007 First Light

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 06/06/2026
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: IO Interactive

Developer: IO Interactive

Release Date: 05/27/2026

Available On

The iconic intro sequence, the theme song, the suit, and the quote “Shaken, not stirred”—these are all iconic things from the James Bond series that every single person on Earth knows even without ever seeing the movies. I am one of those people. My parents were never Bond fans, so I never grew up watching them. This series is so deeply woven into pop culture that you could never avoid the newest James Bond actor announcement or the release of each movie. They were consistently at the forefront of the entertainment industry. Until now, the video games trailed behind like a deformed sibling. I played almost every James Bond game growing up because they were fun spy games. Of course, GoldenEye was the most popular, and it remains the most popular, James Bond game to date. First Light is the first original James Bond video game that is not tied to a movie license. This means even those who don’t like the series will like this game if you love stealth-action (Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell) or fun scripted games (Uncharted, Tomb Raider). This is IO Interactive’s first foray into the series, and it’s a strange choice of a developer, but they clearly put their hearts and souls into this game.

You play as new James Bond actor Patrick Gibson. This character is a very young, naive, and hotheaded Bond rather than the mature and experienced person we usually get in the movies. This James Bond accidentally stumbles into the role, with the first 2-3 hours spent on a lengthy tutorial mission and training montage that introduces his character and MI6 training. The majority of this opening sequence is storytelling and world-building, and IOI did a fantastic job doing so. The characters are believeable, Bond is likable, and the writing is sharp and tight and constantly keeps you guessing with plot twists and turns. I was completely engrossed in the game because a twist surprised me just when I thought the story was predictable. The best aspects of both games are present in this one, which feels like a combination of Hitman and Uncharted. First Light is a stealth action game unlike the movie tie-in games before it, which were all high-octane, action-packed, scripted, and linear games. First Light encourages espionage, stealth combat, open combat, melee combat, and even some vehicular mayhem.

If you played the Hitman games, then the espionage spy stuff will be familiar, but the gameplay is much more guided and streamlined. Many people don’t like the openness of Hitman’s levels, as they tend to be confusing and difficult. Getting that perfect run can feel like a monumental task. Bond has various gadgets at his disposal, but this is Bond set in modern times. AI is rampant (it’s the main villain of the story), and he has a smartwatch that connects to a HUD contact lens that gives Bond a leg up. If you hold a button down, you can see enemies through walls and various other helpful icons, such as eavesdropping on conversations for hints to complete objectives and seeing who is carrying important tech to swipe and what can be interacted with. The first level, for example, is a fancy chess tournament set in Europe, and bond has to gain access to the main building, but he’s in a valet suit. He can get into the more public area, but to go deeper, he needs to find access to doors. You have multiple ways to achieve your goal, similar to the gameplay in Hitman. Either do it the sneaky way and pickpocket people, sneak around and break down doors, or find a stealthier way in by opening a vent up. Some methods involve more combat, while receiving the right hint can provide an easier entry. You will encounter a range of espionage spy sections throughout various levels, making them enjoyable to solve.

The combat is a bit more advanced than Hitman. In the game, players can take cover, and use various weapons, but ammunition is very limited. You can’t just shoot forever like in Call of Duty. The gameplay encourages constant movement and melee combat with enemies. Yellow glints can be parried, red ones need to be dodged, and then you can punch and kick and eventually activate a takedown button. Melee combat is a bit clumsy. Animations can start and stop in jerky ways as you try to move around and hit different enemies; there’s no way to combo into another enemy, and cool moves like throwing your weapon and then running up to a stunned enemy and grabbing theirs are just clumsy. It works fine, but melee combat is the weakest part of the game. Shooting guns feels pretty good, and the gadgets really do help. Camera flashbangs, dart phones (that poison enemies), laser beams, and trip mines are just a few. There aren’t many gadgets, but you will use them a lot, especially during the spy sections. When you use a dart on someone, they will ignore you, and it lets you move in past a single guard into a restricted area.

