Pretty lukewarm on this, which is unfortunate since Zeroranger is one of my favourite games and I was looking forward to this quite a bit. It definitely has retained some of the strong points of that game, not least the music, which is just as amazing (at least in the levels) and is honestly worth playing the game for by itself, but it’s also brought along some of the weaknesses and exacerbated them. It was clear in Zeroranger that Project Erasure like to indulge in “anime” tropes, which I thought was acceptable there because of the connection between Super Sentai and STGs, and the generally lighthearted tone of Zeroranger also allowed them to indulge in a bit of cheesy anime stuff without really detracting from the overall effect of the game. I don’t think that applies here, the immediate tone of the game is thick and tense, the mechanics engender deliberate, thoughtful movements, and this immediately clashes when you are presented with the corny theatrics of the first dream sequence, full of anime-esque character tropes and pop-culture references and (i’m sorry to be this mean) genuinely terrible writing, littered with colloquialisms and slang expressions and a super schlocky plot with unbelievably saccharine piano pieces playing in the background. It shows its hand far too early and a lot of the intrigue and general interest in where things were going completely evaporated for me from that point. In hindsight I appreciate how minimalist Zeroranger was with its story.

How is Void Stranger as a sokoban then? It’s ok, pretty good, I wasn’t amazed with the solutions and I rarely felt like I had to get truly creative to solve things until a lot later and even then it was rarely satisfying. It’s probably unfair to compare this to Stephen’s Sausage Roll since that’s probably the best sokoban I’ve ever played but almost every puzzle in that game required me to expand my perception of what was possible within the mechanics, which this isn’t nearly as good at. I’m also apprehensive about the lives system of the game. Having extra lives be earned by solving difficult optional puzzles is an excellent idea for a puzzle-roguelike! But when you run out of lives you can either restart from the beginning of the game or accept receiving a narrative “punishment” in exchange for infinite lives and neither of these are interesting. It’s uninteresting to repeat puzzles you already know the solution of, and the “void” mode feels poorly considered: Pretty much all of the tension diffuses when you’re given infinite lives and you never get a rewind ability or a quick-reset ability, so it’s kind of a worst of both worlds situation where you lose the tension of limited lives but don’t get the quality of life options that other infinite-attempt sokoban games give you, which gets annoying in the more complex levels. Sokobans are notoriously persnickety; solutions can often be ruined by one single move being out of order, which is especially relevant in this game as there are a lot of enemy movement cycles to take into account, so losing one of your limited lives and/or having to re-do an entire solution because of something very small can really get frustrating and adds up to that feeling of trial-and-error. Theoretically, everything here is deterministic, so it should be possible to calculate the solution without even moving or risking anything, but in practice I feel it's not common to play this way (I certainly don’t).

The big appeal for a lot of people will be the secrets, which I’m sure will be gradually discovered by the playerbase in weeks to come, and I’m sure some of them will be interesting. Personally, I really don’t care about that stuff, I feel like discovering cryptic secrets without online help is just an exercise in a lot of trial-and-error which is only enjoyed by a certain subset of players that I am not in and I would rather have interesting things presented to me in a structured way (which Zeroranger is excellent at, ironically).

To be honest I should really play more of this but I'm 6 hours in and not really enjoying it. I took a peek at some people further than me and it seems to just be more of what I don't like: More bad anime-esque story, more loops and repetition, so I think I'm just gonna give it up.

I'll admit to not being very enthused by this game when it initially landed in Early Access, both because my older self is uncomfortable with any game that's inherently sympathetic to law enforcement and because the initial serving of Ready Or Not was... Sour. Uncomfortable racial caricatures, eyebrow-raising dialogue, potential right-wing dogwhistles and an odd eagerness to let you go full police brutality on people were what awaited me, which is a far cry from SWAT 4. This isn't getting into the massive technical or balance issues.

101 people before me have said it, but SWAT 4's legacy is less of a cop game and more of a horror game. It knew just how much literally everyone hated cops and weaponized it, creating alienating and hostile environments where everything could be a threat yet told you outright that you weren't supposed to react as you would in other FPS games. The core difference between SWAT 4 and its contemporaries is that perfect play in SWAT 4 meant taking as few actions as possible and ideally walking out with 0 kills.

