I know this game isn’t much liked and in comparison to the rest of the franchise this might be the most hated one, but I... kinda liked it? tho I can still acknowledge its flaws and I’m going to talk about them in a sec. It’s a playable game to say the least, you don’t need to like most of the elements of this game and that’s completely valid.

At its best, Uncharted is a not so serious Indiana Jones wannabe, but at its worst, it’s just another third person cover shooter from the late 2000s. Video games have evolved a lot since then, so it’s no surprise that games like these don’t get released by big studios nowadays, the trend among AAA devs right now is the cinematic third person over the shoulder action-adventure game, mainly produced by Sony, so I think it’s safe to say that they don’t make ‘em like this anymore. And while I think that’s good, because games are getting more creative nowadays, whether on narrative or on gameplay, most triple A releases now tend to be grandiose, over 20 hours long, narrative focused and dramaturgical games. Take Naughty Dog itself for example, all if their games since The Last Of Us (which have been a total of 3 games including the aforementioned, lol) are what some people would call “pretentious TV shows” with overly long games focused on cinematic narrative.

All of this is to say that the first Uncharted is nothing like that. It doesn’t take itself too seriously so it’s a light-hearted adventure with a main focus on action and, of course, shooting galleries, which is what this game is full of. No, but seriously, it might be the worst part of the game’s gameplay because everytime you enter a new area, it is probably going to be filled to the brim with enemies, enemies with red lasers, enemies with revolvers and enemies with grenade launchers. The enemy variety isn’t Uncharted’s strongest part, but they always move around surrounding you so it is expected to run from cover to cover and choose wisely where to move, because standing in the middle of the battlefield will likely get you killed in a matter of seconds, and those red laser enemies do instakill when they shoot you, so for the cover shooter part I think it gets it right. Not particularly great or anything, just functional. Compared to, say, Gears of War the movement and combat is less heavy and more fluent, because platforming is also part of the equation. The platforming is ok, it’s not mind-blowing or anything, it just serves its purpose. It gives you more options when finding cover or better positions while in a shootout, but when it’s one of those parkour moments it is more about following the only allowed path. And yeah, you’re gonna be doing that a lot of times. Basically the gameplay of Uncharted is divided in two parts, the shooting and the platforming. The shooting is a slightly better version of the cover shooter games from its era, and the platforming is nothing more than fake climbing. The truth these systems hide is Uncharted’s nature of being a simple linear game.

As an adventure is where Uncharted fails the most, because the game insists that I'm finding secret paths and hidden stuff when in reality I’m just following the only allowed way to finish the game. It’s, to put it simply, a visually great and hyper-decorated hallway with nothing more. For a game all about finding treasures and clues that lead to them, and all that stuff, I barely do any of that. It’s Nathan who does that in the cutscenes. This is where I think the disconnect from the game starts showing up. The scenery, the architecture and the environment in general are absolutely meaningless. What you get is basically nothing by paying attention to it, except for “treasures”, which really are just not so subtle shining lights you can find when going to obscure corners or stumble upon them by accident. Tho if you find them, there’s not much you’re given in terms of gameplay, except for skins and modifiers for the game, which is a neat touch and I wish more games included these without them being paid DLCs. So for the most part, Uncharted is a pretty simple and safe linear experience product of its era with little to nothing to really highlight. For most people this isn’t much of an inconvenience and can enjoy its simplicity with its rather short runtime (it’s 6 hours long approx.). And, I mean, that’s what I like about this game, it's not a profound experience that says a lot about society like games nowadays try to do. But for something with such an unique setting, I wish it was more than just “shooty man the game but indiana john”.

The story is pretty simple, and the characters are more charismatic than well-written. It’s just about finding the treasure and barely anything else. Not even the cliché phrase “the treasure is the friends we made along the way”. They pull a twist at the last third of the game that I wasn’t expecting, but it was used just to introduce a more annoying type of enemy. It’s a basic Indiana Jones-like story that doesn’t get what made those films great adventure movies because here, outside of cutscenes, what you’re gonna be doing is move forward through the only straight and narrow hallway and shoot bad guys, so you’re not Indiana Jones, you’re third person cover shooter protagonist. After completing this one I started playing Among Thieves a bit, and after completing the first two or three chapters, I realized that Drake’s Fortune leaves a lot to be desired in terms of being an actual adventure. The biggest dissonance I feel is in the conflict of this game trying to be an archeological adventure while actually being a third person cover shooter, which shows a big missed opportunity to give the game a more meaningful exploration that rewards the player with something more than cool modifiers. It doesn’t need to be Resident Evil 4, but come on, give me something!

Anyways. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a simple and safe linear experience with small room for exploration that has a simple story and gameplay and isn’t especially great at any of its systems. Now that I think of it, this game was a trend chaser that tried to improve upon the formula, sure, but falls flat by not giving the player anything more than shooting galleries and fake climbing sections intertwined by cutscenes that tell a mid at best story. If what you’re searching for is a simple experience with charismatic characters and linear gameplay, this game must be a candidate, but if you’re searching for something more meaningful, look literally anywhere else.

Also, it was crazy staying through the credits and then see the name of Lucas Pope, the same guy who years later would make Papers, Please and Return Of The Obra Dinn.

Horror games from the 1990s to the mid-2000s hold a special place for me. These games were genuinely unique in the sense that they focused so much on the atmosphere that they may have been shunned in critic reviews, sold poorly, and generally ignored during their time, but we have come to love them later on. Horror games have rarely been made the same since. Fatal Frame was a very unique series that took the genre to new heights with interesting gameplay mechanics that steered away from guns and running away from things. Your Camera Obscura was your weapon and puzzle solver, and the first game won gamers over, but it had unfair difficulty and had clunky controls. The second game fixed a lot of this and was later upgraded further for Xbox. This would also, sadly, be the last game in the series on Microsoft's green beast of burden.

You play as new characters this time around. Twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura You are trying to solve the mystery of the "Crimson Sacrifice Ritual" in All God's Village, a fictional town in Japan. This isn't a journalistic setting; instead, just two girls are playing in their favorite spot when a dam collapses and Mio falls. The original sacrificee wants revenge and her own twin sister back, and you both are prime candidates. The story is rather interesting and very dark and creepy. I enjoyed it quite a bit, as it surprisingly had more depth than most horror games of the time. Most of the story is told through texts you find (there are a lot) and not so much in cut scenes. There are crystals you can now pick up and listen to on your radio, and these are rather haunting. I enjoyed these quite a bit. The voice acting is surprisingly decent (for the time), and the voices of the dead can really make you feel uneasy.

Of course, the main attraction is the Camera Obscura. Once again, you use this to kill ghosts and see things that aren't there. It's more refined this time around, with better controls. You can switch to proper FPS controls, which makes playing much easier. Upgrades are more robust, as are equipped add-ons. You can find add-ons throughout the game, with some being passive and some requiring you to charge your camera. You can equip up to three add-ons and swap between them while in camera mode. These range from Blast, See, Stun, Slow, etc. These can be upgraded along with your basic functions, like in the first game. Finding passive ghosts and taking photos of them (if you're quick) can give you Spirit Points as well as fighting spirits. You need spirit orbs to slot in to be able to advance to the next upgrade level. Each power has three levels. I highly recommend upgrading your basic stats first. Spirit Points are more plentiful than in the first game, which is a good thing.

