TheGamer's Reviews
Throughout Schim, you can only watch this man’s life from a few steps behind, and when the time is right, you find him as hope returns and the man finds himself at the same time. There are some beautiful, abstract sequences as the man goes through these stages of depression, development, and betterment, and the lead-up to the final moments are appropriately dramatic and satisfying, completing what is a pure and wholesome experience that casts a bigger shadow than you may expect.
Once Human is a fascinating game. There’s no other way of putting it. It’s a multiplayer open-world survival crafting game with a Ubisoft-style quest system (go here, clear an outpost, find hidden chests), a Pokemon-like creature collecting aspect with Palworld animal-workforce undertones, with Rust - or DayZ-esque - PvP and seasonal wipes to boot. It’s an eclectic hash of all these games, for better, and for worse.
But that's a minor gripe that stems more from my love of fictional grimy cities than anything Anger Foot is actually doing wrong. The FPS is well-paced, smartly designed, and looks like a cartoon you would joyously gulp down with a Capri-Sun after school. It can occasionally frustrate, but it gives you all the tools you need to tailor the experience to your taste. It does many things well, and it accomplishes them elegantly. That a game this focused on feet pulled all that off has got to be the gaming surprise of 2024.
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail starts with a slow burn that builds into an emotional, captivating inferno that tackles some deep themes and effectively balances new elements with old beats in more ways than one. Overall, it’s a brilliant first chapter to the new story arc that has left me eager to learn more about what the future holds in new patches and later expansions. I’ve fallen in love with Tural and its characters, and more importantly, Dawntrail has me obsessed on a new level with FF14 in a way the game has never achieved before.
You’ll probably get something out of Spy x Anya if you’re a massive fan of the show, but even if you're fairly enthusiastic about it like myself, you’ll find it lacking. It’s extremely faithful to the show in both humor and aesthetic, but it requires a prohibitively high tolerance for repetitiveness. There’s fun to be had, but it’s locked behind hours of taking photos, lackluster conversations, and repetitive busywork. It’s nowhere near the quality of a must-play title for a Spy x Family fan, and you can probably get as much satisfaction from rewatching the show.
How much can a review actually sway you if you’re up to number 11 in a series so sprawling, its creator envisions this game as roughly the halfway point in his grand tale? Don’t drop Trails now. That would be ridiculous even if Trails Through Daybreak wasn’t especially good. As it happens, it’s one of my favorite entries, and proof that Falcom is on an upward swing again between this one and Trails of Reverie before it. A little more polish could have gone a long way, but the Calvard Republic is an enjoyable place to explore, the protagonist is appreciably mature, and the story ends with that same deliciously Trails philosophy: always leave ‘em wondering how the heck they’ll ever wrap this up.
Radiant Tale - Fanfare! handles its romance well, but the game leaves me wanting more engagement. I enjoy visual novels, but I hoped for some sort of mini-game or higher narrative stakes. The lack of real friends for Tifalia rings hollow as well, making it difficult to latch onto anyone. Radiant Tale - Fanfare! is a colorful adventure, but one that falls short of delivering a memorable experience.
For now though, I’ve had a great time grinding the game, and even though there are two other games releasing the same week as The First Descendant that I also can’t wait to get stuck into - both Zenless Zone Zero and Once Human - I feel like this is the one that will soak up my time.
Riven remains one of the most captivating and challenging puzzle games I have ever played. You can’t help but leave the game wanting to learn more about the strange and mysterious world it welcomes you into. I encourage anyone to play this remake, however, while it’s a fine VR game, it’s best enjoyed on PC so you can fully commit to note-taking for puzzles and avoid the added frustration of whipping your headset on and off.
But for what it actually is, Banana Rumble is an utterly adorable sequel full of charm, with some decent level design to be had. When it was at its best, it was incredibly satisfying to pull off skips and blast through stages in mere seconds. Now that it’s over, I just can’t see myself picking it up again.
Despite its mechanical flaws, Times & Galaxy is still a deeply resonant and incredibly thoughtful game about the world and the role of journalism in it, chock-full of characters to love and showcasing a galaxy ripe for exploration. I just wish that actually playing it wasn’t so frustrating.
Sometimes, you don't need to be the hero of the epic adventure. Sometimes, it can be more fulfilling to enable others to maximise their potential in your stead. Sometimes, the safety and security of your own four walls are the escape from your traumatic past that you needed. Buy another round, and I'll tell you that tale, too.
This is their linking the flame moment, a chance to be reborn and usher in a new age, capped off by what can only be described as their magnum opus.
I’ve been emotionally preparing myself to hang up my Arbalest and ride off into the sunset after The Final Shape. Destiny 2 is a game that means a lot to me, so much that I’m not prepared to watch it slowly turn into a shadow of what it once was. But this expansion restored my faith in Destiny and made me eager to see what the frontiers the future has in store. There’s been ups and downs over the years, but this proves the trajectory of Destiny 2 is onward and upward. It proves we can expect Bungie will learn from mistakes and that there are bigger and better things in Destiny’s future. I worried this would be the end, but now The Final Shape just feels like the end of the beginning.
I didn’t know how much I would gel with Megaton Musashi W: Wired as I don’t consider myself much of a mech fan, but I was surprised by how invested in the narrative and gameplay I became. Though the story’s pacing could have been polished better and combat can get a bit repetitive, it’s an enjoyable experience that I fear many will miss out on this year as it has snuck in under the radar. If you love anime, mechs, or even just like beating down aliens (and other players online) in your own customised exoskeleton, give Wired a shot.
This is The Chinese Room’s best game yet. It has the bombastic set pieces, unflinching gore, and intense stealth sequences that make it a harrowing experience that deserves to stand alongside other games about guys having really bad days. But it also offers a well-paced, meaty narrative with excellent performances that I’m going to be chewing on for months to come.
Overall, Mario Vs Donkey Kong is a capable remake of a game whose identity crisis between platformer and puzzler can't survive the journey from handheld to TV. Enjoyable enough but not that taxing - aside from rare spikes when it becomes too taxing - it's a good recreation that doesn't have the tools to venture into greatness. It will be an impressive enough glow-up for fans of the original, but mixes being straightforward and mildly frustrating into a colourful and charming milkshake (so close I can almost taste it), even if it's a little bit sickly. It's worth occupying a few hours with, but it won't live long in the memory, and underlines why few Mario fans would put this one in the plumber's highlight reel. Now, time for that milkshake for real.
Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is what happens when you take a very good game, tackle every one of its flaws, and add far more content than anyone could ask for. It is a joy to play, devilishly difficult in all the right ways, and replayable to a fault - it’s proving hard to find the motivation to play anything else.
Nine Sols is a well-made game with great platforming, excellent combat, and a strong visual style. While I have quibbles about some elements, it nails the fundamentals. The moment-to-moment gameplay is simply fantastic, it looks great, and weaves its cutscenes into the gameplay deftly. Red Candle Games has really shown its creative range here, as its first foray into the Metroidvania genre is a triumph. There is no question that Nine Sols is entering a crowded market, but even with so much competition, I have no doubt that it will find an audience and take its place among the titans of the genre. Quality bears out.
I left the demo at PAX East eager for the completed game, and now that I’ve played it, it delivers well on the idyllic simplicity of building ponds and befriending frogs, even if the simplicity is a bit too simple at times. I’ve never seen a game put so much effort into making an actual statement on ecology and biodiversity, but Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge shows a cute game about photographing frogs can be so much more than that.