Introduction

This blog post is kind of a follow up to my last blog post 2026-H1 Arts Recommendations in which I say:

“A remake of [Atlantis - Pearls of the Deep (2012)] exists, but from what I read and saw, it is basically the same gameplay, except pay to win. I am probably gonna try it, but honestly “Perls of the Deep” is nearly flawless and outside of some specific maps being frustrating. I have had, overall, a great time playing it”.

I ended up trying it, and this blog post is what I have to say about it.

A good game ruined by predatory practices

This game is based on a great game, “Atlantis - Pearls of the Deep (2012)” and its sequel, “League of Mermaid (2013)”. It’s effectively the same game… except they added a lot of stuff that makes it so much worse:

• The number of pearls is limited, when you run out you have to use one of the currencies to get 5 more or restart
• There’s an energy system, 100 energy, each “try” of a level takes 10 energy
• There’s 5 different currencies (yes seriously, technically there’s also  “compasses” too, which are kind of a currency, except it’s gated behind building stuff)
• The levels “packs” are “locked” behind gates that are unlocked by building pointless stuff that give you “compass”. To build those, you need to spend the resources, and spoiler, you won’t have enough coins, which is the one you buy with real money
• The game cheats, if there’s only a single “objective” pearl, the game will more than likely NOT give you the color you need to get it. If you “buy” 5 more pearls after running out, it’s almost guaranteed that you will at most get 1, usually 0, of the color you need

All this makes it so the game is a lot worse than the original, which is sad… and you can’t even buy a version without all this predatory and pointless stuff that ruins the game, if you want to play any of it, you have to play this version and deal with the awfulness of it…

Conclusion

They literally choose to make the game worse to effectively have “wales” spend hundreds of dollars on it (too bad the game is too niche for that to happen), instead of making a good game, and potentially having it paid. Even the paid version available on console still has all the same issues (yes, they really left the 5 currencies), they just added stuff to make it so the game gives you more resources (like an effective lootbox disguised as a chance wheel).

Greed is one hell of a thing, especially on a game like that with a finite amount of levels. I would have happily paid to not have to deal with all this, but I’m not paying to “reward” the predatory stuff.

Rating and Recommendation

3/10 - Not Recommended

Post-Scriptum

Play “Atlantis - Pearls of the Deep (2012)” and “League of Mermaid (2013)” instead.

Atlantis - Pearls of the Deep (2012): 8/10 - Recommended

League of Mermaid (2013): 7/10 - Recommended

This blog post is an indirect follow-up to a blog post I made back in December 2025 about the “artistic objects” I enjoyed in 2025.

This blog post is gonna be about various “artistic objects” I’ve enjoyed from January 2026 to June 2026 (included).

Spoilers will be minimal.

Some important context

I’ve watched far less movies and played far less video games in the last few months, the reason is that I had a complete and massive fallout with my (at the time) best (online) friends with who I was watching most things.

Due to this fact, what I’ve enjoyed the last few months has been mostly “light” or “comedic” stuff, because that’s what I’ve needed since it happened.

Some recommendations are from before the fallout happened.

Movies

12:01 (1993)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106188

(TV movie)

This TV movie is an adaptation of a short of the same name (but with “PM” added), which was by itself an adaptation of a short story. I wasn’t a fan of the short and expected to also not be a fan of this movie, but it ended up being probably one of the best things I’ve ever seen. It is a TV movie, yet it is more impressive and more polished than a lot of actual “cinema movies”.

The story of the movie is basically the same as Groundhog Day (1993) (so much so that the author of the short story tried to sue the producer of Groundhog Day), except, unlike Groundhog Day, it’s actually good since they did the idea properly.

9/10 - Recommended

Turbo Kid (2015)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3672742

(Proper indie movie)

This movie is a low-budget post-apocalyptic movie set in a world where everything is gone, society has collapsed and water is rare. We follow a young guy living in this world who at some point finds a weird, quirky girl that ends up following him… and they get in trouble. It’s a pretty light movie, it’s flawed in some ways, but great in others.

It looks amazing. Yes, the script is imperfect and the movie goes from hyper-serious to slapstick comedy, which isn’t always fitting, but when watching it, the only thing I thought of was: “Wow! This is made with so much care!”

In the same vein, I can also recommend PG: Psycho Goreman (2020) which in some way is tonally similar (it’s, however, not post-apocalyptic) but more successful in its writing. It’s technically a better movie, but unlike “Turbo Kid”, it’s a bit closer to a “normal” studio movie, which made its impact on me lower than “Turbo Kid”.

Turbo Kid (2015): 9/10 - Recommended

PG: Psycho Goreman (2020): 10/10 - Recommended

Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872750

I have always liked the work of the Aardman studio, mainly “Wallace & Gromit”. I have, however, never really watched “Shaun the Sheep” because it always seemed too kiddy for me.

