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5 (9) 4 (17) 3 (36) 2 (15) 1 (14) 2.9 starsAverage score of 91 user reviews
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Grotesque, grim and yet an eerily familiar puzzle platformer 0
Little Nightmares, developed by Tarsier Studios, suffers from the unfortunate role of being compared to two other well known dark grim platformers. They are so similar that if someone told me that Playdead developed Little Nightmares, I would not have doubted it. I’m sure the comparison does not sit well with Tarsier Studios, it being a Swedish team while Playdead is located in neighboring Denmark and vice-versa. With all that said, Little Nightmares is a beautiful grim puzzle platformer w...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Artsy, Experimental and an Interesting Curiosity 0
Thirty Flights of Loving and its prequel Gravity Sock (packaged with the TFoL) are weird games. They both seem like student art projects or products concocted in a game jam. The graphics are very basic. There is no combat. And the levels are very very linear. They are walking simulators in the strictest sense and the story is fed to you through environmental details. They are not traditional video games and that's the point.Gravity Sock is a spy thriller, where you play a spy, completing objecti...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
A fantastic bookend to the Crossbell Arc 0
Disclaimer: This review is based on the Geofront Fan Translation patch on the Joyoland PC copy of Ao no Kiseki. While in the middle of my playthrough, a western release was announced by NISA. Instead of waiting until 2023 for that release, I decided to finish my playthrough on the fan patched version and review that experience.Trails fans rejoice! An English version of Ao no Kiseki or Trails to Azure with modern gameplay improvements is finally here. Trails to Azure is an important game in the T...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
An all you can eat 8-bit platformer buffet 0
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is an 8-bit celebration of the most beloved NES classics. There are hints of Mega Man, DuckTales, Castlevania, Super Mario Bros. 3 and more in this 5-pack game collection. Even if you lack the nostalgia of playing these NES classics, the Treasure Trove collection is a fantastic representation of the best the 8-bit generation has to offer. Each game, while thematically and visually similar to each other, has completely different characters and playstyles. This collec...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Fantastic combat, but all show, no tell 0
There hasn’t been a game I’ve played in recent memory that sets the stage so quickly. From the opening minutes of Hyper Light Drifter, I’ve witnessed a series of stylish, moody and cryptic sequences that had me absolutely hooked even before I had control. After the intro sequence it becomes fairly apparent that Hyper Light Drifter is heavily inspired by games like Dark Souls, Super Metroid and Zelda: A Link to the Past. The tight controls, numerous secrets to discover and tough...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
So Many Cards, So Little Time to Actually Try them All 0
SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech is the latest entry in the SteamWorld franchise. The game is a mix of turn based RPG and card battling. The card battling mechanic, while initially promising, is never fully realized due to the mixed decks and limited card slots. And the RPG part of the game suffers from the classic RPG issue where it is better to stick with the same roster for the entire game rather than diversify to maximize experience allocation. Outside of those elements, there is a light ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Superb Platforming with a Subtle Story 0
A Story About My Uncle is a first person platformer. The genre is exceptionally rare because first person platforming is tricky to get right: it is difficult to judge distance between platforms and see where you are landing. A Story About My Uncle helps mitigate these problems by introducing you to a powered high jump, a grapple mechanic and eventually a rocket booster. The game has a sense of rhythm and momentum that feels utterly liberating when you successfully jump from platform to platform....
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Lost under the buggy sea 0
I never found underwater levels in any game fun. They often share the same gameplay quirks: sluggish character movement, a diminishing oxygen meter and agile underwater enemies to keep you in constant motion. In fact, many games treat water as a deterrent to keep the player from wandering too far out of bounds. Subnautica is one of the few exceptions where I found the underwater traversal and exploration fun. Unfortunately the game is a massive time-sink and a buggy mess.The premise of Subnautic...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
A mismatch of typing and bullethell 0
I enjoy indie games because they are bold and experiment with unique gameplay ideas. I also sometimes dislike indie games because they are bold and experiment with unique gameplay ideas. The Textorcist falls into the latter column. The problem with this game is it combines two genres that are simply incompatible. It also doesn't help that the writing isn't great and the narrative didn't hook me in. Oh yeah and before I forget, the game's whole gimmick is you need to type EVERYTHING, even when in...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Good dumb open world Kung Fu action 1
I’m probably not the first person to admit this, but I don’t think the Grand Theft Auto games are actually that fun to play. They are spectacle crime simulators, with arcady driving and mediocre gun combat. While their narratives feature top notch voice talent and good moment to moment writing, the stories themselves end up as cliche Mafia stories involving feuding gangs and eventual betrayals. Enter Sleeping Dogs, a game developed by the now defunct United Front Games, a GTA clone ...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Small Town Americana 0
Night in the Woods is a very specific game for a very specific audience. At first glance, it’s a cutesy adventure game featuring anthropomorphic characters with minor platforming elements. On closer inspection, Night in the Woods is a game that addresses depression, anxiety and the struggles of living in a small town. This indie game manages to punch above its weight and delivers a story with some serious emotional impact. Night in the Woods is far from perfect. The platforming sections ar...
