Some impressions some recent sale games played and also a random game from my backlog.
Boneraiser Minions is a pretty neat take on the Vampire Survivors genre. 5 hours played. I would actually compare it to Brotato instead as there are different waves of enemies. In this one you play as a summoner who mainly dodges and cast spells while minions kill your enemies. You need bones from fallen enemies to summon more guys. I like this one a decent amount although some things can be prepared. First of all other than basic minion there are bro minions that are strong but also can be very situational. The number of these you can have is modified by your graveyard layout and some artifacts. You build up your graveyard to have stuff that makes stuff like health and also make your minions stronger. This makes gold vanish quickly as every level starts with nothing. It's a lot of grind as gold unlocks graveyard building stuff, your own hero unlocks and also enemy wave unlocks, which give better exp/gold and sometimes more treasures. In battles you can unlock spells which are one time use and do a lot of different things. Sometimes you get a little trophy on the stage which unlocks artifacts for permanent buffs for the run. It all comes together well enough and controls well enough to have a good time. The difficulty for later waves is ridiculous though with super beefy enemies who take a lot to take down. Also the evolutions for your summons isn't like super straightforward, where you can trade in 2 or more minions to create 1 better minion, can give one minon a level up with new powers, or get new minions. I just don't always know where my evolutions will go. I haven't beaten a stage fully yet although I've unlocked all the graveyard items. It's good, but the balance isn't all there yet for me. It is fully released at least. 7.5/10
Rogue: Genesia. 5 hours played. One word to explain it all is repetitive. This one is a Vampire Survivors like game with a Slay the Spire path to get the end with bosses. HP sponges is the name of the game. Every level is the same. A bunch of guys come at you usually very quickly and you take them out with whatever weapons you have. Mass DPS is the name of the game, as later levels are more and more defeat X number of enemies to complete the level. It all blends together and kind of bores me after a short while. There are weapons that fire off automatically with some requiring aim with the right stick of the controller or the mouse pointing towards it. I like the graphics reminding me of a less good Octopath Travelers so 2D HD. You can take on challenges that don't change the boring gameplay, but make it more challenging and you get achievements/unlock categories. I think the major flaw is the unchanging gameplay and very long boards for the levels. Slay the Spire worked because the levels weren't crazy long and the battles were quick. In this game there just aren't event squares yet really other than choose to fight for some people. It just doesn't have any variety and the enemy variety is extremely low in the levels. I just don't think this one has enough meat and is just a game to play almost mindlessly unless you're doing a tough challenge. It's very playable, but there are better ones. 6/10
Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos. 1 hour played. This one is Legend of Zelda Link to the Past like, but without any of the soul. It is meant for co-op and poorly balanced for single player, so I'm not playing it anymore. This one has nice graphics, barely any story other than you woke up and can fight and rebuild a village. It is a rogue-lite so you die and upgrade stats/build buildings/etc.... It controls OK, but enemies do way too much damage so you will be playing the fist dungeon a lot until you get more upgrades, or have other people also tanking some damage. Also there is a beastiary system where you need to kill an enemy with a book to start researching them although it uses a lot of stamina and does very little damage. Also having a stamina system in a Zelda like is horrible. It makes sense for something like Tunic, which has some souls like stuff, but not in a puzzle/adventure game like this one. I didn't like this, and am glad I got it in a cheap bundle. I'm done with it and would only recommend it if you have a co-op partner/s. 5.5/10
me for trying to play for fifteen minutes. get your shit together blizzard, my blind fanboyism can only go so far.
or maybe it means game pass will be coming to Steam soon (afaik it only works on Windows 10 and up without unofficial workarounds)