I did watch this movie with a friend at a time when my mood was really bad, and I expected to not necessarily like it, it was just something light to watch but I was fine with that at the time. I expected something really mediocre and really dumb. In the end, what I got surprised me so much, I decided to recommend it, because what I got was art. This surprised me so much that I still can’t believe a franchise that seemed so stupid made something where my only thought when I was done watching it was: “Wow! This is actual art! WTF?!”.

08/10 - Recommended

TV Shows

Cobra Kai (2018–2025 - Finished)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7221388/

This show is technically a follow-up to The Karate Kid (1984) a movie that I’m not even sure I’ve watched from a franchise I never cared about. I have only watched season 1 of the show so my review is gonna be purely based on this season. I have heard that the show gets a bit worse after that (which is basically when Netflix bought it, coincidence…).

This show takes place after the movie, in current time, as if the movie happened back when they came out. They follow the “bad guy” of the movie and is failure of a life since the movie happened, trying to get back to “living” by going back to Karate. It is dumb in some ways, but unlike a lot of dumb things, it’s self-aware and doesn’t take itself seriously. Even so it is derivative, what it ended up being is something really sweet and really nice.

7/10 - Recommended

Justin Spitzer (1977-Present - Ongoing)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1541482
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Spitzer

For once I am gonna recommend a specific artist. This artist is Justin Spitzer. He is the creator of various TV shows and the reason why I decided to recommend his work instead of specific TV shows he made is that the way he’s making TV shows is effectively to do the same “core idea” in slightly different ways.

He started by being a writer on “The Office (2005)” and when it finished, he moved to creating Superstore.

Superstore (2015-2021)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4477976/

Superstore is The Office (2005), but not a mockumentary and in a supermaket.

It sadly got cancelled early and ended in a weird way mainly because one of the main actresses decided to leave the show - but not really - because it happened during Covid so she ended up coming back for the show to conclude.

The show isn’t bad, per se. It has amazing characters, amazing character relationships, and, in some ways, has better ideas than The Office (2005). The problem with the show is that any time I think about it. The only thing I can think of is “what a wasted potential” It could and should have been great, it sometimes is great, but it never is fully successful and none of the plots actually develop in a way that is really satisfying.

The way it ends honestly makes the show a lot worse (then again, the way The Office (2005) ends is awful). I did read at some point (because it took me almost the whole of season 1 to get into it, I really didn’t like it at first, so I wanted to know if it gets better) that the show gets worse when the romance “succeeds”, and I don’t necessarily disagree.

All in all, a good show that missed the mark but as I said at the beginning, this guy is making multiple TV shows with the same core idea, and he is coming back.

7/10 - Recommended

American Auto (2021–2023)

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11717610/

What he cam back with is “American Auto”.

When I started this show, I was a bit scared. I was scared because, unlike Superstore, which follows “normal” people, this one is effectively following the upper management class (which is far harder to relate to and care about). In a (car) company where big money is involved.

Also, I have to admit, the show’s name didn’t help to make me interested in it.

However, the show was really successful at making us care about the characters because even though they are, in a way, part of the “evil” class (so to speak), they remained human. The show is also really critical about shareholders and stock market related things. And it’s critical for companies’ executives to effectively “promote” people to higher-up positions so that they don’t get sued for a mistake they made, which from what I know is mostly a problem in the USA.

All this to say that in the end I ended up preferring this to Superstore. I ended up preferring it so much more that it is probably one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen.

It is clever, REALLY political (and not in a bad way, which is surprising for something coming from modern USA), funny, it has great characters, great character relationships, and great “drama”.

Overall, it is really good. The fact that it got cancelled after two seasons is actually a benefit (even if I would have liked to see more) because the show ends up being really tight and even if some things, especially near the end, feel a bit rushed, the end result is a show that is, even if imperfect, far better than the vast majority of comedic shows.

8/10 - Recommended

St. Denis Medical (2024–Ongoing)

This is a show taking the presentation of The Office (2005) by going full-on mockumentary and focusing (mostly) on a “single small room” (with some external “views” of the world when needed)… except in a hospital, where effectively people come and go and it’s always different, this benefits the show in the sense that nothing is ever stale, since it is purely character-driven and situations arise from new characters all the time.

It is currently still ongoing (only season 1 and 2 are out at the time of writing), and it is probably one of the best, if not the best comedy shows that is still ongoing. A lot of it is not even necessarily that funny but everything the show does is successful: the characters are great and actually relatable; none of them are really cartoonish in the sense that you could literally meet any of them in the real world and you wouldn’t be surprised.

