Something immediately evident with Saints Row is how heavily it draws from GTA. Specifically San Andreas when you get into the whole gang warfare for respective territory. Keeping the whole “open world crime action” in mind Saints Row still puts its own spin on things, though. Let's see how it all goes down, playa.

Looking at it strictly from a story standpoint you realize protagonist of Saints Row isn't really a defined character in the style of aforementioned GTA series. You could say it has more common with GTA3 because we're dealing with a de facto mute protagonist who is a really good listener as far as other characters are concerned, but premise itself concerns itself far more with Third Street Saints and their rise to power. So who are they? Well, city of Stillwater is torn between three established gangs and the Saints see how much this is destroying the city so their leader Julius decide to officially form a new gang using a local church as their headquarters. He and others also just so happen to come across the protagonist, save his ass and canonize him into the gang. So begin your adventures pretty much doing what all the other gangs were up to, but looking stylish wearing purple as your colors.

It's a good thing that whatever game finds lacking in protagonist backstory or even story proper to follow it more than makes up for with three story arcs you'll be tackling along the way. As you can surmise, each rival gangs gets their own as well as a handler within the Saints who you'll be interacting with to advance said story. This is where your compatriots' personality comes into play and what a job Volition has done here. It's actually impressive how natural and believable all characters come off as despite their exaggerated natures. Johnny Gat, for example, just wants to whack everyone as his go-to solution, while Lin is working undercover to deal with the Rollerz. They all make for amusing cutscenes while never losing that gangbanger edge because the Saints don't wear kid gloves. Surprisingly enough even antagonists are not portrayed as some over the top inept caricatures, but rather as legitimate threats and you can see how they achieved their status. As missions progress you also see some cutscenes from their end further fleshing their organizations out.

That's enough about the story department as it really isn't a huge focus of the game to get invested in. Each gang gets a dozen or so missions + stronghold takeovers you must undertake for the finale. Last bit I'd like to add is how having a mute protagonist lets other characters shine more through sheer virtue of needing to communicate without pointless banter. As a result it's a very lean script with pinpoint accuracy on what it wants to convey with plenty of personality to go around. None of that political correctness will be found here.

Gameplay-wise we're once again stepping into familiar GTA territory with one distinction that gets the player out there, so to speak – Respect.

Respect is a resource you generate by doing activities in the game, and you use it to begin story missions. In practical terms this means you have complete freedom to go about the game however you want because even simple things like tagging graffiti or assassinating targets grants you Respect. Don't want to hooker snatch missions because Kings blast your car to kingdom come? You don't have to. Sure, you'll miss out on the reward you get for completing all eight of snatch difficulty levels, but you're not forced into it. Saints Row gives the player a nudge and lets him go about however he wants very early on. Given this is a somewhat less than a dead serious game you can get away with shenanigans aplenty.

What can you actually do in this third-person crime shooter? Well, I think you know the answer and just want some specifics. You'll be doing the usual the fare of chasing cars, taking out targets, following people, and some more unique scenarios like using a bulldozer to push cargo into the ocean or driving fast to extract information from a Eurotrash fashion designer. All in all, fun times ahead. There are “mechanics” game doesn't bother with much like robbing stores or customizing your cars, but Saints Row has enough confidence in the player trying things on his own to dope this out. Amusing tidbit is how your entirely customizable character can only be a dude, but you do get rather extensive freedom in how he looks going beyond just body and hair as you have access to clothing, jewelry and tattoos if the price is right. These are not merely cosmetic as they affect the Respect bonus you get. Fittingly, wearing the Saints' color purple nets you a larger bonus.

As is customary, now comes my “everything that's wrong” paragraph.

Biggest problem with Saints Row is it draws heavy inspiration from, at the time, last-gen GTA titles so it's stuck in an awkward transitional period where you have actual aiming while featuring generous auto aim rather than letting the player aim. Mission design also airs on utilitarian side with comparatively few unique scenarios... and those that exist, like taking down an airplane about to take off as enemies fires RPGs at your vehicle, could've used some serious thought. Overall impression is a game that makes use of Xbox 360's technological prowess, but is at times kept in check with PS2 mentality. Not to mention inability to drive anything other than cars when your inspiration offers all modes of transport.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Heavily inspired by GTA: San Andreas, Saints Row manages to make a mark of its own despite very light offering in almost all things. In effect, you could say this third-person shooter set against a backdrop of urban gang warfare was a testing ground for more to come. What's included, however, is a competent game encouraging the player to go out, do whatever he wants to earn Respect and spend it on progressing through all of three main story lines. Betrayals and shootouts aplenty when rival gangs show up on your turf and cut in on your daily income. Build-your-own protagonist is sadly almost a mute non-entity in the story, but that just makes everyone else have WAY more personality in return and makes his very few lines all the funnier. Playa needs that green for his threads and bling.

I briefly talked about Assassin's Creed Unity over three years ago and how I was in the middle of playing through it. Well, that took a while to finish with multiple false starts. I'm finally here. Beat the game at long last and amusingly enough a lot of my initial thoughts turned out to be spot-on and opinion on the game steadily sinking.

Continuing to move our setting of choice forward with each game we step into the French Revolution and, if you played Rogue and saw the setup ahead of time, into the shoes of one Arno Dorian during childhood. Here he witnesses his father get killed, meets a tomboy girl destined to become a love interest and get adopted by her father. We fast forward to adulthood where Arno is revealed to be a rogue type of a character not interested in much beyond dalliances and Elise's attention. Alas, tragedy strikes again and his foster father is killed as well revealing the eternal Templars vs Assassins war to Arno as well as both of his fathers' respective ties to their camps. There's more to it, but because of his moment of laziness Arno blames himself for what happened as does Elise leading to their estrangement and our protagonist finding himself involved with the Assassins. Completing a kind of boot camp he sets out to avenge his foster father, clear his name and win back Elise. Order of these priorities shifts depending on how the game feels.

It doesn't take long to hit my first snag with Unity – entire narrative department is just so incredibly weak. From story that's essentially five hours long when you tally it and take out all the optional stuff, to storytelling and pacing that seemingly pull you between events and historical characters with little rhyme or reason, and finally Arno himself. His problem specifically is that he's supposed to be the fleshed out, likable character along the lines of Ezio who is simply never given enough room to breathe and becomes merely a vehicle for the plot to drag along more than a person in his own right. I find it hard to put into words how little I cared for the less than basic premise and execution. Romance subplot does not escape this either, and I have a feeling Unity had a checklist of points I was supposed to accept simply because they're expected to be included.

In almost morbid fashion to balance out the above you have what is possibly the best realized setting in the franchise so far, and finally return to urban locale. Yes, singular because you'll never really get out of Paris in any meaningful fashion... which isn't bad when you take into account Ubisoft truly did the legwork to realize a 18-19th century city. Dense urban zones are perfect for parkour playing up to series' strengths and customary Database returns with all the historical information you could ask for on top of some snarky commentary. Timeline is a bit wonky if you're unfamiliar with events proper, but that's why you can read up and go sightseeing historic sights. I can't do much shower praise here and it truly is a major selling point for Unity with even attention paid to newspapers and pamphlets you can read for added immersion.

Time to get into systems and gameplay because that's where Unity stands out if not necessarily shine. What we have here is both trimming down on “character becomes a walking armory” of Assassin's Creed of yore, and culmination of the familiar formula only upset by couple of major additions I'm divided on personally. Removal of endless counter-kills and general slowing down of combat pacing were things I liked overall, for example. I don't think this really affects the difficulty per-se, but rather it's a design choice I prefer.

