The premise is that the only Assassin’s Creed I’d played before this was Assassin’s Creed 2, and that was many years ago. Furthermore, I knew little to nothing of how the whole series evolved over time, so I didn’t have any particular expectation about this game. I only knew it was well received — better than the previous titles had been — so I added it to my wishlist and I was lucky enough to win it on SG.

Long story short: I enjoyed it.

I really liked how vast and immersive the world is. The whole setting feels real: the various cities, with the people that bring them to life, the impressive castles (I didn’t know I loved Japanese architecture this much), the wilderness and breathtaking sceneries. That’s what astounded me the most: how once you leave the beaten path, you find yourself immersed in an impenetrable bush, exactly as you’d expect from a land that hasn’t been fully corrupted by human presence yet. It just feels right, and it’s probably the best open world game I’ve played in that regard (not that I played many, but still).

Gameplay-wise, I was less impressed, instead. There are two playable characters: a shinobi and a samurai. The shinobi has a classic assassin style, with parkour, stealth kills, and such, which make it very similar to the protagonist of the other game I played. The samurai is basically an unbreakable walking wall; he smashes through almost any enemy with little to no effort. I felt a sort of dissonance playing with this one, not only because he seems unfairly strong, but also because his playstyle really clashes with that of the first character.

This feeling of dissonance was then exacerbated by the story. They built the game as if the two characters were equal, both with strong motivation behind their actions, to the point that once you’ve unlocked both, apart for a few very short sections of the game where you don’t have any choice, you can play with whatever character you prefer. But to me it didn’t feel like that at all. In my opinion, the shinobi’s story had a much stronger premise compared to the samurai’s one, so it made little to no sense to favour the latter in the major quest line.

I’m not saying it’s not fun to play as the samurai. Actually, it reminded me a bit of For Honor, and I liked that game at the time. But this one simply jars with the general perception I had of the game. I wouldn’t have made him a playable character and had him be more of a secondary character instead.

Another thing regarding the plot. We have to deal with two parallel narratives: (1) the one you often forget about: you being someone who’s reliving memories of the past through a simulation; (2) the one that almost the whole game revolves around: you being the very characters which those memories belong to.

About the first one: when I started the game for the first time, I was shown a very interesting cinematic, showing some sceneries, but filled with glitches and such at the same time, and a voice telling something along the lines of “they’re lying to you”. Then I ended up in the hub where I could select the memories of different AC games, including the ones I didn’t actually own. This whole thing really piqued my interest, but I soon realized that there was nothing more to it. They basically relegated the whole lore behind the assassin’s creed simulation to the memory selection screen. The game itself makes no mention of it, with the exception of a handful of secondary missions that are easily missable since their aim is to collect shop currency. I found it quite disappointing.

Concerning the second one: despite the strong premise I mentioned before, it fell a bit short in its delivery at the end. There’s a huge build-up about taking revenge on a group of men who basically took everything away from the protagonists, but the way they end up dealing with them and, most of all, their leader, felt a lot anticlimactic. (Mind that I played with the canon story option activated right from the start, so the “big” choices of the game were taken automatically by the characters. I assume you have a say in that if you can choose yourself)

To make things worse, after that quest line ends, you’re left with just a few personal quests for each of the main characters which feel more like side quests rather than main ones, and then the game just ends, leaving you hanging there like that. I just hope there will be more development and a proper closure to the story with future DLCs.

So, overall, I had fun playing it, but it undeniably left me a bit unsatisfied. Despite that, I would still recommend it.

Aside from the completism frenzy that took over me at the very end, I found this metroidvania mediocre all around.

The combat system is quite dull. It lacks an effective dodging mechanic, and despite presenting a good variety of monsters and attack patterns, I wasn’t able to find the fights particularly fun. That applies to the boss fights, too, because the bosses didn’t show any interesting mechanics and therefore it was rare to feel a sense of challenge.

Another sore point is the exploration. The developers went really overboard with the size of the maps, and so going through them has been a chore more than anything else, especially at the beginning, when I had little to no means of fast travel.

The selection of weapons and equipment was huge and gave the possibility to vary the playstyle a bit, but I ended up sticking to the same kind of weapon for basically the whole playthrough, so the whole inventory system felt a bit unnecessary. At least in my personal experience. The buffs you get from the equipment made little to no difference, which meant I basically ignored them.

What really disappointed me, though, was the story. It’s utter nonsense. It is often unclear what the characters are talking about, since they throw in the names of locations and other characters without explaining any of their lore. That also makes it hard to feel any kind of involvement in the story.

There was also an exaggerated amount of possible endings, and the first one popped up at a really unexpected moment: I was following the quests in the order they are presented, but when I reached a specific boss and beat it, bam! Credits rolling. The game ends like that, without the slightest warning. If you reload after that and beat the boss again, the same thing happens, even though the change in some of the dialogue lines would make you expect to get a different ending. But nuh-uh… If you want a proper ending, you need to collect some random object no one ever told you about and only then fight that very same boss again.

And it doesn’t end there. If you want to see the “true ending” of the game, you have to start a NG+ run (which isn’t a real NG+ but rather a sort of shortened version of chapter 2 in which you play from the point of view of a different character) and only then, you get some sort of understanding of the story as a whole and some sort of satisfying closure.

All in all, it’s all a bit too convoluted for my taste.

To mention some positive aspects, the soundtrack is good and the graphics have a strong visual impact. The drawings are really well made and the use of color is skillful. However, when it comes to the animation, the quality is not at the same level, and this is particularly evident in the few cutscenes, where you can see how they just forced the movement of portions of a still image without really putting any effort in creating a proper animation.

All things considered, I can’t recommend it.

It’s been a weird experience for me.

On paper, I should hate this game. Gameplay-wise, all you do is explore the map with your boat and fish. A gameplay mechanic that repeats in the same way day after day.

However, what made the whole experience bearable—no, scratch that—enjoyable, it’s the whole setting.

The mood is simply right. The lovecraftian dread the game is based on can be felt from the very first interaction with the locals, from the very first day-night cycles you survive and, most of all, when you experience for the first time the symptoms of your own insanity.

