38 public reviews
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Outer Wilds is a game like many others, but the way it comes together results in a game unlike any other. It's a game about space and time. It's a Groundhog Day archaeological dig gone solar system wide. And like such a dig, Outer Wilds is likely to be filled with times of stagnation and frustration just hoping that those feelings will be justified by the staggering discoveries and stupefying oddities that await.…
Since its release in 1993, id Software’s Doom has spawned many imitators. While Star Wars: Dark Forces is another one, it brings just enough more to the table to keep the genre moving forward. It would probably be overlooked if not for its use of the Star Wars license, yet it does the universe justice, telling a fun sideline story that takes plenty of intriguing turns. You are put in the shoes of Kyle Katarn, a…
Chasm is a gorgeously pixeled metroidvania that is very clearly inspired by the bona fide classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. So much so that it ends up feeling uninspired, or at the very least oblivious to the myriad of new spins and takes on the genre over the past few years. It’s a competently crafted game, but the procedurally generated horse that was bet on, seems to have been the wrong one to tow the…
Set on some distant future and dystopian Earth or Earthlike planet, with pockets of zero gravity marking the world, the Law and the Breakers fight each other for supremacy over something, or more likely because they can. There isn’t much in the way of context to what LawBreakers has to offer, which is some class warfare in a hyper paced arena. LawBreakers feels like a game stuck between worlds. It can be roughly…
Enter the Gungeon is a top down twin stick shooter, and top to bottom it’s all about guns. The enemies are bullet people wielding guns and the money is shell casings. It’s as if at a board meeting people just spewed every idea they ever heard about guns and no one told them to stop, and all those ideas made it into the game. Everything revolves around the concept of a gun dungeon. All the bosses are dumb gun puns,…
God of War is a most barbarous take on the same sort of stylish action Devil May Cry pioneered. Opening with a sensational battle against one of myth’s fascinating creatures, the Hydra, the game immediately illustrates the kind of journey it has in store. Finding strength in the brutality of its animation, grit in its acoustics, and awe in its aesthetics, it is a complete experience. From its alpha to its omega, God…
Seemingly spawned from the 90s, Synthetik both visually and through its gameplay emulates that era of PC gaming, evoking the memories of games like Crusader: No Remorse and Syndicate but modernizing them with Roguelike sensibilities. It’s a robotic shooter with a pulse and it's unrelenting in its willingness to put players on the back foot. Synthetik opens with the God of War, Zir, growing tired of watching your…
Apart from a decade ago when Castle Crashers released, the beat ‘em up genre hasn’t really been in vogue since the early 90s when games like Turtles in Time and Streets of Rage 2 were kicking around. Trying to bring it back is Full Metal Furies , a stout brawler with a silly sense of humor brought to us by the folks that brought us Rogue Legacy . With its versatile characters, variety of enemies and an intriguing…
Sea of Thieves is in many ways the dream pirate game, but just like so many dreams, just before you’re about to get to the good part, you find yourself waking up. It’s a deceptive game. It makes a strong first impression with its charm and quirks, and it certainly doesn't hurt that it’s also gorgeous to behold. It’s an inviting world. You wake up in a tavern to the tune of jolly pirate music and are sent on your way…
Celeste is a surprise. Not because it’s a good game, and it is, but because it’s sympathetic with difficult subject matter, and the nature of the game stresses its themes all the more. It’s only scratching Celeste’s surface to say it’s indie precision platforming following in the steps of Super Meat Boy, made by the folks that brought us Towerfall. It is meaty though. Madeline is tired of the status quo, of feeling…
The first person shooter made its first big jump from Doom with Quake. Turok plays a lot like id Software’s shooters, but on an impact spectrum Turok doesn’t really compete. What Turok: Dinosaur Hunter does, is showcase what kind of fun the genre is capable of bringing. Raining hell on dinos in a loose adaptation of high-concept source material. You are Turok, the time-traveling Native American dinosaur hunter of…
What Remains of Edith Finch is a more fully realized one of those “walking sims.” While Dear Esther was entirely walking, and Gone Home had some object interaction, Edith Finch makes more out of the medium, playing to its strengths switching up perspectives and varying the mechanics. The result is a “walking sim” that is undeniably a game, but not only that, better for it. The story revolves around Edith exploring…
Adventure Island is essentially a NES port of the arcade game Wonder Boy with some character changes. Instead of playing as Wonder Boy, you play as the focus faced Master Higgins. An evil witch doctor has taken Princess Tina off to some remote tropical island, but I'd like to think Master Higgins fell asleep on vacation, she wandered off and he's in a panicked frenzy scouring the island to find her. That's the goal…