There are two major additions, or at least changes, that bear putting a spotlight on – changes to parkour and gear system itself.

I realize former has garnered a somewhat controversial reputation online, but I love how fluid movement became simply by separating UP and DOWN directions. This means by simply altering which button you're pressing Arno navigates across obstacles in ascending or descending manner. Once you master this, as well as distance between objects with functional climb points, you realize what a step forward for the franchise it is. No longer do you have to slowly scale down or drop like a sack of bricks from a building, for example. Add to this the inclusion of more interiors letting you cut through buildings, objects to glide under/over, etc... well, freedom of movement has never been this liberating before.

Sadly, gearing changes were not exactly up my alley. What used to be “buy new gear/weapons as they become available to maximize your health/armor/damage” has now become a convoluted mess without clear direction when in terms of progression. This isn't only the case of having to choose between form and function, but also how difficult it becomes to regular a system like this in Assassin's Creed. There's really nothing preventing you from grinding money and buying the best Legendary gear as soon as you can. Unless it's locked behind co-op missions, or Murder mysteries, or some other form of arbitrary lock-out system. Fortunately, Unity is such an easy game you can wing it and there's too much imaginary finagling with stats or choosing your play style that doesn't matter at all. Maybe for co-op multiplayer, but ironically playing that solo was the most engaging content in the game precisely because you can't just wade through everyone with ease.

To those familiar with the series it's still your familiar setup of reaching high-up synchronization points, revealing collectibles along the way, and gradually completing those “!” marks as game is dead set on drowning you in optional content. In fact, having completed both base game and DLC, as well as about half of chests/cockades/etc, I stood at only 54% completion. Upon realization that a convention was broken and Ubisoft wanted you to buy district maps, as well as other “conveniences” for Helix currency if you wanted EVERYTHING revealed I called it a day as far as completion went. This insidious practice of trying to get your money also creeps into a very integral part of the game with equipment. It's unwarranted because you should be swimming in both currencies you need for purchases and upgrades through normal play, but that option shouldn't have been there to begin with.

Since I brought it up I might as well talk about the only worthwhile DLC game received in the form of Dead Kings as you go to Franciade. Set after the main story and involving a rather trite premise of disillusioned Arno trying to leave France it presents a far manageable playing area with an underground level. Franciade manages to hammer home just how bloated Paris is and dotted with all kinds of distractions. Here you go grave delving for an esoteric artifact, get a new weapon type that functions both as melee and ranged weapon combined and, provided you enjoyed those exquisite Enigmas that have you tracking down runes with only descriptions to go by on, getting your hands on the best weapon in the entire game. You have no reason to skip Dead Kings provided base game hasn't put you off.

What to say in conclusion? Production values are impressive on their own, until you witness just how often Unity buckles under the weight of gliches and performance issues. Multiplayer? It's there, but jumping through hoops is required and you're clearly meant to play with friends. I liked the inclusion of new forms of content like Enigmas and Murder mysteries that did not involve killing everything in sight to progress. I don't know how Syndicate turned out, but couple of highlights barely edged Unity into an average title that came close to sinking for me.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

At the time a next-gen title, Assassin's Creed Unity is a troubled one. Trimming back and refining the formula ends up hampered by ever-expanding bloat elsewhere and textbook design. Arno's revenge story doesn't do much beyond providing a vehicle for the ongoing faction war during the French Revolution where setting is far more interesting than any narrative or characters themselves. It's in the expanded parkour system and well-realized Paris where the game shines the brightest... if only to be balanced out by darker aspects of the ungainly gearing system, underlying monetization and now familiar glitches. End result is sadly an average title I'll probably remember more for its size than anything meaningful even if I did like a variety of non-combat content and pacing of combat itself taking a step back.

In unembellished fashion I'd say Celestian Tales: Old North is essentially Game of Thrones meets JRPG. A lot of the former lies in the game's themes and mood. The other half will be more than familiar to any genre fan, though.

Before I briefly discuss the story bits, as I'm usually want to, there is an interesting twist – you get to choose which of the six characters is the primary one. This results in a unique prologue, as bulk of the game is shared, which may be familiar to Dragon Age: Origins players, alongside some self-contained choices throughout as well as the epilogue. In theory this means you should play the game six times to see absolutely everything. In practice you should decide whether it's worth doing so for ~15 minutes of content a pop. I don't know how it panned out, but supposedly these decisions you make should leave a mark in the sequel, though.

We step into the shoes of an ensemble cast comprised of noble youths who travel to city of Levantine in order to pledge their service to lord Alain as his squires in hope of becoming full-fledged knights one day. Befitting customary RPG protagonists the realm is in peril with Enders, warrior people from the north, returning to wreak havoc. Fortunately, there are highly competent generals and bearers of Sacred Swords who will rise to do service to their noble Houses, but that doesn't mean our squires are short of work, much to their frustrations. And yet there are plots brewing as nobles scheme against nobles with commoners caught in the crossfire.

What sets Old North apart is the exhaustive effort that went into expanding the world via all the background info. Only “problem” is most of it is contained under Lore entries when I wish writers found a way to inject into the script more organically. Mind you, this isn't another instance of Final Fantasy 13 where you needed to make up for shoddy storytelling, but rather it feels like a waste when there's so much backstory concerning noble Houses, forbidden magic itself and support cast you'll only get the barest of essentials through obligatory conversations. Like I mentioned in the opening there's a strong Game of Thrones vibe going on and game simply lacks the capacity to explore all of it.

I promise, this will be the last fluff segment and it's appropriate I make it about the characters since our crew is the only constant in the game. Considering you have everyone from a bigoted religious zealot to a sheltered half-elf unfamiliar with human ways you can expect varied reactions based on all the scenarios party find itself in. These characters are not exactly even in their motivations or developments throughout the story, however. Even if you have no interest in replaying the entire game I'd still say check out their prologue at least as it's critical for at least one character.

And now onto everything else. Game stuff which will largely be familiar to JRPG aficionados.

I know from experience this is a deal breaker for some people so I'll say it up-front – no random encounters in Old North. Sadly, there's also no way to be (dis)advantaged when engaging them either as game doesn't account for taking enemies by surprise or vice versa. Still, ability to outrun enemy sprite representations without hassle can only be a good thing. Combat itself? Very straightforward turn-based affair with action order indicator and without need to go extensive menu delving for basic actions. Departing from usual MP-based tradition we have Stamina powering up all your special skills. Capped at eight and gained by attacking, defending or consuming curatives, Stamina leads to this particular ebb and flow where being conservative rarely pays off. In fact, considering the game fully restores your health after each encounter it's implicitly encouraged to go all-out whenever possible with one imperative – you really don't want anyone dying on your team because you'll get a Wounded debuff which can only be removed by going to a church or spending an expensive Bright Red Crystal. This, however, is a non-issue because...

Difficulty is a joke. I can't decide whether that's due to developer under-tuning, giving player the freedom to grind whenever they want, while implementing a universal party level so everyone's always on the same level, or simply because you have six characters to work with so you can tackle any situation even if you can only have three in a party. It's really easy to set yourself a HEALER + TANK + DAMAGE without much thought and breeze through the entire thing down to the final boss. Confusing part is Old North truly does give some freedom to character customization even if they never break the role they're supposed to fill. You're meant to pick and choose from an array of abilities/passives acquired through leveling, as you can only have four/two respectively at any time, but I went with what was flavor-appropriate and was never lead astray. Same with equipment you'll find most of locked away in chests, leaving procuring the ingredients to UPGRADE weapons the only real investment on your end which boils down to fighting the right enemy. No 0.1% drop rates here, no sir.

