The Devil in Me doesn’t rank particularly high on my personal Dark Pictures ranking — it comes in just under House of Ashes and Man of Medan, which are great for different reasons. But what the game does do very right is take a famous true-crime case and explore it in a manner that comes across as more interesting than exploitative, even while fitting in jump scares and relationship drama. Supermassive could probably have carved a good two or three hours out of this game and ended up with a much stronger product — just as long as it left all of the Holmes-related stuff untouched, please, because that’s where it shines.
It just comes across as Psyop being afraid that the player is laughing at them and not with them. The narrative is focused on preemptively reassuring you that the developer knows this is a joke, and is not taking this seriously, and yeah it would be pretty cringe if this was serious but it isn’t. It’s all very unnecessary, and I kind of hope Behaviour and Psyop take another swing at the dating sim genre without all the self-conscious narrative clutter — because the good stuff is very good.
The Quarry is a blood-soaked, brutal, and janky summer camp rampage
Overall, I’m excited to see how The Iron Oath develops; Curious Panda Games has already laid out a road map throughout 2022 leading to an eventual full release that includes a new class, more points of interest, and more quests. For now, I’m having a lot of fun with the current build — my mercenaries, on the other hand, probably have some complaints with my management style.
Ultimately, I just wish Chorus was pared down. The plot is full of B-movie pulp, but the game doesn’t seem interested in laughing at itself. There aren’t a lot of new ideas in the story, and the narrative isn’t delivered with grace. Will you like Chorus? That wholly depends on how much tolerance you have for everything packed around the spaceship combat.
Whether it’s kicking a samurai over a balcony railing or diving at a lady with two shotguns so I can kick her in the face, there are tons of satisfying little moments. Fighting is fun, and doing it in a tight space naturally leads to nicely cinematic moments. If you’ve been craving the small-scale, ramped-up chess feel of a title like Into the Breach, Fights in Tight Spaces is a fantastic game that packs plenty of punch.
Ruined King is a fun romp through gorgeous environments with a team of likable misfits. Airship Syndicate doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it didn’t need to — Ruined King still manages to serve as a great on-ramp to both League of Legends lore and RPGs in general.
House of Ashes doesn’t make any great leaps in gameplay or structure, but in terms of narrative, it relentlessly swings for the fences. There are times when the writing doesn’t quite land, but the awkward moments rarely stick around for long thanks to the game’s expert pacing. It’s a fantastic horror social experience, just in time for Halloween, and it’s enough to get me back into the deep lore and hidden secrets of the Dark Pictures Anthology.
No single one of these games are worth the cost alone — there are Party Packs that I own as a Tee K.O. or Quiplash machine, and none of the games in this Pack have that same stickiness and ease to pick up for me. But there are no stinkers, either — everything here is something I’d feel comfortable recommending to a friend or bringing out at a gathering. That’s a valuable resource, and I figure wherever I go, at least I can liven it up with some Job Job.
Jett: The Far Shore is a simple game, but a beautiful one, and well worth your time. It can make space a little bit scary, without going over the top, and it strikes a great balance between saccharine and grimdark. The Far Shore is a journey I was glad to take, even when the company got a little too chatty.
Nightslink is a bite-sized experience, but it has successfully used its short run time to lodge itself into the back of my brain.
Will you enjoy Cruelty Squad? I don’t know. It’s a hard game to recommend. It feels like it rips mechanics wholesale out of slick, satisfying shooters like the old Rainbows Six, Deus Ex, or Hitman. Except it’s also intentionally opaque, refusing to lend players a hand in deciphering its visuals or navigating its oppressive atmosphere. And yet, I’m still here gnawing on this coconut, because the pain is worth the taste of that delicious joy.
PowerWash Simulator fits nicely into my gaming lineup as the ultimate low-energy game. When my brain is tired, or I’m not in the mood to compete or struggle in any way, I grab a power washer. It’s become a fantastic wind-down game before bed. I may never be a homeowner, but I can capture the most relaxing bits of home care with none of the hassle, and that’s pretty nice.
Mundaun still delivers eight to 10 well-paced hours of slow-burning horror. There are no endless exposition dumps or scary monsters jumping into frame. The story is just interesting, competently paced, and set on a believable and beautiful stage. Turns out, that’s all a game needs to be a good play on a dark weekend night.
But Little Hope’s ending ruined the game for me. It invalidates everything that came before it so thoroughly that I can’t help but feel like it was probably a waste of time.
Secretly one of the better shooters of 2020.
Dwarrows doesn’t try to be everything, and the result is a welcome throwback to a game that was once lost to the late 90s.
Reforged ultimately feels like a dusty museum exhibit more than a faithful remaster or an update into the modern age. It could have been an excellent way to introduce this story and game to a new generation. Instead, it’s a halfhearted release that misses the opportunity to bring Warcraft 3 back to its old audience while hopefully finding a new one.
I like Not for Broadcast, but it looks like a The Fly-style experiment grafted together from two different games. I would like very much to play either of them separately, but putting them together weakens the final product. There’s time for developer NotGames to right the ship, however, and the mechanics are intriguing enough to keep me interested in the next chapter.
I still have stress dreams some day that I’m back in school and the exam is tomorrow and I haven’t studied; it’s nice to see a critical part of my life back in The Sims 4, where it can inspire a whole new set of anxieties and disasters.