All Game, No Filter

Image Credit: Steam Store

Playtime: 1–2 hours
Completion: 100% achievements
Platform: Steam
Genre: Puzzle / Exploration
Played/Reviewed: 2025
Final Score: 9/10

🧠 First Impressions

Every so often, a small indie title comes along that’s perfectly executed from start to finish. Öoo is exactly that—a concise, brilliant puzzle game that never wastes your time and pushes its mechanics as far as they can possibly go.

It may look simple at first glance, but don’t be fooled—its elegance is in how it constantly teaches, surprises, and rewards you with “aha!” moments without ever feeling repetitive.

⚙️ Gameplay & Progression

At its core, Öoo is a puzzle platformer that thrives on creative use of a limited set of mechanics. What’s remarkable is how the game’s map design itself becomes the tutorial—teaching you new tricks without pop-ups, text, or hand-holding.

Image Credit: Steam Store

The puzzles flow naturally, with each solved challenge making you feel just a bit smarter. Sometimes the reward for exploring a certain path isn’t an item—it’s knowledge, and you can immediately apply that knowledge to progress in places that once felt impossible.

If you enjoyed the discovery-based design of Animal Well, this will feel instantly familiar.

🎵 Music, Art, and Atmosphere

Minimal but intentional. The visuals are clean and focused, keeping you zeroed in on the puzzles themselves. The audio cues subtly reinforce gameplay feedback, and the overall aesthetic keeps the experience sharp and distraction-free.

✍️ Extra Content & Secrets

Don’t stop after rolling credits—the hidden extra puzzles are worth seeking out. They not only extend your playtime but also deliver some of the game’s most satisfying “eureka” moments. Finding them feels like cracking open a secret layer of the game’s design.

✅ Final Verdict

Öoo is a masterclass in doing a lot with a little. It’s short, smart, and endlessly satisfying, packing more creativity into two hours than many games manage in twenty. It’s a must-play for puzzle fans, especially those who love subtle teaching through gameplay.

🔥 Clay’s Take

A small masterpiece that hits exactly what it aims for. The cleverness runs through everything—from the puzzles to the name itself. If you liked Animal Well, you’ll love this. Short, sweet, and absolutely worth your time.

🎯 Final Score: 9/10
👍 Recommended: Yes – without hesitation

Image Credit: Steam Store

🕒 Playtime: ~2-4 hours
✅ Completion: 100% achievements
🕹️ Platform: PC (Steam)
🎮 Genre: Incremental Clicker / Casual
📅 Played/Reviewed: 2025
⭐ Final Score: 7/10

🧠 First Impressions

Digseum is a bite-sized incremental clicker that caught my attention during the Summer sale for just two bucks. The premise is simple and charming: dig up ancient relics and build your very own museum to display them. Early on, it felt a bit slow—but once the Prestige system unlocked, the pace picked up significantly. What started as a grind turned into a pretty addictive loop.

⚙️ Gameplay & Progression

The gameplay is simple: click to dig, collect relics, display them, upgrade tools, and repeat. The Prestige mechanic introduces a solid progression system that rewards long-term play with permanent boosts. Once unlocked, it transforms the gameplay from slow and linear to fast and rewarding.

The pacing isn’t perfect though. The early game drags, the mid-game spikes, and the late-game flies by, leaving you with a fun but slightly unbalanced curve. I hit 100% achievements naturally in about two hours, which felt fair for the price.

🎵 Music, Art, and Atmosphere

Big props to the soundtrack. A relaxing, lo-fi background that perfectly matches the tone of the game. It’s the kind of music you don’t skip, and it genuinely enhanced the experience.

Visually, the game is clean and retro—nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. The museum display mechanic is a nice touch and gives a bit of visual payoff to your digging efforts.

✍️ Story & Dialogue

The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, but sometimes that works against it. The main character’s dialogue veers into cringy territory, and the end credits read like they were written in a middle school computer lab. It’s not game-breaking, but definitely a tonal mismatch compared to the relaxing gameplay.

✅ Final Verdict

Digseum is a short, relaxing clicker that does what it sets out to do—and for the price, it’s a satisfying little gem. If you’re a fan of incremental games or just want something cozy and casual to knock out in one sitting, it’s worth grabbing.

