Machina‘s unique art style sparked off a trip down the dusty streets of memory lane. Though I struggled to really place the feeling. On the one hand, it put me in mind of old school cartoons I watched as a kid. Things like The Clangers or the Morph segments from Art Attack. On the other, the deliberate scrappiness and off the wall humour makes me think of old flash cartoons. It’s charming stuff.

Machina coasts through on that charm. If the ‘making of’ video proves anything, it’s that a lot of love went into the development. The aim was relentless positivity. It pulls that off, for sure. A smile was never far from my lips. Though, while scrappiness works well for the art style, the question is: does it work well for the gameplay? Machina‘s dedication to relaxation is admirable, but it might be a little too relaxed.

Diggy Diggy Hole

At first glance, Machina looks like it might be quite depressing. We’re very clearly digging through a post-apocalyptic world, after all. There’s dangerous, green slime everywhere. You don’t use traffic cones as house decorations unless something has gone very wrong with the world. But once you start digging into, no pun intended, you find it’s a lot more positive than that. Machina, an egg-like robot, lives with her robot friends on an island in the middle of a bunch of green goo. They’re happy there, and they all like each other. It’s very ‘children’s cartoon’ and is honestly quite refreshing.

Once you’ve slipped into Machina‘s shoes, you’ll find your world split into two halves: the overworld and the underworld. The overworld is done in an over-the-shoulder 3D perspective, and is based around chatting with the residents and picking up side quests. The other characters are pleasant enough. A radio-esque character wants you to find radio stations for her, so she can sing. A big metal fella is obsessed with drills. It’s pleasant, but somewhat limited in what you can do. Outside of brief chats, all you can do is plonk down decorations. It’s lacking a bit in staying power.

The underground has more longevity to it. This is where all the digging happens. Machina‘s core loop is about digging through the earth to find minerals, which you then grind up to spend on better drills and special technology, like ziplines. The minerals come in different shapes and you have a limited inventory to slot them into, turning digging into a series of little puzzles. It’s quite relaxing – there are no enemies or challenges beyond the inventory. So you can peacefully dig until your inventory is full, without worrying about losing it.

Just Chillin’

There’s a build system in place too. As you dig, you’ll uncover big deposits of minerals, which you need to plonk a miner on top of. This will just spit out singular minerals. They need to be deposited in the right machine before you can spend them, so you can build a system of conveyor belts to move them to where they need to go. It’s quite basic, but it does the trick. As you progress and improve your drill, you’ll scout more of the biome and eventually move on to other islands in the overworld, which require stronger drills but reward you with rarer materials.

On the surface, it’s a pleasant loop. The ‘making of’ video makes a point of mentioning that if a game mechanic was at all stressful for the player, it wasn’t included. This seems to have gone a bit too far, though, as a lot of Machina feels, for lack of a better word, robotic. For one, rock where minerals are hiding looks identical to the surrounding rock. You have to use a limited-use radar to find them. So there’s no real feeling of discovery, you just sort of dig everywhere like a hyperactive earthworm. The only ‘challenge’ of Machina is meeting the mineral quota for the next drill level, so the late game becomes a slog of digging everywhere looking for materials.

There are moments of levity. When you find a new character, there’s a charming stop-motion cutscene introducing them. It’s cute. Unfortunately, I can’t help but feel the delightful graphics are setting a bar that the gameplay can’t meet. All the side quests are either basic fetch quests, or just an elongated tutorial for a new build item. While new minerals are introduced, they are essentially just new currency and aren’t dug up in interesting ways. So ‘stress free’ risks turning into ‘monotonous’ as we just dig in random directions until our mineral number is high enough.

Machina – A Bit Too Relaxed

There’s some mechanical clunkiness here too. Machina had a tendency to freeze up after an hour or two. Sometimes because I had alt-tabbed, other times because it just felt like it. There’s some slight control clunkiness too. Machina uses a jetpack while underground, which is great when you want to get somewhere distant, but if you just want to adjust yourself, it can be quite awkward. Machina is also rather short for this sort of genre, clocking in at less than seven hours for the main story.

I think there was scope to add a bit more flavour to the underground. Some intriguing caverns to explore, or more robust side quests to find. That said, Machina might have been restricted by its own selling point: the graphics. Making new models for every new character and object in the world means that adding more things is going to stretch out the budget and timeline. Still, I do very much love the stop-motion aesthetic. It does a lot to help Machina stand out, even if the gameplay is a little threadbare.

