Category: Game reviews

Ritual of Raven Steam Review

Ritual of Raven from Team17 is a story-based farming sim that they were kind enough to send me to check out. It is truly one of those games that you will probably love or hate, and I find myself playing it, thinking at parts this is great, and then at others wishing this part did not exist.

This is something I hate.

A good example of something I love is the story. It starts with you being sucked through a magical portal into a world where magic is real. A witch has lost her familiar, and she needs help getting it back. To do this, she needs your help, and you get to learn magic, something your created character is very excited to do.

This brings me to something I hate. To grow, water, and harvest crops, you need to use a little robot. These robots are programmed with tarot cards. Each action has to be planned out, including where and how they move and what they do when they get there. You can then retrieve items from their inventory.

I love the freedom to design my own garden and area

This didn’t take away the joy I found in designing my own little area of the world, or meeting Raven, my own familiar. Getting to know Raven, despite his very literal name, was great. Seeing the countryside and watching the story unfold is fantastic. I never really felt rushed by the game to get things done. To me is the sign of a true cozy game, not feeling rushed to get things done, so I can just relax. While some aspects of the game aren’t for me, the game is still a nice little time killer. 8/10 experience. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Death Relives Review (All Platforms)

Death Relives is, at its core, a survival horror game, much like Amnesia or Outlast. It was sent my way by the fine folks at Nyctophile Studios, which I always appreciate. It is also worth pointing out that I got to check it out on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation 5.

The story and gameplay are the same across all three, and the controls are also the same. You spend the game dodging an ancient Aztec warrior while trying to rescue your mother with nothing more than an old spirit gun and dagger for protection. You will spend most of your time hiding with the aid of an old skin cloak, which hides you from the ghost sent by the Aztec warrior to find you. This will also help you kill those ghosts and collect their blood.

This blood is important because it keeps you alive when you use a certain object to help you solve puzzles and navigate your way through this mansion. Run out of blood and you die. This only matters if you kill the warrior, however. He does come back a bit stronger each time, so when and if you kill him is completely up to you. Sometimes it is worth it just to get a puzzle out of the way, for example.

This game, however, was far from enjoyable for me. On Xbox, there were definitely some graphic issues with tearing and such above doorways and such, and a few crashes. PlayStation also shared these graphical issues, but the crashes didn’t exist. Steam users didn’t seem to have either of these issues, and I didn’t notice them myself.

More often than not, while crouching behind a table, the warrior would see me anyway, despite the in-game tutorial telling me that it would keep me safe, and unlike most games where these challenges felt like an achievement to overcome, I usually just felt grateful it was over.

Speaking of things that I was grateful to be over, the game is short; you can beat the game in under 5 hours, and that is being generous. The companion app to the game can be helpful, but it is not completely necessary. All this being said, I am in the minority, it seems, for disliking the game. The game was 6/10 experience for me personally, but Steam users are enjoying it, and even PlayStation users are rating it 3/5 stars. For me, the game was just so painfully average that I have no interest in playing it again. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

JDM: Japanese Drift Master Steam Review

JDM: Japanese Drift Master was sent my way by Gaming Factory, which is always appreciated, and I do like to be up front about that.

The game itself attempts to be a super realistic racing experience that plays as well with a controller as it does with a full racing setup. They wanted to combine the everyday player with the more serious enthusiast and make a game both could enjoy.

The map is massive, and would feel right at home with any more open-world game like your Grand Theft Auto titles. This also leads to the downside where a lot of it is locked behind missions, causing you to miss out on a ton of beautiful scenery.

The driving took me a bit to get used to as I went into it thinking it was just another racing game, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The game does offer driving schools to teach you everything you need to know, and my biggest mistake was going into this without doing those. Between wanting that raw experience and thinking I could just drive like I do in any other racing game, I made the game far harder than it needed to be on myself.

My biggest, and only real complaint about the game the options for the starter car are extremely limited. By this, I mean there is only one car. Combine this with a relatively empty. It should also be noted that I played strictly with a controller, and most of the negative reviews you will see on Steam have to do with steering wheel integration. The game is a solid 7/10 experience, and drifting fans will love it, I think. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Back to Dawn Steam Review

Back to Dawn was finally released from early access as version 1.0, and Spiral Up Games was kind enough to send me a copy for review. Big shout out to them, as always, for doing that.

The game itself is a prison escape RPG. You have two different characters to choose from. I went with the recommended first-timer route of Thomas the fox. A news reporter who, when given the chance to take a bribe to bury a story to help out a major business and political leader, makes the morally right choice. This, of course, lands him in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Your job from there is simple: be a good inmate, work your inmate job, and get to know everyone. Don’t forget to be where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there to avoid problems, and when the time is right, get the hell out of jail.

