DeVuego

Reventure is a masterpiece of design. With its sharp satirical humour, its tight controls, and its endless inventiveness, Reventure actively invites players to engage with it again and again and again. This isn’t just a love letter to adventure games, it’s a great adventure in its own right, transcending the expectations of the genre to offer a fantastic, multi-faceted experience that satisfies in every regard.

As the first chapter of an episodic adventure, Blues and Bullets accomplishes everything it needs to—great writing, interesting characters, hints of a compelling story, and engaging gameplay are all present. I can't predict whether this level of excellence is going to be maintained, but as it stands, it is absolutely worth playing for anyone with even a passing interest in detective stories or Telltale-style interactive movies. They simply don't come any better. 

The issues I had controlling it weren’t nearly enough to dampen the incredible experience I had playing STAY, though.  In fact, because it features multiple endings, it made me do something I’ve done (maybe) twice in my life — I immediately started playing it again after the credits rolled. I didn’t necessarily want another ending, but I desperately wanted to know more about Quinn, more context to his life, and to learn more about how he got to this point. For a videogame, the ability to engender such curiosity is pretty damned rare, and a true achievement worth celebrating. 

It’s one of the most enjoyable recent entries in a medium that it takes perverse glee in tearing apart.

Although I started playing the game out of sheer happenstance, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I enjoyed Lords of Shadow 2 far, far more than I ever expected to, and have no hesitation recommending it to anyone looking for dynamic third-person action, environmental exploration, or an intriguing new spin on the Castlevania mythos. MercurySteam has done such a fantastic job revamping this classic series that I'm now motivated to go back and revisit the first game, and if there's higher praisAlthough I started playing the game out of sheer happenstance, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I enjoyed Lords of Shadow 2 far, far more than I ever expected to, and have no hesitation recommending it to anyone looking for dynamic third-person action, environmental exploration, or an intriguing new spin on the Castlevania mythos. MercurySteam has done such a fantastic job revamping this classic series that I'm now motivated to go back and revisit the first game, and if there's higher praise than that, I don't know what it is.

While the difficulty level may scare some away, Yuppie Psycho has so much great writing and clever gameplay that it would be a crime to overlook. Pasternack’s journey through SintraCorp is equal parts scary and hilarious, and the handful of annoying moments were more than made up for by a fundamentally humane story about people trying to connect and help one another within a system designed to grind them into a slurry of blandness. Sometimes literally.

Beautifully stylized, beautifully implemented, and a true joy to play, NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits is another excellent title in Nintendo's already-impressive WiiWare library. Who needs Kid Icarus?

Although Mirror of Fate doesn't live up to its full potential, it often comes close. I can see the beginnings of a fantastic new-school Castlevania experience trying hard to emerge here, and with just a little more polish and precision, MercurySteam would have turned out a solid winner. It's not yet fully evolved, but the work done here is still a valid step towards the future state of this ever-changing series.

With its online implementation and improved strategic combat, there are certainly appealing qualities to Temtem, but its entrenched ties to old-school Pokemon prevent it from blossoming into something greater. It isn’t redefining what we already know, so for those simply looking for another Pokemon-like experience who just wanna catch ‘em all, this one might be a good fit.

Mind: Path to Thalamus is beautiful and has several elegant puzzles, but it doesn't tell any story with those attributes, nor does it tell a good story with anything else.

The loose, questionable mechanics make Alien Spidy more difficult than its cute art style and underdeveloped presentation suggest. While breezing through the first forest-themed world appears simple, earning enough coins to finally go on to the next world proves to be more of a headache than a welcome challenge. The difficulty, along with an unimpressive combination of uninspired aesthetics, unnecessarily long load times, and a generic feel, make the game, as its title suggests, a disappointingly alien experience.

It’s tough to see Etherborn as anything but a misguided project and a missed opportunity.  It’s frustrating to play without the ability to look around, the story has zero weight or impact, and apart from some wonderful visuals, it’s got little to offer.  

It’s possible that the PC’s campaign will be added to the PS4 at some point in the future, but no plans have been announced. As it stands, They Are Billions on PS4 is a title whose strong RTS fundamentals and brilliant premise are undercut by the complete failure to respect someone’s time or offer any reason to keep coming back once the novelty of the first few hours has worn off.

I had high hopes for Zack Zero going in, but the game is too rough and unpolished to recommend it. The dodgy platforming, bland gameplay, and goofy main character are huge detriments to the experience, and the ridiculous ending is like one final slap in the face before gamers go about their life. The end naturally sets up a sequel, but if Crocodile Entertainment doesn't address the serious flaws with this game, another adventure with Zack isn't something I'd wish on my worst enemies.

If the gameplay was incredibly fun, or the graphics fantastic, then perhaps playing basically the same mission over and over again for ten hours could have been bearable, or even mildly entertaining. Torrente, by comparison, was more like pulling teeth. I'm generally pretty fair to budget titles, willing to look past graphical flaws or gameplay quirks and judge them on their own terms. More than once I've been surprised by a truly great game buried at the bottom of a bargain bin. Torrente isn't one of those games. It's a game that can't even live up to a lack of expectations, and that's just sad.

I can't fault their instincts at wanting to keep things playable, but the effect is to create a tediously slow game in which players watch Perseus lumber around with all the time in the world to deal with the skeletons that are out to get him. The only thing that this kind of 2-button experience has going for it is the thrill of kinetically propulsive action and instinctual twitch responses to threats, and Funk of the Titans can't even get that right.

Maybe the connection between gameplay and theme existed more clearly in the developers’ heads than they managed to convey in the finished product. As it stands, Solo feels like a passable, if slight, puzzle-platformer trying to snag a little extra gravitas by gluing on a bunch of unrelated stuff about relationships. Despite the surface charm provided by the art style, the whole exercise felt disingenuous and gross, and I’m glad I never need to touch it again.

Grotto can be best recommended to those who can look past simple, repetitive gameplay in service of a thick and emotional story. All others should look elsewhere.