8/10 - Recommended

Games

For whatever reason, I’m guessing mostly related to my mental state. I have been mostly playing light puzzle games (mainly Match-3 or Peggle-style games).

Atlantis - Pearls of the Deep (2012)

• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/521280/Atlantis_Pearls_of_the_Deep/

• PCGamingWiki: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Atlantis%3A_Pearls_of_the_Deep

This is a game I probably “played” for an hour 10+ years ago. I vaguely remember playing something with this gameplay, maybe on console, maybe a demo… I’m honestly not sure. It is a match-3 puzzle game where you drop colored balls on stacks of other balls in a “map” that usually doesn’t make it easy for you to drop them where you want. The reason I enjoyed/enjoy it a lot is that everything is physicsy, so you end up with a puzzle game that isn’t as static as most other puzzle games without going “hyper active” (like Zuma/Luxor/Tetris…). Things happen at your rhythm; you can play fast or slow, you can be overly precise or “spam balls” without much downside, it ends up being a really unique and satisfying experience.

A remake of it exists, but from what I read and saw, it is basically the same gameplay, except pay to win. I am probably gonna try it, but honestly “Perls of the Deep” is nearly flawless and outside of some specific maps being frustrating. I have had, overall, a great time playing it

9/10 - Recommended

Piffle (2018)

• Official website: https://www.pifflegame.com/
• Apple Arcade: https://apps.apple.com/app/piffle/id6742088715

This game is taking the idea of arcanoid (or any kind of brick breaker game) and making it into something far more interesting by making the “bricks” have different effect and different behavior depending on what happens (either you hit them or didn’t hit them) - some will move, some will duplicates, some can only be hit on one side…

It is also taking the idea of a lot of Japanese puzzle games, mainly Puzzle Bobble, by making the bricks fall toward the player and killing you if you’re not playing “good” enough.

It is, like the previous game, really dynamics and physicsy, which ends up making it really satisfying.

Having played the Apple Arcade version, I didn’t encounter any of the toxic things of usual mobile games (P2W, predatory things…), so I can’t comment on them, but the only thing my version had which, I’m guessing, was mostly made for the free-to-play version is the fact that you can customize your “bullets” (which are cats), by changing their appearance (you can give them clothes… or make them dogs), which has literally no effect on gameplay.. I purely played the game as a “actual game” and this is part of the reason why I’m using Apple Arcade.

This was, surprisingly to me, made by the developers who made Crossy Road, a game which I find to be really bad (and a bad copy of Frogger). I played it without knowing that fact was surprised to see that when they have their own idea, they can make something really good.

9/10 - Recommended

Garden Tails (2022)

• Official website: https://www-staging.dots.co/garden-tails/ (staging website? Seems to be the only one working…)
• Apple Arcade: https://apps.apple.com/app/garden-tails-match-and-grow/id1613174241

This game is, from afar, a pretty basic match-three game. It is themed around garden and wildlife related things. One of the main things making it different from other match-3 games is the fact that on the “board,” animal “tiles” will spawn and those animals will have different effects: Rabbits will destroy everything in a straight line, birds will fly away and destroy a tile (that you need for your objective) farther away, butterflies will destroy all tiles of the same color… The game also is framed as “you need to make the best gardens” which is a purely optional mechanics that just make the “game menu” different gardens with running animals.

All in all, this is a really nice and enjoyable “basic” match-3-game-with-a-twist. It is really polished and seems made with passion, so much so that when I first played it, one of my first reactions was “wow, the people making it really cared”…

…Which is a bit sad when you discover the fact that the studio making it was bought out by Take-Two in 2020 (for 250 million dollars, which is a good amount to exit the industry I guess) and that it ended up being completely shut down in 2023 (management at its finest), the people working for the studio were invited to be transferred to Zynga, a Take-Two studio making highly predatory and low-quality games… What a waste of talent.

8/10 - Recommended

Music

No music recommendation this time, what I recommended last time is roughly what I’d still recommend now (I actually started writing a recommendation for El Tigr3 but realized that I recommended his music last time, so I just decided not to).

I guess I can recommend the Starbound soundtrack, but I don’t have much to say about it.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoy some of those recommendations, and may good art remain good.

PS: This blog post took me far too long to write, probably 6-8 hours total, so I hope you enjoyed reading it

Some people have recently mentioned to me that almost all my blog about “artistic objects” have been mostly negative.

I have decided for the end of this year, to do a blog post where I recommend stuff I loved this year!

For reference, this idea started because someone asked me for movies I actually like (after my last blog post), and when I sent a list and they commented it, I ended up asking “Do you think the only thing I watch is the (mostly slop) I blog about?”

Someone else then answered “I’ve only seen articles on your blog about that so… yeah” to which I answered the truth: “I usually have nothing complicated to say about the really good stuff other than “this was great””

And this is true, writing about stuff you like is so much harder than writing about stuff you hate!

