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The Inpatient is one of PSVR's best. It's a shining example of presence and engagement. The visuals impress and it uses a ton of clever tricks to fully immerse the player in the experience of living out Blackwood Sanatorium's final days, making me feel like I was actually there. There are fun Easter eggs for those who have played Until Dawn, but The Inpatient can still be enjoyed without. The overall plot does fall flat in the final act as the scares give way to a less-than-exciting conclusion, but the branching possibilities means that even after two playthroughs, untold stories of the sanatorium still await me.
There's a lot to like about Iconoclasts, but it unfortunately never makes the jump from good to great. Not only does it fall into some of the pitfalls that other platformers have exposed throughout the years, it also lacks any innovation that truly wows. That's ultimately fine, as players are treated to a very polished puzzle-platformer with a surprisingly interesting story. Those who pick up the game will surely enjoy their time with it, but don't be surprised if you've felt like you've played certain segments a dozen times before.
For those who love hyper-detailed simulators, Kerbal Space Program has that in spades, and for that alone, Kerbal Space Program deserves high marks.
In case you couldn't tell, InnerSpace is a game that you should be playing. The well-realized worlds, exceptional aesthetic and compelling exploration mechanics complement each other tremendously well. If you can get past the occasional bout of unnecessary complex exposition, the evolution of each environment tells a compelling enough story to keep you enthralled from start to finish. Drop everything and check out what deserves to be one of the sleeper hits of 2018.
Beholder is an interesting management sim with brilliant morally ambiguous themes taking center stage, however it suffers from imbalanced execution.
Albert & Otto is a decent puzzle platformer with some interesting ideas. It's a bit rough around the edges, but hopefully this has set the stage for some refinement if a second episode is ever created. Check out Albert & Otto if you desire a short but intriguing puzzler and can power through some awkward platforming.
Cut Little Red Lie's length in half and dial up the subtlety in the plot, and I think it really could have been a great black mirror into the world today. What it did do was instill a sense that I am better than either of these people that I was forced to spend time with. Little Red Lie is not a good game. There's hardly what one would call a “game” here at all, but the experience could prove to be valuable, if you can stomach rampant pessimism and negativity. I'm having a very hard time parsing exactly how I feel about Little Red Lie. As a game, it's imbalanced, awkward, and boring. I don't think I can recommend it to anyone, but I might have been glad to have gone through it? It's certainly an experience I will never forget, but then again, so was getting run over by a car.
Accounting+ is a novelty, brilliant to experience, but hard to recommend. I was highly entertained by my time with Accounting+, but after this review, I am thoroughly done with it. Repeated playthroughs don't really offer anything new on the gameplay front, and the dialog becomes less funny on repetition. There's also the glaring issue that I still haven't learned anything about accounting. I got yelled at by a guy in a tree. I killed a fat king. I got tried for murder after dying from summoning Satan. I became the Leonardo DiCaprio of VR (GET IT?!? I MADE AN INCEPTION JOKE!), but I never learned a single thing about accounting.
I like the idea of Gang Beasts on paper. Hell, I even like Gang Beasts when I see other players play. The jelly physics of up to eight players smashing into one another and trying to toss each other over the edge is great fun in theory, but becomes more of a frustrating chore and test of patience in practice. If there was a better training ground to at least get a handle on the bizarre physics and controls, that would go a long way to making the game more accessible to newcomers. Even if they had that, Boneloaf needs to get a handle on their connection issues before Gang Beasts can really start to step into its stride and potential as a hilarious party game.
That's exactly what Shooty Fruity is. It's an exciting shooting gallery in virtual reality wearing one of the most bizarre and unique skins of any game that I've seen. It's more fun than it has any right being with its strange premise, but that's part of what makes it shine. It could lean in the direction of providing more information to players for optimum weapon loadouts, and I wish it didn't try to artificially increase play time with ridiculous challenges, ultimately burning itself out. The dichotomy of mundane tasks and taking on the role of gunslinging action hero against waves of mutant fruit is an intriguing premise. Along with the satisfyingly juicy explosions that come from blasting them apart with shotguns, revolvers, and SMGs, these features help Shooty Fruity to be a game that's more gratifying than it has any business being.