Just like in the first game, your goal is to take a photo as close to the spirits' faces as possible to be able to take a Fatal Frame shot. There is a meter that powers up around the circle in the center, and when it hits red, you need to be quick. There is a red flash at the top that tells you when it's best to use a power-up. On rare occasions, you can get a two-photo combo for massive damage. There are film types in this game, and thankfully the weakest is unlimited. This means you won't ruin your game (like in the first one) if you run out of film. The game will just become insanely hard. Higher types are plentiful, and I never ran out, but I recommend saving the Zero film for the final boss. There's less than 10 in the entire game. I also found healing items incredibly plentiful, and I never ran out.

My biggest complaint is the backtracking and navigation. It's hard to figure out where to go next. There are obscure objectives, and some things won't trigger until you enter the correct room. This is a much bigger game than the first. With three large houses and the village itself to explore, I had to use a walkthrough throughout most of the game because I just kept getting lost, but that's par for the course for survival horror games of this era. I found the visuals to be fantastic, even by today's standards. Great textures, models, and lighting are amazing. The Xbox really shows off what the series can do here, and it's a shame the third game never got a port.

Overall, Fatal Frame II is a fantastic upgrade over the first. Just make sure you have a guide handy. The controls are much improved, the camera system is more robust, enemies are actually fun to fight this time around, and bosses are challenging. The story is interesting enough, and the lore is creepy and unsettling. The atmosphere alone is worth playing through this game for. Haunting music, a few jump scares, creepy ghost designs, and insanely unsettling throughout.

I'm writing this as the unskippable 2.5 hours after-credits wait is still going, and I must start this review stating that this is the most horrendous way of finishing a game. That being said, the overall experience of SuperHot: Mind Control Delete was pretty great, I'd even say it's superior than the first entry (and it sure is better than VR by a mile). At a first glance it's pretty similar to the first SuperHot, and while some elements are brought back, the weapons, abilities and enemies, each one of these elements are massively expanded and improved upon.

The first thing that needs to be addressed is the difference between Mind Control Delete and the original SuperHot. The first SuperHot was a self-contained and linear game whose gameplay revolved around memorization, much like Hotline Miami. You'll be dropped onto a level and then do your best or die trying, and if you die you'll restart the same level and replay it until you eventually eliminate every enemy successfully, so it was more about trial and error, especially towards the final levels. Mind Control Delete is a game about improvisation. Sure, the levels repeat over and over, and some are brought back from the first game, and you'll eventually get used to their layout, but that's about it, everything else is randomized, even the player's spawnpoint. The levels are gathered in a randomized collection, so if you die on one level, the collection changes and it starts all over again. I know this sounds boring and frustrating as hell, but since everything is random it turns out different each time you play.

But it doesn't end there. In every collection of levels, after completing a certain amount that can vary, there will be an also randomized hack to choose from. Hacks are special abilities that the player can obtain by completing certain level collections. These hacks are then unlocked to be selectable during any set of levels. This adds a lot of replayability since if you die you'll start empty handed so the hacks you get to choose from are different for each collection of levels, and as you go on, there'll be more to select from. And whenever you get to select them, two random different hacks show up for you to select one of them. There will never be one that's clearly better than the other so you discard one of them entirely, your selection depends on your context. For example, if you're low on hearts (yeah, you can take a few hits before dying, which is a great addition), choosing a health regaining hack might be a better option than bullet ricochet, or maybe you're doing great and want to try otherwise. The options are almost limitless, it's about choosing wisely which ones to use, because some can be pretty helpful while others can be relatively useless. It turns out to be more strategic than the first game.

Another thing Mind Control Delete expands upon is the enemy variety. There are still your common red guys that work the same, but now there are these red guys with spikes that blow up releasing a lot of bullets into the air that can hit you, so maybe it's better to keep a distance with them. Another new type of enemy is the one that's entirely white except for one limb which remains red and this is the only weak spot they have, so for the rest of the body they're practically unkillable. Tho the biggest and most important enemy addition are the immortal enemies. There are a total of three of these and they appear at random in random levels so you never know when one's gonna show up, and this always keeps the player on edge if they do eventually show up, because they have a similar special ability the player also has (I forgot to mention it, but when you start a collection of levels there are four different permanent abilities to choose from that stay activated until the collection is finished, even if you die), so as everything is randomized, there's a pressure to kill all the enemies the level requires to be finished that gets even more tense when one of these three enemies do show up. This game works with tension better than any of the previous two entries, because this game is about mastering its mechanics instead of repeating a level until you find an optimal way of clearing the level, and it's a blast when you pull it off correctly. All of this game's elements work together masterfully turning the first SuperHot, what was essentially a gameplay experiment and barely anything more, into a more tenseful experience with more strategy and decision making.

[SOME SPOILERS HERE, JUMP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SPOIL THE ENDING]

Now for the narrative aspect, it's a certain improvement. Like, the first game had a story, kinda, it was some creepypasta-esque cryptic bs that ended up nowhere and was more of a hindering than anything else. Mind Control Delete is a meta-game on not having a story so it's less bs and, while cryptic, the story isn't much of an obstacle this time. I tried my best to understand it and all I ended up with was that it talks about isolation for damaged individuals (whether physically or mentally) on virtual violence and how it can absorb them entirely. Basically, a story about addiction to/escapism via virtual violence. Remember those immortal enemies? After what is basically a boss battle with each one of them you eliminate both their and your special ability resulting in what I assume is their physical termination, and this is done in segments where you'll see them static looking at you until you get rid of their own ability. It isn't explicitly said, but I think that, as with the original game, you're controlling someone irl killing them. For example, the dog one appears in a hospital room sitting on a wheelchair. Also, while on the menu you can read notes related to these characters which give away hints about how they really are. After this, the game concludes with what I think is game-ending yourself by uninstalling everything (?). I know all of this may sound overanalitical and nonsensical, and that's because it is. And that final 2.5 hours loading screen just to play the game again screams pretentiousness. If not this, all I can think of is that the game criticizes the player for enjoying mindless violence, which I hope isn't what they were going for. Either way there are some aspects of the story that I couldn't understand at all so that was the best I could've come up with. I think it's better to play the game's meta-game of not having a true meaning and just enjoy the experience.

[SPOILERS CONCLUDED]

Overall, this is a major improvement on the first SuperHot. After finishing the VR one I didn't want to play another SuperHot because of the bad impression it gave me, and boy did I miss something great. This game is the definitive SuperHot experience and I don't know why here it has a lower average rating than the previous games. Anyways, if you liked the original SuperHot or the VR one, this is better in every single way, so I ought you to check this one out. Sure the game's core differs a bit from the previous games, but it somehow works surprisingly great and rarely gets tiring with its randomized gameplay.