On that note, here’s what you were looking for!

Spoilers will be minimal!

Movies

Please Stand By (2018)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4652650
• Trakt: https://trakt.tv/movies/please-stand-by-2018

(Proper indie movie)

An amazing movie about an autistic woman with a dream, a road trip across the US to deliver a Star Trek script to a writing contest. It’s basic yet amazingly sweet, worth a watch!

9/10 - Recommended

Dinner in America (2020)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9058654
• Trakt: https://trakt.tv/movies/dinner-in-america-2020

(Proper indie movie)

A punk love story, about a punk guy, meeting a nerdy girl that wasn’t that nerdy. One of the sweetest movies I’ve seen.

9/10 - Recommended

The Princess Bride (1987)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779
• Trakt: https://trakt.tv/movies/the-princess-bride-1987

Simply a masterpiece, a cult movie that tries to subvert the rom-com adventure and ends up becoming one of the best, if not the best one. I was expecting to hate it, I ended up loving it.

10/10 - Recommended

TV Shows

Santa Clarita Diet (2017-2019 - Cancelled)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580540
• Trakt: https://trakt.tv/shows/santa-clarita-diet

A show about a normal suburban woman becoming a “zombie”… and the adventure of her family trying to cope with it. It’s one of the best “things” I’ve seen about “zombies” and love. It got cancelled at a pretty good point, most of the storylines are closed, so nothing is truly missing.

9/10 - Recommended

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret (2010-2016 - Finished)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1695989
• Trakt: https://trakt.tv/shows/the-increasingly-poor-decisions-of-todd-margaret

(Proper indie show)

A really obscure comedy show that seems to have flopped about an American guy going to work in London for a faceless company. It seems so basic but it becomes so much more than that. One of my friends considers it the best comedy show and I don’t fully disagree.

8/10 - Recommended

Arrested Development (2003-2019 - Finished)

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367279
• Trakt: https://trakt.tv/shows/arrested-development

A classic show for a reason, but a really flawed one. Season 1 and 2 are, in my opinion, the best comedy show. Season 3 goes wobbly with a really bad side story (the MRF / Sharon Stone parts). Season 4 and 5 are worse (but never as bad as the Season 3 MRF parts), but are still worth a watch for the characters.

7/10 - Recommended

Games

SteamWorld Dig 2 (2017)

• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/571310/SteamWorld_Dig_2/

• GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/steamworld_dig_2

• PCGamingWiki: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/SteamWorld_Dig_2

A sequel to SteamWorld Dig 1 (you don’t need to play it to enjoy that one) that expands and enhances everything from the first game: better gameplay, better soundtrack, better writing, better characters, better map…

A “light” metroidvania with little backtracking (and I say that as someone who doesn’t like metroidvania).

One of the best games I’ve ever played. Too bad the studio that made it was bought out and everyone who worked on it left the company.

8/10 - Recommended

Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga (2022)

• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1488200/Symphony_of_War_The_Nephilim_Saga/

• GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/symphony_of_war_the_nephilim_saga

• PCGamingWiki: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Symphony_of_War:_The_Nephilim_Saga

(Proper indie game)

An (easy-ish) tactics RPG made on RPG Maker that’s actually amazing. The favorite game of one of my friends, and with reason.

It has a lot of deep (and mostly optional) systems, amazing gameplay, a story that seems to be here for you to skip it.

The only flaw… literally just the engine, RPG Maker isn’t made for something this complicated. If you can accept this flaw, you’re in for a treat!

9/10 - Recommended

Marvel’s Midnight Suns (2022)

• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/368260/Marvels_Midnight_Suns/

• PCGamingWiki: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Marvel%27s_Midnight_Suns

A Firaxis Marvel game. Yes, really.

I don’t even know where to start with that one… what can I say… It’s a game that shouldn’t exist.

It’s a game that came out near the end of the Marvel games “invasion”, when everyone was burnt out on them… it’s a game that flopped so hard Firaxis was basically killed because of it.

It’s a deep strategic game with a unique gameplay and no miss-at-99% of previous Firaxis games.

So why do I recommend it?

It’s a nearly AAA game that feels like an indie game. It kinda feels like the lead designer just told his team “if you think of a cool system, put it in the game”.

There is literally SO MUCH side content it’s weird, you have a main story and then you have dozens of hour of MEANINGFUL side content… you have “romance” (that are “friendship”) that almost feels like someone wanted to make a porn game but had to keep it PG, you have deep strategic gameplay you have busy work, crafting… there’s so much creative freedom that shouldn’t have been here yet it all meshes together to make something great!

9/10 - Recommended

Music

I’ll keep it brief, so I’ll just recommend groups/artists with one or two tracks from them. Most of those I’ve been listening to for years.

