Crossing Souls is an interesting title. Absolutely in love with the pop culture of the 1980s, the title wears this love on its sleeve, and the charm of that is undeniable. Unfortunately, while the writing, art, music, and references are great, the gameplay peters out rather quickly. After a strong first couple of hours, full of interesting and layered puzzles, the last half of the title quickly devolves into no more than a collection of platforming and melee combat scenarios with little else to keep you going. The end result is game that's fun and entertaining despite its gameplay, not because of it.
Far From Noise is not a game for everyone. If you go in expecting traditional gameplay, you will be highly disappointed, but if you approach it with the understanding of it being almost like a picture book, then you will be in for a magnificently written reflection of yourself as well as musings on some of the heaviest topics about life. We went into this expecting a short title with a bizarre premise, and walked away having consumed a beautiful, occasionally melancholic story that helped us understand ourselves a little better along the way.
Expand is a great puzzle game. Navigating your square through monochromatic mazes offers a wonderfully relaxing experience that somehow manages to be calming and wrought with tension throughout. While it's a relatively short title, its low price point and high fun factor make it a worthwhile venture. Sure, it may not have been a runaway success on its initial release, but we can only hope this title finds its audience this time around.
In a year crowded with incredible titles, Ruiner manages to be a standout anyways. The red neon-plastered world presented by Reikon Games is beautiful, brutal, and terrifying. With some impressive art direction, great music, and a wealth of immensely satisfying combat systems, Ruiner offers essential top-down gameplay, and comes highly recommended.
Radial-G: Racing Revolved is one of a disappointingly small number of PlayStation VR racers thus far. Until there are more to pick from, this makes the game at least worth a cursory glance, especially thanks to a relatively reasonable price. Unfortunately down the road, when there are options in this field, there won't be much to recommend. The title doesn't necessarily do anything poorly, but it doesn't do anything overwhelmingly well either.
The latest in a long line of zero-grav racers, Redout: Lightspeed Edition is one of the best examples of the genre. It takes the best elements from those that came before it, and throws in some of the coolest things we've seen out of a racer in some time. The stitched together Boss Races are a particular standout, offering a phenomenal look into many of the tracks from the title all at once. Throw in beautiful level design with an exceptional colour palette, as well as great music and the best feeling of speed in the genre, and Redout comes away with 1st place among zero-grav racers for now.
A short runtime paired with a comparatively steep price shouldn't be enough to keep you away from The Lost Bear. The title's simple gameplay may not challenge you, but the overwhelming charm of the title should win you over. Between the calming soundtrack, beautiful art direction, and delightfully impressive environmental depth afforded by the platform, The Lost Bear is a cute and worthwhile addition to your VR library.
Observer is rough. Some neat narrative beats and a beautifully presented cyberpunk world paired with an exceptional performance from Rutger Hauer end up being the only redeeming qualities present in this title. This is a game that, despite being short, feels overlong, due in part to some tedious and obnoxious gameplay segments, and some of the least subtle “horror” we've encountered in recent memory. Throw in a bevy of technical problems and a third act that is complete nonsense, and Observer is, at best, a bit of a mess. To call this game a letdown would be an understatement.
The Long Dark is a strong survival title, possibly even the strongest of the entire genre. A beautiful, but dangerous Canadian wilderness provides the backdrop to a challenging, but largely satisfying fight for survival. While micromanaging every facet of your well-being while trying to survive might sound tedious in description, it actually ends up being fun, satisfying, and even tense. With three more episodes to come for this title's story mode, there's already tons of content to chow down on. Just watch out for the wolves.
Sundered is a Metroidvania that's left us with mixed feelings. The gorgeous environments and enemy design help to make the title a visual treat. Unfortunately, the game doesn't really offer enough downtime to actually enjoy that element. It instead serves up near-constant enemy encounters and frustrating hordes of enemies that end up irritating rather than exhilarating. While the game controls very well, and the upgrade tree is incredibly impressive, its light procedural elements still end up being the most unique feature.
Pyre marks Supergiant Games' third consecutive masterpiece. A bizarre blend of genres creates an excitingly original title aided by incredible world building and one of the most consistently interesting casts of characters we've ever seen assembled. This is all further enhanced by some outstanding artwork. Framerate issues and the odd difficulty spike detract from the overall experience, but can't prevent this outing from achieving excellence.
MXGP 3, made in 2017, is almost imperceptibly different from the first entry in the series, released in 2014. Sure there a few differences, but at its deepest, this is a game that has a truckload of issues when it comes to the actual feeling of riding a dirt bike. Add to that a feature list that is seemingly identical to MXGP 2, now with very poorly implemented dynamic weather, and you get very little bang for your buck. Milestone needs to take a step back and reassess where this series is going, because right now the only place it's going is backwards.
Dating back to January of this year, Max's adventure has been quite a ride. After a couple of episodes that were pretty shaky, the French developer righted itself and delivered three consecutive home runs that absolutely blew us away, and this has culminated in a finale that delivers on everything that we could have possibly dreamed of. We definitely hope that Life Is Strange sees something of a second season, and we can't wait to see what DONTNOD does next.
PREY continues the hot streak of big releases in 2017. While not flawless, this title offers an incredible sci-fi story about paranoia and the self, while sprinkling Arkane's always excellent gameplay on top. While things like the psychic powers fail to justify being in the game mechanically, the creative weapons and multiple gameplay approaches help to make the exploration of Talos-I really shine. Between the rewards for searching through the environments, and the fact that the game is a visual treat, a venture through this deteriorating Cold War-era space station is definitely worth your time.
More a nifty little virtual reality experience than a game but with an almost overwhelming amount of charm, GNOG is delightful. While it by no means feels like a full-sized title, that doesn't mean it isn't fun. It may not take you too long to see all that it has to offer, but it's still an absolutely beautiful game that you'll want to get lost in.
Giant Sparrow delivers beyond our expectations once again. A touching story about a tragically unlucky family hits all the right notes, making What Remains of Edith Finch a worthy successor to the studio's sublime The Unfinished Swan. A walking simulator with a smart delivery mechanism paints the picture of a family tree full of misfortune and sadness, but leaves room for some happiness and sunshine. Between the most realised home we've ever seen in a game, the incredible voice work, and the moving, intriguing story, this is the genre's new golden standard.
Old Time Hockey is not great. While it's not as bad as the 2016/2017 Colorado Avalanche, the game still has a whole collection of problems. Most of the elements of gameplay feel either unpolished or just poor, but the game's overwhelming charm and low price-point make it more palatable than it would otherwise be.
Fated: The Silent Oath is a brief but worthwhile reason to turn your PlayStation VR headset on. While walking simulators in virtual reality are already becoming dime a dozen, Fated actually backs this up with good voice work, characters that are very easy to care about, and a strong, laser-focused art direction.
The end result is complicated: it's a game we bounced off quite a lot but one we still greatly appreciate. The game does something new with the genre and it does it well for the most part, making the game worth at the very least giving a look.
Night in the Woods is a truly magnificent adventure game. An eclectic array of different gameplay mechanics play off of a small American town vibe incredibly well. While the gameplay is fun and varied, the main attraction is the absolutely incredible writing. A college-aged life crisis story paired with some much darker and more sinister elements is used as the framework for developing some of the best-realised relationships we've seen in gaming. All of this set to an incredible soundtrack, while utilising a wonderful art style with exceptional use of colours that makes the experience that much sweeter. A few small complaints aside, this title offers a remarkable demonstration on how to write a game, and definitely stands out as one of the best Kickstarter releases we've encountered thus far.