There's been some hot discussion by Ethan Gach's article from Kotaku surrounding Arcadian Atlas in regards to how it flounders. Based on his, four hours of playtime. And I can't help but disagree. Since I feel if we focus too much on flaws, especially one that has been released recently, it may warp the perception of the title as a whole to newcomers. In an effort to give a more well-rounded view. I’m going to highlight the good stuff along with mixed feelings. Not refuting the Kotaku article, but in my own manner to cook up a slice of my pie for others to dig through. One look at Arcadian Atlas(AA) and you can see the clear resemblance to the inspiration it wears on its sleeves. Final Fantasy Tactics(FFT). As someone who loves FFT, hearing about an indie RPG attempting to reach similar heights as that one caught my eye. And I’ve been watching their development closely over the years. However, I should preface this, I won’t make any comparisons to the FFT, since I feel not everyone has played the title. So I’ll try and judge the game for what it is rather than what it aspires to.

First, I believe developers find difficulty, to create a title where you have a clear inspiration while not retreading familiar ground. For better or worse, other titles walk the road most traveled too closely while some merely use it as a base and go off in their direction. AA I think takes the middle ground while striving to develop their own identity in a low fantasy medieval story in homage to the classics of old, such as Yasumi Matsuno’s works.

You control two protagonists Vashti and Desmond. Two lovers caught up in a civil war that threatens to shake the very foundation of the continent. I found the story to be mature, holding nothing back during the war and hitting nuances I don’t see that often regarding choices, emotions, duty, and more. Lore-wise. The added compendium is appreciative of giving background on the world, important characters, and events. Where the writing delves into a nice balance between seriousness with humor at times to lessen the gravity of affairs here. It is well placed. These strengths splinter down to the cast which I’m surprised to see how small they’re, but allow our cast both main and villains to shine. The protagonists are not overpowered at all or hateable from the get-go. There is careful precision to keep them within the realm of believability without sending me into a volcano of overriding my suspension of disbelief.

A good amount of class variety here being 12 different classes and all of them have multiple skill trees to specialize in. I was able to have a raccoon archer, ronin, sorcerer, inquisitor, and shaman available. Each had their strengths and weaknesses, but for the most part, they all felt strong enough to tide me over against my enemies. The gameplay starts with some mandatory battles early on before granting you the ability to move around the world map and accept contracts. Think of these like sidequests for money and gear rewards. There is even an exclusive side quest chain here I found to be amusing so I recommend players finish these off if they require money or seek the unique side quest chain. Decent tunes to go along as you combat your way through various maps. The sax in particular I didn’t get tired of hearing. Considering how short the game is to compete. Well to be fair, not too short. My times were within 11 to 13 hours. Which I feel is just right for the length. Didn’t want to go through 40+ hour campaigns where the pace moves at a snail’s pace. Here the pace was quick and didn’t take long to reach the heart of the matter for plot beats. Before I move on, I should say my times should not be taken as definitive. It could be an outlier, considering the developers have been noted to say "roughly takes them 25-30 hours to beat." Didn’t experience any bugs or crashes either. This helps tremendously since battles can be completed within ten minutes +/- on average. At least on normal difficulty.

I did have some mixed feelings here. Not a positive or a negative, but for the sake of transparency I'll note them down. I wish the compendium would be updated periodically to show new changes to a character's background. This would grant more importance to the compendium while adding context when needed. Not much room to experiment with classes due to how experience is calculated. Bit non-traditional, which I enjoy. But here every time you finish a battle you gain a level that coincidentally grants you skill points to allocate. I like the removal of grinding, although this doesn’t allow much room to go beyond the base and advanced classes and experiment since there are no repeatable filler battles to test them out. Sure I could use contracts, but those are limited within each chapter. Could’ve used more objectives besides defeating all units. There are more than a handful of uncommon ones here: Travel to this tile, escort, etc. Though these are few and far between the regular. Some spice would’ve been nice to goals here to not make objectives too repetitive back to eliminating every foe. Also, I think some more flashbacks to the villain would’ve been welcome as a more show/don’t tell approach to flesh them out more and perhaps to a lesser extent our protagonists. Lastly, I believe contracts could be made more interesting beyond killing everyone. Grant us rare units instead of filler ones, give us more side quest chains, expand on the world with lore/characters, etc. I could say more, but those are minor nitpicks not worth mentioning and the developers of Twin Otter are already working hard to fix them in hot fixes and patches.

Overall, Arcadian Atlas displays a serviceable amount of gameplay and classes. Delving into interesting scenes during the civil war without holding your hand throughout. All while delivering a bug-free (at least for me) and crash-free experience that doesn’t seek long hours to complete. I can’t help but appreciate the close attempt to conceive their take from looking up to FFT. And for that, I respect it and look forward to the future when this title is cleaned up of some imperfections. I admire the attempt to construct their own identity while balancing enough nostalgia. Solid content here, for the story to carry me to the very end. Sure it has some flaws, but they don't deter my overall experience as a whole. Been in the works for seven-years with a Kickstarter budget and a four man dev team. And the result is not hot garbage! Instead, think of it like a cool new menu item to eat through for those curious. A good Indie Jrpg I recommend for those testing the waters for indies and Jrpg’s alike. And I implore anyone who reads this review to carefully research beforehand to see if its the right one for them. Rely on different sources, see what different authors had to say, any commonality, any differences etc. In an effort to see the bigger picture. My point isn’t to send everyone to buy AA and support indies Although I would love it if you did. But to think carefully about what one person says with little to no experience versus what someone who has seen everything or as much as they can has to say. Especially when the rating among critics has garnered a wide range of scores. Making it difficult to see whether a title is good or not.

7/10

In a tweet by Yuri Stern, one of the developers of the two man team rose-engine along with Barbara Wittmann of Signalis. They remark how "I wish people would be more open to letting others figure out for themselves how their ending made them feel. Instead of telling a streamer "you got the best ending!", maybe you can ask "did you think this was an interesting conclusion?" And they can decide if they liked it or not" Their comment was in response to how some players classify conclusions as absolutes for true, bad, good, etc.

Stern’s answer caught my attention and I admit throughout my time playing games with multiple outcomes in the finale. I realize I am guilty of this too. And yet, this establishes a thought-provoking notion to provide clarification, evidence, and reasoning, beyond simple claims. Player interpretation differs for each individual. Classified as neither good, bad, or in between. It simply is. Consensus can say comparable beginnings, middle, and end. And yet, we conjure causes to describe something that can be difficult or perhaps easy to comprehend. In my attempt to understand everything throughout my playthrough, I’ve come to see it as a Lovecraftian Sci-Fi blended with Survival Horror. Reputable individuals have noted inspiration, references, and homages to King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. The Festival by H.P. Lovecraft. Evangelion by Hideaki Anno, Stanley Kubrick, Resident Evil & Silent Hill franchise Et al. To me, include Nier and Prey(2017). With a dash of Studio Shaft’s techniques. And while I haven’t read/watched/played some of those homages they harken too. A considerable amount of careful effort to not create a reference-filled fiesta akin to Ready Player One. Plenty of satisfying content and unique properties, enough to stand on its own.

