Tag: Reviews

Factory Magnate was sent my way by Indie IO, which is always appreciated. To be honest, you are going to see some strong opinions about this from every direction, and I understand why. My first real factory building game of this sort was Factorio. ( You can see my Switch review here) If you are looking for something in-depth, you are very much looking in the wrong place. My original review did contain some misinformation about the ability to copy and paste entire sections. If you look at the comments, a Dev was kind enough to correct this, and as such, I have corrected it. This can be done quite simply by checking your keybindings and using those.

What the game does have is a very easy-to-learn flow to it, and no enemies. It is a very cozy factory builder at a low price point. Less than $10, so if you have always wanted to get into these games but were afraid of wasting your money, Factory Magnate is a fantastic entry point.

The game quite literally starts you out with simply mining copper and selling it. From there it will show you how to turn it into copper ingots and sell those. From there will show you how to make things like copper sheets and wires, and combine those with silicone and make other things to make money.

The only challenge in this game is setting up your factory in such a way as to avoid backing up your conveyor belts and locking up your money flow. This is a great introduction to the systems in all of these games. I have changed my score to reflect this new information, since the quality of life things aren’t missing like I originally thought. The game is an 8/10 title for everyone. It is a great title to learn the genre, or simply to relax with for veterans. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Void Salvage Steam Review
• No Rest. No Peace. Guns of Eschaton reveals new trailer confirming 2026 launch
• Mortal Shell 2 PlayStation 5 Review
• Night of the Living Deadpool
• Marvel’s Spiderman 2

Bus Bound is the newest bus driving simulator sent my way by Saber Interactive, a company that if you love driving simulator you undoubtably have played one of their games. This time around they are tackling driving city busses. What you may not know about good ole Savior is I spent some time a a school bus driver at one point. So if this game is bad, or these buses don’t feel like busses, I will know quickly.

The first thing you do is get a tutorial, and they quickly explain you won’t be dealing with ticket fairs. Great move Saber, I hated this in other bus simulators. There is just no way to do this without greatly slowing down the flow of the game, and having rode many busses most people pay with exact change anyway and the few buttons I have seen drivers hit require next to no time. Saber chose to explain it as the company gets paid through grants or taxes or something.

Graphically the game is beautiful. A couple times I almost hit a few things because as you reach milestones the city will upgrade and I was taking in the sights and forgot to hit the breaks. This brings me to how you are rated, in real time, by passengers. If you drive well, slow down for speed bumps ( keep it under 10 MPH ladies and gents) and stop at stop signs and don’t speed they will make positive comments, give you a thumbs up, give you multipliers and stops will upgrade faster and even help you get new busses. Slamming on the breaks, speeding, hitting speed bumps hard and other assorted violations will do the opposite.

This was always going to be the big selling or killing point for me however. Does it feel like driving a bus, and how is traffic? Well I am going to let you in on a secret, when you are driving a bus other drivers always seem like idiots, because they don’t realize how big a bus actually is an how hard it is to see them sometimes. They also don’t realize those things don’t stop or really turn a fast as their smaller cars, so when they whip in front of you or cut you off, it gets stressful because if there is an accident, the other person will die, and you in the bus will be fine. And we will have to live with that knowledge. The traffic in this game basically acts like real traffic does, and I like that. As for how the bus controls, it isn’t perfect but damn is it close. Busses need wide turns, but they are modern so they don’t feel heavy and clunky, just like modern busses. They don’t stop fast, but they jolt a bit, just like modern busses. My only complaint every bus feels similar, and that isn’t realistic. Even two of the same model school bus feels a bit different. The game is still a 8/10 title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Void Salvage Steam Review
• No Rest. No Peace. Guns of Eschaton reveals new trailer confirming 2026 launch
• Mortal Shell 2 PlayStation 5 Review
• Night of the Living Deadpool
• Marvel’s Spiderman 2

Sudden Strike 5 was sent my way by Kalypso Media, a company I always enjoy working with. If you are unfamiliar with this series, Sudden Strike 5 is a real-time strategy game that will allow you to fight through various battles from different sides of World War 2.

For example, the first battle as the Nazi’s will see you sending paratroopers down in an attempt to take over certain spots on a map where you can resupply before taking over the cities on the map. This will require some strategy on your part, as you will be outnumbered and outgunned. You can take over some abandoned equipment and call in air support when needed, admittedly, only a limited number of times.

While moving your troops will march in formation if you tell them to, which is a very nice touch that even today many of these types of games are missing. I really only have one major complaint about the game, and it isn’t the sound, which is great. It also isn’t the visuals, which, while I feel the infantry characters could pop out a little better, so they would be easier to pick out, this isn’t a huge issue. No, the game is visually great.