Bond also has ways out of getting caught, and this mechanic is a brilliant way to keep trial and error down that can frustrate players. You can bluff and pretend to know why you’re there if you enter a room with up to 6 enemies. They will ignore you for about 30 seconds. You can also comply when caught and get kicked out of the restricted area. This action also doesn’t count for trespassing, just smaller restricted areas in more public spaces like behind a reception desk. You can also fake surrender and knock out an enemy, but if there are witnesses, you can’t do that. This rule also doesn’t count for License to Kill scenarios when you are allowed to shoot to kill. I found these areas a bit frustrating, especially when they forced stealth onto you. The choice is to either try to sneak your way around a ton of guards or shoot your way through. Enemy patrols feel random, and it can be difficult to get a good stealth line going. You can crouch, run to cover, and swap covers, but these actions only help so much.

Bond does get to drive vehicles. The iconic Audis and Aston Martins are present, but there aren’t enough driving sequences. You only get a few driving sequences, and none of the cool Bond gadgets are featured, except for a tease at the end. I know the film is a “coming of age” story for Bond where he goes from a wet-eared rookie to a more sophisticated spy, but this is because there’s room for sequels for this Bond to grow and evolve. Bond’s supporting cast sadly doesn’t get enough screen time outside of his partner Greenway and M herself. Q possesses a wonderful personality, but it’s odd that most of Bond’s MI6 classmates disappear after the opening sequence. This makes that entire section feel distinct from the rest of the game. I wanted to see the other characters on screen more often because the acting is superb, ranking among the best this year. Every new scene featuring Bond, from a tropical vacation to a fancy dinner party, kept me engaged. The game consistently introduces new elements, ensuring it never feels stale. After a spy section there are always some scripted events sprinkled in and the occasional boss fight.

First Light also looks fantastic using IOI’s Glacier engine. The game comes to life with tons of NPCs and gorgeous vistas. This is an incredibly varied and long game, running for over 15 hours just for the main story. Sim Ops, which make up the other half of the game, are challenges that unlock skins. Once the credits rolled, I wanted more, and that’s a good thing. I didn’t want this game to end. I loved seeing Bond and Co. on screen, and every plot twist made me want to see the next one. The story isn’t sophisticated by any means, but it’s fun and full of some great action set pieces, and it’s constantly changing. First Light is the best Bond game ever made, and the next one will have to meet high expectations.

Reviewed On

5.1 Surround Sound

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 06/01/2026
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Warner Bros. Games

Developer: TT Games

Release Date: 05/19/2026

Available On

One of the key principles of LEGO games (I’m not capitalizing that anymore from here on out) is “fun”. Also, fun with others. Lego games have been a core part of video games since Lego Adventure Island for the PC back in the late ’90s. Lego really took off in the video game sphere with Lego Star Wars. This was a smash hit that created a basic formula and building blocks for every other Lego game to come after it. That’s both good and bad. See, whenever there’s a new generation of Lego games, everyone hopes for something more difficult, more in-depth, and with more content. Lego games shifted to open world with Lego City Undercover for the Wii U and have kind of stayed that way since. I haven only played some games in the series as Lego Star Wars came out when I was a teenager so I was already not the target audience, and my little sister didn’t seem to care for it. It was still fun and something to zone out with and the handheld versions were completely different games.

Legacy of the Dark Knight is the fourth Lego Batman game. The previous three introduced various elements that were borrowed from the tried-and-true Lego formula, but with Batman and DC superheroes. Legacy of the Dark Knight is a “Greatest Hits” of Batman movies and video games. It takes many gameplay elements from Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series and pulls scenes from various Batman movies, mostly Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan’s series. This is clearly one of the most cinematic and ambitious Lego games to date. The game takes you through Bruce’s early years as a child walking through Wayne Manor while cosplaying as the Grey Ghost with Alfred tagging along behind you. This introduces basic controls and mechanics to the player. Anyone who has played any Lego-licensed game in the last decade and a half will be completely familiar with how this game plays. Most of the same gameplay elements exist for better or for worse. The game slowly introduces Batman and his abilities to you as a player. You also have a single sidekick who is with you. You start out with Gordon but eventually unlock others through the story, such as Catwoman, Robin, and Batgirl. Each character has an ability usually needed for a puzzle. Gordan can use a foam gun to stop objects. Catowman can use her whip to spin objects. Robin can use his homing batarang to target multiple objects at once.

