Plasmatischer Schokoladenapparat 最近的评测

A profoundly strategic, richly layered, cerebral roguelike with great amounts of content and variation, that honors thinking and logic, offering well over one hundred hours of exceptional entertainment to the bravest turn-based masterminds.

Positive:
- From the caricaturistic player portraits, to the fantastically magical sound effects, to the ethereal dungeon lighting, to the cleverly farcical writing, the overall presentation is top-notch, involving all visual and aural elements expertly in ways that enhance the experience while also creating artistic imaginativeness that results in a rare paradigm of the game medium.
- Progression stems from beating dungeons and accumulating gold in order to unlock quests and playable attributes, such as the blend of kins and classes, which may or may not unite to generate some synergistic systems. This amalgamative and multifaceted, continuous advancement, is key in expanding the many mechanics while also extending the activities that one may take part in for results and for kingdom expansion. It all coalesces exceptionally well in involving the player in the framing of their own aggregate in-game evolution.
- Although most of the available kins and classes are recognizable fantasy genre conventions, they are each individually interesting, possessing unique characteristics and specialties, and the resulting synergies between the combinative choices are genuinely distinct and fun to experiment with. One could truly study the many possibilities afforded by the myriad traits and abilities to effectuate astounding syntheses that never become boring.
- From the Kingdom tableau, the player may opt to go into different game modes. The main events are found within the Adventure mode, but Class Challenges and Puzzles offer more difficult and further severe trials for extra money and for special items as rewards for one's efforts. Between the three modes, there is a vast amount of content encompassing a traditional campaign, as well as the bonus modes for those interested in challenges and treasures.
- Balance between dungeons, enemies, attributes, and abilities is impressively impeccable without exception. Certainly, there are optimal ways of approaching situations, and are obvious synergies between kins, classes, and spells, but all gameplay mechanics have been envisioned and conceived to openly accommodate all play styles and strategies, allowing for a multitude of methodologies and techniques for triumphantly downing enemies, killing bosses, and completing dungeons.
- Planning for and beginning a dungeon run fully prepared to engage all possible predicaments and eventual entanglements, then ultimately becoming a powerful demigod that is a destructor of one and all, or ploddingly forging on with just enough to make a flourishing romp of a seemingly indelible boss on one's last turn is the apex of sophisticated expeditions, standing as one of the finest repeatable tours de force in gaming. Killing regular enemies, leveling up, growing one's technical acumen, acquiring powers, yielding items, and slaying bosses is deeply satisfying and as good as it gets in the sphere of intellectual dungeoneering.
- Dungeons and quests come in numerous varieties, possessing diverse particularities, and exhibiting special properties, creating a majestic world of adventures and possibilities that continually amplify the scope of the game from early beginnings to the thematic end, and beyond, obliging playstyles and interests of a wide spectrum. After beating the main story quests, the game may be continued indefinitely, with the most difficult and most challenging dungeons and quests becoming available for further attempts.

Neutral:
- Technical performance maintains 144 frames per second at all times while the software is in the foreground, without any hitches or drops. With that said, alt-tabbing out of the game while in full screen will cause the frame rate to undergo a major momentary drop upon returning to the game's screen. There does not seem to be any way to avoid this, if one has to switch to another window while the game remains open, but this is a small hindrance, as the software's stability is restored almost immediately after focusing on the game again.
- Difficulty escalates quickly, and the learning curve is quite steep. This mixture of mounting complications could potentially induce a deterrent of fun, as well as a barrier for success, as multiple failed attempts per dungeon can eventually become demoralizing and perplexing. Admittedly, the tactical prowess gained by learning from one's mistakes is part of the process of a hands-on mechanic, but the repeated defeats to what at times feels like unwinnable circumstances certainly has its experiential drawbacks.

Negative:
- There are several significant software bugs. Sometimes, entering or leaving a dungeon passage by usage of stairs does not register the action, with the game engine merely reloading the screen, yet not actuating the movement between floors. Walking to another tile, going back to the stairs tile, then selecting to move floors will correct the issue. Often, gamepad button prompts appear on screen, even though the gamepad is not being used, but they eventually disappear. Preventing this occasional glitch seems to be impossible. Selecting certain options from the menu can cause the game to freeze, and the only way to actually exit the game is to end the process with the Steam client. For whatever inexplicable reason, the audio volume can vary depending on the dungeon. Hotkeys sometimes do not register, despite their associated function being actually possible by using the mouse.

Overall rating: 4.0/5.0

A demandingly difficult, mildly amusing precision platformer that bears lingering bugs, and which contains some baffling design choices in place, seemingly only to vex the player.

Positive:
- Ancient South American temples are represented and depicted tastefully, with the traps, pits, and associated thematic artwork comprising of creative and colorful artifices that are also accompanied by the occasional fantastical wildlife. Traversing each level is always visually interesting, avoiding dangers is exciting, and discovering secrets is rewarding.
- All 8-bit pixel art very much resembles the original works from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, encapsulating that video game area accurately and proficiently. The retro charm is exhibited nicely through all playable characters, enemies, levels, menus, and title screens, with the chiptune music serving as a wonderful complement to the overall audiovisual presentation.
- Despite the frame rate being locked to 60 per second, the action is always fluid, and there are never any frame rate drops. Likewise, controlling the playable characters is consistently responsive and quick, allowing for rapid adjustments to varying circumstances while maintaining player agency by accommodating for instantaneous decisions to capricious obstacles and foes.