You control Elster, a [Redacted] in search of someone important to her. This is her journey after her ship crashes onto an unknown planet. She doesn’t start with much, but a sufficient tutorial resides to grant a fighting chance. Make no mistake, this isn’t a game you run away from consistently. You. Can. Fight. Back. From a top-down 2.5D perspective. Lengthwise, the game took me over nine hours to complete and I didn’t have any major/minor bugs or crashes. Ran smoothly notwithstanding looking akin to a Playstation One game. An aesthetic remarkably familiar to our past of CRTs, floppy discs, and VCRs with unfamiliar technology. A retro-tech meets dystopian surrealism. An unforgiving world, which I became horrified to learn about and lost myself in admiring the art. The color red is used prominently, like in similar games: Scarlet Nexus and Astral Chain for blue, yet it doesn’t detract from the overall presentation. A pleasant strength tied to supplementary elements the game displays to the player. The retro style succeeds in its favor since you’ll be walking, running, and fighting through broken old corridors sometimes in derelict space stations and facilities. The soundtrack has some nice tunes, but you’re usually dealing with silence or at the very least oppressive atmosphere that can be ethereal. Some tracks lend to an ambiance with static to varying degrees of echoes of various sounds you wouldn’t expect like crashing waves, slow piano tracks, and even a tiny smidge of synth. Oddly enough, an inconsistent/consistent rhythm and tempo permeates; some may find grating to hear and will switch into the opposite range and become somehow ‘relaxing’ to listen. The dual nature of melancholic and comforting generates an intriguing dichotomy. Ultimately, the whole soundtrack is decent, though I wish for more variety to bring ‘life’ to the moment-to-moment scenes. Granted, I think this was a deliberate decision by the composers 1000 Eyes & Cicada Sirens to construct a suffocating pressure to incite ‘space hell.’ And I can’t help, but begrudgingly praise the decision to do so. It works!?

The combat felt very tight, responsive and didn’t suffocate me constantly. For several moments I would have despaired, but a handy walkthrough and some tips kept my spirits up! One could even take advantage of Steam’s new note-taking feature to remember critical material! Accessible during in-game and when you exit. So you don’t always have to keep the program on. Combat when shooting could’ve been tweaked a little to make it more accurate. Considering how the enemies' artificial intelligence acts and how we can’t be experts in hitting shots 100% of the time. I can forgive this slight. Certainly not a dealbreaker, but make sure to watch out for your ammo, aim well, and trust in your gut the bullets will fly through. Healing is painless and not complicated. Intermittent yet equitable drops of supplies to recuperate, so you're not left struggling if you carefully check your stock and surroundings. Heck, you can even combine components to make weapons use different ammo, healing, and key items to save slots since you only have six in your inventory to hold. Aiming isn’t even the main bread and butter. Melee weaponry serves as an acceptable tool to fight baddies. You can attain a stun rod to down enemies then kick them to unconsciousness, and push them freely when you need to gain some distance. Hell, you can even burn them when they fall. Cause boy oh boy these nightmarish creatures(I’ll spare you the imagery) can stand up once more! Thankfully, they don’t return to life or should I say unlife heh within a short time. Probably a decent length passes before you realize your foe is ready for round 2.

Outside of combat. I found worldbuilding to be richly rewarding and added substance to the environmental storytelling. I was craving to know more about the inhabitants, the government, the leaders, technology, etc. So much depth and breadth in going the full nine yards where I know about the whole history of nations, the background of citizens and military soldiers of a strict hierarchy during a tumultuous time. Missions and roles for each [R$%#%$#@] unit and even enemies are spared no expense in displaying how they came to be. Chekhov's Gun tickles nearly every reach imaginable and in effect shines so hard, even in the darkest moments. I constantly read countless lore notes in the form of classified documents, redacted information, diaries, and even propaganda posters! No shortage of information almost to the point of overload, however, Barbara and Yuri have emerged with a balanced tightrope to not overgorge the player while not slipping morsels of info. Proportionally, to induce a sense of curiosity to know more, nagging at the far reaches of your brain to check every room for more data to consume. One cool feature in the form of an archive in the menu, you can access anytime. No need to backtrack to the origin of papers. Thereby, making recollections of pertinent details at the press of a button, straightforward.

The puzzles are solid. Used to great effect to tie into the lore whenever possible. Some examples are lockpicking, numerical password combinations and structural obstacles that could hinder your progression. So retracing your steps for an important piece is advisable to progress. There are extras, but I'll refrain from listing them. Best as a surprise. I found the inclusion of them to be welcoming. Didn’t overstay, while having plentiful time for me to seek answers/clues. Some solutions are more obscure than the rest. Though, for the most part, all of them I felt were fitting, and the hints satisfactory to figure out the solution. Careful precision to not go rage-inducing while not making it too easy for newcomers and veterans. Remember it's okay to fail some puzzles and return with a clearer mind.

Likable NPCs. They're personable, relatable, and offer intriguing perspectives during my playthrough. They complement Elster, by acting as foils. With their objectives at large and didn’t detract at all from their sheer presence. I was content, I am not alone all the time knowing comrades are nearby, who are bravely keeping on despite the horrific nightmares, and even more where I’ll refrain from stating, but suffice it say I was sad to see. A dangerous atmosphere prevails and the mood can become bleak in the blink of an eye. Not to the extent that I became leery. While it may seem dangerous due to the unnatural air and presence. These NPCs 'helped' me on my journey and for that, I am grateful for their company but also their dialog. Conversations revealed vital pieces to tying what happened on the planet and what threads they could link to the plot.

The horror elements are not, at least to me, horrific to the point I was disgusted or vomitable. Didn’t see major jump scares to remove my soul from my body, and I am incredibly grateful this didn't occur. Constant jump scares can cheapen the experience if not done well in my opinion. Again balance is integral and the devs have managed to produce a nice gameplay loop of exploration, scavenging, combat, reading lore, drip-feeding you cutscenes, and solving puzzles to be as painless as possible while still creating enough difficulty for a challenge.

Speaking of the story. I’m a bit mixed on. And this isn’t to say it is a bad thing at all. Think of my mixed feelings as neither positive nor negative, but food for thought I'll outline. In aspects, the game tries to impart to the player. I felt the execution was fragmented. It’s not clear what is shown to be definitive or literal to assert a conclusion on which I can base my facts and evidence. This may sound confusing. And I apologize if I’m not making sense. To clarify, you have to build the ‘narrative’ so to speak. This is fine in theory and there is a thread to follow. But sometimes the writing can be somewhat obscure along with puzzling. This pains me greatly since I couldn’t get enough of the worldbuilding. In the end, I was left with a ‘hmmm’ on the execution. Certainly, games like the Souls series are similar in environmental storytelling. Not so much on the beats of the plot to bridge together, but the world itself you piece towards to understand in your eyes what the story could be.

I wish the inventory limit of six expanded as you progressed further. Like up to eight. I didn’t find it too troublesome to turn back to my storage chest to unload my stuff. Yet, this exhibits a constant chore since I want to collect everything in nooks and crannies only for me to check the nearest save room to remove them. This isn’t a big deal. I could just run past enemies, right? True. Elster does have the capability. The issue is when I am running, some enemies will come alive to attack. After I already defeated them. Making traversal to new areas a slightly tedious to do, since I must retreat and precious supplies may be utilized. This is exacerbated when I have to redo this method again when I need more space for key objects to progress. A solution I was ruminating; having separate slots for crucial items. Like, say a flashlight or gun. As accessories.