(Machina‘s Steam Page)

Flame Keeper by developer Kautki Cave is the latest roguelite entry that has arrived to the PlayStation 5. The action game follows Ignis, a special lump of coal who must fight his way through different levels of enemies to liberate the world of Orbis and bring light to a world shrouded in darkness. Is Flame Keeper a worthy addition to the roguelite genre? Does it shine brightly like its main character? Lets take a look and find out!

Light Vs Darkness

The story of Flame Keeper is simple. Ignis must free the world of Orbis from creatures called Pixies. He must restore the Eternal Flame and bring light to this world. On his quest, he encounters many different enemies like spiders, worms and fly-like creatures that try to stop him in his tracks. The story isn’t anything too deep and can be forgettable the more you progress. One of the strongest aspects of the game are the cutscenes. The animation and art style is fantastic and is a treat to watch. Even the opening intro scene when you boot up the game is beautifully shot. These cutscenes help the story in a way even if it isn’t that strong. It is a shame the story isn’t too memorable because this art style is amazing. But the gameplay is where Flame Keeper shines.

Die And Go Again

Like other roguelite action games, Ignis must fight his way through many difficult enemies to level up and become stronger and he progresses through the three different waves per level. Ignis can level up by using his health to light up campfires in every level. Each level has three waves. The first two are normal levels, where players must explore the area, kill enemies and find lamps to bring back to the campfire in order to light it up. Each lamp that is lit up, Ignis can access different perks and abilities to make his journey easier. Some of the these perks range from increased damage to faster movements. Players can also find weapons for Ignis like rock hands that do more damage. These are especially handy when you progress through the levels against higher level enemies.

The third wave is a survival wave where you must defend a cauldron of flames against waves of enemies that are coming to destroy it. All the abilities and weapons you pick up come in handy here as you have to survive five minutes against them and it becomes very intense. Ignis can use his health to build towers that have village residents on top of them to throw spears at enemies. You can also unlock other traps to help take out enemies. Flame Keeper is a difficult game but this adds to the fun of the game. It also means you need to be wary of what powers you want to upgrade, because if you die, back to wave one and you go again.

Now of course this three wave design can become repetitive the more you progress in the game as the levels, despite looking different in design from swamps to temple like areas, are basically the same. The gameplay does keep it all appealing and fresh. The combat is simple. Punch enemies or dash into them to kill them. Players can also unlock special abilities like missiles or a magic hammer that can damage a horde of enemies of you can time the attack perfectly. The hammer will smash down in the small area, wiping anything in the area out. Best weapon to use, especially against the hordes of enemies when defending the cauldron.

There is a hub world in Flame Keeper. Ignis can upgrade abilities at Vulpius Village. You can come here to upgrade buildings that also level up your abilities. This also includes upgrading your attack power and stamina so it is your best interest to visit and upgrade buildings as much as you can.

Boss Fights

There are multiple boss fights in the game. These boss fights are challenging like the spider boss fight that spits acid around the platform you are standing on. It can knock you off so there is a lot of things to consider when tackling these boss fights. The most important thing is you picked the best abilities that suit your playstyle as everything you unlocked in the previous levels can be used here. There’s not much else to the boss fights. They have cool designs and are challenging. It is satisfying to take them down knowing you earned it with the challenges you overcame. The beauty of a roguelite game.

Verdict

Flame Keeper is a fun little game to play. It is a welcome addition to the roguelite genre. The combat is simple but fun and the abilities you can unlock are satisfying to use against enemies. The boss fights are challenging and a fun time. The tower defense type wave where you defend the cauldron for five minutes is also a welcome addition and can help keep things somewhat fresh after completing the other normal waves. Some of the levels can get repetitive over time as it does follow the same formula and waves. The story is also forgettable but the art style can keep player’s attention. The game is only about 5-6 hours long, depending on how many times you may die in the game but it is a reasonable length for this type of game. Flame Keeper is a good time for any interested in roguelite games.

Okay maybe this wasn’t the game for me, I don’t have much experience of rougelikes beyond slightly enjoying, but never completing 2021’s Returnal. The concept of losing everything after dying once and having to battle my way back through repetitive procedurally rooms of the same enemies from square one may appeal to the masochists among you, and the gaming population is certainly full of those, but personally leaves me feeling like Sisyphus watching the boulder roll back down the mountain. 

