I heard that The Suicide of Rachel Foster is a lot like What Remains of Edith Finch, so I knew I had to play it because I love seeing games fail to be greater than the greatest game of all time. I’m probably approaching this game unfairly, huh? (more…)
Tag: videogame review
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The Outer Worlds is More Fun than a Sprat with a Bat (Game’s Over Video Game Review)
Yes, yes, it’s Fallout in Space. But just how much Fallout is it, and does it contain the parts of Fallout that made Fallout Fallout?
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Since when did impossible mean impossible? (a review of Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair)
I love a side-scrolling platformer video game. I love the first Yooka-Laylee game. I love Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair…or, at least all but the last 10 minutes I played of it.
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Yakuza Kiwami is a good serious game for a laugh (a review of Yakuza Kiwami)
Yakuza Kiwami isn’t exactly a fun game. It’s a game that leverages many different things, in small amounts, to pull the player through. It’s a bit funny, its combat is a bit good, its narrative is a bit engaging, and its cutscenes are a bit long (this last “bit” is sarcastic; the cut-scenes are very long).
Yes, I finished the game, so it has to have some merits. But I won’t be playing any of the other Yakuza games.
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Trover Saves the Universe Review. Is it Funny?
The credits have rolled on Trover Saves the Universe. Well, actually they haven’t. Not yet. But they will. I’m still playing it. And I do intend to finish it. I just feel confident that the endgame won’t surprise or delight me enough to make this early review an invalid review. Incomplete, perhaps. But not unfair.
See, Trover saves the Universe is primarily a showcase for Justin Roiland’s brand of noncommittal riffing. Imagine you were to accuse a drunk neighbor of pooping on your carpet, and that drunk neighbor insists he did no such thing, delivering his appeal with all the incoherence and verbal hurdling over swallowed-down almost-vomit that a drunk neighbor would of course exhibit, and proudly so. That’s essentially every one of Roiland’s characters.
Basically, you get the sense that Roiland’s voice recording sessions are just him, probably high, vocalizing every single thing that comes to his mind. Sure, he’ll pause to gather his thoughts or jump into an alternate take, but where less confident writers may insist the pauses and jumps be edited out, Roiland seems to insist the opposite. It comes across as brash laziness.
And I freaking love it. (more…)
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The Talos Principle Review. Puzzles vs. Religion?
The credits have rolled on The Talos Principle.
The Talos Principle is a first person puzzle game in the vein of Portal, Q.U.B.E, and probably Myst and Riven, but I’m not sure because I didn’t have a PC when Myst and Riven were popular. Still I feel I had to mention them here to avoid angry comments about my lack of knowledge of the first person puzzle genre.
The puzzles are the best kind of puzzles. Just a few mechanics to keep track of and each series of puzzles builds upon the rules of previous puzzles. It’s near puzzle perfection. Each solved puzzle rewards you with a tetromino-shaped sigil. Collect enough sigils and you advance in the game. But depending on which direction you choose advance, you’ll either suffer the wrath of or enjoy the praise of Elohim, the godlike narrative voice. Advance as Elohim commands, and you’ll be praised. Advance up the forbidden tower, and you’ll be chastised.
This choice in either defiance of or honor of a religious deity is where the game tries to be more than a game. But I’m not sure it succeeds. (more…)