I’ve gushed about this game for long enough. I’m a long time fan of Kratos’ adventures, and I thought nothing could possibly top the previous game God of War (2018) that is in the conversation for ‘best game of the last generation’. I was wrong (you might say off my head). Ragnarök builds on God of War (2018) in every conceivable way. This is one of those games that simply every person who considers themselves a gamer should experience. This is Game of the Year for 2022 (sorry Elden Ring). After that emotional experience, I honestly need a hug.
Valkyrie Elysium is not a perfect package. But what I can say is that I found it to be the perfect length for a game of its style. Action RPGs can drag on at times, but Elysium can be all completed (including all subquests) in around 20 hours or so. My minor gripes with aspects of the presentation are more around inconsistency across elements rather than anything that would be considered ‘bad’. The somewhat ’empty’ feeling world can be ignored with a focus on the excellent main cast of characters and their heartfelt interactions.
Not all golf games are created eagle. They can be a bit hit or miss, particularly if they stick to the tried and overused formula we have seen for literally decades. Thankfully, Chuhai Labs have done something completely different here and made a short yet extremely enjoyable puzzle game. Yes, it can be frustrating at times if your button presses are just slightly off – but if that does happen you only have yourself to blame.
Cult of the Lamb is yet another absolutely amazing indie game for 2022, that I am very proud to say was born in my hometown. This is a cute and psychologically disturbed experience where you take the cutest of characters through dark ordeals only to satiate the desires of the demon that saved you from death. Tight roguelike combat crossed with town building is a genius combination and causes you to enter these loops where you want to do just one more dungeon. After that dungeon you get back to town and need to ensure your followers are still happy, fed and faithful. After that – just one more dungeon? Yes please.
Musou games are a niche genre – small enough that a lot of gamers might not have ever tried them. Omega Force are using big series like Zelda, Persona and now Fire Emblem to reach a wider audience, and I think that is a great thing. Variety in games is great and Musou is definitely its own thing – and Omega Force is simply the best team making these games right now. For fans of the Fire Emblem series (and Three Houses in particular), this is almost a must-play game because it allows us to return to a deep world with engaging characters that are extremely likable.
The Quarry is an interesting beast. The story is good without being exceptional and the first playthrough is an enjoyable experience due to the strong presentation led by top-quality voice acting talent. The 8-10 hours of adventuring feel like an interactive season of the latest horror show on Netflix. In my view any horror fan, particularly those that enjoyed Until Dawn, should give this a go.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is a relatively short game – particularly when compared to true open world games that can have upwards of 100 hours of playtime. I completed my adventure including a good chunk of the side content in about 20 hours and there would be another 10-20 hours worth of game time for those looking to complete 100% of the activities. Whilst the combat and progression model of the game is somewhat weak compared to the top-notch design and graphical presentation, the game is of an appropriate length where I still felt engaged throughout the adventure. A storyline that does the job of keeping you engaged without being amazing is tied together with some truly excellent set-piece moments and the innovative and immersive technology of the PS5 Dual Sense controller. Ghostwire Tokyo was a game that I enjoyed, and is easy to recommend to anyone looking for a semi-open-world ghostly romp through Tokyo. The deficiencies in the game are minor and easily overlooked due to the cracking high-points in presentation and atmosphere.
On consideration of my time with Edge of Eternity, it was not all bad. There were definitely moments throughout the game where I was enjoying myself, having fun with the battle system, gawking at the beautiful vistas and giggling at the banter between the characters. Certainly the background music in many areas of the game were very pleasant to listen to. You could say I was on the Edge of my seat. However, these fleeting moments of positivity were far outweighed by frustration with potentially game breaking bugs, disappointment at the lack of polish in the presentation and exasperation at the poor writing both from a story and a script perspective. I find it hard to believe that any player would truly identify with this cast of unlikable characters and their idiotic, almost schizophrenic, decisions made for no apparent reason other than to progress the story along.