So you can imagine why RoN's first public version made me grit my teeth and back away. I was content to file it away in the vast wastes of my Steam library and up until now I'd succeeded, but I was bored in the evening and my IRLs insisted it was "quite good no" [sic], so with fuck all else to do and an alarmingly low amount of alcohol in the fridge for a Scottish household, I decided to join them and binge the entire thing in one massive session.

What immediately stands out in the 1.0 version is how a lot of the more obvious copaganda elements are gone, as are the problematic stuff which is most noticeable in the dialogue. It's a relief that I can play the game without worrying I'm going to run into an ulcer bustingly racist comment/accent. The developers also evidently busted out their old copies of SWAT 4, played it to completion and now the game is hellbent on keeping you from firing your weapon at a living person.
Lower caliber weapons offer you the mercy of allowing you to hit someone in the extremities for a non-lethal takedown, but bringing 7.62 Assault Rifle or a Shotgun to a gas station holdup will almost always end in severed limbs and penalties for unauthorized use of deadly force. Call me old, but the first time I accidentally decapitated someone with a stray 12 gauge shot actually made me feel a bit ill, and from then on I've exclusively used an MP5 and a Glock 19.

Where this game deviates from SWAT 4 is that it's very clearly trying to dig into the player's sense of morality to make the need for restraint sting, for lack of a better word. I'm still undecided as to how copaganda this game is on a scale from 3-10 (it will never be below 3, because cops are still sympathetic as the protagonists), but there's something to be admired in how the game will bring you face-to-face with pedophiles, human traffickers, school shooters and libertarians and still demand you keep your team on a short leash, follow the ROE, and try to minimize casualties. In typing that out, I realize that regardless of this game's status (or not) as copaganda, it's very clearly in love with an almost romantic idea of ~equal justice~ that's at odds with the fact you're playing as a cop, a breed of 'person' that in real life views justice as an obstacle to killing people. If you view all fiction as a fantasy of some kind, RoN is a fantasy land where cops actually behave like the image they try to put forward.

I've seen a surprise amount of (admittedly lowkey) debate about whether or not the game handles its subject matter with any grace, and for once I'm not 100% on where my own stance lies. I'd say that the game doesn't actually handle the subject matter... at all. The horrors I mentioned up above are grotesque, yes, but they're portrayed very manner-of-factly. There are no dramatic, heartbreaking violins or horrifying cutscenes in the buildup to the school shooting mission, it's just another mission. The horror comes from carrying out those routine behaviours - skulking around, identifying corpses, trying to subdue suspects nonlethally, praying the person on the floor is just hiding and not dead - in a school. They're depicted, sure, but it feels to me that the game is more about letting you take away your own feelings from the more emotionally challenging missions rather than going out of its way to make you feel a specific way.

I will say that the one exception to this is the swatting level which is, for lack of any better phrases, extremely over the top. It's the second level and comes after you besieging a gas station that's being held up, so I assume the developers wanted to keep the stakes high. The end result is that a 'simple' swapping also features gangsters, a crypto-mining operation, and the implication that the swatting victim partakes in a child trafficking ring. The use of unfortunate streamer stereotypes just makes it feel even more out of place, as if the game is trying to console new players who might fuck up and start firing like crazy. "It's okay, you just hit crypto miners and pedophiles!" or something like that. It's all so garishly out of place with the rest of the game.

Praise must be hoisted upon the visuals and level design, by the way. Brightly lit areas are fucking terrifying because armed gunmen can be literally anywhere, and even the most open levels feel dense and claustrophobic. Darker levels and smaller levels are so much worse, with a flashlight or nightvision goggles only offering token reprieve from the shadows. They really leaned into the 'horror game' thing.

There is, unfortunately, one massive problem hanging over this game like a pendulum, arguably more damaging to it than any potential discussions of its subject matter:

The enemy AI.

If you've ever played Rainbow 6 Siege during peak hours, it's a lot like getting matched against a team of Siege addicts from the Midwest. They possess hyper-awareness, x-ray vision, a total lack of recoil, reaction times measured in nanoseconds, and accuracy that most actual drones would kill to have. Many a time have I lost a mission because someone sensed my tainted chakra and decided to become a bodhisattva for the sake of purifying me.