Neutral:
- Traps and spikes are not always signaled before being activated on contact or by proximity. While this is not totally unfair or badly implemented, it does require the player to be extra-prudent when judging jumps and calculating risks. This mechanic adds another layer of difficulty depth that is presented early in the game, and premeditates a careful traversal of all environments. With that said, this design choice also culminates in the drudgery of trial and error, thus causing the player to repeat levels many times until they are able to figure out the developers' intentions.
- There is a narrowly specific set of precision platforming skills, dexterity attributes, and agility coordinations that are required for one to be successful in this game. The overall difficulty becomes more extreme as one progresses, and it is apparent that the general level design mandates restricted approaches to navigating obstacles and deciding jumps in order to complete each stage triumphantly. Due to the intricacies of the ongoing challenges, this may or may not be a barrier to the player, depending on their previous platformer proficiency and on their personal tastes. Either way, it is highly likely that this major flaw could potentially lead to frustration and annoyance.
- Button assignments displayed on the graphical user interface areas are generic and not specific to a standard gamepad, like the Xbox 360 controller. Instead, ambiguous numbers are shown, such as "button 11". This is not helpful, as one should not be expected to be familiar with the technical addresses of buttons on the controller they are using, which do not correspond with the labels appearing on the physical controller itself.
- Plot, story, and their accompanying cut scenes are stylistic throwback representations of video game yore, although the narrative includes an interesting dynamic of family drama and adventure. With that said, there are not any storytelling nuances, and there are no significant surprises for the player to digest. It all unfolds naturally and in correspondence with the action, but without any form of engaging extrapolations.
- As one plays and progresses through the many levels, a wide variety of characters may be unlocked. While they expand upon the game's lore and also add characters from other video game franchises, there is little to no incentive to replay the entire story mode again with each character, as they are only actually worthwhile in the bonus arcade modes, due to their unique abilities. There are other unlocks, but they are mostly cosmetic, so working toward their acquirement may or may not be valuable, depending on one's interests.

Negative:
- A music settings bug is persistent and causes the music to be turned off. Fixing this is simple, involving going into the options menu and adjusting the music's volume again, but this problem occurs frequently. Despite the bug being reported by many players over the years, the developers have never fixed this, which is unacceptable.
- Avoiding any spoilers, the workings regarding player lives in the main story mode is unnecessary and distractive. The entire idea is a design oddity that makes absolutely no sense, and does not add anything of value to the overall experience. It is illogical as to why the developers elected to include such an inane characteristic to player lives in the game, especially because the "game over" screen cannot be skipped and lasts for about 30 seconds. Circumventing this nuisance involves playing through and grinding at least one other separate game mode. Worst of all, the non-story modes do not save one's progress, and require a complete playthrough to be done in a single sitting.
- Crashes to desktop are infrequent, but they do occur at seemingly random times during play. There does not seem to be a way to prevent this from happening. The developers have not addressed this issue even though many players have reported similar, yet, varied issues of the recurring problem.
- The arduously demanding nature of the levels' arrangement necessitates the repetition of the most exacting trials hundreds of times as a likely possibility. This means that the player must endure the same sounds, the same songs, and the same actions for replayed levels without much variation for a prolonged period, making the process feel tedious and boring. Completing levels can feel satisfying and like true accomplishments, but this effort and toil come at the cost of one's lost patience and with growing aggravation against the design of the game.
- Collision detection can be defective, especially when it comes to icicle spikes at a certain part of the game. The pixel art of said spikes do not appear to touch the playable character's sprite, thus causing unmerited deaths. In fact, the collision detection is so rigorous, that one must stand and jump from specific pixels in the artwork, in order to avoid being killed by something that is not actually visible.

Overall rating: 3.0/5.0

An inspired role-playing game that exudes style, encourages experimentation, and promotes congeniality at every step of the adventure.

Positive:
- Story, plot, setting, and premise are not astoundingly unique, but the narrative and presentation are inviting, interesting, and charismatic. The futuristic science fiction elements coalesced with fantastical technologies are conveyed in a plausible fashion, and the attributive aspects pertaining to the many antagonistic life forms are distinctively intriguing. The writing is competent and clever, briskly moving the narrative along in a casual and entertaining manner, while also relaying a sense of wonder and mystery.
- The pixel art associated with characters, foes, weaponry, gadgetry, and special effects are exceptional and snazzy, representing the artistic conventions of the 16-bit era of video games, while also exhibiting modern characteristics that are alluring and refined. The animations are personable and battle actions are fluid, combining to create a visual spectacle that is simultaneously exotic and familiar.
- Tactical depth and complexity stemming from inimical engagements encompass a mixture of planning, assessment, and strategic skills required to administer attacks, abilities, and items in efficient sequences in order to dispatch hostiles effectively. Adversaries often have strengths and weaknesses that must be considered prior to selecting orders, and equipment swaps may be necessary, depending on certain conditions, before accosting different opponents.
- Technical performance is continually outstanding, maintaining 144 frames per second at all times. There are never any major drops, and the graphical transitions are always seamless, making for a smooth experience throughout.
- Party members can be manually selected and actuated most of the time, which motivates players to familiarize themselves with all available characters' abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. This generates much variability in the features and attributes of each game chapter, fulfilling all possible turn-based role-playing game workings in the form of diverse alternating party members in a fun and rewarding fashion.
- Traversing the world, reading through the dialogue, battling the many villains, and tinkering with characters, items, and abilities is truly fun, making the journey worthwhile and genuine. All protagonists and all antagonists are likable and believable, and the progress truly drives the narrative forward while also creating an overarching impression of amity and a broadscale sense of satisfaction.

