Truly masterful. A challenging game dripping with atmosphere, full of varied environments, and absolutely packed with content for its price. The combat is simple but tight, there’s plenty of interesting boss fights, and the world-building is excellent.

What Hollow Knight does especially well is its sense of exploration and unique map system. It’s easy to set off in any direction and end up in huge new areas you can just get lost in. It does take some time for it to open up in its early hours, but the level design is top notch.

The platforming was a bit less precise than I would’ve liked though. The positioning of obstacles could be frustrating at times, and movement felt a bit stiff to start. But it does improve with better traversal abilities later on so it’s a minor complaint.

Like its predecessor, you’ll spend much of Changing Tides trying to maintain an oversized piece of junk that serves as your vehicle, gradually adding new parts as you pass through obstacles along the way. Only this time it’s set entirely in water, which adds some cool new elements to traversal that keep it from feeling too similar.

That said, I think its somewhat bigger scope (particularly with having more of the ship to keep up with) was a detriment since it felt a bit more tedious to play through for me. And the ride between obstacles can be pretty lengthy, but the scenery and music were still pleasant to sit through. Wouldn’t say I liked it a lot less than Lone Sails, but it’s not really an improvement either.

FromSoft's first open world game and they absolutely nailed it. I was initially worried that the move meant they would have to compromise on level design, but that wasn’t really the case here. Despite its vast and seamless world, the majority of it still has the same level of varied intricacy as the rest of their games. Like sprawling castles with detailed interiors and immense verticality, random caves you may stumble across that lead to massive underground systems, and of course plenty of unique bosses to fight.

That’s its biggest strength for me, the exploration. What sets it apart from many others is the complete lack of endless map markers or quests to focus on, rather just letting you get lost in a world with so much to see on the horizon that you can’t help but want to explore. And it rewards this curiosity by always having something worthwhile to find, whether it be useful items, boss encounters, or even paths to entire new areas. This also makes approaching difficult bosses a bit more manageable, as you can always just go somewhere else if you’re stuck and try again when you’re stronger.

And as a setting I loved The Lands Between. I’m not sure how much influence GRRM had over the world-building, but its mysterious lore is ever present all over and it’s wonderfully realized. It’s still as somber as From games have always been, but it also felt more grand given how open it is in comparison.

The only real gripe I had was the smaller catacombs you can find felt a bit too repetitive. Most of them look the same and some bosses are reused for them, basically serving as ER’s version of chalice dungeons which is eh. But I still enjoyed going through them so didn’t mind too much. Performance also seems… not great on most platforms, but I played the BC version on PS5 so was pretty much locked 60 for me. Hopefully they can iron its issues out for everything else.

But overall it’s yet another masterful game by From and now among my favorites. I’m excited to see where they go from here, cause it really did feel like a culmination of all their work up to now.

The only Metroid I’ve played before this was Prime, but I’m a huge fan of Metroidvanias so was looking forward to trying out a 2D style one with Dread. It’s a good game, but thought it was a bit… uninspired? The presentation’s strong and I liked the gameplay for the most part, especially the movement once you find more abilities. The bosses were fun too and really force you to make use of all your skills, especially for the last one. On handheld the control scheme was a bit awkward, like having to hold a button to aim while trying to dodge a lot, but I got used to it after a while.

But overall there wasn’t really much about Dread that made it stand out to me next to others in the genre. I think what was mainly lacking was the exploration. The map is sectioned into different areas with teleport loading screens back and forth, and much of it is blocked until you have the skill you need and the path leads you directly back to that area to progress, which made the level design feel pretty linear aside for backtracking for missile upgrades.

Also I wasn’t a fan of the EMMI robots at all, thought they were just boring stealth sections that didn’t add much to the game. Getting caught by them was meant to feel tense, but ended up being more annoying than anything.

Roguelikes aren’t much my thing since I find losing all the progress you make in a run to be more frustrating than anything, and Hades isn’t really different about that. But it definitely takes an interesting spin on the formula with how it integrates into its story, along with just being a very well polished game.

I really love the art direction and how vibrant the environments are. The character designs are also fantastic, all the gods look dope and really bring the style to life. The music and voice acting’s great too.

It’s definitely not easy, it took me a lot of tries to get through the bosses and reach the end. And after completing a full run there’s even more difficult modifiers you can add for replays. Combat’s based around 6 weapons and a variety of boons that give skills and upgrades to help get through, and it’s really fun when you start putting together builds for your playstyle. I ended up sticking with the shield.

It did start to get a bit tiring the more runs I did, but dying a lot is expected and always lead to new dialogue from the characters, more skills opening up, and better upgrades that slowly make you stronger and more prepared for the next time. So it’s definitely the type of game that’s hard to put down since you’ll want to keep trying over and over.

Basically Adventure Time if it were more focused on its apocalyptic aspects, needless to say it was cool for that alone

And the story is pretty interesting, there’s no voice acting for the characters but the narrator of the story does a good job conveying its progressively bleaker tone. That said I wish there was a bit more to the gameplay itself since you’re mostly doing the same monotonous actions multiple times, with occasional platforming and a fair bit of tedious backtracking. It’s only a 5 hour game but it somehow still felt a bit dragged out

A very well made metroidvania. Perhaps a bit uninspired and not quite as strong mechanically as others in the genre, but the execution as a whole is strong and it stands out with its stellar atmosphere, art direction, and music.