4 out of 4 found this review helpful. -
XCOM: The Arcade Police Edition 2
I love XCOM 2 especially with the War of the Chosen add-on. The game is fantastically complex and nuanced with hundreds of hours of potential gameplay. If it were not for the extraordinary levels of “XCOM jank” specifically in vanilla XCOM 2, it would easily be in my top 10 games of all time. My expectations for XCOM: Chimera Squad were wildly unrealistic. I wanted the game to capture the same highs I experienced in XCOM 2 for the first time again. I’m sad to report that XCOM: ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
A Japanese take on the modern Telltale game 0
I admit I’m ignorant of the Japanese indie scene. Basically whenever I think of a Japanese indie game, I think of either a game made with RPG Maker, a Visual Novel or a game made by a ridiculously talented person like Pixel with Cave Story. To my delight, Tokyo Dark is none of those things. Tokyo Dark is a psychological horror adventure game by Japanese indie team CherryMochi. It is a game based on the likes of a modern Telltale game but with an Anime aesthetic. Like the Telltale games, To...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
An amazing strategic masterpiece if you can tolerate the numerous bugs 1
Reviewing XCOM 2 almost 5 years after its release is both a blessing and a curse. It’s great to play XCOM 2 at its greatest potential with all of the DLCs including the War of the Chosen add-on. XCOM 2 is a complex, challenging strategic game with potentially hundreds of hours of enjoyable gameplay. It’s unfortunate to report that even with XCOM 2 at its apex, the game is horrendously buggy, especially when playing vanilla XCOM 2 (without the War of the Chosen add-on). The previous g...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Falcom and Trails at their absolute best 2
Disclaimer: This review is based on the Geofront Fan Translation patch on a Japanese PC copy of Zero no Kiseki. There is no official western release for this game.UPDATE: A western release has been announced by NISA and it will be based on the Geofront's translation.The Legend of Heroes:Trails games are an underrated series of JRPGs known for having excellent world building, sharp witty dialog and meaningful NPC interactions. The series is also famous for having a middle chapter, the Crossbell A...
4 out of 4 found this review helpful. -
A companion piece to a time travel classic 0
The original Steins;Gate is not only a great VN game, it is an excellent piece of fiction. Steins;Gate is the best time travel story I have ever experienced. It features a phenomenal cast, wonderful chemistry between its eccentric characters and rigorously sticks with its time travel logic. The story is detailed and complex, yet comprehensible at the same time. The game does a great job explaining how wordlines and time travel work in its mythos. The True End of Steins;Gate is a brilliant conclu...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Light hearted, saccharine and colorful JRPG 0
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore or TMS for short, is a goofy, fun and lighthearted JRPG. The game is a collaboration between ATLUS and Nintendo and was planned to be a merger of the Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem franchises. Unfortunately fans of either series will be disappointed to learn that neither franchise is properly represented in TMS. The game is best described as a Persona game with heavy J-Pop themes. The Fire Emblem elements that are there are barely noticeable such as: sound ef...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Misses the spark of the original 0
The Fall was a cleverly designed adventure game about an AI facing the conundrum of violating protocols in order to save its human occupant. The Fall Part 2: Unbound is a direct sequel and takes place directly after the ending of The Fall. If you haven’t played The Fall yet, do not play this game. The only way to talk more about this game is to explicitly spoil the ending of part one, you have been warned!The Fall Part 2: Unbound follows up with our protagonist AI, ARID in the process of b...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Padded quest design, Bad Combat and bland presentation. Nothing shines in Ikenfell 0
On paper, Ikenfell sounds amazing. It’s a 16-bit RPG with gameplay inspired by the Paper Mario series and a setting reminiscent of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books. I wanted to find something to like in this game, but there are numerous elements to the game that didn’t work for me. The story is a wild goose chase. The gameplay is punishingly difficult. The presentation is bland. There are some really odd-ball soundtracks that I found unfitting, grating and annoying. And the queer m...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Only worth it if you plan to playthrough the game multiple times 0
Did I play the same game as everybody else? Maybe it's because this is my first DMC game, but this game is so poorly paced and juvenile.On the first playthrough, you constantly learn new skills even at the endgame so it's impossible to master any of the late game weapons/skills before credits roll. The fact that blood orbs are shared among Nero, V and Dante also doesn't help. You barely play as V and spending blood orbs on his skills feel like a waste. The game benefits on subsequent playthrough...