It's only appropriate I talk about the Howl of the Ravager since this DLC is almost the length of the base game and in some aspects outshines it. Narratively we're dealing with a prequel story featuring Severin who was barely in the original as idolized, stern general and see more of his relationship with Alain in their younger days. If you've played as a certain half-elf you already know the outcome as DLC introduces your two other party members, though. As a returning crisis unfolds getting humans and elves to join hands we discover brand new information about the Sacred Swords and their true nature in turn framing the original game's finale in a different light. In gameplay terms HotR answers some of the problems I had. You have only three characters total and, albeit once again perfectly filling archetypal roles, you'll spend an extended time without a healer so there's at least an illusion of danger. Good news is there's now ONE challenging fight in the form of a final boss. Remember I talked about how long this DLC is? Well, that's probably because it throws not one, but two mazes at you and expects backtracking. I was just about done when I realized I had to re-visit that damn forest in the penultimate act. Solid DLC delivering largely more of the same with minor tweaks, like loss of weapon upgrading as you're wielding legendary weapons passed on through history.

Lastly we have production matters. Old North was crowdfunded and you see it best in how scaled back the grandness of the presentation is versus the scope of the conflict they're going for as the entire realm mobilizes for war. Fortunately, this is where beautiful watercolor aesthetic pulls all the weight. World map, and by simply having one game already goes against modern JRPG grain, particularly shows it off nicely while avoiding some perspective shenanigans actual areas suffer here and there. Tiles sometimes don't snap together perfectly and couple of times art assets made me think a ramp wasn't traversable. Nothing major, though. Soundtrack has comparatively few tracks you might expect from the usual genre fare where musical offerings span multiple disks and whatnot, but developers made good mileage with what they have. Fittingly, opening movie and final boss tracks steal the show in setting the note if bombastic was the goal.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Crowdfunded, turn-based JRPG drawing more inspiration from the likes of Game of Thrones than your usual kitchen sink fantasy, Celestian Tales: Old North is a solid offering. If there are two issues I'd raise they'd be as such; game could've benefited from a difficulty choice as it's way too easy, and choosing one of the six characters as your main one doesn't change much beyond the opening/ending bits and some self-contained choices there for flavor. Latter is excusable given the scope developers had to work with. I also wish this genuinely fleshed out setting had more room to breathe, but end result is a gorgeous watercolor-looking game you can nonetheless finish in under five-six hours. Replaying to see those minute differences that promise to matter in the sequel is always an option, though.

I would hesitate to call Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate a spin-off in that conventional sense since it's a sequel to Origins, albeit one originally intended to be a handheld experience. Both of these developmental aspects bring their own issues to the table, but that does make the game itself bad?

Set merely three months after events in Origins we have a more low key story with a riot breaking out in Blackgate prison which gets Batman's attention only for him to run into Catwoman for the first time. It ends up as predictably as you can imagine considering her character, but it does result in an interesting dynamic where SHE is your go-to radio handler. I was disappointed to see it's once again the usual rogues' gallery; Joker, Penguin and Black Mask. In hindsight that shouldn't be a surprise since Blackgate is riding the coattails of an existing game for that familiarity.

To stay on the topic there isn't much concerning characters here that you won't see coming nor is there a genuine narrative surprise. I think structural decision may have lead to this because game technically lets you choose the villain dispatch order and who you bring in last actually matters, though. Blackgate also bears the burden of being a Suicide Squad tie-in of all things which may have also affected the character roster you engage in fisticuffs with.

In short, it's a safe and predictable Batman story. If you've played Arkham games up to this point you already know what to except. Only blander.

And now I'm now over and done with what you could construe as a matter of preference. Gameplay is more clear cut if you ask me – adapting the Arkham formula into a 2.5D portable Metroidvania is impressive. On handheld where it was originally released. Keep in mind I'm playing and discussing a touched up version made for PC and consoles. Impressions are less impressive in that particular arena.

Two chief frustrations I have with Blackgate both derive from trying to fit already existing formula into different packaging. Take combat, for example. You still have your reliable “counter telegraphed attacks and specialty enemies”, but at the same time combat as such is simplified and scale back to a point it actively distracted me from everything else. Gadgets are now strictly relegated to environmental navigation/puzzle solving and that's where movements takes the hit as we've lost that full 3D control. I have a soft spot for 2.5D games as long as developers execute it in such a manner where it doesn't interfere with the act of PLAYING the game. You tell me if limited movement and camera perspective go along with free-form combat and level navigation. This sometimes results in finagling to get around to higher priority enemies you want to deal with first and overt reliance on in-game map just so you don't get bamboozled by shifting perspectives or context sensitive interactions. That burning corridor in the background doesn't immediately scream “way forward” to me.

Amusingly enough and in stark contrast to other Arkham games I ended up almost not using Detective Vision at all. Why? Because there's a more focused alternative existing alongside which lets you scan objects, usually mandatory if you want to progress so said objects will become functional to Batman. This ended up being more of an annoyance than I expected since you figure things out, but need to jump through hoops first so the game knows YOU know.

Given this is a Metroidvania going back and re-visiting locations is a given with more unlocking as you acquire new gadgets. Entire affair is strictly level-based so no open world to mess around in. I grew steadily annoyed with how progress was arbitrarily locked in the most generic way imaginable with color-coded clearance access cards. Combined with case clues collectibles, if you really want artwork pieces, and lack of easy travel around Blackgate it became a chore to track down all those ?s popping up on my map... only to realize I can't even get all the suits, which are the main draw. Yeah sure, there are various upgrades to find, but game does this thing where depending which of the three villains you tackle last determines the final piece of three possible suits. In essence, you're left with blue balls in two cases and game requires additional playthroughs for completion. I'll pass, thanks.

So that's pretty negative, right? What about production and all that stuff? It's more of the same. Blackgate was undoubtedly an impressive game on 3DS and PS Vita, but even with upgrades it must've underwent for home console/PC re-release those roots still show through. I'm talking character models with rudimentary or lack of animations, blatantly bad textures in places you weren't intended to see with fixed camera angles and animated comic bits oddly clashing stylistically with actual game assets. All of those are technical issues in a game that nails the aesthetic of its bigger brother just right, minus the Christmas vibes.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate fits into the role of a sidestep that ends up relying too much on the earlier game for inspiration. You could almost say it's a competent game where most of the attention didn't go to Batman's adventure in Blackgate tackling the usual rogues' gallery, but rather adapting the existing Arkham formula for 2.5D Metroidvania format. Story along the lines of what you'd expect, combat surprisingly taking a backseat to even greater focus on level exploration with acquired gadgets, and incessant reliance on manually inspecting objects as if game lacks any confidence in player figuring it out. This is one of those short packages, with intended replay value provided you want to get everything, where Batman holds greater appeal than genre itself.

Putting aside my brief excursion into the Gagharv games with the maligned PSP remakes I've finally decided to check out the Legend of Heroes series in earnestness, and I can say Trails in the Sky did not disappoint. Will it appeal to everyone? Well, I'd say genre fans would be predisposed toward liking it, but even then there are matters to discuss here.

Game opens to a man bringing home a child he's come upon during his adventures much to his daughter's irritation. Man is Cassius Bright, a famous Bracer living in Rolent, and boy Joshua becomes his adopted son dealing with his sister Estelle's friendly shenanigan as two are polar opposites. Story skips forward five years as they're finalizing their own Bracer training just as Cassius seemingly gets caught up in an airliner disappearance. Knowing their father is beyond competent Joshua and Estelle decide to go along with their original plan – get all the recommendations from each of Liberl Kingdom's regions so they can graduate from Junior ranks and become full fledged Bracers in their own right. Thus the adventure begins set against the backdrop of a kingdom in turmoil that's about to celebrate the Queen's 60th birthday.

