Recent reviews by jimm3ron

Star Wars Outlaws suffered from a fate of its own making: expectations. Creating the first major non lightsaber focused Star Wars game in years naturally drew a lot of attention. In my opinion, those expectations were not met.

-Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/

Before getting into the issues, a brief overview of what Star Wars Outlaws is. It is an open world third person shooter set in the Star Wars universe. You are required to manage your reputation with three main factions, plus a bonus faction, across their respective planets.

The gameplay loop largely revolves around picking up main quests and completing them until you reach progression walls. These walls strongly encourage completing side quests in order to move forward. While technically optional, the emphasis on completing them is clear.

Faction reputation is easy to lose and equally easy to restore, but doing so often requires engaging with repetitive and tedious side quests. There is very little variety here. While some repetition is expected, the sheer number of these quests makes the problem more noticeable.

On a technical level, the game has some baffling design decisions. Depth of field cannot be disabled and is frequently forced on the player. It activates when aiming down sights and during cinematics, often obscuring the image and becoming distracting.

The dialogue is one of the game’s weakest elements. Delivery is flat, the protagonist feels restrained and emotionally disconnected, and the writing plays things far too safe. It appears to aim for a Han Solo inspired character, but lacks the charisma and tension needed to make that work. Even in high stakes moments, the dialogue fails to convey urgency or danger.

Gunplay is serviceable but limited. You are restricted to a single blaster, with alternate firing modes that can only be changed aboard your ship. While enemy weapons can be picked up, they are discarded once their ammo runs out, further limiting combat variety.

The open world can look appealing at times, but often feels purposeless. Exploration mostly consists of moving from point A to point B, with occasional minor detours that offer little reward. Dialogue sequences frequently lock you out of fast travel or space travel until they finish, further disrupting pacing. Combined with the lack of role playing systems, this limits player expression. You cannot create a class, develop a build, or meaningfully shape dialogue outcomes.

Stealth missions are often mandatory and result in instant failure if you are detected. Enemy AI behavior is predictable, and immersion suffers when enemies can be silently knocked out with little resistance. This is especially true when you can simply bonk a stormtrooper's helmet with your bear hands and knock them out effortlessly. Progression is largely tied to repeating specific actions multiple times to unlock new abilities, which feels more like checklist completion than organic growth.

You are meant to play as an outlaw operating in the most dangerous parts of the Star Wars universe, yet the underworld presented here feels heavily sanitized. There is little sense of lawlessness, danger, or consequence, undermining the fantasy the game is built around.

https://youtu.be/TUfOdbBVlS8

MEGABONK is a third person roguelike, rogue lite, bullet hell, survivors style action game. At some point, we really need to come together and agree on what to call this genre and settle it once and for all.

-Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/

The gameplay loop is simple and effective. You eliminate mobs to collect experience, level up to choose new weapons and items, grab power ups, kill bosses, die, and then do it all over again. It is engaging and flexible, offering plenty of ways each run can unfold thanks to a solid selection of characters, skills, weapons, and enemy types.

The difficulty curve ramps up quickly as you progress. Success depends on learning which character and weapon combinations work best for your playstyle. New content is unlocked naturally by playing and completing in game challenges. While the variety of weapons and characters is fair, it is not overwhelming. Nothing here reaches the sheer volume of content found in Vampire Survivors, but it does enough to stay interesting.

Visually, the game is very simple. Sharp edges, low polygon models, and a pixel inspired aesthetic define the look. This feels both like an artistic choice and a technical necessity. As a third person game with large numbers of enemies on screen, a simpler visual style allows for better optimization and smoother gameplay.

The audio design is surprisingly strong. The music is engaging enough that I never felt the need to mute it and play something else in the background, which is not something I can say for most games in this genre.

Currently, the game features three stages, each with three tiers. Each tier determines how deep you can progress within a stage after defeating its final boss. While this structure works well, I do hope more stages are added over time, as repetition will eventually set in.

Performance has been excellent in my experience. I played on a high end gaming PC as well as a GPD Win Mini 2 handheld, where the game maintained 60 fps at 1080p with minimal drops.

