Method to my Madness...

Hows it going I thought I might spread a little information on my review process. I mainly review indie titles but I will review any game that is requested. I post reviews in the form of a recommendation with an ! after the game name, games without the ! are unrecommended. The mass influx of indies and other PC games makes it hard to find what is good and bad hopefully my reviews can shed some light on the pros and cons of buying certain titles. If you would like to see a game not listed reviewed please leave a comment and I will try to get to it as quickly as possible.
-Keep it retro

Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten!

This excellent tower defense RPG hybrid is a great way to pass some time. The overall setting of the story is very original casting the main character in a role of being afflicted by a mysterious plague. The combat system evolves over the course of the story introducing new strategies for dispatching enemies and bosses alike. The colorful dialouge keeps the story somewhat fresh, but the real meat to this game is in the combat and preparation. Each town will have new items or characters to recruit, making the necessary arrangements before a battle are extremely necessary for your success. The way everyone in your party level-up and the skill trees associated with there classes adds a lot of depth to the character progression. Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten is a great merging of genres and a complete gem to add to your game collection.

Sword of the Stars: The Pit

I didn't have a good time with Sword of the Stars: The Pit due to its slow paced combat and its often confusing set of controlls. To be honest I gave the game a chance trying to look past the bland environments to see if the core mechanics of the game could please me enough to continue the quest, sadly I barely could finish the tutorial before wanting to exit. The gameplay experience is bogged down by simple turn to turn game-play that should be (in my own opinion) part of a board game not because of the dynamic but because of the mediocre control. With that said one thing that really bothered me in the tutorial was the way they implement other friendly units making you stop every couple of squares for them to catch up to you makes me feel like im playing an Atari. With hopes high I came into this title hoping for the best and leaving with dissapointment, save yourself the trouble and play/buy another game.

Hack, Slash, Loot!

I have a soft spot for ole text games like Mysteria, which makes me really like Hack, Slash, Loot. The overall setting of the game can be changed with the quest in the beginning of the game, although you have the option of choosing your class and quest on the title screen you also have the awesome option of setting it all to random making your next quest and class a surprise. The mechanics of the game are somewhat light although the big picture of the game is to stay alive and make smart choices when it comes to battling monsters and maintaining your health points. The armor weapons and items you find in game offer tons of support and help you best the set of quests before you, but some items can also have cons associated with them. The random outcomes of the doors you choose can have a heavy impact on whether or not you die or make it to the next floor. I noticed that the ranged classes usually survive longer due to being able to bottleneck enemies in doorways and blast them from the safety of a long hallway. Overall Hack, Slash, Loot is an update of an older vision of games long lost in a crowd of easy shooters and games that play themselves.

Dungeons of Dredmor

The slow sometimes mundane combat speed of this game makes me want to wish it wasn't on my game list. I usually give most games the benefit of the doubt and barrell through sometime annoying or frustrating mechanics to see the big picture, Dugeons of Dredmor is not the case. The character art in my opinion is kind of bland and not that special. The combat was not very inticing making moving around the map a chore. I didn't spend much time on this title but what time I did throw away made me sure that I wouldn't pick it up again.

Teleglitch!

This excellent rogue-like blends the action of horror games with fast paced decision making. Teleglitch often laughs at your attempts to get further although that doesn't mean that you do not have a chance to succeed. The crafting system is simple to use and keeps you wanting to find more items to help you survive to the next teleporter. The story is what oozes from Teleglitch, a creepy undertone of experiments with time and space gone wrong. The mutants that prowl the corridors of the ship are experiments of war making it even harder to reach your destination. The ship's AI is even against you in some parts sending marines and personnell that have microchip implants to vanquish you. Overall the setting and difficulty of Teleglitch is what makes it shine as a great adventure game and an amazing rogue-like experience.

Paranautical Activity!

Paranautical Activity is a crazy blend of dungeon crawler and first person shooter. If I had to use other games to describe it I would end up using The Binding of Isaac mixed with Borderlands. With that being said the setting of this game pits you against every increasingly difficult enemies and bosses depending on the selection of your rooms. To mix the game up the rooms always have a random enemy spawn rate making it impossible to really prepare for what you will be facing. The bosses offer a great level of difficutly in exchange for an random item that will help you in your journey to clear all the rooms. Eventually you will find a elevator room that will take you to the next level of insanity increasing the spawn rate of enemies and the stats of boss characters. The fast paced action mixed with the frantic dodging of attacks mixes into a great rogue-like formula. The variety of items keeps you wondering what the next thing you pick up will do. Keep on your toes because if your not Paranautical Activity will suck you in and make you press Restart way too many times.