So, I kind of messed up my Elden Ring save. After completing the game, I decided I want to start NG+ and cruise through the game, but this time with a magic build and setting me up for the DLC. What I failed to realize was that I would essentially start over, have to get new gear, and play from zero, eliminating my ability to really do much of anything until I reached Rennala at Raya Lucaria, a good dozen or so hours into the game.

That said, I wasn't really excited to start the game again, but I was jonesing for a Soulslike and after watching the recommendation from Nitro Rad. I decided to give this a shot. And man am I glad I did. If I wasn't a responsible adult with things like "a job" and "a baby", I probably would have grinded this out in two days, I was that hooked. And while there are some minor issues, they didn't detract away from my enjoyment overall and I'm happy to recommend this to anyone.

I've always wanted to play a Soulslike as a glass cannon, and I've never been able to do that because, well you die in one or two hits. So I committed to that build in this game and it actually worked out pretty well.

Here was my build. First, I jammed all my XP into Strength. No other stats. It was a bummer to learn you can max out at 30 and not just buff forever. So After that I gave myself some survivability and put the rest into Health, though if I really wanted to commit, I would have put it into Umami (the game's Magic stat). I really liked the shell system, where different size shells affect your dodge roll and move speed, and only gaining certain buffs while wearing a shell. For this, in the late game you get a great shell or two that let you move fast, but also have a decent amount of health. And last, I used the buffs to Stagger %, ATK +, and Charge Atk %. Magic was not necessary here, and the other Right Trigger abilities were just for the environment obstacles.

So the game is pretty easy, I only had a few issues with some of the bosses, but all of them were completely possible. If you're not good at Soulslike game or want to dip in, this is my new recommendation. The colorful presentation and palate creates some beautiful environments, and I got a chuckle every time a new enemy or NPC utilized the trash in the ocean in a hilarious way.

The story is cute. That's about it.

As for the negatives, I really had some issues with hit and collision detection. At times I would stand below and underneath an enemy and it was hit or miss if a projectile would pass through the floor to hit me. I also really was not a fan of some of the input delay on some abilities. There were times where I would dodge roll out of the way of an attack and need to heal. I'd hit heal, but nothing happened. The same thing happened trying to charge an attack after dodging. You should be able to do these back to back and, if this was a harder game, it would have been a much bigger issue. But this gets a pass from me, as skill level usually compensates.

Finally, I wish the map was more useful. You can see where you are relative to the things around you, but it would have been great if you could move it around or pick a fast travel location from it, instead of selecting from a menu.

All in all, I had a great time with this one. It's challenging but not impossible and great for newcomers. Younger players will definitely be challenged though, don't let the cutesy art fool you. There's also enough variety in the builds to really go wild with what you want to do. Also some great easter eggs to other indies and souls games.

Definitely a must play for 2024.

TL;DR a Metroidvania for only the most dedicated, but casual fans will probably want to stay away.

Afterimage is really an interesting game. I didn't hate it, in fact the combat was really great and I was pleased with the weapon combinations and abilities, but the rest of the game is just so hostile that by the end I just really didn't want to play any more.

Let's start with the good. The combat is fantastic, you immediately get a choice of four pretty standard weapons: the standard sword, the faster dual blades, the long range whip, and the slow but strong greatsword. Each has their place and those with a preferred build will fit right in, though what is interesting is that you can equip another to the secondary attack and use both at once. I stuck with the sword and greatsword and didn't change at all.

I also think the length in general is pretty good. It took me about 20 hours to get some of the endings, but tuned out after that for reasons I'll list below, I just wish it was a little more engaging.

The art and music are really good. Beautifully drawn detail-rich environments await, with the standard biomes that you would expect (town, sky, lava, ice, etc.) with matching music that never got annoying or wore their welcome.

