Summit Reviews's Reviews
If you're here hoping for a time loop game's usual fondness for engaging the noodle, I worry all you'll find are puzzle elements you've seen before, a mystery with incongruously quippy, borderline childish line writing, and just too much going on. The things you may anticipate are very much auxiliary to the metroidvania, and I think it's so important to understand which crowd you're a part of. If you're sure you're in the right place, Echo Weaver's loop is such a fascinating thing. It's an absurd declaration of confidence. The way it hides the coin behind your ear is so clever and wonderfully insulting. And it's such a rare, novel interpretation of an ancient genre that often feels like it's got nothing left to give.
It’s here that I’m stuck, unable to decide how I feel about Heart of the Machine. I admire so much what it’s trying to achieve and the story it’s trying to tell. Perhaps for someone with more patience and a greater willingness to let turns slip by with nothing happening, the game is a more rewarding one.
There are many, many elements of Fogpiercer that make it excellent. That it does radically change the deckbuilder formula is part of it, yes, but paired with it is the delightful look and feel of the game. The music is catchy (and will not leave my head, please save me), the art lovely, and the sense of setting palpable.
When you strip away its modern veneer (which you can do at the press of a button), SiN: Reloaded remains a beautiful, deeply embarrassing love letter to a time when game developers designed primary characters by binging their own childhood bangers on VHS. It’s a screeching relic of turn-of-the-century machismo, completely detached from the self-serious, emotional maturity that modern entertainment seems to aspire to. John Blade doesn’t have a tragic backstory. He has roid biceps, a Dredd-like gun, and Seth Green character acting as his Mission Control. Long-standing fans of the series will note that this isn’t exactly a giant leap forward after SiN: Gold, but after finishing that version last year, I can confirm that the remastered release has been improved enough to be entertaining for its 8-hours-or-so playtime.
What currently holds Ved: Recure back most is the sheer repetition of both the main gameplay loop to upgrade your various characters and a general lack of balance that more often than not results in either a frustrating or boring experience, with very little in between. This isn’t impossible to improve upon, and the innovative upgrade system alone may make it worth your while to at least try it out. For me, there is regrettably not enough here to warrant any prolonged playing.
But I won't remember False Hero for its slightly mismatched combat, nor for its inconsistent pacing. I'll remember it for its surprisingly great voice acting, and the way the ambient soundtrack swells when you pick a fight with something. I'll remember it for the drama of its world, and each boss's intro cutscene and bespoke second phase. I'll remember it for its killer title theme and the unfathomable aura of its final battle (you have NO idea). Sure, these are some of the most FromSoft flourishes to ever FromSoft, but that's the gig, and precious few replicate that care for the little details quite as earnestly and remarkably as False Hero.
If you think about it, boomer shooters are a bit like sonnets, in a way—this specific art form repeating through history, with each new movement or artist adding its own touches every once in a while. At the end of the day, a sonnet is still a sonnet, even if one written by Shakespeare is distinct from one written by Petrarch. Here, it’s the same; you can anticipate exactly how Brazilian Drug Dealer Before 4 will play, but it’s worth it for its little idiosyncrasies. In this grandiose analogy, maybe John Romero can be Petrarch, and Joeveno can be Claudio Manuel da Costa. Could Mit Aia be his dead beloved? After all, romantic love and discharging a shotgun into an enemy sprite are universal feelings we can all relate to, even if we all experience them in our own way. The pellets, how they pierce them so, till they feel it and weep. And I wander around, searching for more ammo, like a creature that often shies and kicks. In that sense, Brazilian Drug Dealer Before 4 didn’t exactly tug at my heartstrings, but I could at least tell that its feelings were sincere.
Ultimately, the Gothic 1 Remake is a masterclass in how to resurrect a cult classic without sanding down the very rough edges that made it special in the first place. It can be frustrating to get into, until you realize that the fundamental philosophy of the unfriendly design is that it respects the player's intelligence.
Fantastically fresh, Kernel Hearts combines many tried-and-true elements of previously acclaimed roguelike titles alongside strong bullet-hell elements, creating a great but sometimes slightly unfocused experience.
Way of the Sword was destined for greatness either way. Its combat is gorgeous both in how it looks and how it plays, its boss encounters are electric, I don't remember the last time I spent time with a cast as magnetic and memorable, and genuinely, I struggle to imagine a game more deserving of its moniker. But the early Onimusha titles were short and sweet. They had backtracking and puzzles and exploration, yet they were tight-knit experiences that still hold up 25 years later because they weren't wasteful. Playing through Way of the Sword's filler, seeing how it pads its runtime, I have to wonder what an absolute juggernaut it would have been had Capcom thought to trim the fat.
