Dontnod is capturing the mood of a powerful country in the midst of a crisis of identity. If they can stick the landing, Life is Strange 2 has the potential to be a masterpiece.
Immortality feels like a logical endpoint for the last seven years of Barlow's work. Though his cast has expanded to include a full Smash Bros. roster's worth of characters, and the script has expanded to include three full movies with contributions from several writers, it feels like he has ended up, basically, where he started. Like Her Story, Immortality is really about one woman. As in Her Story, she may not be who you think she is.
But that's a minor gripe that stems more from my love of fictional grimy cities than anything Anger Foot is actually doing wrong. The FPS is well-paced, smartly designed, and looks like a cartoon you would joyously gulp down with a Capri-Sun after school. It can occasionally frustrate, but it gives you all the tools you need to tailor the experience to your taste. It does many things well, and it accomplishes them elegantly. That a game this focused on feet pulled all that off has got to be the gaming surprise of 2024.
It Takes Two is a fantastically creative co-op game that nails every new concept it introduces.
12 Minutes is a point-and-click adventure in a clockwork world that's as expertly crafted as a Swiss watch.
This is a small project, but it packs in its share of indelible images. Aperture Desk Job confirms that, even when working on a limited scale, Valve is still the best in the biz at plopping you down in the middle of a well-realized sci-fi world and conjuring up a host of imaginative sights before your wide, unblinking eyes.
Still, Who Pressed Mute On Uncle Marcus? is an enjoyable and sometimes funny yarn, with a strong script, solid performances, and an intriguing central mystery. It doesn't push the FMV genre forward in any meaningful ways like Sam Barlow's Her Story and Telling Lies did, and it could use a better log to keep track of which lines of questioning you've already pursued. But, it's an enjoyable genre exercise that takes a dull experience we're all familiar with after two years of a pandemic, and somehow makes it fun again.
What I find most remarkable about Sea of Stars is that, despite not caring all that much about its characters, the gameplay was good enough that I was invested throughout. Managing the meters of each battle, and exploring the colorful landscapes and dungeons that connect them, is so entertaining that my quibbles about other aspects couldn't bring the experience down. The story isn't especially compelling, but it perfectly serves the purpose it needs to: getting you from the fun of A to the fun of B without any real hiccups in between. Howard Hawks once said that a movie needs "three good scenes and no bad ones" to be great. That's what Sea of Stars has going for it. Nothing that'll bother you too much, and plenty of good.
Ultimately, if you like Braid, it’s hard to imagine a better, more thorough, more lovingly crafted reissue of the original game. Though I completed the main game fairly quickly, I’ll be uncovering the secrets of the commentary levels for many more hours to come, and learning a ton more about the medium I love in the process.
That's crucial, because with the 2.0 Update, the game does a lot well. It still isn't an all-time great RPG, but there are fewer hiccups keeping you from enjoying the many things it succeeds at. Phantom Liberty is good, but 2.0 is the rising tide that lifts all boats. It makes Cyberpunk 2077, unambiguously, worth the trip.
But the game's utter sincerity is a major point in its favor, and these kinds of missteps are a side effect. If I have to put up with some deeply goofy choices in order to get a character as heartbreakingly earnest as Swann Holloway, I'll accept the trade-off.
Wasteland 3 doesn't bring much new to the table, both as a CRPG and as a piece of post-apocalyptic fiction. But, it's a terrifically executed role-playing game that rewards player investment from beginning to end.
Risk of Rain 2 is an exciting roguelike with an adrenaline-pumping pace, fantastically varied perks, and intriguing secrets to spare.
Spelunky 2 is a successful evolution of what made the original Spelunky work.
Mundaun is a great horror adventure game in a gorgeous hand-drawn world.
Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 2 is a notable step up from the game's previous DLC.
Before Your Eyes is a smart and moving first-person looker where your eyes are in control.
The Famicom Detective Club games show their age, but The Missing Heir still packs a twisty, Agatha Christie punch.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles tells one slow, cohesive story that builds to a stellar payoff.
Rock opera and space opera meet for some artful escapism.