Alright. Great North Shelter 2 is done and dusted. I don’t know if there actually is a part one or if the title is one of the numerous meta jokes the developers thrive on lol. It is a walking simulator with hidden object elements.

You know how you watch something like a Will Ferrell movie and while you’re laughing and laughing, you’re also like “this is so stupid”? That’s this game. It’s so gamer-centric meta filled to the brim that you’ll find yourself laughing and giggling even as you’re proclaiming how stupid it is lol. However, that does not extend to the actual story, which is an exploration of time, behinnings and ends or a lack thereof, etc…although I do wonder if the serious nature of the story is itself a meta joke about walking sims.

There are also a couple jump scares and some lite horror elements despite the game very definitely not being a horror game.

The graphics are what you’d expect. Beautiful forests, lakes, mountains and so on with nicely done houses and other structures. And the audio is also what you’d expect. A mix of whimsical pieces and pretty piano tunes. Gameplay is as simple as walk or run around, click on objects, etc…and solve a couple really easy puzzles that gate progression.

It was fully Steam Deck compatible although the start up screen itself is not gamepad compatible for some reason. It did get just over an hour of battery life.

I thought this was a lot of fun. Took a little under two hours to complete although YMMV there. It retails at six bucks. That’s fair IMO. That said, this was a Winter sale purchase for me. Anyway, I highly recommend giving this hame a look. It’s pretty unique in several ways.

Alright. Purpose 1951 is done and dusted. This is the latest release by Tonguç Bodur, and a return to the more straightforward style of walking simulator he is well known for. I feel like each time I play one of Tonguç’s games, I find myself thinking it’s his best so far, and this is no different. Which is a testimony to his ability to continue refining and evolving his skills as a writer and developer.

In this game, the setting of the story is a bit different as the name suggests. You are a doctor in the post WWII era, who through circumstances beyond his control, is blacklisted from the community he lives in. The game follows his reflections on the medical community, his relationships, and the events that led him to this moment in time in his life.

The story format will be familiar. It begins somewhat wistful and contemplative, turns dark, but then closes out on a hopeful note. It was very well written. As a side note, I was a department director at two hospitals in real life for many years, and I have some of the same perspectives regarding the medical community and healthcare as are expressed in this game.

Gameplay is very straightforward walking simulator through some stunningly beautiful locales. Each chapter offers some new things to enjoy. And, as a first for Tonguç to my knowledge, there is even a city setting for one part of the game, which was cool. Each full chapter (other than the game ending itself) ends with a puzzle that upon solving, provides a story recap for the chapter.

I really thought the area transitions were cool as well. Starting in black and white, then changing to full color or sepia tones (depending on the area) once you have control of your character was a nice touch.

Something I noticed that I thought was interesting gameplay-wise. When you’re moving downhill, you actually move faster. It’s a minor detail, but I thought that attention to detail was really cool. Additionally, there was one part of the game where the controls started the section very stiff. Then I realized it’s because you’re actually not walking. You’re riding a bike. Completely made sense.

The voice acting was comfortable and believable. Nice job there. Similarly, the soundtrack was perfect, and varied based on the moment in the game. Each track was highly reflective of the story at that time.

I played on the Steam Deck with zero tweaks required. The controls are all analog stick movement and FoV, so this comes as no surprise. I also experienced no bugs at all, although I note that the game would start to blur a bit with quick turning. However, it never quite did.

It took me right at an hour to complete this game, and I enjoyed every moment of it. If you’re looking for a walking simulator with story depth and a fantastic soundtrack, you need look no further.

Well, I spent quite a bit of time last month and this month playing Helldivers 2. I unlocked all difficulty modes and personally found eight to be my sweet spot for challenge and gameplay. But, despite its awesomeness, I did eventually get bored of the gameplay loop despite the gameplay itself never being dull. So, I’m calling that one done. I then moved on and spent the rest of this month so far playing:

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, which is also now done and dusted. I played this many times on console, but this was my first playthrough on PC. And for me, on an unmodded Steam Deck with the current version of Proton, and with no game mods, this ran immaculately.

In fact, this may have been one of the best games I’ve played on the Deck performance wise. Which is crazy to me considering how often the game would freeze stutter and crash when I played it previously (on console). I had one instance of stuttering in Operation: Anchorage during the final push and another instance of stuttering in Mothership Zeta, but beyond that, I literally had zero stability issues and it ran at a consistent 60 FPS on maxed settings with an average of around 25% CPU usage.

