Mancheg00bfusc8r
the world needs more games shamelessly inspired by Metroid Prime, and this does a decent job of scratching that itch. yes, it's pretty flawed: the humor is sometimes grating, combat isn't great, there are a few annoying difficulty spikes, and the vaguely Soulslike "go back and find your loot near where you died" mechanic should have been replaced by a more conventional continue system, but overall, I had a lot of fun with exploration and traversal
2020
Sometimes playing the tutorial is enough to make you realize that a game just isn’t going to be for you. couldn’t even get a mechanic as basic as grabbing objects to work reliably
2020
Hotline Miami in a cartoony 3D mash-up of about a half-dozen different time periods. Great animation and mostly feels good to play, though it's still a bit too hard for my taste.
I did appreciate that, unlike Hotline Miami and a number of the games it inspired, this one mercifully autosaves at mid-level checkpoints instead of only between levels. Never cared for that aspect of HM
I did appreciate that, unlike Hotline Miami and a number of the games it inspired, this one mercifully autosaves at mid-level checkpoints instead of only between levels. Never cared for that aspect of HM
2018
horror-adjacent walking simulator, in which you play as a priest accused of child murder, has vague pretensions of telling a serious story about faith, but ends up being a silly excuse to string a bunch of disparate UE4 assets together (at one point, you literally find facehugger eggs in a lavish brothel filled with bloodied female mannequins). At least it mostly looks pretty for its budget, and you could do much worse as walking sims go.
would have given this a slightly higher rating if I hadn't been left unable to finish it due to repeatedly encountering the same crash bug late in the game
would have given this a slightly higher rating if I hadn't been left unable to finish it due to repeatedly encountering the same crash bug late in the game
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
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
2021
the prettiest action game I've ever uninstalled after 20 minutes or so when I realized enemies barely seem to react to being shot
2021
very enjoyable, queer 2D pixel-art sci-fi Zelda-like from Brazil, with a dash of Souls. preferred playing this on the easier difficulty settings, though I admire what the designers were going for with the timers.
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
2012
cutscene-to-gameplay ratio is a bit off and Max talks too damn much, but otherwise offers a well-paced campaign with some cool set pieces and enjoyable bullet-time gunplay
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
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
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
2021
Short little barely-interactive narrative experience adapting the HP Lovecraft story. Not much to it, but offers a well-done cosmic horror vibe given its simplicity and the limited resources with which I assume it was developed.
2018
Short and beautifully atmospheric, if sometimes a bit clunky, narrative platformer (neither “puzzle-platformer” nor “cinematic platformer” feels quite right as a descriptor, though I guess the latter would be a bit more accurate). Looking forward to seeing how the sequel expands on the premise.