This genre has seen a lot of competition since the rise of Vampire Survivors. The mostly unique third person perspective gives MEGABONK a clear identity and helps it stand apart. Even Risk of Rain 2 does not directly compete here, as MEGABONK is primarily an auto shooter, while ROR2 is a traditional shooter.

I am very curious to see what future games spin off from this design direction, much like what happened after Vampire Survivors. For now, MEGABONK stands as an excellent entry in an increasingly crowded genre.

https://youtu.be/8h5BjP33A8U

What happens when Vampire Survivors meets Hades. You get one of the best entries in the genre and possibly my favourite so far.

-Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/

Night Swarm is an action roguelike bullet hell game that puts you in the shoes of a vampire on a mission to defeat an evil overlord and claim the throne.

The first thing I want to highlight is the audio design. The soundtrack is genuinely excellent. I usually mute games in this genre and watch something else in the background, but not here. The music adds so much energy that turning it off feels wrong. Give it a listen and you are not likely to regret it.

The gameplay will feel familiar if you have played titles of this type. You defeat mobs, collect experience, pick upgrades and try to stay alive. The difference is that runs last two and a half or three minutes instead of a long thirty minute stage. Your goal during each run is simple. Gather as much experience, gold and upgrade material as you can before the timer ends. Time is limited so every decision matters.

Each stage comes with a unique modifier that affects the rewards you can earn. Some offer companions, some offer materials and some contain bosses. At the end of every run you face a main boss. If you defeat it, you can return to your castle or attempt a very demanding endless mode for additional rewards.

The castle is where all upgrades happen. You can upgrade the castle itself, your character, equipment, companions and your weapons or passive abilities. Every category uses its own currency so there is always something to work toward.

I encountered two issues during my time with the game. The first is rare crashes that force you to restart a run. This happened to me twice. One crash occurred at the start of a stage and the second happened several minutes into an endless run. It is annoying when it happens but the developers are aware of the issue and are already working on it.

The second issue is the lack of visual effect reduction. Unlike Vampire Survivors, you cannot tone down weapon flashes or particle effects. Late game runs become extremely busy. It becomes difficult to see projectiles and even your own character. This ties into something I forgot to mention in the video. Companions stand right next to you and can easily be mistaken for your character. This leads to unintentional damage because your focus shifts to the wrong figure. Hiding companions might help although part of the gameplay is that they can get knocked out and need time to recover so their presence has mechanical value.

Despite these complaints, Night Swarm stands out as a great contribution to the genre. It blends ideas from multiple games into a very polished and rewarding package. The asking price is a strong value proposition for what you get.

If you enjoy action heavy roguelike survival games with satisfying progression, this is an easy recommendation.

https://youtu.be/h_wQVImISm8

There is not much to say unfortunately. The game has almost no active players, and it absolutely needs a community to function. The lack of players is understandable because the game struggles in nearly every area that matters.

-Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/

The balancing is rough, the micro transactions for skins feel out of place, and the progression is painfully slow. Crafting and unlocking new equipment takes far too long. The art style also feels dated and does not match modern expectations. The gunplay lacks impact, the level design does not encourage experimentation or exploration, and the building system feels like an afterthought rather than a feature.

The one positive I can highlight is the music. It is genuinely enjoyable and well made, so credit to the audio team for that.

Everything else makes this hard to recommend. I do not think it is worth your time in its current state.

https://youtu.be/Fdv-ur8-bd0

00:00 Intro
02:06 settings (Mouse sensitivity now works)
04:56 Equipment, upgrades, crafting
08:11 Shop (and rant)
10:20 Setting up lobby
11:40 Gameplay

Overview
The Scouring is a modern take on classic RTS games. It offers two main ways to play. You can focus on a single hero in Hero mode, or you can control everything yourself in Classic mode. This creates two very different experiences within the same game.

-Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/

Hero Mode
In Hero mode, you control only your chosen hero. There are three heroes at the moment, tied to the two available factions, Orcs and Men. You can give your base simple instructions by allowing or restricting how the CPU spends resources, and the CPU will handle the rest. It builds your base, manages your army, and expands just like a human player would. You can ask your army to follow you, but you cannot command individual units.

