God has been murdered in this world, and I still feel compelled to understand just what that means. I’ll probably return to this world when the leaves are changing and I’m in the mood for an ethereal scare. I just hope I can remember to tread lightly and not have to reload so much.
Overall, City of Brass is a huge achievement in design.
I recommend Kite. It's often thrilling, and there are so many good ideas under the hood, that enduring some of the frustration still leaves you with a unique action game experience.
This is truly a Total War Saga– a smaller entry in a venerable series that's not interesting in rocking the boat.
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It knows what it is, and sticks to its strengths
Then again… sometimes I want to play out certain scenarios in gaming. Sometimes I want to pilot a starship and escape from devious traps. Other times, I want to make my way through an emotional family drama. There are different feelings for different days. Evil Genius 2 has a strength that no other game can offer – there’s nowhere else to play out this fantasy. Because some days you want to be Dr. Evil, and it’s pretty cool that there’s an outlet for those megalomaniacal tendencies!
The complexity of the interlocking systems in Empire of Sin feel like more than the game can handle. For every time a story emerges about love and loss as I described above, there are times when your speakeasy suddenly starts losing money and the game doesn’t communicate why. I’m sure through hours of play a pattern will emerge, but for now too much is too opaque and difficult.
Despite the names of real historical figures and the armies of real nations, this is not a "historically accurate" game. It's a badass strategy simulator, one with deep gameplay and that glorifies what is maybe one of the most gnarly periods of human history.
The thing is, there’s not a lot of games in the style of King of Dragon Pass. There’s not a lot of games like Vagrus period. Even in the world of indie RPGs, it’s rare to encounter writing so rich, or such an original world. Vagrus is exactly what I hope to get from my indie games, ideas so original that I can’t quite articulate what they could have done better. With immersive music, stylish art, creative combat, and a sometimes baffling interface, Vagrus: The Riven Realms is what you’re looking for if you are tired of versions of the same game, over and over again.
By borrowing solid mechanics from the best of the genre, Iron Harvest has the makings of a pretty good RTS. What pushes it across the finish line is a well-realized setting, a wonderful aesthetic, and a solid grounding in what sort of story it wants to tell. I personally wish it could have had more fun with the world, but that’s just me.
If you are familiar with the genre, you know what to expect with Phoenix Point. Little flourishes, like letting you manually aim your shots, inject some new life into a fairly predictable genre.
You won’t mistake Deliver Us The Moon for a bleeding edge graphical powerhouse, but it looks very good. At least as good as other hit games in the genre. It’s amazing how good a relatively small dev team can get a 3D exploration game looking.
. If you have a community of fighting game aficionados or some pals who love over the top Wu-Tang movies, there’s a lot to be found in Samurai Shodown.
In the smaller moments, Kingmaker captures the tabletop experience better than any single player game I've ever played.
One can hope that future expansions are so creative, and continue to allow players to create their own world to fill with their own little slices of suburbia.
I don’t think the story or characters or themes of Olija will stick with me for a long time, but I will remember the game nonetheless. I will remember the world actually, as if I was the one braving mosquito filled bogs and slimy tombs. Thomas Olsson and Skeleton Crew Studio aren’t telling stories so much as they are crafting worlds. That’s what kind of game Olija is: a world you can get lost in.
Game of Thrones: The Board Game is the best way to feel like a devious genius of Westeros.
Still though, I never complained about character development when I was playing Sunset Riders on that emulator. I played it a zillion times, trying to beat the next boss or get a high score. That game could entertain me for hours, simply because it was nice to look at and felt great. And that feeling, where the controls help make the drama… you can’t fake that. That’s why you’re going to play ScourgeBringer and you’re going to enjoy it.
The management and RPG style made me think of a digital board game like Antihero, but really it plays more like a visual novel — a genre that leans hard on player interaction to involve you in the story. And in that, Through the Darkest of Times was quite effective.