In the distant future a dystopian Earth is ruled by the World Economic Consortium, a mega-conglomerate of the old world’s biggest corporations. They rule the world with an iron fist and distort the media to control the masses. You are cast into the role of the red storm trooper looking Silencer, a betrayed special operative for the Consortium. After witnessing the Consortium’s treachery firsthand you are taken in by…
SWAT 4 is not your everyday shooter. Its measured approach to violence raises questions about genre tropes as well as limitations. The gunplay is certainly competent, but the way everything coldly works against you using it, sets SWAT 4 apart from the rest of the shooter pack. Despite being the fourth entry in the SWAT series, it's only the second first person shooter after SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle made the…
Dark Cloud is a dungeon crawler in which the dungeons are rote and the crawling is repetitive. It only puts up resistance with its final boss, which would have you wrestle with the menus and camera. The neat city building, cute weapon progression and sweet moments are largely spoiled, because the core gameplay loop is a mess of mind-numbing combat through mundane environments. Setting the stage is a choreographed…
Sunset Overdrive is another in a long line of Insomniac games. The makers of Spyro and Ratchet & Clank have fully embraced their action platforming pedigree and knack for absurd arsenals with this one. It’s a bit more mature or immature depending on your perspective than much of their previous work, but it definitely bears their mark. The game begins on Horror Night, the night of the apocalypse. Beverage company,…
Nuclear Throne is a post-apocalyptic twin-stick shooter roguelike from the folks that brought us Luftrausers . In the wasteland you must seek out the Nuclear Throne. To take your seat, you must evade the I.D.P.D. and blast your way through a number of obstacles, collecting weapons and power-ups along the way. Runs end as quickly as they begin. Similar to Spelunky , the dream run might only take you ten minutes, but…
One might have thought this iteration of Doom, to be, well... Doomed from the start. Apologies for making you groan, but id Software has seemingly been in its own dark age for over a decade, and everything we knew about Doom before its release would suggest that id would remain there. It's been through several delays, rebuilt from scratch, had poor showings at events, its beta was poorly received and the critic…
The premise is simple. In the distant future, a cyborg army has set a course for Earth, and they've got ill intentions and vengeful spirit. With your Assault Suit, it is up to you to stop them. Target Earth isn't setting itself apart from the rest of the side-scrolling shooter pack with its plot, but rather its cinematic qualities that morph it into a proper space opera. There is a sense of scale to the action that…
With an introduction so slick it couldn't have been trusted to be the game's tutorial, Star Wars: Republic Commando starts off strong, but never quite harnesses the strength of its opening sequence. You get to see the short version of how a clone was created, trained and purposed in the Clone War era of the Star Wars universe. Cast into the role of Delta Squad's commander, you are the leader of the ragtag group of…
As the stinging sound of victory reverberates and color fades, I rip the arrow from the lifeless shell that was once a titan, feeling not satisfaction, but remorse. Guiltily, I absorb its soul and move on to the next titan, so I can feel the same way when I am triumphant once more. Despite its name Titan Souls is unrelated to From Software’s popular Souls series, although it is similarly challenging. At first glance…
The Talos Principle is much like other puzzle games such as Portal or last year's Antichamber, and while its puzzles may not be as clever, the story rewards the contemplative. Asking deep philosophical questions about life, death, what it means to be human and the meaning of it all can be intimidating or outright infuriating, but because answers aren't forced upon you, these questions are more provocative and…
There are sights to be seen, many self-contained stories to take part in, and how that all works together with the larger narrative is what makes it such a special experience. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a brief, but stirring adventure across a magical world. The entire story is told without dialogue, and instead uses gestures and mumbling tones to express emotion and provide a broad stroke idea of what’s…
Rage is the first game from id Software since Doom 3 was released in 2004. It’d be hard not to expect a lot out of the house that built the first-person shooter as we now know it, but does the legendary developer still got it? Doom 3 may have gotten favorable reviews, but consumer reception was more tepid. It’s been almost a decade since that release, and this one comes on their latest engine. Rage is a good…