It took me forever to get around to buying and playing this on Steam due to its compatibility issues, but thankfully, those were nonexistent for me. The home screen for some reason wasn’t gamepad compatible, but everything else was and the default settings were fine.

So, with that out of the way, I want to talk a bit about the experience itself. For one, this game still looks great. Does it show its age? Yes and no. Things like character models actually look better than they do in Skyrim and Fallout 4 for some reason. But they don’t look modern of course. However, the world itself has aged very well. The audio is pretty legendary, and that will never change I’m sure.

The gameplay also holds up to modern games quite well. Gunplay is fun and VATS never disappoints. Early to mid game, I would recommend keeping a Dart Gun on you. It makes fighting things like Deathclaws much easier, especially if you use it to target legs. Once you get the Gauss Rifle though, you won’t need the Dart Gun or much else lol. It does great damage AND typically knocks enemies down as well. Nearly game breaking in its OP-ness, but it’s also incredibly satisfying.

Btw, special weapons aside, Deathclaws are still panic inducing and terrifying lol. They’re the fastest, strongest and meanest things in the game, and they have a sixth sense for being able to find you. You could be forgiven if you scream like a child when one leaps at you.

Exploring the DC Wasteland is quite memorable, and I went into this playthrough with a clear agenda for what I wanted to do and see outside of the main story. Given how well written a lot of the side quests are, there’s a lot of good times to be had.

As far as the DLC goes, I’d recommend doing Operation: Anchorage first. It’s the easiest, and although it lacks any nods to loot whores, the final payoff includes the other nearly game breaking piece of gear in the game: the Chinese Stealth Armor. Once you acquire that, the world is your oyster. Especially if you’ve leveled up your stealth. Takes maybe three hours to complete and is basically set up as a corridor shooter. If it weren’t for the armor, I’d probably skip this DLC.

The Pitt is probably the most heavily reliant on the morality system and the one with the largest grey area in that regard. The actual setting is cool and does feature the best melee weapon in the game should you be playing that way. You can roll through this in three to four hours, but it can also take longer depending on how thorough you are. Fairly easy overall.

Mothership Zeta is the quirkiest DLC. You get abducted by aliens, but you and some other abductees rebel and eventually take over the ship lol. Features some good weapons and some excellent healing/repair items. It’s probably the funniest DLC and is moderately challenging.

Point Lookout is the most difficult DLC, is at least partially inspired by Deliverance and Southern Comfort, has some good next tier versions of weapons you’ve probably been using a lot, has some cool story stuff including an important item for concluding a Cthulhu story arc in the base game, and is also the largest DLC.

Broken Steel is an endgame DLC, so once you’ve finished the main story, this one kicks off. I honestly wrapped this up in about two hours, maybe a bit less. But you could potentially get eight-ish hours out of it depending on how you handle certain situations and how much you explore and loot. Personally, I already had more ammo and healing stuff than I’d ever be able to use, so I took a more direct approach with this DLC. It does tie a bow on the Fallout 3 story, and is definitely worth experiencing.

So yeah, I was very glad to get one final playthrough in. It was still awesome in this age of gaming, and while not perfect, each individual aspect of this game holds up immaculately.

Alright. March assassinations

Mosaic (Steam Deck)
Jusant (Steam Deck)
Sea of Dreams (Steam Deck)
Scampr (Steam Deck)
Forest Fantasy (Steam Deck)
Answer Knot (Steam Deck)
Something (Steam Deck)
Chained Echoes (Steam Deck)
The Thaumaturge (Steam Deck)

and retired games

Elevator Experience Although, the devs reached out and assured me they would sort out the issues I had with this one, so it’ll probably get unretired once that happens.

Ant-Gravity: Tiny’s Adventure

Dragon’s Dogma 2 (pending some serious optimization updates)

ongoing

Helldivers 2
Azarine Heart (early access)
Umbra Fields (should be early access)

Alright. The Thaumaturge is done and dusted. I’m not certain how many endings there are in the game, but I qualified for four based on my choices and skills, so I saw those four. You play as Wiktor Szulski, who is the titular Thaumaturge.