Through a wall.

With a glock.

Despite me wearing full plate armor and being behind a cabinet as well.

This game lacks a 'downed' state which really compounds my frustrations. My friends and I, despite our years of tactical shooter experience and general FPS capabilities, never finished a mission with the full team alive because the AI is capable of inhuman feats. This applies to all suspect types, too, so you can meet your end at the hands of a panicked D&D player with a Beretta within about a half-second of making eye contact, and then experience the same thing facing down trained security personnel at a millionaire's mansion.

I wouldn't mind this were it the endgame state, or only applied to special enemies (former military, perhaps?) but as it stands it's omnipresent behaviour and results in the game easily becoming an exercise in frustration. The AI roams a lot, too, which can make a lot of tactical gear feel useless. C2 gas is very good when it works, but good luck getting to use it. In general, while the experience is fine enough, the AI hasn't actually evolved from early access and still feels like it's meant to counter players in a game where doors don't exist.

All in all, I'd be lying if I told you I didn't enjoy my time with this game, but even in its much nicer release state there is a small pit in my stomach that turns sour when thinking about it. Despite everything this is a game where you play as cops out to stop a crime wave, and while it's dispensed with the EA version's 'degenerate America' stuff, it still sometimes toes the line in a way that reminds me of a child looking at their parent to see how much of their brattiness is within acceptable parameters, or a cat about to knock something off the shelf.

There are posters dotted around the police station that encourage officers to take the shot, featuring despondent cops who're lamenting that they hesitated. I think these illustrate the cognitive dissonance the game experiences, because you're likely to see one after a tutorial in which a narrator with a cheap microphone repeatedly tells you to shoot last, ask questions later.

This game is such a treasure, it's a constant recommend from me to anyone who gets me on the topic. I mean, I spent a straight week writing out collectible guides. I hand-drew multiple iterations of the map to make finding things easier. I joined a DISCORD SERVER for more information on this game.

On the box it might not seem quite like your cup of tea, especially if you don't like classic adventure game style presentation. But within the shell of the game's basic mechanics lies a collection of minigames ranging from fun to deranged, a massive catalog of collectibles to please even the most dedicated secret seekers, and a reminder of just how much goes into even something as small as playing soccer with a friend.

If you're looking for something weird and unexpected definitely pick this one up. Just be aware it has a LOT to do, and sinks its hooks in very fast.

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It’s no stranger to anyone at this point that Konami was once a powerhouse video game company, especially in the 90s. During this decade they developed and published so many classic and interesting titles that it’s no wonder some of them have fallen to somewhat obscurity. Vandal Hearts is a perfect example of this as I had only heard of this game from a specific YouTuber and outside of their videos I would never hear anyone discuss it even when talking about games from this era. This could be due in part to its lackluster sales or its sorta basic setup and gameplay, though regardless I still think Vandal Hearts is worth looking back on.

The easiest way to describe this game is that it’s a PS1 Fire Emblem game, sporting a similar type of grid-based maps albeit with more 3D elements than older Fire Emblem titles. The gameplay is also similar with different characters that have varying classes and skills that you use to your advantage. There is a class promotion mechanic that adds some sort of customization even if in the long run it doesn’t matter too much (more on that in a second). One of my favorite parts of the gameplay is the intense sound design that goes with each swing of a sword or casting of a spell. The best part is whenever you defeat an enemy they explode in a shower of blood. That aspect is one part of the game that stuck in my mind for so long.

The story itself is pretty basic but effective with it being another rendition of having to defeat an evil empire before they take over the world kinda shtick. As you progress through the game, you acquire more characters in your party ending with a little over 10 characters to use in every level. I wish you had the chance to interact with party members in between levels as there are certain story beats that flesh out characters somewhat but it never got as deep as I would have liked. The choice to not have to swap characters in and out for levels, though lessens customization, actually made me care about them a little bit more as I felt we were one large band marching through events.

