Indika is an absurdly arresting experience. Its strong character writing, bold visuals, and excellent acting all contribute to delivering a story that consistently surprises. Its oscillation between realistic, dour moments and the humorous and absurd makes each moment shine, while also serving to blend the game into a coherent, cohesive whole. Sure, the overarching story and themes may not be exceptionally profound, but the carefulness and deliberateness with which those elements are generally handled make this a powerful experience.
Cairn is a climbing and survival game that examines the limits of your patience and tests your perseverance. Supported by a phenomenal soundtrack and great acting performances, it presents an exploration of the main character Aava’s will and purpose. In doing so, it holds a mirror to the players, asking a lot of us as well. What is to be gained from climbing the mountain? Why do we do it? What do we leave behind when we face our fears? You’ll only ever know if you dare to try.
Trials of Mana is extremely faithful to the SNES classic — perhaps to its detriment. While it does a commendable job of upgrading its aesthetics to the modern era, many other aspects remain close to the original when they could have used a bit more love.
Despite these minor quibbles, nearly every aspect of Yakuza Kiwami remains a colossal step up when compared to the original 2005 release. New movesets, more varied minigames and side quests, alongside the massively improved graphical fidelity make Kiwami the much preferred way to play through the classic story. It is a safe retelling that helps lay the groundwork for future titles, and that’s plenty.
Resident Evil 4 (2023) is an excellent game that captures the tone and absurdity of the original RE4, while breathing fresh air into its systems. Beyond graphical or audio enhancements, this game improves on every bit of the core gameplay when compared to the original.
The totality of the messaging in UNBEATBLE does come out a bit saccharine. Themes about love, support, and forgiveness are pervasive. Yet, at least for the moment, I can’t help but feel that sweetness myself. The feeling that, if I simply accept the love and care thrown my way, we really can band together and become unbeatable.
Dead Format is host to excellent ideas. The “haunted VHS” concept of opening up new worlds to explore sounds genuinely exciting in theory. To add to this, Katanalevy has a masterful grasp on the aesthetics of the past, using the constraints of VHS and film to create a genuinely unsettling atmosphere, but the poorly implemented stalker mechanic drags the experience down.
Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker is flashy, fun, and addictive. While it is ultimately an extremely simple and short game, it is at the very least a nice way to spend a few hours if you just want to tickle the parts of your brain that like seeing numbers climb.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is undoubtedly a beautiful game. Gorgeous artwork in the character sprites and the backgrounds breathes life into the world, music both haunting and melancholic permeates the air. More than any other positive aspect, Hollow Knight: Silksong seems to be a feat of technical prowess, a true masterwork of engineering where all the pieces work exactly as intended. Despite this, it remains one of the most tedious and boring games I have played in a very long time. It is a true shame those perfectly functioning systems don’t work together better to create a more rewarding experience.
Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered International is a breathtaking RPG that offers a freedom seldom found in modern Square Enix titles. Its free-form structure and less-than-clear gameplay mechanics will inevitably lead to some confusion, but through playing it, you will create a journey that is uniquely yours.
Demonschool is stylish and irreverent. Grotesque foes are contrasted by the bright hues and neon stylings akin to a retrowave album cover, and the shifting electronic soundscape enhances the mood in any given scene. There are some minor pitfalls in terms of battle difficulty, but there’s enough depth and visual flair to keep things interesting. Demonschool is positively bursting with heart and energy.
Malys is a darker, more story-heavy take on the deckbuilding genre. It's chock-full of great artwork, stellar music, and interesting gameplay mechanics, but is ultimately dragged down by persistent performance woes and quality errors. Spelling mistakes are the least of its worries as Malys also has the player contend with slowdown, hitching, and bugs that threaten each run more ferociously than any enemy on the screen.
Vampyr succeeds when it focuses on its cast of complex and interesting characters. There’s a great symbiosis between those characters and the world they live in that drives the game forward at all times. By focusing on the interplay between those characters, their stories, and their community, Vampyr forces you to sit with your choices.
Iron Lung is a minimalist horror experience where your goal is to navigate your submersible vehicle underwater in order to take pictures of increasingly unnerving phenomena. Vague, garbled dialogue hints at your objective and the stakes, but you’re not going to get much in the way of exposition.
CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs’ greatest detriments are that aforementioned length and lack of depth. It has a really great core concept, and an excellent atmosphere, but it feels more like the beginning of an adventure rather than a complete tale.
The totality of my opinion on Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York is a bit muddied. Strong writing and characterization, phenomenal art, and appropriately moody music are huge boons for the game. However, its lack of choice and similarity to the previous title, combined with the endings being codified as “good” and “bad”, sour the experience.
The art and imagery of Eclipsium are certainly evocative, with large, grotesque figures and body horror elements abound. The environments are all atmospheric and abstract, and there’s mostly no narrative to speak of. In many ways, I’m not particularly certain this is a horror game at all, as there’s no real sense of urgency or threat to be perceived.
Life Eater is a game with great promise. It has a unique and horrific premise that sees you as a serial killer fulfilling the wishes of some demonic god through ritual sacrifice, but never manages to live up to that promise through its gameplay or story elements.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York is an absolutely gorgeous title, with mesmerizing, painterly artwork that showcases the viciousness and beauty held within the World of Darkness. Smart characterization and moody atmosphere color the experience in positive ways, as well.
Next of Kin: Fidelity has a story to tell, but holds no mechanism for delivering it in an interesting way. It’s a shame that the environments and assets used are not up to the task of creating something that serves the game better, as the story can hold up as something worthwhile on its own.