You may be surprised to see how generic I was in reviewing Big Walk, and then glancing at the rating I gave it, but it's exhilarating to be faced with a title that deserves your full attention, yet my description of it would deprive you of the joy of discovering it. It's a title I recommend to everyone, without hesitation or exclusion: the premise is that of an online cooperative game that asks you to embark on a journey (of about 15-20 hours) that, I swear on all that's dearest to me, you won't easily forget, and that might even bring a tear or two to your eyes as the credits roll. It has no explicit narrative, no golden path for the player to follow, and you'll have to make every step, every puzzle, and every gourd your own. But, ultimately, every memorable journey is so for the memories it leaves you with and for the people who helped create them. If you want to try it, Big Walk is also on PS Plus, otherwise you can trust me and take a leap of faith and buy it on sale for around €15. Ignore the YouTubers who try it in single player and without understanding a thing call it a Squid Game without the squid, ignore the unmotivated hatred that now moves entire communities against a product just because they are people with very sad lives: grab your headphones, call your friends, and spend 15 hours testing yourself among the sweet sounds and welcoming colors of the best indie game of this year and undoubtedly a game worthy of being included in the Olympus of the best games of all time.
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The final message of D-topia isn't as clear as a chalk line on a blackboard, but rather that of a cloud, fluid, in motion, and subject to an interpretation that cannot escape the imaginary chain that binds it to the person we are, emotionally and intellectually. From now until the next inevitable roundup of titles (September I'm Not Afraid of You), I'll take with me something from D-topia that I never expected, from the first impression I had: a cohesion and coherence that are difficult to replicate in a landscape too fearful of ludonarrative dissonance to bother aiming for a product in which every aspect perpetuates the same message, the same theme.
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I couldn't completely love it, but I can't say it fundamentally disappointed me either: Hollowbody delivers exactly what it promises. It's a survival horror game with a PS2 feel, one that wants to make you feel vulnerable and disoriented in a city that doesn't want you to survive, and it succeeds for long stretches with a coherence that many games with much larger budgets fail to maintain. If you grew up with the first Silent Hill games, with Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, with those early-millennium survival horror games that demanded patience and delivered pure tension in return, you'll find something here worth the price of admission (which was affordable, by the way). If, on the other hand, you're accustomed to a contemporary feel, or if the mechanical flaws detract from immersion rather than add difficulty, you'll probably leave the exclusion zone feeling more frustrated than satisfied. As I did, if I may say so. Hollowbody is a game that deserves to exist and deserves attention. However, it does not deserve to be forgiven for flaws that could have been smoothed out further, with a little more time, or perhaps just a few more handfuls of honest feedback.
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The 7th Guest Remake is a very enjoyable puzzle game, bolstered by the originality of its FMV cutscenes and a narrative that dips its toes into the supernatural without overwhelming or lacking in flavor. The game's dual nature (flat and VR) allows for at least one more playthrough for those who also own a PSVR2, but on the other hand, it's a very linear game. The puzzles are well-designed, and the fact that each one speaks its own language and follows its own rules keeps the game from becoming locked into a constant escalation of difficulty. If the idea of solving a haunted house room by room appeals to you, there's no game I can recommend more highly than The 7th Guest Remake.
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Yerba Buena isn't a game you'll easily forget. Its core mechanics are genuinely original in the world of first-person puzzle platformers, and when they work perfectly, you can feel the difference compared to something built on familiar ideas. The visual presentation is colorful and coherent, with a palette that captures that 1970s California aesthetic without ever becoming cloying (much like American Arcadia did a few years ago). The soundtrack cleverly adapts to the setting. The writing, for the most part, is worth the time invested. For those looking for a puzzle game that has something new to say mechanically and doesn't take itself too seriously narratively, while still finding room for some scathing commentary on gentrification and tech capitalism, Yerba Buena offers a dozen hours that are well worth the investment. I recommend it, knowing that you need to have a certain tolerance for the indie rough edges, for a few bugs that shouldn't have been gold-plated, and for a checkpoint system that sometimes forgets it's there for the player. It's not Portal. It doesn't even try to be, in the way some games overshadow their illustrious predecessors. It's something stranger, more flawed, and at times more interesting. Yerba Buena: good weed, not perfect. So much for those who put mint in their mojitos...
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Wax Heads is a small game that knows exactly what it wants to be, and it does so with a craftsmanship that's hard to find in even much larger productions. It's the kind of experience recommended to those who love music as a cultural object, to those who've ever spent an afternoon browsing records in a store knowing they probably wouldn't buy anything but enjoying the ritual anyway, and to those looking for a narrative product that has something to say beyond its gameplay. The fact that it comes from a two-person studio makes it all the more remarkable. It's not for everyone: those looking for mechanical challenge, a sustained pace, or a length that justifies a AAA price tag will be disappointed. But Wax Heads doesn't have these ambitions, and it has the good sense not to fake them. It's an indie debut album: not perfect, not very long, but full of personality, with some songs that stick in your head longer than you expected.
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Here I come to my non-spoiler conclusion, the one that, without the next part, gives out a score very close to a perfect 10. 007 First Light is a game full of style, action, and charm, just like its protagonist. The limited character development of Bond James Bond, otherwise in line with the more classic Bond, who rarely has a true emotional rise (with the exception of Craig), is compensated by excellently written and performed supporting characters, interesting and effective villains, and a narrative that, in its almost entirety, is a perfect center. If you turn a blind eye to the driving sections and the last chapter and a half, you are faced with a masterpiece that not only reinvigorates my faith in IOI, but also opens the door to a long life for the 007 brand on our consoles... while the film franchise tries to figure out where to go from here.