Lore papers could’ve been more definitive as vague as I could put it. In doing so, the given knowledge would become stronger to grasp. Some notes are clear-cut to comprehend, but these ties could've been linked to creating a tighter cohesion in interpreting the plot. We are given an ample amount of lore to draw our conclusions. This is fine in theory and I’ve seen examples amongst my peers that resonated more with them. So the execution worked. For me, however, I’m stuck in the middle of a hallway facing a door of “greatness” and behind me, a door says “Not greatness.” I wonder if the devs could’ve made some threads easier to digest and distinguish. An alternative drip to gently feed the player. Admittedly, this is my personal preference and should not be taken as a common critique of the game. Individuals aside from me have rated the game highly which is fair. And I have seen the inverse side too. So where do I land? Sweats nervously In between those spectrum's sadly enough. There is a solid vision the two-man development studio established and they walk a tightrope in balancing narrative ties through the gameplay and cutscenes with a red Chekov’s gun to use every tie imaginable to draw players and I can say it prevails with some stumbles. I’m not sure if this is a method of drawing everyone to understand completely what the developers try to impart by the time the end credits roll. Nonetheless, I am unsure if this is a title that could vibe with you until a session of play. And in that respect, makes this incredibly challenging to quantify against the entirety of what the game offers.

Speaking of the ending. And again, no spoiler territory. I think easier alternatives were possible to attempt other outcomes. I got one of them and after checking out the rest, I couldn’t help but conclude the requirements are obscure for players to know. I had to research guides and see how technical the wire can run. Won’t delve into the exact details, but suffice it to say, I surmise avenues are within reach making the process less burdensome if the devs were to patch it. Though I doubt they would. Whether or not, newcomers know multiple resolutions. Before I forget, please go on Youtube for the rest, if you were unsatisfied with the one you got. Just a gentle reminder. One of them is so convoluted the community cooperated to discover the hidden requirements. Sszz127 from the Signalis subreddit was the first to discover clues leading to it as far as I know.

I'm sad to report how strenuous it is to depict my proper feelings in describing how much the title appeals to me against the concerns I stated earlier. A variable slow-burn, that may catch those who don’t mind it. Others may find it not as resonating. Besides the regular praise, I see fellow reviewers and fellow peers of mine who call it “a masterpiece, a return to modern survival horror, one to watch out for and more.” Wonderful seeing high acclaim regarding the game in their manner and I find gratifying content is an enjoyable affair. Equally as those who offer a differing perspective from the norm with evidence. I am at a crossroads where I’m not sure. To discern if it’s a must-play for fans of the genre due to my lacking experience in the department. I’ve only played Metro 2033, The Evil Within series, Bloodborne, Omori, etc. So I’m not an expert. If this can appeal to a newcomer. One could even take advantage of Steam’s two-hour refund policy to see if it appeals to you. And if it doesn’t, no shame in refunding. For me, I was hooked after the first hour.

I believe Signalis may provide newcomers with a unique mileage that might vary experience and value. For horror fans and for those who are not used to it like me. I love the worldbuilding and how retro-tech merges wonderfully with the dystopian sci-fi era. The lifeless music at various points forge an almost oppressive atmosphere that is both melancholy and comforting. The combat is balanced to the extent that I wasn't quite a female Rambo, but someone like Ellen Ripley(Aliens) and Leeloo(Fifth Element). Elster perseveres despite adversity. Has no crazy powers nor impressive intellect to bedazzle us at every turn. She simply is a [redacted]. And I like that. Gameplay elements like puzzling solving were fun and tied nicely with the environmental storytelling. Terror aspects turned out to be not too scary or overdone in a manner I found tiresome to see. A genuine effort by rose-engine to keep them challenging and fair in such a way I still endeavored to keep going. Regardless of my struggles, and food for thought, a cool hidden gem exists. Moreover, I echo what Stern posits about not classifying endings as absolutes and asking yourself how the game made you feel and why? Whether at the end of your journey, you conceive some semblance to share beyond the scope of classifying it in categories. Then by all means, please do so. Your voice is appreciated. There is beauty to find out if Your experience left you something meaningful or not.

7.7/10

Additional Material I couldn’t fit in this review, but may prove useful for those who played the game already:
Source for twitter link by Yuri Stern
Signalis Index - Theory, Lore, Commentary, Symbolism, Reference, Music, Decipher, Data-mining, Unsolved questions and more
Steam Guide on endings with Authors Plot Interpretation - Major spoilers
A Literalist view of Signalis - Major spoilers
A Non-Literalist View of Signalis - Major Spoilers
A Youtuber’s take on Signalis - Warning major spoilers
Camera Perspective mod
Final stats of my playthrough
My thoughts on the ending/s of Signalis
^Major spoilers throughout. Only click if you finished the game.

Note: If any links are down please let me know and I’ll try and correct that.
7-30-23 - Note - Added a Non-Literalist View of Signalis and added further clarification on the Signalis Index link.
11-29-23 - Edited first opening paragraph with correct pronouns. 99% of text still intact and largely unchanged.

BioWare is a company that revolutionized the action RPG genre for the western era. In a time where Japanese RPGs dominated the market, BioWare was sitting in a little studio churning out one of the best RPGs of all time. I remember when I was younger how much of a big hoopla this game was. For someone who didn’t own an Xbox or a PC that could run the game, it still slipped under my radar. I eventually got a chance to rent the game years later on 360 and quickly got bored due to its age. I finally picked it up again on the PC and I am glad I did. The game may feel very dated and old (an entire decade), but there’s no denying the excellent story and well-crafted atmosphere that truly feels genuine in the Star Wars universe.


You play a custom character that has to defeat the evil Sith Lord Darth Malak. He has found some sort of Star Forge to use against the Republic, so you are shadowing his footsteps to find the Star Maps to this Star Forge. This takes you across several planets such as Tatooine, Dantooine, Kashyyyk, Korriban, Kevin, and even Taris. You acquire companions along the way of all types and endure some pretty tough battles and story choices. You have to constantly choose between the light and dark side during choices, and there’s plenty of ways to go about the story.

Firstly, you can choose any world in any order. Each one is roughly laid out the same with a large hub area than an area beyond where your main quest and some side quests lie. I got rather annoyed with the constant similar layouts and wished for variety. Each world has the Star Map area blocked off until you fix some global catastrophe on the planet. Some are so serious that your decision will determine if you are allowed back on later. Besides running around and talking to people to get quests and buy stuff, the combat and customization are fathoms deep; fans will be pleased.


You can customize your character with a plethora of items such as implants, shields, different weapons from lightsabers, blasters, vibroblades, belts, armor, robes, headgear, and I haven’t even started on leveling up. You should pick your character based on how you’re going to fight. I chose to use melee weapons because you eventually go through Jedi training and get your first lightsaber. I have to say that this brought a smile to my face when I inserted my crystals and watched my character whip around those sabers with the classic lightsaber sounds. Nothing can top that.

