Dontnod is capturing the mood of a powerful country in the midst of a crisis of identity. If they can stick the landing, Life is Strange 2 has the potential to be a masterpiece.
It Takes Two is a fantastically creative co-op game that nails every new concept it introduces.
12 Minutes is a point-and-click adventure in a clockwork world that's as expertly crafted as a Swiss watch.
Immortality feels like a logical endpoint for the last seven years of Barlow's work. Though his cast has expanded to include a full Smash Bros. roster's worth of characters, and the script has expanded to include three full movies with contributions from several writers, it feels like he has ended up, basically, where he started. Like Her Story, Immortality is really about one woman. As in Her Story, she may not be who you think she is.
Wasteland 3 doesn't bring much new to the table, both as a CRPG and as a piece of post-apocalyptic fiction. But, it's a terrifically executed role-playing game that rewards player investment from beginning to end.
Risk of Rain 2 is an exciting roguelike with an adrenaline-pumping pace, fantastically varied perks, and intriguing secrets to spare.
Spelunky 2 is a successful evolution of what made the original Spelunky work.
Mundaun is a great horror adventure game in a gorgeous hand-drawn world.
Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 2 is a notable step up from the game's previous DLC.
Before Your Eyes is a smart and moving first-person looker where your eyes are in control.
The Famicom Detective Club games show their age, but The Missing Heir still packs a twisty, Agatha Christie punch.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles tells one slow, cohesive story that builds to a stellar payoff.
Rock opera and space opera meet for some artful escapism.
Solar Ash is an exhilarating action-adventure game with strong puzzles and flashy boss fights.
This is a small project, but it packs in its share of indelible images. Aperture Desk Job confirms that, even when working on a limited scale, Valve is still the best in the biz at plopping you down in the middle of a well-realized sci-fi world and conjuring up a host of imaginative sights before your wide, unblinking eyes.
Still, Who Pressed Mute On Uncle Marcus? is an enjoyable and sometimes funny yarn, with a strong script, solid performances, and an intriguing central mystery. It doesn't push the FMV genre forward in any meaningful ways like Sam Barlow's Her Story and Telling Lies did, and it could use a better log to keep track of which lines of questioning you've already pursued. But, it's an enjoyable genre exercise that takes a dull experience we're all familiar with after two years of a pandemic, and somehow makes it fun again.
That's what Monster Boy's final hours feel like. They're a clunky conclusion clogging up an otherwise slimy sleek progression. Usually in Metroidvanias, your progress stops because you're missing something you need. In Monster Boy, progress slows because The Game Atelier and FDG Entertainment have given you far too much.
In the face of quicker, louder rivals, PUBG offers a slow and meditative experience. It's not, I would imagine, unlike sitting in a deer blind waiting for an unlucky whitetail to pass below. While PUBG's technical issues are ever-present, they rarely spoil this core experience. This is a buggy game, but they aren't game breaking bugs. They're bugs that make you laugh at best and curse under your breath and reboot the game at worst. You hope they get better. But, you know that, with each game, at the very least, you are.
It's a satisfying mix. This is the rare (only???) game offering something for fans of Doom, No Man's Sky, Harvest Moon, and Fortnite. It's not the perfect simulation of life in outer space, but, in some ways, it gets closer than anything else has.
My own lack of emotional investment doesn’t negate what Observation does so well. No Code has created something truly unique. It defies easy “x meets y meets z” categorization. While there are recognizable component parts—the map of a ship-builder, the numerous small mechanics of a microgame collection, the rubberneckery of an immersive sim—I have never played anything quite like Observation. But, I’m guessing it would be awfully familiar to the AI in my pocket.