The biggest problem the game suffers from is its stagnation. The first half of the game had me seriously considering where I should move my units when I should attack and use support spells. About halfway through you realize that this game is not as tactical as it makes it out to be. For starts, if a party member falls in battle your only penalty, besides reduced chances of winning, is losing some money at the end of the battle which you will be swimming in most of the time. Each level is uniquely made though only a few of them have some sort of gimmick which the latter half of the game stops doing. Some of my favorite examples of these gimmicks were setting up an ambush for a powerful group of enemies and advancing up a train as the carts are slowly released behind you. Once you reach a certain level with your sorcerer you can spam their highest spells for great damage which kind of loses some of the strategy when going through levels.

That being said, I still had a blast playing Vandal Hearts. Simple, defeat the Empire stories, worked on me a lot and it was fun going through a short war campaign. I also wanted to mention how much I love the art style of this game. It looks so unique compared to its contemporaries with the designs being a mixture of anime and high fantasy artwork that emphasizes exaggerated expressions. It’s a shame the artist, Hiroshi Kyomasu, has not worked on much sense as I enjoy there style.

I think if you enjoy games like Fire Emblem or just tactic games with medieval settings then Vandal Hearts is still worth checking out.

MorphX (also known as The Swarm and Симбионт) is a janky mess, but it's the kind of janky mess some gamers might have a lot of fun with. The concept is intriguing: a third-person action adventure that blends elements of Half-Life and a hypothetical version of Quake IV where the player character's Stroggification actually substantially impacted the gameplay. Of course, if the execution had been equally strong the Xbox 360 port (the only version widely available in the West; I played the PC release with a fan-made translation patch) wouldn't have a Metascore of 33/100. However, if you can forgive graphics that were dated in 2008, repetitious bombed-out city environments and a pervasive lack of refinement, MorphX plays well enough to make its exploration of its premise worthwhile.

The game begins as a rather clunky third-person shooter, but it soon introduces hack and slash mechanics that come to dominate the experience. The melee action has a quick but loose feel to it that vaguely reminded me of Raven's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Restrain yourself slightly and you'll be able to siphon some health and energy from defeated enemies, or you can just hack away and reduce them to gibs. There's an ability that allows you to get sizable amounts of health back each time you strike a foe, with the added bonus of slow-motion to show off the resulting carnage. A cute touch is the dedicated kick button, which allows you to stagger some enemies and sends the game's headcrab knock-offs flying through the air. Despite their generic designs, the aliens are quite fun to fight against. Spotting the outline of a cloaked assassin-type enemy sneaking up on you before slashing him or delivering a finisher against a chain gun-wielding heavy can be very satisfying.

Tying this all together is the character progression, which is handled through a series of tile-connecting puzzles that you continually acquire new pieces for. These can be rearranged at any time, allowing you to adapt to circumstances and optimize the tile placement on upgrades you want to max out permanently. This is a legitimately clever system and I would love to see it implemented in games with decent budgets.

I wouldn't say MorphX is hidden gem by any means, but given its reputation I was pleasantly surprised by it. Perhaps the best summation of the game I've found is a Google Translated sentence in a review from the Russian publication Igromania: "This is trash in a good sense of the word: violent, dynamic, and in some places even funny."

Played from – to: (2023-12-21 – 2023-12-21) – PC keyboard.
‣ 4/10 – What was the point of the clown?

‣ Thoughts: I do enjoy Chilla’s Art games no matter how good or bad they are for example ,,Night Security” which was horrible but still a laugh. However, I think the developers need to slow down, gather their ideas, take the time, accumulated resources, and make something of higher quality both in storytelling and gameplay.

The Kidnap is not their worst game, I’d say it is one of the better ones, but that does not make it good. The story is sadly generic, the characters are predictable and one-dimensional. There is basically no suspense. All the intense scenes and jump scares come off as cheesy and lazy. Small gameplay sections are just conversations and provide no fun at all. Previous games had you playing basketball, singing karaoke, and interacting with other small games, but here even a video-game game mode is lazy and just a waste of time.

In conclusion, I think YouTubers are overhyping these games too much just because of their title. The developers should be encouraged to take their time and stop pumping these half-assed games out. 4-5 games a year is not a healthy thing. Quality over quantity…