The game allows you to customize all your items by inserting upgrades that you find or buy. This is mandatory because there really isn’t a “most powerful weapon in the game”. You just get a powerful weapon and you have to upgrade it or it won’t do you much good. Other than this there is the deep leveling system. You can choose an attribute, feat, power, and skill. Feats effect what you use physically in combat and what combat attacks you can use. Powers are force powers and there are plenty of them. All light and dark powers you can possibly think of are here. I had a lot of fun using them in combat and getting an edge over certain enemies. The level cap is at 20, but most people probably won’t even hit that by the end. I finished at level 18 and didn’t have too hard of a time finishing it. You can even choose how your companions level up because you can control them too! This is great for people who like a variety and can’t have every skill available for your character.

Combat is turned based with dice rolling behind the scenes. I really would have like real-time combat, but what’s here is exciting and fun on its own. There are tons of different enemies to fight on each planet, and some are harder than others. I found the game really hard at first, but after a while, you will level up and find the game very balanced. There are some issues in combat that just really annoyed me. There seems to be a targeting problem in small areas. When you click your action you want the characters will get stuck in an endlessly looping animation if there is someone in their way. This can cause you a battle because you have to disengage and restart the attack or move around the obtrusion. This happened quite a lot, but you will learn to just live with it.


While the story is interesting and choosing how dialog will change it is fun, there are some issues here. Instead of your choice being final, some dialog trees will allow you to go back and change your answer or no matter how you persuade or force persuade neither will work and you can’t continue the dialog. This is usually on side missions, but I have never seen the persuade option fail so much in a BioWare game. No matter how much I leveled up my persuasion attribute I failed an awful lot. Other than this, though, my other issue is that some dialog just drags on way too long. I found myself skipping a lot of it or just reading ahead of the voices. These, again, are just minor issues that can be overlooked.

The graphics in the game look old and terrible these days, but back in the day, they looked amazing. I can see why it looked so good then, but you can still feel the Star Wars atmosphere and that’s what counts the most. The character models and animations are stiff, blocky, and repeat a lot, but overall it works. Even some of the voice acting is spotty at best, but overall it is pretty good.

KotOR is an amazing Star Wars experience, but the age may turn a lot of people off. My biggest issue of all is that the game doesn’t give any clues on where to go ever. You get no hints and are left on your own to just figure out what to do. I had to use a walkthrough through most of the game because I had no idea where to go, or some quests were very cryptic. This is a huge no-no for me and really hurt the score the most. Overall, this is an amazing Star Wars game and any Star Wars fan will love this game.

How many years did Star Wars fans wait for a solid single-player game set in this universe? Quite a long time, but they finally got it with "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order," a truly solid game that stands on its own and holds up well. And in EA games, that's rare!

Starting with the classic aspect, the visual presentation of the game is excellent. Attention to detail is evident at every step, and exploring planets like Kashyyyk or Dathomir is a pure delight. The locations are diverse and beautifully modeled, which enhances the overall gaming experience.

As for the story, well, it simply exists. That's all that can be said about it. I personally find it pretentious and sometimes silly, but it's something you can overlook. I played this game mainly for the satisfaction of lightsaber combat, but the story still stood out. Although I must admit that some of the side characters, and even the main protagonist Cal, are genuinely intriguing and well-written.

The gameplay is fantastic. Lightsaber combat is incredibly satisfying, and after every duel, you crave for more. I can't say the same for boss fights since I only enjoyed a handful of them. Nevertheless, the gameplay is very enjoyable, and I didn't want to step away from the computer just to defeat one more enemy (although I have to say they could have added the option for dismemberment, but that's a minor detail).

I mentioned that the locations are beautiful, which is true, but unfortunately, they suffer from repetitive level design. They simply feel repetitive—every planet has the same layout, and you know what to expect and how to approach it. It's a pity because the potential was enormous.

Technically, it's a disaster. The game is not well-optimized for personal computers, and even today, numerous bugs, crashes, and other artifacts occur. It hampers immersion and the overall enjoyment of the game.

"Fallen Order" is a good game worth recommending; however, one must be prepared for its weak technical aspects. Despite that, the rest of the game is genuinely solid and deserves attention. Let the force be with you!

I've had this game for the longest time, probably since 2013, but I've never ended up completing it until now.
It's a solid game jam piece; I've always thought handguns and revolvers are cool, so a game that centers around operating weapons like those in semi-realistic detail was quite novel to me.

Receiver isn't the deepest of games, but for what it is, it's well constructed and presented, plus the firearm mechanics are easy to commit to muscle memory. It does suffer from being a bit shallow and jank, but it was made for a 7-day game jam, I can forgive it. Besides, everything was improved upon for the sequel.

I know everyone sings the praises of licensed super hero games like Spider-Man 2 and Arkham City, but I wanna shine a light on this game for a change. While I don’t think its gameplay is amazing and by the end it runs out of steam, I think this is probably the best adaptation of a comic book character in sprite.

Punisher is a character that really needs a writer with a good understanding of the character to really do a good job writing him. Making him too nice and you could make him generally uninteresting and another basic mercenary for hire Marvel super hero, and if you write him as a murders monster you lose that connection to the reader which makes Frank Castle an interesting character. I personally think Garth Ennis who is the writer for this game is one of the few writers who has probably the best understanding of what The Punisher is and what he isn't. He isn’t a by the books mercenary who just occasionally goes out of his way to break the geneva convention, what he is is an extremely depressed and violent man who through a warped sense of right and wrong will do some very morally questionable ways, and then other times he’ll do funny stuff like suffocating The Russian with a giant fat guy. The game does an amazing job with that characterization with the addition of the interrogations minigames. You’ll have to scare the ever loving shit out of crooks by doing all shorts of stupidly violent thing like hanging them over a meat grinder, curb stomping them, pushing their body into a wood chipper, pushing their head into a bear trap, tangling them over a hungry shark, and many many more. After a certain point these methods of killing people go from gratuitously over-the-top; to flat out ridiculous doing a really good job capturing that very over-the-top nature of Ennis’s work on Marvel Knights and Max. It’s a damn shame that most of this game has been censored to hell and back but oh well you can just mod that stuff out and play it the way Volition meant it to be, violent as hell and

When it comes to adapting a character from one medium to another a lot can get lost in the translation (Hell I went on a whole tangent about that in my Deadpool review) but I feel the general essence of what made Garth Ennis’s runs so great did make it to this game still intact, sure the basic gameplay is nothing to write home about but it’s still really fun, the run and gun style of gameplay the Saints Row series would spawn off from is still leaps and bounds better than it has any right to be, and the arcady nature of it’s score system really does give way to a lot of replayability, it’s a really great time license tie-in jank aside. If you like Garth Ennis’s run of Punisher then I think you’ll get a lot out of it, and if also like weird esoteric 6th gen games that’ve been mostly forgotten by the general public and are only remembered by weirdos who unironically laugh at Family Guy jokes then it’s 100% for you.

A gorgeous little pixel art game that basically functions like a miniature Night in the Woods, and all it takes is one click on my profile to see how I feel about that game.