2 out of 4 found this review helpful. -
Space Exploration at its finest 0
Finished the game last night and contemplated writing a full review but ultimately decided I better not because it will inadvertently spoil something.Outer Wilds is an ambitious game with a full dynamic and realized solar system. While the game lacks enemies to fight, the space and planets themselves are more than dangerous enough as it is. This game will not hold your hand, give you a nice big objective marker and tell you exactly what to do. Part of the fun is discovering and learning about th...
2 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
A riveting, sad and grounded story 0
DONTNOD’s latest adventure game is about a pair of twin siblings Tyler and Alyson Ronan who are reuniting for the first time in ten years. Their reunion is bittersweet as the twins plan to sell their childhood home in fictional Delos Crossing, Alaska. After going through their own belongings, Tyler and Alyson enter their deceased mother’s room only to discover that their mother has been hiding more secrets than the twins previously suspected. While Alyson is content to leave the past...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
An unforgettable experience with some clear flaws 0
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a fantastic turn based strategy game with social sim mechanics. The series has been kicking along for more than two decades but hasn’t garnered much interest from the West until FE: Awakening. The FE games have mostly been iterative, making minor tweaks to each subsequent game. That paradigm changed with FE: Path of Radiance for the GameCube. It was Intelligent Systems’ most ambitious Fire Emblem release at that time: it was the first Fire Emblem game in ...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Carrion makes you feel like a deadly intelligent unstoppable predator 0
Carrion is a monster power fantasy game. You play as a hideous tube-like monster escaping from an underground research facility. The game makes you feel like a terrifying, powerful predator by slinging tentacles at humans and devouring their limbs using one of its' many mouths. The more the monster eats, the more it grows. When the monster absorbs specific radioactive substances, it gains new skills such as possessing humans and developing meat encrusted armor. The humans aren't all pushovers th...
4 out of 4 found this review helpful. -
A solid shooter with a campaign that hasn't aged well 1
Played the Remastered Edition on Heroic DifficultyHalo: Combat Evolved proved that it is possible to create a competent shooter on consoles. Halo 2 is known as THE seminal console shooter, a system seller and the only reason the original XBox had a longer shelf life than it should have.I was not one of these players. I was a PC player that loved playing Counter Strike and going from Counter Strike to Halo 2, is no fair comparison. I want to be clear the shooting is solid. The Battle Rifle, Coven...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
A game with a lot of beautiful art and interesting ideas, all hobbled together into a complete mess 0
Final Fantasy XV is a game of severe contrasts, lackluster combat and poor narrative pacing. The game features an open world and yet also features a staggering long set of linear corridors. The game features a diverse and large set of interesting characters, but you barely get a chance to learn about them. The game also features action combat that can get remarkably complicated, but the game never challenges players. The game boots up each time by boldly claiming to be a “Final Fantasy for...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Half space basketball, Half visual novel. A game that is strictly better as a visual novel. 0
Pyre is the 3rd game developed by indie-hit developer, Supergiant Games. Pyre is a strange game and can’t easily be categorized into a specific genre. Supergiant’s previous games: Bastion and Transistor both tread familiar grounds, with the first being an action game and the latter being an action strategy hybrid. Pyre, on the other hand, feels like a mad scientist’s experiment. Pyre is a mix between a sports game with a visual novel. Unfortunately while I admire Supergiant&rsq...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Hits the right tactical notes, but underwhelms at everything else 0
There is no question that XCOM: Enemy Unknown has reinvigorated the tactics genre. After Firaxis’s success with XCOM, many developers have tried to follow suit including Ubisoft and Nintendo. Unfortunately none of these tactics games have come close to the level of polish and complexity of the XCOM games. Gears Tactics is Microsoft Studios’ attempt to hop on the tactics train. The core tactical gameplay is an absolute joy to play but everything else about the game falters.Gears Tacti...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
A charming successor, with minor blemishes in its’ new combat and story structure 0
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the direct sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest. The game oozes with even better art, music and cutscenes compared to the original. Will of the Wisps is also longer than its predecessor. The new game is filled with side quests, time challenges and puzzles to solve. There are a few blemishes to Will of the Wisps such as its’ new combat system and story. It is also not a substantially different game than Blind Forest, so don’t expect something completely...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
A complete letdown, inferior in every way to Until Dawn 0
I can’t put it in any kind words, Supermassive Games dropped the ball with Man of Medan. This game should have been a phenomenal successor to their critical sleeper hit, Until Dawn. On paper, everything sounds great. Man of Medan takes the same formula as Until Dawn with a more condensed narrative experience and an option for local and online co-op. In reality, almost nothing about the game from a narrative, graphical and even voice acting and motion capture perspective works as expected.M...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Deep, difficult and challenging. Easily the best Metroidvania inspired indie game of this generation 0
