Tag: Review

Aethermancer Steam Review

Aethermancer is a creature battling rogue-like from Offbrand Games that they were kind enough to send me. I wasn’t really sure how to feel about it at first, since, honestly, there are a million games out there that make you fight creatures nowadays.

Aethermancer has a nice twist, however, since now you do it in runs instead of as one overall quest. Each time, you can purchase upgrades to make future runs easier, as you would expect from this sort of game. Creatures you capture, of course, can be summoned through special means. You can even choose your favorites by talking to a woman in town to make sure they are always available to you.

Your starter is always your starter, and there are four to choose from with different abilities to choose from. Personally, I chose Nixie because she can heal and dish out poison damage. This isn’t a hard niche to fill, however, and if you don’t choose Nixie, you aren’t locked out of these aether options. My friend over at @mrjfeliciano chose Cherufe the fire/earth starter and found a healer pretty quickly. I found a fire/earth combo pretty fast myself, so there is no real disadvantage from who you choose in terms of elements available to you.

The story is solid but basic; you are simply investigating an area between life and death, but I won’t spoil more than that. The important part is how the game functions, and with more than a few hours into the game, I can say I never ran into any weird glitches or frame rate drops playing on my laptop. In a time where companies seem to want to optimize games as little as possible and focus on high-end machines, Aethermancer seems to have done the opposite.

Far be it from me to enjoy a game this much, then see very positive reviews on Steam from over 600 people, and disagree. It’s a niche genre to be sure, but for those who enjoy these types of games, and at a $22 price point, the game is as much of a must-buy as a game can be in 2025. 8/10, please enjoy, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

HELLCARD Steam Review

Hellcard, published by Skystone Games and developed by Thing Trunk, is a cooperative rogue-like deck builder that was recently sent my way. Don’t worry, you can pick this bad boy up on any console as well as Steam.

So, how do you play hellcard? Same as every other card builder. You pick a character, a basic warrior, mage, or archer to start ( you can unlock another by winning your first round or through DLC), and go it solo or find others to play with. If you decide to play solo, you can get NPC characters to play with that you will control. There is no real disadvantage to playing alone in terms of being overwhelmed by enemies.

The battle map will be split into sections based on how many of you there are (up to 3), but you aren’t obligated to stick to your lane. As a mage, for example, I found it prudent to use my area of effect spells many times to level the enemies close to the archer I was teamed up with, since his abilities were weakened against enemies within melee range. In return, this allowed him to use his distance to kill the enemies approaching me. These small details really set the game apart from other deckbuilding games.

Another nice touch is that each person individually picks a path to walk as you descend further down. I might pick a path that allows me to heal, while someone else picks a path for more cards. So while my area may have me fighting skeletons, someone else may bring spiders for us to fight. When we win and reach the rewards, we can select one reward from each location. So now, we can heal, get a card, and a relic. Or maybe we all chose to heal. Communication is beneficial to determine how a run is going to progress.

I can’t say Hellcard is the best roguelike or cardbattler I have played, it really isn’t. It is a solid one, however, that brings enough new things to the table that make it worth the $25 price tag. It’s graphically nice, and the sound is well done, and all in all, a nice 7/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Quartet Steam Review

Every so often, I come across a game and I think, damn, I need to play that game. Not because it looks amazing graphically. Just because it looks like one of those games I used to play when I was a kid. You remember the type, you would rush home after school, pop it into your Super Nintendo, and just lose yourself until your parents inevitably said, “Hey, time for dinner,” or “Get to bed.”

Quartet on Steam (consoles coming Q4) is that game, and the great people over at Something Classic Games were kind enough to send me a copy to check out.

The first thing to get out of the way is the combat; it is very fluid and easy to get into. Nothing fancy is going on here either. If you love old-school turn-based RPGs where your strategy matters, the combat for Quartet is something you are going to enjoy. It clicks all the boxes. Exploiting enemy weaknesses, defending to lower damage, restoring AP (ability points), buffing your characters, and debuffing enemies. Most battles, you can just power through but bosses and higher difficulties, these buffs and debuffs will make or break your battles.

Speaking of battles, this game won’t waste your time with random battles. You can see the enemies on screen, and if you feel like you need to level up, you can usually find more to fight, but mostly, you will always be at an appropriate level to get where you need to go. I rarely say this about a game in 2025, but Quartet really tries and succeeds at respecting your time. Maps aren’t small, but they also aren’t huge for no reason.

