A haunted forest where countless shades roam; a series of pool-filled chambers with bronze pipes, steam tanks and fish-shaped faucets; a never-ending landscape of wheat and golden trees; then, back to a familiar place. But nothing is as it was.

Hades II's atmosphere does the impossible by surpassing its predecessor: a game with so much charm that it posed the question of whether a possible sequel could come close to the house of Hades' familiarity and comfort, the intense heat of Asphodelus or the heroic dignity of Elysium. Roaming through the desolated streets of Ephyra, getting into the buildings and seeing carts of corpses and baskets of rotting fish, sailing in phantom boats and docking in the shores of Mount Olympus has the impact of something big: a war is raging, and you can feel it in each step you take.

The artistic aspect of Hades and Hades II has been one of the key elements in their success. The cast of characters is diverse and colourful, and brings new, fresh ideas to the table when it comes to a story that has been told time and again throughout the centuries. But the level design is where everything comes together for me. In the first game, the scenarios were really pretty and detailed, but the sequel takes it up a notch. I can't help but finding myself excited when I get to Oceanus. Being in those chambers seems to transport me to another age and place, and the humming of the sirens draws me in deeper each time.

The new mechanics are still being worked on, of course: the combat feels both familiar and fresh, and the new implementations like the tools, the crafting and the familiars are all fun to use and bring a new sense of progression to not only the story but also the gameplay. Progression is a big word in Hades II. Even if the game is a roguelite at its core, the progression in the story feels impactful, and every run brings out new dialogue and new unlocks. It doesn't even feel like you're just playing for a run, you're actually progressing, getting better and thus getting closer to your objectives both below and above.

We'll see how the game keeps changing through the early access, but even as I'm writing this review in version 0.90912 , with many changes to come, it really feels like the evolution of its predecessor in all aspects. There's no doubt in my mind that the areas to come will be filled with details and really fit into the narrative. Much like the Odyssey, Hades II is shaping up to be an epic poem full of exotic locations rooted in mythology and both warm and sharp characters that FEEL real. So, Time will tell.

Ghost of Tsushima is absolutely perfect in some aspects and very lacking in others. The art direction is immaculate; literally every frame is a painting. The combat is really tight, satisfying and deep enough for it to feel fresh after hours playing. The level design is gorgeous and really engaging and the soundtrack is chill, emotional and epic when it has to be.

The way the wind tells you where you have to go without having to look at a minimap or follow a dotted line is HUGE and I can't stress this enough. I thoroughly enjoy open world games but this feature just ruined the rest of them for me. What I love about the open worlds is getting to explore the landscape and feeling like I'm travelling somewhere. Ghost of Tsushima is truly one of the few games to make me truly feel immersed in its world. The fact that the UI is so minimal contributes greatly to this feeling, and it's the living proof that developers don't need to hold the players' hands by showing them where to go and what to do constantly. Engaging world design does everything.

But then... the story is just okay. The NPCs feel kind of dated? The activities are very repetitive even if they don't feel like a chore to complete. I would have LOVED if there were more... leisure activities to do? It's obviously not necessary but wouldn't it have been cool to just go fishing? To be able to just sit and meditate, enjoying the views? The world is asking for you to take a pause and take in the scenery, and such a small addition could've made a big difference in terms of immersion.

Overall Ghost of Tsushima is a great game with a lot of content and a big island to explore. The game's not perfect, of course, but a secuel that focused on more varied and engaging quests and better dialogue would be the perfect game in my opinion. This rendition of feudal Japan is one of the places I'd get lost in if it wasn't for the war and the famine and the—

Chants of Sennaar is a great little game that could've been way way better had it delved deeper into the language puzzles. I would've loved for the languages to have more glyphs and more complex grammar, even if it meant sacrificing the other type of get-this-use-there puzzles. That would've probably been for the better, but how can you sin a game that looks straight out of a Moebius comic?

The solutions to the puzzles are fairly simple; they're not necessarily easy (I didn't consider them hard anyway) but they're not obtuse like in other puzzle games, where a combination of unlikely reasonings was sometimes the correct answer. All the pieces are put in front of you, and it's your job to put the puzzle together. The only gripe I had with the game were the stealth sections and the fact that I sometimes would miss on some things that were just out of focus: like the helmet for the disguise in the Fortress being on the left side, or the stairs that lead to one of the terminals in the Laboratories being barely visible on the right side of the screen.

Overall it was a great game to complete in under 7 hours. It has a lovely art style, a fantastic soundtrack and it's honestly just a treat to play for any language enthusiast. Would it have been better with less regular puzzles and more complex languages? I think so, but it wouldn't have been as accessible. In the end, nothing really beats the feeling of coming across a Rosetta Stone and working out the glyphs by yourself. I'll probably revisit the game playing it in a different language and see how it compares.