Classic Mode
Classic mode removes this restriction and returns full control to you. You can build, manage, and command everything exactly the way you would in a traditional RTS. Although heroes are not part of this mode by default, the game has strong mod support, and several mods already add heroes into Classic mode. RTS players who enjoy macro play will most likely appreciate this freedom.

Factions, Maps, and Co-op
The game currently offers two factions, Orcs and Men. Maps support up to eight teams, and you can create any mix of alliances you want. Online co-op is available, and a full campaign is planned for the 1.0 release, which is three major updates away at the time of writing.

Graphics and Audio
The visual style is reminiscent of classic Warcraft titles. The graphics are simple but fitting, and the audio work is surprisingly strong. The soundtrack is enjoyable, and the voice acting adds a good amount of personality.

Settings and Performance
The graphics settings are very limited. There are barely any options to adjust, and this is an area that needs improvement. Since it is not mentioned in the public roadmap, I am keeping an eye on future updates.

Final Thoughts
RTS fans will find a lot to love here. Hero mode and Classic mode both offer unique ways to experience the game. Add online co-op, mod support, and the promise of a full campaign, and there is a solid foundation already in place. At twenty five dollars, the value is fair for RTS players. More casual players may want to wait for a small sale, but not by much.

https://youtu.be/M2e-hiEIgAw

Bacstled is a, irregularly shaped hexagonal territory based city builder. You get to acquire new territories, expand your base, and defend against increasingly difficult enemy waves. The goal is for you to eliminate the 4 enemy towers that are spawned across the map.

-Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/

The gameplay is fairly straight forward. You must maintain a balance between a rising economy, a strong army, and the resources necessary to maintain your population and said army.

The resources are wood, stone, iron and coal for those cold winter times. While winter is not in session you can probably disable the coal machines. Make sure you have enough production, however, or your citizens will depart from your town due to the happiness levels decreasing.

Happines will determine the rate at which new villagers will arrive, assuming there is enough empty housing for them, or leave, if it crosses the threshhold.

The key for this type of game is to utilise the hills, blocking them off with walls and gates, mounting your walls with your archers and making sure you have enough soliders behind the doors to protect your precious buildings.

There is certainly a learning curve to the game. It is challenging enough to keep you engaged, each playthough lasting a few hours at least. Even at full price, I think the cost of admission is fair.

Has the game changed much since the very early days? I do not think so. If you heve been here since day one, you might be scratching your head thinking: "is there anything new to this?", and I would not blame you. This is where I think the cost for this game should be taken under consideration. They did overhaul the UI for 1.0, added paths (Which are entirely useless IMO) and changed the icons for essentially everything, including the research tree.

That being said, I feel like more could have been added. Crossbow equipped ranged units, shield/ defender units, axe units, assassins, different type of armour upgrades like gold armour, mounted units... just to name a few of the possibilities!

Perhaps a free update in the future or DLC could address the lacklustre content. For the time being, I think it is definitely worth a look.

https://youtu.be/NCszswIwQaI

Atomic Heart is a first person shooter with light RPG elements set in an alternate 1950s Soviet Union where a robotic utopia spirals into chaos. You play as Major P-3, a soldier sent to investigate a facility after its AI and robotic workers turn hostile. The game mixes gunplay, melee combat, crafting, and light exploration with a mix of linear missions and semi open world zones.

-Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/

The graphics are stunning. The overall fidelity is excellent and the color palette is rich and vibrant without ever feeling artificial. Large set pieces like towering buildings and laboratories are breath-taking, especially in the opening hours. Scenes of destruction and chaos look both beautiful and terrifying, giving the world a striking atmosphere that feels alive even when everything is falling apart.

The music deserves special mention. Certain fights and encounters feature remixed classical music turned into energetic, upbeat melodies that perfectly match the thrill of smashing rogue robots. It adds a unique personality to the combat and gives the game a rhythm that is hard to forget.

The weapon upgrades, crafting system, and character progression are well thought out, especially for a first entry in a series. I appreciate that the game does not punish experimentation. You can fully refund all upgrades and crafted items and recover every resource, allowing you to rework your build or try a new approach to a difficult encounter without penalty.

