Recent reviews by frontman12

My Experience

Fretless is a wonderful little RPG-lite with turn-based combat. You’ll play as Rob, an aspiring musician, who has to stop the machinations of the evil record exec Rick Riffson. Your “weapons” are instruments, each of which has three mod slots to allow you to tailor them to how you’d like them to function in combat (different strings or pickups on the guitar, for instance). Every instrument has a selection of riffs (attacks) that you can choose between, and riffs can also be upgraded using materials that you find in the world. I liked the sounds of the riffs themselves, and really felt like I was bringing the funk with my bass. Deciding which riffs to equip and upgrade almost gives the game a “deckbuilding” element. In combat, you’ll select three riffs to play on each of your turns, and you can power up your offensive riffs by timing a button press. You’ll want to time this button press to match with a brief switch in the color outlining your character. After hitting enough of these power-ups correctly (through multiple combats), you gain access to a “crescendo” attack that resembles a rhythm game. The more of the notes you hit during the crescendo, the higher the damage of the attack. Lastly, you have access to three “pedal” slots that further enhance your build (distortion or wah-wah pedals on the guitar, for instance). I loved coming up with builds I could use to take out the musical-themed baddies that came my way. Although I used bass for the majority of the game, an enemy called the Bell Snail in the Tunedra area of the game required me to briefly pivot to synthesizer and learn a new mechanic. Each instrument has its own mechanics that you’ll want to understand to maximize your effectiveness. I loved spending time in the charming pixelated world of Fretless, and it works perfectly on the Steam Deck.

My Experience

Perhaps three years ago, myself and two friends put together a list of our 15 favorite games of all-time, sharing them over text. Although I cheated a bit and actually made a list of 16, the original Door Kickers was among them. One friend was quick to exclaim, “dOor KiCkErS!?” - but I can’t help it, I love these games. I’ve been waiting for a while to dig my teeth into Task Force North, as I waited until the game’s full release and it’s been in Early Access since 2020. One of my favorite things about the “stop and go” tactics gameplay (as I call it) is the oscillating tension. Things are completely calm as you pause the game and draw out the plan for each of your squad members: go here, open this door, throw a flashbang, pause until I give you the go ahead, move in, check the corner, clear the room, etc. But when we unpause and hit go, all hell breaks loose. Sometimes there’s a corner you forget to check, sometimes an enemy is entrenched in extensive cover you didn’t anticipate, and sometimes there’s even a mounted gun at the end of a long hallway you’ve neglected to scope out completely. Your squad members can go down very quickly, but levels are quick and easy to restart (a streamer on YouTube, “His Excellency King Derp,” has a playlist where he completes each level in under 60 seconds). Some of my favorite things about Door Kickers 2 are providing overwatch coverage with my marksmen as my shotgun specialists close the distance, and creating new ingress routes with my powerful breaching charges (that also flatten any enemy combatants unlucky enough to be in the vicinity). I remember one hostage rescue level entitled “Fire Sale,” that required myself and my co-op partner to assault an occupied car dealership. If we were seen, hostages would begin getting executed. After a number of stealth failures and deaths (of both the hostages and my squad), we finally got our into position, six marksmen looking into the glass windows of the dealership from various angles. We paused the game, toggled our squad to “weapons free,” unpaused, and watched as the entire enemy force was eliminated in a matter of seconds. We were both speechless, only being able to mutter a “Ooh” - it was one of the most exhilarating gaming moments I’ve ever experienced.

My Experience

A friend of mine called me up and said, “Hey, have you heard of this game And Roger?” I hadn’t, but as he gave me the elevator pitch I knew it was something I wanted to see. The game explores the reality of dementia, a condition shared by 6 million Americans (according to the NIH), and explores the perspective of an individual with dementia as well as that of the partner/caretaker of such an individual. The gameplay is meant to approximate the reality of a person living with dementia, where even simple tasks can become confusing and complicated. While I can’t attest to the gameplay’s accuracy, I did find it both convincing and moving. As a result, I nominated the game for Steam’s “Most Innovative Gameplay” award. While the game is indeed sad, and I felt the need to divide its short one-hour playtime into two play sessions, it didn’t feel in any way emotionally exploitative to me - it simply felt human, and made me think of my lovely grandmother Ruth, who suffered from dementia and passed away in 2012.

