DEMO-lition Derby: A Review Of The Demos For Cozy Game Restoration, Fugaz, and Entropy

Author's Note: I return once again to inflict another edition of DEMO-lition Derby on you, my readers! This time, the games I will be discussing are:

• Cozy Game Restoration

In case you missed any of the previous entries in this feature, here are some handy links:

• DEMO-lition Derby: A Review Of The Demos For Culdcept The First, Pixel Washer, Hack '95, & About Fishing

• DEMO-lition Derby: A Review Of The Demos For XenoFeels and Echoes of Aincrad

• DEMO-lition Derby: A Review Of The Demos For South of the March, Woodo, and Penguin Colony

Cozy Game Restoration

What is it?

The game's name really says it all, but here's a summary of what to expect from Cozy Game Restoration. Your character works in a studio or apartment, cleaning and restoring "classic" game consoles, cartridges, accessories, and other gaming-related physical media. You have multiple implements, tools, and even liquid solutions to utilize in order to lift or burn away dirt, rust, ink, and even price labels without damaging the condition of the objects you're trying to clean. The game doesn't have a timer, nor does it pressure you about the prospect of failure, which is in line with cozy game orthodoxy, but it does grade you at the end. After you've had your fill with any given mission, you can end it, and the game will promptly give you a "Grade Quality" letter grade and even display the percentages of how much of each category of grime or filth you have removed from whatever it is you attempted to clean. Then, you can see if your restoration effort has dropped below, at, or above the market value of the object in question. Curiously, and this point is going to be one I really harp on in the next section, the game doesn't display or indicate your full progress with any of these missions and instead asks you to use "vibes" to figure out when you're done. Also, your tools and implements need to be cleaned and can gunk up if you don't wash or wipe them mid-mission.

What's in the demo?

The demo lets you take on the first handful of missions from the main game. The provided tasks allow you to complete smaller, quicker-to-finish missions, such as one involving a fake Game Boy cartridge, as well as longer ones, such as restoring a fake video game console. I mentioned it before when I reviewed Pixel Washer, but I am a HUGE fan of the PowerWash Simulator franchise. As I play more cozy games that emulate its gameplay and addictive qualities, I have increasingly come to realize that I have very particular tastes and preferences for organizational or cleaning-related cozy games. Cozy Game Restoration scratches most of the itches I want it to scratch, but it also does a few things that completely annoy the shit out of me, and those things are going to make me seem like a maniac. The biggest annoyance is that Q-tips, sponges, and other cleaning brushes don't always attach or snap onto cleaning surfaces; instead, you have to move them freehand in hopes they brush up against what you're cleaning. The problem here is that you often need to lift or tilt objects, and using brushes at an angle is incredibly frustrating and fiddly. Worse, at least in the demo, but when trying to clean narrower edges or crevices whilst tilting or lifting objects, I often struggled with brushes or Q-tips phasing into objects and doing zero cleaning. It seems the objects you clean aren't programmed or designed to be solid, so your implements can very often clip through them, and that drove me up the FUCKING WALL!

The choice to obfuscate the percentages on how close you are to fully cleaning an object is at least understandable; it's the execution at the end that rubs me the wrong way. The game has the word "cozy" in its title, and yet much of what it does vigorously undermines that label. There's some tangible power in it being about restoring retro gaming memorabilia, and it energetically pointing out how arbitrary and pointless the distinction between a lightly soiled game cart and a perfectly restored one is. If a video game is important to you, owning it is all that really counts. But then the game ends every mission with percentages showing how much grit and grime you missed, and with how it plays, it's practically impossible to remove every bit of filth. It also displays your profits or losses, which clashes with its own cozy themes and presentation as well. But more fundamentally, I was infuriated when I thought I was done with a mission and Cozy Game Restoration's lack of transparency screwed me over. It was such a common occurrence: the game didn't show me any progress, and I received a grade that didn't reflect the time and effort I put into cleaning something. I scanned it repeatedly for missing spots, and only after submitting my work for grading did the game tell me I missed a corner and it would be docking me a whole grade as a result. The game's minimalism is equally frustrating when you encounter different types of filth. Stickers, for example, need to be carefully but physically removed with tweezers, and the sticky residue they leave behind requires a liquid solution; removing it requires a specific series of steps, or the glue won't be completely removed. With PowerWash Simulator, you only need to worry about how wide you can make your nozzle before it leaves behind crud, as well as whether heavily soiled surfaces require soap or suds. Here, sometimes the grit type can be brushed aside with little effort, and other times you need to memorize a three- to five-step process, and the game doesn't do much to make sure you know which of the two options you're facing. You can highlight dirt by pressing a button, much like in PowerWash Simulator, but this feature doesn't color-code the type of stain or dirt, so you don't immediately know which implement you need to use to get rid of it.