Not everything works as well. The puzzles can be unintuitive to the point of frustration. Often you need to trigger a distant switch or match a set of statues to specific poses to unlock a door, but the game gives little indication of how those actions are connected. The map is another weak spot. Scrolling is painfully slow and you cannot use keyboard inputs to move it, forcing you to drag it with the mouse at a crawl.

Exploring the open world can also be exhausting. Robots are constantly repaired by flying drones that deploy automatically whenever you destroy an enemy. From what I can tell there is no way to permanently disable the repair hives, only to overload them for a short time. It fits the story about the unstoppable Soviet army being decimated by machine, but makes free exploration feel like a war of attrition.

One last annoyance is the inability to skip cutscenes. In a game this long it is frustrating to sit through dialogue again when retrying a section.

Despite these issues, Atomic Heart is a great game. It may not justify a full price purchase this far after release, but the crisp 17 schmeckles I paid were absolutely worth it. If you enjoy stylish shooters with striking visuals, creative combat, and a world that blends beauty with chaos, this is a journey worth taking.

https://youtu.be/nToLeWT5n2U

00:00 Intro
00:22 Settings
05:25 Saves/ Crafting/ Upgrading
11:15 Dog peed in wife's office
11:25 Continuing with crafting
11:39 Character upgrades
13:34 gameplay (no combat)
20:40 [Short] Boss fight
23:33 Open world gameplay (combat)
39:13 Closing thoughts/ recap

Star Birds is a relaxing resource management and automation game that is mostly cosy with vivid visuals and a charming atmosphere.

-Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/

Your goals is to explore the asteroids that surround your ship and collect the various resources that they have to offer. You will often have to combine resources, as well as transfer resources from one comet to another, since not all comets will be able to provide everything that you need in one place.

The biggest challenge you will face is the puzzle element the game offers. That is managing all the tubes connecting the various buildings you must place. Luckily, re-configuring your set up is as easy as recollecting a building and then placing it back down at no additional cost.

The game does not punish the player for wanting to come up with a fresh start if necessary. It encourages you to either strategise and overcome obstacles by discovering new paths and utilising tools such as tube splitters, or recalibrating your approach by starting over. The way you play the game is entirely up to you!

there is the concern of the game getting repetitive, and with no "real" challenge or threat of losing, some might find the lack of challenge a big deciding factor. To those people I would suggest checking out the demo and seeing for themselves if this game is up their alley.

In sum, if you like the idea of cosy resource managers with puzzle elements in them, a charming story, a vivid environment and an INCREDIBLE soundtrack, this game might just be for you.

https://youtu.be/i8ohjGIsf8Q

Ixion is a sci fi city building and survival strategy game set aboard the Tiqqun, a massive space station tasked with finding humanity a new home after Earth collapses into ecological ruin. Blending elements of colony management, resource balancing, and narrative driven choices, it challenges players to maintain the station’s integrity while expanding into new star systems. The overarching goal is to guide what remains of civilization through the perils of deep space while managing dwindling supplies, fragile crew morale, and looming disasters until a sustainable world can finally be secured.

-Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/

Before I dive into my thoughts on the gameplay itself, I have to get something out of the way. The performance inside the station is downright awful. The game looks fine, but it runs like it is missing key optimization features. There is no DLSS, no FSR, not even a basic render scale option to ease the strain. For a game that demands long sessions and constant interaction, this is frustrating. It desperately needs some kind of upscaling support or better performance tuning, because as it stands, playing in the station feels heavier on the system than it should.

Furthermore, there is no option to turn off chromatic aberration, which is incredibly frustrating. It adds a blur around the edges of the screen that makes everything look worse, and the fact that the game forces it on you with no toggle feels careless. Combined with the poor performance, it really hurts the overall presentation, even though the art direction itself is strong.

Negatives aside, the gameplay itself is very engaging. The space station is divided into six sectors, and you begin with only one unlocked. As you expand and open more sectors, the possibilities for collecting and producing resources grow, but so do the challenges. Each new sector means a higher demand for food, greater electricity consumption, and the need to carefully plan for accidents or catastrophic events that can strike at any moment. This balance between growth and survival keeps the gameplay tense and rewarding.

