Recent reviews by PantDev

This thing is a borderline surrealist masterpiece. There's a bunch of weird technical issues that bog it down, and the puzzles are really arbitrary and often have no logical through line, but the animation and overall experience is stunning.

I will say though, yes, it's as technically messed up as others have highlighted. I just love it too much not to give it a thumbs up. Here's some of the stuff I ran into, despite this game being roughly a half hour long if you know the puzzle solutions.

- The cursor became unresponsive the first time I launched the game, which turned out to be due to a controller being plugged in. This game doesn't have controller support, so I don't understand this.
- I had to stop playing halfway through the game, but did not have my progress saved for some reason.
- Many camera behavior issues, causing 4th wall breaks where the camera would pan from one background scene to another instead of cutting.
- Once the game got locked up when I ran out of a room. It just never loaded the next background and I had to reload.
- Many weird issues where for some reason the legs/head would just move without input. Or it wouldn't let me switch between them, causing many later puzzles to be much harder.

To cap this off though, yes, despite all of that, I love this thing. It's small, striking, bizarre, wacky, and beautiful. I will say though, the puzzles are often very obtuse, and I used nearly every hint in the game. I would honestly say this would be even better if it had more animated sequences, more set-pieces, and less puzzles, but regardless, this is a great little art piece.

I'm a die-hard Riven fan, I think I own like 7 copies of the original game, and easily rank it in my top 10 games. I have played all the Myst games to some extent, and a bunch of Myst-likes, but I can't think of anything that comes close to Riven as a whole package. Needless to say, I was anticipating this release.

This is a great remake, and a fascinating sidestep from what they did with the Myst one. In Myst 2021, every puzzle, as far as I can recall, was exactly the same as in the original release. The main differences were alterations to the machinery, art, and how you interfaced with certain elements, like the removal of the dentist chair. It was a pretty standard remake, but it definitely felt off, knowing the art direction of the original release.

Riven did the complete opposite. Instead, if you looked at the screenshots here and weren't intimately familiar with the original, then you'd think you're looking at a 1:1 remake. This gave a false sense of familiarity as a returning player, and it was endlessly fascinating to see every change they made, while being so incredibly respectful to the original art. It gave me the sense that I returned to this place after a long time, and things had changed. I can't speak to how a first time player will feel, but actually exploring these environments seamlessly, with alterations, felt like playing a new Myst game.

I have my gripes, but they're minor.
1. There's a screenshot function that you are encouraged to use in place of taking physical notes, which I usually avoid using because I'm a weirdo who likes busting out graph paper and jotting down a bunch of symbols, but they let you append notes to screenshots and it seemed fine, so I used it throughout the game. In late game though, I noticed that a few of the screenshots of notes I had taken were just slightly blurry or low resolution, and you couldn't even differentiate the symbols because the lines were too thin. So I then had to backtrack, just to take the physical notes that I normally would have, had there not been a screenshot function.
2. This isn't exactly the same game as the original. The art direction is spot on, the atmosphere is perfect, the areas are always familiar, but with all the minor changes in between, it feels like a very different experience. It's hard to explain how it feels to love the original, and play this version. Every change feels thoughtful, though. The broad strokes are there. This is Riven, but it's also a companion piece to Riven.
3. Character models
4. You cannot skip animations like you could when an FMV activated in the original. This makes backtracking significantly slower now, as you're forced to wait for every animation in the game.

I don't know which version I prefer. This is a very good remake, but it's a different game. I honestly think most of the changes in the remake are an improvement, especially in relation to the world-building and feeling of presence, but your mileage will vary based on how much that matters to you. Personally, I've never felt more engrossed in the world of Riven. The expanded areas, the sound design, the respect to the lore, and the love and care put into the simplest things like some barnacles on a structure that dips into the sea, make this impossible not to recommend to returning Riven fans. I also recommend it to newcomers who understand that this is effectively a walking simulator with a bunch of obtuse puzzles, and are on board with that.

Thank you, Cyan, for delivering on something that could have easily never been fully realized. You allowed me to experience Riven fresh again.

Bought this semi-ironically but was still let down somehow. I knew this had a heavy focus on multiplayer, but I just figured that playing it alone would mean progress would be sorta sluggish.

The iconic backrooms imagery of level 1 was over in 10 minutes.
Nothing happened.
I was jump scared a total of 1 time by the player character gasping WAY too loud during an awkward balancing minigame.
One obstacle was a broken ladder, with the missing pieces sitting next to the ladder. Very cool puzzle!

I refunded once I loaded into level 2 and realized that this is a nothing game that is piggybacking off a popular set of trends and not much else. There is no fun here. These positive reviews are very misleading.

Oh also this was like 30gb or something and that's hilarious.

I'm recommending this, but with massive asterisks. I understand this is a free mod, and that years of effort have been poured into it, but I can't ignore the massive glaring issues.

