Legends of IdleOn

Legends of IdleOn cut in line in my game queue, because I simply couldn't resist an MMO that had been out for about 2 years, and still had thousands of concurrent players on Steam alone. "Surely, this must be a good game if so many people are still playing it," I thought to myself. I don't usually play Early Access games, but I figured I'd rather not be any more late to the party than I already was. After about 20 hours, my opinions on it are mixed.

As the name states, IdleOn is an idle game. It's not an incremental game though, like many idle games are. The progression ramps up much like in a regular RPG. Despite that, there is quite a lot to actively do. The main activity in the game is combat. You go to a field, monsters spawn, you kill them. There's little benefit to giving any active input - it's fully automatic. But in a similar vein, you can do other activities like mining, logging, smithing. At least 3 more activites unlock soon, but there's like a dozen overall, with more being added. There's also bosses, dungeons, challenges, and most importantly, a boatload of collectibles. So many collectibles... Foods which give permanent upgrades, cards which are like 1 in 10000 drops from monsters, statues, stamps, achievements, and each stacks and gives diminishing stacking bonuses, and this is just World 1. There are currently 4 Worlds, but World 5 is supposedly coming soon. I can not even begin to list all there is to do in this game - it's truly massive, and I'm not sure if it's a solo project, or has a very small team size. In any case, amazing dedication from the devs.

I was hooked and fascinated by all the possibilities for a full two days. Yet, the more I played, the more some ugly details started to rear their heads. Oddly enough, the complexity that I feared was not going to translate to depth wasn't a problem. The multitude of things to do all seemed relevant to the game as a whole.
The first problem was that the game started to slow down. First area - kill 20 monsters to advance. Second area - 50 monsters. Soon it was 500, then 2000, and I was still in World 1. All the items I could craft wanted more and more resources. Each next level became more and more of a grind. Soon enough, not only could I not play when I wanted, as progress was blocked by more AFK farming, but I also felt I had to log on at specific times to make sure this AFK farming was going smoothly. I felt the game dictated not only when I could play, but when I should play. It of course didn't help that the gameplay wasn't particularly exciting - just the satisfaction of watching numbers go up, bars fill, and various collection tabs populate.
Secondly, forced alternate accounts. The game has a class system, with each class having slightly different abilities, but also specializing in different forms of gathering. You get your third alt pretty early, and can have up to 6 so far. They all collectively contribute to your account, each simultaneously collecting resources, but very annoyingly still have to go through all the quests and progression hurdles themselves. (At least your main accounts can supply them with gear and resources.) The grind was already bad enough for one character, I don't want to do it all over again 5 more times. In addition, most infinitely (or near-infnitely) stacking buffs are shared between all characters, but some are not. It really frustrates me that I would probably be best off sending all of these to my main, meaning my alts will forever be weaker. It's not fair to want my alts to do all the same challenges, but without many progression items that my main has.
And lastly, to not much of a surprise, there is the monetization. IdleOn's free, so of course it has microtransactions. And ho boy is it pay-to-win. Sure, no purchase is mandatory, but hey, isn't that grind getting a bit too long for you liking? Wouldn't you like to be able to AFK more without worrying your resources are going to waste? Spend less time walking from place to place, or play more minigames or dungeons or challenges which are actually kind of fun to play? There's all that and much more, and you will have to pay up again, and again, and again. There's no nice option of 20€ or even 60€ for all the major conveniences. Buying even just the limited-quantity powerups like various inventory expansions or extra daily boosts will cost horrendous amounts of money. And I'm willing to bet this ties into the game grinding to a slog, meaning you'll want to fork over another 10€ at regular intervals just to keep the pace of progression at an entertaining level.

