Almost ten years after her terrific debut, Max Caulfield returns in a worthy if uneven sequel
It’s not the biggest budgets or the most polish. It’s creativity and experimentation, a willingness to try new things and keep pushing a young medium forward. With any luck, we’re just getting started.
Alan Wake 2 is hardly some flawless masterpiece. It sometimes overindulges in easy jump scares, and while its narrative highs are very high, the momentum also flags from time to time. But I’d argue that it’s a game in which even the flaws contribute to its texture as a fresh and original experience, not a focus-tested product but a work that has a vision and really goes for it. You don’t need to be a writer for the struggles that Alan Wake and Saga Anderson face here to resonate with you. You just need to be a person who has ever looked inside yourself and faced doubt, fear, some deep uncertainty about your own value or your ability to handle the challenges ahead. And then done it anyway.
Everything ends. But we take something from the times and places we’ve left behind and carry it with us as we move forward in life. I know that the countless hours I spent on forums in the early 2000s weren’t time wasted but a crucial part of my development as a person. I probably wouldn’t be here right now if it hadn’t been for those experiences. Videoverse is a beautiful exploration of how the online spaces we inhabit and the connections we form in them can shape our lives as much as anything.
Like a great novel might, this game made me feel more connected to the world around me, and it put me in touch with feelings of wonder that I haven’t felt in a long time. I’ve often felt that too much is made of the anecdote that Shigeru Miyamoto was inspired to create The Legend of Zelda by his childhood explorations of Japanese countryside. For so long, the series had lacked, in my view, any recognizable shred of real exploration, real play. But then, along comes a game like Tears of the Kingdom, which gives you both a wonderful world to explore and thrilling, imaginative new ways to explore it, and I get it. Playing this, I feel like a kid again, alive to the wondrous nature of the world, imagining myself on all kinds of incredible adventures.
So here we are. Supposedly, the saga is complete, and I’m left with mixed feelings. I’m glad that Dread really goes for it, that it wants to make you feel hunted and disadvantaged and that it’s willing to feel hostile in order to accomplish that. The result is a feeling that survival itself is a reward more meaningful than all the upgrades in the world, a feeling I rarely get from games anymore. But ZDR never captivated me the way previous Metroid settings have, and as a conclusion to the story arc, Dread seems to misunderstand what made the early chapters resonate. Samus is wonderful, a survivor, an icon, and she endures. But when I think back on my time with her over the past several decades, Dread will forever dwell in the shadows of my favorite Metroid memories.
Cyberpunk 2077 is dad rock, not new wave
In 2002, the original Mafia may have felt like an epic, but in 2020, Mafia: Definitive Edition feels more like a quaint mafioso side story. “Small-time,” as Tommy describes one of Don Salieri’s operations.
Ghost of Tsushima offers a lovely world to explore, and there’s value in that, but it should have been so much more than a checklist of activities to accomplish.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a flawed, but fascinating, reimagining of a classic
The Last of Us Remastered is a spruced-up edition of one of the most well-crafted action adventure games of the last console generation.
Offering no more than meets the eye, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is just a shallow, frustrating, and incoherent third-person shooter.
With beautiful art, a sentimental story, and gameplay that emphasizes helping people rather than killing them, Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a refreshingly different kind of war game.
Pushmo World's colorful conundrums are a pleasant and absorbing way to occupy your brain.
Among the Sleep makes good use of its unusual concept, taking you on a distinctive journey through the frightening dreams of a young child.
With a gorgeous audiovisual style, unconventional science fiction narrative, and empowering combat system, Transistor is a distinctive and memorable experience.
Super Time Force gleefully shreds conventional concepts of time travel in both its writing and gameplay, making it a refreshing twist on the side-scrolling shooter.
Lego The Hobbit is charming, funny, faithful to the films, and incredibly tedious to play.
Kinect Sports Rivals is an uneven collection of sports-themed minigames that won't hold your interest for long.
Reaper of Souls brings great new campaign content to Diablo III while also giving you tantalizing reasons to revisit the places you've already been.