Foundationally, Mortal Shell II is a very well-put-together videogame, its combat brings so much to love, and the reality is that, had it featured literally anything other than an open world, it very well could have become one of the best soulslikes out there. Instead, all that promise is marred by aspirations comically outside of its scope, and at risk of sounding like some cynical old stick-in-the-mud with Anor Londo as his lock screen, I think it's time we start treating Elden Ring as the cautionary tale it clearly is.
PLATONICA SPACE is a wonderfully unique sci-fi mystery game that, just like the developer Kazuhide Oka’s previous games, manages to innovate on the visual novel genre via its incorporation of interactive gameplay elements. While it is a bit rough on a technical level and also asks for a lot of attention from its reader, the unique setting and strong writing make it a worthwhile experience.
I will freely admit that I only picked this game up because of its surrounding marketing. I am a chaos goblin at heart, and the ability to exercise my inner demons inside a 1990s Polish apartment block sounded like a riotous good time. What I got instead was a generic and dull renovation sim that became grating and obnoxious the more time I spent in it. Part of this is, of course, the objective reality of the game—it is not a good game, and it does not run well, and I do not recommend it. Part of it, however, is also how thoroughly duped I feel. The game I thought I was getting a chance to play is not real. The game in the trailers and the marketing materials does not exist. Instead, in its place lurks this eldritch simulacrum, draped in the trappings of a fun and interesting game, but making it clear that ultimately, it’s the same tired thing as always, just done worse and with no awareness of just how miserable it is.
For those interested in First Light in the here and now, however, all this makes it a hard sell. Both Hitman fans and stealth-game aficionados will most likely find it lacking, and everyone else looking for something different that’s equally worthwhile won’t find much more than half-measures in all directions. But, if you’re looking for the latest blockbuster to tide you over until the next one, then I don’t think you’ll be able to do better for a while to come.
Rita may not be a genre-defining masterpiece, but it is a delight and thoroughly wonderful way to spend a few hours. Its integration of word games in its world creates a much-needed sense of the value of words and thought itself in an external world that sees them increasingly devalued. Rita is a gem, and I absolutely loved it.
All this is not so much the absence of complexity as it is the space for creativity. Every animation is so detailed and fluid, the pixel art is always stunning, there are these dramatic title cards at the start of each boss, and gnarly, bespoke executions at the end. This isn't some less-is-more, shoestring-budget thing cobbled together and forced to make the best of what it's got. It's intentional; it's more because it's less, and while it might not be riddled with X factors and buzzwords and seventeen more interlaced genres, Rubinite is a much better game without them.
The reality of Dinoblade is that the second you find something not to like, you find something equally neat sitting right beside it—something that doesn't make the bad thing go away, but something that obscures it just enough. I'll be the first to admit that there's a lot Dinoblade drops the ball with, but counterpoint: there's a button that basically just grows you a mohawk and turns every second attack into a backflip
Echoes of Aincrad is the roughest gem there ever was. Despite all of the criticism I have levied, I have had a great amount of fun with the title, and I will continue to play it to finish my completion of its achievements, perhaps even take another shot at DGM when its expansion releases. However, the issues that it does have range from glaring in the case of quality of life, such as the inability to freely traverse the gorgeous open world outside of mission boundaries, to outright crippling, as is the case for the game's encounter design and balancing. What EoA desperately needs to do is to communicate what kind of game it is: it is not an emulation of the experience of a VRMMO but an action title that aims to simply pay homage to the atmosphere of its source material, to be immersive first and foremost via its presentation while offering the experience of an entirely different genre.
It’s within this combination of gameplay and narrative elements, of atmosphere and bizarre horror that Don’t Let It Starve really shines. Its gameplay is straightforward and fast-paced enough to be deliciously addictive, and its main antagonist is a joy to fear. There is enough of a mystery to make each run feel meaningful, while also providing enough variety for each run to be distinct. It is a fantastic little game that leaves its players with a very satisfying aftertaste.
I’m not going to say that 1997 Reloaded is the next sleeper hit, just waiting for its audience so it can become an instant classic. I will, however, say that my life is richer for having played it, even if I can’t put my finger on exactly why. It’s enough to know that it is.