Once again, Arte France has shown a knack for creating interesting games that are not only fun to play, but also look beautiful and introduce players to new themes. 30 Birds is fun to play thanks to its colorful, handcrafted world, the sometimes funny and quirky characters and the background music, but without slipping into the ridiculous. And birds.
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Quantum Recharged basically can't do much wrong and comes across less cluttered than, say, a Geometry Wars. The fan community that still has enough reflexes to prove their skill, wants to invest a few hours in perfecting their combo moves and doesn't mind the squeaky color explosions will certainly get their money's worth. Everyone else will keep their hands off Quantum Charged, as expected.
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Actually, there's not much left to say. You don't play House of Ashes because it looks good or because of its innovative game mechanics - you play it if you like well-paced stories with minimal self-involvement and a bit of horror (in the broadest sense). If you're looking for something between cinematic and classic gameplay principles and consider yourself a fan of the genre, the third chapter of Dark Pictures Anthology is worth checking out. Undecided fans of cultivated horror will probably not be completely convinced by the title, though, as there are still too many problems at once.
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Operation Tango offers what hit games like It Takes Two lacked: a real challenge. The separate screens and the puzzles that can't be solved at first glance make teams communicate with each other efficiently and thoughtfully to get ahead. The puzzles, while not unsolvably difficult, do require thinking around the corner a time or two. We hope that this innovative approach will be followed by many more, because despite the shortness of the title and the somewhat meager story, we had this above all: a lot of fun and a lot of brain training.
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You can't really go far wrong with It Takes Two if you're looking for some diverting fun with more serious undertones. It entertains, it looks nice, and it makes you laugh and gulp a bit. It's not outstanding, though, and in many places it lacks a bit of the otherwise so generously applied creativity, especially in the unfortunately somewhat too simple puzzles and the very stringent storytelling. And despite all that, it's fun when you have the right person at your side, with whom you can shimmy through this co-op game and then wait again for the next game from Hazlelight.
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Besides the prominent pro- or antagonists like zombies and vampires in recent years, Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood positively stands out from the crowd with the rather stepmotherly treated werewolves. Unfortunately, that's almost all that can be said positively about the title. But don't misunderstand - Werewolf isn't a bad game per sé, it's just mediocre: Graphics and story look old, especially in direct comparison with other recently released titles, many parts like the skill tree seem to be seen as a must rather than a real enrichment for the game and the short game duration of about eight hours isn't convincing either. Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood seems to want a lot, but not be able to accomplish that much. At least there could have been more of the heavy metal music.
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Curious Expedition 2 can be recommended to fans of strategy games with narrative elements and colorful graphics. Especially the different roles with their special abilities and personalities as well as procedural map generation lead to a high replay value, where you can still experience new things in the third playthrough. Only the random rolls could be improved, as they can throw a spanner in the works even with the best planning. If you don't get frustrated too easily and enjoy tactically dealing with all kinds of diseases, madness and the wilderness, Curious Expedition 2 will offer you some challenging hours.
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TOHU is definitely a game that lives on its graphic and sounds. In every new area, players are wise to take a few moments to take in the beautifully crafted surroundings and their details. On a positive note, this also helps for solving the puzzles that could overall be more demanding and original. The story itself remains rather superficial, except for a few comments made by the little number of NPCs encountered, and is ending rather abruptly. TOHU is a game for all those that are searching for a game, that is nicely designed and easy to listen to and guarantees a few hours of entertainment.
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Disjunction is not a game that invites its players to explore. Story as well as map pathing are predefined, NPC’s are primarily a means to an end, and characters alternate back and forth between their homes and their missions. But the story lines of the protagonists, who by themselves could hardly be more different, and a for some players potentially foreseeable end give enough variety to stay engaged. Additionally, the socio-critical undertones hit one or two nerves along the way, especially in times like these. The charming pixel graphics, nicely created maps, easy-to-handle controls and levels that give hope to succeed in the next run even though the player just got deafeated – all those factors make for an entertaining and compelling gaming experience.
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The expectations for the follow-up project after the great success with the Life Is Strange series of the French developer studio Dontnod were high and at least partly justified, because if they can do one thing, they will tell stories and force players to make decisions, which will sometimes have devastating effects on the further course of the game. The rest of the game remains rather mediocre. The wooden graphics and the repetitive fighting actions, which are especially unpleasant for "boss opponents", the tubular level design and the especially in fighting situations with several opponents questionable camera work cloud the quite positive first impression of the game after a few hours of play. Vampyr doesn't reinvent the genre and also doesn't present anything that hasn't been seen in other RPGs before, yet it's one of the games that manages to cast a spell over you in spite of some flaws and especially grant you many nice hours of gameplay with some surprising twists in the story. At the next sale you could strike, but you don't have to.
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I hereby commit myself: Kingdom Come: Deliverance will be one of the best games of the year 2018, even though many critics won't give it the classic statute such as The Witcher. The game doesn't explicitly stand out from the mass of RPG medieval simulations and uses many well-known mechanics, but the long development phase pays off and for what it ultimately wants to be, the game is outstanding: to offer the player the most realistic setting possible in an open world. The many remaining bugs (hopefully with enough patches to go with them) and the unfortunately flat-looking story can't fool this overall impression. Another positive aspect is that the developers have decided against an online mode that is just so popular, because they want to immerse the individual in an authentic medieval world. After some initial difficulties, this project should pay off for Warhorse and all fans if they continue to work on it.
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