While I'm not sure if Before the Storm will hold the same place in my heart as the original, I'm certainly glad that Deck Nine Games got to tell their own story in Arcadia Bay. It's a very different tale, one on a completely smaller scale both in terms of narrative and length, but one that still manages to make an impact. It's a more personal story, and it wound up being quite bittersweet having to say goodbye to the duo of Chloe and Rachel.
Okami HD was great on the PS3, but is even better on the PS4. This may finally be the definitive version of the game. Motion controls have been dropped, but then again they didn't really feel like they belonged in the first place. Sure, this is essentially the same game for a third packaging, but if you missed the remaster, and especially if you never played the original game, Okami HD cannot come any more highly recommended.
8-bit Adventure Anthology Volume I does exactly what it advertises. It allows players to play three classic adventure games on modern consoles without any hassle. That said, it's important to know exactly what you're getting into since this doesn't featured remastered versions, and the design is absolutely old school. Those who are fine with those caveats will find a lot to like here, but even then, there could've been a little bit more put into the presentation of these classics.
Destiny 2 and its expansions are all tough to review for this very reason. I've got some frustrations with Curse of Osiris–mostly with the lackluster campaign and unvaried patrol space—but it has largely pulled me back in to my traditional weekly ritual of completing various milestones in Destiny 2. How long that will last remains to be seen, but the immediate future looks promising.
When the game is at its best, however, it is an enjoyable dungeon runner that features intriguing, fun combat, and it's definitely worth playing for those who never experienced the original Tokyo Xanadu for PS Vita—just with the caveat that players will need to stomach a lot of flavorless JRPG tropes to get to what makes Tokyo Xanadu eX+ tasty enough to merit its forty-hour-long runtime.
Yet another solid remaster will likely make some gamers wish for a proper sequel in this hyper-cute franchise. The increase in resolution allows LocoRoco 2's cheery art style to brilliantly shine, though this entry's cutscenes leave a bit to be desired. Still, the core of this classic has not been touched, and this remains the same LocoRoco 2 many gamers have fond memories of. Pick this up if you're a fan of the series, or especially if you never tried the original release and want the best version available.
Even with the structure of the Olympic events being lacking, there's still more than enough content here to justify the asking price. The Become a Legend campaign will take a few hours to get through, then there are all the traditional Steep-styled challenges, Mountain Stories, and the like that take place in the new Japanese and South Korean mountains. There's certainly plenty to do in Road to the Olympics, and that's before you even consider the number of times you'll find yourself perched at the starting gates on the downhill course, getting ready to try to beat your best time just for yucks.
It's really hard to recommend this game to first-timers with all of the problems and the JRPG stereotypes. I can't recommend it to long-time returning fans unless they owned a PS4 Pro. At least with a PS4 Pro you can choose the lipstick color.
A Hat in Time is a highly polished throwback that brings classic 64-bit platforming gameplay into the modern era. There are a couple of mechanical oddities, and the opening hours of the game could do a better job at telegraphing where to go or when new abilities are required, though by the time my Platinum trophy popped, I was enamored. Hat Girl may not go down in history as an iconic character, and the story is nonsensical, but often it's this very bizarre nature that lends this cap much of its credence. A Hat in Time is delightfully charming and always manages to take a left turn, surprising and challenging even a storied gamer like myself.
It's hard to reconcile the great game that is Doom VFR with the clumsy Move controls that are hardly player friendly. If you have an Aim controller, that's the best way to play, but I would have liked for the Moves to have been a viable option. Doom VFR highlights that allowing for player customization of control and comfort is imperative to making VR games accessible and more mainstream. Despite this, Bethesda has brought yet another title that proves virtual reality support is alive and well with impressive and full-featured titles that few thought would be possible at the outset of the platform. At the end of the blood soaked and demon infested day, Doom VFR is Doom in virtual fucking reality, and there's not much more you can ask for.