Forgot to post about it yesterday, but I guess I had some other post ideas going instead, so I’ll drop some reviews with the addition of today’s games since this week is quite loaded for me with new stuff.
IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator
PVKK-like that happened faster than PVKK, not implying anything, just think that amount of exposure and hype PVKK got will define the genre name, at least saw that in my chat already. Great game, I did really enjoy the demo during the Next Fest and devs were also super nice and responsive agreeing to participate in my Showcase and provided press kit for that too. From what I’ve heard game keeps adding some cool challenges and interesting missions all the way through, so shooting big cannon doesn’t get old and you need to work with your head decent amount too.
Static Dread: The Submarine
Another Next Fest demo that I enjoyed became a released game that I’m still enjoying, also demo progress carried to full version – nice little extra detail. Static Dream Lighthouse I did finish and enjoyed a lot, this one continues same story and same vibe, but now with a bit more “action” and you can see that budget is higher now too, you love to see it! Might go for a full playthrough with this one even, just need to find time.
Low-Budget Repairs
Polish renovation simulator, but timeline is also super close to Soviet Union fall, so there are many slavs who will be familiar with the game’s setting. If you understand Polish a little it adds to the experience for sure, had voice acting in Polish and text in English. Saw people complaining in Steam Reviews that all the cool stuff in the trailer you barely get to see and it’s quite hand holdy with character who guides you. Personally considering that character’s writing, voice acting and memes he hand holds you in – I’m not even mad, but again that was a pretty quick look like pretty much everything I play on First Look Friday. I do feel like a lot of humour might be lost in translation seeing and hearing the difference between text and voice, so it might ruin the experience for someone not familiar with slav life. If you can recognize some interiors in the game and understand at least part of what is said, then you probably will have some fun.
Night Spasm
RPG Maker experience in a nutshell, couldn’t get full screen to work, control scheme on keyboard is weird and game lets you access the setting when you are over 1 hour in. Was sponsored to play it, full disclosure. Game is a passion project that is going for a while and they did in my opinion go for a wrong move trying to repurpose their Steam Page where game was available for free into paid version. Ended up having issues for some people with accessing new paid content that took some time to sort out (initially planned to do the stream on Monday). Looking at old reviews number being still stuck there the same I guess game just didn’t get any algorithm boost, because technically it was released in 2020 and it’s just a patch now. Just some data and knowledge to take away for people in similar situation, probably better to leave free page be with some prologue then and release new paid stuff on a separate page. OST has some bangers, other than that 2 hours were totally not enough to get anywhere in such game, a lot of usual RPG Maker things and writing so far seemed decent, supposed to have some meta narrative and unusual twists. If you don’t like RPG Maker games, then better skip, otherwise check it out.
Stars Reach happened earlier this week, but that I will cover in more detail later, can just say that I’m enjoying my time with it despite all the issues.
Next week should have quite a bit of new games too, so more small reviews coming!