Let's start with the story. I've never been a big fan of these bigger mods that attempt to create this new cast of characters and try to cleanly slot themselves into the existing canon. Regardless, I could forgive that if the story had anything new to say. I haven't been active in the modding community for a while, but it's my understanding that Portal: Prelude has been pretty controversial due to simply trying to tell a new story and doing it poorly. Well here in Portal: Revolution, you get a ***new*** story that retreads every beat of Portal 2, but worse. Never once did I care about this stupid roomba, or his creator, and I care even less that I'm spoiling the final reveal in this review, because it's meaningless lolrandom humor used in substitution for any thought of these characters relations to one another. Yes, the Wheatley analogue is revealed to be a sentient vaccuum cleaner. No, it is not elaborated on or justified in any way. Yes, it is as dumb as it sounds. Oh and it's revealed minutes before the credits roll. Very cool!

Now puzzles are a bit iffy here. The mod goes a pretty unconventional route of not giving you a second portal until you're a considerable chunk through it. Now at first this was welcome and pretty neat, even reworking some early tutorials of Portal 1 in clever ways that felt natural and intuitive. However, this quickly becomes annoying, as not having control of both portals means you're forced into constant backtracking, resulting in a lot of the puzzles feeling like you spend more time traversing the rooms than actually mentally working your way through the puzzle. Pair this with occasionally confusing chamber layouts (especially because of the added noise introduced by the clashing art styles) and you end up with puzzles that you're just happy to be done with, instead of feeling satisfied with the conclusion. And since you go so long without a second portal, the puzzle complexity hinges very heavily on that absence. I regularly would get stuck for a bit, only to quickly realize that the solution depends on something exclusive to having one portal, such as going through a fizzler since your second portal would remain. I have a feeling they thought this was clever and satisfying, but every time I was just annoyed, and I felt like it was a cheap trick. Your mileage may vary. And to end this section, I at least have to acknowledge the new mechanics and the fleshed out pneumatic diversity vents. The vents are neat and expanded on in pretty satisfying and intuitive ways, but I'm fairly certain that I solved some of their chambers incorrectly due to cheese. The other big mechanic introduced was a pair of linked laser cubes, so if you had a laser hit one, it would exit the other. This was a welcome addition, and probably the most refreshing part of the experience. These chambers had a couple of the more satisfying puzzle solutions imo.

Okay, so let's talk maps and atmosphere. Gosh darn are these some nice looking environments. This is the one element that I think Revolution excels at, and I have a feeling that even if we get a definitive P2 mod with a narrative worth paying attention to, that it'll inevitably have less impressive art. From the beginning chambers that introduce more orange/red lighting hues, to the surface that meshes test chambers with natural land formations, etc. There's a lot here to be appreciated, and it's what kept me playing til the end. I feel like there are a few times that the art design got in the way of puzzle clarity, but man I can't deny the sense of presence. There really are times in this mod that feel like you're walking around some form of Portal 3, or an alternate Portal 2. I can't stress enough how much the entire experience is carried by the visual component.

All in all, this mod is worth playing, but if this cost me money, I would definitely change my review to not recommended. Carried by the quality of the maps and visual design, this is certainly a worthwhile time to spend a few hours, but it's not the Portal 3 that a bunch of people will have you believe it to be.

QTEs have never been more fun.
In all seriousness, I've put hundreds of hours into Megamix/Future Tone across multiple platforms, and yup, it's just as fun as ever on PC. If you are reading this, are into rhythm games, but have constantly ignored this title due to the weeb slant, then maybe reconsider.

To provide an actual breakdown of why this game is so compelling to me, it comes down to the way it controls. There are so many rhythm games that I don't enjoy at all because every note is tied to a single input, meaning rapid notes in the same lane will demand one of your fingers to just awkwardly mash the same button quicker than you would ever do naturally while keeping rhythm. This is like telling a drummer to only use his right hand when doing triplets, or for a guitarist to only strum in one direction for consecutive notes. Project Diva, however, has 4 primary notes, or inputs, that correspond to the 4 face buttons on a controller. The thing that's genius about this though, is that they then have those same notes tied to the d-pad on the opposite side of the controller, allowing you to freely delegate which hand should be responsible for any given note. This means you get to naturally "drum" your way through notes that come out in rapid succession, and creates incredibly satisfying note patterns that take full advantage of this system. So if for example, you get the pattern XOXOXYXY, you have a series of X's with either an O or a Y in between, which means one hand can deal with the X input, while the other hand is responsible for the O's followed by the Y's. This puts you in this incredible flow state where you're making split second decisions on how to correctly deal with each pattern that appears, while occasionally throwing you bizarre unnatural curveballs that almost feel like puzzles if you're going for perfect clears on extreme. There's some really wacky patterns that basically demand that you go into practice mode and focus heavily on internalizing those less natural solutions.

Seriously I adore this game. Please normalize playing this so I feel less weird, thanks.

This game is great and if there isn't a sequel at some point I'll be real mad. Genuinely one of the most satisfying and inventive 3d platformer movesets I've ever seen. Sprinkle in cryptic secret hunting, some SCP type nonsense, and a charming layer of juvenile absurdity, and you've got a gem of a little game.

Please buy this game I want more Orbo.