Even the world is well built. Exploring each single biome and discovering all the fish species and their mutant variants has been a pleasure.

Furthermore, the story, in its simplicity, has been effectively presented. I was left speechless by the plot twist at the end, and the bad ending… just, woah… I really didn’t expect that, but I found it to be the perfect closure to the game. (I may be heavily biased by the fact that I’ve been reading an H.P. Lovecraft’s tales collection lately.)

The only strange feature of the game is the inability to use a fishing setup that allows you to catch any kind of fish, even once you reach the endgame. The game forces you to go to port and change fishing rods/nets everytime—an unnecessary waste of time at that point.

And a side note about the developer: one of the DLCs of the game is just a badly disguised microtransaction. I’ve never seen something like this before, so I was a bit taken aback when I had to accept that this little masterpiece of a game and that kind of marketing malpractice came from the same people.

Anyway, aside from that specific DLC — really, avoid it — I can recommend the game.

I found it extremely effective in its delivery. The game is fast paced and packed with action that delivers a great shooting feeling.

The level design is interesting and the story straight-forward. Overall, it was really really fun.

A huge pro is that the difficulty can be fine-tuned to suit players of any skill level.

I didn’t find any particular flaw.

Strongly recommended.

The game is heavily inspired by the series The Room.

It lacks a bit of ingenuity in the puzzle building, though. Everything is quite linear and telegraphed, except for a pair of puzzles that end up being a random clicking fest.

The story could have been interesting, but it came to nothing in the end.

I liked the art style, but aside from that, I found it a bit bland.

The gameplay was a bit boring, the puzzles were not challenging enough, and the combat system was quite minimal in its mechanics.

The rhyming dialogues were well written, but the story was quite predictable since the very premise.

I wouldn’t recommend it.

The second title only shows some minimal improvement compared to the first one, but it’s enough to make it an enjoyable experience.

A good example is the removal of the power attack and its substitution with both a dash and a combo attack that make fights much more enjoyable.

Furthermore, the developers made it so that you can’t over-heal yourself. That is, if you’re at full HP, you won’t be able to pick up any healing orbs, as they’ll just stay on the ground.

The graphic quality has improved, and now the character models look a lot less flat in their appearence.

Furthermore, I think the story was more original this time around. It was less predictable and better written. I liked it a lot more than the prequel one.

I also liked the few songs featured in the game, and I had a laugh when I heard the one sung by the discarded opinions.

A weird choice they made: they didn’t put a controller rumble off switch in this one. (I usually play without it).

Recommended.

A very condensed pill of Portal’s craziness, without the clever puzzle part.

It’s just a tech demo for the Steam Deck and there’s not much more to it.

Just a fast -1 to the backlog.

I know it’s been harshly criticized and I have no idea in what state it was before, but my experience in the 3 days I played it has been thoroughly enjoyable. I managed to properly close my first cycle in about 6 hours (on the 4th try).

At first impression, it was brutal, but once I got the hang of it, and learned that I had to extract often, and that some of the boss attacks were supposed to be parried and not dodged, everything went smoothly.

The addictive cycle loop is there.

Graphically, it feels a bit rough over the edges, but it’s still pleasing to the eye. Fights are fun, even though mere normal monsters can make a run go south real fast if you’re not careful enough.

At the moment, the major issue I have is with the healing management. The healing opportunities are quite limited during a run. So the game results to be a bit too close to the “git gud scrub” part of the spectrum. There’s hard and fun, and then there’s hard and frustrating. For now, we’re closest to the second one.

All in all, however, imho it has a solid foundation, and it seems the developers are properly building on it. There's even a laid out roadmap for future developments.

My hopes are high and I’m curious to see how it will evolve over time. I’m going to replay it once it gets out of Early Access.

This is another game that’s in Early Access, but I must say this one feels like a complete game already. I know it got two major updates during the past few months, so it must not be that far from release, but at the moment it’s in a state where it could put to shame some other games that fledged themselves as fully released.

At first, it feels like more of the same of the first Hades, but after a few runs it’s evident that they expanded the combat system in various ways. You get more basic moves, more weapons, more varied trinkets, more powers and more ways to buff yourself. Basically a lot more possibilities in general that can change your whole playstyle.

Apart from the gameplay, we get an expanded collection of characters, new and old, that widen the already rich lore of this fictional world with a plethora of lines of dialogue I find hard to fathom. Some of these characters are lovable, others much less, exactly how they are supposed to be. The multitude of interactions with the NPCs was one of the strengths of the first game, and this one doesn’t disappoint in that sense either.

What’s surprising is that the game has basically double the content of the previous one. At first, if we’re looking at the level design, it seems like a replica of the first game (four linear worlds with a big, bad final boss at the very end), but once you beat that final boss a few times, you unlock a different route. A mirrored version of the first one, with new bosses, monsters, mechanics, NPCs and powers, and much less linear design.

I was skeptical at first, since I couldn't properly understand what was the point of the double route feature, but I ended up liking it. It allows for more variety without aggravating the progression. I mean, if they decided to put them one after the other it would have made the gameplay loop too long. This way, instead, one is free to choose which route to take, and looping is faster, less repetitive, and overall more addicting and enjoyable.

If I had to find a flaw, it’s the feeling you get when you reach the end of a run. In the first Hades you had a sense of progression every time you managed to beat the final boss, like you were a step closer to the final goal. In this title, at least for the moment, when a true ending is still something not properly tangible, it feels like you’re just replaying the game for the sake of it. The gameplay is fun and all, but, despite the double route possible, it lacks purpose after a while. I don’t doubt this will be fixed when it’ll be fully released.

However, it’s a solid game, and already an all-time favourite for me. I’m looking forward to play it properly once it gets out of Early Access.

Let’s put the premise that I've never played a Silent Hill game before. This remake is my first experience with this series, so I can't make any comparison with the original videogame. Furthermore, I knew very little of the series before playing it, apart from the movie (yeah…), which, in any case, I barely remember btw. So, as a result, my opinion is purely limited to this one game.

Long story short: I really enjoyed it, especially the first half.