I’m gonna use Spotify links because Spotify is one of the only music “databases” where the artists with identical names are separated, and for some of the indie ones, it’s necessary… but don’t use Spotify.

dlb (sometimes listed as DLB or длб) (Russian Hardcore/Pop/Hip-Hop/Electronica)

Note: It’s a Russian group that use the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet interchangeably. Most of their tracks have a title in one or the other, but some of them have a title in both, making it effectively have have two titles. The magic of small indie groups!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwtQ9WInVN2INeGfj_9Rsbw

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1na8hI8tGXjXRf0U5gX3iX

(Proper indie group)

• dlb - ultrachocolate

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSY7ecKyfuU

• dlb - начальник

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSiNZ-Xcuqw

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5bvIUzA4D2hMEEBmQ2X2kc

Bonus track: Romanov is one of the band members, and like the other band members, makes music under its own name sometimes (often with the other members as featuring)

• romanov.dlb - Cringe:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP_BQRDSaVc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6sJfJiym550mgUIzMJ9D2l

El Tigr3 (Synthwave/Retrowave/Electronica)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmgKPcqFtsGdoMffS4qLJmg

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Z43xNK0ZhtPW2eKi1L1OP

Bandcamp: https://eltigre.bandcamp.com/

(Proper indie artist)

• El Tigr3 - Ride Home

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfkFlchmDQE

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2jjPXDNrDOEZv8msRXzslo

Bandcamp: https://eltigre.bandcamp.com/track/ride-home

• El Tigr3 - Waiting to Die

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIhBfKSGxy8

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3mS7M9U8oKBVMwDYUhsmh9

Bandcamp: https://eltigre.bandcamp.com/track/waiting-to-die

Norman Pain (England Hip-Hop / Rap)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChD9-arQYhKrEuInyqtJWWA

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0rKh0IgCulpJ8HtGAwe3Vd

• Norman Pain - Sonnet

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8N-g8nBQsQ

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3c7o3PtgobujO2OFegNYFw

• Norman Pain - What it’s worth

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYSItlWvu0c

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/27z8YEbZLetP4pF147cr9U

Conclusion

I hope you enjoy some of those recommendations, and I wish you all a happy 2026!

Broad but shallow

This game feels like a weird modded RimWorld: take RimWorld, move the view to the side, remove the enemies and add Oxygen (and gas) management.

The problem?

Unlike RimWorld it’s far broader but far shallower. A quick way to explain it, is that there’s literally dozens of crafting stations in ONI… except all of them have like 5 recipes (while in RimWorld a crafting station does a lot of stuff).

The game is so close to being great, so much so that when I started playing I loved it… then after playing more hours I started to realize that it’s at best… mediocre.

Consequences? What Consequences?

I’ve read other reviews complaining about the difficulty being punishing… I literally don’t know what people have problems with.

I had ONE problem in my game early: Carbon Dioxide was almost everywhere which caused (minor) problems - mainly the fact that my duplicants (this game version of the RimWorld “colonist”) had to constantly move to places with oxygen (which slowed things down) - This was caused by me building my base horizontally instead of vertically, and because I purposefully didn’t build oxygen generator early on because I wanted to understand why I even needed them since there was oxygen in the room (I realized it was produced by rocks that would disappear after a while) - This problem was solved by just digging a room down (Carbon Dioxide goes down) and place a thing that absorbs Carbon Dioxide and output polluted water,

That’s one of the main problem with the game: none of the “bad choice” you do has consequences: literally, my duplicants:

• have been breathing polluted oxygen for hours (I literally pump polluted oxygen from a “source” to the middle of my base - something the game doesn’t seem to understand because it’s been complaining that I’ve not been producing enough Oxygen compared to what I use)
• have been eating the most basic food (literally sludge) made with dirt and water filed with germs
• are constantly going to places they can’t breathe in

None of this caused any meaningful consequences: none of my duplicants died, none of my duplicants had any problems… other than potentially (?) some things being done slower, and some of their status bars being red.

That’s the main difference to RimWorld: In RimWorld, things have consequences, if you “abuse” your colonist they get mental breakdown, if you don’t prepare “enough” you get decimated when enemies raid you.

I’m technically still in the early game, but that’s the problem: I have no reason to push toward anything other than… the rule of cool… because everything I have is enough to survive. I have literally nothing to look forward to.

Conclusion

This game isn’t bad per-se, but its shallowness makes it almost boring. It feels like RimWorld… for pacifists..?