Neutral:
- Video and sound settings are available but minimal. Although a wide range of full screen and windowed options provide players with automatic vertical synchronization, sound effects and music are limited to descriptors such as "max", "high", "low", and "off", preventing any fine-tuning according to one's needs or preferences.
- Saving can be done at any time, as long as it is performed between battles. As convenient as that is, saving does not preserve the playable characters' position on the map at the time of the save, meaning that players may or may not have to do some backtracking or retracing of steps in order to reach their most recent location.
- Environments and cut scenes have lower quality pixel art, appearing sparser and less detailed, in comparison to characters, enemies, and items. Even if this glaring lack of polish does not detract from the fun factor of the overall production and general gameplay, this discrepancy is certainly noticeable.
- Progressing through missions and locations is somewhat of a claustrophobic endeavor, as the experience is mostly linear, with very little room for exploration aside from finding some chests with credits or items. There are no open world expeditions to take part in, and there is no sense of locational discovery to be experienced. Despite this limitation to the surroundings, proceeding around in the small maps is still entertaining and rewarding, with the physical settings and situations remaining interesting and graphically pleasing.
- Item slots are presented as having eight possible entries, but playing through the whole game only unlocks four, leaving another four locked and unavailable. This seems to be an oversight by the developer, and may cause confusion, as the latter four cannot ever be unlocked and filled with usable items.

Negative:
- Maneuvering into areas containing some sceneries that are seemingly crowded with objects can make the playable characters stuck. Quitting and reloading a save is the only way to remedy the situation. Despite several complaints from players over the years regarding the bug, the developer has not addressed the issue.
- Status effects and their associated durations are not clearly stated or portrayed, and some intricacies related to how certain powers and abilities function are generally not explained. This knowledge must be acquired by the player over time by means of observation as a result of trial and error. Ability descriptions are brief and lack the details necessary for the prudent application of talents and their resulting consequences, making the learning process feel obtuse and confusing, in terms of some of the more complex mechanics.
- There is one optional dungeon in particular, with a very strong boss within, that is adequate for those commanding characters near or above level 50. The experience points gained from this dungeon and from the enemies therein are so great, that it makes the remaining parts of the game feel trivial, due to how overpowered the player and their party of characters have become.

Overall rating: 4.0/5.0

A comprehensive hospital administration simulator that is didactic in its execution and elegant in its framework, but inflicted by some considerable technical hindrances, as well as hampered by certain design shortcomings.

Positive:
- Symptoms, examinations, diagnoses, and treatments are all based on science. Nurses and doctors will be assigned to each patient, performing various tests in accordance to medical protocols, and educated deductions will be made based on the exhibition of physical indications and on the conclusions of laboratory analyses. All processes and associated outcomes are purely based on meticulous research and on logical hypotheses.
- Designing, arranging, and building the physical complex of diverse departmental buildings is engaging and entertaining. In order for the hospital and its employees to be most effective and highly efficient, one must consider a number of variables. Staff attributes and logistical planning are of the utmost importance to achieve medical splendor. Without prudent organizing and budgeting, a hospital could become a fully dysfunctional, disorganized mess rather than an institution of healing.
- Procedure animations are impeccably materialized in detail for examinations, surgeries, and treatments, including the dispensation of medications and the interactive exchanges regarding recommendations. Each movement is carefully reproduced and represented in consonance with the vigorous realities of actual medical restorative and curative activities existing in reality.
- Treating routine problems and saving the lives of critical patients is satisfying, rewarding, and very fun. One could allow for their hired professionals to solve most cases, or take control and charge of medical situations with a truly hands-on approach. Realizing patients' predicaments and fulfilling the ultimate goal of curing them effectively is an endeavor that remains challenging and compelling without exception.
- Designing a hospital from scratch is the absolute building and management experience, combining creativity with practicality, while also encouraging progressive learning from arising needs and changing circumstances. The building mode permits nearly total freedom in the placement of rooms and in the allocation of special procedure rooms, and the human resources aspect of administration empowers the player to make personnel decisions based on circumstantial demands and on the varied distribution of duties. The overall scope of overlooking and guiding a hospital from launch to complete success, with the complex involvement of many executive decisions, is a sophisticated and elaborate journey, thoroughly exemplifying quintessential simulation competencies.