This dynamic is designed for co-op in mind, but sadly, the puzzles in this game aren’t any more sophisticated or involved than any other Lego game. While they seem complex at first, their solution is usually always given to you (using Batman’s detective vision from the Arkham games) or has the difficulty so simple that small kids can solve it. I understand these games are geared towards children, but I figured they would be ramped up some. The entire game plays out like a Batman Arkham game. From the looks to the abilities and even the combat system, it is ripped straight out of those games. Sadly, while the combat system is the most advanced of any Lego game, it does get repetitive really fast. It lacks the more advanced combo moves and takedowns and just has Batman switching from enemy to enemy in any direction. You can rack up a combo, but these can be broken too easily with more than a second pause between dodges or attacks. You can press a parry button that flashes above enemies to keep combos going, and then you unleash a powerful attack once your meter goes up. There’s no switching and comboing between characters like in the later Arkham games, sadly. The combat system is fine, but I beat the game on the Dark Knight difficulty, and all that did was add more enemies and make scenarios take longer to get through, plus introduces a life system that will restart you at the last checkpoint after three deaths.

There is stealth in this game; just like the Arkham games, you can swing around on pillars and objects overhead, but it’s mostly useless. Most areas seem to have poorly laid out enemy patrol patterns, and I always got caught no matter how good I thought it was doing. Most of the main levels are varied and take you through movie scenes. For example, the Joker parade scene from the ’89 Batman movie is awesome. The same song plays (“Partyman” by Prince), and you get to see Joker vandalize a museum with translated Lego humor. Another scene is Mr. Freeze from Batman Forever, and this is the Schwarzenegger Mr. Freeze to boot. Alfred is obviously pulled from Michael Caine’s version, and Lucius Fox is Morgan Freeman’s version. You get a couple of different Jokers here, such as both Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger’s versions, and the voice actors do a good job imitating them. We also get Poison Ivy from Tim Burton’s movie as well as Tommy Lee Jones’ Two Face. They all blend together fairly well with a good amount of levels tossed in. Each level is full of platforming, combat, and puzzles and is varied enough with some scripted events to never become boring. The only time things became dull was during combat encounters that did not involve boss fights. Fighting the goon waves over and over again gets pretty dull really quick because all of the upgrades you earn from finding Wayne Chips are for exploration only.

Many other elements from previous games are here, such as busting up objects to build something to advance in a mission. This has always been a cool feature and never gets old. Seeing a real Lego object being built from pieces is always cool. Vehicle driving is strictly limited to the open world. There are a bunch of different vehicles to drive, and each character has their own. I loved driving Batman’s Batmobiles from different eras of the movies. There are also a ton of costumes to unlock by finding every collectible in each level. Red Bricks are used to unlock color schemes too. There are a ton of collectibles to find here, and many are in the open world. Taken from the Batman Arkham games are Riddler puzzles scattered throughout. These are not nearly as complicated as in those games, but they are still fun, and a couple did get me to think a bit. There are various caches, emblems, and objects to discover. Trials, races, and various events to test your skills too. It’s a lot of content, and most of it is pretty fun. I didn’t care for the combat trials, as I think this is the weakest part of the game. Boss fights are the only unique thing combat-wise, and I found them to be pretty fun to figure out.

The game itself looks fantastic with water dripping down glossy Lego surfaces and great lighting, and they nailed the mood of the Batman Arkham games. It seems they mostly went for Arkham Knight more than City, and surprisingly the Batmobile feels better to drive here than in that game. You can’t run anyone over (you just pass through them), and the violence is kept to a minimum. The humour is spot on early in the game, and then it kind of just drops off halfway through. The level of jokes and physical comedy that Lego games are known for is great for awhile. Later on, the game relies on more cheese and slapstick humour that just doesn’t land right. I’m not sure what went wrong here, but it’s not the end of the world. The game just looks and feels like all the best Batman video games and movies rolled all up into one. I just wish the combat wasn’t so mundane and boring. The puzzles are easy but plentiful and always keep you guessing, the scripted events are fun, and the boss fights are at least entertaining. The voice acting is pretty good too, so what you have here is Lego Batman: The Greatest Hits.

Reviewed On

Quality Mode
5.1 Surround Sound

South of Midnight

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/22/2026
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S. Leave a comment

Publisher: Xbox Game Studios

Developer: Compulsion Games

Release Date: 04/08/2025

Available On

The south of the United States of America has a lot of culture. The region we refer to as “the Old South” extends from Louisiana to parts of Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina. The black culture here is deeply rooted from ex-slaves, and it is a very proud community. South of Midnight explores this culture and does it tastefully, where most games caricature the “voodoo” aspect of the South. While that is in the game, it’s not the sole focus. You play as teenager Hazel Flood, who goes on a journey of self-discovery and exploring the roots of her own culture. The game begins with Hazel helping her mother pack and escape a dangerous flood. Her mother doesn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry and is more worried about her community than her own safety. This causes the two to fight, and her home gets swept away in the flood. As you search for help, you discover that you are a Weaver. Someone who can weave the threads of fate and fight Haints and Stigma, which are things that most folk can not see. You come across a giant talking catfish, various fun creatures, and a journey with a heartwarming story.

