13 public reviews
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Open-world games have a difficult and often impossible line to balance: On one hand, there's creating large, expansive sandboxes to make it look like the game will be a colossal experience, while on the other, ensuring that there are enough activities and content to keep said sandbox from feeling like one big hiking trip. Lil Gator Game forgoes that first point to make instead a delightful adventure that can be…
There's a dreadful feeling one can have when wanting to play a game but not being able to: Like a horror game that's too intense or a fighting game when on a losing streak. In the case of Back 4 Blood, it's the toss-up between having an alright time versus a frustrating and unsatisfactory play session that leaves me tenser than a freeze-dried mattress spring. Granted, a good portion of my upcoming criticisms may not…
Labelling Superliminal in a few words is a challenge because it’s not entirely a puzzle game and not wholly a guided exploration game. Both elements flow between one another without much fanfare or notification, the only signifier being a loading screen when transitioning from one chapter to the next. Despite how organic the games’ progression is, its own story partially betrays the gameplay resolved only by its…
If there's a game I've played in recent years that defines 'a fun time, but-' to the letter in my books, it'd be Paper Mario: The Origami King. It's a grand adventure that's colourful, well-written, has great set pieces, and a fantastic soundtrack… But the puzzle-combat, while clever in design and functional, ends up being the weakest component outside of boss battles. With regular battles being so frequent, you'd…
Trying to review Animal Crossing is like reviewing a local diner that's reworked part of its menu: There are some new flavours and features, but you're no stranger to the rest. If you're familiar with Animal Crossing, then you know that it's a staple in gaming for relaxing and easy-going experiences, but in this newest iteration, Nintendo has seemed to lean heavily in delivering that experience with some of its new…
A game feeling ‘good’ to play has universal definitions depending on what genre you’re talking about: Platformers should have tight, responsive controls, fighters/beat em’ ups should have weighty impacts and so on. However, these definitions get shuffled when multiple genres come together, and BPM: Bullets Per Minute (we’ll shorten that to BPM for ease) takes the unorthodox approach of putting first-person shooter…
Calling The Flower Collectors a detective mystery game is like calling cheesecake a health food; the components that make it means you’re correct but mostly on a technicality. This isn’t to say the game fails on its premise, but it feels more like a visual novel played out at a distance (pun partially intended). Sharp writing, good voice acting and an intriguing story kept me hooked to complete the game in one…
There’s a fine and often foggy line when it comes to games designed to be challenging, having to balance providing enough tools, mechanics and means for the player while also pressing them to effectively use them as the challenge climbs. La Mulana doesn’t really ride this line as it leans hard on the latter, only providing the former if you can crack the various puzzles it presents - And do so alive or without…
[Note: The multiplayer aspect hasn’t interested me nor do I have anyone to play it with, so that’s why it won’t be covered in this review.] For as much as I dislike relying on comparisons, it’s hard for 2016’s Doom (I’ll call it Doom 4 for the sake of ease) to not be stacked against Doom Eternal. It’s more of that heavy, crunching combat I enjoyed back in 2016 (which in itself is worth it at price of admission), and…
‘More is good’ was the mantra I was typically under when it came to roguelikes; more unlocks, items, characters, choices, etc leads to a better time - So long as my memory is up to snuff and doesn’t require me to frequent a wiki. It turns out the opposite is true when done well, and Monolith does it very well even though it’s a small, quick game. Runs start, proceed and finish with such good pacing that the issue…
Ever fire up a game for the first time and within the first twenty or so minutes you know it’s got its hooks sunk into you? Return of the Obra Dinn had that effect on me, and that was only elevated by going into it mostly ignorant as to what the game is. The last thing I was expecting was a game to flex the parts of my brain involving deduction, logic and reasoning; parts I haven’t used since the first Pheonix…
I had never played the original Resident Evil 2, so my expectations going into the remake were low but hopeful. With multiple modernized touch ups and quality of life enhancements, a 1:1 transition from original to remastered this ain’t, but what’s been lost from the old school has been gained with an excellent take on a well-established entry in the Resident Evil series. A welcome surprise was how Resident Evil 2…
I’ve apparently been away from the earlier generations of platformers for too long since my initial approach to Celeste was: ‘An indie platformer is getting all kinds of positive feedback? How good can a game be when you’re just pressing the jump button all the time?’ While there’ll be plenty of jumping, I had forgotten how good games like these can be when they’re designed smartly, control sharply and gives the…
