Brodie Gibbons's Reviews
Cyberpunk 2077 is staggering, overwhelming, and even surprising at times in its spectacle. Although my first dozen hours with the game has been marred by easy-to-fix problems, Nighty City, along with all it offers and all that call it home, makes for an intoxicating escape. Here's hoping the next one hundred hours are as utterly compelling.
With some doubt at the front of people's minds, Returnal is a shushing finger across the lips of detractors as well as a tremendous example that PlayStation's middle line titles can still offer as much value and entertainment as its tentpole exclusives. Housemarque achieves an atmosphere like few can and set up a universe ripe for expansion while marrying it to a grind - which is more forgiving than most of its kind but will still alienate some -that's both brutal and gratifying all at once.
This quaint story about a workaday crow discovering that death is a force of nature that without discrimination takes all, both good and bad, winds up being far more memorable and touching than I could have ever expected. With a world and characters full of Miyazaki-proportional charm, and combat and puzzles that offer up a real test, Death's Door is a beautiful sophomore effort from Acid Nerve and is certainly something to crow about.
It's not an easy thing Arkane has done here in serving up a genuinely fresh take on one of the medium's most enduring genres. Deathloop redefines what a shooter can be, and the developer has used their entire toolkit to get there. Satisfying action, world-building that's second-to-none, style and substance, and a genuinely enthralling riddle at the centre, Deathloop delivers it all. And it's through these triumphs that Deathloop earns its place in the first-person shooter pantheon, and puts its hand up during Game of the Year talks.
By making Solar Ash radically different from Hyper Light Drifter, Heart Machine has avoided boxing themselves into a niche while being able to continue and build a universe they clearly care for. It wears its influences on its sleeve and comes together as a cosmic mix of a few games held dear by many, and as long as they continue to do this, I'll eat it up until I am far beyond full.
With an adventurous campaign, complete with a sandbox that'll still be there when your friends can join the fight, and a multiplayer suite that feels like a note-perfect revival of the Halo of old, Halo Infinite feels like the complete blockbuster sci-fi shooter we've been waiting for from 343 Industries. It hasn't happened overnight for the team, but the mantle passed to them, at last, feels earned.
Through neoteric ideas around what combat can be, many of which were conceived with Absolver, Sloclap has carried the classic beat 'em up into the present with Sifu. It might be brutal and unforgiving, but it never feels cheap and it's a pleasure to continually learn the complexities of kung fu while bathing in the world's surplus of flair and ferocity. So push through and persevere, because there's one hell of a game on offer here.
The Last of Us Part I is, for all intents and purposes, the same The Last of Us that you know. It doesn't take liberties to completely reshape the experience and nor should it. It does, however, smartly enhance the original's combat through A.I. advancements, and drags the original's production values over the line to create a product that can stand unified with its more polished sequel. The Last Of Us: Part I is without doubt the most definitive version of The Last of Us on the market.
Although its subject matter might confound and could be too heady for the general audience, Pentiment is a role playing game that has been considered and laboured over to the nth degree. It's a great reminder that some creatives just get it done, budget be damned. By God's will, Pentiment is making a late charge for Game of the Year.
EA Motive could have taken a path of least resistance in delivering a Dead Space remake, though I'm thankful for everything they've poured into what is a tremendous reimagining of one of gaming's truly iconic horror games. It's gorier than ever, the story is made whole, encompassing lore elements once merely pieced together by its fan base, and feels like a genuinely fresh twist on the original.
To use fishing terms, Dredge isn't one you'd kiss and throw back. It's the definition of a trophy catch. Its series of elegantly simple systems interplay nicely, blending seamlessly with an eerily stunning eldritch style and a moreish checklist of sea life to catch.
If what you're hoping for is The Elder Scrolls or Fallout in space, then Starfield is that. Not only does it have countless stories begging to be sought out against a vast and beckoning star chart, it's also the most polished Bethesda Game Studios title we've ever had.
Cocoon's focus on recursive exploration, which sees you peel back the filmic overlay of several coexisting realities to writhe in the depth of their fathoms-deep trickery, is incredibly intelligent in its design and is truly the most technically impressive puzzle game I've played since perhaps Portal. And it achieves all of this whilst sharing clear genetics with its forerunners.
Andy Brophy's Knuckle Sandwich will likely go down as the year's strangest and most endearing video game. It takes the framework of past icons such as Mother and Earthbound and injects a little bit of ocker into the mix to create an off-the-wall roleplaying game that'll play to both the nostalgia harboured for our sunburnt country as well as the genre's decades-long history.
Ultros takes the durable, and fortunately resurgent, genre of Metroidvania and places a clever roguelike spin on it that incorporates memory and gardening, placing it all within a cosmic womb orbiting a black hole at the edge of space. It'll be El Heurvo's art that's sure to capture your attention at first, but Ultros' several wedded ideas flower into a game that does well to keep it.
Cloudpunk is a tremendous accomplishment in creating a setting; in the sub-genre of cyberpunk, it knows few rivals. There’s a sense of place that demands your attention and dares you to comb every corner and jaw with every sentient settler. For a game about choice, a simplistic approach to gameplay can, at times, deprive the player of meaningful agency, which feels as though it soars in the face of the message. It’s still an absolute pleasure to drink in this one unforgettable night in Nivalis, Cloudpunk is a frontrunner for indie game of the year.
Not unlike the discs we spent so long combating, Disc Room is far more clever than it appears to be at a glance. Like Minit before it, Disc Room is another minimalist concept rooted in classic design and inspiration, except there's so much more beneath the surface. Just as the ship called out to our scientist like a siren's song, Disc Room's cool, addictive appeal does the exact same to me.
Ghostrunner might be standing on the shoulders of games like Mirror's Edge, and even Dishonored, in terms of inspiration with its parkour and slick swordplay. But it also separates heads from those shoulders and stands proud as the far better application of both disciplines-Ghostrunner is a sleek, fun exercise for deft hands.
As a guitar-shredding odyssey throughout a stunning cosmos, The Artful Escape delivers on its name tenfold. It is a short tale and I'm in no hurry to book a return trip to the Cosmic Extraordinary, but it remains an unforgettable journey thanks to superb art direction, an uplifting story, and stirring guitar solos by cliffside.
For Cuphead fans, The Delicious Last Course is an essential add-on adventure that more than delivers enough content for the price of admission. The art is sumptuous, the fights are fanciful, and there's effort crammed into every nook. I expect some might say The Delicious Last Course under delivers considering the time between drinks, but I'm a cup half full kind of guy.