Quinn Hiers
With its procedurally generated levels, infinite leveling system, a plethora of items and characters to unlock, and some beautiful and intelligent world designs, Risk of Rain 2 is a co-op experience you won’t forget anytime soon.
The developers of Those Who Remain have crafted a game that excellently takes advantage of atmosphere to enhance the horror. The puzzles are simplistic yet fun, and how this game challenges your moral compass makes it more impactful than many other games in the same genre.
Given that Corsus in the base game felt like the weakest planet in terms of content and storyline, “Swamps of Corsus” brings some much-needed content. The enemies and story are great in Adventure mode and Survival mode is really addicting.
Hellpoint is, mechanically, a typical game in the Dark Souls genre. However, the sci-fi theme is really what separates it from other games. Although the upgrade systems aren’t always intuitive and the game has a few other minor issues, the unique enemies and story make up for it. Hellpoint is a hard game but well worth the struggle.
There are a few elements that separate this battle royale from others but the battles tend to be repetitive, the weapons lackluster, and the map becomes stale quickly. Currently, with how Hyper Scape is structured, there’s little to keep me entertained.
Overall, Mortal Shell feels like a Souls game. It’s difficult, the enemies are punishing, and the combat mechanics are familiar. Mortal Shell is undoubtedly a love letter to Dark Souls, but Cold Symmetry has added enough novel mechanics and intriguing landscapes to make a game that stands out from the crowd.
Overall, the way the game broaches on mature themes and difficult choices feels natural and true-to-life. This is only made possible by the characters themselves who are realistic, deep, and imperfect, especially Tyler.
Tell Me Why is turning out to be a gorgeous game. The first chapter was wonderful but Chapter 2 breeds a narrative of acceptance and learning to love yourself that I think everyone needs to experience.
“Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck” was by far a fun DLC. It brought back a few Borderlands 2 characters, including the “meat bicycle” man himself, Krieg, and the humor was nonstop. Gearbox has a wonderful talent for developing characterization through humor and dialogue and it continues to show in this DLC.
Despite some of the negativity, Rouge Company has had a great start. It’s fun and I can definitely spend back-to-back hours on the game. But eventually, it does get stale, and it will undeniably need something extra to spice things up to keep people playing. Whether that be adding new maps, new characters, or new game modes, the devs will definitely need to keep up the momentum to satisfy gamers.