Everyone in jail has a story to tell, and getting to know them will at least let you know who won’t be helping you out. They will, however, have information for you. The narrative is fantastic, and the controls and visuals are great. I went into this expecting the escapist with a bit more of a story to it, and this is anything but that.

The game features various branching story paths, and it is entirely possible to fail at your escape and need to start over. The game is insanely well done, and with over 6000 Steam reviews, it is still sitting at very positive reviews.

No game is perfect, however, and it can get repetitive, and the start is very slow. This will turn some people off, and I can’t blame them. Once it gets rolling, it is a lot of fun, but the first hour or 2 can be a bit rough at first. The game is still an 8/10 experience, however, maybe even a 9/10 if this is your preferred genre. Back to the Dawn is also available on Xbox and with Game Pass. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 God of Weapons PS5 Review

God of Weapons on PS5 is a game I have played before on PC and Xbox. Ultimate Games, however, was kind enough to send me the PS5 version to check out, and I figured, like my many nights of one more run with it, why not give it one more run.If you want to know how I felt about the Xbox Version, by all means, check that out. God of Weapons Xbox Review

As I said in my previous review of the game, if you have played any action rougelike, you know the general game flow. Choose a character. I like the ranged characters, start weak, move around the map, kill enemies, and level up. In between levels, buy better weapons and items, repeat all while hoping the stronger enemies don’t kill you. When they do, buy permanent upgrades that make the next runs easier, and when you finally win, move on to more challenging difficulties that have bigger and badder bosses and enemies.

The game has plenty to unlock and doesn’t offer anything new to the genre, but it is still probably the 2nd best game in it. The PS5 version is also my favorite version to play. It is absolutely a 7/10 experience and worth playing. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Endzone 2 Steam Review

Endzone 2 was recently released from early access to 1.0, and Assemble Entertainment was kind enough to send me a copy to check out. I always appreciate this and like to get it out of the way upfront, as most of you know by now.

The game has been met with mixed reviews on Steam for quite some time now, and with a city builder, this is always one of those things I see and take with a grain of salt. We, as fans, are usually quite picky. One thing is out of place, and we tend to be a bit mad about it. Let’s look at this piece by piece and see where maybe this comes from.

The Endzone 2 takes place right after the first Endzone. Humans are now resettling into the world after a nuclear apocalypse, and the world is a bit irradiated. No, it isn’t the story, as cliché as it is, cliché is for a reason; it works.

This brings us to the controls; they work. They work well. Even if you read the Steam reviews, nobody complains about the controls. The controls are what you would want: fluid, easy to use, and pretty intuitive. No, they aren’t perfect, but nothing is.

This brings us to graphics. Yes, this is pretty universally the issue. I have mentioned in reviews before my hatred for this idea that darker is the only way to get across a dark and gloomy atmosphere. This game breaks the rule of feeling that way. The vast majority of the time, while playing the game is so dark, especially seeing anything is a nightmare. Even messing with my monitor settings only did so much.

All in all, if you enjoyed the first game and can get passed how dark this game can be, there is no reason why you won’t love this one. For me, I will stick with the first game as this game dove far deep into saturating everything in darkness to be enjoyable. It was a 5/10 experience that I have no intention of repeating. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Beyond

What do a rundown hotel, a blind woman, a bleak old painting, and a brainwave machine have in common? Eliza is in the midst of renovating the old, dilapidated 7 Gates Hotel in Louisiana when strange things begin to happen. Dangerous, deadly accidents and the appearance of a mysterious blind woman named Emily, who is seeking Eliza. Her message is clear: leave the hotel. Desperate, Eliza refuses only to discover the true horror of the hotel- it was built on one of the seven gates to Hell itself.

A long time ago I talked about House by the Cemetary , the third part of Fulci’s Gates of Hell trilogy. The Beyond is the middle entry, the most renowned of the trilogy, and for damn good reason. The Beyond is just short of a horror masterpiece. The cinematography is both breathtaking and uncanny, which makes you feel unsettled throughout. The music is haunting and even operatic, compounding the surrealness of the whole movie. The gore is absolutely disgusting without ever feeling comedically overboard. The english dub is pretty good, but I do give the actors a lot of credit; their expressions add to the terror. While I deeply love the movie, their’s some flaws that make you scratch you’re head and don’t make sense. Eliza knows someone, somehow you never see her interact with; the one dude might be possessed or something and randomly vanishes at the end; clearly fake spiders on string at one point. The movie isn’t perfect but it is pretty ambiguous with some reality-bending. The ending is bleak as hell and a perfect fit. The Beyond ain’t for everyone- the gore alone will deter a lot of people- but I seriously recommend this Italian horror classic. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Wandering Village PS5 Review

The Wandering Village on PS5 was sent my way by Stray Fawn Studio, for which I am grateful. I had previously played this on Xbox, and I must say that there seem to be some substantial changes over that time. The opening, as an example, now includes a beautiful anime-style video that wasn’t there at first.

