Recent reviews by Ask me about Grim Fandango

If Hollow Knight is a 10/10 then Silksong is an eleven; it pushes absolutely everything to the next level. And yes, that includes difficulty.

Eat the beast, keep him in
Take the blame, speak the name

Lunacid, Lunacid
Lunacid, Lunacid

I absolutely love Lunacid. It's exactly what I've been looking for. I've drawn maps, I've taken notes. It just tickles a certain part of my brain, like my very first playthroughs of Hollow Knight and Dark Souls did. It's a lonely, liminal adventure, and gets my highest recommendation.

The freshest Metroidvania in years. Absolutely hooked me. The movement and combat have a bit of a learning curse, but once you get used to it, you'll be jumping about with style and speed.

But please, Devs: tone down the final boss a little!

Masterpiece!

Just be aware that most of the story content is locked away behind New game+
Better learn how to parry!

Looks great, plays great, sounds great. An excellent execution of a simple idea.

So why the bad review then?

Well, it just doesn't work as a puzzle game. As of this review I'm 17 puzzles in, and I don't feel like there is a cohesive strategy to this game. There's no way to gauge if you're on the right track with a puzzle, or way off base, and as a result, all my "puzzle-solving" is simply trial and error.

Brute forcing your way to victory doesn't make a good puzzle game. Sorry.

Had I not known otherwise, I'd swear it was Lucasarts.

The word “difficult” gets thrown around a lot, but La-Mulana is not difficult. La-Mulana is simply obtuse. I went in expecting deep, challenging combat and mind-bending puzzles. This game has neither. Stuck on a puzzle? The solution is to have the right item, located five zones away.

That's the entire game really- Collect item A to get item B to acquire item C. This is nothing but a daisy chain of fetch quests. I got 35 hours into it before I burned out.

Boss battles and mini-bosses are fun, but not very complex. Bosses are always best defeated with slow, boring attrition, and mini-bosses are easily killed by spam.

TL;DR: Not hard. Obtuse grind disguised as depth.

Great little gem. While comparisons to Portal are inevitable, this is really its own experience. Perfectly paced and doesn't overstay its welcome, Q.U.B.E. delivers solid puzzle mechanics and an excellent, understated atmosphere.

Great little indie game. Takes a simple concept and fully explores it. A few minor quibbles, but well worth the time and money. Strangely intoxicating, I found myself getting drawn in as the game reaches abstracta.