Recent reviews by Sorting Algorithms

CliffyB leaving Epic when Fortnite was in development only to wind up helming a shameless knockoff of Fortnite has to be one of gaming's great self-owns.

The mouse-based, UI-free interface takes a bit to get used to. But it's worth it, because this is basically a good, authored version of No Man's Sky where you "only" have six vast planets to explore and exploit with no combat and minimal environmental hazards. Being able to dynamically tunnel to the mantel of a planet in real time, setting up an automated farm to power my generators, turning a tractor into a dirt harvester to feed my centrifuge, there are so many fun pure experiences. Just be aware this is definitely the type of game you play while listening to podcasts if you're playing solo.

Graveyard Keeper is presented as a dark Stardew-like but it lacks the basic daily rhythm that holds games like that together. The passage of time is functionally meaningless, there are only days of the week no seasons or calendar. There are only a few characters and the writing is so first draft that the local celebrity is named Ms Charm and your graveyard ghost is named Yorick. The tone is a mess, your talking donkey wants to unionize and then you participate in a witch burning and sell human meat as food. Characters constantly reference a big city and there's even a route to it in your town, but the game just kills you if you try to go. The zombie automation is very slipshod and still requires a lot of finessing. This is a boring and frustrating experience that looks like something it isn't.

Also there isn't a single non-white person in the entire game. Given that we now know the CEO of Lazy Bear is a Grummz fan it's hard not to read that as sinister.

As someone with a background in education, the way that this game is designed so you intuit the rules of the various puzzles without any written instructions or guides can be breathtaking at times. Jonathan Blow is a terrible person but he made a fantastic game here, The Witness isn't any more opaque or pretentious than Myst it just quotes real world texts instead of fictional ones.

"we firmly believe in the power of community-informed development"
-Hinterland Studio's store page for the early access sequel to this game

"We’ve heard that some of you don’t like it.
I like it, I believe in it, and it fits into my future plans. Don’t expect a “redux”.
-Hinterland's CEO throwing a temper tantrum about negative reviews of this game

Not giving me confidence in the sequel!

If you want to know why the story in this game fell off a cliff: Marianne Krawczyk, the accomplished professional writer who was listed on the original Kickstarter for the game, is now only listed as an outside consultant in the game's credits. Instead, the only credited writer is the CEO of Hinterland, Raphael van Lierop, who is also the director and the person who laid off a good chunk of their staff a few months ago. It really paints a picture of what working for him must be like!

UPDATE: They banned me for criticizing the game saying it was a violation of spoiler policy to call the game bad without actually referencing or spoiling any specific plot points or reveals. Really feeling that Canadian pride right now.

Ignore the degenerate gamblers mad that their coin pusher simulator of choice is different now, this bizarre friendly robot island survival sim is so much better now that there's actual progression and investment income to ease the early tedium. There's still a lot of jank that actively interferes with the parts outside the coin games (sadly by design if the dev notes about begrudgingly fixing collision on mailboxes are anything to go by), but overall this is a fun and unique experience on top of being a great collection of classic ticket redemption arcade games.

Sincerely one of the worst adventure games I've ever played. Its One Joke is that the main character is a huge ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and every scenario is just an excuse for him to be a jerk and do outrageous things to people. Even if they're giving it away for free, it's not worth it.

This is a fantastic game but I can't give a positive review to a PC game that locks modding capability behind registering an account with the publisher.

I could never get far in either System Shock despite being a huge fan of the genre, but I've played through Prey multiple times and keep returning to it. My only real complaint is that the final act of the game drags with repetitive combat encounters, everything up until then is about the peak of freeform immersive sim games.