I haven't finished all of the puzzles in this game, not by a long shot, but I just adore the presentation and vibe here. There is no title screen, you just boot into a fictional OS with completely diegetic UI. The entire game is framed as poking around a fictional computer with access to a server, from which you can download a number of smaller games. I know some people hate the forced waiting in between game downloads, but you have a version of solitaire on the desktop from the get-go, which means the very first time you download something, you're forced to interact with something else in the meantime. This enforces the intended pacing of hopping between games in order to make sure things never get stale. I could go in depth on the individual games here, but for the most part, if you like Zachtronics and adjacent puzzle games, you're gonna have something here that clicks with you. There's grid based deduction puzzles in the vein of picross, automated conveyor belt systems controlled by analog synth modules, a model builder where you assemble little mech figurines and paint them, and more. If there's something in the trailer and screenshots that looks compelling to you, then it probably will be.

High recommendation. I feel like I need to mention the inclusion of a more reflex based falling-block puzzle game, and if you're some achievement nut, then you might hate being forced into such a high pressure genre in contrast to the rest of the games chill vibes, but personally I just appreciate the variety.

So I'm not a purist, but I am a longtime fan of the Myst series. I have mixed feelings about a lot of the changes here, but overall I find the experience to be fully enjoyable from start to finish, especially for newcomers that can't get bothered by all the minor alterations to artistic elements.

However... This is one incredibly buggy remake. I have, on multiple occasions, softlocked my game due to glitches that previous versions of Myst didn't have. Not even things that were introduced due to the free movement, but stuff like buttons just suddenly not doing anything, leaving you stuck in a room with no way out. Or, even worse, a bug that prevented me from interacting with the final lever necessary for completing the game on a randomized run. I played through the whole game and then was stuck at a lever that was supposed to do something, but just didn't. For a new player, they'd be confused and assume they'd done something wrong, but no, the game genuinely was unbeatable for my first run.

This is 30$ and it is the least functional version of the game. I can't recommend this in it's current state. Sadly it's already been out for years, so I can't see them fixing this stuff.

This is the first rhythm game since Project Diva: Future Tone that I've thoroughly enjoyed with virtually nothing bad to say. If you're skeptical of the concept, definitely take advantage of Steam's 2 hour grace period, because that's more than enough time for you to know if this game works for your sensibilities. Not sure how to format the rest of my review, so here's a list of everything I appreciate about this, that other games in the genre seem to struggle with.

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- The game gives you instant audio and visual previews of the songs prior to playing them. In some rhythm games this is atrocious, having to load the audio once you hover over a song, meaning you spend way too much time in menus waiting for things to happen. Spin Rhythm XD excels at this by not only giving you immediate audio previews, but also having a miniature preview of the beatmap to go alongside the audio, showing you exactly what you're about to be dealing with.

- Many rhythm games have a pretty glaring issue in regards to easy beatmaps not accurately reflecting the rhythm of the song you're playing. Spin Rhythm XD cleverly sidesteps this issue by having a note type that only requires correct positioning, and doesn't require an input such as clicking or tapping spacebar. This means that even when a beatmap should have rapid fire notes to reflect what's happening in the song, easy difficulties can still have those rapid fire notes. This lets them avoid the disconnect that often happens when you're forced to play easy mode in a game you haven't yet learned.

- The track list is just really solid and varied. This is way more subjective than what I've already said, but the high intensity EDM focused soundtrack just matches the DJ angle they're going for. There's plenty of interesting variations on that type of music though. Definitely listen to the tracklist and form your own opinion of course, but so much of this genre is filled with stuff I don't care for, so this was a refreshing thing to see. Could definitely use more songs, but that's not dogging on the quality of what's there already, because not everything can match the 200+ tracks in Future Tone for obvious reasons.

- The game lets you fail out of a song during gameplay. This seems like a no-brainer, but I've purchased a game or 2 in the past that legitimately don't let you fail a song midway, and instead only determine whether you have failed or not at the end of the song, which means you can just cheese your way through difficult sections without understanding them. Spin Rhythm XD doesn't do anything new in this regard, but if I can hear the end of a song without playing it, then I won't play your rhythm game. Thank you Spin Rhythm devs for not doing something so dumb.

- Has a very detailed UI that encourages improvement. A simple addition of a line graph showing your individual attempts, and what percentage you got on the corresponding attempt, goes a long way. It's just a whole lot of fun replaying a song you tried early on, failing at 22%, and then seeing that line graph go from 22% to 68%, then a sudden 94% when you finally attempted at the skill level required for the beatmap. Even just finishing a song up and seeing the "NEW BEST" text scrolling behind the letter grade is extremely satisfying.

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I've barely scratched the surface in this game, but every single thing I normally take issue with in rhythm games seems addressed here. I love the genre so much, but it feels like every single big name like DJ Max Respect has one or two pitfalls that make me immediately refund and never purchase again. Spin Rhythm XD finally broke that trend for me, and I can't recommend it enough. 10/10 experience all around.

Tethering isn't included in this mod, which was one of the main draws of the base game, and people do nothing but spam rockets at each other. Not fun in the slightest