Rating and Recommendation

5/10 - Not Recommended (Recommended if you played a lot of RimWorld already)

• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/8930/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_V/

• PCGamingWiki: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Civilization_V

Sid Meier’s Civilization 4 (2005):

• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3900/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_IV/

• GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/sid_meiers_civilization_iv_the_complete_edition

• PCGamingWiki: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Civilization_IV

A more enjoyable, worse game

I haven’t played Civilization 5 until this May 2025 because when it originally released (15 years ago… time flies…) I kept hearing that it was a FAR worse game compared to Civilization 4. Years passed and following the DLCs release I started to hear that it might have become finally good, and might even surpass Civilization 4.

After doing research to find a Civilization game to “go back to” (I haven’t played a Civilization game in at least 10 years) I ended up deciding to do a play-through of 4 (with every DLCs), followed by a play-through of 5 (with every DLCs).

From the surface, I don’t disagree with the premise that Civilization 5 surpassed Civilization 4.

The Good

Civilization 5 compared to 4 is more enjoyable to play:

• the UI/UX is better (though it’s missing a UI for the space victory which was in 4: a UI that shows your progress in the space victory by showing you which spaceship part you have and which you don’t. In 5, you have to go through a highly unclear menu, and, from what I found, do the math yourself for the number of boosters)
• the way it looks is more enjoyable
• hexagons instead of squares is genuinely better
• the unit “stacking” being gone is genuinely a good thing (even if the AIs get worse because of it)

…but it’s also a far worse “game”.

The Bad

While discussing it with friends, something came out of the discussion: Civilization 5 is a better “video game”, while Civilization 4 is a better “game”.

Civilization 4 feels better in a ton of ways, it’s a far tighter game, it has problems, but overall feels more “interesting” because the choice you make have more “weight”.

Civilization 5 main problem is that it’s diluting everything:

• the number of research and building has augmented, diluting their bonus into more of them - The addition of so much research and building is genuinely pointless, it’s just padding, it doesn’t add anything, it’s just “stuff” added between the interesting parts of the game.
• the number of world wonders has augmented, they are so common now that they have basically become as common as normal building but with long build time and the fact that only one civilization can build it (there’s like 100+ of them, they don’t feel unique) - The number of world wonders is genuinely stupid, they have become so meaningless that I was genuinely building them in random city when I had nothing better to build
• the number of military units has augmented and they have been split into “ranged attack” and “melee attack” types, it’s adding micromanagement… but it’s shallow - The military units being split into “ranged attack” and “melee attack” types is a good idea in theory, but they don’t get any “bonus” for being one or the other (outside of where they can attack), the core difference is still amount of movement they can do and attack strength

Those problems are added on top of the problem of every Civilization games (and 4X games in general): the mid-game and end-game aren’t good, the mid-game is you waiting for things to be available, and the end-game is when you have everything available, but no use for it.

Conclusion

All in all, Civilization 5 isn’t a bad game, but it’s really mediocre. It’s better in some way compared to Civilization 4, but it adds too much fluff to be actually enjoyable.

In the end, Civilization 4 remains superior, it’s just “rougher”.

Post-Scriptum

• Civilization 6 is Civilization 5, but with mechanics copied from the game “Endless Legend” (by Amplitude), but they did it worse, so it ends up being bad.
• Civilization 7 is Civilization 6, but with mechanics copied from the game “Humankind” (by Amplitude) (mechanics that no one liked to be clear), but they did it worse, so it ends up being bad.

Rating and Recommendation

Sid Meier’s Civilization 5 (2010): 6/10 - Not Recommended

Sid Meier’s Civilization 4 (2005): 7/10 - Recommended

Crusader Kings 2 but better

Crusader Kings 3 is basically a “clone” of Crusader Kings 2 but more polished in every way, it looks better, plays better, feels better and as one of the most important things for new/beginner players: you can actually learn it by playing, unlike CK2.

It has some bugs (especially when a new DLC is released), but this is expected, with so many moving parts, it will have bugs. The multiplayer is sometimes fiddly and sometimes has de-syncs bugs after hours of play time requiring you to “reload” your save to continue.

About the DLCs

One of the best things about CK3 is that, unlike CK2 which was “locking” mechanics and civilizations (cultures/religions) behind DLC (in the base game you had Western Europe and that was kind of it), in CK3 nothing is locked it’s all “there” in the base game.

It’s a great thing for customers, don’t get me wrong, but I almost do see this as a “problem” for Paradox, because effectively, none of the CK3 DLC are worth buying and if they are, they are FAR too expensive for what they add. I genuinely can’t really think of stuff they could be adding… other than more “events” (which they do add in the so-called “flavor packs” - the 10-20€ DLCs).