Neutral:
- The user interface is a functionality nightmare, burdened with obtuse contextual dependencies and utilizational dead ends, while also demanding much patience and perseverance to endure. In fact, the main challenge of the game is hindered on the player learning how to use and how to navigate the many menus, in order to interface with the actual gameplay functions.
- Three short campaigns are available, although they are not undertakings in the traditional sense of the term. Narrow and confined, these predefined hospital configurations present the player with circumscribed challenges that serve as extensions to the extremely brief tutorials. These campaigns can be acceptably enjoyable, but it is clear that the sandbox mode is the main attraction and should be the primary focus of one's time with the game.
- Earning and accruing money through insurance challenges and special events can transpire like a dragging grind that is based on arbitrary numbers and on forcedly wrought finances. This seemingly artificial accumulation of funds is made more synthetic when the player uses and takes advantage of special events that can be exploited for a quickened income. All in all, building up each hospital's coffers is not necessarily fun, but it is an unavoidable mechanical demand, which only constitutes of a means to an end, in terms of expanding medical facilities.
- Equipment, machinery, items, and structures do not suffer any sort of usage degradation, and as a result, do not require any form of maintenance whatsoever. This is in stark contrast of the human elements ascribed to staff and patients, who have distinct expectations and needs. The lack of any degeneration aspects for all inanimate objects clashes with the fragility of their human counterparts in terms of mechanics, simulation, and realism, but this shortcoming does not interfere with the overall fun factor to managing every component to a successful hospital.

Negative:
- Software bugs are plentiful and remain unfixed after several years of repeated reporting by the playerbase. Crashes to desktop during gameplay can occur, loading some save files can result in crashes to desktop, hospital staff can appear as working on a patient when there is no patient present on the bed, doctors can enter an idling state and do not help patients even if said patients are assigned to them, doctors available on standby can often remain inert and will not help patients, save files do not receive accurate timestamps assigned to them, being able to click up or down to select a floor can sometimes malfunction, staff often do not use available rooms to perform tests on patients, and so on.
- Technical performance is badly optimized and highly unstable. Small hospitals with a limited amount of staff and with not many patients usually perform at around 100 frames per second, but this capability is quite fickle, wildly oscillating away from 144 frames per second, and often dropping many frames as one is playing the game. Medium to large hospitals with numerous employees and with a multitude of patients tanks the performance heavily, bringing the engine to its limits, and forcing the frame rate to below 60, and oftentimes even under 30. Generally speaking, the unsteadiness of the frame rate is very much noticeable. This flaw is solely responsible for disrupting the flow of gameplay, for hindering the fluidity of control, and for making the overall usability experience feel inadequate at times.

Overall rating: 4.0/5.0

Note: This game has not been officially released, as development was ceased during the Early Access program.

An excellently exciting and tempestuously tremendous extraction first-person shooter that is unfinished and abandoned by the developers in a playable state but with some major game-breaking bugs.

Positive:
- Environments are beautifully crafted with inspiration drawn from the most picturesque polar continental regions of Earth, bulging with alpine grandness and scintillating icy beauty. Variable weather conditions add a sense of distinctiveness to the placid nature of the regions, while the multitudinous flora complete the topography with splendidly sensational forestry. The entire landscape of all zones is truly breathtaking.
- Technical performance is outstanding, always maintaining 144 frames per second at all times, on "ultra" settings at 1080p, for all available video options. There are never any drops in the frame rate, and there are never any noticeable snags, despite the game encompassing a fairly large map, and at times populating the conflict areas with crowded hordes of fast-moving enemies.
- Weapon and hero upgrades make significant changes to the effectiveness of each gun, as well as to the adaptability of each hero. Especially with the weapon upgrades, the player is allowed to pursue certain improvement paths pertaining to handling, impact, and stability, which greatly changes the way one approaches various situational battles. Hero augmentations can be strong passive perks that also contribute to major impacts in gameplay and in diverse combat circumstances.
- Gunplay is genuinely fun, with concussions feeling very destructive, and with ballistics having a powerful weight to them, causing dismemberment to smaller enemies, and satisfying death throes to larger foes. Pistols, shotguns, rifles, machine guns, and launchers all have different mechanics and their own flow to the action, with equipment choices allowing for a multitude of variations depending on the player's taste and style.
- Mission and free roam primary and optional objectives are many and varied, providing the player with a wide assortment of activities to be a part of and an extensive amount of goals to work toward, all while contending with aggressive and relentless dinosaurs. Main story missions have fixed objectives, in addition to the voluntary objectives, but to make the gameplay feel interesting, the free roam mode has a cycle of objectives that repeat with each deployment, and do not initially feel dull or monotonous due to the alternating confluence of locations and enemy formations. Moreover, a horde mode is available for those looking for wave-based action, with the conclusion of each rush allowing for the purchase of weapons, items, abilities, and turrets using the earned currency from killing dinosaurs. All modes are satisfying, dynamic, and intense, involving all skills learned, honed, and accumulated by the player to take calculated chances and to eventually succeed.
- Despite not having that many archetypal representations, the dinosaurs that are available to encounter and to clash with are beautifully created fictionalized depictions of ancient beasts that are tenacious and extremely dangerous. These early reptiles are immaculately ferocious, fierce as they are menacing, and will amass in charges and ambushes with the sole purpose of death and destruction. Their weight is felt with each strike, and their intent is perceived with all manner of hostility.