For a largely story-heavy genre it's refreshing the way Trails in the Sky keeps said story close to its chest. Don't misunderstand because each chapter does have its own arc dealing with new characters and local problems, but it also masterfully weaves in parts of the overall narrative and bits that [seemingly] go beyond this game as well. I can hardly remember many JRPGs where world itself plays such a major role in how it gets fleshed out or how it integrates setting defining elements into every aspect of the world. For example, Orbal Revolution began 50 years earlier and changed how technology works. Player gets to see this as Orbments with all of their technical explanations and real life applications now permeate Liberl. Makes you wonder what other kingdoms are like since they're apparently lagging behind with this new technology making it Liberl's sole edge in their post-war state.

There's one usually overlooked feature in most games – NPCs. I cannot even begin to fathom how extensive game script has to be when almost every single common NPC, almost all of whom are named, comments on unfolding events and even has their own little story going on. This is certainly where point-of-no-return chapter structure helps, I imagine. Sometimes they even have little exchanges with our protagonists, you come across them at a different location later on, discover more about their jobs/life through posted Requests, etc. Phenomenal addition you can entirely ignore and never talk to them, but I'd argue this is the main meat of the game that manages to flesh out the world of Trails in the Sky more than anything else and give the game some identity.

And lastly, leaning onto the above, there are the characters and make no mistake because they're what Trails in the Sky lives or dies by. I haven't mentioned it yet, but game is a slow burn that might put off some people. If you ask me that's almost a necessity to develop characters when so much rides on their shoulders. Estelle and Joshua with their sibling dynamic, comedic relief characters who obviously hide more under the surface, other Bracers on missions you come across who aren't necessarily the nicest of people, etc. If there's one thing I'd slight the game for it would be being too obvious with rubbing the mystery in your face at times. Or was it foreshadowing flying right over my head? Honestly, I was just surprised by how intelligent characters are at putting things together quickly and accurately.

As far as the mechanics and systems go Trails in the Sky is my kind of turn-based JRPG – with transparent combat turns and visible enemies so you can avoid them.

Joshua and Estelle travel from region to region in linear fashion and getting Recommendations from each branch of the Bracers Guilde requires doing Requests. Seeing Bracers are a non-military organization this can be anything from keeping the roads clear from extraordinary monster specimens to helping someone recover their lost pocket watch. Completing these tasks is how you get paid in Mira and earn BP which determines your rank. I was never really starved for money because you can explore some optional areas in every region which lets you net some stuff you'd have to buy otherwise. There is no overworld to speak of as towns are connected by roads where monsters roam and you traverse across as combat zones in their own right. Particular design choice that might annoy some people is Trails in the Sky doesn't really let you customize your party roster until the final chapter and is content to just have our dynamic duo as party fixture with remaining two slots getting filled in by guest characters when story deems it necessary. Oh, you can also cook food as means of recovery/boosting from ingredients you procure as loot or buy.

I mentioned Orbments already, right? Well, unlocking slots with elemental Sepith you gain from combat, and slotting in some quartz is what lets your characters use magic aka Arts. Each character has their own limitations and inherent preferences with these slots, however. There's this entire interplay between slotted quartz and how they interact with lines multiplying their effects and enabling you to cast more advanced Arts. Game doesn't really have an organic way of teaching you this so you're stuck with looking at in-game instruction listing which combinations result in what. On Normal difficulty you can get away with your typical “get some healing, get some damage and minor buffs” to carry you through. On top of that there are character-defining Crafts and ultimate S-Crafts. These are essentially the determining factor for which characters you want in your party and range from AoE attacks, self-heals, debuffs, etc with their associated CP cost you recover through dealing damage and getting damaged. Don't sit on these.

When you boil it down to essentials combat is exactly what you'd expect to find in a turn-based JRPG. There are inclusions I personally like, such as visible turn meter where everyone's action order is visible so you can plan around it, and there's battlefield movement to account for. Not that it really matters beyond getting out of enemy's AoE attacks... which I did all of five times, probably. Attacks come in single, area and line variety which makes formations on both sides meaningful to a degree. Since I played on Normal I can only attest to that level of challenge which is alright. Probably airing on the easy side. Since the game is so finely tuned due to regulating who's in your party at all times it's appropriate only the final dungeon was somewhat tricky. One boss fight you're not supposed to win, but can, notwithstanding. That was pretty much the only fight in the entire game that got me re-thinking my setup.

Looking at Trails in the Sky as a whole I really liked it. Maybe because it really isn't a MODERN title considering original release puts it at 2004 and game wears its sensibilities on a sleeve. Addition of turbo mode is much appreciated and probably shaved off couple of hours for me. Production-wise we are talking about a game that's almost 20 years old at this point, but that's not a problem on its own. 3D levels are on the blocky side and pre-rendered sprites took a while to get used to which made me laugh because that look is back in style looking at some modern titles. Soundtrack? Great if somewhat on the limited side with re-use of emotional tracks, but location-based ones are upbeat. Combat theme was the only one that sounded perhaps a bit too... jazz casual?

Final Thoughts and Rating?

A slow burning JRPG featuring dynamic adventures of siblings Joshua and Estelle as they strive to become full-fledged Bracers, Trails in the Sky wears many narrative hats and somehow does it all successfully. From a coming of age story, extensive world building and underlying political struggles there's a lot here. Mechanically we're looking at a turn-based affair as our duo travels across the kingdom of Liberl and handles guild work via Requests handling shorter story arcs. Some might dislike the way game regulates its structure by cutting off previous chapters or determining who's in your party at any point in time, but I'd say all of that is worth it to experience a world where every NPC is named and has their own comment. That ending! Makes me want to rush to SC, but I'll give FC some time breathe.

Compared to World of Darkness' better known vampire counterpart, Werewolf: the Apocalypse has flown under the radar as far as video games go. Now finally Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood gets to take center stage. There's a matter of tempering expectations first as Eartblood is not an RPG some were lead to believe, but rather action meets stealth. Was it worth the wait, though?

It doesn't take long for disaster to strike our protagonist Cahal of the Fianna tribe as he loses his wife in a raid on an evil corporation called Endron. This results in him abandoning his own pack as well as his daughter, and going on a five year self-imposed exile after losing himself to Rage. Until he hears they, now operating with human activists, continued to fight the good fight and his daughter Aedana had stepped into her mother's former role – being an inside woman. Looking to redeem himself Cahal returns and if there's a chance he gets to avenge his wife all the better for it.

In this setting werewolves, or Garou, fight to save the world at the behest of its very own spiritual representation called Gaia. This “saving” takes place in many shapes, but is primarily characterized by maintaining the balance between material and spiritual realms. In modern times this tends to effectively mean becoming eco-terrorists who fight polluting corporations, literally or otherwise seeing as everything has a spiritual equivalent in the realm of Umbra, acting under the auspice of less well-meaning spirits. These entities seek to unbalance the status quo for their own benefit all the while Garou serve as Gaia's warriors combating such incursions.

There's a metric TON of lore to all of this and I've given you the cliff notes version which is more than Earthblood does because it aims to keep your focus grounded. This can be somewhat jarring as you get to interact with your pack's spiritual Totem spirit, for example, but still.