I immediately got immersed in the game world: the feeling of uneasiness while exploring this seemingly godforsaken city was real, and the very first encounters with the monsters were really intense, contributing to deliver the proper feeling of fright you’d expect from a game like this. Let’s say the game does a great job at setting the right mood right from the start.

For that same reason, I really liked exploring the world, despite it being quite linear in design and despite the “quests” involving a bit of back and forth, I often felt the urge of progressing with the story to discover new things and better understand what was happening.

The fights were engaging, too. Moreso the ones against the normal monsters rather than the boss fights, which didn’t really bring anything interesting to the table. The huge dodging windows made those fights quite trivial. Even with the normal monster, once learned their pattern, they hardly implicated a real threat, but killing them, especially with a melee weapon, was really satisfying from the beginning until the very end of the game.

Another thing that I really liked was the range of expressions of the protagonist. The motion capture is one of the best I’ve seen. The way they managed to convey his anguish, even with minimal change to his facial expressions, was very impressive.

The only thing that perplexed me a bit at first was how some of the characters (almost all of them, really) felt detached from their own stories. I mean, it’s quite weird how little they react to what they say to each other. For instance, how James (the main character) remains calm in most situations, ignoring what other people say, not asking questions, and accepting everything that happens around him without any interest or doubt. It’s hard to explain, but it felt wrong at times. Though, by the end of the game I reached the conclusion that this whole sensation was intended as part of his character development. So, let’s say that I accepted it. I’m glad I played this game.

I didn’t pay particular attention to the story of this game, to its graphics or anything that wasn’t, let’s say, strictly essential. What mattered to me was the gameplay, and it was fun. Mind that it's nothing memorable, but I still enjoyed those few hours it took to complete it.

A bit easy when it comes to boss fights, and nothing much to them other than being huge hp sponges, but, nevertheless, it’s been a good three hours of brainlessly shooting. Just what I needed.

It’s clear how heavily it’s been inspired by Hollow Knight. From part of the map design, to some of the basic monsters, at least one boss and a handful of NPCs, everything screams “Hollow Knight 1:1 copy”.

Luckily, there were a few key differences when it came to skills and gameplay that made me forget how similar the two games are to each other. In the end, the game has been perfect for someone like me, a metroidvania fan who considers HK the best one he played, looking for a similar, but not identical, experience.

I liked the map design, the setting, the simple story, and, with one exception, the overall progression.

Only the fights were a bit lacking, and that’s where this game isn’t able to stand its ground if compared to HK. In particular, I consider the boss fights its major flaw. They all feel the same. Almost all bosses act like some sort of standing target and lack any special mechanic that you would need to learn. They are on the easy end, too, and as a result you end up killing them before even actually getting into the fight. Mind that I played the game without using heals right from the start and I've been just fine. I don't even remember dying during any boss fight.

A second flaw I have to complain about is that they decided to lock weapon damage upgrades behind certain boss fights. It may be because I skipped an early map without even noticing, but the problem with that is that, by the time I faced those boss fights, I had already completed 80%+ of the map and slayed almost all the other bosses in the game.

All in all, I think that the game would gain a lot from a bit of boss rebalance and a better timing of the aforementioned upgrades, so as to force you to get at least the first one at some precise moment of the game, and not all at the very end.

Despite these flaws, I consider Haiku a very decent metroidvania that I can recommend to any HK nostalgic (I can use the word ‘nostalgia’ with HK? Are 8 years from release and 6 of waiting for its sequel enough?)

This game feels like abstract art to me. In the sense that I’m unable to judge it, since there’s no evident objective parameter I can use.

Gameplay-wise it’s a simple walking simulator. There’s some platforming, some very basic puzzle-solving, but eventually all you have to do is walk around and talk to the different NPCs, witnessing all these absurd dialogues that may or may not make any sense to you. Just to give an example of how confused I was: at first I didn’t even get that they were showing my character in the cutscenes, since I had been in 1st person until that point and therefore thought they were just showing some other crazy NPC. Only after roughly 30 minutes into the game, when I saw said character responding to a phone call “I” received, it finally got to me that we were the same person.

I guess I just can’t appreciate this sort of ‘art’ properly, not even in a game, to the point I can’t understand if it was an enjoyable experience or not.

Oh! One of the side characters is voiced by ThePruld (a popular Italian youtuber I used to follow a few years ago). I immediately recognized his voice and it was quite a surprise! (In a good way hehe)

I found its pixel art quite appealing. Even though I must say I felt like there was a bit of discrepancy between the overall graphic style and the sprites of the characters. The modern “anime-style” portraits felt a bit out of place compared to old-style pixel art.

I think “old-style” was what the developers were aiming for not only visually but also game-play wise. Stiff controls, questionable hit-boxes, monster respawning when you leave a map, scarce fast-travel options… it’s all there. There’s also an option which makes you shoot only in the eight directions, if you want.

Well, they tried to give you that nostalgic feeling. Did they succeed? Maybe. Personally I can’t understand if I didn’t particularly like the game for the fact that they kind of half-assed the job or if they actually nailed it and I’m the one who doesn’t like that kind of old-style gameplay interaction anymore.

Gameplay-wise, I found normal fights annoying and the boss fights quite bland—with the big exception of the final boss fight: I liked how they managed to force you to use all your armors during the fight.

Exploring and backtracking was the real tedious part, though, since the few fast travel options don’t feel fast at all. Also, running through the maps and fighting the same monsters over and over didn’t feel compelling at all.

Even the story was a bit far-fetched and rushed, and a lot of side characters didn’t add anything to it. It has a weak, scarcely explained premise, and an equally weak, quite predictable, ending.

All in all, I can’t recommend it.

I liked the game, but I didn’t love it.

It’s weird, though, because on paper it has all the elements that would make it perfect for me, especially when it comes to the puzzle part. I felt a sort of resonance with some of them, in the sense that the kind of puzzles present in the game are very similar, or at least in line, with the kind of puzzle I would make if I had to create one myself. Why didn't I love the game then? Well, honestly, I can’t find a proper answer.

