My name is Tim. Since 2017, I have managed the website Up All Night, a hub for nostalgic content that’s been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. I occasionally produce vaporwave/dark ambient music under the same moniker. I previously operated the classic video game blog Retro Game Dad.
In the real world I am married guy with two children who plays video games and watches professional wrestling in his spare time.
I have been playing video games for almost as long as I have been on this earth. In the late 1990s I played my first JRPG and it completely changed how I look at games and the kinds of games I want to play. But as an adult with a family and a career, I don’t have much time to play these games. This combination often leads to many sleepless nights and days where I struggle to make it through because I sacrifice sleep to play the latest game I’m addicted to. As I approach my 40s, this gets more and more difficult, and I know I’m not the only person who does this.
Overlevel is where I review the games I play in the limited time that I have to play them. I plan on sticking to “role playing games” on this website, but my definition of the genre is going to be pretty loose. I plan to cover western action RPGs, JRPGs, classic computer RPGs, even games that may classify as “action/adventure” that have RPG elements will likely end up here. If the game has a fully realized world to settle into, you may find it covered here.
When I review a game, I focus on these four aspects:
- The sense of place: How well does the game create a believable and consistent world?
- The characters and environments: How well does the game portray the people and places in the world?
- The tone and storytelling: How well does the game convey its mood, theme, and plot?
- The mechanics: How well does the game play and feel?
I rate games on a 5-star scale, with no half-stars. Here is what each star means:
- 5 Stars: Incredible. A masterpiece that blows me away.
- 4 Stars: Great. A very enjoyable and memorable game.
- 3 Stars: Solid. A good game that does its job well.
- 2 Stars: Bad. A disappointing game that has major flaws.
- 1 Star: Awful. A terrible game that makes me regret playing it.
Overlevel 