My biggest issue is that what passes as a tutorial is just horrible. This takes what should be an enjoyable, difficult real-time strategy game and creates an unapproachable nightmare for many. Don’t get me wrong, the game is great if you are a veteran of these types of games because you will be able to work it out, but that shouldn’t be a prerequisite to playing it. No, I am not saying make the game easier; I am saying teach people how to play your game. This is a 7/10 title that probably should have been much better. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Void Salvage Steam Review
• No Rest. No Peace. Guns of Eschaton reveals new trailer confirming 2026 launch
• Mortal Shell 2 PlayStation 5 Review
• Night of the Living Deadpool
• Marvel’s Spiderman 2

Ash & Adam’s Existential Treads was sent my way by the people over at Game Taste. I always appreciate working with new people and companies.

To start, I don’t truly know how to explain this game. You start by building a small settlement, then building towers to defend it. You do this in a sort of post-apocalyptic world filled with old buildings. This is how you gather resources: you destroy these with your tank.

After they fall, your little helpers will run and grab parts to build new buildings, which can be used to upgrade things like your ammo or your defensive towers. Work fast because every so often, you will be attacked by waves of enemies. In between these waves, and while building your settlement, you will need to find the towers they come from so you can destroy those towers.

This is the game loop in a nutshell. Once you destroy all the towers, you are given a cannon to launch yourself to the next island. You can keep a helper permanently, which gives you a bonus to things like how fast your tank moves or how fast the first 6 people will move to collect things.

This is around the time I would tell you the graphics are nice, and it sounds good, which is all true. Then I would tell you the problems with the game. Then I ran into a problem. I couldn’t find any outside of one. The game is just a little too short. I’ve never given a perfect score, and I have only given out a handful of near-perfect scores. This is a 9/10 game. I can’t give you a single reason you won’t love this game, except I feel like they should have added a few more islands. Go pick this one up. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Void Salvage Steam Review
• No Rest. No Peace. Guns of Eschaton reveals new trailer confirming 2026 launch
• Mortal Shell 2 PlayStation 5 Review
• Night of the Living Deadpool
• Marvel’s Spiderman 2

City State: Medieval is one of those games I am glad to have been sent by Indie Io. I would also like to say I spent dozens of hours mastering its systems, conquering the three different lords you can play as, and being a badass at City States Medieval.

If I were the type of person to lie to you, I would say these things. The truth is, I spent hours playing a game I enjoyed, and that rightfully sits at positive reviews on Steam. While graphically, it won’t be winning any awards, the music is nice, and the game loop is great.

I enjoyed the fact that you have different city sizes to deal with that were better at different things. For example, bigger cities are better for hosting military buildings, while Hamlets are much better for your resource buildings and such. The ability to enter them and actually guide how this is done is also a nice touch. The combat is another place where the game truly shines. You can’t simply build a ton of one unit or a few overpowered units and expect to win. Trust me, that is how I lost at first.

You will need to understand that backing up foot soldiers with archers is basically mandatory. This is all alongside the fact that trade is the name of the game here. Without that, your city-states are sunk. By making the game smaller in scope to a single city-state to run, they have made the game much better in many ways, and at around $15, the game is a great 8/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Void Salvage Steam Review
• No Rest. No Peace. Guns of Eschaton reveals new trailer confirming 2026 launch
• Mortal Shell 2 PlayStation 5 Review
• Night of the Living Deadpool
• Marvel’s Spiderman 2

Above the Snow was sent my way by the fine people at Wandering Wizard, which is always appreciated. The game has a cool premise: you play as a man being sent to join a shelter crew to run a run-down ski resort and make it the best resort possible. You hate it, but your options were that or prison.

The people up here all seem to be pretty damn shady, honestly. The story is truly pretty unique for this type of game. How the rest of the game translates is really going to come down to the individual player. The game is, in many ways, Baby’s First Management Game when you play it on the lowest difficulty setting. The story will walk you through everything you should be doing.

I don’t mean this as an insult; you are free to ignore it and do other stuff when you want. This is a cozy game after all. Even with all the usual elements of a management game, they managed to make it stress-free if you want it to be. Well, sort of, the user interface needs a ton of work. I love the look of it, but it can be buggy at times. There are also some quality-of-life updates needed. Why can’t I set up a task in advance?

I do love the characters; however, they are just fun and interesting. While the game won’t be for everyone, there is a reason with 250 reviews, it sits at mostly positive reviews. This is a 7/10 title that I can see a few updates pushing higher up there. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Void Salvage Steam Review
• No Rest. No Peace. Guns of Eschaton reveals new trailer confirming 2026 launch
• Mortal Shell 2 PlayStation 5 Review
• Night of the Living Deadpool
• Marvel’s Spiderman 2

Reptilian Rising was recently released on Steam, and Numskull Games was nice enough to send me a copy. The thing to know about Reptilian Rising is that you shouldn’t take a deep dive into the story. It isn’t supposed to make sense, kind of like when you play Dungeons and Dragons with your friends and the bard wants to seduce the dragon, and your other friend wants to donate weapons and drugs to the orphanage.

