Lee Mehr's Reviews
Spiral Circus' first game makes a great splash with its atmosphere and art style, but design and story limitations anchor its true potential.
Polygonal Wolf didn't make a tale worth telling; even worse, it never feels like that was ever a goal.
There's something satisfying about its derby-style structure and the nuanced tactics that entails. Its rollerblading mechanics are very approachable, yet there's also a deceptive skill ceiling too. But, like skating through a small sand mound, the momentum is lost by the repetition and under-polished features.
Although its retro presentational qualities place it above standard horror fare, Paratopic's lacking design & narrative diminishes its grander mysteries.
From its interesting design ideas to its rich world-building, Jump Over The Age's Citizen Sleeper is one of 2022's best surprises.
Yes, it's functional and has some decent concepts, however the experience simply can't avoid comparisons with boring indie horror titles. Even its small gameplay nuances wind up detracting from engagement in multifaceted ways.
A Memoir Blue’s aspirations as an interactive poem feel undone by shallow execution.
Paradise Killer succeeds by selling all of its ostensibly contradictory artistic choices as inseparable parts of a greater whole.
Babylon's Fall is the latest example of a decent core concept being flagrantly corrupted by the live-service template, and whose prospects for improvement dwindle with each passing day.
There are some misgivings to find within its design, on and off the track, but Polyphony's meticulous craftmanship handedly surpasses them.
Sergey Noskov's post-apocalyptic game packs several interesting elements within the frame, but the picture is out of focus.
Like a heaping of horror media, Martha Is Dead's solid start and some nuanced supplementary mechanics are betrayed by its worst impulses by the end.
Beyond a couple of creative missteps, Uppercut’s sequel also feels reluctant to leave the wading pool and investigate its true interactive potential.
When weighing its successes and shortcomings, Aztech Forgotten Gods manages to stay airborne but never truly soars.
By trying to wrestle with a mixture of parkour/stealth/combat mechanics, a large open world, and reactive storytelling within a rotund narrative, it starts to buckle from its lesser elements and annoying technical problems.
A flawed-yet-engaging first season forcefully strapped to its turgid prequel, further harmed by current technical issues unfit for a remaster.
Little Orpheus' Cold War-era narrative captures the fun of vintage adventure serials, but its gameplay is as rewarding as a Soviet breadline.
Any earnest intentions The Guardians of Peace ostensibly had can't disregard how terrible it looks, sounds, and plays.
Despite some pretentiously cryptic puzzle design in the latter half, DP Games' first effort still succeeds from all of its strengths.
Kaiko's expansion seems fated to be compared to a dedicated, earnest, and haphazardly-designed fan mod.