Its strongest aspect is the setting, with an atmospheric kingdom to explore and all the bosses you face being its people tragically turned into monsters. They do a great job setting its melancholic tone, with lots of varied areas and a nice soundtrack.

The combat’s also pretty good. Sluggish at first, but opens up once you unlock more abilities and has some cool boss fights. There’s a lot of spirits and relics to find and use for different playstyles, though I mostly just stuck with the same few for most of the game.

One thing I noticed about the gameplay is that exploring it wasn’t very stressful, there’s always a save point close by (right before bosses too), there’s fast travel, and the map marks when an area’s been fully cleared out. Appreciated this when backtracking with new abilities.

That said, the level design could’ve been a bit better. The world didn’t really feel interconnected to me, more like linear rooms that are structured basically the same which made it less interesting to explore. And some areas late in the game were a bit more bland visually.

I love games designed all around exploration, especially when they don’t have any combat like Outer Wilds. Sable is a strong effort in this genre, with no other goal than to freely explore a compelling desert world filled with ruined sci-fi ships and structures.

I think a well designed open world is one where it’s enjoyable to just go and see what’s out there, and Sable does this well with plenty of defined areas and landmarks worth exploring. Being able to climb and glide anywhere also made it easy to scale whatever towered over you.

It’s not a huge map and much of it’s empty space, but I enjoyed exploring it more than many others. It largely has to do with its atmosphere, crossing distances on the hoverbike felt meditative in a way, just you traveling on your lonesome in a barren but atmospheric world.

Another positive is the art style, the cel shaded environments look really cool and suit the world they were going for. Characters are also intentionally animated in a lower frame rate, which can be jarring but also makes it more distinct. The music’s also very good.

Sadly though, there’s some major flaws particularly with its performance. Riding on the hoverbike usually causes constant FPS drops which can be headache inducing at times combined with the visuals, and it tends to get worse in some areas than others. Others include the audio stuttering, the camera’s pretty buggy, and climbing can be a bit janky. Aside for performance the quests themselves are not very interesting, usually involving fetching items for NPCs and more served as an excuse to explore the world. This is the case for all platforms I believe, and as of now there's no indication these issues will be patched anymore. Given what Sable offers I could put up with it, but it's a shame nonetheless

This felt like it was ripped from the same era as the first Psychonauts, the type of 3D platformer that’s somewhat clunky and has collectibles everywhere. But it also carries over the charm and creativity that made the original such a memorable game.

Double Fine really went all out with their surreal visual style here. The amount of polish poured into its varied levels is really impressive, with each mind standing out as distinct from each other and joyful to explore. It’s a bit lengthy but it rarely felt repetitive.

The gameplay basically plays like the first, though refined and controls a lot better. Combat’s a bit bland and bosses aren’t very exciting, but the level design makes up for it. And then there’s the collectibles which are dated but fine. Nothing special but liked it well enough.

The story’s pretty good and I appreciate how it touches on themes of mental health, though aside for Raz I didn’t really find the cast very likable. And some of the characters (like the other interns) seemed a bit underutilized next to others. But overall it’s a worthy sequel and a great game, really enjoyed it.

343 made some improvements from 4 and 5 with Infinite, but like those I still found the campaign to be utterly forgettable. Had no interest in whatever the story was here or any care for the Banished that got so much focus. None of the missions stood out to me.

That would be alright if the gameplay made up for it, and it does in some aspects but didn’t in others. The biggest positive was the grappling hook, which was a great addition for traversal compared to past Halos. The general controls, sound design and visuals were good.

That said, this new open world area that made up most of the game got dull fast. The activities were mediocre and it felt mostly boring to explore since the environment’s a single biome. It’s a neat change but not one I liked much compared to standard levels.

The other parts of the game are spent going through corridors that all look exactly the same, there’s a notable lack of variety with these and they were a slog to get through. Can’t say fighting the same hordes of enemies the whole game didn’t get repetitive either. And the bosses felt like poorly designed damage sponges on Heroic, though it’s probably better balanced on lower difficulties.

SMT V refines the excellent Press Turn combat traditional to the series, along with a more open overworld to navigate rather than standard dungeons. It largely pulls off this direction with well designed areas that are dense and rewarding to explore.

The demons were the highlight. I loved all the new battle animations and that they were actually visible in the overworld, which made it easier to figure out when to fight or avoid them. Fusion never got old as always, and the writing for negotiations was really entertaining too.

Though the story itself is pretty… bad. The characters weren’t compelling, and the dialogue felt static most of the time. The presentation for cutscenes was also pretty weak, not helped by the performance. And speaking of which, it doesn’t run particularly well. For the most part it’s okay with keeping to 30 FPS, but there’s some areas with a lot of drops. It’s never unplayable, but the hardware doesn’t do it any favors.

Despite the issues it has though, I enjoyed it overall. The combat’s top notch, the exploration’s well executed and addicting, the music’s solid, and it’s a bit more accessible than past entries while still being very challenging