“FAR: Changing Tides” ably evokes the blissful passion of travel. It is the perfect antidote to overly stuffed, bloated video games.
I can hear the murmurous, gently swelling music of Rotview Balcony, a place of crimson skies and arid landscape, playing from the other room where the game is idling as I type this sentence. “Elden Ring’s” score is a glorious counterpoint to the occasional jankiness of texture clipping and frame-rate fluctuations. And while I suspect the latter part of “Elden Ring” may exasperate my patience — I hear that a gauntlet of bosses picks up where the notoriously difficult “Dark Souls III: The Ringed City” DLC left off — right now, I can’t wait to get back to it.
The overriding question “Horizon Forbidden West” left me with is ‘when will its prospective audience grow tired of the tired conventions that underwrite so many go-and-save-the-world adventure games?’ As much as I appreciated the fun that came from smashing up robots, “Horizon Forbidden West” won’t earn a spot in my long-term memory.
Restoring power to different places, searching for people and clearing out areas of zombies are pretty much the types of activities I’d expected. But I was utterly enthralled by Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s mechanical panache, entrancing soundtrack, and charismatic NPCs.
For all the neat freaks out there, this one’s for you.
If you’re not moved to play it, consider watching an online playthrough of Moncage. It deserves to be seen.
Throughout my playthrough I was surprised by the manner in which I had to position Emma, or move objects around, precisely to cast just the right shadow for Fenton. In keeping with the theme of a story based around a missing magician, the compact, finely-detailed stages unfold like a series of sleight-of-hand tricks that ably draw your focus in one direction so that you are particularly struck when you stumble on a solution that was more or less hiding in plain sight. If the measure of a good puzzle game is how many “oh wow, this is crazy” moments are packed in it, then Tandem is up there with the best of them. I’d recommend “Tandem: A Tale of Shadows” to anyone who enjoys having their perceptions toyed with.
Guardians of the Galaxy is a competent, if not especially electrifying, action game that sails along on the back of strong voice acting and the sheer momentum with which it introduces new scenes and charismatic characters.
In design terms, what most impressed me about “Metroid Dread” was how the developers guide you through the game’s sprawling areas. Although there is ample incentive to backtrack after Samus acquires a new powerup, the game never wasted my time. At no point was I needlessly sent crisscrossing over environments to determine where to go next. Usually, when Samus acquires a new powerup, there is a place nearby where she can use it to open a previously-unexplored suite of rooms. The game does not lack internal momentum.
From a visual standpoint, every line and every hue seems purposeful, in contrast to so many other games that heap color upon color and detail upon detail as if "more colors and visual effects equals better graphics."
I never felt any urgency to break the time loop since everyone in the world — even Colt — is pretty blithe about going through the motions from one loop to the next. Alas, I find it difficult to imagine anyone who isn’t partial to video game tropes loving Deathloop. Unless you’re particularly drawn to its vibe, it’s a shooter with good mechanics but not much more than that.
As a close friend of mine texted me, it’s like a playable Tim Burton movie. Its imaginative reach leaves most other lighthearted adventure games far behind.
Golf Club: Wasteland is one of the best games I’ve played this year. I loved everything about this game from its refined art style to its soundtrack. It’s peculiar alchemy of meditative sport and pointed sentimentality is a sight to behold.
As it stands, “Road 96” feels like a preview of a better future in which another game grafts more sophistication onto its sturdy template.
Happily, Death’s Door, the new action adventure game about a hard-working, soul-reaping crow is very much a love letter to the old Zelda games. Its mechanics are satisfying in a chip-off-the-old block way, its visuals are a delight and its story line is touched with assured, easygoing humor.
While the lessons might not be very deep, the liveliness of the game leads me, ultimately, to the conclusion that “Mythic Ocean” is a neat game to turn kids on to philosophical reasoning.
In truth, I wish Mario Golf: Super Rush was a bit zanier. The dash mechanic and the Super Shots are fine, but I can’t help thinking that the courses could have been a bit more whimsical than, say, the arid landscape of Balmy Dunes.
“Subnautica: Below Zero’s” conventional sci-fi story line, which revolves around a greedy corporation looking to get ahead in the weapons business, never raised my interest. But the painstaking effort it takes to get Robin from one minor narrative point of interest to another made me appreciate its small, very human scale of success.
For those looking for a blockbuster, family-friendly experience, “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart” checks the boxes. It is hyperkinetic and full of cutesy-looking characters that wear their emotions on their sleeves. If you’ve seen one of the trailers then you basically know what you’re in for: something totally familiar but with next-gen graphics. In other words, from a marketing perspective, it’s a safe bet.
But as someone who went out and got a PlayStation 3 just to play “Demon's Souls” (2009), and, moreover, loved Housemarque’s last two games, Returnal makes me rue the influence that Souls games have exerted on the industry. In my view, Returnal’s severe difficulty level does a disservice to its entertainment value.