Even story-wise and graphically there’s nothing I can’t complain about. I liked how it was narrated, the parallel between reality and fiction that you discover going on with the story. The visual style is quite unique: the black and white+red choice is original and sets the right atmosphere.

The only evident flaw that I can think of is that it may feel quite repetitive, and, if you’re stuck, you may feel lost, because it can be quite hard to understand what you’re missing. For instance, I missed the back entrance of the gate-house for a long time since it wasn’t indicated on the map, and I ran in circles for quite some time before finding it. Even the solution to some of the puzzles themselves felt quite repetitive at times. I get the importance of some dates to the story, but always having the same 4 numbers as solutions may have spoiled some of the fun for me.

Anyway, it’s a very decent puzzle game. If you’re into them, I can still recommend it to you.

I found it quite basic. Honestly, I had the same impression with the first game when I played it, but it still posed a good challenge, and I appreciated the originality of the religious theme and the extremely high quality of the pixel art.

In Blasphemous 2, there’ve been improvements here and there, but nothing game-changing.

While the quality of the art style has been further improved, I liked it less than the original. I’m not sure, but I feel like the rougher quality of the textures/models in the first game gave it a distinct character that in this sequel is lacking.

Furthermore, I disliked how the pixel art was abandoned for some low-quality 2d animations during the cutscenes. I still remember the iconic scene where the Penitent One would wear its blood filled helmet in the first game. There’s no scene here that’s that memorable. And in my opinion the change in style is part of the reason.

A field in which the improvement was absolute was that of combat. The developers got rid of the stiffness of the controls present in the first title, making the fights feel fluid and the boss fights way more fun. The only exception is the last boss, which is a real joke compared to some of the others: it stays perfectly still and all its attacks are quite telegraphed and easy to dodge. Furthermore, I would have expected an additional phase when you go for the “true” ending of the game, instead it remains the same. I think it’s a bit of a waste.

I liked the addition of the switch weapons mechanic, which provided, for every single weapon, a means to explore the map and a different fighting style.

Another thing that let me down a bit was the change to the guilt system. I don’t get how they could think it would be fun to not recover all your guilt when you die, but instead gradually increase the damage you take. It makes the learning process of a boss quite a chore. Most of all when you select a specific alterpieces set-up.

I didn’t even bother to follow the story properly this time.

Lastly, I need to talk about a weird design choice that pissed me off. There’s a side character that offers to fight alongside you against some of the bosses. I always accepted said offer. One time, I saw her outside of a room and before talking to her, I decided to explore the rest of the map, since I didn’t want to fight the boss right away. Well, when I came back later on, she wasn’t outside the room anymore, but inside the boss room instead, already dead. Looking for a guide online, I discovered that, despite the fact that I had all the items needed for her quest line, the very fact that I didn’t talk to her the first time I saw her doomed her for good. Well, I was f***ing pissed when it happened. Especially since I didn’t even have a recent save to reload. I know it’s not the game’s fault, but it’s me lacking the right perspective. Still, the bad feeling was there. Actually, it’s still here.

Oh, one last thing, for real this time. Some of the DLC achievements are bugged. You get them even if you don’t own the DLC. It may have to do with the fact that they put some of the DLC content in the base game despite you not owning it.

I loved it.

It probably made it to the top of the list of my favourite stories of all time.

I liked how the story was narrated and enjoyed all the phases you go through during the game. The initial confusion. The understanding. The dreadful feeling of questioning your own existence. Having to come to terms with reality. The fake hopes, and the real hopes, which are actually still fake, right?

I think the voice actors did a masterful job in conveying all those feelings.

Gameplay-wise, it’s basically a very straight-forward walking simulator. There’s nothing impressive there, especially when you realize that even if an enemy gets to you, you don’t die right away, not always, at least. You inevitably lose a bit of immersion when you come to that realization, but fortunately it’s not enough to ruin the goodness of the story.

A side note: I encountered an annoying bug around the beginning of the game that made me waste about 30-40 minutes. There’s a point where you free a bot from under some rocks. The bot then starts following you and it’s supposed to unlock some shut doors when you get close to them. Well, the animation that would open the door wouldn’t trigger for me, and I only found out about the bug after looking for help online. Luckily, reloading the last save file was enough to fix it. It’s still been annoying and a waste of time, though.

We completed the main campaign.

We’re still playing it, though, for the sake of exploring all the locations and for some of the extra achievements, while waiting to find some other shooter to try out. If you have any recommendations, they’re welcome—preferably third person shooters, since my gf gets motion sickness quite fast with the 1st person ones.

A really good puzzle game, I must say. I really enjoyed most of the puzzles. They start simple, but become more and more challenging. Nothing too complicated, though. There are three, maybe four, core mechanics, and the developers manage to exhaust them in every way possible. I got stuck only on a handful of puzzles (some of the ones that give you the extra stars. I found them to require a way of thinking that was beyond “lateral”. Meaning that you either know what to do/where to go or you don’t.)

Furthermore, it's really pleasing to the eye. They put some simple but really nice locations, and that’s a plus for me.

What I liked even more was the story, though, and the way it was built, gradually unravelling before you and leaving hints here and there. I actually lost the time to basically read every single piece of computer log and found some very interesting inputs, beyond the story itself. Only the endings felt a bit unsatisfying, the “real” one included. I don’t know what I expected exactly.

My biggest question was: “How freeing the cat in the simulation makes it appear in the “real” world?”. It’s even in the game cover. How’s that so important? I can’t find a logic to it.

Anyway, recommended.

I really liked this game.

The gameplay is where it shines the most, the combat system in particular. I liked how the parry+counter system works, I liked how varied the attack pattern of the different enemies can be, and I liked the boss fights—every single one of them. There’s a good progression feeling and the fights, even the hardest ones, never feel unfair, especially since the learning curve is not that steep.

I liked the exploration part of the game and the puzzles you need to solve in order to get the various items. Mind, nothing too brain-teasing, apart, maybe, for the block puzzles in the sewers, but still, they were a nice addition and never felt pervasive.

Even the inventory/items/crafting/upgrading weapons system was handled well. You get materials and “money” without any need of farming, which would have been a drag for me. You get them as you progress and explore the map without almost noticing, as it should be.

