animated characters in overlay. The key difference is that while in those old cartoons you would always know which panel would be the secret door because it would be painted very distinctly, this game avoids this, with interactive elements seamlessly blending into the background (a big reason why highlighting interactive objects with the space bar is such a big deal - there is no way I would have known that "desk" and "papers on desk" are two distinct interactive elements otherwise,
The detective's file cabinets have a vast collection of dossiers - I am assuming, of the Kickstarter backers, each with a distinct villainous biography and individually painted portrait. If that isn't a gorgeous tribute, I don't know what is.
Also, I couldn't shake the feeling that the design of the Voodoo Gentleman was based on Danny McBride. Just me?

So, this was my Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure experience. It was a welcome distraction from the games I usually play and it kept me invested enough to complete the whole thing. I am now ready for a more challenging point-and-click puzzle game - which I will most certainly fail within the first 30 minutes and not go anywhere near games requiring any sort of intellectual effort for another 10 years.

It's a no for me.

While I love the concept, the gameplay itself is primitive and tedious. Feels like it should have been a mobile game, since "cleaning" a fossil is basically just running the cursor to and fro, without any consideration for the fact that you're handling something precious and potentially fragile. The driving POV is dreadful. Dinosaur assembly isn't satisfying. Might be okay for younger dinosaur fans, but adults may find it lacking.