Recent reviews by WholePunch

This game is technically fine, it looks great, the music is good, but when it comes to the story/gameplay it's really lacking. The creator doubles as the programmer, writer and level designer and it shows, the latter two feeling quite amateur. The puzzles in this puzzle game are really underwhelming, they rely way too much on backtracking (repeating the main steps of the puzzle sometimes 2 or 3 times), and feel way too linear, just "grab this thing" then "grab the next thing" and lacking many good "Aha!" moments. It also relies a lot on the "behind-the-scenes" exploration type levels from Portal 2, but does it so often that it loses the catharsis of being a break from the main content by just being the main content. This really got to me in Chapter 5, which is almost entirely those levels, with some really confusing back tracking, plus a bug that made me replay half of it. Also the conversion gel only level was a slog, was in Portal 2, has been any time its shown up in a mod.

In terms of the story, it was just quite mediocre. It lacked a lot of the comedic wit of Portal 2, with a few half baked attempts at it near the end. The story is quite similar to Portal 2's as well, going to the same locations along similar beats, wish it tried something a bit more unique. The voice actors were fine, the negative reviews just ragging on them feel unjust, but their dialogue is quite poorly written. The surprise villain twist was super corny, the stereotypical nerd voice did not help. Ending was super anti climactic too, just a cliff-hanger setting up a potential future game. The dialogue was also mixed quite loud so I had to turn down the rest of the sounds just to turn it down (a dialogue audio slider would have been appreciated).

This games fine as a free fan mod, a solid 5/10, just wish that they focused more on the level design and story rather than the visuals and marketing, which is what all the hype seemed to be about. Hope they can expand the team after the popularity of this and get some staff experienced in that stuff. And if you're thinking of playing this, I can recommend picking up Portal Stories: Mel instead, another free Portal 2 mod that's much better than this.

can't have 5 people in a party to do a full 4v1 with friends. stupid decision. add private lobbies.

a shadow of its former self

As Sun Haven currently stands, it is extremely underwhelming to me. It should have been worked on longer rather than be released in this unfinished, half-baked state.

The main quest line is very short, only about 5 major quests which can all be completed in less than 10 hours, though the devs have stated that they will be adding more to the middle of the main quest. That on its own isn't the worst, but there's also content lacking from the rest of the game. Many areas (including one of the major villages) are still incomplete and have warnings saying "coming soon" plastered about which just restricts the player and ruin the immersion. The gameplay loop is repetitive and the amount of side quests is small aswell.

Comparing it to Stardew Valley (which it takes a massive amount of inspiration from), Sun Haven doesn't have the same set of solid long term goals like the events, the community centre, the item collection or fish collection to keep you motivated. The main gameplay loop after the first few weeks of playing is just the same few randomly generated missions on the notice board, finishing the mine (which is much more annoying due to the key system, see other reviews) or romancing/friendships (which admittedly is much faster than Stardew, but feels shallower due to the lack of events). It really lacks those solid long term goals and "collectathon" esque aspects which made me love Stardew so much. Stardew is a game that can lasts upwards of 50 hours, Sun Haven lasts at most 15 hours.

To speak a bit on the positives, it does bring some interesting new ideas to the table. The spells are a cool idea, albeit still lacking in numbers and variety (would love more non-combat ones). The setting, story and combat are fun and interesting. The fishing minigame is kind of a mix of a stripped down version of Stardew's fishing and Animal Crossing's fishing, which is a unique combo. A pet peeve though is the lack of a proper way to track the fish you've caught or can catch, as is in both Stardew and Animal Crossing.

Overall, the game feels very shallow and incomplete right now, and is just a shadow of better games like Stardew Valley (which i would definitely recommend over this if you haven't played it). If your desperate, buy it on sale and enjoy what little it can offer, otherwise wait until more content patches come out. I'll give it a second chance later once more contents out, but right now I would not recommend it.

TLDR: Underwhelming and lacking content, buy it on sale or wait for it to update

Demoncrawl has a decent balance of luck and skill. Some runs you're completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥, some you're completely overpowered. Can be annoying but you just gotta push through to get to the fun runs. Scratches the same itch as Binding of Isaac, aiming to break the game with insane item combos, even if that's only every half dozen runs.

8/10 better than hentai minesweeper

definitely way better then when it started, its come a long way.

good game

more fun than it should be

im only doing this for steam awards but this is really a great game 10/10

Just finished this game, and damn it's pretty good. Starts slow but after you get past the first couple treasures the game really picks up. Had a couple minor issues, like a slippery platforming section where your hook is taken away and a softlock after picking up an item as I grabbed a hook. I also played on Windows 10 with and XBOX 360 controller and experienced none of the issues the other reviews mentioned, so they've been patched. Definetly a hidden gem and I'd reccomend it to my friends.