Lastly, the story. I must say I didn’t like the character design, nor I felt compelled by the story, but there’s something undeniably original to it. Meaning: the timer. If you play the game as intended (= without disabling it), you and every single NCP in the game are on a timer. When it expires, they become unsighted (= they basically lose their mind and attack you). That means that if you don’t go through the game fast enough or if you don’t give them any of the material that can extend said timer, you’ll end up losing access to some of them (= to weapon upgrades, weapon shop, materials shop, etc.). That kind of resource is limited in the game (at the start, at least), so if you’re too slow, you have to make choices, deciding which character to save and which one to let die. Well, I liked it! It’s bad when a character dies on you, but really, it’s a fine addition that adds a further layer to an otherwise forgettable story. (Btw, the true ending lets you get back in time and bring everyone back to life, at the cost of a slightly harder final boss fight, so the “dreadful” feeling of letting someone die is not permanent. And, anyway, if you’re on a second playthrough and you remember a bit the map layout, the timer is quite lenient, so you can still explore and get everything, even at the harder difficulties, without letting anyone go unsighted).

In addition to the main campaign, there are two other game modes with rogue-lite mechanics: the boss rush and the dungeon raid. You basically have to fight either all the bosses or just some of them, but with a limited random selection of items and upgrades. It was fun trying them out a couple of times, but they became repetitive quite fast.

Anyway, all in all, I really recommend this game.

I played the second title in the series a few years ago. I must say that I got an immediate sense of familiarity when I started this one, to the point that I couldn’t actually recall the differences from that game. I just remember there was an additional playable character and a few more types of traps and enemies and an improvement in the QoL of the upgrade system, but the game felt basically the same. Mind that I liked that one at the time, and I liked this one now, too. But, because of these similarities, it felt like replaying a game I had already played, so the whole experience suffered a bit from it.

The premise is that I don’t often play boomer shooters. From my little experience, though, what I recall is that a boomer shooter should be hard or at least punishing. Well, this one isn’t punishing, but it can become quite hard for entirely the wrong reasons. I didn’t find it punishing because not only most enemies, apart from maybe the boss at the end of the second episode, are very easy to read and kill, but also because the save points are way too frequent. I found it hard at times, instead, because the monsters are huge HP sponges, even at low levels, and I think this may be the main flaw of this game. You often risk running out of ammo if you try to clear a whole map of them. That means that if you really want to kill them, all you have to do is take your time and wait for the very slow reload (even with runes that speed it up) of the only weapon that doesn’t require ammo or, alternatively, you must know beforehand where all the secret stashes are in the game (which means you need to have played the game already or have a guide of some sort with you). Not particularly fun, I must say.

That’s too bad because the very first impression of the game was good and the first 2-3 hours were quite fun.

I liked the graphics and I liked the level design of the first few maps. But as you progress, you soon realize there’s been less and less care put into the level design. The last two episodes were the ones that were designed the worst in my opinion. They had no interesting new monsters (or worse: they recycled some of the old ones and simply gave them more HPs), plus the maps felt a bit rushed, with many unpolished areas where you can encounter many invisible walls or actual walls but that aren’t really there, since you can’t jump on them. That’s most notable when you’re searching every nook and cranny of a map for secrets, which for the reason expressed before is something the game requires of you.

A thing that I liked instead was the plethora of easter eggs. There are dozens of them, and not only references to other boomer shooters that clearly inspired this game (Quake, Blood, etc.), but also to other games or movies (Mortal Kombat, Fallout, Terminator, etc.).

As a whole, I didn’t particularly like this game and I can’t recommend it.

Interesting little game. It’s nothing overcomplicated as it may seem at the start. It only felt a bit repetitive by the very end. You basically have to get a stable income of basic resources, which allow you to get coins (=money) that help you stabilize your food production. Once you’re at that point, you can upgrade your structures for more advanced resources and upgrade your fighters in order to prepare for the *big* end-game fights.

There’s a first final boss, after which the game gives you access to a whole new area where you get the items needed to summon the *real* final boss of the game. In this new area you have to basically build everything back from zero with little to no help from the mainland (the new area is an island). Well, I didn’t really like this start-over concept. It was interesting the first 5 minutes, but once I understood monkeys aren’t hostile but rather an actual source to exploit, everything felt like I had to replay the game from scratch again.

Furthermore, everything, as I said, is done in order to prepare for some supposedly hard boss fights, but in reality if you have enough fighters (I went with 7) and at least half of them are equipped with something that can stun enemies (let’s say even the most basic iron shield with just 10% stun chance) you can take down all the bosses with ease, since they end up being almost perma-stunned. That makes the fights quite trivial.

There are DLCs too that expand the number of cards and add new game mechanics, but I didn’t meddle with them. I assume they may enhance the whole experience, since the base game is quite poor imho and doesn’t have much replay value. Not a bad game, but I don’t feel like recommending it.

We’re slowly progressing through the game. We explored a handful of new areas and beat a few more bosses.

I’m still of the same opinion as last month, except for the fights, which are a bit better since I managed to get better armor, so I don’t die right away like before. But given that I die less, fights are even more underwhelming, since we kill even strong monsters with relatively little effort.

By this time, I don’t think there’s enough left to make me change my opinion about this game.

I really, really enjoyed the game. Now that I dedicated “a few” hours to it, I can say that it’s a great driving simulator, mostly thanks to the fact that the physics of the cars feels just right. Each of them is different, and sometimes it almost seems like you’re playing a different game when you switch between them. Some are easy to drive, others are a hell to master (Audi Quattro I’m looking at you). I can’t even imagine what a blasting experience it would be to drive with a decent wheel and maybe in VR, instead of just a joypad.

There are different game modes and challenges too, in case you get tired of the usual rally stages. I must say, though, that despite the fact that for each rally location present in the game they basically created only 2 levels, it hardly happens to get the feeling of racing over and over on the same tracks. That happens because for each level you have the whole stage run, the 1st half run, the 2nd half run and their reverse counterparts. So basically from 2 levels you end up having 12 stages for each rally, and there’s a dozen of rally locations. So there are about 150 possible stages you can drive on (not counting the RallyCross ones).

