I think a lot of games could learn from Persona 4 in how sometimes lightening the mood and giving players time to catch their breath can have a far bigger impact than rolling dead ahead as ferociously as possible before the game wraps up.
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Nihilumbra is such a exquisite game to look at, that it’s disheartening to see such lovely artwork was wasted on an experience that only manages to dull the senses.
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There are so many things I love about Rain, and yet when I think back to it all I can remember is how much I wish it had held itself back. There is a wonderful, touching experience at the base of Rain, but I can’t help but begin to question what part of my feelings were legitimate, and which were due to the game telling me how I should feel when it so continually outlines those feelings for you.
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It got me thinking about things I never even recognize in most games, and though it didn’t quite go all the way, it started a discussion and even managed to have a lot of fun in the process. Odd praise to be sure, but it’s a rather odd game itself isn’t it.
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Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries feels confused. It wants to reimagine the Red Riding Hood fairy tale into a darker, Victorian gothic tale (bearing no small resemblance to the similar idea applied to Alice: Madness Returns) but it doesn’t know how. Ideas bubble around on the surface but always seem to pop before they’ve been explored, and looking deeper only exposes a bigger jumble of incompatible objectives that refuse to settle down as they pull the game in different directions. Pull hard enough, and pretty soon it’s all collapsed at your feet.
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There’s something untraditionally appealing about Out There Somewhere’s insubstantiality. It’s a very brief, straightforward experience, but rather than feeling shallow it uses its brevity to subvert the players expectations in interesting ways.
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At this point you may be wondering if I’ve accidentally published the wrong review, but I feel it important to talk about my feelings toward Sonic before I can discuss Freedom Planet. I try to stay away from relying on direct comparisons between games in my reviews, but Freedom Planet is such a direct response to the cries of Sonic fans for Sega to bring him back to the 16-bit era that it would be almost disingenuous not to mention how it relates. It’s also important because it’s the first time I’ve been able to see what it is about this formula that people love, and for a moment make me sad it’s been underserved for so long.
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Stories at the dawn is only a few minutes long. It’s unclear to me right now if it’s finished or will potentially be something entirely different by the time you play it. The developer might have an entirely different vision for it than what I saw tonight, but that’s what I love about the space within art. With the absence of distinction what people see in it can take on a life of its own.
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If anything Metamorphabet goes out of its way to never box itself into a certain demographic. It’s full of the sort of universal love and joy that I can’t imagine anyone with half a heart wouldn’t find at least a little delightful regardless of their age. It introduced me to what I imagine my baby niece sees and feels when playing with simple blocks and stuffed animals, simple toys becoming outlets to unleash her imagination in a world that probably doesn’t make a lot of sense but is full of amazing things if only you could see them like she does.
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It took awhile for me to understand where Swan Hill’s melancholy was attempting to take me. It is at once a story about magic (or something greater than that, what is here known as philosophy), about jealousy, responsibility, and keeping up appearances. But it struck me as going deeper than that, past its fantasy roots and royalty to tap into a very human need to feel valued.
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My first experience with There Came An Echo was filled with careful hesitation followed by eager disbelief and curiosity. It might not be the first game to attempt voice commands, but it’s definitely the most successful at making it feel seamless and authentic. It’s such a brilliant hook that it almost feels like enough to carry the game, until you step back and look at how hollow the experience actually is.
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Last week Valve unrolled a feature that would allow people to sell Skyrim mods on the Steam workshop. It wasn’t a mandatory requirement all mods be paid or listed on the marketplace, but there was now a legal infrastructure to allow modders to be paid for their work. A few hours ago Valve announced they would be removing this feature and issuing refunds to anyone who had purchased a mod.
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I really do love a lot of what Slow Down, Bull is trying to do. I like that Insomniac Games is branching out into new platforms and gameplay styles, that they tried to make something encouraging and entertaining regardless of your age, and they’re giving part of the proceeds to help kids that need it. But I feel like by making the game so needlessly challenging and frustrating, they’ve diluted its purpose and made something that instead of helping relieve stress, only served as yet another source of it.
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DAGDROM is one neat idea wrapped up in a whole lot of surreal delight.
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With Portal 2 Valve has not only given us a bigger and better game, but one of the greatest pieces of interactive entertainment ever.
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I didn’t know what The Charnel House Trilogy was going to be when I started it up. I assumed it would be narrative focused, perhaps in a traditional adventure game format, with a cast of familiar (and surprisingly competent) voice actors. What I got was a somewhat uneven, but ultimately remarkable horror story that seems to be only starting.
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For as commonplace as retro inspired games are now, Rock Boshers is one that feels far more reliant on nostalgia alone to sell itself than most. In that regard I can’t fault it for being a game I could have feasibly played two decades ago, but times have changed and even if it might have held my attention back then, I couldn’t wait to leave its soulless existence behind today. Rock Boshers is a game made for another time and place, it’s just a shame it’s one I never want to return to.
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Heavens Below felt scared to let me in.
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