My Experience

I bumbled into this one looking at 2025 releases with the “RPG” tag. What immediately caught my attention was the game’s vibe and hand-drawn art (done with love by solo developer Rap2h). The care and attention put into each scene was evident, and made the game’s world delightful to explore. I nominated this game for Steam’s “Outstanding Visual Style” award. The point and click exploration was very engaging, and I was often rewarded with an interesting interaction or a new location for my party to explore when clicking on random things in the environment (grates, holes in trees, etc.). Although the turn-based combat is quite simple, it also serves its purpose and allows you to deploy the unique skillsets your characters develop. As you explore you’ll locate trainers and spell vendors, and you can even evolve your characters into entirely different classes. It took me slightly more than six hours to finish my playthrough, so it’s certainly not a large time commitment for an RPG if you’re interested in checking it out. I imagine I’ll return to it at some point to experience some of the classes I didn’t see during my initial romp.

My Experience

Goodnight Universe is a wonderful, heartfelt sci-fi story with a novel eye-tracking mechanic (similar to that of the developer’s previous release Before Your Eyes). However, it also felt to me like a profound meditation on the relationship between the body and the mind. Minimizing spoilers, Goodnight Universe is about a higher intelligence in the body of a baby. The baby’s body still responds to things that babies tend to respond to, and there are times that this higher intelligence simply needs to relax and allow the body to exist rather than impose its will on it. Although the Cartesian divide between the body and mind feels less relevant the more we learn about neuroscience (you might’ve heard the familiar factoid that the gut produces more neurotransmitters than the brain), this model still feels useful to me. I’m an overweight man that can spend hours and hours playing games, regularly eating many more calories than necessary. While at one point in my life I was athletic (I played sports growing up and basketball in high school), I struggle now to establish a regular exercise routine and to find physical activities that I enjoy doing. At the same time, I know that consuming fewer calories and exercising regularly will improve my performance in all domains of my life. The higher intelligence finds that it must care for the body it finds itself in and learn to listen to what it needs, which is a heartrending sentiment for someone like myself with so much internalized body hatred.

My Experience

From about 2003-2009, I lived and breathed Magic the Gathering. I had over a dozen physical decks, something like 40 decks on Magic the Gathering online, and also I helped friends of mine improve their creations. I had never played anything like Magic the Gathering before, and deck creation fascinated me. “How many lands do I need? How can I balance getting the colors I need? How many copies of this card should I put in to ensure that I have one at this point in the game? Do I need other cards to help me get that one?” Whenever I ran into someone who hadn’t played, I’d always describe it like this: “Have you ever played Street Fighter 2? What character do you like to use? Well, you know how that character has a set of moves they can do? What if you got to pick all of their moves, and you picked from thousands of them!” I had a sickness, and I would design decks that I never planned on actually making to help me manage anxiety when I was in college. Although I haven’t played Magic in many years, I still look back with fondness on those years of my life. Anode Heart: Layer Null is the closest thing I’ve experienced to Magic in a long time. You’ve still got colors (10 instead of 5!) and creature types (called “Tama” in the game), but rather than instants, sorceries, and enchantments, you’ve got apps, patches, and viruses (Anode Heart has this compelling digital world that it takes place in). The main differences between it and magic are 1) a “firewall” that appears between you and your opponent prior to combat each round, mostly prohibiting you from affecting each other’s creatures, 2) there are level 1, 2, and 3 Tama, and you must sacrifice a level 1 or 2 Tama to summon a level 2 or 3, respectively, and 3) you equip the found “DNA” of certain Tama to provide your deck with a global effect. By performing certain actions in a match you can earn “shards” that allow you to gain health, discard and draw cards, or damage your opponent’s life directly. These abilities are always available, no matter what deck you are playing. Suffice it to say, I played Anode Heart: Layer Null incessantly until I’d completed the campaign (and even a bit afterwards). It’s easy to purchase the cards you need to complete your deck in the game’s album, and the deck-building section has a tremendously useful search to find certain creature types or mechanics. The icing on the cake for me is that the “shadow” enemies (the game’s primary villains) all play fire element decks (equivalent to MtG’s Red). Red players were always jerks, and it seems like developer Stove Powered Games knows the score.