The story is simple: a bunch of reptiles from another time invade, and the only way to stop them is for the greatest heroes from all of Earth’s history to gather and kill them. You can see how it falls apart quickly when you start asking how Winston Churchill is going to kill a T. rex, right? Right, glad you are going with me on this one. It is, however, a lot of fun to watch Albert Einstein kill a triceratops.

Ok, now admittedly, the game has some issues. For example, the combat can be slow at times, and it can be quite janky. It definitely needed some more polish for the price they are asking. This is honestly where my issue with recommending it comes in. The game isn’t bad, and it is quite unique; it many times feels like something you would play with your friends in the basement at a table, which I am sure is what they were aiming for.

The real issue is a $30 game being maybe 10-15 hours long, while having so many issues, from camera angles and things being blocked by the UI, while minor issues just seem hard to justify for me. This is a 6/10 title that, while a good pick up on sale, I can’t recommend with a clean conscience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Monster Crown: Sin Eater is the newest game in the Monster Crown series, and Red Art Games was nice enough to send me a copy of this one early. I always appreciate this, and they are quickly becoming a joy to work with.

Now I don’t want to give anything away or spoil anything, that has never been my thing, but right out the gate, I do want to warn you that if you go into this thinking this is a Pokémon clone like Nexomon, you will be in for a shock. The game deals with far more complex and adult issues. It isn’t anything you haven’t seen in games before, but things will die in front of you on screen, and there is a sort of religious tone to things. Not in a mocking tone or preaching tone. It is just something that exists in the world.

So while your main character is out on his quest, which I won’t discuss for spoiler reasons, he will be creating pacts with monsters and even demons. There is, of course, the usual rock, paper, scissors type battle system where one type of attack is good against one type of monster, and so on and so forth. What makes Sin Eater so complex is that while your levels matter, you won’t be “evolving” your monsters. See, monsters aren’t so much viewed as companions in this world, tho some certainly are, they are quite literally viewed as monsters to be used as tools. People breed them to create new monsters, and you can fuse two together to create a new monster that will average out the levels of the monsters you used. The game even keeps track of which generation the monster is for you.

This brings me to my one and only issue with this game. I thought we, as gamers moved past the concept that grinding is what made games hard? Every time I breed monsters yea they get stronger, but I have to level them up from level one all over again. Yes, there are items you can buy to make this go faster, but they are kind of expensive, and they aren’t exactly unlimited. This definitely killed much of the fun in what should have been the best part of the game for me. It is still a 7/10 game for me, and one I plan to spend even more time with. It is definitely a viable alternative to Pokémon for those who want a more adult story and more of a challenge. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Void Salvage Steam Review
• No Rest. No Peace. Guns of Eschaton reveals new trailer confirming 2026 launch
• Mortal Shell 2 PlayStation 5 Review
• Night of the Living Deadpool
• Marvel’s Spiderman 2

Under Par Golf Architect hit PlayStation 5 recently, and Broken Arms Games was nice enough to send me a copy to check out. Don’t worry if you have no clue how to play golf, this is a game about builing an running a golf course. The game assumes you can’t really do that and will teach you how, and more importantly, it grades each aspect of the holes as you build them independently. You will discover fast what you are good at and what you aren’t good at, and hopefully, how to fix it.

The game is also really good about not tossing it at you too fast. It won’t be asking you to build 18 holes right out of the gate. The first area starts with placing down your clubhouse, building a hole or two, and opening your course. From there, it will teach you how you can use your avatar to play on your holes and how to place things like benches and water fountains. There is also very little guesswork involved in this, since the game will show you the effective range of these as you place them. This is something I wish more of these games would do.

This is the entire flow of the game: make customers happy so they return, take their money, and they become better customers. This is represented by them having ratings from bronze to silver or higher. There is a story involved, but truth be told, I wasn’t too interested in the guy who kept showing up. I think he was the mayor, but he seemed like kind of a dick.

The important part is that the game functions extremely well on consoles, and the graphics are cute. I really enjoyed watching people yell about all my sand traps. The game is an 8/10 experience for people who enjoy business simulators and designing things. It truly felt like an old Theme Park type title. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

• Void Salvage Steam Review
• No Rest. No Peace. Guns of Eschaton reveals new trailer confirming 2026 launch
• Mortal Shell 2 PlayStation 5 Review
• Night of the Living Deadpool
• Marvel’s Spiderman 2