Neutral:
- Due to the online co-operative design of the game, pausing is not allowed, even when playing solo. This means that if one needs to take a break from the action, they must find what seems to be a safe spot, and simply leave the game running, hoping that no enemies would dispose of the playable character in their absence.
- Missions can take up to one hour to complete, if all requirements are met, and if a successful extraction from the site is executed. Saving one's progress is not an option, meaning that missions must be completed in one sitting. This is understandable, considering the game's focus being on online co-operation, but playing through the missions as a single player is lengthy and without save points.
- Many of the primary weapons have not been planned and implemented for solo play. Because the game has been intended to be approached with a group of people to deal with substantial enemy attacks cooperatively, the necessitating team characteristics entailing weaponry, special abilities, and coordination, involving an eclectic amalgamation of styles and categories, must assemble cohesively due to the multifarious types of assaults needed to cause serious damage to the strongest hostiles. Playing solo is only viable if veering away from support weapons, and only practical if choosing to play as a hero that is able to equip two primary weapon choices.
- After reaching player level 15, or thereabouts, it becomes apparent that the game simply runs out of experiences, and that the previously accomplished missions, and that the previously visited sites, turn stale and repetitive. Clearly, there is much that was intended to be included in the game, but was never fulfilled due to the abortion of production and because of the cessation of creative growth. There is just not enough to sustain long-term progression and to promote stimulating discoveries.
- As it stands, the game has an outstanding foundation for one day to flourish with content and to eventually become great, but because development has been halted, all possible positive outcomes of a finished product are almost certainly doubtful, as no announcements have been made on the subject of continuity.

Negative:
- Launching the game forces upon the player many splash screens associated with the developers, with the publishers, and with game engine technologies, lasting for about 25 seconds in total. One cannot skip them.
- Development of the software was stopped in 2022, and in 2023, those responsible announced that the game would be discontinued, and that servers would be taken offline, but as of the time of this writing, it remains playable in single-player mode. For the purposes of this review, several attempts were made to join others in online co-op, but matches were never found, so it may be that playing alongside other players is probably unlikely.
- Software crashes to desktop can happen very frequently, depending on a combination of specific in-game parameters. There is sometimes a prompt to send a report to the developers, but it does not work, as the function returns a delivery error. It could be assumed that this retrieval server has been shut down due to the abandonment of the development project. Avoiding such crashes can be done once one becomes familiar with what triggers the fatal errors.

Overall rating: 4.0/5.0

A narrowly entertaining and somewhat educational paleontology career simulator that also includes the doldrums and limitations of the profession.

Positive:
- There are three distinct aspects to the overarching gameplay, including fossil excavation, fossil preparation, and museum management. Each phase is a practical interpretation of real-life activities, and each of the three simulations feel very different from each other. This variety of elements and the freedom to choose when to engage in certain exertions allows for a fluid and engaging emprise that involves many revolving facets requiring skill, attention, and planning.
- Although the entirety of the experience is a simplified adaptation of paleontology, it is apparent that the developers have built the game upon the foundations of paleontological science and upon the implementations of operational museology. All procedures and protocols are presented according to scientific methods, curatorship guidelines, cataloging processes, and administration. There are many tools and machinery to adequately operate according to an assortment of circumstances, and every situational assignment advances naturally within the rules of authentic occurrences and conditions.
- This is clearly an ambitious passion project of the developers, demonstrating a high level of research and study to materialize. Each bone is sufficiently detailed and representative of osteological specimens, all skeletons are presented as genuinely recognizable anatomical structures of Mesozoic relics, every fossil deposit area is depicted with accuracy and attention to detail matching their existing counterparts, and the various gadgets, instruments, and devices are lifelike equivalents of actual equipment used in excavation chores.
- Going from digging around wilderness locations for sedimentary rocks, to analyzing those findings, to carefully extracting remains of ancient lifeforms, to preparing those pieces for restoration, and to eventually seeing a fully assembled skeleton in all of its significance and magnificence on display in the museum that one is managing is a very satisfying endeavor and culmination, combining all efforts and labors into a single awesome result.

Neutral:
- A campaign is the driving and determinant agent encompassing all gameplay and the many mechanics, and this is centered around a story and plot that are uninspired and commonplace, which end in nothingness. While this shortcoming does not detract from the enjoyment of the overall enterprise, it does come off and unravel as trite or cheap or meaningless.
- Spoken storyline related lines do not always match the accompanying written subtitles. This is not a problem, generally speaking, but it does give the impression of carelessness, in terms of polish and finish to the narrative product.
- Knowing how, when, and where to perform an action can be very confusing, abstruse, and bureaucratic for beginners. The developers have included a multiple references, tutorials, and instructions, but the multifarious steps needed to accomplish most tasks, and the specific order one must abide by can be overwhelming for the first few hours learning.
- Getting the playable character stuck in the terrain during excavations is a common issue that can be fixed by using the repositioning function, but this problem occurs far too frequently to be overlooked. This may have to do with the soil, sediment, and rocks in the environment being destructible, thus altering and generating new topographies. With that said, the physics engine should readily adjust to changes, yet it does not. Perhaps just as troublesome as being stuck on land are the toils of swimming and going underwater. Such moments are awkward and uncomfortable to control, with water physics that are peculiar and clumsy.
- Repetitiveness is an ongoing hindrance, especially to the less patient players, and there is not much that could be done about it, due to the nature of the game mechanics. Digging for fossils can be interesting and rewarding, but the cleaning and preparing the skeletons for display quickly becomes dull and boring after just a few fulfillments. Certainly, the monotony is abated by the hiring of museum employees to commit to the most tedious tasks, but access to this ability only comes later in the game as progression unlocks.
- Technical performance is usually excellent, maintaining a solid 144 frames per second, but only after maps are loaded. During the initial implementation of the needed assets, the frame rate undergoes a severe drop, but recovers after a few seconds to the usual 144 frames per second once the engine's burden is relieved. A similar major drop in frames and subsequent recovery also occurs on some excavation sites when a rock is unearthed, and during some assembly jobs when parts are attached to the display set. These infrequent but recurring frame rate issues are annoying little interruptions that definitely break the immersion as one is doing their paleontological work. All standard video, sound, and gameplay settings are available, but although the field of view option is customizable, it is only a slider that does not affix a numerical assignment to the changes.
- Moving the pointer around to aim at different parts of the terrain to dig can cause severe motion sickness to those prone to the condition. Sitting as far away from the monitor may prevent this undesirable state of sickness, but such detrimental health effects and their negative outcome may be unavoidable for those that are highly susceptible to the disorder.
- After finding and assembling the skeletons for at least one of each species of the available dinosaurs, there is nothing new to do within the context of the museum or to find around the three maps, in terms of dinosaurs. Surely, one may continue playing to obtain all the achievements, but these are mostly based on repeating all the steps that have already been carried out before, numerous times. There is little to no incentive to continue playing after said point of accomplishment, there is zero new content to discover, and nothing else is actually worth doing.

