Zachary Holmes


82 games reviewed
79.9 average score
80 median score
100.0% of games recommended
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8 / 10.0 - SONOKUNI
Jun 15, 2025

SONOKUNI isn’t a mainstream crowd-pleaser. It’s not supposed to be. It’s an underground hit—loud, unfiltered, and unapologetically raw. It carves its own lane with a katana in one hand and a mic in the other. You won’t walk away unmoved. Whether it frustrates you or fills you with god-tier timing swagger, it’s unforgettable.

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8.5 / 10.0 - White Knuckle
Jun 13, 2025

White Knuckle is a brutal, brilliant climbing game trapped inside a skin of industrial horror. It doesn’t beg for your attention—it demands your focus, your patience, and your respect. Every run is an exercise in tension. Every death is a lesson. And every inch climbed feels like defiance. There’s work to be done before it reaches its full potential. The enemy design needs rethinking. The meta-progression needs more teeth. But the foundation? Rock solid. If the devs stick the landing, White Knuckle could become the Spelunky of vertical horror. Right now, it’s a cult hit waiting to explode.

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8.5 / 10.0 - The Alters
Jun 12, 2025

It's not just about surviving a dying planet—it’s about surviving yourself. The Alters is a triumph of concept, design, and emotion. It may stumble in its systems, but it soars in its soul.

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7.5 / 10.0 - Zombie Army VR
Jun 12, 2025

It’s dumb, fun, and soaked in blood. Zombie Army VR doesn’t reinvent the genre, but it does deliver five hours of solid undead-blasting chaos.

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8.5 / 10.0 - Sworn
Jun 11, 2025

It’s Hades, if Hades had four players, corrupted Arthurian lore, and a dark comic book soul. Early Access rarely feels this confident. Co-op roguelike fans, your quest has arrived.

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9 / 10.0 - Bionic Bay
Jun 9, 2025

More than just a stylish indie platformer, Bionic Bay is a blueprint for how to evolve 2D design in 2025—tight controls, physics-driven mechanics, and an atmosphere so thick you can swap into it.

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Jun 8, 2025

A nostalgic toybox shooter with heart, polish, and some rough edges, HYPERCHARGE is what happens when devs say “what if we built a game around the coolest part of your childhood?” and actually follow through. It’s not perfect—but it’s pure fun.

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Jun 6, 2025

A crime-sim that’s more vacuum than violence, Cash Cleaner Simulator carves out a fresh niche with its hyper-specific theme and cozy execution. It’s not going to change the genre—but it might change how you feel about a dirty stack of twenties.

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8.5 / 10.0 - Deck of Haunts
Jun 4, 2025

A roguelike deckbuilder where you're not the victim—you're the trap. Deck of Haunts takes genre expectations, rips them up, and uses them to wallpaper your haunted murder maze. It’s strategic, unsettling, and deeply replayable. But it’s also unapologetically difficult, occasionally unbalanced, and sometimes a bit too opaque for its own good. That said, if you’ve ever wanted to build the perfect haunted house and ruin some lives, this one’s for you.

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8.5 / 10.0 - Galactic Glitch
Jun 3, 2025

Galactic Glitch lets you bend physics to your will in a chaotic ballet of bullets, debris, and gravity-defying carnage. Rip enemies apart, hurl asteroids, and blast through a beautifully broken universe. It’s twin-stick roguelike mayhem with brains, brawn, and just the right amount of glitch.

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9 / 10.0 - StarVaders
Jun 2, 2025

StarVaders is a brilliant fusion of deckbuilding, tactics, and mech combat, wrapped in a polished roguelike package. It’s as much about building the perfect hand as it is about maneuvering on a grid. Every turn matters. Every mistake has weight. Every combo has potential. Yes, there are rough edges. Yes, you’ll probably rage-quit a run or two. But once the game clicks—once you pull off your first triple-dash into a reactive bomb chain that wipes the map in one hand of cards—you’ll understand why StarVaders has cult-favorite potential.

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May 29, 2025

Dynasty Warriors Origins is exactly what it needs to be. It’s a tight, aggressive return to form that refines the series’ strengths, trims some of the fat, and offers enough modern polish to feel relevant in 2025. It’s not going to redefine action games. It doesn’t want to. What it does instead is double down on what works: raw spectacle, satisfying combat, and a war-torn world teeming with power struggles, betrayal, and battlefield heroics. Whether you’re a veteran of the series or just craving some loud, cathartic carnage—Origins delivers.