The game itself takes many twists and turns, but much of the game focuses on your friendship with Rasputin, and your relationship with your twin sister as you try to figure out how and why your father, also a Thaumaturge, was killed while navigating the politics and general social climate of 1905 Warsaw.

The story was very detailed and intricate, with a ton of lore and interesting branching paths that will, as mentioned above, ultimately dictate which of the game’s endings you can enjoy. Very well written and although the story itself is fiction, the backdrop of 1905 Poland and specifically Warsaw was, so far as I can tell, quite historically accurate. This game was highly enjoyable from a story perspective. And the progression of Rasputin from the beginning to the end was particularly compelling and noteworthy.

Along the way, you will also seek to defeat and tame salutors, which are spirits who attach themselves to people who have a strong personality flaw (such as anger, fear, and so on). Additionally, you as a Thaumaturge already have a companion salutor who chose you based on your own flaw (pride in Wiktor’s case). A Thaumaturge can see these spirits, and thus try to separate them from their host and add them to your collection. Which in turn offer you special insight and abilities when dealing with other people, and new combat abilities as well.

Combat is turn based and resolved using Wiktor’s fighting abilities and those of his salutors, along with upgrades and buffs earned along the way. These are purchased via skill points and are presented as four skill trees based on the type of salutor you are upgrading. Combat was fun and prevalent, but not specifically the game’s focus.

The game’s focus is really investigation and dialogue. You, using your heightened senses as a Thaumaturge, will find many, many secrets in Warsaw, mostly taking the form of side quests. Some are story related, most are world building instead. Designed to help you get to know turn of the 20th century Warsaw. You of course will also use your investigative skills to further the main story quests.

Gameplay is isometric, although cutscenes are 3-d. There is thankfully fast travel, and objectives are clearly marked. The world crafting was very well done. Everything looked very believable, and the developers clearly put a lot of time into the graphics, really making Warsaw a living breathing world.

Additionally, every interaction is fully voice acted, and I thought it was quite well done. The team did a good job of getting a solid effort from the voice actors. The music in the game was quite enchanting, and the sounds of the city itself were omnipresent and ideal for the places they were representing.

I played this on the Steam Deck, and I would consider it to be Verified despite not having that status. There were some issues with the game, but none seemed to be Deck specific.

Rather, the issues with this game were very much general optimization issues. The game did struggle with framerate drops under certain circumstances. Specifically when it rained, when you were running through certain areas where it seemed like it struggled to keep up with the game’s rendering, and occasionally during conversations. Additionally, the game would sometimes freeze during the transitions between the end of combat and the ensuing cutscenes. These freezes required restarting the Deck and then continuing the game. None of these specific crashes repeated themselves. Meaning, upon restarting the game, the game functioned as it should after said battle(s).

Anyway, I very much enjoyed my time in the game. Special shoutout again to the devs for how they handled Rasputin. That was immaculate. And I wonder if Albuquerque man will be a future expansion or another game in the IP. I guess we shall see. Although I received this gane as a gift, it definitely earns its asking price. Definitely give this game a look.

Alright. Chained Echoes is done and dusted. This is an epic JRPG adventure with a sweeping story where your party tries to prevent an apocalypse while also trying to stop a civil war, helping civilians and solving other mysteries along the way. There is soooo much content, and yet somehow, the download is only 800mb lol. Anyway, it took me about fourty three hours to complete the story and the majority of content.

You will have four active characters at a time, but you’ll end up with quite a few party members by the end of the game. Additionally, at some point, you’ll earn a base, where your party members can chill, and where you will also invite a variety of NPCs that passive boosts, extra items, storefronts, and so on. And, you’ll also be given an airship at that point, making travel around the world much easier and giving you access to new areas. Prior to that, you have to rely exclusively on a fast travel system with teleport points opening up as you find waypoint crystals.

This is a loot heavy RPG, and so you’ll be leveling up your party members (who thankfully all level up together), unlocking new abilities and buffs. You’ll also earn SP, which is used to level up the abilities you know. You will also level up your weapons and armor via use of anvils and materials found or purchased, and can use special crystals found throughout the game to buff your weapons and armor with a variety of abilities and stat boosts.

Additionally, you can find secret locations throughout the world that, after proving yourself in battle at these locations, can each offer what is essentially an equip-able secondary class with special abilities and boosts.