Ok, that said the navigation and story are a complete mess. First, the map is WAY too big. I love a metroidvania with a large map but this is the limit, for sure. To add, there's a quest log, but there are no map or quest markers to tell you where to go. In a good metroidvania, the visual language is key, it should be fairly obvious where to go, as you'll have max 2 options. Not here. The maps are so large that backtracking is more of a pain than anything and you'll end up spending fast travel resources (which are consumable, what an insane decision) unless you backtrack enough to reach the free, limited fast travel point.

The story also doesn't help. It is so bad and I completely tuned out minute one. If you're starting the game with a jargon info dump, I'm not interested. In a story-driven RPG or action game, sure. But I'm playing a metroidvania for the gameplay first, and if you're not going to give a quest marker or a checklist, or really any direction then you're not ever going to pull me back in.

And then, this game does two cardinal sins of a metroidvania. So I got thorough this one pretty quickly. The bosses are pretty easy and can be taken down in one go, and I was making decent progress until I needed a few upgrades. The amount of time I spent looking and searching and backtracking (again, with no obvious direction or hint), and god forbid the quest log give you any help. I spent probably about 8 hours aimlessly running around. No good.

The second sin is just completing the map. You get the treasure tracker item way late, but the map is so huge, I wasn't going to spend another few hours scouring every singe inch of the map looking for extra currency or items that are worse than my current gear. Not to mention the quest items that I wasn't even sure I needed or were really told to get and stumbled on in passing.

Overall this game is just a mess. The developers just didn't know when to stop with the map and should have kept the story simple. If you are a die-hard metroidvania fan, check this out. Maybe you'll have a better time than I did with this, but it really did try to fight me at every turn.

So I enjoyed the first Talos Principle. The puzzles were fun headscratchers, not easy but also not too hard. But that's really all I can tell you about it, except for the musings on humanity and impending apocalypse. And you know what? The second one hits the same notes, for better and for worse.

Talos 2 can't be described without first talking about the puzzles. These are the kinds of puzzles that I really excel at: 3D-space-based, heavy on positioning and really make you use the tools at your disposal. For completion, you have to complete 4 zones of three smaller sections of 10 total puzzles per section. And for the most part, the puzzles are very clever and the difficulty has a great curve. Slowing down and spending the time to really concentrate on what your goal is, what tools you have right now, and sometimes working backwards, you can get the answers within a few minutes.

That said, after about 10 of the 12 areas, I think I was about done. Some of the puzzles became a bit convoluted, like I would place a button, but didn't get the feedback of what that button did, or extremely tight positioning of a laser made progress more of a headscratcher of "Wait, but why?" (that puzzle was "Jailbreak", where I finally lost a bit of interest). Again, great puzzles, and there are definitely people out there that will find each a treat, but I personally thought it a bit too many and the game could have benefitted from cutting a few.

The second thing you have talk about with Talos 2 is the graphics. Much improved, with full DLSS and RT on PC. But you know, the first game did just fine without the extra graphical fidelity, and I don't think it added much here, overall. I'm usually a graphic snob, but it wouldn't have bugged me if they hadn't used the extra enhancements.

The sound and music ARE much the same as the previous game though, to the point where the puzzles SFX I think are literally used over again. The music is just not good, at all. For a puzzle game where you're going to sit in thought for long periods of time, I found the music kind of grating after a while, and there just wasn't a ton of variety. I was hearing the same song over and over again, so I ended up turning it off and just became a podcast/Youtube game.

Philosophy is another massive part of the Talos series, and if you hated it in 1, you'll hate it in 2. I didn't really mind it, though it seemed like the writing staff spent more of their time talking about if robots can be considered human than spending time on the plot and dialogue. There are also the requisite audio and text logs for extra flavor, but honestly this is where the game got a little to "up their own ass". A fun extra, but I ended up just skipping them after collecting them.

So, is Talos 2 a good puzzle game? Yes! I would consider it top tier for 3D puzzle games and would love to meet the psychos who come up with these things. Just be warned that there are some annoyances that may or may not be your cup of tea, but if you're willing to sit and give the game the time it needs/deserves, there's a lot of good content here