My Experience

Although I didn’t really catch the RTS “bug” until 2000’s Red Alert 2, I did play the original C&C. I remember liking it well enough - my strongest memories were the live action cutscenes featuring Joseph D. Kucan’s brilliant Kane, and the power of NOD’s Obelisk of Light base defense. This year, I played a few of the missions in the NOD campaign from the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection. Despite being reminded of how awesome the soundtrack is, I soon found myself somewhat irritated with the gameplay. Command & Conquer very much leans into the rock/paper/scissors style of RTS, which isn’t really my preference. It’s wild watching a NOD Recon Bike essentially run out of missiles trying to kill a single GDI minigunner, or watching a battalion of your own minigunners get absolutely decimated by a couple GDI grenadiers. After watching a GDI harvester run over half of my infantry yet again, I was flooded with memories of its preternatural ability to do so. Although I’ve played all of Red Alert 2’s campaigns to completion perhaps three times over the years, I can’t imagine myself returning to Westwood’s first attempt in the future.

My Experience

It's just amazing to reflect on. Rebellion - the same Rebellion that developed Rogue Warrior, with its 29 Metascore - developed this gem. Strange Brigade might best be described as a co-op third-person action/puzzle game. You (and up to three friends) pick a character and attempt to stop the threat presented by the ancient evil queen Seteki.

Most of the game consists of players alternating between horde-like encounters and puzzle encounters, typically with a boss fight thrown in during each of the game's nine levels. Although a few of the horde-like encounters ran a bit too long, the game's pacing is extremely well done. As the game alternates between high-octane, tense encounters, and more calming and cerebral moments, it's easy to sit down and play the game contentedly for long stretches of time without feeling any fatigue with the proceedings.

I had a great time with the game's combat. I used Gracie, who specialized in shotguns, and it was easy to get into a rhythm while taking down various mummies and zombies. The highest tier shotgun shoots relatively quickly, but still must be pumped between rounds. Therefore, it's best to make each shot count. Strange Brigade forces players to be entirely present, paying close attention to the environment. Each arena is littered with traps that must be shot to be activated, and use of these traps is necessary to obtain success. Players are forced into a violent ballet, enticing enemy groups this way and that to maximize the damage of each trap activation. In addition, some traps can only be activated a few times and may have a delay between uses, so you'll need to pay close attention to usage. However, I still had a few irritations. One particular mini-boss enemy charges at the players, and it sometimes seems to be able to maintain charging momentum while changing directions, and will charge around obstacles such as pillars, even if it initially appears to be heading straight for them. The rules for this enemy could appear to be a little inconsistent. Another irritation was the existence of the dynamite-throwing enemies on raised ledges. It could be difficult to deal with these enemies as Gracie (wielding a short range shotgun), and they were incredibly deadly (at least on the hard difficulty). Sometimes they would make an appearance during a boss fight, and this was especially brutal. The game does often spawn explosive barrels beside these enemies for easy elimination, but certain fights will actually contain multiple waves of them.

I also enjoyed the game's puzzles, for the most part. They were not so easy as to be completely trivial, and not so difficult as to break my momentum in moving through the game. Often, puzzle solutions required players to be especially attentive to the environment, finding solutions through windows in the environment, etc. If there is one thing that can be said of the development team's abilities, it is that they can carefully construct an environment and motivate players to notice it. I especially loved the Pipe Dream-esque puzzles, in which players created a route through straight and curved pipes from one node to another. The worst puzzle type that I found were the 9x9 grids that asked players to have all pieces flipped in the correct direction. Shooting different squares in the grid would flip different combinations of pieces. We did not have the patience to figure out which squares were flipped as we changed where we shot, and actually solved none of the puzzles in the game with this design.

Although the puzzles were generally easy, I still did not appreciate the design decision to tie amulet power unlocks to relic location. Outside of your weapon and your grenades, you will also have an amulet ability. Each player seems to have access to different abilities. I started with one that was useful, but perhaps a bit limited. However, my co-op partner did not like his beginning ability (he played as Frank). Unfortunately, to unlock additional amulet abilities, players must acquire "sets" of relics. Therefore, my co-op partner was stuck with his underwhelming ability until we were able to complete a set of relics, which took us a few levels. As you kill enemies, you can collect their souls to charge your amulet, and this is an interesting aspect of the combat. However, if your amulet power is unexciting and/or ineffective, this element is absent. I would prefer that players buy amulet powers, much like upgraded weapons are purchased.

