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There’s an expectation for next-gen remasters to be cash-grabs, but Bloober Team went beyond resolution upgrades. Observer: System Redux shares a similar release history with Blade Runner: a newer version releasing with extra content and impressive visual polishes. It doesn’t avoid all the pitfalls endemic of walking sims nor of this studio, but it deserves augmented respect like its closest inspiration eventually earned.
The Wake: Mourning Father, Mourning Mother is too uncoordinated in the game being made and the story being told. It hits a strange chord with me because I find Somi laudable and his previous work worth investigating. The visual/audio design’s toned-down, retro ethos marries well with the saccharine storytelling and yet, obstructive gameplay frequently flatlined my drive to turn the next page.
“Short but sweet” is the emphasis for Neversong, both in its three-or-four hour runtime and the yarn it’s weaving. This comes at the cost of its substandard gameplay never invested in any particular idea. Each new bauble and character share the same story: neither feels like enough stock was given. But as an indie auteur’s expansion of a historical flash game, the effort poured into its revitalized presentation and atmosphere is something platforming fans could still admire.
Jumbled, infuriating, and unfinished are a few choice adjectives I can attribute to Doug Hates His Job. The panoply of gameplay styles it wants to flex should be treated as a canary in the coal mine for other young developers. The mockumentary approach makes its dull humor more of a mockery than of the white-collar job climate it’s lampooning. As a result, Super Villain Games succeeded in helping me relate to Doug's plight in one crucial way: hating my reviewing job — if only for a short time.
Separation is an apt title to illuminate its central problem. The adventure beckons you to experience a desolate world, utilize a VR headset, tingle your sensory stimuli in a way you can almost touch, and engage with a narrative tackling uncomfortable emotions. But, despite this magical potential, all of the accumulated shortcomings reveal the integral quality it sorely lacks: authentic connection.
In the end, The Suicide of Rachel Foster feels like the quintessential first draft of a horror/drama flick latched to a graceless gameplay template. The excitement and deliberate pacing early on suggest learning from the industry’s best exemplars. Ominous warnings suggest ghosts are roaming The Timberline’s halls. As it progresses, however, uncoordinated game design and tonally-tangled storytelling turns that engagement frozen stiff. Like walking through a grand hotel with years of decay, you can’t help but wonder how it could fare under new management.
STONE arrives at an uncomfortable middle more akin to a pile-up than a tightrope balancing act. The anthropomorphized backdrop feigns a more peculiar and memorable adventure, but the story is mostly lifeless and forgetful. It’s another third-person walking sim that’s not bothered to utilize our protagonist’s skills in any interesting or tangible way. Add on a fifteen-dollar retail price and you’re left considering a few rounds at the pub has more value, and I doubt our marsupial lead would protest to that.
With gripping game design shored up by fantastic visuals and stimulating storytelling, Return of the Obra Dinn solidifies Lucas Pope as a game-craftsman of remarkable talent.
Whether it’s in respect to the repetitive gameplay structure, unsatisfying flight controls, or deflating brevity, there’s really no reason to see what the buzz is about. Bee Simulator is a well-meaning edutainment game but its honeymoon period is gone at breakneck speed. You’ve bee-n warned, and I’ve run out of puns.
Patient gamers waiting for a new installment of MechWarrior will be pleased to find a graphically modern version of a classic franchise, but also a game that struggles to compete with the story, pacing and characters of recent action games that have learned to balance complexity and momentum with a little more panache.
In the case of Everreach: Project Eden, some mechanical issues with AI or balance can be patched, which other problems are more in the realm of aesthetics and direction and are probably doomed to never go away.
Shovel Knight: King of Cards is a successful union of its disparate halves, existing as both a platformer with consistently inventive level design and an engaging collectible card game. Joustus and the platforming offer a well-choreographed sequence of challenges that deliver constant variation.
Unfortunately, it is all but marred by bugs, especially the way the save system currently works… or doesn’t. If you’re in the market for a new sniping shooter, I cannot in good conscious recommend Contracts, it’s simply too frustrating to play in its current state.
You don’t have to dig too deeply to find that Golem, for all its inane faults, has some really interesting mechanical ideas for VR gaming. It’s one of the very few adventures that give you a sword to swing around in real-time and makes a concerted effort to make melee duels look and feel meaningful.
However, if you are looking for a unique point and click adventure that revels in black humor and nerdy pop culture, MechaNika is a game you'll want to try. I greatly enjoyed my time with the game, even though it was not always a comfortable experience.
There are interesting concepts at play here and I definitely understand why the team behind Interrogation were inspired to create it. It looks great with a black and white, noir-like visual style which really lands. From gameplay to messaging, though, Interrogation fails on almost every other level. Some of the more insane scenes that show up are something to behold but not for any sort of good reason. Don't be deceived into thinking Interrogation is worth your time.
Games are often escapist entertainment, but not everyone enjoys games that are full of tension, conflict or violence - at least all of the time. Lost Ember is a different form of escapism, an emotional and soothing journey into the natural world and its nonhuman inhabitants.
The fun thing is, you can try to take on the Impossible Lair as many times as you like and each time you die, the game leaves a little marker indicating how far you got.
Although it doesn’t include all the PC game’s extra content, Civ VI comes to the PS4 and Xbox with both the Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions and the latter in particular is a literal game changer. I can certainly imagine using Civ VI as an engaging educational tool to consider the many competing forces around climate change.
The Sims 4: Discover University is definitely weighted towards the real-world experiences and lessons of college life and in addition to being highly entertaining, might just possibly have some educational value of its own.