If you’re a fan of Minecraft, Ark, Rust or any of those open world sandbox-with-crafting games than this’ll be up your wizard’s sleeve. If you need direction or some sort of narrative to drive you, you won’t find it here.
If you enjoyed the challenge that Cuphead, Sundered and all the others bring, then Valfaris is your next port of call. If you aren’t a fan of hard as nails throwbacks to older games, you may not like this. Or if you sit somewhere in between, you cannot go wrong with the heaviest, metal-est platform action game going.
It’s going to be hard to recommend it when I’ve knocked it as being repetitive several times (which is ironic, when you think about it). But then, that’s what usually creates a cult classic: it may not come out to critical acclaim and rapturous praise, but if the little seed of charm is in there somewhere, it just needs time to grow. It’ll be tough, and not everything it grows will be to everyone’s taste, but there’s something in there that you want to survive.
If you enjoy playing the same kind of JRPG over and over, with tweaks on the battle or level systems, then you’ll be right at home with this one. It may have a generic story, with many elements of similar games already, but it’s not the worst RPG I’ve ever played.
If you were to sit and nitpick each minor part, The Surge 2 wouldn’t hold up to the scrutiny. Yet if you play it as a whole, it’s a brutally beautiful romp in the mold of what we’ve come to expect from this type of game.
It’s not easy to start with. It’s the difference being jumping in a plane in Saints Row to playing Flight Simulator, the Mario Karts to the F1’s. But hey, if that’s your bag and you feel like you’ve rinsed the Dirt games, or you’re looking for somewhere to start, then this would be it.
Strong emphasis of racing/destruction, with a plethora of cars to tweak and modify to your heart’s content, the only gripes are down to musical preference and patience with loading times.
Damsel gets a middling recommendation. If you’re looking for something you can file under “slightly difficult to get used to, eternity to master” then this would be in that rather specific category. As I said at the start, this won’t look out of place on the Switch or Steam library, as those two are bread and butter for this kind of game. Whereas on the supposed powerhouse that is the Xbox, it just seems like a waste of potential. Granted, this is only an indie title, so there isn’t going to be mass dollar behind it. It’s just that the end result on the Microsoft flagship is a bit of a damp squib.
Clunky controls, terrible on-screen litter and the slow pace just kill any semblance of enjoyment for me. Even the nonsensical plot and voice acting don’t make me want to play this again.
It’s beautiful, it’s got a manic soundtrack to keep the adrenaline pumping, and it is a faithful throwback to the days of arcade past.