Will I buy the full game when it's released?

Probably not. The guts of what makes me excited to play PowerWash Simulator 2 whenever new DLC drops is here; make no mistake about it. When you remove a solid layer of dirt from a game cart and can better see the fake retro game stylings Cozy Game Restoration offers, it is satisfying. Nonetheless, the demo also left a lot to be desired. I can accept that the game has a grading system that doesn't tell you everything until the very end. What really breaks the game for me is that those small annoyances exist while the feel of the game also is off. Having your cleaning tools clip through surfaces sounds like a small bug, but it's catastrophic when the game is as purposefully bare-bones as this; that's one of the first things I expect you to have figured out before publishing a public demo. AND it's doing other slightly annoying things in the background. When I sunk HOURS into a fake SNES cartridge and thought I did a good job, and upon submitting my work for grading found out I was off the mark, even though I repeatedly used the tools the game told me to use, I was out. Straight up, this game needs a better tutorial progression system that clearly communicates the purpose of each tool and when to use each specific cleaning implement. Too often did I find myself just using everything haphazardly, desperate to see what would remove whatever stain I was looking at, and flummoxed when I discovered what the solution actually was.

Fugaz

What is it?

Fugaz is a minimalist puzzle adventure game that uses retro graphics reminiscent of the Apple II, Atari 2600, or Commodore 64, and I feel like this has increasingly become a trend on PC, especially Steam, since the viral success of Faith: The Unholy Trinity. Fugaz is an atmospheric puzzle game where the significance of your surroundings or tasks is a complete mystery at first, and as you progress, you slowly learn more. To highlight, at the start, and this point applies to the demo, there are vague hints about the game being a horror experience, and that point becomes much more overt over time. But the key to solving the puzzles in the game is a flute, and many of the roadblocks or impediments in your way, such as walls of balloons or a completely darkened corridor, can be remedied by playing a specific melody that summons an element or force to rid you of that barrier. Don't worry; no traditional music experience is required to play this game. Upon learning a tune, it's permanently added to a selectable playlist, and the correct notes you need to input are displayed on the screen when you wish to play them on the flute. However, to add songs to your library, you'll have to pick up on environmental clues and tells that are communicated through runes, symbols, and riddles, much like an escape room. However, if you take too long or expend too much energy, the game does employ a mechanic where darkness takes over your screen, and you are booted to the entrance of a dungeon with some, but not all, of your progress reset.

What's in the demo?

The demo lets you play around with the game's first few dungeons, with one being a tutorial prologue that teaches you the mechanics of the game. Fugaz, however, is largely open-ended in how you can approach its multi-roomed dungeons, usually where each room has a puzzle besides interstitial corridors whose purpose is to connect larger rooms and areas. While the game has an open format and structure, some puzzles require you to solve others, and the game isn't explicit about its optimal sequence of actions. Likewise, you don't need to solve everything in the game to progress from one level in the dungeon to the next, with the transitions to new environments being sets of stairs on a floor. Similar to Castlevania, there's an appeal to approaching things with the "what's the least I can do to finish the game" mindset as well as a hook for painting in the entire map and completing everything; it's your choice which option you want to go with. The game also has plenty of secrets and Easter Eggs, even in the demo. To me, Fugaz feels like a marriage between a pre-Windows EU/UK computer adventure game like Dizzy or Monty Mole and the EXIT: The Game board game series. The puzzles require picking up on sometimes esoteric environmental clues or processing ciphers or riddles, much like an escape room. The flute mechanic, to me, is less about understanding music theory and more about boiling what would normally be a cluttered inventory system into a single item, and that's one of the best parts about Fugaz besides its stark and atmospheric aesthetics. It's vague and mystical with every puzzle, without you needing to chase down random bits and bobs, which lowers the difficulty barrier slightly.