The game takes place on the back of Onbu

In a world being rampaged by a poisonous plant, your tribe finds itself on the back of a massive creature called an Onbu. This traveling giant is content to ferry you around and let you live on the resources that grow on it. In turn, you care for it and guide it, if you can get it to trust you.

The game is a classic city builder at its finest, and a solid story has been naturally built in. As the people living on the last known living Onbu and the only people traveling the world, it has fallen on you to collect ancient seeds that might be able to be planted to fight back against the poisons that are destroying the world.

The game looks magnificent, and the controls are great. My only gripe is that a few times when trying to click on certain objects, the camera angles get a bit weird, but this is a minor annoyance and never really ruined the gameplay for me. Just watching my characters build things and live their lives as my lumbering creature travels the world to different biomes is a nice experience.

Another nice experience is the characters you meet along the way, many feel desperate for your help without coming across as sad and pathetic. They are hopeful while still giving off a sense of urgency. It is a nice touch, you don’t often get. At a $30 price point, I have no complaints about this game, and with everything just being included by the in-depth tech tree that is still small enough to allow multiple play-throughs on various difficulties, there is a lot to love here, definitely a 9/10 experience for fans of the genre. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition PS5 Review

Reviewing Neverwinter Nights 2 on PS5 is a bit odd for me. No, it isn’t because it is based on the 3.5 system, and I played Dungeons and Dragons 5.0. Also, before I go further, shout out to Aspyr Media for hooking me up with a copy of this one.

The story of Neverwinter Nights 2 is pretty standard fare in 2025. You are an adopted child whose parents died and are thrust by your uncle into an adventure you seemingly were born to take. After what was a rather in-depth character creator for its time, which for today’s world is bare bones. You move on to participating in a summer festival of games, which serves as your tutorial. It will teach you everything you need to know about casting spells, how to steal, and avoid traps, and equipping weapons and combat.

You can skip the tutorial if you want, and move right on to the city being attacked, but you will miss some story elements and the chance at some early items, nothing fantastic, and that you will outgrow soon anyway.

But how does this enhanced edition play? Well, it is the definitive way to play it on console. It comes with all previously released DLC, and graphically, it has never looked better. So if you happen to own the original release, this is definitely an upgrade. If you have never played it and have Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition (PS4), this is definitely something you will want to pick up as well. The game isn’t without faults; however, a few times, my main character would get stuck on seemingly nothing. This is easily fixed by simply switching to a different person. The stuck character simply moves on his own, and you are free to swap back. Once or twice during the dialogue, people’s lower jaws decided to just overlap their front jaws, and their teeth just sort of appeared in front of their faces. I also once had to restart when, mid-fight, I got stuck in the pause menu while swapping characters.

All of these things were very rare, happening once, maybe twice, across an entire playthrough that could easily last 60 hours if you are a completionist. I wouldn’t at all advise against picking it up based on these minor and rare bugs that I haven’t seen anyone else really mention. It is still a 7/10 experience that I think fans of D&D and Neverwinter will enjoy. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Horror Night with Tung Tung Tung Sahur PS5 Review

Horror Night with Tung Tung Tung Sahur on PS5 was sent my way by Source Byte, which I am grateful for, but admittedly, they don’t always put out the best games. They help a lot of very small indie companies publish their work, and it can be a bit hit and miss for them. Horror Night honestly is one of their hits, and I did not expect that from a meme game.

For those that don’t know, and I imagine it is most of you without children, Tung Tung Sahur is considered an Italian brain to character that shows up a lot as one of the bad guys in Sprunki Logi videos.

The game itself follows typical horror movie and game logic: you crash your car outside, you knock on the closest building for help. The door creaks open, and you walk inside only to be trapped inside with some crazed or demented entity or person.

There is honestly absolutely nothing new or inventive about this game, and for $10, you shouldn’t expect there to be. What you should be asking for at that price is, was the game entertaining, and was it functional, and the answer is yes, it is, for about 2 hours if you take your time. The game has 11 ratings on PS5 and is sitting at 4 out of 5 stars, and this seems fair to me. I call it an 8/10 experience compared to other games at this price point. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.