The key "choose words to change the story" mechanic isn't an actual gameplay mechanic here so much as it is an alternative method to choose paths in a visual novel, and a number of the adult character designs lean too far in the furry direction for my taste. That said, as a short, Stranger Things-inspired visual novel (albeit one where you can control your character and walk around to a limited extent), it's quite good, with a compelling mystery, likeable characters, and a satisfying ending, on top of the excellent presentation. Recommended as long as you know what sort of game you're getting into.

An enjoyably compact, streamlined, and relaxing combat-free open-world game involving sailing and climbing through the ruins of a flooded post-apocalyptic city. Definitely not as good as Sable, but scratches a vaguely similar itch.

Despite releasing five years after the original Submerged, Hidden Depths is definitely an iterative sequel; it's bigger (albeit not too much so), and traversal and exploration are a bit more involved than I remember them being in the original game, but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who didn't like the original.

(this review is for the main Reassemble story campaign only; have not touched the multiplayer or post-release DLC)

pretty good when it remembers to be a proper single-player game and not a glorified tutorial for the multiplayer GAAS nonsense (which is to say, often enough for three stars but not any more than that), with an appealing take on Kamala Khan and Bruce Banner in particular. but besides the more significant gameplay flaws, I gotta ask why you’d make an AAA Avengers game and only include three actual supervillains, one of whom is the main antagonist and final boss, and the other two of whom only appear very early in the campaign.

If Square Enix had let Crystal Dynamics play to their strengths and just make a damn single-player game (or at least just a story-driven co-op campaign), this could have been at least as good as last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy, but nope, they had to chase that live service money.

an impeccably designed and incredibly well-crafted game with great combat and production values that's still just too much of a roguelike for my taste; I didn't even make it to the Temple of Styx, let alone complete a successful run, and the repetition was already getting to me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm clearly in the minority here and I absolutely get why this game has been so immensely popular and critically acclaimed, but honestly, I wish Supergiant had just made a non-roguelike ARPG with the same setting and combat mechanics.

Attractive "voxel" visuals, and the world could use more games inspired by Paper Mario, as well as more RPGs that take less than 10 hours to complete. Unfortunately, in the early hours, you're mainly pixel-hunting for items or backtracking from one fetch quest to another, when you're not in combat. On that front, combat balancing is way off from the relaxed, silly adventure-RPG it feels like the game is trying to be; enemies have far too much HP and do too much damage at a point in the game where you can't even buy healing items, meaning that even the lowest-level enemies take several times as long to defeat as they should unless you grind. Just a simple patch or two adding difficulty settings or rebalancing the combat would have made the game significantly better, but as is, I can't recommend it even with a walkthrough handy.

best surprise muscle daddy reveal in gaming history, five stars

seriously, though: great visuals and world-building, fun combat, but very hard to escape the sense that it's not doing nearly as much with its premise as it should be. The much-hyped Ashtray Maze sequence, for instance, looks extremely cool, but doesn't actually feel that different from the many, many, many combat encounters that precede and follow it. and WTF is with that ending? I get that Remedy wanted to leave some plot threads open for the Foundation DLC and possible sequels, but it's so abrupt and perfunctory that it feels like they ran out of time to write and animate an ending cutscene, let alone create a proper final boss.

imo, should have been more of an action-adventure game and less of a third-person shooter; the premise could have allowed for some really interesting and varied puzzles and platforming, though perhaps that genre wouldn't have played to Remedy's strengths as a developer. oh well, will play the DLCs a bit later and see if they change my opinion much

really wanted to like this one way more than I did, thanks to the novelty of the Indian mythological setting, plus great visuals, art direction, and production values for an indie team making their first game. Unfortunately, it's just not that good; the combat is serviceable enough, but not nearly deep or engaging enough to justify the percentage of play time spent in gated combat encounters. Puzzle-solving is basically nonexistent, and the platforming is either mindlessly simple or made needlessly difficult by the isometric camera. gave up when I got to the final boss, which (unless I encountered a bug) bizarrely locks you to a single weapon and takes away most of the abilities and techniques you've been using for the rest of the game.

Also, the UI for equipping elemental powers on a weapon is absolutely atrocious