As well as having intuitive puzzles and very engaging combat, the game features a charming, comic book aesthetic and an amusing narrator with an English accent. The narrator hams it up admirably, devising silly alliterative exclamations to couple with enemy entrances. In addition, I like the character designs and environments. You'll find yourself traversing near a pirate ship, a pyramid, through various ruins, and even in the afterlife realm.

As soon as we finished the game, I looked up the DLC content and I believe we're planning to check it out. I also couldn't wait to play the game through again as a different character, and I feel that this is about the highest praise to offer this sort of title. I can't vouch for the single-player experience, but I can recommend playing this game through in co-op without hesitation. Eradicate those spine-chilling spooks!

My Experience

The Council was a wild ride. As many other reviewers have noted, it resembles a Telltale or Life is Strange-type game, but with RPG elements added in. You play a man named Louis who visits the secret island of a rich man named Mortimer. You ostensibly visit to locate your mother, but when you arrive you find that much more is at stake.

When you begin, you'll pick a class (Occultist, Diplomat, Detective). This class gives you proficiency in a certain starting group of skills. You can still take skills from other classes, but you'll have to do that as you progress through the game. I wanted to play as a purely scientific/skeptic Detective and played the first half of the game in this manner. However, certain plot points made this a futile roleplaying exercise.

Due to the way the skill system works (in conversation and in passing), I think I should've simply put one point in every skill, and perhaps get Politics, Occultism, Logic, and Psychology up to a higher level. During my playthrough, however, I neglected certain skills that didn't make sense with the way I wanted to roleplay Louis. You can use your skills to help you with conversations and puzzles. You can use any skill that you have at least one level in; however, if the difficulty of a challenge exceeds your facility with a skill, you'll need to use "effort points" to make up the difference. You start the game with a certain number of effort points already, and you have a maximum you can accumulate. You can regain effort points through consuming "royal jelly" (found scattered around the mansion) or by ending a chapter of the game. You can increase your maximum capacity through locating "pieces of amber" (also scattered about the mansion).

The vast majority of the game, I was teetering between having 0-4 effort points available. I typically used them as soon as I'd accumulated them. The royal jelly consumable is quite plentiful, but consuming too many in a single day gives you some sort of sickness (I never figured out what this does). To cure the sickness, you can use golden elixir (another consumable). Therefore, more difficult challenges in the game would see my Louis just pounding these consumables: royal jelly, royal jelly, golden elixir, royal jelly, royal jelly, golden elixir, etc. This felt as silly as it sounds, but I wanted to do well in the game's skill challenges, and I couldn't really figure out a better way to approach them. There are two other consumables, devil's thorn and Carmelite water. Devil's thorn reveals the immunities and vulnerabilies of whoever you're chatting with, and Carmelite water makes your next skill use cost 0 effort, regardless of difficulty relative to your skill level. Therefore, with Carmelite water, you can succeed at level 8 skill challenges with only 1 level of the associated skill. It's great - I pounded those bad boys too.

Walking around this mansion so much, you'd hope that the audiovisual design would be stellar, and it mostly is. The mansion is incredibly opulent and beautiful, and the creaks of the wood while traversing the halls and taps while walking over tile add a great deal to the player's immersion. Although the environments are gorgeous, I can't really say the same for the character designs. Developer Big Bad Wolf has a talent for making their characters look grotesque, especially Sir Holm (the fella with the white makeup you see in the promotional materials). These guys make old age look like a horror film. Who knows? Perhaps it is. The voice acting is very good, with the exception of Louis (in my opinion). The only people I know who speak English with a strong American accent and then transition to flawless French are unbearably pretentious. I probably would've preferred that Louis just speak English in a French accent - this way I could understand him, but the transition when he spoke French names and titles wouldn't be so jarring. In addition, the voice actress for Louis' mother sounded much younger than the character appeared in-game.