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May 28, 2025

Elden Ring Nightreign is not for everyone. It’s a brutal, atmospheric, deeply demanding experience that rewards patience, persistence, and curiosity. But if you’re the kind of player who grinned every time you saw “YOU DIED” flash across your screen in past Souls titles… this is your next obsession. Nightreign doesn’t just offer a new challenge—it rethinks what challenge means. It takes the bones of a beloved classic and rebuilds them into something darker, sharper, and even more punishing. If you’re ready to suffer beautifully once more—step into the dark.

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6.5 / 10.0 - Pick Me Pick Me
May 28, 2025

Pick Me Pick Me is smart, funny, and completely original. It reinvents the dating sim by throwing in competitive PvP, live AI interactions, and unpredictable sabotage cards. It’s everything you didn’t know you wanted in a party game—until the tokens run out. If the devs shift to a one-time purchase or a more generous free-to-play system, this could be a breakout hit. Until then, it’s a brilliant game in a frustrating wrapper.

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8.5 / 10.0 - RoadCraft
May 27, 2025

RoadCraft is not just SnowRunner with cranes. It’s a smart reimagining of what off-road sims can be. By making construction the core focus, it opens up a creative, rewarding, and satisfying gameplay loop that plays like PowerWash Simulator meets SimCity—with the physics muscle of Saber’s prior work. It’s a meditative, methodical experience that shines brightest in co-op but holds up solo, too. And while it stumbles in a few areas—namely UI and AI—its foundation is rock solid.

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8 / 10.0 - Ghost Frequency
May 26, 2025

Ghost Frequency is a clever, unsettling horror game that focuses more on mood and realism than gore and action. Its commitment to real-world ghost hunting techniques and grounded investigation gameplay gives it a unique edge over typical indie horror fare. But for all its strengths, it feels like a teaser for a bigger game. There’s atmosphere, tension, and great tools—but the story ends before it can say anything meaningful, and the maze sequence leaves a sour aftertaste. Still, if you’re into slow-burn horror and want something that treats ghost hunting seriously (without taking itself too seriously), Ghost Frequency is worth experiencing—especially with the lights off and headphones on.

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7 / 10.0 - Mining Company
May 24, 2025

Mining Company is a mess—but it's your mess, and that’s where it succeeds. If you’ve got a crew of friends, some patience, and a taste for unpredictable co-op horror, this game is a $5 gamble that might just pay off in laughter, panic, and some very bad space trades. Just don’t expect it to hold your hand—or work perfectly. Mining with monsters, broken mic settings, and pure co-op chaos. Best served with friends.

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7.5 / 10.0 - Wizordum
May 22, 2025

Wizordum is a magic-fueled shooter that casts a powerful spell—until it occasionally trips over its own robes. It nails the look, the feel, and the pace of a 90s fantasy FPS, and it comes packed with just enough modern convenience (like a level editor and leaderboard challenges) to keep it relevant. The combat is consistently fun, the secrets are satisfying, and the world is worth exploring. But cluttered inventory systems, uneven pacing, and a few too many "gotcha" moments drag down what could otherwise be a near-perfect spell-slinging romp. If you're here to blast skeletons, soak in some pixel-art charm, and unleash hellfire with your fingertips, Wizordum absolutely delivers—just don’t expect perfection in every spell.

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May 21, 2025

Quarantine Zone: The Last Check (Demo) is an imaginative and grimly compelling blend of strategy, horror, and moral dilemmas. It’s Papers, Please meets The Walking Dead, with enough dark humor and high-stakes decision-making to make it uniquely its own. It’s tense. It’s weird. It’s surprisingly deep. And it’s worth keeping an eye on. Borderline brilliant. Literally.

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May 21, 2025

Among The Whispers – Provocation isn’t just another ghost game. It’s a love letter to patient, atmospheric horror with a focus on narrative and simulation. If you liked Paranormal P.I., Phasmophobia, or The Mortuary Assistant—but wanted a more intimate, lore-rich solo experience—this should be on your radar. The game launches tomorrow on Steam, and based on what we played, it’s well worth checking out. Don’t blink—or you might miss the ghost standing right behind you.

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