Game Reviews by Mallow

Reviewing indie games, mobile games, and older triple A games from once every two weeks to twice a week.

[mallowgames]

No Man’s Sky

Before writing a review for this game, I made sure to spend a significant amount of time in it so I could get a chance to see everything No Man's Sky has to offer before deciding whether to recommend it or not. Therefore, I'm writing this review after 2 weeks and 40 hours of gameplay, so it's not just a first impression. Here is what I love about No Man's Sky: * The exploration. While many of the assets are recolored and reused, I went 40 hours before I found my first desert planet, and saw cacti for the first time. I still find new things on every planet I visit, and I have yet to get bored with this feature of the game. I have still yet to find a planet with a significant amount of water. The planet I crash-landed on at the beginning of the game was a snowy planet, but it took me 8 jumps to find another snowy planet. There is enough variety to make the reused assets a non-issue.

* The upgrade system. With 40 hours in, I have yet to upgrade my exo-suit, multi-tool, or ship to maximum capacity. The upgrades come slow when you're primarily exploring, and I feel like that gives enough incentive to continue playing. The first time I bought a new ship, I was elated, and finding drop pods still makes me happy.

* The animals While there are animals that look incongruous and inexplicable, there are many others that look alien enough to be neat, but not silly. Completing the catalogue of animals on a planet is very satisfying, even if you have to shoot flying animals sometimes because the analysis visor doesn’t always work on fast-moving animals. My favorite things to do with the animals on the planet are: find the smallest animal possible, find the biggest animal possible, and feed animals their preferred mineral so they get happy and help me out.

* The monoliths, languages, Interacting with aliens The snippets of lore found at monoliths are tantalizing and keep me wanting to find more. Each word I learn (I’m up to over 100 now) makes conversing with aliens easier, and makes it so the rewards for interacting with them are better. I find it particularly disappointing when I go to a planet and find there are no aliens to interact with, as that’s one of the more intriguing parts of the game for me. 40 hours in and I have yet to learn a single Atlas word, despite following the path. It’s just another indication of how much more is out there. * The music Often when I’m playing a video game, I turn off the music and listen to a podcast or something in the background, because it’s difficult for me to focus my attention on one thing at a time. In the entire 40+ hours I’ve put into No Man’s Sky, I haven’t done this once. The music itself is procedurally generated, which means it doesn’t get boring. It’s also completely suited to the low-key exploration.

I find No Man’s Sky to be a very soothing, engaging game that doesn’t ask too much of me, yet still provides me with a host of interesting things to do. I was not aware of any of the hype before buying the game, and bought it with the understanding that it was strictly single player, therefore I am not disappointed by the lack of multi-player, regardless of what a developer may have said. Whether or not I would actually recommend No Man’s Sky to someone depends greatly on what they were looking for in a game. There’s very little action—although there are times when you get roped into major space battles—and if you are looking for a fast paced, challenging game, you’re not going to find it here. I would recommend waiting until the game drops in price, unless there is a major content patch, because I feel like No Man’s Sky, as it is right now, is a niche game. Much like Farming or Truck driving simulators, No Man’s Sky provides a soothing experience that will likely not stress anyone out. It’s slow-paced and calm, with lots of beautiful scenery, and music that never gets old no matter how long you play. So with those caveats, I do recommend it. I’ve enjoyed it too much not to.

[mallowgames]

Viscera Cleanup Detail

You are a janitor. It’s not the most glamorous job, and it’s not like you enjoy being wrist-deep in refuse, but it’s a steady paycheck for honest work. And hey! It could be worse; you could be one of those unlucky scientists whose entrails you’re scraping off of the ceiling… 

Viscera Cleanup Detail is a simulation game by three-man South African development team RuneStorm. Still in early access, this game puts you in the role of a janitor cleaning up after one of the bloody firefights that take place in first-person shooter games. Your job begins when the action is over, so it’s fortunate that RuneStorm have put a lot of effort into making the environments interesting. 

