Summing it up and recommending it in binary terms leaves too much out—I did enjoy playing it, but I didn’t feel engaged or satisfied by the whole package. I spent the middle hours forcing myself to boot it up but fist-pumped at the end when I finished a run with the weakest character. Games (and critics) contain multitudes, and Sol Cesto seems to contain both more and less than meets the eye. Its true appeal comes down to manipulating and spinning that figurative wheel, which has more depth at its edges than at its core, but its core alone will be enough for some to bask in the sun’s light.
Goodnight Universe uses its innovative camera-tracking technology to continue to break the barriers between the player and the narrative, resulting in a truly immersive and emotional experience that is let down at times by the goofy turns the story takes and some frustrating timed gameplay sections. But despite its flaws, it still made me feel something I’ve never felt in a game before – unconditional love – and for that, it is a treasured and recommended experience.
At its best, Fresh Tracks is a mesmerising flow state of sights and sounds where your movements are in lockstep with the music, but the combination of underbaked roguelite systems and intense difficulty spikes caused me to lose the beat more often than not as my journey continued, and it leaves me to wonder if I could have spent more time in that desired flow state without the start-from-zero approach that the roguelite structure demands.