Shannon P. Drake
Play it if you dig a spooky atmosphere and don’t play it if you’re tired of “The Cat’s in the Cradle” in video game form
Ultimately, whether you enjoy Code 7 is going to come down to how much you enjoy reading, pondering, and solving puzzles, and how much you’re willing to buy into the exceptional atmosphere.
A surprisingly compelling roguelike about the pleasures and perils of hunting whales.
Great music, pixel-style art, a cyberpunk aesthetic, and the mellow feeling of shooting the shit at the bar. What’s not to love?
Stellaris is finally where it was meant to be. God save our free time.
If you want some amazing, bleak, and depressing world-building, Frostpunk is definitely your jam.
There’s a little jank here and there, but if you like action-RPGs and want something a little different–and not nearly as grimdark as those have been–I’m sending you a vision.
If you like your dungeon crawls with a ladle of gothic atmosphere, you haven’t seen anything like this in an eternity.
That said, despite the frustrations, there’s no other series out there that captures the thrill of running around with a detailed fighter plane model in your hand blasting bad guys.
Arcade-style giant fighting robot action overcomes repetitive missions and a sometimes-nightmarish HUD.
Relentlessly stylish and relentlessly grindy turn-based tactical roguelike.
Fewer vampires and more Greeks! It’s Bronze Age Total War.
Stubbs is emblematic of the end-of-lifecycle game in that it is extremely weird, kind of janky, and beloved by those who happened to pick it up in the game store, which was something we had way back then, because console games hadn’t invented online purchases yet.
The video game equivalent of being picked up in a 2000 F-250 by a guy blasting Skynyrd and yelling HELL YEAH BROTHER at everything you say.
I found it compelling. Even if you don’t like tactical combat, you have to admire something so completely insane and very much its own thing when the world is busy making roguelike soulslikes platformers. It’s also an excuse to buy a cowboy hat of your very own.
See the swamp and join the cult!
Build a pyramid to my greatness. Then figure out how to not die of malaria.
Surprisingly Deep And Very Silly
So if you don’t mind the fact that it’s not Darkest Dungeon But More and it’s Darkest Dungeon But Different…it’s worth caveating that the first 10 hours are so are basically just punching you in the face over and over again and normally I don’t put up with that at all before going “okay yeah but then it gets good” but I am an unemployed goth degenerate, so what else am I gonna do?
STAR TREKKING ACROSS THE UNIVERSE! FINALLY A STAR TREK GAME THAT DOESN’T MAKE ME CURSE!