Samuel Guglielmo's Reviews
The Council's second episode, Hide and Seek, seems to do everything wrong. The puzzles are obtuse and don't make use of the game's RPG elements, the plot's forward momentum is totally killed, and it's way too short.
Blasters of the Universe has some good ideas but fails to execute them. Combine this with unfortunate glitches and an extremely short running time, and there's not much reason to blast in this universe.
Symphony of the Machine opens with a few clever light beam puzzles, then makes you resolve those puzzles for two hours. It's also glitchy and full of unfortunate design decisions which kept me from even enjoying the nice visuals.
Unearthing Mars switches gameplay styles a little too often to be consistent, and none of the ones it switches to really carry the game. It looks nice, but that's about all I have to say for it.
Here They Lie has some scary moments, and some totally bizarre ones, that will stick with me for a while. Sadly, I'm more likely to remember the game making no sense, ultimately being rather boring, ugly, unintentionally funny, and requiring VR without actually making use of the system.
Fated: The Silent Oath really wants to tell a personal story about family in VR. Instead it tells a boring story surrounded by mostly boring gameplay elements that is only occasionally brought up by some nice art design.
The story is horrible, the gameplay is a sea of boring with few bright spots, and there's little worth playing this game for. Though look up the soundtrack on Youtube.
Soul Axiom has a few fantastic puzzles and some lovely environments. Sadly its also full of boring puzzles, an uninteresting story, horrid cutscenes, and some of the worst glitches I've seen in a video game.
Four Sided Fantasy has a fantastic central mechanic, but it doesn't do anything with the mechanic. When later levels become glitchy and the game never really impresses in any other area, there's little to keep you in this fantasy.
The Callisto Protocol has occasional bouts of fun melee combat and fantastic graphics, but too much of the game is simply not fun to play to be worth it.
Bound by Blades tries to combine wholesome aesthetics with a fast-paced boss rush, but bad bosses and wonky mechanics prevent this from really going anywhere interesting.
Waking tries to be a very unique experience, but all it manages to do is be way too long, frustrating, and unintentionally hilarious
Jupiter & Mars is lovely to look at and listen too. I just wish it was actually fun to play.
Re-Legion has some fantastic ideas, but can't manage to execute any of them in a meaningful way.
The worst episode in a struggling season by far, Don't Stop Believin' proved that I should have just stopped believing in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series long ago.
Spellspire tries to offer an interesting mix of spelling games and RPGs. Unfortunately, too much of the game is left to luck, and the elemental system made to provide something less luck-based never really matters.
A lovely art style and occasional bouts of the fun that the past games had doesn't make up for Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia's many pitfalls.
Really, Eclipse: Edge of Light gives off all the feeling of an early VR game that was cool when it first released but hasn't stood the test of time.
Atomic Heart has some fun combat and a soundtrack that absolutely slaps. Unfortunately, it's glitchy, has a terrible open world, becomes a slog in the late game, and has the most aggressively awful writing I've ever seen.
The Council's final episode fails to deliver a satisfying ending, nor a strong episode to a season that desperately needed it.