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Players will come across the "Hidden Room" area early on and, upon doing so, reveal a moment in which a character enters the basement and goes through a wooden door that now has a combination lock on it. This is the first look at what becomes a more sinister rabbit hole that makes navigating a complicated situation just that much more difficult. Ultimately, Eternal Threads is a slow-burner that tells an endlessly intriguing story through a unique take on time travel. While this isn't everyone's cup of tea, it's something special.
Overall, Cities: VR offers a new way to experience the beloved city-building sim, and, as one of the first games in the genre to come to VR, it is enjoyable despite its not-insubstantial drawbacks. The smaller scale, lower quality graphics, and clunky controls could be a sticking point for fans of Cities: Skylines. However, just like its PC and console counterpart, Cities: VR is easy to become immersed in for hours and does contain many of the same tools and features, which is itself a feat worthy of celebrating. Given VR is technically in its infancy, many of the games and experiences currently on offer can feel experimental or closer to a mobile gaming experience than one for PC or console. Cities: VR is undoubtedly one of the stronger VR games to be released so far, and with a few post-launch patches, it has the potential to be one of the best games currently available for Quest 2.
These smaller issues pale in comparison to what Source of Madness gets right. The gorgeous 2D art style, atmospheric music, and crunchy sound design underpin a combat system that is deep and rewarding, and is sure to keep surprising players deep into their time with the game. For gamers searching for a gratifying roguelite filled to the brim with passion and creativity, Source of Madness is more than worth the cost of admission.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising was initially a Kickstarter reward, and as a reward, it's pretty great. Despite the combat and gameplay loop not being as great as the town-building and characters, it's still a really enjoyable game. Regardless of its flaws with repetition, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a lot of fun and should have plenty of people excited for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes in 2023.
Salt & Sacrifice has the potential to be a great game, but it badly needs balancing fixes to allow it to live up to its potential, especially in regard to its battle system. A few tweaks to the stamina meter, the dodge roll & blocking mechanics, and the enemy attack patterns would do wonders for the game, as would a way to skip the chasing sequences and jump straight to the Mage bosses. As it stands, Salt & Sacrifice is a game full of frustrating moments that bog down the rest of the experience.
As such, Coromon is something that clearly comes from a place of great respect. Pokemon fans will likely find a game that appreciates what people love about the first five generations of Game Freak's franchise, and even when things get a little clunky there's enough for users to enjoy.
Best Month Ever! has its positive moments too, as the core of the story is that of a single mother doing her best to cherish her final days with her son, while making sure he will be loved and looked after when she passes. Unfortunately, this core sentiment is tainted by its various problematic moments and its inadvertent enforcement of harmful stereotypes. Best Month Ever! tries to tell a complex and loving story but the inherent cultural misunderstandings that come from race and nationality make those efforts fall flat and mar what is otherwise a serviceable narrative about love and family.
Overall, Citizen Sleeper is fantastic. It's a deep and well-crafted narrative experience with a fascinating setting, and is filled with plenty of challenging questions for players to ponder over. This is a game that gets cyberpunk right.
It's unfortunate that Loot River feels like an Early Access product in its current state. A scarcity of content and a thoroughly unfinished, unsatisfying feel to the combat, movement, and item discovery makes this title very hard to recommend. The best action-roguelites require rock-solid fundamentals to stand on their own, and a few game-breaking bugs combined with the limited equipment and incorrect item descriptors is cause for concern. Its scant bosses range from easily exploitable to insta-kills, and a deeply unsatisfying core gameplay loop essentially asks players to take on a series of failed runs, with repeat runs betraying how little the game's procedural generation affects these randomized maps. Loot River is a frustrating experience which clearly needed more development time, but hopefully the game finds its footing post-launch.
While Dinosaur Fossil Hunter requires patches to fine-tune important mechanics like driving, digging, and cleaning, it will likely be a good fit for players wanting a satisfying fossil extraction game with attention to detail. It is also a great pick for kids who want to learn more about the realistic challenges of paleontology, and the process of getting dinosaur skeletons into museums.