Battles are turn based, and there are thankfully no random encounters. You might trigger an encounter by entering an area, but for the mist part, you can see exactly what you’re going to fight ahead of time.

Early on, you’ll join an Adventurers Guild, and via a rewards board, you earn cash and other stuff by meeting benchmarks, such as finding a certain amount of chests, defeating “x” amount of an enemy type, etc…and will also be rewarded for killing unique monsters that inhabit the world and are functionally optional boss fights.

So, with some gameplay specifics out of the way, and as mentioned earlier, this story is truly epic in my opinion. Navigating political intrigue while also dealing with day to day life and several types of apocalypses is a lot to keep track of and this game never loses focus, never forgets where it is, and never writes itself into narrative corners. It was very impressive.

The sights and sounds in this game are no less impressive. There are numerous unique locations, impressive representations of abilities and spells in combat, cool music catering to the moments in the game, and just overall vibrancy and life breathed into the setting both graphically and from an audio perspective.

It was a seamless experience on the Steam Deck out of the box, and generous with battery life running at about four hours for me.

Recency bias aside, this might genuinely be one of the greatest JRPGs ever made, and certainly the top one in recent memory, which includes contemporaries such as Sea of Stars. This was given to me as a gift, but there is no question it earns its asking price. And did I mention that this game was the vision of one person and the majority of work on it seems to have been handled by like three people? Impressive. Give it a look for sure.

Alright. Answer Knot is done and dusted. This is a very fast paced walking simulator that offers a surprising amount of tension and “WTF is going on?” in a concise little half hour package.

You play as Zach, who is waiting for your wife, June, to get home from work. She calls you several times, leaving messages to update you on where she is and what’s going on. For some reason, you aren’t answering her calls, but as she mentions things in her messages that you need to do, such as pulling chicken out of the fridge for dinner, you attend to these tasks.

And that is the progression system. Each of June’s messages unlocks the next action Zach needs to take to progress the story by receiving her next message. Hence the game’s title.

The whole game, you’ll get increasingly frustrated with Zach’s unwillingness to pick up the phone. To make matters worse, what June is experiencing and reporting on gets increasingly scarier and more frantic. Leading to the end of game reveal, which itself leads to more questions.

I take note of the fact that the stairs leading to the second floor seem to be barricaded when considering what I think of the story, but if you check out the forum after playing through this, you’ll see a number of theories as to what’s really going on in this game.

Ultimately, the story is in some part left to your imagination. But, the story offered is surprisingly detailed despite what I just said. It’s very well written.

The audio, and in particular the voice acting for June’s messages, was also incredibly well done. Graphically, this is a polished experience. The set piece isn’t large, and is presented perfectly.

The only potential hang up might be finding the safe code. That would be the only part that might have you searching for a bit. Just click on everything that you can interact with and you should be able to find it fairly easily.

The game is not what I would consider Steam Deck supported per se, but I did play it on the Deck. Some of the controls worked fine. Others didn’t and the touchscreen was necessary. Ultimately though, it was playable on the Deck.

I received this license via my Robilar’s Reviews curator program, but I note that the game is free to play and takes about a half hour to complete. It’s actually an exceptional, very focused title with a cool premise, and I would highly recommend checking it out.

Alright. Scampr is done and dusted. You play as an alien scientist taking the form of a squirrel who is tasked with trying to replicate Earth as remembered by a goldfish. As you can imagine, the goldfish’s memories snd perception might be a tad skewed. Said goldfish is also lost though, and so one of your tasks will be to find the goldfish. You’re not going to really get any of this from the game itself, so it’s good the devs decided to set up the world’s story in the product description, lol.

Things skewed by the goldfish’s recollections include acorns being able to create giraffes and unpetrify creatures, whales flying and being rideable, mushrooms making music, fish flying, and so on. The sealife flying does make sense from a fish’s perspective though, lol.

Anyway, you, an alien scientist squirrel, have a shopping list of objectives, from exploring caves to taking a train through the map, to the aforementioned riding whales, and so on. Plus, don’t forget that you need to find the goldfish. Once completed, you will be airlifted off the map by a blimp.

The graphics are particularly nice in this game. There is a weird bit of motion blur while distant assets render in, but yeah. The OST was pleasant, but not particularly noteworthy. And the littke squirrel sounds were kind of funny.