Negative:
- Launching the software results in the playing of two introductory splash screens related to the developer and to the game itself. These take about fifteen seconds to elapse and they cannot be skipped.
- The main menu has an advertisement for the developer's Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, and Discord pages, and advertisements for the two released downloadable content packs, even if one already owns them. There is absolutely no reason to pollute the main menu with such superfluous dreg.
- If one happens to have a gamepad plugged in, even though the mouse and keyboard are being used for input, the game will partially default to it for some functions, and show the gamepad's corresponding buttons as menu prompts. Correcting this issue takes going into the controls menu and disabling the gamepad. The big problem with this is that the game does not save this setting, and one must disable the gamepad in the controls menu every time the game is launched.
- Because there is so much deformation of the terrain associated with excavating, a handy feature is to reset the playable character's position in order for one to access their campsite more easily. On at least one excavation site on one map, resetting positions also removes the player's excavation tools from their person. In order to fix this bug, one must enter their vehicle and then exit it, thus returning the once missing tools back to the player.

Overall rating: 3.0/5.0

A limited and misguided shoot 'em up lacking meaningful content that is inadequate in structure and unsatisfactory in its mechanics.

Positive:
- The novelty of controlling a playable character that takes no damage is a welcome idea. As a replacement, the player must defend the screen from speeding enemies. If any bogey goes past the screen to the left, a health point is deducted. This is a fresh take on the genre that is partially effective.
- Killing enemies fills a power bar that can be accumulated to expend on special projectile attacks. Said attacks are some of the most potent in the game, serving as mercurial catalysts during times of enemy swarms, and as decisive barrages to defeat bosses quickly. These charged offensives are fun and satisfying to use, and often make a huge different in terms of momentous results.

Neutral:
- Despite not having any allowance for graphical configurations, the game runs smoothly at a steady 144 frames per second. There are no noticeable frame drops, and all movements feel and look very fluid.
- Plot and story are nonsensical, immature, and unfunny attempts at comedy, having no sensible connection to the gameplay whatsoever. Surely, it is benign and wholesome, but it ultimately serves no purpose, and does not add anything of value to the overall experience.
- Cut scenes play at a visibly much lower resolution than the game assets within the game engine itself, making for a technically inferior presentation of unessential narrative breaks.
- Completing the Story Mode unlocks two other modes that offer some more content within the design scope previously presented in the main mode. In the Infinite Mode, one must play for as long as possible without dying, with high scores being posted on global leaderboards. In the Challenge Mode, specific modifications to various winning conditions are set, allowing the player to approach alternative circumstances in different ways.

Negative:
- Most standard setting preferences are not available. Audio volume for effects and music only range from "low, medium, to high", with the lowest volume still being too loud. Fine-tuning any other option cannot be done.
- There is an advertisement of the developer's website address, Twitter, and Facebook at all times on the main menu. This type of intrusive promotion is unnecessary and has no reason to exist in any way.
- Keyboard control prompts appear in-game and in menus, regardless of whether the player is using a keyboard or a gamepad to operate the game. Worst of all, a core ability to defeating large weakened enemies is to grab them and then to hammer them, but if one is controlling the game with a gamepad, the hammering action must be done with the space bar on the keyboard.
- Certain enemies deliver attacks that causes a stun lock for several seconds at a time, rendering the playable character useless for the duration of the effect. This means that actions of any kind are impossible during this period of inoperability, practically creating many moments of total unplayability.
- Boss encounters are timed, and if the timer expires, this constitutes as the player being defeated. Although this may encourage directness and urgency in the fights, it also restricts the player to perform under an artless and needlessly imposed restraint that is neither a mechanic nor a complexity.

Overall rating: 2.5/5.0

A simple and quick platformer that is delightfully fun, incredibly satisfying, filled with eventful action, and packed with personality.