Of course, it’s not all perfect. While I did enjoy the story and wanted to see what happened next, there aren’t any huge twists or turns. The game runs for about 10 hours, so there’s enough time for a decent story, but the amount of detail the game puts in here doesn’t allow for quite enough time to really expand and become something really nuanced. We get to know Hazel quite a bit, and we explore her childhood, psychology, and her family history, but most of the other characters are secondary to this. The voice acting is fantastic, and the stop-motion animation of the characters looks great. Everyone looks like wood-carved puppets with a lot of detail. I found the story fun and interesting, but not memorable, but that’s okay. There are a lot of environments to explore and tonnes of platforming.

Sadly, there’s not a lot of exploration, as this is a very linear game. You stay on a single path with an occasional left or right branch for some “floof”, which is used to purchase upgrades on the limited skill tree. You can also find green figments to permanently upgrade your health. A lot of the mechanics in this game feel half-baked, and nothing is more underwhelming than the game’s combat. You only have a single attack button and just whale on enemies and knock their health bar down. You quickly (too quickly) unlock powers such as a push, pull, weave, and passive abilities to stun enemies, but these don’t add much to the combat. Enemies are damage sponges, and you just spam the special attacks without much strategy outside of sending your doll Cruton out to possess the most powerful enemies. When an enemy is down, you can untangle them and absorb some health. Each of these combat areas is walled off with a single health orb inside. You rinse and repeat for 10 hours. It gets incredibly dull very early on. Before Chapter 3 was over with, I was already checked out with the combat. There are no additional attack buttons, and the enemies, while all looking and attacking differently, don’t give you any reason to strategise attacks. Some enemies will turn yellow after so much damage and do an AOE attack, but that’s about it. I found them boring to look at and to fight.

One of the gameplay loops through half of the game is to listen to the stories of various characters that were close to Hazel. They manifested in the world as a large enemy that needs to get defeated. Sadly, you don’t take these enemies down God of War style. We are relegated to fighting some enemies, watching a scene, fighting more enemies, watching a scene and repeating. You need to fill your memory bottle just enough until the evil fog is triggered and a chase sequence ensues. This requires you to run and parkour through a long run. Once you place the memories in the bottle tree, you “save” that creature, and you move on to the next one. There is a small break with more platforming and storytelling about 2/3 through the game, and combat eases up a bit, but the boss fights are the only things that change anything up. These have repetitive cycles as well, but there’s something a little more thrown in to make it challenging, and they are great to look at.

Outside of platforming and the tedious combat, there’s not much else to this game. There aren’t any puzzles, which is a missed opportunity, and I feel Cruton is underutilised. You can throw him out and control him to explore burrows to find floof, but there’s not much to his areas except dodging brambles and walking up ramps. I feel the core action-adventure experience is here, and maybe a sequel could really fix a lot of these problems. Hazel is a great character to follow and play as. Her outfits change a few times throughout the game and look awesome; she feels like a powerful character without playing to stereotypes. I continued playing solely because of my investment in her, not the combat. The platforming was fun and had a nice flow to it, but some puzzles really would have added depth to this game.

Overall, South of Midnight has a strong foundation with great storytelling, a fantastic protaganist, and beautiful visuals, but the combat is seriously lacking. The repetitious behaviour of the attacks, the basic skill tree, and the boring gameplay loop of arena and platforming make me wish there wasn’t any combat in this game at all. A single attack button and a few passive abilities just don’t cut it. The bosses are a nice change of pace and can be fun, but that’s it. There are no puzzles, and Cruton is a Clank-style sidekick that is underutilised. The current elements provide a solid foundation for what could become the next God of War, but let’s hope a sequel addresses these issues.