But this isn't a "vibes game" in the purest sense because there are puzzles that require genuine intuition and a few leaps of logic. One of the best, and if you're concerned about spoilers, I'll block out this point for those that care, but there's a clue that tells you to learn more about what it is you're playing, and you find out there's a song hidden on the game's actual Steam page. That ethos is cool to me, but it highlights the type of game you need to be aware of if you decide to give Fugaz a shot. Even at its reasonable price of $6, some of these puzzles feel like a love letter to Myst and Riven, for better and for worse. Even after completing the demo, I still didn't entirely understand why the dungeons would reset me to the stairs of the floor I was on. Did I take too much time? Did I expend too much of a resource? I still don't entirely know, and it's not like the game tells you all that much to begin with. No matter what you do, there are going to be times when you're looking at a door or wall and don't know what to do, and it's entirely on you to connect three or four loose ends to figure it out. Also, at launch, the symbols, especially the flowers, were too indistinguishable from one another. Slightly before publishing this article, I discovered the developer patched this part of the game. I don't think that's the case with the demo, but even then, I sometimes had to squint at the pixels in the environment and couldn't tell whether they were significant to the puzzle I was trying to solve or not. Sometimes I couldn't fully distinguish the shapes or forms of runes or key objects. Even with all its filters and gradient options, this game is not recommended for anyone with vision-related impairments or difficulties.

Will I buy the full game when it's released?

Maybe; Fugaz seems like a fun filler game to play when I'm between bigger game commitments and am struggling to start something new. Fugaz doesn't feel like something that will be your main gaming priority for more than a day or two, and that seems intentional. You can certainly get lost in the weeds trying to solve everything the game presents you with or trying to find every secret. However, you also don't need to do that to get the full picture of what its world and setting have to share, and I appreciate that. Nonetheless, if we are using coffee-based metaphors for a hot second for this specific preview, I'd characterize Fugaz as a shot of espresso. It's bold and pungent, packing a punch in a small package, but for many people, it might be a bit too harsh for their constitutions. If you hate that feeling of looking directly at a puzzle for more than five to seven minutes and not being entirely sure what you need to do because the game hasn't provided you with a perfect picture of what you're looking at, this game is not for you. Also, the game's open-ended structure may be another stumbling point for people because while there are a few times when you need to complete puzzles in a sequential order, those are exceptions to the rule. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a game that's likely to stump you and has spooky vibes, this is maybe worth a look.

Entropy

What is it?

Where are my Morrowind sickos? I know Chuck is with me, but there must be others like myself that continue to view Morrowind, and not Skyrim or Oblivion, as the series' peak. That's no longer a "hot take" with a myriad of indie games coming out that all try to capture the game's 6th-generation psychedelic graphical style as well as its stark and uncompromising atmosphere. Entropy is one such game, but its similarities to Morrowind are entirely aesthetic, as it uses a turn-based combat system with party-based tactics similar to those in classic Sting or Nippon Ichi Software SRPGs. Nonetheless, Entropy is a post-apocalyptic RPG that, refreshingly, isn't about a singular event that pushed humanity to the brink. Instead, the decay seen in Entropy is emblematic of a long decline as demonic forces continue to drive humans toward extinction, with you, in what was once a bastion of civilization, enjoying a theater performance before eldritch abominations begin flooding the town. While the setting and atmosphere are strong, the mechanics are worth discussing as well. When you enter or initiate combat, you attack enemies in turns and with a party of up to six characters. You can target different body parts of the enemies with your attacks to debilitate them or render them useless in combat, like chopping off the arms on a ghoul, and thus they cannot attack. There are named characters, and the game has perma-death, meaning that if a story character dies in combat, there's a chance they are permanently dead and removed from your tale. Luckily, there's a system that allows you to replace KO'd party members with mercenaries.

What's in the demo?

Given that Entropy is an indie RPG set to enter Early Access in about two weeks, this is a fairly in-depth demo. It provides an introductory prologue that reviews how to control the game and how combat generally works, and this prologue lets you try out the game's martial classes. Then, when the game transitions into its first real arc or chapter, you gain new party members and can even explore your surroundings via an overworld map. In true retro RPG form, you pick your character's class through dialogue prompts before your first battle, but luckily the game has tooltips that make it clear what your choices will affect and what kind of character you're creating. Those classes are Melee, Ranged, and Magic, and combat takes place using a turn order-based system which relies on the stats of your characters. Melee characters are the ones you place in the front row and, if you distribute their stats accordingly, can take a beating, but are unlikely to come up on the turn order first. Ranged characters fall into archer or rogue archetypes. They can either deal critical hits from a distance or a flurry of attacks before any of the enemies, so long as you boost their speed-related stats. Magic, on the other hand, is a lot like gambling. Most spells have high-risk, high-reward odds that, if you get unlucky, can cause magic casters to experience blowback, which can limit them until you get a long rest at a camp. However, if you get a couple of points into a spell, a mage can really become a murder machine.