Positive:
- The 8-bit approach to the design and to the creative aesthetics is adeptly authentic, making use of retro sprites and sounds expertly. Even the implementation of digitized voices is artfully produced, adding a nice touch to the accompanying chiptune melodies.
- Each screen is its own independent level, having its own unique objectives, maintaining the platforming mechanics as one progresses, while also introducing new ways to interact with obstacles and hazards. This unconventional level layout is refreshing and provides the player with gratifying bite-sized stages that are amusing, brief, and promptly progressive.
- References to Brazilian popular culture are spread through several screens around the game, with acknowledgments of entertainers, famous video games, and allusions to the country's political past. These implicit connections come in visual and in aural forms, adding an exceedingly charming layer to the already charismatic original characters and cleverly imaginative world.

Neutral:
- It can be occasionally difficult to realize what part of the screens' background can be climbed on or not, without experimentation. Platforms blend too easily with decorative visual features, causing the playable character to fall or to take damage inadvertently.
- Platforming allows no improvisation whatsoever, as the player must traverse each screen precisely as the developer designed them, without any room for experimentation or ingenuity. Approaching environmental hazards or avoiding enemies only involves learning what the developer accommodates.
- There is no checkpoint or savepoint system in place. One must complete the game in one sitting, without any way to save or to load their progress. Having said that, a successful attempt to beat the game takes about fifteen minutes to complete, so the aforementioned lack of the ability to save is not a major drawback.
- Settings, options, and controls are not available in any fashion. The game runs in the fixed traditional aspect ratio of 4:3, and there is no way to adjust volume or to remap buttons or keys. Aside from this, the game runs at around 65 frames per second at all times, without drops.

Negative:
- Crashes associated with Visual C++ errors happen, and there does not seem to be anything that could be done about the problem. Updating the associated redistributables is not helpful.
- Hit detection is inconsistent and erratic, causing the player to lose health points unfairly. Sometimes, the playable character seems to have a wide berth from an obstacle and still receives damage, while at other times, sprites seem to touch but cause no damage.
- Some screens require precision platforming in order to advance, yet the engine that the game was developed under does not provide the necessary accuracy of controls for clean movement and jumping. This problem makes some screens clumsy and awkward.

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0

A compact and streamlined Metroidvania that boasts style, substance, and exhilarating combat, while suffering from a recurring technical issue.

Positive:
- Sprites are vivacious with fluid animations, pixel art is beautifully designed with vibrant colors, and environments are polychromatic with impressive lighting effects. Visually, the overall presentation is top notch, exhibiting and encompassing a gorgeous array of retro styles and expositions.
- The save system depends on checkpoints and savepoints, allowing for convenient saving and loading opportunities without much time spent on replaying what has already been accomplished in order to reach the point of continuation. In a genre that involves at least some degree of retracing steps, backtracking, and revisiting previously reached areas, this accommodation benefits the player and makes progression more efficient.
- Controls are tight, responsive, and can be executed well within the range of one's expertise. Attacking with melee weapons, launching projectiles, and casting spells are all weighty activities resulting is perceivable impacts against enemies and in noticeable changes within the game world. There are weapon and ability mixtures to fit many playstyles, as well as room for experimentation for those interested in acclimatizing to new methods of attack that are mightily tactile and substantially material.
- Although the arsenal of weapons, equipment, and spells is not extensive, what is available is enjoyable and creates variability in the form of adaptive synergies that are fun to perform at their highest potential. Melee weapons hit enemies with a heft that is tangible as a physical force, chemical reactions are explosive and destructive, and spells epitomize magical dismantlements of their targets. With that said, there are certain combinations of items and equipment that absolutely annihilate foes with weaknesses to those item interactions, making for extremely satisfying combat, but practically negating many of the other items during much of the adventure.
- Crucial to the success of the adventurer, one must be mindful of their weapons' strengths and their opponents' weaknesses, as preparing for fights requires prudent planning and the careful equipping of the most effective blend of items. Carrying the most appropriate consumables for specific areas also necessitates judicious organizing, as one maybe depend on a stock of items for emergency measures. This layer of strategy is a welcome addition to the elements of thrilling action demanding dexterity and cleverness in each and every hostile encounter.
- World map provides easy indications of where one has been, where one can or cannot go, and comprehensible icons that are indicative of several interactive mediums. Because of this, becoming lost or not knowing where to go next, is a nonexistent problem in terms of world navigation and accessibility.
- Almost all environmental puzzles are straightforward and sensible, enticing the player to think about their abilities and the physical attributes of the space, and how to utilize them in cooperation to achieve an end. On the other hand, a few puzzles require too much experimentation of valuable resources, such as magic points or expendable items, in order to solve. This is not a hindrance, per se, since traversing the world will allow for the player to accumulate the necessary experience to eventually understand the puzzle expectations over a natural progression of time through the journey.
- Bosses offer the best and most gratifying fights in the game, combining varied attacks, multiple forms, and diverse tactics. This heterogeneous quality to emergent combats heightens circumstances and promotes situational urgency, in addition to allowing the player to consider alternative methods to choosing equipment, items, and when to use consumables, all in especially consequential moments in the journey.

