Mancheg00bfusc8r
2022
Story takes its time to pick up, but it has a pretty interesting twist on the Batman/Joker relationship that makes the later chapters significantly more compelling. Worth a play, but I can't say I'm too sad that Telltale's particular QTE-heavy, minimally interactive approach to narrative games has fallen out of vogue in the years since the original company's demise.
2021
2021
from a game design perspective, I've definitely played worse walking simulators (as slow as movement is, the game is designed in a way that makes it next to impossible to get lost, and you never have to walk very far to your next objective). narratively and artistically, though, I can’t see how this gained anything from being a video game as opposed to being presented through a non-interactive medium
2018
2021
2022
would that as much effort had gone into the narrative as clearly went into the absolutely beautiful audiovisual presentation. it's not much of a spoiler, given the premise, to say that the emotional climax of the story is a cathartic moment of reconciliation between mother and daughter... but for that moment to have the desired weight, I should probably have a clear idea of what exactly their conflict and subsequent estrangement was about in the first place, and it's a major indictment of the storytelling that I don't.
still, it really does look great, and if you're into short, arty narrative games, it's at least worth a play on Game Pass. just be prepared to say "wait, that was it?" when you get to the end
still, it really does look great, and if you're into short, arty narrative games, it's at least worth a play on Game Pass. just be prepared to say "wait, that was it?" when you get to the end
writing is surprisingly strong and elevates the game above its ersatz-MCU, not-quite-James-Gunn approach to the material. Level design and combat are... fine, but not exceptional for this sort of story-driven AAA single-player action/adventure, and with a few too many repetitive combat encounters. overall, pretty enjoyable even if it's not quite as underrated as I had been led to think
2021
charming presentation and premise, and the dodgeball mechanics are fun when they work, but I bounced off this one after a couple hours, no pun intended. dodgeball matches feel too chaotic for their own good (in particular, the crucial catch/counter mechanic simply doesn't work as reliably as it needs to for how much the matches are designed around it) and the backtracking around the small map gets tedious pretty quickly
2012
2021
short magical realist narrative game heavily inspired by Kentucky Route Zero, about two queer South London roommates about to move apart, one to another apartment and another to Japan. the magical realist aspect feels a bit underdeveloped and the game as a whole feels a bit too short to fully flesh out the story it's trying to tell, but the sense of post-college ennui and uncertainty comes through
2021
2021
2021
arty exploration game in the Journey/Flower mold, with uneven but often very pretty visuals, and very fun traversal mechanics. Controls take a bit of getting used to and levels go on a bit longer than they should, but definitely worth a play if you're a fan of this subgenre. also a good game to play while stoned
2019
Pixel-art 2D cinematic platformer with beautiful animation, great atmosphere and sound design, and tight gameplay and pacing, the last of which is marred only a bit by some excessive backtracking (given the vaguely Metroid-esque structure that most of the game ends up taking, a map wouldn't have hurt here).
Narratively, though, it just doesn't come together as I'd hoped; while you spend most of the time playing as a middle-aged man, you'll also periodically get to play as two other protagonists (a young girl and a knight) in very different settings. and when it comes time for the devs to put all their cards on the table and reveal how these characters are connected, we get... a 20-minute, non-interactive cutscene that explains in detail how everything is connected, and explicitly lays out a parade of horrible, depressing events in its backstory that would have been better left implicit.
in short: loved this game for most of my time with it, and was prepared to recommend it enthusiastically to any fan of cinematic platformers, but the ending left a bad taste in my mouth, and I wish the developers had allowed more space for ambiguity and implication in their narrative
Narratively, though, it just doesn't come together as I'd hoped; while you spend most of the time playing as a middle-aged man, you'll also periodically get to play as two other protagonists (a young girl and a knight) in very different settings. and when it comes time for the devs to put all their cards on the table and reveal how these characters are connected, we get... a 20-minute, non-interactive cutscene that explains in detail how everything is connected, and explicitly lays out a parade of horrible, depressing events in its backstory that would have been better left implicit.
in short: loved this game for most of my time with it, and was prepared to recommend it enthusiastically to any fan of cinematic platformers, but the ending left a bad taste in my mouth, and I wish the developers had allowed more space for ambiguity and implication in their narrative