How We Know We're Alive is a short and sweet little melancholy adventure about guilt and nostalgia, and while it isn't exactly ESSENTIAL playing for narrative fans, I found it to be a solid experience with a good atmosphere and short but relatively poignant story. Other reviews here seem to be upset that the game advertising itself as a free hour long, melancholy point-and-click adventure is in fact a free hour long, melancholy point and click adventure. Not sure what other expectations you guys had, but I think the game does enough to function like a neat little bite-sized experience. If you want a longer (and better) version of this, by all means please go play the phenomenal Night in the Woods. But as for this one, I'd say its pretty cool for the price of Free-99.

While I've never really been good at fighting games, I've always been interested in playing them. Mortal Kombat 11 is a game that I decided to try out, and I was surprised just how different it was compared to other fighting games that I've played so far.

MK 11 is my introduction to the franchise, and from start to finish, I was engaged with its story and characters, despite it not being an easy entry to get into for newcomers. It's fighting system was also something that took me a while to actually get the hang of due to its complexity and variety of options.

What turned me off about the game, though, was its Nintendo Switch port. It's a port so terrible that it makes an incredible game such an unbearable experience.

From its menus alone, everything was such a slog to go through, as everything controlled and moved at such a snail's pace. The visuals doesn't fare much better either, with its pixelated visuals that's such a sight for sore eyes.

I would have loved to experience Mortal Kombat 11 once again for the first time, but not on the Nintendo Switch.

There are some cases where a clone exceeds what its inspiration is. In Ghost Rider’s case that isn’t hard, as Devil may Cry is an atrocious series. In terms of its other inspiration, God of war, it falls short, but impresses with what it has.

Game play is divided into two segments, on foot and bike levels.

Before I begin, I highly advise that you save and reload in the first level over and over to fully max out ghost rider before continuing with your play through, the game is at its best when you are fully upgraded with a full move set.

I also implore you to not play this on anything higher than normal. The damage scaling on hard or higher is ludicrous, you’ll be getting 2-5 shotted nonstop and it will do nothing to instill you in the required rhythm the on foot combat requires, or the quick reflexes of the bike levels.

Combat in Ghost Rider is fun and competent, unlike DMC, you actually have a reason to get a high style rating even after you are maxed out, when you get a B rank, the size of your attacks hit boxes are extended, making it imperative that you maintain a high rank (getting hit resets it to zero). You also only get green orbs for your screen nuke when you have a style ranking on screen, with more rewarded the higher the rank. It’s astonishing but also hilarious how a pathetically shallow mechanic was made genuinely useful here.

As for said screen nuke, don’t be afraid to use it! The game’s waves after waves of enemies are designed around you firing off a link charge once the meter is full to quickly build style, which can then be quickly refilled with green orbs enemies leave behind. This makes combat frantic and tense, and solves the issue most games have with screen nukes where you are never sure when to use it.

You also have this games take on Devil Trigger, named Retribution mode here. It’s best saved for dealing with large brute demons, as they normally don’t stagger when hit. If you are being liberal with your screen nukes and maintaining high style, your spirit gauge will fill very fast and you will never have to worry about being SOL to use it.

As for your regular attacks, they all feel useful. All of them are just fast enough to feel smooth, but not so much that it ruins game balance. Like God of war, there is a heavy emphasis on crowd control. You’ll need to be using strings like triangle X2 > square > triangle to supercharge your style meter to level B, and for solo foes, it’s best to launch them away with basic combos or use strings like squarex2 > triangle X2 to knock them aside so you can pull off a risky taunt that leaves you wide open but fills an entire meter of style, or execute a safe finishing prompt by pressing circle to avoid enemy attacks with I-frames. By using your Nukes, Retribution, Finishers, and crowd controlling regular attacks, the wave after wave of enemies you’ll be dealing with never feels tedious at any point due to the game forcing you to use these well designed tools.

There are also skill check enemies that have barriers around them where you can not damage them unless you have a certain style level, further incentivizing you to learn how combat should be played rather than just whacking the triangle button in a hallway. There is no pretentious, shallow. and pointless mechanical bloat like DMC here. You must learn the game to survive.

In terms of enemy design the game makes up for it’s low budget by expecting you to rely on audio cues snyched to decent animations. Each enemy has a distinct sound you’ll need to memorize so you can block or dodge accordingly. Making combat feel much more involved. All regular enemies aside from brutes only have one attack, which have competent animations and are perfectly synched to audio cues, so memorization comes quickly. Your Dodges also have zero i-frames, so you can not abuse holding the right stick, Your recovery animation is also a little slow, so poor dodging can rightfully punish you as well.

Blocking is the fastest animation in your toolkit, but like God of war the game balances this out by making it so only the first two hits of your strings can be block canceled, meaning that while you must use a variety of moves to maintain high style and keep those larger hit boxes, you also need to know when to use your long, non cancelable and powerful last button inputs, making any instance of button mashing incredibly punishable. Whacking triangle and dodging every blue moon will not work here, you need to actually be aware of your attack animations and properly weigh the risks. A movie licensed game going this far to make sure they have smart combat is incredibly commendable.

Your shot gun is also an incredibly useful tool. From stopping an enemy dead in their tracks, or opening up space so you can execute risky moves, It should always be in your rotation, and the fact that it also uses up one bar of retribution is a great balancing act, as you somewhat need to weigh the risks of creating space to survive, or eating the hit and saving your meter for brutes.

The game does unfortunately lack a good screen shake effect, so while attacks feel fine to execute, they lack the sheer raw power of God of war or the finesse and skillful swiftness of Ninja Gaiden. Enemy damage animations are good enough that this is mitigated somewhat. But the combat is definitely missing that last bit of torque to make it truly incredible, rather than just great here.


While combat is carried by its strong rhythm, level design for the on foot segments is non existent. You’ll be going north-south and then, in a funny coincidence, going south-north DMC4 style in order to pad out the games length. Thankfully when going backwards, the game does have different enemy sets, and you can also ignore most of them during the back tracking if you want to get over the level quickly. The game was originally planned to have puzzles in the levels, but due to the film being pushed up to February of 2007, these had to be cut out. It’s unfortunate that the level design had to be left with hallways, but at the very least the combat makes up for it.


Breaking up the game play for variety, and authenticity to the character, are motorcycle levels, These are simple, fun segments that don’t over stay their welcome and make ghost rider feel unstoppable as you light up enemies with homing shots, power slide under rails, and make massive jumps over gaps. There is some trial and error in later levels, as the steering is very sensitive and knowing when to double jump, or lean forward to not run into walls can be annoying, but the track design is so well telegraphed and laid out that knowing where to land is never an issue, ramps will have huge arrows and rails have orangish red piping to let you know well ahead of time how to react. Once you nail down the timings after a few retries, it becomes and absolute joy to chain together power slides and huge jumps for the segments 2-7 minute play time.

While I did recommend earlier that you should reload your saves in the first level to fully max out, so long as you maintain a good style meter, you’ll have plenty of souls to spend on upgrades, though you’re better off doing as a I recommended and using those extra souls for unlocking the neat bonuses like concept art, behind the scenes videos on the games development, and a random assortment of comics picked from the Johnny Blaze era of the character. These bonuses are nice extras that very few licensed games would even bother trying to include, so it’s awesome they are here.

