Upfront, Alien: Rogue Incursion delivers exactly what you’d want from an Aliens-inspired VR game: the horror of being chased by these iconic movie monsters and the thrill of blasting them into green goo with your Pulse Rifle. But while this mission starts strong, it eventually spins its wheels, stretching out the experience for too long before ending on a disappointing cliffhanger—while it isn’t specified in the title, this is actually only Alien: Rogue Incursion Part One, with Part Two still on the way. Add in lots of technical issues and a huge accessibility shortcoming in not having teleportation movement options for people prone to motion sickness, and you have a much rockier ride than it initially appeared. With its high highs and low lows, Rogue Incursion is a little too accurate a microcosm of the Alien experience.
What it does share, though, is a similar idiosyncratic streak. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything else that plays quite like Bokeh Game Studio’s freshman work; it’s all about darting between hosts as you chip away at unsightly creatures through even more unsightly acts of manipulation. In a time where it’s increasingly easy to rag on AAA releases for playing it safe (something they mostly do to offset rising development costs), this game feels like a throwback to the creatively risky mid-budget titles of yesteryear that the industry has largely left behind. Slitterhead may have a lot of obvious shortcomings, but I’d generally rather play a messy splatter fest than an overly sterile bore, and this game is more than happy to paint everything red.
Still, even with these notable accessibility issues and other flaws, I can’t help but be extremely impressed with Rivals of Aether II for catching lightning in a bottle. It not only mimics but also builds on one of the best competitive games ever made, emulating its expressive battles so fast they make eyeballs bleed and finger joints explode. The cast is varied, the combos are dynamic, and the core movement is electric. Like with any fighting game, I’m sure there will be some competitive hiccups (some are already unhappy with how strong crouch canceling is), but what we have here is a rewarding platform fighter that controls like a dream—I wish that it did more to on-board new players, and was less limited outside of multiplayer, but for genre veterans, this core feel is the most important piece. While it’s way too early to tell if the game will fully capture Melee’s magic, it’s come closer than I thought possible, and that’s no small feat.
While Mouthwashing certainly won’t be for everyone, its unsettling sights and slow-burn narrative are difficult to scrub from memory. It builds toward brutal reveals with style and purpose as its fragmented storytelling forces us to fill in the gaps—its suggestions of violence are often worse than the real thing. It has plenty of terrifying sights, but perhaps its scariest element is how it puts us in the headspace of someone committing increasingly awful acts, all conveyed via distressing moments of interactivity that make you feel complicit in the butchery. Through its portrayal of desperation and crushing guilt, Mouthwashing is as cold as the vacuum of space.
In many ways, The Plucky Squire gave me exactly what I wanted from its core premise. It lets you seamlessly hop between a delightfully presented fairy tale and the world outside these pages, making great use of meta elements through reality-bending puzzles and genre-switching detours. The art style is cute, and everything is presented with charm. However, while it makes for a pleasant experience upfront, it ultimately wears out its welcome due to overly simplistic battles and storytelling that lacks depth. This game may take place in a picture book, but I wish it were a tad less paper-thin.
While I wish it was a tad more punishing, I still had a blast orchestrating complicated turns that involved teleporting allies across the map, utilizing diverse powers, and, of course, knocking hapless cronies out windows. But, perhaps its greatest accomplishment is how it escapes the inertia of countless other modern war games that feel like the product of the military-industrial complex. I guess all it took to avoid these tropes was not being in the back pocket of the US armed forces, a bit of empathy, and a guy who looks like Gandalf with a magic-infused M16. Who knew?.
Even with these notable problems, SCHiM still makes for a breezy time. While its level design and storytelling lack depth, its core movement feels so good you’ll be able to forgive this for much of its runtime as you dart through well-rendered street corners. There is a coherent vibe found in the sharp art design, idyllic vistas, and low-key score, which creates a soothing ambiance that makes it easy to unwind. Although I wish it ultimately gave more to chew on, cruising through SCHiM is a decent way to spend a lazy summer afternoon.
It’s large enough to create moments of surprise but has a more hand-crafted scope that moves you through novel locales and largely engaging boss fights at an impressive clip, finding a middle ground between the scale of FromSoft’s past work and Elden Ring. Here, there is a sense of falling down rabbit holes, as one obscure discovery leads to another until you’re deep beneath the surface or in the middle of a strange ritual ground you can’t comprehend. This studio deeply understands how to wring the divine out of this world where deities and mortals mingle, resulting in the same type of awe-inspiring ambiance and unforgettable backdrops that put Elden Ring in a league of its own. While I wish it solved more of the base game’s issues so there weren’t such steep valleys here, particularly around some of its slash-happy big bads, overall, Shadow of the Erdtree not only reaches the peaks of the of its predecessor but, in many ways, surpasses them.