Despite being the first space-station janitor simulator, Viscera Cleanup Detail isn’t difficult to learn. As for tools, you have a mop, your hands, and other various objects with contextual uses. Nearly every map has the same three gadgets to help you clean: a bucket dispenser known as the Slosh-a-Matic, the bin-dispensing What-a-Load, and an incinerator that will turn everything you put inside it–even full buckets of water–into ash. Once you get your assignment–usually just a minor description of what event happened in the area–you just pick a corner and start to clean. Body parts and other debris go in the bins, while you use the buckets of clean water to dunk your dirty mop into.

What is most intriguing about Viscera Cleanup Detail is not the gameplay itself, but the impassive and objective vision of violence it portrays. When there is violence in video games, you are most often the perpetrator or the victim. You’re the one dodging bullets and killing to survive. Here, you’re a passive observer. The aftermath of violence surrounds you, but you’re in no danger from it. The bullets are just shell casings; the bodies are just debris. There are clues to what has happened in each location: monstrous footprints, trails of bullet holes, and body parts everywhere–sometimes on top of impossibly high structures. Enough exploration and you can discern exactly happened and why, but you’re not a detective–you’re a janitor. So instead of documenting the scene, you mop up the footprints and weld the bullet holes.

In most modern video games, bodies and blood disappear not long after they fall. This is practical, rather than stylistic, because every body on your screen is another object for your processor to render. For the game to run smoothly, the processing power it uses on your machine, be it PC or console, should be devoted to rendering necessary objects. A dead enemy is no longer necessary, therefore the most sensible thing to do is erase it. Viscera Cleanup Detail forces the player to see a more realistic depiction of what video game violence might look like without standard conventions like disappearing blood decals and dissolving corpses. While the over-the-top violence is intended to be comic, there’s something to be said for the way the aftermath is put at the forefront. Every shell casing has to be picked up. Every dead body has to be disposed of. Every blood stain has to be mopped. More than once I found myself picking up shell casings one at a time, thinking about how tedious it was, only to think back to any video game where the submachine gun was my weapon of choice.

This is a game that shouldn’t be fun. It’s tedium: mop that, pick up those soda cans, and watch your step on the way to the incinerator or you’ll end up tracking blood all over your nice, clean floors. Despite that, it’s extremely satisfying to clean a map to perfection. There’s no danger and no stress, outside of the Slosh-o-Matic and What-a-Load occasionally malfunctioning and spitting out body parts instead of buckets and bins. There’s no time limit, no other players (unless you decide to go multiplayer) and despite there being more gore than your average butcher’s shop, Viscera Cleanup Detail is incredibly soothing. It’s noteworthy that each time I logged in to take screenshots for this review, I ended up playing for hours at a time. 

Lastly, it is again important to remember that Viscera Cleanup Detail is in early access. While it doesn’t feel incomplete, there are some problems, mainly with the physics engine. Since there’s no mechanic to crush or compact objects, sometimes when you put heavy items on top of light items in the bin, objects will fall out of/clip out of the bin. Body parts occasionally plant themselves into the floor and make a huge mess while you try to pull them out, and I once found one of my pieces of equipment on the ceiling–not on the zero gravity level either. One of my biggest pet peeves with early access games is that they rarely give you enough information to get started, and Viscera Cleanup Detail is no different. There is no tutorial, no in game tips to guide you, and without reading the key bindings in the settings, you won’t even know what button to press to switch between your tools. With such a unique premise, it would have been useful for RuneStorm to throw in a cursory tutorial rather than dumping the player into the world without so much as telling them how to move around.

Buy If: 

You’re interested in unusual games

You find cleaning and arranging satisfying

You can handle a few bugs and setbacks

You like exploration games

You’re looking for something to play while watching/listening to something in the background (I play while listening to NPR!)