The learning curve has been quite steep, especially from the moment I decided to face the Flat Out DLC challenges seriously for the hardest achievement in the game (beating them at “very hard” difficulty). The hardest part was mustering the courage to go flat out even on very narrow roads when your brain tells you nothing but to brake and slow down. I lost count of how many times I crashed the car on some rock or some pile of logs, got a tire puncture or simply lost control and got off the road. Beating these challenges was the most rewarding experience in the game for me, though.

A side note about a moment of frustration I experienced: there’s a glitch in the game that greatly affects the times of your AI opponents and it still hasn’t been fixed. In more than a game mode, if you don’t complete a whole event in one go (meaning without closing the game, or even without simply going back to the main menu), it is possible that, once you resume the event, the times registered by your AI opponents will be much, much lower than they should, even lower than the currently set world records in some cases, making them impossible to beat. I first encountered this bug during the 3rd stage of a 5-stage challenge, so I lost about a total of 4 hours of gameplay if I consider the time spent to properly beat the first two stages, the time spent on the third one before I realized it was actually frigging impossible and there had to be something wrong, plus the time needed to get back there once I restarted. Because yes, the only way to fix it is to abandon the event and start all over. I’ll leave you a link here that lists all the correct times (and some of the glitched ones) for the multi-stage challenges there with difficulty set at 91/100 (the minimum for counting as “very hard”). Maybe it will prevent you from unnecessarily wasting time.

Since I played the first one, it's impossible not to make comparisons. The first big difference you notice is that it's way better when it comes to the graphics. Another point in its favor is the level and ambient design; they really overdid themselves with some of the maps. You have some really amazing locations to explore, and the experience is further enhanced by the aforementioned improved graphics.

Gameplay-wise I feel like there's been a step back, instead. Mind that the shooting feels similar but I think there's a problem of enemy balance or maybe I should say class balance. Normal monsters, even the special ones, are too easy to kill: 2-3 shots will usually suffice. Even the boss fights are a bit underwhelming. There’s no real time to learn their pattern or even see if there is one, because they usually die without much effort on your part—if I don’t immediately die, that is. In fact, with a class like the one I chose for myself, one or two hits are enough to shoot you out of existence, while my gf’s class, which is tankier, can withstand 4-5 times the damage without breaking a sweat. It’s okay to have tanks and glass cannons classes, but the game doesn’t make any effort in warning you about it, and I wish there was a smaller gap between them. The usual boss fight goes this way: we burst damage half the boss hp in 2 seconds, I die the second after cause I get basically 1-hit killed, she slowly tanks away the other half of the boss by herself. So no real fun there, at least for me.

Another thing that I didn’t like is the change of the protagonist we play as, which means that we’re following a different story, even if closely related. This shift makes you feel more like you’re playing some kind of spin-off rather than a main game in the series.

That said, consider that everything I just said is based on a fraction of the game only. They're basically just first impressions. I hope it will get better later. For now, let’s just say I have mixed feelings about it.

I played the base game 7 years ago and the co-op campaign for the first time this month. I honestly don’t remember much of my first playthrough, but I remember enjoying it less than the first game. This time, maybe because I wasn’t alone, I felt like I could enjoy the game more. That’s mostly because the game forces you to use your brain, which isn’t granted in most puzzle games and it does so thanks to its smartly built puzzles. They become progressively harder and harder, but without making you feel overwhelmed. Trying to visualize their solution before actually solving them and seeing that solution working out was my favorite part. The fact that I could do it with another person made everything even more gratifying. You can say the game is aging welI. I had a really fun experience.

The only drawback is GLaDOS' sarcasm; it can become a bit annoying after a while and loosens its charm quite fast.

I must say I was quite unimpressed by the game and I found it an overall forgettable experience.

Neither the story, nor the gameplay-both the shooting and the platforming part-managed to make me feel engaged. Even the boss fights felt a bit too straightforward and failed to provide any kind of real challenge.

Story-wise I didn’t particularly like the dialogues either, except the humor here and there, but most of the time it felt a bit awkward. I had the same feeling with the character design, most of all when we consider the talking weapons and their voice acting.

So yeah, all things considered, it felt a bit like a waste of time.

Oh, there are real movies inside the game that you can watch in their entirety. It doesn’t happen often in a game, I guess, and it’s a fun bit to mention. I must admit I didn’t expect to see a questionably dressed young Paul Walker suddenly appearing on TV inside the game. Had a good chuckle.

I really liked the premise of the story. Imagining a world (not necessarily Earth) where the oceans disappear and grandiose sceneries are left behind is an intriguing idea to explore. In this game, they manage to give a few vivid pictures of what that world would be and I really appreciated that. I liked the graphics in that sense and how they managed to give life to a story and an entire world just with a few diary logs, chats and items that you find while climbing.

I found the gameplay interesting too. It’s not like you have much to do apart from jumping and climbing, but I really liked the originality of the movement system, with the need to alternate your fingers while pushing buttons like a climber would alternate their hands during a climb. Further to this point, I liked the level design too: the whole ascension process, alternating moments where you find yourself fighting the elements on the outside and moments where you’re swallowed in some crevice inside the earth, but instead of going down, you keep going up and up and up.

It seems like I liked the game even more than I thought. Definitely recommended.

Another game that I played a few years back. This experience was the opposite of Portal 2, though, in the sense that I played co-op first, then this month I decided to play it solo (even because we never completed the main campaign at the time).

There’s not much to say. The whole game revolves around combining magic elements and creating spells. Some may synergize well, others may not. It’s amazing how many possibilities there are. It’s also baffling how some fight that seemed impossible at first or in any case extremely hard (basically every single boss fight in the game) became quite trivial once you discovered the right spell to use in order to counter them.

The storytelling was a bit over the top for my taste and so was the humor. I realize just now while writing and thinking back to my recent playing history that a really high number of developers decide to undertake the humoristic storytelling way without considering how humor in general is one of the things that tend to age worse, since it’s primarily subjective and heavily influenced by time/different sensibilities/trends/etc.