You know, I really liked IdleOn for a little while. There's a lot of idle games out there, but the sheer amount of content in this rivals and probably even exceeds most collection-based RPGs created by large companies, let alone indie idle games. It's so satisfying collecting things, finding those rare drops, and completing actually difficult achievements too. Of course, I know this is an idle game - it's in the name - but there's too much idling. I'd love the same content if there was even a mildly fun active element instead of the idling, if it wasn't repeated across multiple characters, and if the game had a more sensible monetization (though I fear the latter might be necessary to enable the developer to do this full-time). Sadly, as is, the few major problems ruin my fun, and I can't recommend it unless you know that these kinds of time-gated games that force you to log on every so often are what you're craving.

Super Fancy Pants Adventure

I'm always happy to see a game on Steam from a developer whose game(s) I used to enjoy back in the Flash gaming era. I'm glad they're still making games, and I'd always go and give their game a try, even though I know that my standards were lower back then, those were entirely free games, and I might not end up liking the games I have fond memories of. It's fine, because even if I don't like the new ones, nothing can take away the past joy I felt, and I think having a perspective on how things have changed is nice.

So what I played today was Super Fancy Pants Adventure. The Flash versions back in, gosh, 2006, and another at 2011 were probably some of the best platformers among free Flash games. While some platformers are snappy and have very tight controls, Fancy Pants feels the opposite - it's hard to hit anything specific, but the movement has a flow to it that feels very... satisfying, organic, fast...
It's a very simple game - you run, you jump, you roll/slide. There's some goofy version of physics that somehow makes sense, like how running up slopes makes you jump higher, the usual walljumping, but also running on the ceiling by the power of spirals. (I guess that's how it would work for a very fast moving vehicle with wheels...) There's enemies, most of which can be knocked out of the way by jumping on them or sliding into them, but some also require you to attack them (a new mechanic in this game, and I'm not sure how I feel about it). There's a collectible currency that restores health and can be used for combat upgrades, and then special challenge rooms that unlock new pants colors or hats.
It's quite a silly and lighthearted game, and lasts for about 4 hours - not longer than the Flash version - which was a bit of a bummer.

Overall, it's probably about the same as I remember it. Running around feels very satisfying if you get the momentum going and hit your targets, but if you miss something, it can be somewhat tedious to get back to it, since you lost the momentum. I feel the mandatory pen sword combat is a bit of an unnecessary addition, but the added freeform surfing along certain walls feels very nice. Does it live up to my current standards though? No, not really. Definitely very good for a free game back in 2006/2011, but not enough to really entertain someone who's not a platformer enthusiast these days.

Burning Daylight

I might be a bit harsh on this one...
Burning Daylight is a free walking simulator from 2019. I don't remember anymore why I decided to give it a try. Perhaps it had an unusually high review count shortly after launch, even for a free game. I noticed it had barely gained any new reviews since, so I guess the popularity didn't really carry on into the future. It's an hour long, features basically no gameplay, and lacks a lot of polish, from mismatching visual elements to invisible walls to physics glitching you out of the map forcing you to restart the game.
I finished it, but... I don't even quite know what it's about. It's some kind of abstract-ish sci-fi horror thing. Minimal voices or text, just... running through the scenery in a linear fashion.

Okay, I'mma be real. I generally hate walking simulators. If the gameplay is so devoid of anything to do that you just have to move in linear fashion, you might as well make a movie in a game engine. At least give me reason to pause, some forced conversations or something. This abstract feelings-and-emotions stuff and not explaining anything does not click with me one bit. I have no idea what Burning Daylight tried to tell me, and I didn't even enjoy it aesthetically, nor did I feel like it had some actual deep meaning behind it.
I'm just glad it only wasted an hour of my time. You won't be hearing anything close to a recommendation from me.

Rehtona

I gave this cute little puzzle game by the name of Rehtona a try. I'd say it about met my expectations.

Rehtona is a semi-casual puzzle game where you have a few dozen levels, each consisting of a single-screen grid of blocks (roughly up to 20x10) with various attributes. Your goal is to get to the key, get to the right side of the level, get to the puzzle piece, and then get back to the left side. Optionally, you can also try to gather all the crystals along the way. The right side of the level switches the world to an alternate version, where blocks have different effects. You can push some blocks around, and create blocks that become solid in the alternate version. There's lasers that can be blocked, and buttons to turn things on and off, and a few more gadgets, but that's most of the mechanics of the game. There are actually about a dozen different kinds of blocks, most having a different effect between the world versions, but I need not list them all.

