rowsofcaststeel
PremiumMember since Dec 6, 2025
Recent Reviews
All reviewsControl Resonant2026
3 out of 5 starsWhen I played Control in 2019, I had a distinct sense of potential for the game and the studio’s future projects. The writing, the visuals, the vibes, it was all there. If they could clean up the gameplay side a bit more, boy, we could have something special. When I played Alan Wake 2 in 2023, I felt the step towards that special thing . It wasn’t quite there yet, but the improvements they implemented between…
Onimusha: Way of the Sword2026
5 out of 5 starsOnimusha: Way of the Sword is not a 5 star game. It’s not a 10/10, it’s not a Masterpiece. It can’t be, it simply has too many problems. Obvious problems, too. You don’t have to dig deep into the story or have a masters in level design to spot the flaws. And yet. Way of the Sword might have the best combat system I’ve ever touched. I’ve played a lot of 3D action games (mostly of the FromSoft style– I have a blind…
Mortal Shell II
4 out of 5 starsElden Ring is a wonderful game, but I place it high B/low A tier in the broader FromSoft pantheon. My biggest issue is the size of the world: I think it is simply too big. I’ve touched on this in earlier notes. Mortal Shell 2 asks, what if we condensed the best bits of an open-world FromSoft-style game into a compressed but still large map; what if we took that 100+ hour game of Elden Ring and just gave you 30 hours…
Saros
3 out of 5 starsOne of my biggest issues with Returnal was how far it leaned into the rouge part of rougelites without offering engaging replayability. Your permanent upgrades offered relatively little strength. This meant if, for example, you wanted to beat level 3, the game structurally encouraged starting at levels 1 or 2 to get extra powered up. Saros leans much harder into the lite side of the genre. You have a skill tree that…
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