This brings me to one last point. The story, you guys know, I am not going to go into a ton of detail about the story because I don’t do spoilers. Just know the story deals with magic, a government conspiracy, and a poor cook named Ben who just wanted to go to work. The game starts by letting you choose between one of four characters to play as for their introductory story. While you play through all of them, I recommend starting as Ben. He doesn’t have the best story exactly, but what he does have is the best mixture of story and humor, and that is where this game shines.

Nobody bodyslams the train

There are a few things I would have liked to have seen, maybe some more interactions between certain characters, but truly, for a game that you can beat in about 20-25 hours, I understand what they were going for. Something they may have left out in favor of a shorter experience, and I can’t be mad about that. This was a 9/10 experience for me, and I will be playing through this again. 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 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.

Scum Steam Review

Scum recently transitioned from early access to 1.0, and Gamepires sent me a copy, which I greatly appreciate. SCUM prides itself on being the most realistic open-world survival game on the market, and honestly, it might just be. Where most games are happy to let you just eat anything to refill your hunger, what you eat matters here.

The story is no slouch either, you find yourself on SCUM island, a place for criminals to work of their crimes by entertaining the masses. Death doesn’t save you, as you are revived and sent back to the start of your attempt to be the last one standing. Ok, so that part doesn’t really make any sense. To be fair, none of us is playing a game with a genitalia modifier for the story anyway, right?

A few words of warning, the requirements to play this game are hefty. For the first time ever, my laptop struggled, and it struggled hard. I have more than the minimum requirements, and I still find myself messing with settings. Also, ignore the negative reviews you find on Steam for the most part. Many of them are long-time players, with over 1000-2000 hours, complaining about what isn’t in the game or how their ideas weren’t used, etc. While some of them are perfectly valid, they do ignore the fact that the game is incredibly detailed.

The multiplayer aspect is amazing, the base building is very in-depth, and while the learning curve is pretty steep, you are rewarded with a one-of-a-kind experience. Everything needs to be balanced in this game, from your diet to weight management with your inventory, but not to such an extent that I ever felt like the game was a chore to play.

I do have a few small issues, and you will see these are pretty common complaints. Melee combat is basically as clunky as it gets. The learning curve is also huge, making the game pretty much impossible to just dive right into. The community also isn’t always exactly the most inviting, either. You can find great people in it, don’t get me wrong, but others are pretty much the definition of toxic and take the last man standing part very seriously.

So is it worth the $40, however? As a survival fan, absolutely, it is a 7/10 experience that I don’t regret for a moment. Just maybe avoid it if you don’t have the time or patience to learn it. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Empyreal PS5 Review

Empyreal on PS5 is an action RPG, which I think is fair to call a soulslike, that doesn’t tell you that’s what it is. Secret Mode sent me a copy of this to check out, and I had a great time playing it. They also did a great job lulling me into a false sense of security.

The game starts out with a letter explaining to a young man that he is inheriting a family mission. To explore a monolith full of treasure and secrets. This results in us fast-forwarding to the present day, when you, an elite mercenary, show up to search the monolith that everyone else has failed to truly discover the purpose of.

You start off meeting some people who honestly aren’t thrilled to meet you, except the bartender. The man in charge sends you through the front door of the place, but doesn’t bother telling you that the place essentially spits you back out after you get through the hallway.

The game employs a card system where you enter the monolith, and it informs you if the area is Very Easy, Very Hard, or somewhere in between based on your gear score. The look of the game is to enter the place, find stuff to upgrade your gear, and challenge new places. This moves the story along and lets you find new gear and upgrade certain shops and NPCs.

Unlike most games of this type, where skill means more than gear, they took a very different approach here. If you aren’t upgrading your gear, rerolling stats, and abilities, you will find yourself dead and having to go back to easier places to grind for gear. The first couple of hours, this doesn’t seem all that necessary until you notice the bosses and such getting a bit harder. Then the levels, which do not have a map, start taking more out of you as you have to explore more and more.

The game itself is a ton of fun; it looks and plays great. It isn’t going to match games like Dark Souls, obviously, but it has a nice sci-fi feel to it, and you aren’t limited to a sword. You can smash enemies with a shield or blast them with a /huge gun. The game is definitely a 7/10 experience. The price is $30, so I might wait for a sale if you are on the fence, but if it is something you are definitely looking forward to, feel free to pull the trigger. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.