The game does suffer unfortunately from very poor boss fights. For the on foot ones, you will simply run around and wait till a boss makes themselves vulnerable, and then wail on them with a screen nuke or retribution, Black Heart is the worst offender of this, as he is one of those god awful “Giant creature who slams down fists” fights that plagued video games in the late 2000s. The two bike boss fights don’t fair much better, as you’ll just wail on circle when chasing Vengeance, or dodge a few slow attacks from Black-Out before again wailing on circle.

When you finish the game, you unlock Blade as a playable character , and while it’s great that he has his own move set, he only has 4 combos in his kit and no Retribution or screen nukes. Making all of the combat encounters an absolute slog as you’ll have no way of getting out of tight jams with a well timed screen Nuke or Retribution. The game does try and balance this by giving blade decently larger style gains, a quicker taunt animation, and the ability to drain health from stunned enemies by pressing circle, but it is ultimately a waste of time. If blade had his own levels designed around him, this could be a great bonus, but instead, it comes of as an unfinished concept at best.

You also unlock cheats when you finish the game, though the only one worth mentioning here is Turbo mode. Just like DMC, Turbo mode destroys the game balance due to the fact that enemies are not designed around your increased attack animation speed, like wise, your timing for blocks and dodges are thrown off as the audio cues and animations do not line up properly. The increased speed also destroys the timing for jumps and slides when playing the motorcycle sections, meaning you have to annoyingly retrain your brain if you wish to do these segments with this toggled on. Hilariously, Turbo mode does make playing as Blade far less tedious due to the increased game speed ,as it makes his light attacks borderline unstoppable, and it does make the slow chugging menus far smoother, but the breaking of game mechanics is not worth your time.

The story is basic and uninteresting. Presented with cheap, overly grainy, motion comic cut scenes. Mephisto needs Ghost Rider to round up demons who have escaped from hell that he can not go after due to his agreement with heaven, you then go to location after location, mop the floor with a villain, and then repeat until surprise surprise, Mephisto was wanting to trigger the apocalypse the entire time and needed Ghost Rider to unknowingly draw a glyph with the flames of his bike. You don’t actually fight Mephisto though as Black Heart comes out of nowhere, somehow seals him away, and then you fight him in an incredibly mediocre final boss fight. At the very least the game play is mostly solid enough sans boss fights that you can keep coming back on replays for a good time, cause the story sure as shit isn’t the reason why.

Graphically the game impresses. Bloom is used intelligently to make hellfire glow eerily, and textures are solid, though a bit flat in places. Environments often have massive moving background structures, like gigantic gears in hell, a fire breathing skull at the circus, and massive pipes with huge waterfalls for example. You also have some good looking particle effects, like dust blowing in San Venganza, dry ice mist in the government facility, and sparks when in hell.

While the level design on foot is borderline non existent, the game makes up for this in location variety. From the creepy, industrial prison that is hell, the dilapidated and abandoned wild west town of Sanvenganza, the rusted out laboratories of the military base, and the macabre circus, you won’t be wanting for location variety. All of this is presented with stylish fixed camera angles that frame a world under siege in a beautiful way.

Menus are OK looking, but definitely look like a “good enough” job, you may get a giggle out of the PNG of Sam Elliot in the upgrade menu, but the slow main menu with a grainy FMV will get annoying every time you launch the game, as said FMV makes it chug with every confirm or back button press.

The game mostly runs at a very smooth 60FPS, but it can drop to the low 40s when over 8 enemies are on screen during on foot levels, or heavy density sections of the motorcycle levels, these drops thankfully only last a few seconds, but can feel quite jarring when they happen.

Musically the game kicks ass. Composed by Timo Baker, who if you’re in your mid 20s-early 30s you may recognize as the man who did the music for River Monsters on the Discovery channel, you’ll get a fantastic duo of ambient hellish tracks and fast paced demonic rock. The game gives a great first impression with both tracks in “Arrival in hell”, the ambient version features minimal instruments and notes, with loud short horns instilling a sense of unease, and reverb heavy painful moans letting you know you are in the land of the damned. When combat kicks in, your drawn in to a fast paced guitar solo frenzy, with steady drums hyping you up for the proper rhythm for combat. Other tracks that stand out are the strum heavy sounds of “Perimeter breach (fight)”, the electronic wubs of “In Black-Outs Wake”, and the wild west rock rich “Lightning strikes”.

There is a good amount to like in Ghost rider, you have a very intelligently designed combat system that requires full memorization of your small but powerful toolset to survive, cool motorcycle levels that are a good 7 minute power trip, great visuals and an excellent sound track. And while it is marred by 50% mediocre unlockable content, empty hallway level design, mediocre at best and bad at worst boss fights, and a boring by the numbers plot, It’s still a great hack and slash in spite of those flaws and well worth the 2-3 hours you’ll put in.

8/10.

LISA: The Painful is one of my favorite games ever made, so this rating is a surprisingly bitter one that I'm forced to make.

The story? Oh no nothing's wrong there. Everything writing-wise, both old and new, are top notch. The secret content is beautifully written (here's a tip, try resting at the very first campfire once you've acquired all the boat parts in Area 3) and it ties together well into the secret content of LISA: The Joyful - Definitive Edition. All in all, it's a great package deal.

but

This Unity remake is marred by a number of minor flaws that all come together to make certain experiences feel less... weighty. Many of the sound effects feel less punchy than they used to. Some of the battle animations happen too fast. Some attacks don't even register properly, meaning certain storytelling moments in combat (which I will not spoil) lose the weight and impact that they had previously.

It's genuinely unfortunate that I have to discuss this at all because I am incredibly sympathetic to Dingaling and Serenity Forge. Remaking an RPGMaker game in Unity while retaining the feel of the original game and allowing for Austin to use the new engine for some new, creative sequences (see my earlier hint if you would like to learn more). Even so, it's a criticism I really hoped upon release that I wouldn't have to make.

They're still patching the game, so it's not as if these problems will necessarily be around forever, and hell, the overworld itself is translated near flawlessly. It's just in combat where the problems lie. I really hope it gets fixed up so I can give this version of the game the five star rating it deserves.

So which should you play? The original? Definitive?

Honestly, I would almost argue playing both. Do one run in the original game, then do a run in Definitive. Definitive adds new content that is 1000% worth playing despite the hiccups, but I think that a first time player would be losing something if they only played Definitive and not the legacy version. It's a tough sell, but I think this game is just that good. I literally played it twice in two days. It's the kind of game I relish.

But I think it's time I give LISA a rest....

is what I would say if I didn't have something to say about the Joyful!!!

solid time! for sure one of the best "rage" games i've played. it looks great and is fun to play. the checkpoint assist was the most fun way to play for me. not abusing them, but using them sparringly (whenever we reached a new area) made it feel rewarding to get past a new area while not making it too baby easy and there still being big falls to make us mad.

if there were maybe some more fun gimmicks i'd maybe rate this higher, it really only has like 4/5 ideas it uses throughout the whole game. to be fair i'm sure they had more ideas but realized it was too frustrating/demanding for a co-op game like this but still that's my main low point. all in all very worth the pickup, super playable with parsec/steam remote play as well if you both have solid connections!