Oh, the game must be played with a keyboard. I tried the controller first but the spell input time is really too slow in comparison, making playing unnecessarily harder.

And another thing. I don’t know what happened (it wasn’t like that the first time I played), but the game crashes. A lot. Really really a lot. There’s an unofficial patch for that out there, but it still doesn’t manage to solve the problem completely.

It’s a visual masterpiece. Different palettes of colors are skillfully used in order to match the passing of the seasons. But it’s not a mere representation of nature that you see transposed on the screen. It’s the very feelings we should feel in front of the crescent decadence of a world which is rapidly and literally falling apart. We can see through the colors how the darkness's cancerogenous grasp slowly brings death and destruction to everything that it touches. There are a lot of interpretations we can give to this darkness if we make a parallel to our own world: it’s clearly a metaphor for something and we’re free to choose what it may stand for, but It’s not like the game is shy in dishing out some possible key, from the simple ‘hate calls more hate’ concept, to pollution and disregard about nature in general, to religious fanaticism, and this is just to name some, with one being as good as any. Or it could simply be that we don’t have to choose and it represents all the evils of this world at once.

Parallel to this, in the opposite direction, we have the growth of Neva, from pup to adulthood. She’s a weapon, metaphorically but also literally. She’s hope. She’s the one with real power. We fend off some of that darkness by ourselves, but in the end she’s the one able to fight back and exorcize the masked darkness, she’s the white herald bringing the colors and making living things grow back. If we consider that and go beyond the simple appearance of a wolf pup growing up in the care of her loving companion (btw it’s really sweet how you can interact with her), the fact that she grows over time and becomes stronger and stronger assumes a more figurative meaning and so does the ending.

The ending inevitably rides along those lines and the final message is thanks to hope darkness can be beaten but requires sacrifice and that we should accept said sacrifice. I can’t avoid being a bit sad about it. Maybe I’m not mature enough for that yet.

Gameplay-wise, we have a few puzzles and a few fights, even boss fights. We're on the easy end in both frangents and I think it’s right this way. It’s not like this game wants to be that kind of game where everything must become a challenge. It would disrupt the flow of growth we’re witnessing. I really liked the winter section of the game with its mirror mechanics. The soundtrack is also very nice and enhances the overall experience.

All in all it’s probably one of the best games I played this year.

Oh, btw, the ending actually confused me at first. I didn’t completely get it right away. Only after a few days and a bit of thought (plus going back to the game to confirm a few things) I managed to dissipate any doubt and give my personal meaning to it. I don’t say that mine is necessarily the right one, it may as well be that I’m imagining things, but I’m satisfied with my interpretation. Not happy, but satisfied. I still find everything extremely sad, but that doesn’t depend on the game per se; it depends on the world that the metaphor chose to represent, which is ours, and we can’t do much about it… can we?

The game tries to make replayability one of its cornerstones. You're supposed to play missions by exploring each map, seeing what the set course of each NPC is and what opportunities may present, and then pick one to follow and kill your targets (note: “opportunities”, as they’re called in the game, are guided events that, if followed, give you a good chance to kill a target unnoticed). Once done, you can repeat the mission following different opportunities and objectives or, if you’ve learnt the whole “chess game” by then and know how all pawns move, you can wing it and go straight to the targets without wasting much time. I must say that once I completed a mission, though, I never felt the urge to replay it in a different way, not even when I didn’t manage to stay completely stealthy. There was no appeal for me in that. It’s like asking to play a tedious puzzle game not once but twice, thrice or more. Not even the presence of achievements and scores and a leaderboard helped in that sense. I found the game decent, but just as a one-playthrough experience.

The stealth part can be enjoyable enough, even if there are clear limits to the NPC’s AI that can be easily exploited. Plus some of the opportunities make killing the targets quite too easy, guiding you step by step, leaving no room for mistakes or even personal initiatives for that matter.

The maps are well built and full of details. They offer some really nice sceneries and there’s really a lot going on in most of them.

I didn’t find the main story all that enticing. There’s too little on the fire to even smell a hint of smoke (probably my fault for not having played any other game of the series in recent years; I remember trying out the first one in the early 2000s, but I hardly remember anything about that game and I think I’ve never finished it). I expected a bit more there, I must say.

Anyway, my final judgment is that it's not a bad game, but that it didn’t particularly match my taste.

We had much less fun compared to the first one.

Personally, I didn’t find any of the puzzles particularly clever apart maybe for the cube one from the stairwell section.

The game felt overall shorter, easier and a lot less rewarding. To prove the point further, we didn’t feel like replaying it with inverted roles.

I just hope the next games won’t follow the same trend.

I must admit I don’t have much experience with racing sims, so I can’t really give a proper opinion about the game on that matter (I play with a joypad).

All I can say is that each car I tried so far felt really different, that there’s a decent number of events and activities and lastly─and more importantly─that I’m having fun.

Btw, every time I play this kind of game I get tempted to buy myself a decent racing rig, but then I come back to my senses. I don’t need an expensive dust collector, I have already enough of them, right? RIGHT?!

I’m back at it again. Third time’s the charm, they say. Except, this is the fourth time I picked up this game over the years in order to reach the 500 seconds mark for the achievement (I’m not even close, I still can’t properly handle the 3 gigapedes spawn). But to be honest, it’s becoming a matter of principle, or maybe “hurt ego” if you prefer. I gave up one too many times thinking I suck at this game and that reaching that goal is an impossible feat for me. Well, I’d like to prove myself wrong for once. So yeah, here I go again.

It usually takes me 20ish hours before I give up. I’ll try to stick to it this time.

Oh btw, despite the negative feelings it may have generated, it’s probably one of my favorite games of all time. An epitome of simplicity with impeccable design in all its aspects in my opinion.

I really liked the storytelling and how they explored the characters. I knew them only from what you can see in the movies, so it felt quite refreshing to experience a different take on them. I liked Draxx the most, especially his backstory. I felt that in this game he was a lot more profound as a character and could be put on the same level as the others instead of being just some side comic relief like in the movies. The dialogues are well written and there was a nice balance between the omnipresent humor and the most tense moments of the story.