What struck me as strange is just how minimal the experience you're getting here is. For example, Cahal's tribe? Game will barely even mention that unless you read the notes scattered about. That's not even getting into his character. He's a gruff and almost stoic type which seems to be at odds with Fianna image of warrior poets or loud braggarts, depending on who's answering. Characters themselves never really get much attention and it's fortunate that goes hand-in-hand with a likewise simple approach to story game has. There's two pillars to it: avenging those you cherish and saving the planet. It just so happens that, be it your hacker Kinfolk or Silver Talon pack leader, everyone can conveniently direct their anger at Endron. I did like how there were some attempts to ambiguity later on, but it's portrayed in such obvious manner you can immediately figure out something is wrong. Only people who may be fooled in this instance, ironically, are fans of the property who know about a certain anti-human tribe's ways.

Enough waffling about the story bits because it's time to get into gameplay. This is where I got blindsided by how the game approaches action and stealth so they work perfectly together. You have three forms to work with, after all.

Stealth in a game driven entirely by turning into Crinos aka hulking wolfman destroyer form dedicated to combat alone, which comes with its own Agile and Heavy stances, is tempered by the presence of Lupus form where you assume the shape of a regular wolf. Now that I think about it Cahal's human form is mainly there to press switches and talk to scant few other characters, it's the action and stealth ones pulling most of the weight. So how does an action game manage to integrate stealth without it feeling tacked on? Simple – by making stealth entirely optional, but beneficial to engage in all the while keeping the doors ajar enough so stealth can always escalate into action. I had a good laugh when the only mission where Cahal is seemingly set for a stealthy approach can just be hacked and slashed through leaving your contact wondering what you're going to do now. Protagonist answers he'll think of something.

I wish Earthblood had more there to work with. For me it boiled down to “stealth became too cumbersome, combat became too annoying” as game kept throwing more obtuse level layouts and enemy compositions at you. Probably not helped by the fact you're largely confined to corridors with plenty of chest high walls to hide behind, cameras to avoid and fuse boxes to sabotage incoming reinforcements with. Reasoning behind why you would want to do SOME stealth has less to do with thinning out enemy ranks, as they'll send waves of reinforcements, and more with building up your Rage which lets you use special abilities. You can also generate it in combat, but why not prepare beforehand? Cahal can also use a crossbow to deal out damage and flasks to increase Rage, but I honestly never found much use for either. On normal difficulty cameras were never an issue because combat isn't really an issue to begin with. Sure, some enemies are trickier as silver damage can limit your max health until you upgrade your skills a bit, but nothing you can't work around with some dodges or target prioritization. I also wish an action game like this had more worthwhile bosses instead of couple I actually remember.

Skills? Yes, I've saved the best or worst for last. Further enforcing the whole “play it your way” is the way in which progression via Spirit points isn't at all tied to how you play. You get some from mission completion, but 90% comes from tracking down vagrant spirits scattered throughout levels. This means regular backtracking throughout the level to find the ones you've missed with your Batman, errr, Umbra vision and Lupus form's detection upgrade should be the first one you buy. These points can then be spent on Tactical or Combat skills. Just keep something in mind – Earthblood doesn't feature level selection. Make sure you get them Spirits as you need them if you want to get ALL the skills by end game.

In conclusion I can say game had me hooked enough to not only collect all the Spirits along the way, but also to replay the final mission to see both endings. Amusingly enough side missions ended up being the most frustrating aspect of a game that teaches you to rely on Umbra vision only to expect you can locate things without reliance on it. As far as soundtrack goes I cannot remember much, but sound effects were crunchy enough even with general lack of gore. I'd say they nailed the overall feeling of Werewolf: the Apocalypse down to how the game ends.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Werewolf: the Apocalypse – Earthblood manages to marry action and stealth in a manner where neither is slighted, but action is the real deal here. Werewolf Cahal returns to his Pack after five years of exile following a disastrous mission only to see they've gotten in deeper fighting an evil corporation out to endanger the world. Get ready to hunt for spirits throughout levels with magical vision in order to upgrade your skills, skulk around as a wolf and cause havoc in werewolf form once the alarm starts blaring. Story is there with all its “save the planet” glory, but it's the freedom to play your way that sold Earthblood to me. Even if you'll mostly fight similar enemies for a while and monotonous warehouses and office locales. Good pinky dip for the franchise and here's hoping for more.

Straight out of EA's spice mines of mobile gaming comes something unlikely, but welcome – a solid game. That's precisely what STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order turned out to be as far as I'm concerned. By checking all the right boxes while keeping the experience familiar enough, and then applying the Star Wars license on top of it. Playing safe also means coming across issues that should have been fixed since with iterations, though.

We step into the shoes of Cal Kestis as he's trying to make a living scavenging scrap on planet Bracca. Doesn't take long for the game to establish it's set sometime after Order 66 was executed and it takes even less for Cal to expose that he is, in fact, Force sensitive in the process of saving his friend from certain death. Suddenly, Imperial Inquisitors are all over the place hunting down Jedi in hiding and through happenstance our young protagonist gets rescued by a rundown pair looking to restore the Jedi order. Greez and Cere also happen to have a ship capable of getting Cal off-planet so it doesn't take long to convince a man with endangered life and, you know, possibly being the last hope to restore Jedi, the guardians of the Galaxy.

Easily the most confounding aspect of Fallen Order's narrative segment is just how middling it is. I wouldn't call it low stakes or bad, you are after all chasing after a MacGuffin that could decide the future of an entire upcoming generation of the Jedi while the Empire is looking to snuff them out, but the manner in which it is presented to the player and how you interact with it is very sub-par. Entire game essentially boils down to planet hopping as you're gathering clues on how to access the final part. Narratively this means trouble because game gives you a degree of freedom in which order you want to tackle these planets, but as I'll get into later on gameplay limitations prevent you from truly having your way with them. If there's an ominous feeling I had to put into words it would be there's quite a bit missing from Fallen Order, primarily based on how piecemeal story bits feel with threads connecting them. Story comes together albeit in very weak fashion as game gives you only the barest of essentials.

Which is where characters would pick up the slack, right? Well, they kinda do. There are revelations and turning the tables on how you imagine things playing out, but the surprising part is flashbacks and somber moments between characters are standouts here. Greez and Cere are both more than just meets the eye, with one getting to spill the beans of her backstory, but Cal is the one who gets the most attention. In present day he's a surprisingly level-headed individual out to help people despite what happened to him in youth that scarred him for life and lead to life in hiding. I really liked him as a character, but I also wish he had more interactions with other people. Even as primary antagonist sheds her mask and they have a heart-to-heart it never goes beyond surface depth you'd expect from Sith vs Jedi. Hell, there are even hints of awkward romance from a last second party addition. In a way Cal is just a vehicle to carry out the search for the holocron and at times this becomes Cere's story as she tackles her own history and issues.

So what are we looking at in terms of structure and gameplay itself? I have limited experience with Souls games, but this is a take on that formula with deadly combat, mediation points to heal/upgrade/respawn enemies as well as level design laid out so you unlock shortcuts along the way. There is the addition of platforming bits in so it's not just combat all the way, but I would say this is also where dubious inclusion of metroidvania principles rears its ugly head. Why? Because you're never supposed to explore areas entirely upon gaining access as Fallen Order expects you to go back with expanded repertoire of what Cal can do. I'm talking about getting a double jump, ability to scale up walls, underwater breather, etc to traverse through levels as you handy diegetic map points out routes as yet unexplored. It won't remember chests you came across, but were unable to open at the moment.

