Recent reviews by LVL

To put it simply, Prodeus is the Doom 3 we never got.

It's a fast paced, bloody, and brutal FPS with excellent level design and a host of familiar enemies that explode like blood bags with every shot. There isn't a weak or boring gun in the game, even the basic pistol slaps. And the music... holy ♥♥♥♥ the music.

Basically, if you like singleplayer FPS games in the vein of Doom, Prodeus is a must play. Even if you're not into Doom, it's just an incredible game with a really bright future. The level editor is very robust and players can create their own campaigns. So even if the main campaign doesn't fully satisfy, there will be an endless sea of player-made levels and campaigns to try out. Heck, make your own if you want.

Bottom line, Prodeus is a solid game that I can't recommend enough. If you're on the fence, just buy it. It's worth your money even in Early Access.

The Mean Greens is the kind of game that's perfect as a causal night with friends kind of game. It's fun, colorful, simple, and not weighed down by shortsighted aspirations of eSports fame. More importantly though is the devs are clearly behind their product 100% as every update they've made to it has improved it one way or another. As it is now it's perfectly playable, runs great, is easy to find a match in, and the party systems works well enough. Overall I'd say you're not going to sink hundreds of hours in The Mean Greens, but you'll have fun, espeically when you play with friends.

Firewatch is the kind of game that not everyone is going to enjoy. It's an excellent, wonderfully crafted experience that plays out almost like a visual mystery novel. It's got great characters, solid voice acting, is well written and directed, and overall is just a joy of a game.

Where I think it might lose people in how it's less of a "game" than you might expect. Like Gone Home, much of Firewatch is played via picking things up and looking at them. There's no shooting big foot or galavanting around the game world looking for NPCs to talk to. It's a simple game with a core set of intentions that it excutes exceptionally well on, especially given how small the development team is.

In the end you're getting your money's worth with Firewatch. It's a beautiful game that takes you on a fun journey through an interesting and quintessentially human story.

For a 2D sidescroller to get my attention it has to be something special. 2D games like Mark of the Ninja, Risk of Rain, and The Binding of Isaac stand out to me because they offer a unique dimension to the otherwise flat world of indie games. So many 2D games depend on gimmicks or aesthetics for their depth, Oblitus’s strength is it’s solid mechanics, fluid controls, and hardcore nature.

The common comparison to Dark Souls is a good one as Oblitus feels like a lighter version of the fabled soul crusher of jolly cooperation. While Oblitus does stand on its own as a unique creation, its combat will be instantly familiar to any Souls’ player. Considering how good the combat is in the Souls’ games, I’d say that’s a big win for Oblitus. And unlike other 2D sidescrollers, death actually matters in Oblitus as dying puts you back to the main menu, not a checkpoint.

The procedurally generated levels are more similar to Risk of Rain’s than a truly random system, with the bulk of the level’s layouts and enemy placements being either fixed or chosen from a set of various possibilities. While every life might not come with a totally unique game world experience, the variety is enough that you’ll be learning something new about the nuances of each possible level combination for several playthroughs. The randomized power-ups and abilities also force you to approach each life with a slightly different set of tactics while still keeping the gameplay experience consistent and predictable.

Oblitus is also the kind of game that speed runners are going to love. It’s hardcore nature, fluid combat, and the variability of the level design and power ups lend themselves to going for new personal bests over and over without the experience becoming dull. Oblitus is also a fairly short game that’s likely beatable in a couple of hours or so, if not less, for someone who’s beaten it a few times. Length might be a point of contention for some players, but I think it serves Oblitus well. It’s a simple game and trying to stretch it out for 10 or 15 hours of gameplay per life would have greatly detracted from how enjoyable an experience it is. Add in the great soundtrack that creates a very lush atmosphere and Oblitus is the kind of game you’ll find yourself playing off and on constantly.

My only complaint is Oblitus having a locked resolution of 720p and hardcoded 60FPS framelimit. However, I see these more than anything else as just one of those things that’s going to be a sticking point for some people who let it distract them from how great Oblitus is The game stretches to fullscreen without too much of a negative impact and it feels butter smooth.

All things considered, Oblitus is a great 2D sidescroller that stands out from the crowd in all the best ways. It’s fresh, fun, and best of all, good.

Take this review with a grain of salt as I only played Project Zomboid for a few minutes before getting bored/frustrated by it's awkward gameplay and controls.

This is one of those games that you can tell has a lot of promise and potential, but in it's Early Access form, it is by no means a $15 game. Everything about it feels unfinished and detracts greatly from getting into the game. Obviously, this is to be expected given it is essentially an alpha, but if the point of an alpha/beta is to test the game it should be polished enough to not be frustrating 5 or 10 minutes in.

I enjoy survival games, I love games like PoE and Torchlight 2. But PZ just isn't playable to me, despite how much it draws from the aforementioned games/genre. My recommendation is to wait until the game is more playable before purchasing it as getting into it requires a big leap of faith and a very even temper.