Hollow Knight perfectly encapsulates the feeling of isolation and discovery in a metroidvania. It entreats players to wander deeper and deeper in an elaborate maze filled with boss fights and secrets. It tells its story with the environments, whether it’s the sparsely populated town of Dirtmouth, the luscious botanical gardens of Greenpath or the remnants of a great civilization in the City of Tears.The game pulls no punches and requires players to master the art of combat, the platformin...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
The ugly duckling of the SciAdv series. It’s not Steins;Gate, nor should you ever hope it would be 0
I originally written this as a review and abandoned it due to lack of time and only now rediscovered my draft after planning to write a review for another game. It's been quite awhile since I last played Chaos;Child, so instead of trying to finish the draft, I'm going to list the bullet points from my draft of what I felt when I finished the game.Chaos;Child is the ugly duckling of the SciAdv series. It is a sequel to Chaos;Head which was never released outside of Japan.The basic premise of the ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
An Advance Wars clone in the best way possible 0
Wargroove takes no shame in riffing Advance Wars. It completely copies the turn-based tactical formula that made Advance Wars such a hit on the GBA and DS. The game mimics even the minute details such as terrain bonuses and unit types. While I enjoyed my time playing Wargroove there was always a sense of deja-vu, as if I’m not playing a new game but rather a fantasy mod of Advance Wars.Wargroove has a few original ideas. The first of which is that the commander is a playable unit on the fi...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
A visual novel boasting real actors and actresses with a cartoonish, but intriguing story. 0
What immediately strikes you upon first playing 428: Shibuya Scramble is the use of live action photos and videos. This game is not a low budget FMV game with characters acting in front of a green screen but instead features numerous characters and extras on set, in Shibuya Tokyo. Scenes are incredibly varied taking place on the streets, in malls, on top of rooftops and more. The production quality of this game is genuinely impressive especially compared to other games of its’ genre.In 428...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
An insufferable game that should be avoided even to those who are in the game’s target audience 0
Let’s be blunt, the only reason you should be remotely interested in Akiba’s Trip Undead & Undressed is if you want to look at anime girls in their underwear. There is no grand arching plot. There are no deep battle mechanics. And this is not the game that is “so bad that it’s good”. The whole game is designed around the mechanic of stripping girls (and boys) of their clothing.Vampire-like beings named Synthisters are draining the energy of the otaku. Like vampi...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Excellent writing and plot buoy an otherwise stereotypical JRPG 0
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (TCS for short) is the 6th entry in the Trails franchise by Nihon Falcom. Similar to the long running Final Fantasy series, TCS can be enjoyed without playing its’ previous entries. TCS falls in that special realm of game between a AAA title and an indie game. There is a noticeable gap in graphical fidelity and production values in TCS compared to a AAA game but there is enough content there to not be relegated into indie territory. For what TCS l...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
As a Persona 4 Fan, I am disappointed. *SPOILERS* 0
===========================================================SPOILERS!!! This review will spoil character names and plot events in Persona 4 and Persona 5.===========================================================Persona 4 Golden (P4G) is my favorite JRPG to date, so I couldn’t wait to play Persona 5. But instead of immediately grabbing my hands on Persona 5 at release I was eagerly waiting for the improved edition of the game similar to what the Atlus team did with the last two core Person...
3 out of 5 found this review helpful. -
Best gameplay out of the series, but everything else is poorly done 0
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, (shortened to LR) is the last game in the beleaguered Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. The first game was an utter mess of hallways and handholdy tutorials. The sequel was a massive upgrade from the first game that took fan feedback to heart but had a nonsensical time travelling plot that goes nowhere. LR in the meanwhile is a completely different beast, sporting a new battle system, a time mechanic and only one playable character. Fans hoping for a great final ...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
A surprisingly good sequel to Final Fantasy XIII 0
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the direct sequel to the hot garbage known as Final Fantasy XIII. I would have never guessed that I would have had so much fun with FFXIII-2 after my soul-draining experience with FFXIII. It is no exaggeration that Square Enix took fan feedback from the first game close to their hearts and did a thorough a 180° with this game. In fact, Square Enix made such drastic measures that they retconned the ending of FFXIII and pretty much wrote away most of the L’Cie, F...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Absolute garbage wrapped up in Final Fantasy packaging 0
Final Fantasy XIII is not a good game. The story is poorly delivered and makes little sense unless you refer to the Datalog. The characters constantly speak in non sequiturs. The first TWENTY hours is a series of hallways mixed with tutorials. Side characters are introduced, only to quickly disappear or reappear after dozens of hours. The CGI cutscenes feel out of place introducing gameplay ideas, settings and environments not found in the actual game. The item upgrade system is barely explained...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
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