Fine and dandy if somewhat annoying to me personally had it not been for a design decision to extend this to combat as well, though. This translates to being gimped early on until you get enough experience points to invest into basic things like heavy attack or such. Not a big deal as that's expected of character progression these days, but what I didn't like is how major milestones such as new Force powers or additional combat styles are hard locked behind story progression. When you add to this your trusty BD-1's own upgrades unlocking in the same manner you are quite clearly encouraged to rush to the finale, back off and then re-tread the entire game to locate all the [unmarked] chests and secrets. With so very few planets to visit, and re-visit multiple times as story dictates, I found my motivation sapped. Experience isn't really a problem since enemies re-spawn and you'll have more than plenty from just organically playing through the game.

Might as well talk about combat since we're on topic. In a way it's amazing to me how Jedi Outcast/Academy got lightsaber combat so perfectly right over twenty years ago. Needless to say Fallen Order does not come close since it's just a Star Wars skin job where lightsaber feels like a glowstick. Still, that's not to say what we have is bad. Expect low-scale encounters usually with couple of enemies or strong individuals/weak groups until the game flips the tables on you in the finale and starts throwing encounters comprised of the deadliest enemies Empire has to offer. It felt like a jarring, but welcome switch Cal is perfectly able to deal with at end game. Once you actually finish the game you unlock a challenge mode where you get really out there fights AND ability to create your own for maximum challenge. If there is a strength here it would be genuine enemy variety at hand where each planet brings everything it has. This means you'll fight your Stormtrooper varieties, giant spiders and undead Nightsisters with everything in-between.

Lastly, before I touch upon production values, there remains a matter of customization. It is the primary reason for you to scour across planets looking after chests for BD-1 to unlock and despite allowing extensively customization of the lightsaber hilt, outfit and your ship, I couldn't help but see it as tertiary at best. Character customization is limited to poncho and coverall patterns while with the lightsaber only the color of the blade really matters. Such an odd choice to put so much emphasis on the hilt you only get to see in handful of intense cutscenes. If there's a positive here it's that you're not FORCED to look out for chests to gain a gameplay advantage... until you realize secret golden ones will expand your healing canister capacity.

What to add about the presentation? It's amazing and you can tell both the budget and license were put to incredible use. Everything sounds right and composers did their utmost in recreating what an iconic Star Wars soundtrack should be. Also, The Hu are apparently canonical part of Star Wars now. Likeness of real people were unnecessary when working with a fantastical setting and just drew me out of the experience, though.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order is a perfectly solid blend of action adventure, meets Souls, meets metroidvania that perhaps has to wear one hat too many and loses some of its identity in the process, but license and outstanding production values arguably manage to deliver. Young Cal Kestis is dragged from his life of hiding and tasked with recovering the holocron that may well decide the future of the Jedi Order as post-Order 66 Empire's Inquisitors are constantly at his back. This premise is somewhat betrayed by dull moment-to-moment story that could've benefited from more fleshing out to eliminate some of disjointedness. Revisiting planets with new abilities, coming across familiar characters and trying lightsaber combat got me investing some 18 hours into Fallen Order with no regrets.

Something should be made clear before I share my opinion on Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade. I played the original game almost 25 years ago when it was new and like it very much. However, I do not see it as some sacred cow that is beyond reproach. This continues to inform my opinion on the remake as well as its problems, structural and narrative alike.

In case you're unfamiliar with what's going on and haven't gotten some of it through sheer osmosis over the years, something that's going to become a point of criticism I have for FF7R later on, story is as follows. There's this stuff called Mako energy that Shinra Electric Power Company has used to advance the world akin to something of a technological revolution. Stuff comes from the planet itself and is poorly understood beyond the fact it can be used for practically anything. Being a greedy mega-corporation Shinra cares for little beyond exploitation going so far as to have their own city of Midgar, capital of Mako. Game itself opens to an opposing group called Avalanche executing their operation to blow up one of Midgar's Mako reactors in order to thwart Shinra. We step into the shoes of a mercenary called Cloud Strife and company making the daring terrorist raid. Events quickly spiral out of control.

Here we have the very first mistake – mishandling of the story itself. Game should've really been subtitled Re-imagining rather than outright Remake. This doesn't come from a purist, mind you. That's not my hang-up here. Rather, FF7R is in limbo so far as for WHOM it was made as it almost expects from you to already be familiar with the PS1 original. If you are a fan you'll just be annoyed by cliff notes storytelling still expecting the same emotional payoff. FF7R doesn't cover the entirety of FF7, but rather only the Midgar section which got stretched beyond belief to get as much mileage out of it as possible. That's not always horrible because the final package does benefit from fleshing out some scenes, but for each of those there's just as much needless padding. I'm not even going into the conclusion or story differences here. Issue at hand is where the hell do you go from here since you've essentially replicated the final showdown of the original minus all the stakes involved? Also worth noting is developers draw from expanded material as well. I leave you to be the judge of how much we really needed from Dirge of Cerberus, for example.

Ex-SOLDIER Cloud, freedom fighter Barett. Bouncer Tifa and flower girl Aerith. Those in the know have already realized there's a missing character here that should be playable given what's covered, but I can almost overlook it since characters in the Remake have much more mechanical definition to them. Introducing a character who's essentially playable for the last hour or so would've been a waste keeping that in mind. Even if increased production values with voice acting don't do it for you inclusion of expanded scenes all-around should. Your Avalanche cell gets a hell of a lot more personality, so much so I thought developers would surprise me by making them playable at some point. By the end you've warmed up to them and feel like you know these people. They're just some of many characters, both new an old, who get way more attention.

Amusingly enough it's almost all smooth sailing from this point onward seeing as I generally like how FF7R plays, doubly so because I'm not a big fan of how it implements the dreaded Stagger mechanic I could not stand in FF13. Who knows, maybe this weird action-meets-ATB combat is the real game changer? There is one obstacle to overcome still, however.

Padding. Man, you could probably lose good few hours just by removing side quests amounting to little more than busy work. Why they felt the need to include this is beyond me, especially since FF7R doesn't fall into open world trap where you have to dot the landscape with menial tasks. Now that I think about it I have this suspicious nagging all the side content exists to justify the existence of towns aka places that are not dungeons filled with enemies or cutscenes galore. You get the impression simply making a pit stop for items you won't really need would've made these places a waste of time so more of to-do was invented. While this DOES result in adding more relevance to characters, enemies and places that were throwaways in the original game I could've personally done without it. Character like Chadley essentially exists to tack on progression systems to the game or awkward method of unlocking Summons, for example. Sometimes this obsessive need to have more has detrimental effect on game's pacing as it stops dead in its tracks more than once. Penultimate chapter got hit HARD by this.

Combat definitely deserves its own paragraph since we're talking about ATB aka “wait for a bar to fill out before you can act” and action combat system working in hybrid fashion. I haven't bothered with the Classic mode which operates entirely on command input because I didn't really have any issues with the action part. Each character has their gimmick and types of attack. Special is where the flavor's at since, for example, Cloud switches between two attack modes, Barret reloads his gun arm for extra damage and ATB boost, etc. Aforementioned bar fills slowly on its own, but attacking accelerates it. There are two segments to the bar and as soon as you fill out one you can activate the Command mode mimicking traditional JRPG combat menu. Game flow is you attack while rotating whoever you control, wait for their bars to get full and choose your command from the list. I'm honestly amazed they made the two opposite systems work without either feeling like unnecessary burden. Result is this comfortable interplay where you're constantly looking out to pressure and stagger enemies before maxing our your damage. I think leaning more on the action side makes it work.

