Kevin Foley
This is a solid Star Wars game with excellent combat, great immersion for fans, and an engaging story. It looks great at most times, but runs poorly overall and needs patches for PC before it gets a solid buy recommendation.
The exploration, narrative elements, art style, and audio are all excellent in Recompile, but the platforming begins to feel redundant after a while. Especially since the level design doesn't provide any clear direction and leads to regular backtracking and second guessing. There are also missed opportunities where the gameplay could have been more interesting and balanced. Still, the game should scratch that itch for those always looking for something new to experience.
The Ascent is for the most part a polished experience that's tons of fun to play and behold. The narrative will carry you along to many interesting places with different baddies to fry, though a few encounters feature enemies that are pure bullet sponges. You will need to pick the right equipment and keep up with leveling, but these issues can be overcome. Hardware requirements shouldn't hold you back too much, and glitches are few and far between. The overall quality makes this one a must play for cyberpunk and isometric shooter fans.
Claire de Lune is a game that definitely has its enjoyable parts, but the heavily-advertised narrative is problematic and many of the platforming sections are downright disappointing. If the price wasn't so steep, this would be an easier sell to those who like challenging puzzle adventure games. All of this along with the bugs and lingering performance issues make it hard to recommend.