Other than some minor gripes with the controls, I was never really frustrated when playing Flynn. However, I don’t think I was truly challenged either. To me this feels like a really good entry point to 2D platformers and Metroidvania style games. I don’t hesitate to recommend this game as a worthy use of your time (about 8-10 hours worth), but don’t expect anything particularly ground-breaking or unique here.
I enjoyed my time with The Wild at Heart. Though it is a relatively short single-player adventure clocking in between 12-20 hours (depending on how much of a completionist or trophy hunter you are), it is an entertaining experience all the way through. There are a couple of enemies and gameplay elements that when encountered the first time will likely cause a ‘death’ – which can be a little frustrating. However, once enemy patterns are learned and your collection of Spritelings is high you can instead focus your energy on the smart puzzles, endearing characters, excellent presentation and slightly tragic yet wholesome story.
Lost Judgement continues the high quality output of the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio over the past few years. Yakuza 0, Yakuza 6, Yakuza Like a Dragon and Judgement are all excellent titles and Lost Judgement is on par with these. If you enjoyed any of those titles, then obviously you will enjoy this one too. A focus on the main story will still take a good 20+ hour time investment. However with everything you can do here there is well over 80 hours of gameplay. Not only are there fully fleshed out minigames such as Drone Racing, Boxing, Dancing and Motorcycle racing, there are also at least 10 full Sega Master System games here, plus some classic Sega arcade ports.
Tales of Arise requires a massive time commitment if you want to see this excellent story through its various twists and turns to its satisfying conclusion. If you want to watch all of the awesome ‘skits’ and complete all available side quests, you are looking at spending a minimum of 60 hours with Tales of Arise. That being said, I never felt bored while playing the game. I always wanted to keep pushing on to complete one more side quest, find one more owl, catch one more fish, or uncover one more secret in this twisting Tale. After finally accepting that it was time to get some sleep and turn off the game I continued to think about the well fleshed-out characters, their individual motivations, and their overall quest. I counted down the hours until I could jump back in and continue from where I left off.
Cris Tales is a game that is wonderfully presented. It also brings some new and unique gameplay ideas to the table, but then makes poor decisions in how to flesh these out over a 30+ hour adventure. This is a game that definitely looks and sounds great, but the cracks in the gameplay and functional stability of the game itself create drawbacks that may cause some people to give it up before seeing it through to an exciting, if not somewhat predictable conclusion.
This game is clearly built with repeated plays and speed running in mind. In fact, the game comes with an individual arena and overall speed run timer built in. Each wave of each battle starts in the same way (enemies appearing in the same positions), so I can certainly see this game being popular in the speed run community as players try to find the most efficient pattern of mowing down the enemies as quickly as possible.
There is a long history of both good and bad pirate games across a variety of different consoles and genre styles. From the recent Microsoft hit Sea of Thieves going all the way back to 1987 and the original ‘Sid Meyer’s Pirates!’ on Commodore 64, you have probably played a pirate game before and honestly you’ve likely played a better pirate game than this one too.
Maid of Sker was made by a small core team of less than 15 people, and at times it does show. As noted above, the base game is very short for a modern game. Even in this game’s genre, this one feels a little bit short for me. This may be as a result of the repetitiveness in the enemies and the puzzles. That being said, the atmosphere that is built though the soundscape of this game is excellent. You can feel the pressure and tension of sneaking past groups of enemies, and the relief of snatching the item that you need to progress without being found.
Judgement is yet another killer entry into the Yakuza series, but it can be enjoyed alone without any prior experience required. The cast of characters are well-written and more importantly the Japanese voice acting is top-notch. The story draws you in with intrigue and never feels predictable or cliché.
Rez Infinite is not a new game. It is a remastered version of a game from 20 years ago that was pretty much the swansong of its genre. It is a niche retro experience that in all honesty is not for everyone. It can, at times, be brutally difficult. But if you enjoy a great shooter, if you are an audio-visual buff, or if anything said above piques your interest in the slightest, I urge you to give Rez Infinite a try.