Overall, Severed does a lot of good with its excellent and challenging combat, intricate dungeon maps full of collectibles, unique and visceral upgrade system, and a fantastic presentation. Its biggest shortcoming is its lack of opportunities to engage with its world and Sasha’s history, but with everything that works so well about the game, I can mostly forgive this slight. My roughly nine-hour experience was a great joy, filled with memorable sights, sounds, and (physical) touches. Maybe, like Okami for Playstation 2, it will be the console’s swan song, but it is hard to discredit a unique experience like this one purely for coming to the party so late.
I could go on, of course, but the main idea is that Goliath, for having an authentically fun concept is not that much fun itself, venturing into being frustrating and overly cynical. I often thought of other games I'd rather play, not because the experience was that bad but more because it felt like filler. Goliath itself is a task and a rather underwhelming one at that.
For anyone seeking out an RPG they can just play for weeks, Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book is a solid choice, but for each of its highlights, it suffers a misgiving. The story is plain but is delightful and organically executed. The battle system has some awesome features that are locked behind story gates. The characters are beautiful, but the rest is hit or miss. And then there are the confusing or offensive writing and design decisions throughout. As I said, I loved playing it (despite the rush to meet embargo), but its faults keep it from becoming a classic in any sense.
And that’s that. Zero Time Dilemma is an amazing game of equivalent overall caliber to its predecessors, and its ridiculous, complicated take on scientific theories and horror thrillers is a must-witness. Despite being quite accommodating newcomers, I recommend the deep dive into the previous entries first, if anything, to be a buffer for the science-fiction you’ve yet to imbibe. Regardless, you’ll get great, well-rounded characters and a memorable trip into one of gaming’s greatest works of fiction even if you’ll scream, “Oh, come on,” as often as “Holy shitsnacks!” That’s me being at my most objective.
To an extent, I did enjoy my time with Neverwinter. It's extremely mindless grinding, which can be fun now and again when you're feeling non-committal. And from what I've learned of the endgame offerings, when you're fully leveled, you can just experience much of the same. I'm not sure how long someone would want to experience more of the same, and I don't feel like anything I've played warrants going through it all again with another character. It's just not all that compelling, but if you have friends you'd like to quest with, it's certainly something to do… like many other things.
Event[0] was based off a student project, and sometimes, its roots as such are laid bare. But overall, I’m impressed with how the concept was fleshed out. Like other unique experiences, I hope other developers learn from its brushes with ingenuity. I’m also excited about some of the ethical discussions it could spark. It’s definitely worth a spin in zero-gravity to check this one out.