King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is solid point-and-click turn-based action, but players should note that it takes some time to level up due to the lack of a mission replay feature, and a considerable amount of gold being required to enable healing for multiple party members. Diehard tactical fans might be interested in what King Arthur: Knight's Tale has to offer, but newcomers to the genre might wish to cut their teeth elsewhere.
Although the general concepts remain the same for every campaign, the stories keep the game interesting, and varying requirements ensure the space station is different every time. Getting started can be difficult and unnecessarily complicated, but once the basics are understood, orbit.industries becomes a fun and occasionally intense experience that requires a fair amount of strategic thinking to complete. With the option to forego responsibilities in Creative mode, orbit.industries has plenty to offer for space and building game enthusiasts.
There was some reticence from the Vampire: The Masquerade fanbase when Bloodhunt was announced, due to how incompatible the setting of the tabletop RPG is with a battle royale. Is Bloodhunt accurate to the world of Vampire: The Masquerade? Absolutely not, but that doesn't stop it from being a blast to play. Bloodhunt is a super-powered gothic vampire battle royale that offers a more adult tone and faster-paced action than its contemporaries.
Wildcat Gun Machine can be beaten in as little as seven or eight hours, so this lack of depth in the game's combat and progression won't be an issue for gamers interested in a quick, simple dungeon-crawling experience. Plus, the game is launching on Steam for only $15, making it a great choice for anyone searching for a solid, affordably priced title. However, players looking for a deep, complex combat system - or a narrative to follow - might want to pass on Wildcat Gun Machine.
As such, MotoGP is a very strong racing game that truly captures the feel of MotoGP as a series. Although it's not perfect and lacks the sheen that comes with a bigger budget, the minute to minute racing is fantastic, and its minor issues here and there are far outweighed by the positives.
Ultimately, however, Nintendo Switch Sports thrives in its gameplay, which is captivating despite its simplicity and remains a huge selling point for anyone interested in the title. It's easy to lose hours of a night to burgeoning competitive rivalries among friends in one specific game, and the motion controls get people active enough that it feels like a productive use of time on top of the entertainment. There's some valid criticisms to be made over the shallow game roster and even shallower character customization, but at its core, Nintendo Switch Sports is an absolute blast and is simple enough for anyone who wants to give it a try.
Despite the early confusion, The Serpent Rogue is a great pick for fans of craft-intensive games like Valheim. The focus on exploration will appeal to open-world RPG gamers, as well as those who like strong stories with dark or spooky themes. The game's crafting system is well-balanced, and the ability to learn about crafting ingredients adds an extra level of immersion that benefits the main character's role as an alchemist. While The Serpent Rogue may not be great as an entry-level crafting game, it is a fantastic and beautifully crafted fantasy adventure that is enjoyable and challenging from the second players embark on their journey.
As such, when Lila's Sky Ark hits that sweet spot of cerebral thinking and abstract design it is a lovely game to play. There are moments where it does struggle, particularly in combat-heavy sections that don't lead to its boss fights, but overall there is plenty of fun to be had, and many secrets to find.
Heartless Lullaby has the potential to be expanded into a full experience that can give Vampire: The Masquerade fans their own equivalent to a Baldur's Gate title. As it stands, the current version of the game is worth checking out as a free title that only takes a short period of time to finish, especially as a taster for the Vampire: The Masquerade games that are coming soon. It's easy to see why Heartless Lullaby won the Vampire Jam, as the team did an amazing job putting together a game in a month, and it will hopefully lead to more World of Darkness content from the studio in the future.
The original version of The Force Unleashed had a lot going for it when it was first released, as there were few Star Wars games that offered the player the chance to play a Sith in a canon storyline that happens alongside the movies. The Force Unleashed is now showing its age, especially in an era when Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has done many of the same things, but better. The Force Unleashed offers a short ride through a galaxy far, far away, and it does have some moments of making the player feel like an awesome Sith warrior, but it doesn't manage to sustain this feeling, with its lightsaber swinging soon becoming like a chore.