Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Reviews
There’s definitely a nice idea in playing as a tech support trapped behind deploying stock phrases, as some larger story unfolds about you, but Tech Support: Error Unknown just doesn’t deliver it.
I love that it exists. I don't begrudge it for any of its ridiculous failings, really. It'd have been amazing if it could have been this gently entertaining and interesting exploration of Egyptian history, perhaps something like an in-situ podcast. But it isn't. It's a museum audio tour, along with all their obvious shortcomings, that takes no advantages of its medium
Ultimately, Even The Ocean becomes a story about the cycles of history, and the way that our inaction often brings upon failure. Many games would treat this cynically, ruminating on the futility of human effort, but Even The Ocean presents this cycle as an opportunity to pass on our stories with the hope that they'll allow future generations to learn from, and correct, our mistakes.
It's clear that Cypher is beyond me. The first couple of rooms were a breeze, but quickly I was finding it too obtuse, too interested in being difficult and not interested enough in teaching me how to solve it. And that's very much a personal taste thing. For people super into this sort of thing, with brains bigger than mine, this'll be a sweet treat.
If you want pretty anime boys and don't care too much about their questionable grasp of female anatomy (and, in some cases, consent) then this game might be for you.
A truly beautiful game, uplifting, gorgeous and alive.
The measure of an open world is ultimately not the story it tells but whether you're happy to kill time within it, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance offers plenty of ways to do that, even if a lot of them will, in fact, get you slaughtered.
Easily confused with Life is Feudal: Your Own, Life is Feudal: MMO takes the multiplayer medieval crafting and survival game and makes it larger and, through developer-run servers, more permanent.
Railway Empire should be so much better.
That it ultimately collapses into a string of unpleasant platforming sequences that the core design simply can't sustain means I grew to loathe Crossing Souls, once it entirely abandoned its redeeming features for everything it couldn't get right.
Rise and Fall adds, tweaks and expands, but it doesn't address some of the underlying issues, particularly those related to the AI. We're not quite in the new golden age yet.
Rust is a strange, harsh game that's worth exploring – but only certain parts of it, and only for so long. I'll never commit to constructing my own fortress, but I'll happily knock on the door of one belonging to another player.
I'd happily recommend FFXII to a particular type of person.
Of what I've played so far Dandara offers a fresh new way to play a very familiar format, with deft design and strong puzzling wit. I just wish it had remembered to give me a reason to do so.
Octogeddon refers back to the arcade cabinets of the '80s, both in the simplicity of its opening premise, and in much of the presentation. But it is its own unique idea, that while not world-changing or particularly revolutionary, is quietly brilliant in its delivery. I only worry that it's slightly too quiet.
This is a decent, very peculiar puzzler, that does entertaining nonsense to the insides of your brain. Hard not to like.
You might as well just play (or replay) its many post-campaign side missions and modes, really.
For me, the more of it I played, the more I found it got in its own way. Its clumsy prose is a struggle to read, its difficulty spikes are aggravating, and the sense of being directionless is too all-pervading. I feel certain this will find its audience, and what a joy for them. But sadly, not so much for me.
Celeste is a difficult game about overcoming difficulties. Come for the challenge, stay for the joy of Madeline's company and the generosity of this wonderful game.
So much of this world is best experienced via first-hand discovery.