Now I’ve heard nothing but great things about other games in this genre such as Binding of Isaac and 2020’s GOTY winner Hades, both of which are on my (embarrassingly) large play list and maybe one day I’ll go back and finish Returnal, but from what I’ve seen of them, these games have style, narratives and themes going for them. So what does Curse Rounds offer?

My eyes betray me.

I’ll start with the good, actually no, to be fair, the VERY good; I really dig this game’s aesthetic. Composed of monochrome, pixelated doodles, great care has definitely been put into how the game looks. Its sprites, admittedly basic, come alive thanks to fantastic animation work and every one of its, admittedly impressive, list of enemies all behave uniquely. The same can be said of its sound design, a simple retro throw back of pixelated tunes and crunchy sound effects, a tribute to those vintage PC games of yore. What little there is of a story is told through very nice comic book panels; rough and sketchy. Oh and if the black and white contrast is too harsh for you, there is an option in the settings to switch to a much less striking greyscale palette, an excellent consideration.

But then there are moments where it just becomes almost too much. In more intense rooms where enemies become comically frequent, it becomes a cacophony of visual noise, your tiny player character getting lost in the chaos of it all. Some of the game’s curse cards (I’ll get to that in a second) cause visual drawbacks such as screen shakes and pixelated rain to constantly fall from the sky, further muddying the playfield. It’s a fun difficulty curve, I’ll give them that, and your tolerance may vary, but there were points where it gave me genuine motion sickness. I don’t recommend playing this game on a gigantic modern TV either, not only because of the input lag (is this a bad time to talk about how terrible modern telly’s are for gaming?) but simply because your eyes won’t be able to track the chaos of what’s going on. This is a monitor game, requiring you to sit forward at a desk in front of a smaller screen (or handheld) and do what I believe the kids nowadays refer to as locking in.

I never curse, I swear.

Now we get on to the namesake of Curse Rounds: the curses. Between rooms you are given the option of two cards, each condemning you to carry a debuff that will follow through your entire run; by the end you will have gained a whole stack of contrasting effects. As aftermentioned some of these are visual and others mechanical, the floor now being slippery ice or causing enemies to rise up as unkillable ghosts. To balance it out, after clearing a room you are given a small permanent buff to your weapon damage or movement speed, and after a boss you are given a very welcome power card that will provide a positive effect. It’s all random and leads to a lot of unique combinations, with the store page going as far as to declare “No two runs are the same!”. Huh.

Mechanically, it plays fine. Just fine. The player character feels responsive enough and you are given a nice dash with very generous i-frames. Enemies are incredibly varied and I’m sure time can be sunk into learning their behaviours and attack patterns. The base weapon, apparently a flashlight, shoots slow moving pellets that just kinda graze the enemies with no real oomf. I don’t feel like I’m giving that much damage, there’s not enough visual or aural feedback here for it to feel satisfying for me. Likewise the power ups (one of the three selling points on the store page) bounce between being actually useful and kinda lame, leading me to just avoid them and stick to the base pea shooter. Sure, there are some cool boss battles, but they vary from very brief to just cluttering the screen with noise, and I just felt a level of detachment to it all. 

Speaking of detachment, the story doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the gameplay. A child playing video games in the dead of night hears knocking coming from his attic; grabbing a flashlight to investigate, the trapdoor bursts open and a swarm of tentacles grabs the boy, dragging him inside. Then he gets turned into a little white ghost (I think?) and has to defeat swarms of ghosts/monsters/whatever in the same empty black room. Look I get this is appealing to a crowd that likes simple no nonsense stories, but what does it have to do with the gameplay loop? I’m not asking for Baldur’s Gate here, but I want some kind of incentive that leads to a payoff. A run will only take you about 25 ish mins and then you are treated to a dozen comic panels that don’t conclude anything. Fantastic. I’m biased of course, I studied film/theatre/TV writing and the written word is my comfort zone; I do like a narrative to keep me going.