Avoid If:

You’re not comfortable with early access

You’re not comfortable with the level of gore

You’re looking for something with a deep storyline or character interaction

You think this all sounds a little tedious, and are wondering why you’d want to clean something digital when your house needs cleaning too

Anything Else?

Viscera Cleanup Detail can be purchased on Steam for $9.99. While still in early access, RuneStorm are actively making improvements and bug-fixes. This game may trigger motion sickness, but there are several settings that can be toggled to try to ameliorate that. There is also a small, but dedicated modding community on Steam, making new levels for when you finish the rest. 

[mallowgames]

Kitty Powers’ Matchmaking Agency

You are a novice matchmaker in a city full of single people looking for love. They’re lost without you, and since you’ve never done this before, you’re going to need some help. Thankfully, you’ve been hired at Kitty Powers’ Matchmaking Agency, and Kitty herself is here to guide you…

Kitty Powers’ Matchmaking Agency is a dating/matchmaking game from indie developers Magic Notion. This small developer may not have created any games prior to this one, but the director, Richard Franke, has worked in the video game industry for nearly 15 years. According to their website, Magic Notion’s goal is “to make unusual and inclusive games that respect our customers, and give them maximum entertainment for their money.” A noble goal, and one that is evident in the game.

This is an unusual game. It’s not really what would be considered a dating game, since the player character isn’t going on any dates, but the majority of the game is spent on dates. You, as the matchmaker, are responsible for helping your client find the partner most suited for them by giving them help via an earpiece during their date. The core gameplay is a mixture of minigames and memory tests, where you’re responsible for aiding your client in remembering their date’s interests, keeping track of what they talked about previously, and encouraging your client to either dump their date or ask them to be with them forever.

Your clients fit into one of a number of types present in the city where the agency is located: sporty types hang out at the gym, arty types at the museum, practical types at the hardware store. Each of these types has a list of interests, job titles, and dispositions that you’ll need to learn over the course of the game. For example, hippies always believe in astrology, so it’s a good idea to talk about astrology on your date, while geeks tend to be interested in video games and unicorns. While it’s easier to match clients of the same type together, there are Steam achievements for managing to match, say, a hipster with a sporty character. Once you pick a client to work with, you choose a restaurant where you will get to know your client’s date better and play a series of minigames. Most of the games are memory based–occasionally you’re asked to pick out the waiter (who you only see briefly during the date) from a line-up of three because your date has forgotten what they looked like. Often, you’re asked to calculate the tip, thankfully Google has a tip calculator (which I’ve made extensive use of.) If all goes well, your client and their date are off to a life of wedded bliss.

One of the things I like most about this game is that not only do your clients have a mixture of gender preferences, they’re procedurally generated (randomized by algorithm) so say, male clients looking for a male partner never look like gay stereotypes. It also means you get a wide variety of ethnicities. I also really like that when a client tells you about themselves, they don’t label their sexuality. Instead a client will tell you their name and say “I’m looking for a man,” or “I’m looking for a woman!” Clients looking for any gender partner do exist, but they’re very rare compared to those looking for a man or a woman. The game makes a lot of headway in living up to Magic Notion’s mission statement. There are no gender stereotypes in the interests and types of characters–a woman is just as likely to be interested in monster trucks as a man, for example. The characters do unfortunately adhere to a gender binary, but the game is otherwise sensitive to LGBT+ issues. Language is almost always gender neutral, and as mentioned above all of your clients can get married, not just male/female pairings.

On the downside, the game can get repetitive and frustrating. Once the agency gets big enough to open up to clients all over the city, it can be hard to figure out what type your client’s dates are, and guessing poorly can lead to a bad date, or even to your client being dumped. There’s an element of chance in the minigames that can be really frustrating. There’s nothing worse than a date going really well until you screw up a minigame at the end and a relationship that was previously going well is now over. Clients grow more and more picky as you raise in rank, making it more difficult to make a good match. Additionally, there can be a lot to remember. On the third date, your client and their date will have discussed six topics, meaning you have to remember those topics so you don’t discuss them again, remember the waiter’s appearance, and remember your date’s appearance as sometimes they go to the bathroom and come back with a new haircut, or make-up, and your client has to correctly guess what change has been made or their date will be put out. Also, since the developers are from the United Kingdom, there’s some British slang and humor that can be incomprehensible to an American audience.

