Recent reviews by Zedrin

The visuals are amazing and well optimized, the writing is witty, gripping, and human and isn't ever obnoxious, and the mixture of real time and turn based elements feels both strongly tactical and skill based in a super satisfying way.

The only complaint I have is sorting through and equipping Pictos (your "gear" pieces effectively that provide you with bonus effects) doesn't give you enough information in the process to avoid overwriting Lumina with the same effects.

It's really damn good. If you wishlisted this, it is worth it even at full price, and is absolutely worth it if there's even the slightest sale.

EDIT: There is one really notable problem: when playing Mouse and Keyboard, inputs for parry and dodging sometimes just completely fail or drop. The game needs to be played via controller to avoid ripping your hair out.

Not a strong recommend, but a recommend nonetheless. It's had a few bugs here and there, but the worst have been patched (mainly the worker bot bugs.)

Astronomics involves you taking some basic equipment, setting up a temporary mining operation on an asteroid, managing your weight on your shuttle and freighter, and then packing up and hauling everything back to the station before the asteroid leaves your mining claim. Despite the timer it's a fairly chill experience and is low-stress.

The only negative I'd really say is manufacturing, a subsystem in the game, feels like an unnecessary time gate. On your freighter, you have a module that allows you to convert some materials into others, however most of these with some small exceptions do not give you any financial edge ($450 of iron and $600 of nickel give you $1050 of steel rods for instance) or reduce the weight. The process is also slow, and while it's operating the resources take up space in your cargo. Usually you just want to start crafting stuff, then nap at a station to sell the final products--which kinda defeats the purpose of it being a facility on board your freighter.

Beyond that, the game's decent, it's pretty honest about what it is, and the devs are attentive to it.

Fun, interesting, and hits a sweet spot on difficulty.

Progression is 100% gear based, and almost all equipment is a sidegrade rather than a strict upgrade. You ideally pick what weapon feels the best to you and covers the damage type you need to counter. The loadout system definitely pulls heavily from Dark Souls, as does the stamina management, but the game is first person and relies more on location-based damage with heavy, deliberate motions.

The two major drawbacks are that the game itself is very slow--movement, attacks, stamina regen, etc. are all very slow. It works ultimately, and is balanced around this, but it definitely feels weighty and sluggish to move about.
And the game itself is short: you can beat it easily in 2-3 hours.

Still absolutely worth the price tag despite the shortness.

Just way too hard. The difficulty curve is a sheer cliff, even after spending an hour going through the starting 10 tutorial dungeons.

Some people like that kind of challenge but for me it feels like bashing your head into concrete.

Unfortunately it's the kind of game where you need to spend some time to really understand how it works, and you can't make a call on whether or not you'll like it until after the 2 hour window is up. The idea with it appealed to me, but I really wish it had a demo or some kind of beginner's dungeon to better ease you into the game--the tutorial dungeon doesn't exactly give you an accurate experience of what the game is like. There's some difficulty options you can adjust to assist, but they're kinda paltry and don't really help you learn the game, and I kinda just got sick of feeling like I wasn't making any progressing in advancing or learning how to play.

Caves of Lore is a turn-based grid-based RPG with some quite charming writing and fantastic character building. Challenges can get tough which encourages you to exploit crazy combos, but they never feel oppressive and cryptic to the point of frustration.

There are a few issues with directions; some objectives are super cryptic, and hints for the quests are very sparse. You really need to make sure you read any books and notes you find, and pay attention to NPC dialogs for hints. I kinda wish there was a faster travel speed, as warping only gets you so far. (I also went a good chunk of the game without telekinesis, which you can acquire from a quest in the central town, and while it's not mandatory to finish, it does make the game way more comfortable.) The game doesn't put any quest markers on your screen, so you gotta rely on the notes you're given.

The menuing is also a bit rough--item navigation, navigating merchant pages, etc. is a little cumbersome.

The story is honestly pretty interesting and well told, but it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, with the implications that your save will carry over to a future title.

Overall, very solid and ABSOLUTELY worth its pricetag.

I've kinda been looking for a "let me do wizard sh**" game and this has helped immensely to scratch that itch.

The open ended design of missions and boss fights is fun--it makes the bosses feel more like a puzzle than just a war of attrition.

The crafting system deserves a special shout-out: material requirements are based on type/class of materials, not specifics, so you can use whatever materials you have on hand, with the stats of the item being determined by the quality of your materials. It's a forgiving system that also lets you remake items or salvage them for a 100% refund, and is a deviation from a lot of crafting mechanics in RPGs that function more like an alternative shop.

The story and VO is really solid and feels like it flows very naturally. There weren't any points that felt contrived to me and it managed to introduce the larger mysteries bit by bit without infodumping.