It's a simple game, with neither a lot of levels, nor a lot of mechanics. Regardless, the puzzles are reasonably well made, and can be quite difficult. Ultimately, I'd have to say I didn't like it. Not because it's bad, but because it's unremarkable. It's a pretty run on the mill puzzle game, and I feel like I've played plenty similar ones in the past. Not the exact same mechanics, but with the same feeling. Rehtona was too forgettable, and that's why I couldn't recommend it, unless you're a big fan of puzzle games.

Lucah: Born of a Dream

Lucah: Born of a Dream is a 2D hack-and-slash game, and I don't quite know what to think of it.

In some aspects, Lucah is a rather ordinary game. You have your usual hack-and-slash mechanics: stamina, dodging, light, heavy, and charged attacks, a ranged attack that recharges with melee attacks, some stat level-ups... I'd even say the customization is closer to what you might find in a larger RPG, not that of an action game lasting only several hours. You can switch between two forms, each being customizable to have the types of attacks you want. Different patterns, ranges, speeds, damage... You can also equip modifications, which allocate points from a limited pool, and give things like being able to take an additional hit at the end, or being able to regenerate health if counterattacking shortly after getting hit.
What I listed wasn't even all of it, but there definitely also weren't too many mechanics. From a theoretical perspective, Lucah did an excellent job at making the combat interesting and nuanced, as well as moderately customizable to your liking. Run in, break the enemy's guard, and swiftly destroy them with a few powerful attacks? Or perhaps you'd rather stay afar, pelting the enemy with light and ranged attacks, making it easier to dodge theirs? There were many options, and I loved that.
Lucah also has one of the more unique visual styles I've seen in a game. Everything is like scribbles. Rough lines, no gradients, pixelated, shaky, unclear forms. Combined with the flashy and jerky visual effects, it gives off a visceral feeling. I think you could call it edgy? From an aesthetic perspective I love it. Even though it does kind of resemble the scribbles of a child, it's clearly made by someone with at least a moderate understanding of art because the overall composition still works.
On the artistic note, the story is also definitely unclear like the art. I couldn't understand it well, or almost at all, but I did sort of feel it. I hear you have to complete the game multiple times to experience and understand it all, which I did not. Luckily, combat was at the forefront, and I never felt slowed down by any narrative.

However, from a more practical perspective, things didn't hold up nearly as well.
The game doesn't seem entirely well balanced. Some enemies are tough, some are easy. Personally I found longer-ranged weapons better because they made it easy to avoid enemies, though it did make many enemies tanky and tedious to kill.
The keybindings aren't quite to my liking, but are also not rebindable. Holding a directional key, movement still stops when crossing maps. There's a mouse cursor, but I can't seem to really click on anything or aim with it? There's forced auto-aim roughly depending on towards what I'm walking, but it turns off at moderate distances, and can't account for enemies moving. There are a lot of these problems, and I find that having a comfortable and effortless experience making the game do what you want is very important in an action game, and lacking this is the largest reason I quit Lucah.
The second largest reason was that, despite loving the artstyle, it made things so unclear. Where is the enemy's hitbox? Where is mine? How far do their attacks reach? In pursuit of style, the game had sacrificed playability, and I really hate to see that in any game.

So, overall, my feelings are mixed. I loved the ideas put here, but as I was playing it, I felt frustrated. They keys were in annoying places. Important menus took too long to reach. I had to just hope auto-aim was on my side, and the enemy's hit didn't reach me sometimes, because I couldn't tell. The game had the potential to be good, but it fell far short of realizing it. As it stands, there are better hack-and-slash games to play, even if they aren't as imaginative. Perhaps a partial recommendation? Try it out for an hour or two, and you should have a good idea if the flaws can be outweighed for you.