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In the end, while it’s certainly not as suspenseful as the first game, the storytelling in Lost & Found: A This Bed We Made Story is a step above. It’s a heartfelt, emotional narrative with a candid and intimate look into the lives of a handful of travelers aboard a luxury ocean liner for their own, often intriguing, reasons. You find the connective tissues between the stories in each room, and it’s up to you whether that becomes ground for gossip or an opportunity to uniquely care for individual needs. How delicate will you be with the deeply personal secrets you find lying among the luggage?
In conclusion, Restory is mostly a chill time and a zen-like experience. with only some of the less likable characters breaking that immersion. In the plus column, the attention to detail in the hardware art design is truly incredible and worth high praise! In the negative column: I had issues with the zoom level, and I wasn’t a fan of the misalignment of story threads. All told, Restory: Chill Electronics Repairs is a lovely entry into the genre of job simulators and cozy games, and it is exactly what it promises to be.
On the whole, Ambrosia Sky dares to imagine our galaxy as something other than a dark, desolate vacuum of matter. Here on the rings of Saturn, fluorescent colors swell across the derelict spaces, now flourishing with vibrant fungal cultures and organic substances. As Dalia, we are tasked with cleaning these spaces, power-washing our way through the mold to find familiar faces overcome by mycological tragedy. In doing so, we learn the personal history of Daliah’s homecoming, the stories of the people who tried everything to outlast this contagion, and finally, the resolution that pushed the limits of scientific imagination.
Lunarium almost works to introduce Souls-inspired isometric ARPG to interested players. Combat satisfies while the story underserves its themes with a rocky narrative structure. Some will find Ave and Lune’s relationship the core of their experience, while others will enjoy the smaller, easily navigable levels. Lunarium shoots for the moon and lands among the Starfarers.
Database Detective: Minor Crime Division is a Schrödinger’s Cat of educational content – on one hand it teaches concepts easily and practically, on the other hand it puts fun front and centre – it’s only when you open the box that you’ll find out if it’s useful for you. Either way, an entertaining, comical story wrapped in the interest of learning something new cannot be ignored – sadly, the game does lose half a star due to a current lack of accessibility options.
In the end, Lou’s Lagoon feels like a game that didn’t quite match its initial promise. It plays beautifully and looks amazing with its cartoonish style. But awkward pacing, way too much waiting around, fetch quests that feel like padding out the game, and those storage issues hold the game back from becoming the classic it could have been. It’s still a really good game, definitely worth the approximately 12 hours it takes to finish; just be aware of these issues going into it.
Sophia’s story carries on what made her character so endearing in previous A Plague Tale games, but with a great deal more swashbuckling. The combat shines the brightest even as the story ventures into the dark reality of a world swamped with Macula. While the storytelling is bolstered by incredible voice acting and strong writing, ultimately Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy owes much of its narrative to exposition, filling in gaps about the Macula over character development for the cast.
While the disparity in quality between Chapters 1 and 2 is surprisingly vast, it’s hard to not still give CULTIC a wholehearted recommendation off the back of the excellent Chapter 1 alone. The act of shooting never felt less than exhilarating, especially when interspersed between CULTIC’s equally great moments of exploration and horror, and the solid survival mode is there to add potentially endless replayability for the people that want it. It’s just a shame that Chapter 2 can’t quite live up to the excellence of the rest of the package.
It’s hard not to be charmed by the solidarity of the two protagonists in Theropods and to see their efforts save a village to completion. Fans of point-and-click games that emphasize the puzzles over dialogue will appreciate the way that the game speedily moves you along, but those looking for a story beyond two strong, silent protagonists won’t have much to chew on long after the experience ends.
This is easily one of the best additions to the farming sims genre in a while. Even considering the number of excellent titles the genre has seen in the past few years, this one rates very highly. The charming art, the wonderful music, the great storylines – they all just come together so perfectly and will be enjoyed by anyone infatuated with farming sims or cosy games in general, as well as being a perfect entry point for anyone new to the genre. Now, to finally find that final ingredient for my engagement ring. Hold on, my beloved Juniper, I’ll be there soon!
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Servant of the Lake! It’s outside my usual comfort zone for games, but I felt confident and capable with the puzzles, and I enjoyed the ride it took me on. It’s not the most amazing, awe-inspiring work of art in the world, but it knows what it’s about and it commits to the bit. It’s a genuinely excellent addition to the game library of anyone who enjoys visual novels, point-and-click games, or puzzle games.
Backyard Baseball hits both of its main targets, the fastball and the breaking ball, if you will. It effectively channels the memories of playing the original games for longtime fans while also being a fairly approachable game for a new generation of kids, especially on the lower end of the difficulty choices. For older players who didn’t play the original games, it’s still a pretty chill, arcadey baseball experience that promises to not get as sweaty as the more sim-style baseball games out there. It’s not going to the hall of fame, but it makes solid contact more often than not.
Future Knight will leave you scratching your head for the majority of its four-hour runtime thanks to the many moments of confusion it brings, but there is a strong platform shooter in there with fun challenges, attempting to escape the absurdity surrounding it. If everything I’ve said sounds great to you, then I hope you have a good time, but for others it might all be a little too much.
With tenuous character motivations, messy dialogue, underdeveloped narrative structure, sloppy combat, haphazard checkpointing, flat skill progression, and unreliable controls, Akatori is an exploraformer to avoid. The game’s excellent visual presentation does not compensate for its many unpolished and half-finished ideas.
Tukoni: Forest Keepers is a picture book turned point-and-click adventure. Kids are apt to be drawn to its cute characters and simple story but will need adult assistance due to a lack of a tutorial and clunky controls, while adventure game fans are likely to be disappointed by the depth of the gameplay. Aside from the gorgeous hand-drawn visuals, there is little else to maintain adult engagement.
There’s no doubting that Duskfade was made with a love for action-adventure games, but the combination of simple, enjoyable combat and platforming that challenges the way you engage with the movement abilities makes it stand out as a shining example of the genre, even if it does adopt some of its flaws along the way.
Agent 64: Spies Never Die wears its influences on its immaculately dressed sleeve, and it works wonderfully well. Its action is punchy, playing with the challenges we faced due to the limits of the Nintendo 64 in a fun way. Whether you have nostalgia for that specific time in videogame history will probably influence your enjoyment of this game in a big way, but even if you’re new to this era of shooters, there’s plenty to enjoy here. The story mode is a fun romp, and the game’s multiplayer could be one that keeps people entertained for years to come.
While I enjoyed the cartoony corporate satire at the heart of this game, I just couldn’t connect with its complex platforming mechanics and over-elaborate level design. However, fans of Jump King-style precision platformers should perhaps give this a go (at time of writing, the demo is still live). Alas, I won’t be making any more zero-hour contract deliveries in Hell.
As far as narrative puzzle games go, The Mermaid Mask definitely doesn’t disappoint: the world, the people inhabiting it, and the dialogue in between will always be a treat, though it is let down by some pacing issues in its grand finale, as well as a few puzzles that are needlessly obtuse. Regardless, it proves itself a worthy addition to the Detective Grimoire series and hopefully not the last we will see. Sadly, a lack of meaningful accessibility options also means the game loses half a star.
Now comes the big question: do I recommend Montabi? While it offers plenty of interesting strategies and synergies, it doesn’t do all that much to bring anything new to the genre of roguelike deckbuilders. But what’s there is so solidly made that it’s hard to ignore and hard to put down once you’ve spent some time with it. My suggestion would be to stick with it until you do find yourself breaking the game. And then you come back here and tell me how to do it. Deal? Deal.