Neutral:
- Navigating menus can be fiddly, as there are several submenus to use and a map to peruse. This initial discomfort eventually subsides as the player becomes more accustomed to using the appropriate buttons or keys, so it is not a lasting issue. Going to and from the map from another menu can be especially pesky.
- Plot and story involve the findings and interactions of a young girl in the context of an otherworldly setting, including the tropes and generalizations of myriad previously released fantasy narratives, but it manages to be sufficiently entertaining as the flavor to the more important player-controlled branching action platforming adventure. On that premise, the standard of the actual writing is unexpectedly skillful and competent, adhering to proper English grammar expectations, and applying descriptions and expressions that are wholly proficient.
- Most characters present in the game world are female humans and female humanoids that are moderately sexualized, but in a relatively tasteful manner. While some characters certainly demonstrate a proclivity to expose cleavage of the breasts, as well as the choice of donning very tiny articles of clothing, revealing other parts of the anatomy, it is all portrayed playfully, innocently, and unoffendingly, without any innuendo toward pornography. Ultimately, this scantily clad aesthetic is merely cosmetic, and there are never any allusions made to the reasoning behind the fashion choices.
- Beating the game unlocks a few more difficulty modes, which operate under specific restrictions and specifications, along with a total of three endings for the player to attain, and more achievements to unlock, but these variations are not significant or revelatory to warrant multiple playthroughs.
- Mechanics, itemization, and world traversal are neither deep nor complex, with the overarching experiential arrangement being as linear as a Metroidvania could possibly be. Learning battle techniques is clear and nonambiguous, discerning how to best employ items and equipment is uncomplicated, being lost in biomes and areas is a trivial rarity, and finding oneself underpowered against any enemy is not functionally applicable. All facets and aspects of the gameplay are well-defined and transparent, with the primary requisite for triumph being battle alertness and item knowledge.

Negative:
- Crashes happen very frequently, rendering the software unusable, and requiring a manual termination. There seems to be some engine-related glitch that causes the game to sever the connection between graphics and audio, causing the video portion of the software to stop functioning while keeping the rest of the game operable in the background. Ending the application, restarting, and loading a previous save will allow for the maintenance of the problem, with some lost time due to the gap between the save time and the crash time. There have been several posts about this in the discussion forums, but the developers never fixed this major problem.
- Upon starting the game, one must wait through ten seconds of promotional splash screens associated with the engine, developer, and publisher. There is no way to skip these, and their sole purpose is to waste the player's time.

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0

A superspectacular police chase racing game with responsive controls, wonderful visuals, and astounding vehicular crashes that consistently entertains and thrills at all times.

Positive:
- All vehicles feel and handle distinctly, possessing variability in weight, acceleration, speed, and handling. Although there are no manufacturer licenses, many of the automobiles are fitting replicas of their real-life counterparts, exhibiting style and grace in their mechanical fortitude.
- Despite being about seventeen years old at the time of this writing, the artwork, and especially the city, are exceptionally conceived, representing a fictional major city in Germany accurately and impressively. The open-world roads and highways environment is relatively large and bustling, containing a living and reactive traffic system that is crowded and realistic, and constructed around a sprawling cityscape with green spaces and a lengthy river. The entire area truly is a pleasure to drive around in.
- Missions provide an excellent degree of variation and an outstanding amount of activities to partake in. Such undertakings always entail chases, speed, and law enforcement recklessness. Ranging from pursuing fugitives, causing massive amounts of destruction, to street racing, there is an abundance of fun and excitement to be had.
- As fast as the vehicular action can get, and as populated as the city is, the game runs extremely smoothly and rarely goes below the specified 144 frames per second on maximum settings. Movements are incredibly smooth, and the locomotion of heavy mechanical objects are splendidly fluid. The combination of awesome technical flawlessness and supreme automotive mobility makes for a wholly exhilarating experience.
- Every vehicle and most city structures are governed by physics-based damage models, are fully destructible, and suffer different types of deterioration. Such a synthesis of systems creates extravagant collisions, impressive amounts of wreckage to the parties engaged and bystanders, as well as striking spectacles involving metal and speed.
- Story and plot are based on a German television series (Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei), and while a direct comparison to the source material could not be made as a reference for this review, the plot, story, general writing, and associated voice acting are positively cheesy and campy, but in a thoroughly charming and endearing way. The humor genuinely works cohesively well alongside a crime stopping framework with lines and jokes that are optimistic and easygoing.
- Acrobatics and platforming in some case missions provide an amusing break from the more traditional police work, generating some impractical and totally absurd maneuvers through obstacles and ramps around the city that are exceedingly exciting. Such attempts can often be some of the most challenging driving in the game, and accomplishing them feels highly rewarding.

Neutral:
- Police cases, which appear in their own "Cases" submenu, can only be accessed after a case has already started and after a saving point has been reached. In order for the player to begin as the operative of a case, they must go into a different submenu, titled "The Patrol", drive around aimlessly for a bit, and wait for a summons to participate in a case for the adventure to actually begin. To make matters even more cumbersome, some cases only start if one finds a specific spot in the city, with no actual gameplay associated with reaching that destination. This is an unnecessarily bureaucratic process that could have been implemented in much more sensible ways.
- Weather changes or day/night cycles are nonexistent, as it is endlessly sunny and invariably dry. Regardless of the absence of such effects, traversing the city completing many tasks and assignments is still a joy and a treat. The perpetually favorable meteorological conditions and the continually diurnal status do not hinder the numerous explorations and missions by any means.

Negative:
- The software requires that .NET Framework version 3.5 is installed and activated in order for it to work. This is a much older iteration than what is considered to be the current version at the time of this writing (4.8).
- There is no way to activate vertical sync or to limit the frame rate from within the game. The only way for this setting to be operational is to actuate it externally using one's video card software.

Overall rating: 4.0/5.0