I enjoyed my time with Sand Land, despite its many flaws. The vehicle gameplay feels great, and it’s the main pull for me – I didn’t mind that the side quests were pointless and the open world samey, because I had an incredibly powerful tank that could blow up small groups of enemies in two seconds. But if you’re hoping that this game will be the best adaptation of Toriyama’s manga series, you’re out of luck. I’d just watch the anime instead.
Since the game is so short, I still think it’s worth a try. When the game succeeds, it glows, and gameplay feels seamless and interesting. You might bang your head against it a little, but the solutions are always common sense and it feels incredible to work through something on your own. Just be warned that you probably won’t find the game’s ending particularly satisfying, but if you can look past that, One Last Breath does have something to offer.
There are moments of beauty in Highwater, most of it instigated by environmental design – I loved coming across surprises and marvelling at how even after catastrophe, human beings continue to do their thing. But unfortunately, as much as I love the game’s aesthetics and very competent turn-based combat, it doesn’t have all that much to say about its complex themes, and finishing it felt like a relief.
There are parts of this game that are highly relatable. You can scroll through social media and see what are essentially Tweets (or Posts, thanks Elon), mostly about the impending meteor impact, that capture Twitter (sure, X) culture with hilarious accuracy. The third act also shines, with tensions between characters finally bubbling over and leading to huge blowouts that feel very true to the nature of teenage friendships. Fang’s relationship to their parents and brother Naser also feel very complex, more than any other relationship they have with the other characters. But none of this is enough to carry the weight of the game’s slow first acts or make up for the game’s unrealised thematic potential, and that’s a shame. What could’ve been a meaningful meditation on the importance of community turned out half-baked. The seeds of something great were there, but it never quite had the payoff it deserved.
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood shows us what women can be when they are free to be who they are, liberated from arbitrary restrictions on their lives. It is a feminist, progressive, intersectional game, one that celebrates women in every form. It made me feel connected to the world around me, and that’s a huge accomplishment.
Decarnation is a well-written, spine-chilling adventure, but it would have been better off as an animated film instead of a game. The interactivity felt forced, but its writing, characterisation, atmospheres and settings sparkled, leaving me unnerved to the very end. I rooted for Gloria, and though her journey to finding inner strength was a bit trite, I was with her till the very end. This piece of art was self-conscious in so many ways, reflecting the darkest natures of human beings - I just wish it had been more of a game.
However, if you don’t care about the story and you just want a really good puzzler, Humanity might be for you. Apart from over 90 story levels, the game has a Stage Creator function that allows users to submit their own levels. This gives you a huge number of levels to access even after you’ve finished the game, giving it a much longer shelf life. You can also play it in VR - I chose not to do this because VR gives me migraines, but the visuals of the game are pretty cool and worth seeing in VR if you already own a headset. I wish Humanity’s marketing had focused more on its puzzles than its story, because it’s fairly clear to me which is stronger and I came away a little disappointed. The game’s mechanics evolve very well with the story’s narrative, and it’s a lot of fun. I’m just not sure its story was worth telling.
Despite its bugs, Deceive Inc. is fun enough that I immediately started asking my friends to play with me. Nobody has taken the bait yet so I haven’t tried the multiplayer mode, but solo mode is fun enough that it’s tiding me over. Here’s hoping that the game fixes its many bugs quickly, because there’s plenty else to love about this game as long as they build on the base they’ve started with.
Rytmos is a meditative music-making experience with a specific goal in mind – sharing the music of the world, with the world. With well-designed puzzles and diverse influences, it’s worth the play if you’re keen on a relaxing, musical experience.
Loretta’s story is one of a woman trapped in her circumstances, desperate to escape. It’s also a story about fate, where as hard as you may try to guide Loretta away from the bad thing, events keep unfolding that force you to take more and more dramatic actions and suffer her decline with her. The game was harrowing, but your actions can’t change the narrative that much – she is doomed from the first bad decision she makes. All you can do is stop her from going too far, or let her freefall.