As far as negatives: sometimes the physics, particularly when climbing moving targets, can be a bit frustrating. You may go flying off unpredictably or jump to a section you weren't inputting. You gradually learn how to work around it, but it's a major annoyance. (If you've played Dragon's Dogma you've definitely encountered this problem before.)
The weapon combat is also a bit sluggish, but you have magic at your disposal, with the intent that you break up your stamina-driven, sluggish weapon strikes with a couple of fire or ice spells. The game subtly encourages you to alternate your approaches: weapon strikes restore magick, while your stamina is free to regenerate while you cast. This isn't always handled the best, as you sometimes just can't use one or the other, but it feels more natural when you can take advantage of it.

Optimization wise, while I have a solid rig build just last year, the game felt a little more resource intensive than it had to be at times, but I only encountered one crash in my entire playthrough, as well as one moment where my FPS dipped and chugged.

Overall, this was a very fulfilling experience and was absolutely worth the price tag and time spent.

I play this game off and on to see how it's progressing.

There's a lot missing, but bits being filled in each time I pick it up with very frequent (albeit small) updates. It's a colony sim with 3D elements and job priority queues, with a big focus on its relationship and likes/dislikes system. You can also take control of your leader and play them in 3rd person for fighting, and use them to handle negotiations and raising affinity. This can be a bit repetitive, but it's still an angle that's not commonly seen in colony sims, so I appreciate it all the same.

It's pretty in-depth and can even get to be pretty tough. It's in a decent state as is, and is worth keeping an eye on if you like colony sim games, but it still has the hallmarks of early access still if that's a concern.

I'm more willing to recommend this as well as Xobermon is very active in the forums and is very receptive to feedback, and is pretty chill. This game genuinely comes off as a labor of love.

Haste is fun, with a couple of flaws. After it's gotten some bugfixes / patches I'd definitely recommend it, especially if it goes on sale. I've been keeping an eye on it since I saw a gameplay preview year(s?) ago--a clip that showed off The Captain who sadly is no longer playable.

The game handles well and is a wonderful style of play that feels fresh, and the soundtrack is fantastic. Getting into the rhythm of proper landings and maintaining your speed while dodging obstacles is fun. Courses are a race to the end without being overtaken by the fracturing world, and bossfights involve chasing down a large machine while dodging its attacks and lasers, and crashing into its weakspot to hurt it.

As far as things to be aware of, as well as a few scattered criticisms:
1. the roguelite elements are a bit lackluster. Choosing your path through a shard doesn't feel very tactical or major when a lot of the paths are identical. Only occasionally did I actually have to think about which path I wanted to take.
Items are similarly a bit underwhelming, with most just doing one of 3 effects via the same sets of triggers (the effects being heal, gain energy, or gain boost (which is the most important)). There are a few other, rare effects you can acquire, but some are situational or might actively be a detriment (e.g. the Rewind Hourglass can ruin a boss fight for you). Item synergies absolutely exist and can be exploited, though it doesn't feel like a very active process, and most items are just passive stat increases or passive stats disguised as conditional effects. (E.g. a golden loop gives you +10% boost, while a perpetual motion machine gives you 10% boost for 6 seconds every 6 seconds so... basically the same thing?) (There is a rare situation where the latter is better technically.)

2. The dialog and story is a bit stiff and didn't really hook me at all. Haste was originally going to be a multiplayer game, so a lot of playable characters instead were relegated to NPC status, which is unfortunate. Zoe at least isn't annoying or anything, and The Captain did get a few chuckles out of me.

3. The difficulty curve is pretty steep. If you're going for boost items you'll adapt to it better, but in particular the last Jumper style boss gave me a lot of trouble and felt unfair. Be ready for it to ramp up by shard 5. Try out the Demo as well to see if you like the gameplay.

4. I did encounter a few bugs, the most major one being at the very end. There's a long sequence where you get dialog while running, and the dialog only came up for me as a thin sliver that I couldn't read, ergo I missed the entire end "cutscene."

Despite these scattered issues the game is still felt worth my time and money. Check out the demo if you're unsure.

Overall Haste feels really good to play so far, which is the most important aspect. It captures the sensation of speed, handles well, and is still challenging at times even in just the demo. What's more, it's a runner/speed style game that isn't locked to a specific path; even though courses are largely in one direction, they're wide enough with enough variability that you having to think and react about where you'll land and what paths you'll take.

'Shards' (or levels) consist of several stages arranged in a rogue-lite path. Stages typically involve you trying to outrun a killzone while getting to the final checkpoint. The final stage in a shard is a boss fight, which involves you chasing down a boss while dodging attacks in an open area, rather than a linear path.

Weak spots: the tutorial is kinda clunky and obligate in a manner that's inelegant (though it's at least short), the dialog engine feels a bit lackluster, and some of the UI feels a bit barebones. Challenge stages to restore an area sometimes could use a bit of an indicator of where you haven't covered yet; sitting at 1% remaining and not knowing where I missed was frustrating.

These are pretty minor inconveniences and don't impact the core gameplay, though maybe they'll still get a bit of a touch-up before the final release.

This is a good survival game for people who don't like survival games, and a great one for those that do.

It's quirky and weird and has a ton of nods to the original Half Life games, and it tackles a lot of survival elements in a different and refreshing manner.