If there's one misstep when it comes to combat it would be the difficulty. Normal is too easy, not helped by the fact game showers you with items you get from newly added breakable boxes in dungeon areas, and Hard difficulty as sadly treated as New Game+ where you need to have beaten the game already, plus some nonsense like disabling item usage and such.

Before I tackle the production level and all that jazz, there's one more thing - EPISODE INTERmission featuring one and only Yuffie Kisaragi up to her own shenanigans. I liked this DLC more than most of the base game. Sure, Yuffie's personality is hit or miss, but it's new. At no point was there any “what's different here?” at the back of my head. Yuffie herself is a self-proclaimed greatest Materia hunter in the world and she's gone to Midgar to steal Shinra's ultimate materia as well as join up with Avalanche. I like how this fleshes out Avalance as a whole and actually portrays Barret's own cell as an extreme one others are becoming wary of. Works in the other direction of game's own “Shinra is evil and behind everything, those poor terrorists are entirely justified” angle. I won't spoil because DLC is too short for its own good as it is, but hey... at least we got some Fort Condor as a mini-game.

It's rare you see a game remade from an entirely new perspectives while retaining so much of the original's flair. Here were have one example of doing it right. I have my issues with level layouts employed, primarily absence of anything resembling wider areas to roam and reliance on corridor designs interspersed with “Cloud crawls REAAAAAL slow so we can hide a loading screen”, but from production and artistic standpoints this is amazingly realized. Soundtrack in particular is now orchestrated all the while retaining the punch of the original. There's a weird pet peeve of mine in that inclusion of voice acting, solid job on that front too with Japanese and English, tends to cut into already quiet tracks as they get faded in and out. Stellar job all-around, goofy 2D backdrop notwithstanding at one point. It's... right in your face and I expected it to be improved for the PS5 version, at least.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

I underwent a sort of mellowing out while summarizing my thoughts regarding Final Fantasy 7 Remake and it was probably for the better. Initial reaction to finishing this beloved JRPG classic was one of terrific care and effort put to include more of the expanded universe, but also flawed with approach to story and structure. In the end having a tight combat system which managed to marry action and ATB approaches was what sold me on the game more than all the flashy graphics or orchestrated soundtrack. Even if unnecessary padding turning what was originally a relatively brief part of the game into a far grander affair via side chores, tacked on weapon upgrades and other drivel it could've done without. It just makes you wonder “what are you doing next?”.

It's a well kept public secret the stealth genre has fallen by the wayside in days of modern gaming. We could debate why, but that goes beyond the scope of this review. DARK mixes stealth and vampires, seemingly a match made in heaven. I also have to report it sadly has some complications that could have perhaps been avoided with additional polish.

Enter Eric Bane – a fledgling vampire with no idea who's who and what's what. He stumbles his way into a local club called Sanctuary where, surprise surprise, people in charge are also vampires. There he meets Rose & company who show him the ropes, and former develops love interest hints, but there's a major problem on the horizon – unless a newly made vampire takes the blood of whoever made him he unavoidably turns into a mindless ghoul. This sets Eric on a path of tracking down his maker... or a powerful enough vampire to substitute his mysterious benefactor's blood. Game will then proceed to bait you multiple times with what could be the vital blood while not really explaining how this society works if you must drain your creator. Or do you? That's certainly what's expected of you, and targets hardly offer a reasonable alternative, but do you just need a taste?

That's the gist of the story, but as you'd expect it's not ALL straightforward. Especially if you pay attention to developments within missions and locate all the PDAs containing tidbits of info. In fact, I'd argue story is extremely bare-bone because DARK wants nothing else but to shuttle you from level to level with regular “talk to Rose” intermissions. It becomes a predictable loop. Until the game pulls a rug from under you. Speaking of which, characters. Aforementioned Rose and our protagonist are essentially the only ones with, and I say this loosely, character as few others exist to be slain or break the routine of talking to the club manager herself. Story is not really the main draw here and it exists to give you something to do. I was especially annoyed by this because you do get couple of chances to talk with detestable bosses you want to kill personally, but game squanders it when I would've even welcome info dumps. Even the big reveal towards the finale fell flat because game failed to materialize any connection with me, although to be perfectly honest I think I was frustrated for other reasons.

Those “other reasons” would have to be gameplay itself, level design and progression. I have to bone to pick with each and every one of them to certain extent.

Make no mistake if you went into DARK with different expectations because this IS a stealth game through and through. Despite some powers available you should not go head-to-head with enemies for one very simple reason. Unaware takedown bonus is worth triple the experience you get for kills, on top of undetected level completion bonus. This touches upon the very nature of stealth games and reliance on save abuse which I admit willingly being guilty of in this case. Why? Because bodies don't disappear by default and you can't always hide them perfectly. If you get detected where the alarm is raised not only have you foregone your bonus, but all enemies also alter their patrols and will almost certainly find the bodies which in turns further prolongs their “alarmed state” throwing off entire level setup. It becomes a necessity to 100% stealth in order to avoid this outcome and by god does DARK make it difficult.

It's shocking to me just how poorly executed stealth elements are for a game that makes them its primary concern. Light indicator? Sound indicator? Neither exists, although you have your option of crouching to reduce noise/visibility. I think the core problem here is DARK employs sticking to cover and avoiding obvious environmental noise makers as substitutes for the above. For example, staying in cover gives you absolute directional invisibility as long as guards' line of sight is broken. How far said vision reaches is up in the air and something you learn to gauge with time while taking into account affecting skills. Adding Eric's ability to teleport over short distances with no cost other than time, and directly into cover, you quickly learn stealth dynamic is somewhat off-balance.

Here is where you would perhaps expect from me to raise issue about level structure and you would be only half accurate. For all the re-skinned variety of corporate corridors I was surprised by how much you're NOT forced into strictly linear sequences. There is always some freedom in how you go about confined levels and it usually depends on what repertoire of powers you've cultivated. For example, during the first two levels I had the idea of beating the game using only starter abilities until I realized I was A) growing immensely frustrated and B) limiting what the game allowed you to do for no reason other than my own obstinance. Level layouts with plenty of chest high covers and turns to duck into combined with “Batman Vision” letting you see enemies through walls means you always have increased awareness edge. What enemies have, however, are absolutely crapshoot routines where they require you to get close to initiate them and turning on a dime without warning. This is especially noticeable because there ARE couple of situations in the game where enemies work effectively. Like one sequence where you have two guards covering each another while being just close enough you can't silently off one without alarming the other. There should have been more of those.

Speaking of powers – invest in powers. You think teleporting alone would be a game changer, but when you realize you can get super speed, kill guards from range and instantly destroy their body, activate invisibility mode, etc it truly turns the game into a cakewalk. These upgrades will naturally cost you experience and yet considering I had almost ten points leftover by the end I can safely say you will get everything. Playing the game as intended and getting undetected bonus will make the majority of your free experience on top of locating PDAs easily traceable with your vision mode. How do you activate powers? Well, some are passives and always there, but active ones cost blood and you get that from draining enemies. This takes time and makes loud noise until you put some points in making your unlife easier. I did like how the game manages to eventually make this into an obstacle by throwing armored or non-human enemies in your way and limiting feeding capabilities. Can't say it was ever a problem even with only four blood points, though. Four quickslot limit was a bigger issue as I outright ended up forgetting about the other powers I couldn't slot. Thanks, gamepads.