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Thick as Thieves is a product that's both difficult and very easy to judge, a stealth game in its infancy that doesn't have much to distinguish it from other games, but it does decently well the few things it's decided to focus on. If you want to invest in a growing product and lose yourself for 2-3 hours in nostalgic memories of the Thief of old, then perhaps this is the game for you. Otherwise, you can easily wait for the title's eventual evolution, or its—at this point not yet inevitable—demise...
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Thrifty Business is a half-baked game. The half that works is excellent: the atmosphere, the objects, the customer stories, the overall mood. The half that doesn't work is structural: a loop that becomes mechanical too quickly, some UX choices that hinder the flow, and a lack of objectives that weighs especially heavily on longer sessions. It's the kind of game that's best played in small doses—a half-hour here, a half-hour there—rather than in extended sessions. Spellgarden Games knows how to make this kind of game, and it shows. Thrifty Business doesn't quite reach the heights of Sticky Business, a more focused and positively limited product, but it's still a good reason to sit down, tidy up, and enjoy yourself for a while.
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Atomic Owl isn't a broken game. It's a flawed game, in almost every way. At €12.99, it's positioned in a price range where the competition—even just within Eastasiasoft's own catalog—offers much more for the same price. It's a shame, because the basic idea had its own personality. The execution didn't quite live up to it.
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For its price, there are very few complaints. Summerhouse is a well-executed creative tool, with pleasing art direction and a hard-to-replicate atmosphere. The controller adaptation isn't perfect, and the lack of any objective can be a drag during moments of tiredness—but these are limitations that the game's context, and its price, make understandable. A sunny afternoon in a digital box.
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Slots & Daggers, in short, comes out of nowhere and, before tiring or becoming difficult for the sake of being difficult, takes you to the end credits, with an elegance made of simple and elegant mechanics, a running time of just under 8 hours, and a lot of attention to flow and game feel, words that every development studio should print and place in front of the office door.
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Call of the Elder Gods is a sequel that can stand alongside its predecessor without falling short or being superior. Out of the Blue Games' work continues to demonstrate the team's expertise and their ability to create simply perfect puzzles, but the narrative leaves much to be desired and somewhat undermines the rest of the game.
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inKONBINI is a game that has misplaced its priorities, prioritizing narrative over purely mechanical aspects. Nagai Industries's mistake is perhaps primarily a communication one, rather than a strictly productive one. As a result, inKONBINI ends up being a good narrative title, but a barely adequate simulation game. I hope for an internal evolution within the team that restores balance between story and mechanics, because all the ingredients for something memorable are there.
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Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts is a rather unique turn of events, both in the indie and mainstream worlds. I don't think I can recall another title that so easily puts drawing tools in our hands and lets us tackle challenges with them. While the aesthetic and offerings are impressive on paper, the freedom offered is simply too much, to the point of becoming disorienting and lacking any real depth. A little more clarity about the game's target audience would certainly have moved Scriptorium closer to something more than a pastime for a few play sessions here and there.
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Dosa Divas is a game that aesthetically represents a definite step forward for Outerloop Games, but mechanically it needed more attention, or simply time. Unable to distance myself from the culinary metaphors the game itself evokes, Dosa Divas may be a mix of tasty, certified-origin ingredients, but the resulting dish merely satisfies hunger, leaving nothing lasting in the memory and, above all, failing to make us feel any particular pleasure in consuming it, a disappointment to the narrative and art style that were instead guaranteed springboards.
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Lost and Found Co. is a game that works perfectly in its planned ambitions. Aside from the narrative chit-chat of a genre that certainly doesn't focus on story, Bit Egg Inc.'s title has excellent aesthetics, plenty of attention to quality of life, and a level base that, in quantity and care, offers many hours of gameplay (and replayability). The small additional mechanics add verve to a genre that can become stale and monotonous, so much so that completionists like me waste time and half an hour chasing that last, yet-to-be-missed bonus objective. Rounding out the quality package is an almost reverential attitude toward the player's time, to the point of respecting the desire and need to do something else between sessions: in this way, Lost and Found Co. acts as a playmate who isn't constantly on our backs, but is always there when we want to have another short, delightful, and colorful session.
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Life is Strange: Reunion manages to hit the emotional and narrative bullseye with this exit for Max and Chloe. Not everything works, particularly some secondary characters who have no real weight in the story and the relative scarcity of backtalk with Chloe, but the playful piano that Deck Nine wields manages to evoke a delightful melody that I'm sure will linger in our hearts for a while, like dust on photos of when we were younger, perhaps more carefree, perhaps happier. It's a bit of a nostalgia-in-progress, what I feel for Life is Strange: Reunion, and it has the same flavor as that autumn afternoon twenty years ago, by the lake. Goodbye, Max and Chloe. And thank you.
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For those who enjoy cozy games as a companion, as that perfect interactive soundtrack to unplug after a hard day, Collector's Cove is a solid and well-crafted choice. For those who expect a new mechanical discovery every dozen hours, disappointment, however slight, is almost inevitable.
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Marathon has the potential to be... in fact, it IS a perfect game, but only for a very small segment of the player base; for a ‘normal’ player, who plays Extraction alongside other games and genres, the barrier to entry is extremely high and shows no sign of lowering as you progress. If you have the patience to spend 10 hours just figuring out how to play, Marathon is absolutely the perfect game for you; if, on the other hand, you want to have fun without cursing the heavens, Helldivers II and ARC Raiders are definitely more your cup of tea.
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