It’s no doubt benefited by its enthusiastic emulation of the arcade classic, Defender, but Resogun is an engaging twin-stick shooter regardless. Smart additions and changes to Defender's formula make it one of the more satisfying shoot ‘em ups in recent years. Its hectic arcade gameplay is straightforward, even more so if you’ve played its inspiration. Defender was a brutal quarter guzzling game of the early…
Hand written letters, tube TVs, cassettes of grating underground garage punk playing from boom boxes, a VHS collection featuring X-Files episodes and double features such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Fugitive… Yep, it’s the 90s alright. It’s 1995. You are Katie Greenbriar and you’ve just arrived at your family’s new home with no one there to greet you after you’ve spent a year in Europe. In roughly…
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth ignores much of the ground the series has covered over the past decade, opting for a back to basics approach proving there is still merit to what Castlevania was initially. Though it takes its name after the 1989 Game Boy game, it isn’t a remake, and more of a reimagining. It tells the same story of Christopher Belmont wielding his fireball slinging whip against the forces of…
A good variety of heists that can be tackled in different ways, along with a slick presentation make the idea of more heist games exciting. As it stands though, PAYDAY 2 is mostly just a really well constructed cooperative first person shooter. That you can love it when a plan comes together is more of a bonus. Even though it can be played alone, it isn’t meant to be. The friendly A.I. is quick to revive you and can…
There is a bit of Oregon Trail here, maybe some Law of the West. This dystopian document thriller is occasionally thrilling, but almost always engaging. Lucas Pope’s Papers, Please has an intense focus we don’t often see anymore. It buds with simplicity and flowers into a perpetually tedious mess. Set in a parallel 1980s, its fictional world brings to mind the Berlin Wall, the Cold War and the Soviet Union. You are…
Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge is the sequel to Castlevania: The Adventure also on the Game Boy and shouldn’t be confused with Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, a sequel to the original NES game. Castlevania: The Adventure could have been good, but it was bogged down by a slow pace, an iffy framerate and levels that only made its issues more apparent. The game was brutally difficult too, with sparse checkpoints and…
The ancestor to Simon Belmont and like him, he must rid the world of Dracula, Christopher Belmont stars in Castlevania: The Adventure. It brings monster slaying to great music to the Game Boy, and a few too many problems tag along for the ride. Structurally this is a very similar game to the original, with a few changes. Sub-weapons are gone, and hearts now take up the more sensible job of providing health instead…
Rondo of Blood is about as fine a Castlevania game as there is. While Castlevania: Dracula X may have seemed like a pretty good game at the time, it isn’t until you actually play Rondo of Blood that you see how inferior it truly is. It is regarded as a second-rate port for good reason, being, it's inferior in just about every way. Dracula X is like a decent cover with its own little twists thrown in, but it just…
Counting Legacy of Darkness, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is the fourth 3D effort in the series. It, like its 3D predecessors, provides a basic look at what makes Castlevania, Castlevania, and builds on them in a few interesting ways. The problem is, those ways don’t make much of a difference in elevating the series' 3D to the level of its 2D. The story takes place soon after the NES classic, Castlevania III:…
Lament of Innocence has some things going for it. It’s got solid combat and a decent combo system, for instance. Some of the bosses are challenging and fun to fight. Using items in real-time is kind of cool. It’s got a lively soundtrack. The scenery is appropriately gothic. Ultimately though, Lament of Innocence is a watered down Castlevania experience that can be breezed through without much opposition. Set before…
Atlus is a brave publisher. Almost two years ago they brought Demon's Souls over to the States, where it became a cult hit of sorts. This year they've taken another big risk in bringing Catherine over. However, Catherine is almost nothing like Demon's Souls. Well, except for it's every bit as challenging. At it's core Catherine is a puzzle game. You rearrange various blocks with the intention of climbing all the way…
I have to admit, while I was excited for Bastion, I expected to be a little disappointed. I expected that the combat might grow dull and repetitive, the RPG elements wouldn't be terribly deep, the story might not be up to snuff, and the narrator would lose his charm rather quickly. To my surprise Bastion didn't seem to lack in any of those regards, or really any regard at all. You are "The Kid" and kicking the game…
Vanquish is a third-person shooter from always-making-a-new-IP developer, Platinum Games. It is set in the future where Russia and the United States are suddenly at war. The action of the game take place on a city-like space station. Players will assume the role of Sam, a wearer of bad ass future armor and Solid Snake clone. Featuring a pretty robust tutorial, Vanquish quickly teaches players the perks and limits of…
