It may not be beauty that lives in the eye of this one, but Beholder does have some intelligent moral conundrums to levy at you. Unfortunately, the repetition and dull play leave a big hole in the middle where the game’s heart should beat.
The puzzles are very simple; the set-up and plot have all been done before; point-and-click has been done before, but that isn’t the point. The point is that when lovingly-crafted animation, when warm and sharply-written characters and lines of dialogue, and when simple, uncluttered play converge, you’re onto a winner.
It’s a game made by a small, four-man Swedish studio called Elden Pixels, and one that doesn’t contain an ounce of cynicism or irony; it’s made by retro enthusiasts who genuinely want to relive the glories of yesteryear. On the game’s Steam page, it is billed as a “retro game in a modern coat.”
What's here isn't bad at all; it's by no means best in class, but it does deliver on its premise. There is satisfaction to be gleaned from the battles if you buy into the strategy and tactics; there's a lot to take in here (well upwards of 30 hours); and it's dressed up in sumptuous art. If you're a sucker for a dungeon-crawler or for JRPGs, then this will sate your thirst two times over. There isn't much here to recommend to the uninitiated though.
Transient, vague, and awash with macabre sights and sounds, Little Nightmares is aptly named. Its gameplay is rote and minimal but its skew of images will stick in your craw like the fleeting fragments of a nightmare upon waking. The rest will fade.
If you were a fan of the main game then you can't go wrong with the £3.99 this will set you back, but it's by no means essential.
There's a rough-cut, lo-fi patina to Get Even that adorns its good ideas like graffiti. With its edges scuffed and its heart in the right place, it feels like that now endangered species: the AA release. Long live dirty, flawed experimentation. This one’s different.
Survival, that most impermanent of genres, seems to have found permanent residency in the last few years, yet in a crowded space, Mojo Bones has made a mark. Impact Winter is dream-like and transfixing; it’s frustrating and brittle; and there is something truly special here you can just make out through the ice. If only it was given time to thaw.
This would have been better as a complete package, with all three chapters sewn together. Considering it’s a plan that Tarsier has had all along – teasing its DLC, as it did, long ago – its merits and additions would be more sating had they been swallowed by The Maw, along with everything else, from day one.
Pillars of Eternity is an elegant, beautiful, well-written piece of craftsmanship; it's proof that if we really want to, we can go back, but what we see there can't deliver on our fantasy.
A perfectly serviceable JRPG, with an addictive Kingdom-building component, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a charming game that falls short for its syrupy writing and the lack of a truly magic touch.
A shaky conclusion to a fantastic season, the finale episode is still a solid entry but it doesn't reach the dizzying heights of the first two entries.
A vivid sense of time and place, and a fantastic central idea, soon turn pale with repetitive combat and a forest of conversation trees. But what's here is different, and spells good things for the understocked vampire genre's future.
The Sinking City is well worth playing for the initial rhythm of its casework and the freshness of its setting, but its mechanics, like its mystery, end up flooded.
I can't speak for anime fans, but die-hard FromSoftware devotees, as well as those who thirst for a really good vampire game – currently a malnourished bunch – are both parishes to which I belong. And I suspect both will wish for more bite.
Wattam should be played, if for no other reason than to see a designer expressing ambivalence about his own ideas.
With an interesting idea at its heart, Minit becomes a tiring process of incremental steps. There are moments where its looping play does shine, but they are rare, and, like its fleeting premise, it wont stay in the mind long.
Kingdom Hearts III is a beautiful hunk of sugary writing, convoluted plotting, and repetitive combat that's reliance on beloved IP exposes it's shallow core.
Fallout 76 is an ambitious game that's burned by it. The online features hamper what could have been a great Fallout game.
Below's moody gloom and atmosphere is spoiled by mechanics that really cramp its central quest.