Entropy has a lot of moving parts, and I like most of them. Once you get a team of four characters, two frontline attackers, one ranged character, and a magic caster, the combat progresses nicely, though deliberately, which is why I find it so curious that the game spends so much of its introduction with you just controlling two to three characters. And lord have mercy on your soul if you decide to opt for a magic caster as your player character because the leveling curve on magic is so gradual in the game's present form, it seems like having your main character be a mage is like an unofficial "hard mode." Similarly, the controls are a deliberate throwback. Still, I wasn't completely sold on some of the Entropy team's design choices in that regard. For example, you need to hold down a button to turn the camera, and there's a persistent issue with the menus where every menu would have an option pre-highlighted, but if you're using a mouse, the game doesn't highlight options you hover over until you click. I also think it's incredibly odd that the turn order doesn't automatically scroll down during combat, and you instead need to adjust it manually as combat plays out. And whenever there is more than one of the same enemy type, it's really difficult to determine which enemy it is you're attacking because the game doesn't number or highlight enemies on the combat screen and instead subjects you to a ton of snap-zooms to them. As a result, you have to figure out from the camera whether you're actually attacking the person you intended to attack. There's a lot of weird, fiddly stuff like that, which really signals this will be in Early Access for a while before it officially releases.

The perma-death mechanic really concerns me until the game adjusts its balance. As suggested earlier, the sweet spot when the combat finally starts to gel is when you get four characters, and it's painfully slow when you drop below that. However, by the end of the demo, there are some tricky combat encounters with odds that are not always in your favor. If you lose a character, that's a massive setback, and it's possible you can lose all of your characters outside of the protagonist at the conclusion of a single battle. I had that happen to me once, and it was a MASSIVE drag because I had to stop what I was doing, run all the way back to where I knew I could hire a mercenary, and then get them up to where I was in the game. The combat is deliberately slow, and you can find yourself in some dangerous areas where things feel really cruel if you haven't built your characters up correctly, and that can result in you needing to pray you have a prior save before you put yourself in that situation because this game will not pull its punches even if you opt for its normal difficulty setting. But all that aside, look at this game. No, seriously, look at this game. You can pretty much tell if this is your cup of tea just by looking at screenshots. This game sends sicko vibes from start to finish, and if you're privy to that crowd or what you're looking at, then at the very least check out the demo.

Will I buy the full game when it's released?

Yes, but only after a majority of those balance concerns I mentioned are addressed. I'm not against playing an RPG that kicks my teeth in a few times, but with my gnarlier, harder RPGs, I expect consistency in the difficulty swings and to always have a clear sense of what I did wrong when shit goes especially sideways. Entropy isn't quite there in that regard. Sometimes when you lose, it happens after you made all of the proper preparations and with a full party complement, and even then, you get the shit kicked out of you, and getting back to where you were is a complete pain in the ass. The game is visually evocative of an era of games I'm personally nostalgic for, but there are UI and UX foibles that really need to be adjusted. Beyond what I have already mentioned, I think the default text kerning and style are a bit too harsh, and the default CRT filter effect is way too overwhelming during night or evening chapters, or in environments that lack a noticeable light source. But again, this is a game for sickos who likely know what they are signing up for, and its unrelenting cruelty and lo-fi aesthetic are a perfect fit for what they want. For those of you who know of Baroque by Sting, Entropy might be for you. Entropy's world is dower and unflappably dire, and its nuances aren't always clear during combat, much like Baroque. The tactical turn-based combat is far more in line with the traditions of the RPG genre than Baroque, but I think that also makes it a bit more approachable.

So, again, my prior point still stands. Look at the screencaps of Entropy and ask yourself if you can think of at least one late 90s or early 2000s RPG that looks like it, and determine if you liked it even if it was rough around the edges. Whether it be something as easily recognizable as Morrowind or King's Field, or maybe something even more obscure like Koudelka or even Hellnight, if you have a twinge of nostalgia for that game, you might want to check out the demo for Entropy.