I would be remiss in not mentioning Kitty herself. This game was an impulse buy for me. I briefly scanned the title, the screenshots, and the first review before realizing the game included same-sex couples and purchasing it. Because of this, I did not realize until I fired up the game that the titular Kitty Powers is a drag queen. Kitty Powers is also the alter ego of Richard Franke–the director of the studio. Given the differing attitudes towards drag queens in the LGBT+ community, I can’t say whether or not Kitty’s presence–and you can’t miss her, she’s your boss and tutorial–will affect your enjoyment of the game.

Lastly, a particularly neat feature is that you create your own avatar and dating profile when you start up the game. Why do this when you don’t actually see your character during the game? Because your character can go out into the world and date people in other people’s games under a pseudonym. You can opt in or out of this feature easily. If you choose to opt in, you get periodic messages about how many dates your avatar has gone on and how well they’ve gone. If you have friends on your Steam list with the game, they can show up in your agency looking for a date. There’s also a leaderboard where you can compete against your friends to earn coins to upgrade your agency by making the most lasting matches.

Buy If:

You’re looking for a casual, addicting game with no violence

Dating games appeal to you

You’re looking for something to play in short bursts at a time

You like testing your memory

You like cheeky and mildly suggestive humor

Avoid If:

Repetition and memory games don’t appeal to you

You want something more action-oriented

A fart joke or two is a dealbreaker for you.

Anything Else?

Kitty Powers’ Matchmaking Agency is available on Steam for $9.99, Google Play for $2.99, and the Apple Store for $2.99. There are no in-app purchases for any version.

The developers are active on Steam’s Community Hub for the game, and any bugs or other issues are being patched frequently. They’re looking into making the game more accessible for colorblind players right now.

[mallowgames]

Salt

You wake up on the ground, dazed, shielding your eyes from a sun that seems far brighter than it ought to be. You know only two things: you are on an island and you are alone. Around you is a vast blue ocean, dotted with islands that look like either mere specks or mountains rising from the water. The island you’re on is uninhabited, but there’s another island almost close enough to swim to. If you only had a boat…

Salt is an exploration/adventure game by indie developers Lavaboots Studios. This three man team from Alabama have created a world of procedurally generated islands on a vast, possibly infinite ocean to tickle your sense of discovery. As soon as you find the means to create a boat and leave your starting island, those sensations of adventure and discovery are so strong you can almost touch them. Lavaboots Studio, who describe themselves as “based on a purpose rather than a product,” set out to create an experience that gives the player strong feelings that will stay with them long after they turn off the game and their goal is evident in every aspect of Salt.

Currently, Salt is in Early Access, which means it is far from finished and changes are constantly taking place, but the core gameplay is there. Almost all of your time in-game will be spent sailing from island to island, exploring, gathering resources, and leaving for another island once you’ve finished with the one you’re on. While the islands are similar—there are no biomes outside of lush jungle and sandy waste—the procedural generation ensures that what you find on those islands is randomized. It makes no sense to stay on one island too long, there’s always another just within your view, tempting you to get back on your raft (or your boat, if you’ve progressed that much) to see what it has to offer. At night, you can see the light from campfires on distant islands, giving you the first signs that you’re not actually alone out here.

I was originally going to spend some time talking about how Salt has little to offer other than exploration and some basic crafting, but I realized after a quick glance at the forums that my limited playtime has only shown me the smallest slice of what Salt has to offer. I ran into deer and a few pirates—did I mention there was pirates? Oh yes, there are pirates, and they have booty for you to pillage if you so desire—but otherwise my explorations have so far been unremarkable. According to the wiki there are also pirate villages, merchants, and spiders out there to encounter—I just haven’t found them yet. The desire to find more, to discover more secrets, to dig up more treasure chests and create more things is a powerful draw to continue playing.