The biggest issue I faced while playing was keeping my people happy. It honestly felt impossible at times. Making sure they had food and housing did not actually improve their trust in me, it only kept things from getting worse. On top of that, I was constantly stuck with permanent negative penalties that dragged morale down. Events like the destruction of Earth or losing a research team during an expedition left lasting scars on the trust system, and there was no way to recover from them. It often felt like I was fighting an uphill battle with no real chance to turn things around.

A great way the game balances all this is through its very detailed difficulty options menu. You can tweak just about everything in there, from the rate at which trust goes down to how quickly your station’s hull deteriorates, along with other settings that either raise the challenge or make it much more forgiving. I have to admit, I must be slipping as a gamer because even on the casual setting I found myself struggling to keep everything under control. It is nice though that the game gives you the tools to shape the experience to your own pace, even if that means dialing things way down just to survive.

Another thing I cannot praise enough is the music. The soundtrack in Ixion is an absolute masterpiece. Every track fits the atmosphere perfectly, from tense moments in the station to the quiet, haunting stretches of space. This is one of those soundtracks where you can be completely confident that buying it as an OST would never be a waste. It adds a layer of immersion that makes even the most stressful situations feel cinematic and engaging.

Overall, Ixion is a compelling and challenging space station management game. The core of the gameplay revolves around unlocking new sectors within your station and eventually jumping from galaxy to galaxy, which constantly expands your resource network and strategic options. Despite frustrating performance issues and the difficulty of keeping your people happy, the game’s systems are deep and engaging. The detailed difficulty options allow you to tailor the challenge to your liking, and the soundtrack is exceptional, adding tension and atmosphere to every moment. For anyone who enjoys strategy, survival, and careful planning in a sci fi setting, Ixion offers a unique and rewarding experience.

https://youtu.be/Bu1OTNg8dUA

Disclaimer: I am aware of the recent outrage regarding the censorship of the game. I condemn it and do not agree with censorship for all the obvious reasons. The proper approach would have been to give players the option to censor, just like many other games have done in the past. This review is focused on the game itself, not the surrounding controversy.

-Steam Curator: store.steampowered.com/curator/36307721-Healthy-Criticism/

Ready or Not is a SWAT-style FPS that hearkens back to the original SWAT games of years past. You even still have the under-door camera, or "optiwand".

The gameplay is straightforward. You control Team Blue, Team Red, or Team Gold (which combines both). Each team can be commanded independently or together. Commands range from stacking on doors, peeking, unlocking, using the optiwand, breaching (either by kicking or with a shotgun), deploying flashbangs before entering, and more. The control scheme has a learning curve, but once you master it, the system becomes intuitive and responsive.

Gunplay feels grounded and satisfying, with realistic pacing. The sound design complements it well, and the overall flow of missions is tight and engaging.

Graphically, the game looks great. One of the standout features is the lighting from your weapon-mounted torch when aiming into dark rooms. It does an excellent job of mimicking how it would behave in real life.

Most of my time was spent in single-player. While the experience was largely solid, it was not without issues. For example, during a level involving underground tunnels, my squad mates refused to follow any commands. In another mission requiring me to clear two separate houses, some rooms had closets where suspects would hide. If you failed to catch them in time, they would leap out and stab you to death, which was essentially unavoidable once it started.

Level design is varied. Some missions are short and straightforward, with obvious threats and minimal complications, taking under ten minutes. Others are sprawling and complex, with layered objectives and longer runtimes.

One important detail to keep in mind: there are no checkpoints. Getting stabbed at the final door after a 25-minute mission means restarting from the beginning. Additionally, the more your squad dies or is injured, the more their stress level increases. If their stress gets too high, they must be pulled from the field and evaluated by a doctor.

Overall, Ready or Not is a great tactical shooter with a few rough edges. The core gameplay is solid and should provide hours of tense, rewarding play, especially in multiplayer. With crossplay now available, it has a strong foundation to build on.

https://youtu.be/dRkC0DI-uHo