Ryse: Son of Rome is perhaps most notable for being one of the launch titles for the Xbox One besides Dead Rising 3, Killer Instinct, and Forza Motorsport 5, all of which were exclusive. It's tough not to feel bad for those games since in 2013, Xbox had garnered quite a bad reputation with its audience after the whole DRM snafu and Don Mattrick's attitude towards always-online connectivity. To smooth all that over, it seemed like the launch titles had to do even more legwork than they already were to get the system back in gamers' good graces again.

Since I was way more interested in the PS4 at the time, I didn't try out those launch titles for myself until much later, and certainly, of the ones I've already mentioned, I can confidently say that Ryse: Son of Rome has all the hallmarks of a launch title, for better or worse, by which I mean that Ryse goes all in on the style and little of the substance.

In terms of the visuals and performances, Ryse is genuinely impressive and definitely holds up today. By and large, it's a fairly generic Roman revenge story, but the acting and the vistas you're treated to throughout its ~5-hour campaign more than make up the difference. John Hopkins as protagonist Marius especially delivers an impressive performance; one that would no doubt help him land the role of Erend in the Horizon games or Lucas Grey in the Hitman reboot trilogy.

When it comes to gameplay, however, that's a different story. I cannot disparage Ryse too much for the gameplay being incredibly repetitive, given that it was originally meant to be a Kinect-only first-person game and officially started development in 2006. Crytek clearly had a rough go with trying to get this game finished and on store shelves, that much is clear from reading into this game's backstory. However, historical context or not, the gameplay here is still lacking.

It's a super basic hack-and-slash with finishers in the form of quick time events where enemies flash in the color of the button you're supposed to press. It's admittedly quite fun, even if it is basic, for the first hour or two. Less fun however when that ends up being the exact same loop for the rest of the game.

To be fair, they do try and spice it up every now and then when Marius commands his legion to march with him in a line and take on an enemy horde as a unit, but even this becomes monotonous after a while.

All in all, Ryse: Son of Rome is a game that undoubtedly looks and sounds much better than it plays, despite its attempts to switch things up every now and then. It's not a bad game by any means but it's certainly the definition of 'mid'. Thankfully the studio went on to make the much-cherished gothic horror shooter Hunt: Showdown so I'm glad they were able to put their talents towards more fun projects.

5/10

Still Wakes the Deep is the latest cinematic, narrative-focused effort by The Chinese Room, the studio behind Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. It trades the more abstract thematic stories of those games for a traditional survival horror tale set on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland in December 1975.

That decision pays off very well as Still Wakes the Deep is by far their best work yet.

It's almost Christmas and Cameron 'Caz' McLeary is stuck working on Beira D, an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea, off the coast of Scotland. Estranged from his wife and children, Caz is dodging accountability, hiding from the police after assaulting a man while defending his wife's honor. He just wants this all to blow over and go home to spend Christmas with his family. That, however, will be easier said than done.

The inspirations behind this game and its story are clear, and I won't be spoiling the specifics here but suffice it to say that the visuals, performances, and sound design are more than worthy of being labeled as a horror classic in this medium. What will give many people pause in calling it the same, however, is its gameplay, or rather the lack thereof.

Make no mistake, much like their previous titles, Still Wakes the Deep could, charitably or otherwise, be called a "walking simulator". It's a linear, on-rails adventure with the only freeform gameplay throughout arriving in the form of its hide-and-seek mechanics, similar to Outlast. It's their most focused title yet, with the story playing out the same way for every person and every playthrough.

Now, as someone with a fondness for "walking simulators", the above isn't so much a mark against the game to me, however, there's no denying that more player input in the gameplay outside of its strict on-rails structure would have been welcome and appreciated. To this end, there's also a noticeable overabundance of yellow paint marking where you need to go. Now, the entire discussion surrounding these decisions, which most recently flared up around yellow paint being used in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is to me frankly ridiculous, and I'm most certainly not on the side of those who are against it. That said, for a game with only one golden path and no other diversions, the yellow paint is absolutely used in excess here. They have said that they're working on being able to disable it as an accessibility feature, but for the time being it is a bizarre creative choice on their part.

Regardless, Still Wakes the Deep is a fantastic story, despite its very minimal gameplay outside of platforming along the game's golden path. The performances, especially Alec Newman as lead Caz, along with its stunning visuals, immaculate sound design, and creature design, make this absolutely worth a play... if you can stand there not being very much to the actual gameplay at all.

8/10

With Pieces Interactive being closed down by the truly wonderful Embracer Group earlier this week, the guilt of not trying this game out sooner drove me to buy and play it today finally; and honestly? It's decent. To be clear, it's not the decent that means a game is less than the sum of its parts, but more the decent where you're impressed with its ambition and vision, despite its numerous flaws.

For the first major game from a former indie support studio and a bold new entry in a long-running series with nearly a decade since its last installment, it's truly a wonder that AITD is as decent as it is.

In the middle of the Louisiana Bayou, private detective Edward Carnby and his client Emily Hartwood travel to Deserto Manor to investigate the disappearance of Emily's uncle, Jeremy. What they uncover amounts to nothing less than a house of secrets, conspiracy, and Lovecraftian creatures they must go up against to solve this mystery.

Really, what I enjoyed the most about AITD were its story and specifically its puzzles. David Harbour and Jodie Comer deliver decent performances in the lead roles with an equally compelling supporting cast around them. While, much like its inspiration from the Resident Evil 2 remake, you have to play through both characters' separate campaigns to get the full story, you can easily get the gist of it all if you start with Emily's campaign. The storytelling itself and the way information is presented is perhaps a little too obtuse for its own good, however, the overall story itself still delivers a good supernatural mystery caper.

As I said, the puzzles are also good, which is just as well since it's what the original game, which took place from a fixed-camera perspective, was best at also (or so I hear.) There's a nice variety of puzzles throughout with some cool outside-the-box solutions on occasion which were impressive. This is also helped by the game's granular difficulty settings, where you can choose to get help in every part of the puzzle apart from the solution, or just have no UI assistance whatsoever. I went for the latter and was glad to see that almost none of the puzzles were particularly frustrating.

What is definitely frustrating though is the game's combat. Don't get me wrong, it's okay. At least enough to get by and switch things up on occasion, and to be fair they do give you some options, from dodging to throwing environmental objects and melee, but none of it really has that oomph, much like Resident Evil 2 does. Perhaps that's asking too much of an AA game but there's definitely some jank to its animations and controls.

Perhaps the most frustrating part, however, is the game's performance on PC, which is where I played. Since releasing last year, AITD has received a decent amount of patches, but there's still A LOT of stutter, particularly when transitioning between rooms and frame drops galore. It's a shame too, since it's clear the game performs great in perfect conditions, it just struggles with loading new areas and textures at a distance. Perhaps another support studio can come in and throw some tweaks and patches in there, but then again, this is Embracer Group we're talking about.

Overall, Alone in the Dark 2024 is actually more than the sum of its parts, but the aspects that let it down are very apparent throughout. I'd still recommend it, especially now that the price has lowered, and the fact that it's a well-paced adventure from a team who seemingly gave a shit about what they were making.

Thanks, Embracer.

6.5/10