Looking at screenshots you've already realized DARK loves two things; color purple and neon. This never changes and you have to get accustomed to it. Game also puts it to good use when the need to telegraph something arises. It is a 2013 release with a middling budget coming from developers who didn't really have prior stealth experience so don't expect to blown away by visuals on technical level. In fact, I'd say janky animations permeate the game. Pairing those with some level geometry results in deadly situations where our protagonist gets stuck and is promptly ventilated. I did like one specific track evoking just a tiny whiff of that other well known vampire game. It also emphasizes just how understated the rest of the soundtrack is, but they may not be a bad thing in a stealth game.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Someone who's really, desperately hungry for a stealth game with modern concessions might form a more favorable impression, but in my opinion DARK's biggest problem is how questionable every element on display really is. Stealth games must by necessity be tight as they're ultimately as simple as they come and sum of their parts. Token story and characters airing on the side of merely existing, overpowered protagonist poorly counter by puzzling absence of some basic stealth features, and general shoddy production are all major strikes here. Ultimately a frustrating game where the two saves limit becomes a hindrance with overly long level where checkpoints are far apart. This newly made vampire's tale to discover his origin did not click with me. Not even Geralt of Rivia's voice changed that.

I've been partial to management/simulators in the past, but have lapsed in recent... well, decade or so. Managing a Victorian theater was certainly a first which makes it even worse because Melodramatica has some inherent problems that could've been avoided.

First of all, I don't think the chosen control method was the smartest one. Assuming direct control over the heiress as you stride across theater boards to reach your actors, props production, etc doesn't add anything being general busywork and zoomed-in camera perspective. Neither of which is worth the trade-off when it comes to losing that familiar, mouse-driven control associated with management games. Interface itself also suffers from some cramping up on the right side of the screen where your available actors and play currently underway are both listed with expandable sub-windows. It quickly turns into a vertical mess, but this is one of those minor things that could've been averted with further QA that otherwise works.

Game itself is exactly what it says on the tin. Divided into acts you get to choose which play to perform. Managing said feat means mastering your actors aka sending them to appropriate training so they can improve their singing, acting or dancing stat. Trick is you only get X number of days 'til the premiere and with each actor having limited number of energy units to spend daily what you dedicate them to matters. Some planning is required on top of acquiring whichever costumes and backdrops certain plays demand if you want to get scores as those, in turn, determine your initial funds in the next act. And so it goes round and round with little pay-off in performances themselves. I'm talking couple of still shots with some dialog. This ain't The Movies if you were hoping for something more along those lines OR wanted background story, exploration of a historical setting, etc.

I did not like Melodramatica very much and didn't see it through to completion. For a free game and something to expand upon it is praiseworthy, but it's also too rigid and questionably designed from the opening act. I'm not even taking into account dodgy optimization that sent my PC into overdrive for no apparent reason. Something to wet the appetite if you want to try more of the genre. That tush, though.

It pains me to say the following about Zolaris because you can tell its heart was in the right place, but it just so happens to be held back by inexperience and tech problems galore.

Story begins rather intriguingly as you assume control over Valeria, resident gunslinging spirit-dealer, and her chatty incorporeal companion Pike on a mission to, well, "forcefully visit" a local cultist temple with goal in mind to find out what happened to Valeria's sister. Not to mention you're tasked to do so by your village elder because said cultists are clearly up to no good. Entire setup also benefits from game's humble origins in that there are no long preambles on how or why, rather you're left to immediately get into the thick of it. Upon reaching the temple you find out two local spirits, one of Owl and one of Bear, don't much like being usurped and these cultists are trying to summon... something into existence. Each offering their own way to power - stealth or action - and Valeria decides some cleaning up is in order.

But what is Zolaris? A FPS combining guns, magic and stealth executed with all the finesse you'd expect from a free indie title that decided to bite more than it could possibly chew. Maybe it's just my nostalgia for Clive Barker's Undying that paints what's attempted here as charming, though. To game's credit it does have a tutorial section for using each of your powers, ranging from close range shocking attack, directional shield protecting for ranged attacks, etc, but these powers for the most part only work when they feel like it. Whispers meant to distract the enemy was absolute bust for me and aforementioned shield was a 50/50 toss up, for example. Not that enemies can really do much to you beyond swarming, even taking into account you have a pretty pissy eight-round revolver with extremely dodgy rate of fire. Something that pleasantly surprised me was how two spirits offer their own paths to progressing throughout the game. Do you want to sneak around to get tomes of power or straight up destroy obelisks? Considering game is jank incarnate I went with destruction.

I lost count just how many times I had to restart from checkpoints because scripts wouldn't load or level geometry decided it has had enough leaving me stuck in the void. The worst thing was when I had to restart the game altogether because Zolars HAS save support and does, in fact, let you load. Problem being save slots are session-based so they disappear upon quitting.

Sometimes you want a platformer that means business and Plokoth fills out that role just fine.

Provided the closest comparison is what you're after it would be Super Meat Boy without the level selection or in-your-face absurd story. Breaking down the package further I'd say Plokoth eschew levels as something to overcome individually and is rather structured in a form of a single cohesive world with bite-size sections meant to challenge your platforming skills. End result is very stop-and-go approach to gameplay as you go through primeval jungle where things are gradually getting worse the deeper you go with purple thorns becoming more prominent and acting as instant death spikes. Good news is checkpoints are plentiful and loadings non-existent, meaning you're immediately back in action and usually just a couple of seconds from where you departed.

Aside from some running animation cycle and falling off the edges shenanigans I found controls to be very responsive which kinda matters here. Latter only became an annoyance accidentally when I had to stand still in a specific scenario to get the incoming power up or I wouldn't have even registered it. You're otherwise looking at your usual jumping off walls and sliding down said walls in addition to instantaneous rush forward... when the game feels like letting you have it for story reasons. Of which there's very little and is conveying to you via indirect storytelling. Something's going down in the jungle and our little three leafed guy has to save his girlfriend, I take it? What's there is more context than proper motivation.

Gorgeous 2D visuals do sell Plokoth even when you notice the tileset arrangements. Audio design less so with ambient tracks that could've used more prominence considering there's painfully little happening on the audio side of things given the absence of combat sounds or enemies. For a platformer with some bite I'd say all the moving parts hit the right notes. Give it a look - you can't beat free.

Does it count as cheating if game itself offers the freedom to do so under options? Well, I can't say but I certainly feel that way having finished Star Apprentice Magical Murder Mystery and realizing I most likely could not have done so otherwise.

Ever wanted to play an intense bullet hell game with side of quirky detective mystery? Because that's what you get when you put on Minnie's apprentice detective hat. It just so happens that her mentor gets killed while they're aboard a moving train and you're left with a small, albeit bizarre as all hell, cast that could have potentially done it. Twist? Minnie's method of seeing through inconsistencies and REFUTING them is rather unconventional - completing bullet hell stages and choosing when to drop the truth bomb, figuratively speaking, to reveal the truth.

What actually surprised me is just how lightweight Star Apprentice is when it comes to its narrative or total lack of puzzles beyond rudimentary clue gathering. I actually got its genre the other way around as bullet hell stages were straight out of hell for someone not really that proficient with the genre. In fact, I'm pretty sure you could easily double or triple your play time if you choose to disable unlimited lives game so generously includes. Frustration of playing this the legit way would weight too heavily on me, though. I simply didn't cut it in this case so I held on for just long enough to see the story climax because "screen full of bullets" fails to describe this one appropriately.

I won't hold the fact it was made in RPG Maker against the game seeing as it manages to shine through with pretty decent production. Lines of voice acting, pretty 2D visuals and pumping music all do their job. One thing I would recommend would be using a keyboard rather than mouse to control. A good game even if I'm no good AT it.