And as for Conan Unconquered? It’s passable. A pastiche. A painting of a game that lacks all the vim and vigour in the brushstrokes that may have offered some semblance of excitement or, heaven forbid, enough enthusiasm to bring Conan himself back to life.
Matterfall is a fireworks display of an arcade game: bright, bombastic, and ultimately hollow. But while it may not sit front-and-centre of Housemarque’s modern-day arcade, it’s a visual extravaganza that’s still well worth seeing one time through.
Snow-drenched, tense, and at any given time close to buckling under the weight of its own ambition - like a ceiling in a snowstorm - Impact Winter’s survival experience is one that deserves to be remembered by time and players alike.
It’s a stellar example of how time shapes a video game experience, as much as real-world experiences shape our time with a game. These are Tales Of revenge. Tales Of hope. Tales Of camaraderie, of friendship, and of Katz. It’s also a Tale Of the quintessential rainy day JRPG: the kind you curl up with on the couch and lose yourself to when the day or, as of this moment in our own tale, the world, is just too goddamn gloomy.