Just don’t expect deep mechanics or replayability once the museum’s full.

🔥 Clay’s Take

This is an idle game that doesn’t want you to idle, and I kind of respect that. The fast pacing, fun upgrades, and clean design had me hooked the whole time—even if balance flew out the window.

🎯 Final Score: 7/10
👍 Recommended: Yes (especially on sale)

Image Credit: Steam

Playtime: ~4 hours
Completion: Incomplete – Gave up halfway
Platform: Steam
Genre: Tower Defense / Strategy
Final Score: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5)

🧠 First Impressions

Toy Shire opens with charm: vibrant visuals, a creative toy-themed world, and what seems like a promising tower defense concept. At first, I was hopeful. The early levels were enjoyable enough, and I appreciated the game’s playful energy.

But the frustration crept in fast.

⚙️ Gameplay

Mechanically, it follows the genre formula: build towers, stop waves of enemies, adapt. But the fun gets buried under sluggish controls, strange design choices, and a difficulty curve that feels more punishing than rewarding.

Turret placement is extremely sensitive — one mistake can cost the whole run. Tower types feel shallow, even if their designs evolve. There’s little room for experimentation, and even less room to recover from errors.

The game’s difficulty settings are tied to how much currency you start with — not smarter AI or more challenging wave patterns — which feels lazy and restrictive. And the inability to change difficulty mid-game makes progression feel like punishment if you pick wrong.

Image Credit: Steam

💢 Frustration Points

• Hand animation when picking up the hammer is way too slow — by the time you respond, enemies are already through.
• Flying enemies are wildly overpowered. Even upgraded air defense turrets struggle to keep up.
• Turret placement is so specific it becomes puzzle-like. One off-placement, and you lose to an enemy with 1HP left.
• The kid’s voice lines are unbearable — thankfully, there’s an option to mute them.
• Difficulty can’t be changed once you start. If Normal is too much, tough luck — start from scratch.
• Soldiers are often a waste of currency outside of Easy mode.
• Bug recolor feature exists (great!) but no difficulty adjuster? Priorities feel off.
• Tower variety and upgrades are underwhelming. They look different but don’t offer new strategies.
• Final boss design forces specific setups without giving you time to adapt or change between waves.
• The focus mechanic often fails — towers ignore settings and shoot whatever they want.
• Controls feel clunky, there’s no zoom, and the battlefield camera is more style than function.

🧱 Design vs Execution

Toy Shire feels like a puzzle masquerading as a tower defense game. It’s less about finding your own solution and more about guessing what the devs intended. Creative freedom? Very limited.

There are some great enemy designs and creative visuals, but they’re undercut by how repetitive and restrictive gameplay becomes. It’s hard to stay invested when every level feels like trial-and-error with minimal feedback or adaptability.

🛠️ Small Team, Ongoing Updates

It’s worth noting that Toy Shire is being developed by a team of just two people. With that in mind, some of the rough edges — like balance issues or mechanical hiccups — are a little more understandable.

That said, the game is actively being updated, which gives me hope. With enough polish and feedback from players, Toy Shire could shape into something stronger over time. For now, though, the experience still feels more frustrating than fun.

✅ Final Verdict

Toy Shire has potential — in visuals, worldbuilding, and early pacing. But that potential gets lost under a frustrating and poorly balanced experience. If you’re a hardcore tower defense fan who enjoys pixel-perfect puzzle solving and doesn’t mind restarting over and over, you might get something out of it.

For me, the fun didn’t last long enough to justify the grind.

🔥 Clay’s Thoughts

“A frustrating experience dressed in cute visuals. I tried to enjoy Toy Shire, but between the broken mechanics, slow controls, and overwhelming difficulty spikes, I found myself quitting out of annoyance more than once. It’s one of those games that might appeal to a niche group — but I’m not in it.”

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5)
Recommended?: Not really — unless you thrive on trial-and-error tower defense games with little room for creative strategy.

🗨️ How About You?

Have you played Toy Shire yet?

Are you a fan of ultra-tight tower defense games, or do you prefer more freedom in how you play?

What’s the most frustrating TD game you’ve ever played — and did you power through or uninstall?