My experience with Remothered: Broken Porcelain was brought to a halt several times after I had to restart my game and figure out a way to progress without soft locking it. On the surface, this is a beautiful, moody horror game, but once you look deeper, you’ll see that the real horror is the game’s mechanics, pacing, and plot. I had such high hopes for this game, but after a few hours, I was looking to check out of the Ashmann Inn early.
Tears of Avia attempted to present a larger-than-life indie SRPG but bit off way more than it could chew. Creating a world that players don’t care about and a battle system that is broken after the first hour is a huge misstep for any title in this genre. There are some great ideas here, though. Character designs, animations, and writing make for some of the best moments, but all at the cost of an unmemorable adventure. Score:
Hatsune Miku VR is an experience for diehard fans, but those who can’t play it aren’t missing out on anything of real substance. The rhythm gameplay provides a decent arm workout but gets old and repetitive right around the time your arms feel like they will fall off. If you have the Oculus and want to hang out with Miku for a personal concert, then don’t let the score of this review keep you from doing that.
Crown Trick is a roguelike that isn’t afraid to make you feel overpowered through its systems. However, it’s also not afraid to test your skills by introducing powerful enemies and traps. No matter what, though, there are plenty of ways for the player to take on the challenge. It’s this design that makes Crown Trick a must-play for both dungeon-crawler and roguelike fans.
Aquanox Deep Descent is a beautiful follow up to a series that many may have forgotten about over the years. However, it was clearly made on a budget, which seemed to hurt a few of the game’s more necessary modes. Boring supporting characters, lacking enemy environment, and a subpar coop mode won’t make any new series fans. However, those who truly dive into what this game offers will find a responsive and atmospheric submarine shooter with a deep level of strategy.
Onee Chanbara Origin is a hack-and-slash that does nothing more than any other hack-and-slash available. It’s best moments are the fluid and fast action when you’re cutting through hordes of enemies at a smooth frame rate with oceans of blood spraying all over. The series seems to be having an identity crisis about how it wants to continue. It needs to make a choice, keep the bikinis and have a bit of more campy fun with these characters, or lose them entirely and create a more polished action experience.
Torchlight III is a great entry in the series as it doesn’t explicitly try to be exactly like its predecessors. Instead, it attempts to do new things using classes and relics to personalize the adventure along with a few accessible leveling systems and skill trees. It all works for the most part, but it’s a design that doesn’t allow for the deepest amount of customization. Sure, building a fort and collecting loot with my friends is fun, but there has to be some balance and short term goals that make each level up and new area discovered worth it.
This is the Zodiac Speaking is a decent psychological thriller significantly hurt by the Switch’s underpowered hardware. The narrative is there, but everything else falls short in terms of visuals, graphical glitches, and sound. There are some nice features here, but I urge you to play the PC version if you can.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time gives us the Crash experience that we’ve been waiting so long for. The developer seemed to understand what was unique about the series but added touches of their own imagination to make it their own. The finished product is a 3D platformer that is as fun as it is frustrating, so you can bet that it fits in perfectly with the other titles. Here’s to another generation of Crash.
The Walking Dead Onslaught is an awesome VR experience that centers around these characters that mean so much to fans of the show. The developer did a great job adapting the narrative of the show with an original story that feels like it could be its own episode. Killing Walkers has never been more fun, and I would happily go on another supply run again, even if it means encountering some random glitches.
Mafia: Definitive Edition is genuinely one of the best remakes of this generation. It gets so much right in terms of staying true to the source material and preserving what makes it so awesome. Sadly, that only ends up hurting it due to a dated mission structure and poor AI. Still, it was fantastic to be able to play such an updated version of the classic.
Nevaeh is a fast and fun puzzle platformer that doesn’t bite off more than it can chew. However, its lack of direction makes the adventure feel soulless. Nothing challenges the player, not even the boss encounters, making this more of a comfortable and cute indie puzzle experience to play in short bursts.
The truth is, even if 2020 didn’t need Serious Sam 4, it’s here anyway. The game considers loyal fans through it’s added levels of customization while acknowledging new fans with some narrative moments to get to know this insane cast of characters. Some aspects feel dated in the graphics and AI, but when hundreds of enemies are running your way, none of that matters because all you can think about is what weapon you’re going to use to take out the trash.
Lost Ember is a great narrative adventure that acts as a wonderful game to play over an evening. However, the Switch version lacks the beauty found in the other versions. It’s ultimately something that holds this version back because the visuals are a key feature of what makes this such a memorable game. Ultimately, Lost Ember is a game that you should play, but maybe not on the Switch.
Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story will cause several headaches after the many forehead palms players will endure through this cryptic adventure. The story will rarely make sense, and the haphazard nature of the puzzle design force many moments of aimless backtracking. This is a game that the developer seemed to make for themselves, and it shows in the design and layout. Still, there’s something here for a follow-up release, but I really hope that quality assurance is in the budget this time around.
Inmost took me by surprise as I wasn’t prepared for the incredible story it has to tell. Its gameplay and puzzle elements are perfectly symmetrical, making it easy to immerse yourself in this dark world for an evening and come out feeling satisfied, if not, a little melancholic. Load times and lack of direction do very little to hinder this adventure that I think is well worth your time.
Crysis Remastered is more of a capsule from a simpler time of the first-person shooting genre. Playing is undoubtedly fun because of the various things that players can do, with the inclusion of tight gunplay and engaging missions. However, I can’t help but wish for a complete remake because the age of this adventure holds it back from being anything more than a way for us to show our kids the terrible mechanics and AI that we used to put up with.
Hades takes away all the annoying parts of the roguelike genre and adds accessible systems without lowering the difficulty that these types of games offer. It is a standout experience within the genre and will test your skills in a balanced and manageable way that makes each run challenging, yet, approachable. There is so much to unlock here and so much to discover that dying for the hundredth time isn’t that bad.
Moero Crystal H borrows a lot from its predecessor to the point that returning fans may just feel like they are playing the exact same game. Still, it builds on what made the first entry so good and doesn’t take from its more sophisticated systems. Collecting monsters girls becomes the only real fuel for this adventure, but I don’t think it needed more than that. It’s entertaining to those looking for a mindless game and strategic enough to be a straightforward dungeon-crawler RPG. Regardless, I’m sure you knew if this game was for you within this review’s first few sentences.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim makes its mark on the adventure genre by expertly telling a story through 13 protagonists. The time-traveling segments don’t leave the player in the dark as it pieces together everything using a unique adventure-based system. This game has a story to tell, and it rolls it out perfectly; the added strategic battle-system only makes it clear what this group is up against and what’s at stake if they lose.