Also, the game is beautiful. Sunsets and sunrises are stunning, and the light works exactly the way it ought to. Shadows are cast in the proper direction given the position of the sun, and they move as the sun sets and the moon rises. Nights are dark—very dark—and without a torch there’s nothing you can do except for wait. Salt puts you in a beautiful, tropical world with the sounds of the sea and the birds and lets you play in the sandbox without ever trying to hold your hand.

At this point, it’s important to reiterate that this game is still in early access. While the environments are gorgeous, some of the graphics leave a lot to be desired. The deer look majestic, but the models for the pirates and other people are cartoonishly bad. There is no tutorial or map, to foster the sense of exploration and discovery, but that can make it difficult to play when you accidentally find yourself on an already explored island. Pirates (and one assumes, spiders) break up the tranquility, and having a limited list of crafting recipes can make it difficult to progress. I have yet to figure out how to make a fishing pole, for example, even though I’ve found plenty of bait.

Buying an early access game is a bit like gambling. Games like The Stomping Land and Air Control are notable failures of Steam’s early access program, while games like Kerbal Space Program and Divinity: Original Sin prove that it is possible for a game to come out of early access and do remarkably well. Still, it’s a gamble. My rule of thumb is that if you’re going to buy an early access game, buy it with the understanding that tomorrow, the developers could abandon it and there’s nothing you could do about it.

Buy This If:

You like open world exploration games

You don’t need a goal to be happy.

You’re looking for a (generally) peaceful and non-frustrating experience.

You’ve always wanted to reenact Robinson Crusoe without the colonialism.

Stay Away If:

You’re frustrated by getting lost, not having a goal, or lacking instruction in general.

(Maybe) You have seasickness – I would not be surprised if this game triggered it.

You’re not comfortable with the concept of early access.

Anything Else?

RockPaperShotgun gave Salt their award for Best Exploration Game in 2014.

Salt is available for purchase both on Steam and at Lavaboots Studio for 14.99. Lavaboots Studio also has a generous demo available.

[mallowgames]

Often, when I'm playing a video game, I narrate a little in my head. Sometimes, depending on my level of engagement with the game, I will actually start drafting miniature reviews--it's just a thing that I've always done, like pretending to be on a cooking show when I'm baking. For me, enjoying a game often means manipulating it into words either through fanfiction or through these drafted and never written reviews. Lately I've been playing a lot of games without much exposure: early access games, indie games, and inexpensive games that don't really come up on the radar the same way that triple A games from large studios do. As I get more and more enthusiastic about these games, I feel like a random recommendation without a detailed explanation of what I like about them isn't doing them justice. There are places to find reviews for them, true, but if there's one thing I've always been eager to do, it's to share my perspective on things I'm passionate about. So here's how it's going to work. Anywhere from once every two weeks to twice a week, depending on the time I have to play, write, and edit, I'll post a review. I'll review games in early access, indie games, and sometimes even mobile games. If I review a game from a large studio, it will probably be an older game, as right now most of my time is spend playing games I can buy for $10 or less. Because it's important to me, I'll make a note of when a game succeeds or fails at representation and/or accessibility. I'll do my best to offer trigger warnings and other content warnings when necessary. I won't outright tell you to buy a game, but I'll let you know who I think the game might appeal to. My reviews aren't going to be objective. Playing a game is a personal experience and I'm not going to try to write a sterile emotionless review where I try to approach the game like I'm observing wildlife from a distance. I want to get my hands in it. I'm open to suggestions, requests, and might even offer a platform for other people to submit reviews depending on how well this all goes. If you have any questions I'm happy to answer them. Thanks for following, and first review will be posted on Sunday!