Spirit of the North 2, is, at its heart, an indie title, which is where ideas and uninhibited ambition can live and thrive. Where creativity can bring about ideas, and bend worlds and experiences into something profound.
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanius II might have been more enjoyable; nothing in it is inherently bad, if it weren’t also a boring experience. There are so many franchises in the Warhammer universe to stack it against where it falls considerably short, but even more turn-based tactical games that it just fails to live up to
IO Interactive successfully adapts an action film franchise into a game that puts you in the driver’s seat. It also helps that this isn’t just Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan rehashing one of their films but a unique experience that is worth undertaking. Some parts never gelled with me, some parts probably never will, but all that is worth it to experience this definitive take on 007.
Don’t let frustration throw you off. Mina the Hollower delivers everything it sets out to in spades. The combat is basic enough, but mix in quick traversal and a world that never stays stagnant, and it is equally frustrating and addictive.
I have played a few LEGO games, but the franchise has never clicked with me quite as much as LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. Maybe it’s the fact that the title used Batman: Arkham as a base for its combat, or the well-designed open world. I don’t think so, though. So much of the experience feels like a more compelling version of what LEGO does. I remember playing LEGO Horizon with characters being random in every scene, an extension of the LEGO formula.
Have I been waiting for Forza Horizon 6 to bring us to a country I watched far too many NHK documentaries about? Yes, yes, I was. Was it everything I hoped it would be? For the most part, also yes. Forza Horizon still has some of the highest quality open-world racing around, blended into a chock world full of things to do and a pretty robust end game once you are the cream of the crop.
If we are being fair, Coffee Talk Tokyo doesn’t really try anything new. It’s the classic experiences of listening to conversations and fixing the occasional drink, basking in the praise you get when you get those drinks right. Do… Do you want them to try something new, though? The characters, the narrative, the coffee crafting, and the endgame all do what they are supposed to.
Directive 8020 isn’t the scariest game I have ever played, but it has an astonishing handle on atmospheric tension. You don’t really know what’s coming next or what will hurt you. As an evolution of what Supermassive has done up to this point, it might be the most complete version of a choose-your-own-adventure. When you are eager to explore different routes and find the option at the tip of your fingers, it matters.
Pragmata has its issues, but there is one thing it does very right. It tries something different and, for the most part, succeeds in its crafting. The combat can get frustrating, but never because it splits itself between a third-person shooter and a maze-running puzzle. Exploration of the lunar colony is diverse and enjoyable, with the title using a mix of sci-fi ideas on familiar locales.
Starbites is more than the sum of its part is an enjoyable RPG that should not be ignored. The turn-based fights are fun and dynamic, with great animations both in combat and in cutscenes. What genuinely lets down that entire experience is how painfully distracting the textures and graphical issues are. Without those, this would probably be a game I throw out in every I need an RPG to play conversation.
Mixtape is a musical romp through the last night of now and the beginning of forever. A narrative that can make you laugh and make you cry. It’s a wild absurdist piece with a curated soundtrack of licensed music that is never very far away from delighting you with another moment that makes you light up.
Saros, like the lead protagonist Arjun, is flawed. It’s a lot of ways; it’s partially because of the team’s success. Somehow, Returnal remains largely uncopied, if at all, which is an absolute shame but means I can really only weigh this experience against its predecessor. In this vein, it falls short in plenty of ways. The moment when Selene escapes from her hell, only to be lowered into the ground and return on the other side, gives chills just thinking about it.
inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories. It’s about a moment in time, a snapshot at the end of summer. The story of a brief moment for a girl named Makoto, who returned to a quiet life and ended up becoming connected with the locals who frequent the small konbini, where she agreed to take the night shift. Like any job, at least any that I’ve ever taken, it’s not always all fun. It can be hard work.
Then come the harder questions. Will you be an ally or a hindrance? Do you even care that people are dying around you? And, most importantly, if you can stop it, will you even try to? Once again, DigiXArts has left me with an experience that will haunt me. Something that feels so disturbingly plausible despite the distance between them and us. This is the power of narrative storytelling in gaming.
Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta is at its worst, extremely dated, and outdone by every experience that has come after it. The change in name, especially for a game that is still around, feels like a dubious decision. I mean, I get it; the Memoire series seems like it is designed to recontextualize older games in the series into a new series. I genuinely do hope to see more (please do Ys Seven next), though in this case, I could see some confusion.
There are a lot of ways I could take my thoughts when it comes to Mouse: P.I. For Hire. There were some issues I noticed, and I will note them. The thing is, though, it’s fun! It’s old school, unadulterated fun! It’s booting up your PlayStation 2 after rushing home from school, new game fever levels of fun!
GreedFall: The Dying World does the thing that vexes me more than anything else. It does plenty of good things that make me like it, enjoy it, and want to keep playing. Then it goes ahead and does many bad things, sometimes bafflingly so, given that the prior game did not, which frustrates me to no end.
City Hunter, as a port, is a competent remaster. It runs well and plays well. That’s not the issue here. That was never the issue here. City Hunter is just a bland game that, in 1990, was attempting to capitalize on a manga and anime that had already ended, while MAYBE trying to bridge the timeline until the 1993 Jackie Chan film came out.
Scott Pilgrim EX is a passable nostalgia romp that will offer you and your friends enjoyment, bashing your way through the world. The throwback world combines multiple aspects of games I grew up with, both as obvious references and easy-to-miss sight gags, with a fun roster of characters to beat your way through everything that stands in your way. The biggest issue I had with this experience was how hostile it got towards playing solo later on in the game.
I might be in the minority on this, but having just played both chapters in the Ethan Winters saga back to back for this review, I personally found Resident Evil Village to be the more enjoyable of the two. It starts with a ton of minor improvements that make this game flow better. Ethan has a legitimate run, the menu pauses action, and the boss battles don’t feel like claustrophobic nightmares.