The weak part of the game is the combat. Dodging feels awkward and the auto-lock can be a hindrance while shooting. Looking at your companions during fights can be a bit disheartening, since at times you can see them standing there and doing nothing, and that’s because if they’d do actual damage on their own the fights would end in two seconds. The crowd control skills aren't as effective as you’d expect, to the point of being useless, and some boss fights (one in particular) are chaotic, without a proper indicator of what you’re supposed to do.

Oh, I had a recurring little bug. I didn’t see many people complaining about it, though. Sometimes the voice of a specific character cuts off during dialogues for just a line or two. I could see them talking and I had onscreen subtitles of what they were supposed to be saying, but the voice would just disappear, as if it hadn’t loaded for some reason. It did happen like 20 times during the whole playthrough (it’s not much considering how extensive the dialogues are) but it was there and it annoyed me when it happened.

Putting everything on a scale, though, I can still recommend it. The story and the characters’ charm by themselves are more than enough.

The game is graphically pleasant. Gameplay-wise it doesn’t pose a particular challenge and it can feel repetitive quite fast. In my entire playthrough, I think I failed my run only one time out of ten.

It has some quite overcomplicated mechanics for each of the characters, which must have required a good deal of balancing from the devs, and that’s commendable, but the base game can be beaten without taking advantage of any of them. I think they’re mostly for those who look for a challenge and are planning to replay the game at harder difficulties or with bigger handicaps (there's an incremental difficulty system similar to Slay the Spire). I personally didn’t meddle with those and I was happy with just unlocking the way to the final boss and beating it once, so I found it quite a relaxing experience.

I think it’s a solid game. It has a really linear vengeance story and a well-built combat system. That is if you understand the game properly and learn that you have to parry/dodge and counterattack in order to proceed smoothly. The game, for some reason, doesn’t put any effort in teaching you the way to play it (despite it having a tutorial). You might end up just smashing the attack button and inevitably find yourself mopping the floor against bosses if you don’t know any better. I heard many people quit the game or found it unplayable for that reason.

I liked the graphics and character design too.

It has a bit of replayability too, since you can decide to replay the game sparing the bosses instead of killing them. However, I must say, it doesn’t make any sense story-wise. I mean: I invade your turf, I kill everyone in my way and then I decide to spare you at the end of the level. And I don’t do it just once, but 5 times, once for each boss. Kinda nonsense if I think about it.

I overall enjoyed it, though.

Gameplay-wise is a bit of a drag. I didn’t particularly like neither the combat and the shooting feeling nor the whole setting. I found the NCP mushrooms hard to look at and listen to. I didn't feel involved with their stories or quests at all.

The main plot is all over the place, too. I get why the protagonist is searching for her sister, but why does she mind about those other so-called “friends”? I mean, one guy thinks he owns her, the other one tries to kill her and his girlfriend treats her like shit. Just… why? And I have to forgive them too if I want to be morally just? For real?! Nah, it doesn’t work for me. I feel like the whole premise doesn’t stand and lacks proper foundations. I liked the relationship with the Voice, instead (I love their voice actress─Megaera from Hades btw), but it ends without really explaining anything. It’s a bit too open to interpretation for my taste.

All in all, I can’t recommend it.

Whew, it’s been an interesting ride. In my opinion, there’s a lot to praise about this game.

It’s a merge of old and new. The “old” part strongly resonates with a part of me. I’m a sucker for pixel graphics that have good animation. I’m a sucker for RPGs systems that aren’t overly complicated but still versatile enough to accommodate different playstyles. I’m a sucker for puzzles in general.

I liked the combat systems in particular, from the simple hack and slashing to the boss fights.

I liked the story. The “childish” humor. It’s a good change of pace once in a while. It’s still enough to get involved with the characters. Well, some of them. I have only some hesitation about the ending and some choices the characters made, but I get that they wanted to keep relationships simple and pure, without dragging it out with unnecessary drama. So they may feel kinda forced, but I get why they’re like that considering the general vibe of the game.

I liked a lot of the puzzles too. Nothing too complicated, but they posed a good challenge. Most of all, when I had to speedrun the temples because of the achievements (heh). I realize, though, that someone who doesn’t like puzzles, considering how many of them there are, could feel like they are too pervasive and overstay their welcome. On that note, the game has a good longevity and there’s a DLC too that gives closure to the story (I felt forced to get it when I completed the base game since I needed answers!). Some of the boss fights can be very tough (the DLC’s ones in particular). I state that as a positive point. It can be a good challenge if you’re into those kinds of things.

I recommend it.

As expected from a Freebird Games’ game, you have to deal with a romantic story where you’re expected to open your heart and feel. The usual witty storytelling where light and deep moments intertwine flawlessly, plus the delicate soundtrack, manage to achieve that.

If you’ve already played and appreciated their other games, you won’t be disappointed. If you don’t know them, well, you should fix that as soon as possible.

It felt quite rough at the start. The movements and the fights did not appear fluid at all, but it grew on me. I got used to the commands over time and once I unlocked most, if not all, of the dash/movement skills, I felt like the game unlocked its full potential. Since that very moment, delving into the platforming became really pleasant and I think I’ve encountered some of the hardest platforming challenges in my gaming “career”. On that note, I must say that some of the rotating flails sections were a bit too much even for me─I gave up on a handful of them.

The fights, instead, never really took off: they remained quite dull and lacked dynamism.

Overall, I liked it, and I think any metroidvania fan could appreciate it.

Oh, side note, for the completionists: the nightmare mode achievement (=beat the game without dying) is really really hard. I gave up just at the idea and didn’t even try.

It felt quite short, but it also felt that if it was any longer it would have become repetitive fast.

Graphically, it is nothing impressive and even the gameplay doesn’t particularly shine. The fights are pretty straightforward and maybe, aside for a single boss, there’s no particular mechanic to learn.

Still, I think it is overall passable. It’s not a bad game at all. In that sense I couldn’t point out a really bad thing about it even if I wanted to. That said, though, I can’t say I had particularly fun either.