Altogether though, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a game with vision. It wraps intriguing puzzles in a digital gothic framic. It makes the most of its chosen medium as it forces us to navigate the tenuous details of this backdrop. Just about every layer of the experience is creatively risky, from its fragmented narrative to its uncompromising barrage of challenges, but these gambles largely pay off to deliver something with purpose and direction. Crafting this kind of maze isn’t easy; it takes a combination of subtle guidance and faith in your audience. But despite these challenges, Simogo never loses sight of how to stoke curiosity about what’s lurking around the next corner, whether it’s a treasure you’ve been seeking or, conversely, something horrible lurking in the dark.
As a whole, Children of the Sun’s explosions of violence pull us into The Girl’s quest for revenge, combining dome-blasting fun with action-puzzles that invite creativity. Equally important, the game’s aesthetic rips — its offputting art style, color choices, and unsavory elements, like the bliss The Girl takes from drilling holes in cultist skulls, driving home all the visceral details. While I wish this attention-grabbing EP had a few more tracks, what’s here lands with the impact of a hollow-point round.
Tekken 8 may not be a sea-change sequel, but it hones what came before, reducing pain points for newcomers without reducing the complexity that makes this series special.
All that said, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising largely achieves its central tasks. It lowers the barrier to entry for newcomers while also offering a well-designed roster with enough complexities to keep things exciting for seasoned hands. I found myself pulled into matches that balanced flashy techniques with the more deliberate pacing of old-school genre entries, creating compelling duels I’m eager to return to. Perhaps most notably, it addresses the core issue with the last game, adding rollback netcode that makes online play dramatically more stable. Although there are a few whiffs, such as the inability to filter opponents by connection speed and regressions in its story mode, it generally hits as hard as its colorful cast of combatants.
Although Ghostrunner 2’s attempts at expanding its setting fell flat, and I wish it ran better, its central action feels sharp thanks to its empowering movement abilities, extensive offensive tools, and pulverizing but generally well-designed enemy encounters. Most of these thrilling sequences require acrobatics that had me frantically switching between maneuvers as I narrowly avoided bullets and blades. While it has some weak stretches, and its cyberpunk narrative doesn’t offer much to the canon, its frenetic platforming was enough to keep me plugging back in.
Still, despite these problems, I’m glad I took the journey across Laika: Aged Through Blood’s barren hellscape. Despite its extreme violence and unapologetic bleakness, this space is defined by a surprising emotional range thanks to its compelling protagonist and her brutal quest to save those she loves. Motorcycle treks through the wastes are backed by a soundtrack that teases out pain only partially staunched by the thrills of motorcycle-backed duels. And perhaps most notably, it works as an underrepresented game about motherhood, detailing both the unfair expectations and triumphs that come from being a mom. It’s an experience capable of conjuring powerful feelings: disgust, despair, and a smoldering hope that our gunslinger’s actions can improve the lot of those closest to her.
If I have a major issue, it’s that just as this sensation is fully kicking in, this relatively brief journey comes to a close. The problem isn’t so much the game’s length but that it only reaches its full potential in this last hour or so as it bounds towards its climax. Also, while the ultimate conclusion doesn’t necessarily undermine what came before, it doesn’t quite elevate it either, as its fairly straightforward demonstration of what it’s all “about” is somewhat clumsy compared to what it more elegantly achieves through its mechanics. Still, even if it doesn’t entirely stick the landing, Cocoon’s mind-warping puzzles and well-realized setting make for an out-of-this-world experience.
Between its cohesive aesthetic, the bounty of clever features, and crisp central gameplay, it’s one of the most impressive entries the genre has seen in some time.
But even as its second half failed to match what came earlier, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a finely honed delight. Its action is precise and responsive, and learning the intricacies of each adversary is exceedingly fulfilling. While I wish its back stretch was either pared down or had a wider variety of foes, this is a rare title that induces trance-like focus and euphoric moments of victory. It may not quite reach the heights of the works that inspired it, but it’s not far off.
And despite some skepticism about how its historical period would be portrayed, the early turns of its story hooked me thanks to its marriage of murder-mystery, subterfuge, and deeply felt brotherly bonds. Unfortunately, these points of familiarity eventually proved incompatible with the kind of politically charged tale it was trying to tell. While most of my time with Ishin! was a delight, its closing hours are a mess due to its inability to reconcile the series' naivety and optimism with the complexities of history, resulting in a sanitized portrayal of the past that is both bewildering and somewhat troubling.
undefined.Taken as a whole, what you get out of this experience will vary dramatically based on how much its melancholy tone and setting make up for its sometimes unforgiving design elements. Although its boss fights are an annoyance, the haunting atmosphere, contemplative character writing, and well-realized space leave a far greater impression than its gameplay gaffes, repeatedly pulling me back into this world. There have been many cracks at this genre since Metroid's chiptune synths first accentuated its foreboding alien backdrop, but few emulate and transcend its ambiance as well as Ghost Song.
Resident Evil has existed in many forms, a shifting organism that's frequently morphed into unique renditions of horror. While Shadows of Rose had an uphill battle attempting to recreate any of these styles in such a shortened runtime, even judged by these adjusted standards, it largely fails at drawing on the series' history or charting a new path. It has one particularly terrifying stretch and a couple of nice additions for die-hard Village fans, but it is largely a disappointment.