For reference, the current “main”/“big” DLCs are:

• Royal Court: it adds “fluff” (that distracts so much from the game that most people just disable this DLC if they have it), basically a small minigame that constantly wants you to interact with it
• Tours & Tournaments: it adds literally 2 (good) minor fully optional mechanics, nothing more, that’s expensive for 30€
• Roads to Power: it might be the most “worth it” DLC if you want “adventurer mode”, it adds “adventurer mode” (CK3 except you don’t own “land”, you’re a nomad), and it expands the Byzantine Empire
• Legends of the Dead: it adds a “legend” system (passive bonus) and enhances the plagues
• Khans of the Steppe: it expands the eastern “nomad” tribes

Conclusion

All in all, it might be the best Paradox game ever, and might be the first Paradox game where you don’t feel like they’re “milking” the players.

Rating and Recommendation

9/10 - Recommended

A mess that doesn’t know what it wants to be

This game’s premise is great: an island “survival” game where you destroy stuff to get better tools, to destroy more stuff, with your final objective to escape the island. Simple, but efficient. It could have been great.

The problem is that the developers didn’t believe this would be good enough, so they decided to make it more interesting (read: deeper)… except they REALLY didn’t know how to make interesting stuff… so they added a LOT of pointless (AND SHALLOW!) mechanics:

• Temperature system: if you go too much to the north you’ll freeze to death, if you go too much to the south you’ll overheat. The solution? Wear a different hat and clothes if you are north or south, you have to use a campfire to switch clothes. Yes, that’s it.

• Day-night cycle: the game has a day-night cycle… that doesn’t affect anything… except that everything has a blue tint during the night. Yes, that’s it. You can sleep, sure… except this is an unlockable… you start by only being able to sleep 6 hours, then 8, then 10… and you can only sleep every 15-16… the game just refuses to allow you to sleep before that.

• Smelting… that requires you to wait MINUTES in REAL TIME: to create some resources, you need to use a smelter… that takes minutes of REAL TIME to do the crafting. As in 15 minutes to make 6 things. This is literally the mechanics of a mobile pay to win game.

• Fighting zombies: the world map is FILLED with zombies (by filled with it, I mean it, there’s one every 10 meters in cities and one every 100 meters in the countryside), so you have to fight them with a really bad combat system: hit with melee and move back (or roll) to avoid being hit. That would be acceptable… if the enemies didn’t respawn every time you used a campfire - you can get an (expensive) upgrade in the end game (not before!) so that they don’t respawn… except you need to get an upgrade in every single zone (there’s a dozen of them)…

This fighting is one of the main things that RUINS THE GAME.

The other thing? The padding.

If you look at howlongtobeat, you’ll see that this game is supposed to last (if you play the game normally) 55 hours. Yes, really 55.

The problem is that the game doesn’t have 55 hours of content… so the developers padded EVERYTHING, this is the most grindy game I ever played:

• Each tool you make has upgrade levels, not 1 or 2, but 4 to 10.
• The map is designed in a way to block paths from you until you have a tool that can destroy the (stronger that you can destroy) obstacle they used to block you, except you can go behind the stuff that’s blocked… you just have to take the long route… over… and over… until you finally, 5-10 hours later unlock a tool that is strong enough to destroy the obstacle.
• The game has quests… this should be fine except you end up with 10+ quests at once because you’re often missing one item, and none of the quests are interesting, they’re just here gate recipes that you can’t unlock from your skill tree: meaning, you HAVE to do the quests.

Conclusion

The game, even if it’s based on a great idea, is so badly developed that it ends up being awful.

The only way I was able to make it enjoyable after the first 5 hours of playtime was by:

• installing a mod (Peaceful Mode) that kills every enemy as soon as they spawn (the fact that peaceful mode isn’t an option in the game with the enemy loots put in stuff you can destroy is just AWFUL, this should be in the game!)

• unlock (and max its upgrade) - with cheats - a tool (the sledgehammer) that can destroy more stuff, but not everything

• install a mod (from nexusmods) that makes the sledgehammer bearable to use (for whatever reason it causes massive screen-shakes every time you hit something with it)

All in all, this isn’t a good game. This is just the only game that exists based on the idea of “destroy everything survival game”… except it’s not doing it right.

PS: The game graphics almost look like an asset flip, but it’s serviceable and “acceptable” (even if the developers REALLY LOVE to use fog)

Rating and Recommendation

3/10 - Not Recommended

Interesting game

It feels a bit bland, but the fact that it’s a really slow paced game is interesting… It’s like Dead Cells on x0.5 speed which… surprisingly works!

It’s a weird mix between a metroidvania, a roguelite (but it’s REALLY NOT!) and a precision platformer.

About the roguelite-but-not-really: it’s a game where you do “runs” on a procedurally generated “dungeon” layout, but the run is of the whole game (you can die, but you don’t lose anything, you just respawn at your last checkpoint), which is… an interesting way to add replay value.