As you can imagine, the game doesn’t take itself very serious. It’s a (fast) walking simulator through and through, with a cool playscape to run/climb/jump around in.

Although I’d consider this unsupported on the Steam Deck, a bit of key mapping makes it completely playable. The game kept almost wanting to stutter, sitting on the cusp of doing so a few times, and the FPS wavered periodically, but nothing actually happened.

I received this license via my Robilar’s Reviews curator program. I would consider the $3.99 price tag to be fair. It took me about two hours to complete. I do note that the average playtime seems to be more like four hours, but I’m not really sure why this is. As it stands though, it’s a fun and charming playscape with a pretty unique premise. I’d give it a look.

Alright. Sea of Dreams is done and dusted. Kind of an innocuous name, but in reality, it’s a lite horror RPG Maker puzzle game. Took me right around ninety minutes to complete, and quite a few of those were spent making one puzzle way harder on me than it actually was supposed to be, lol.

The premise is you’re on a luxury cruise. You wake up in your cabin, get up to go grab some food and what have you, and realize you’re the only person on this ship. You then go about solving the mystery of why, and trying to find your way off the ship while avoiding death.

I think the developer did a great job with both the graphics, which were evocative, and the soundtrack, which was atmospheric. Although one particular track was quite annoying, and I suspect this was actually intentional. One of the puzzles was also tied to a musical piece, which I did think was pretty cool.

A cool thing that happens here is, when you find a solution or hint to a puzzle, you don’t have to remember it despite there not being a journal. Instead, while doing said puzzles (with one exception), your notes appear on screen. Most of the puzzles are numerically based, and I’d recommend not overthinking them. Instead, look for the pattern presented in each.

I played this on the Steam Deck, and it ran perfectly with no adjustments. It used 35% of the battery in my ninety minutes.

I did receive this license via my Robilar’s Reviews curator program, but the $2.99 asking price is definitely on point. The game was fun, well paced, interesting, and a perfect length for the experience offered. I’d give it a look.

Alright. Jusant is done and dusted. I was pretty thorough and still missed stuff, but all told, my playthrough was right at six hours. This was made with Unreal 5, and you can really tell.

At its core, this is exactly a parkour game. Your goal is to climb to the top of a mountain known as The Tower to try and restore rain to the world, which has been in an extreme drought long enough for the people of the world to either die or move on to try and find new places to live. The people had been a seafaring society, so when the oceans dried up, they gathered at The Tower, using their ships/boats to rebuild society up and down the mountain.

And that is what you, the nameless protagonist, and your friend, a tiny creature known as Ballast, will explore as you make your way up the mountain. Because there are no people left in The Tower, it’s got a very real sense of loneliness to it. There are however a number of animals who have managed to keep on living and thriving in the remnants of this abandoned world.

The parkour does have some nuance to it. You are armed with a rope, and ascender/descender, and pitons to assist in your climbing. And actually, you can’t ever fall to your death, so mission accomplished with the gear, lol. Along the way, Ballast can sing a song that encourages plants to grow, which will assist in your climbing; and here and there, new climbing mechanics will be introduced to help or challenge you.

You will also explore the abandoned settlements, reading notes left by previous inhabitants, old newspaper clips. You can find old shrines that will be brought back to their glory via Ballast’s song or by you spinning them (two types of shrines). You will also find old seashells that hold a set of brief memories you can relive. And finally, you can complete some rock stacks here and there. Each chapter features and final location where you will blow a massive horn that wakes up part of the mountain and encourages new life to bloom.

That’s pretty much the game. Although mostly linear, the game does offer some hidden areas and exploration. I thought I had been pretty thorough, but still missed some stuff. After you finish the game, chapter select unlocks, allowing you to go back and explore to your heart’s content.

There is no dialogue. This is similar to games like Journey or Abzu, where the music, the graphics, and the exploration really tell the tale. In the end, a nessage of hope rings forth. However, you are still keft with the mystery of whether the people of The Tower found a new life elsewhere or simply all died off due to a lack of water.

I played on the Steam Deck with no adjustments necessary. Battery life with default settings was right at ninety minutes.

This was a very pleasant experience with decent climbing chalkenges and a world filled with both longing and mystery. I received this as a gift, but I think it more than earns its asking price. Definitely give this game a look.