As I mentioned earlier, my decision to be scientific/skeptic Detective wasn't particularly supported by the game's plot. Even so, I would've appreciated more opportunities to deviate from the path laid out before me. You always seem to get an opportunity to turn against a character, but these opportunities are usually more "grand." Therefore, you can choose not to side with a character, but may find yourself completing errands for them beforehand regardless.

I would've appreciated if the game had a bit more relationship-building. More often than not, I found myself engaged with tiresome and exhausting puzzles. The worst offenders were doing bible research (analyzing pictures of apostles and correlating verse and chapter numbers), finding a specific lance (poring through pictures and research to locate the correct one among some 10 or so others), and "organizing the guests" (which takes place in something of a dream sequence). I found myself groaning through the entirety of these sections.

Despite my issues with some audiovisual and gameplay pieces, I did enjoy a good portion of my time with the game. I liked interacting with the different characters and found many of them to be convincing portrayals. The central conflict in the game is an intriguing one, and I found myself invested in the weight of the decisions being made. I've found myself thinking about the game for a number of days after I finished. The key question, as I see it, is whether freedom on a large scale justifies tyranny on a small scale. The game ended quite poorly for my Louis - but looking back, I'm still not sure that I'd do anything differently. It's a strange feeling, but somewhat unique among games I've played. My biggest regret is actually killing Mortimer's bird Waldo (somewhat by accident).

If you enjoy other narrative adventure titles and think it would be interesting for conversations to change based on your character's skills, I think I can recommend The Council. Especially if you generally have more of a tolerance for puzzles than I do.

My Experience

I had a great time with Zamb!, although I probably don't know how to pronounce that title correctly.

First off, I love it when cooperative games give each player a unique role. Cye has powers that he can use during a level, such as lightning orbs and healing circles, and he predominantly serves as a melee brawler. Chrome, on the other hand, can equip and drop up to three types of towers at a time (the majority of which attack enemies), but only has a ranged weapon.

Outside of each level, towers and powers can be upgraded using the points earned when characters level up. Points can be refunded at any time, so you can re-prioritize if need be. Each level has a few challenges - typically, one of these will involve a certain type of "combo." Combos are activated, I believe, when a few enemies are killed after taking damage from both a turret and a power. Different types of combos result from different combinations of turrets and powers. These challenges and the ability to respec at-will encourage players to experiment. However, I was partial to the cooldown tower (which slows and damages enemies) and the laser sniper (which has good range and penetrates through enemy groups).

Certain aspects of the game (outside of the gameplay itself) have a low-budget feel, but that's hardly surprising with such a low-costed game ($2.99!?). I actually think the developers could safely kick the price up a few more dollars. The game features some odd-looking comic book-style panels between levels, which look like they might've emerged from MS Paint. They aren't awful, but character proportions sometimes appear strange.

The other big issue is with some of the achievements and challenges in-game. After completing all of the 15 levels, my co-op partner and I wanted to go after some challenges and achievements. Unfortunately, there are many issues here. Oddly enough, I acquired the achievement for buying all upgrades for a single power ("I've Got The Power!) although I never played with Cye. In addition, there was a challenge in one level for completion without moving a tower once it is placed. We completed the level once, and although I was sure that I hadn't moved a tower, the challenge was listed as incomplete on the score screen. We played it again and I didn't drop any towers at all (and actually popped the "I'm a Big Boy now!" achievement for completing a level without dropping towers) but still the challenge was listed as incomplete. We decided not to pursue these extra challenges if they were bugged.

Other issues include:

• As you take down enemies, you build up a "boost" bar. You can activate your boost to increase the amount of damage you deal. This boost bar depletes extremely quickly, to the point where it doesn't often feel like it's worth messing with.
  
  
• On a few occasions we had difficulty activating our "Zamb!" ability. This ability must be activated by both players at a reactor, and will wipe the screen of enemies. However, if it isn't triggering, you're just standing there hitting X (at least on an XBOX 360 controller) while both you and the reactor take damage.

Although I had a couple issues here and there with meter-based powers and bugs with challenges and achievements, I enjoyed almost every second with Zamb!. If you wanted some replayability, you might even decide to go back through the levels with the other character. A quick tip: levels don't begin until you begin hacking a reactor - therefore, you can usually scrounge up enough resources through destroying red crates to start with a tower on the map.