The main “flaw” with it, I’d say is that the “saves” are effectively checkpoints (and only checkpoints), sometimes 10+ minutes apart.

As a light, slow-paced game, it’s really enjoyable.

PS: On a pure technical note, the game is locked to 60 FPS, which is not ideal for a 2018 game, especially since the engine (FNA) supports more.

Rating and Recommendation

6/10 - Recommended

So close, yet so far…

This is a great momentum platformer… for the first world. The best world is the one that doesn’t happen in the sky but in a forest… which is the first one… literally the tutorial world.

Then it decides to put you in the sky and to become a hardcore platformer with momentum mechanics… and the quality just nosedives completely until it crashes.

The first world looked genuinely amazing (I literally felt this could have become one of my favorite games). It’s a world that has “solid” platform (it’s literally the ground of a planet), every world after that (at least the one I played) are unrealistic platforms in the sky, world 2 has ground with trees, then every level after that slowly replace the platforms with wooden or concrete structure that when touched get pushed away.

Props to the 4th world for adding canons and bombs that literally make it so the platforms are pushed away BEFORE you get to them.

It is also really buggy:

Level 2E, for example, has a lot of platform where you literally go through them, at one moment my tongue was still on a tree, but I kept falling (my tongue just got bigger)

This was so close to greatness, but in the end… it’s just bad.

I would recommend you to play at least the first world, but yeah, after that it’s just not worth it…

PS: it’s also the kind of momentum game where you gain speed when not touching the floor, which is fine… if the level design is made around that

Rating and Recommendation

2/10 - Not Recommended

Technical:

This is an absolute dogshit PC port:

1- The game runs at 30 (or 32?) FPS + half-speed by default, editing the config file to make the game use VSync is required to get more… except if your screen refresh rate is higher than 60, the game will run faster (so you have to lock it to 60 FPS with other tools).

If the game runs at lower than 60 (including the default 30 or 58 when it dips) it will stutter.

2- By default the game start in full-screen borderless at your resolution… except in the setting its telling you that it’s running at 640x480, if you do change the resolution to yours, it makes the “renderer” bug out completely: everything becomes pixelated (the renderer effectively start rendering stuff at 480p in a your resolution window, any change to the resolution after that just changes the “window” resolution, the renderer remains still stuck in low res), the only way to fix it? Deleting the configuration file of the game (yes, seriously) - The problem seems to only be present if you use a scaling that’s different from 100%.

This is literally the worst PC port I ever saw.

The game itself:

Original thought:

I liked it until…

This is a not-too-much-backtrack metroidvania / platformer, with some precision platforming that was “hard” but still doable… I liked it, until it forced me to respawn at a checkpoint (technically the 3rd part of a “world”) with only 2 health points (half a heart)… in a “constantly sliding down-avoid obstacle” part

I had no way to heal since I couldn’t dance, I had no item to heal. I tried to do it 5 times, dying slightly farther every time… I decided to just go back to the “world” select, hoping that when re-entering the world I would restart at this “checkpoint” with full health… but nope: I was put back at the beginning of the “world”… with my 2 health point… except this time I could heal since I could dance.

I might push forward with it, but the technical issues alone make me not want to recommend this game (at least on PC). This is inexcusable, all it requires is to have the engine locked to 60 FPS (if you really don’t want to fix the port “properly”), I mean, the game is barely functional out of the box.

Follow-up thoughts:

After spending more time on the game, I’m done.

The game already made me replay a world-level even though I only unlocked 2.

After that, the game’s third world-level’s (Tassel Town) level design is so cheap:

• Dead ends during a moment where you’re being pursued
• Precision platforming mixed with enemies (including some using projectiles) mixed with timed platforming

I died more than 20 times because of cheap bullshit in that level.

I’m just done, the game has so much to like but the level design, which started mediocre, just nosedived and has become just BAD.

Rating and Recommendation

3/10 - Not Recommended

A good-looking bad game.

The movement feels REALLY good, but the level design clashes massively with it.

The game is a PURE metroidvania, with backtracking and (at least from what I saw) no fast travel.

The map is highly unclear as to where you are, your objectives are vague “go do that near here”.

Making webs, the way they interact with the world and “swinging” with them is great (the controls to make them are serviceable but far from great)The swinging mechanic feels nice.

The ability and the level design forcing you to shoot lasers is just bad and feels genuinely out of place in a game that seems so focus on the “nature”.

The game’s main (only?) plus and the reason it gets so much praise is because it’s genuinely cool looking.

Overall, it’s not an enjoyable game, I played for around half an hour, and it felt like more than an hour. It was close to a chore.

PS: I do find it highly ironic that a game that is a love letter to bugs and nature is making plastic (polyester) made in China plushies of their characters.

Rating and Recommendation

2/10 - Not Recommended