“I said, maybe” – Noel Gallagher

Curse Rounds is a somewhat difficult, repetitive time killer with more in common with the coin gobbling arcade cabinets of yesteryear. It’s very cheap (£3/$4) but on modern store fronts that constantly host much deeper games for a similar price point, it feels like an iPhone game in comparison. There’s a good foundation here, very nice visuals and solid game feel and I can see the retro loving crowd getting more out of it, particularly those on Switch and PC (it played okay on controller, but I feel the aiming mechanics were designed with keyboard and mouse in mind). Maybe I’m too young, maybe I’m too impatient, maybe I’m too much of a wannabe film bro and maybe my astigmatism didn’t agree with how many objects were on screen (I should get my prescription checked). But perhaps the biggest maybe, is that one day I’ll find a rougelike that makes me want to roll the boulder back up the hill.

When Echoes of the End released on PC, the conversation online quickly centred around one thing: technical issues. From shader compilation stutters to random frame drops, many early reviews and user impressions suggested that this game, like so many Unreal Engine 5 titles before it, was weighed down by performance hiccups. I went into it expecting frustration, armed with patience and a healthy dose of scepticism. And yet, to my genuine surprise, I experienced none of those problems.

Let’s start with the obvious: this game is visually stunning. Built on UE5, the sweeping landscapes of Aema, icy mountains, lush valleys, volcanic forges, are crafted with a painterly eye for detail. Even standing still, there’s always something to take in.

Visuals like a tech demo

What stood out most in my playthrough wasn’t just how good it looked, but how smoothly it ran. I’ve seen reviewers call this “one of the worst stuttering experiences in recent memory.” Maybe I got lucky, or maybe my hardware configuration happened to align perfectly, but for me, those breath taking visuals weren’t tarnished by performance flaws. They were exactly what they were meant to be: immersive windows into another world.

Echoes of the End give me massive God of War and Uncharted vibes in tone and pacing. As well as graphics, scenery, companion interactions to name a few. It’s a cinematic, linear adventure with a clear focus on character relationships. At the heart of the story is Ryn, a character whose arc slowly but surely drew me in. Early chapters establish the stakes and the world, but it’s in the latter half of the game that her journey truly shines.

From a slow start to an engaging climax

One thing that struck me is how Echoes of the End balances its mythic, high-fantasy setting with grounded human emotion. There are big boss fights and epic confrontations, but what lingers are the quieter moments: conversations at campfires, glimpses of vulnerability, choices that feel like they matter even in a fairly linear story. By the final chapters, I felt genuinely invested, not just in seeing the story wrap up, but in understanding who Ryn had become through the journey.

Here’s where I diverge a bit from my otherwise glowing praise: the early gameplay is underwhelming. Puzzles are straightforward, combat feels limited, and the game sometimes seems to hold your hand a little too tightly. I can understand why some players bounced off in the first few hours, especially if performance issues compounded their frustrations.

But I’m glad I stuck with it. By the midpoint, puzzles introduce more layers, and combat expands with new magical abilities. You start feeling less like you’re walking through a tutorial and more like you’re actively shaping strategies in fights and solving clever environmental challenges. The pacing ramps up, and by the time the story hits its stride, the gameplay has caught up enough to keep you fully engaged.

Not all perfect

That said, I did notice moments where the combat clearly aimed to emulate God of War’s weighty, cinematic feel. You can see the influence in the camera angles, the dodge-and-counter rhythm, and even the way certain boss encounters are staged. The problem is that the responsiveness just isn’t quite there. While combat certainly evolves and becomes more enjoyable as new abilities unlock, it never reaches that same fluid precision. The result is a system that’s fun in its own right but occasionally left me wishing it controlled as tightly as the game it’s trying so hard to echo.

Echoes of the End is not a perfect game. Its puzzles can be predictable, its combat never fully blossoms into something groundbreaking, and its linear structure may leave exploration-hungry players wanting more. But judged on its storytelling, atmosphere, and visual presentation, it delivers a compelling, memorable adventure.

My conclusion

And for me personally, the lack of technical issues elevated the experience from “worth checking out” to genuinely engrossing. While others may remember their time with Echoes of the End as marred by stutter and frustration, I’ll remember mine as a seamless journey through a beautifully crafted world, one that managed to capture both my eyes and my emotions without ever breaking immersion.

So here’s my verdict: if you’re fortunate enough to avoid the technical troubles that others report, you’re in for a rewarding adventure. Echoes of the End may not redefine the genre, but in the right conditions, it proves that sometimes a game doesn’t need to be perfect to leave a lasting impact.