Reviewed On

5.1 Surround Sound

Diablo IV

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/18/2026
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Release Date: 06/06/2023

Available On

Diablo is one of the longest-running franchises out there but hasn’t had many entries. The third installment, along with this one, faced significant challenges during development due to mismanagement and initial negative feedback from fans. I never had a PC that could run the first two Diablo games back in the day, so I started out with D3. I bought a PC copy on launch day and liked it quite a bit. Later it was ported to consoles and had a wonderful expansion, and then there was nothing for years. Diablo IV launched with similar issues as the third game. Diablo IV faced connection issues, always-online DRM, and cosmetic-only microtransactions; however, it lacked a compelling endgame. The main campaign is fairly short, lasting about 20 hours if you don’t complete all the side quests, but there are many ups and downs with Diablo IV.

I had trouble getting into D4 at launch. The game mechanics aren’t explained very well, and endgame stuff isn’t really explained at all. The systems (at least as of Season 13 while writing this review) are pretty complicated and require reading through guides online; they must be done in multiplayer. Getting through the main campaign is what a majority of players will push through and then quit. D4’s addictive endgame cycle is what keeps hardcore players coming back for better loot and tougher boss fights. The story itself is intriguing, but I wasn’t really engrossed in it. I found Lilith’s nuances the most interesting, while the other characters felt forgettable and underdeveloped. Blizzard has always had some of the best pre-rendered cut scenes in the industry, and they still hold up today. The opening scene introducing Lilith is fantastic and memorable, as is the overall art style. Once I got through the tutorial area and got dumped into the open world, I felt lost. You can just follow the main campaign and do side quests (blue exclamation points) to get better loot and XP. However, I kept pushing for side quests and quickly got bored. They are not captivating whatsoever. There’s no backstory to any of these characters or quests, and if there is, it’s very superficial. All the quests follow a similar pattern, involving either gathering items, killing a specific number of enemies, or exploring a procedurally generated dungeon.

Diablo IV is littered with them. Instead of unique dungeons, we get a unique overworld and tonnes of RG dungeons, which grow old and boring very quickly. They are all themed a certain way, such as caves, spider lairs, caves, and more caves. The main story dungeons are a lot more intriguing and have more to look at, but the smaller dungeons are just lame. Some are just small rooms with a single boss. As you run through these dungeons, you will come across hoards of enemies, sub-bosses, chests, and smaller objectives. You can run across shrines, which will grant you a temporary boost in stats that can be saved for bosses or harder areas in dungeons and the overworld. Once you clear the “fog of war” on the main map, you can use your mount to dash through areas and ignore overworld enemies, as they provide little XP outside of world events and stronghold bosses. Most of your valuable loot (and there is a significant amount of useless loot) will come from defeating tougher enemies and main campaign bosses. Legendary, Unique, and then later, Ancient items are the best.

Diablo IV’s combat is both impactful and fun, and it constitutes the majority of your gameplay activities. I chose a Necromancer for my playthrough, but I didn’t realise that I could only use six main skills for attacks. There’s no point in dishing out points and spreading them too thin. You can always respec your skill tree if you don’t like your build and try again. This allows for limitless experimentation, but later on I was getting my ass handed to me. The situation required me to go to an online guide and do a build from there. I went with a Minion Army Necromancer and suddenly the game was too easy. You can increase the difficulty when you feel you are surpassing that level. Once you reach Level 70, you go to the Paragon levels and do skill boards, which get insanely complicated. You will reach an item power limit of 850, and from there, you are just augmenting gear instead of building off sheer numbers. This phase is where a lot of people will check out and find it too much to deal with.

There isn’t much to the core gameplay loop. You discover towns and warp points on the main map, collect side quests (most of these are done on the overworld map) and then knock down campaign quests. The most intriguing parts of the game are the unique dungeons and boss fights, but ARPGs are repetitive in themselves. This is the main point. The combat is a lot of fun, with dozens of enemies exploding, rushing, and screaming on screen while loot flies everywhere. Loot can range from various types of currency to just gear. The second gameplay loop is all gear and stat related, which many people won’t care for if you are just interested in playing the main game. Seasonal currencies for events, which unlock items at specific vendors, abound.

Once you find a piece of gear you really like, you can augment it with a gem slot (or install a gem slot) or temper your armour with seasonal currency to add things like glyphs and runes which will transform armour into some of the best in the game. These traits you use to add to gear have to be unlocked by either dismantling good gear or completing certain dungeons. This constant drilling down in mechanics requires you to take two steps forward and one step back. For example, I completed the quest to unlock Torment I, but then I realised that to obtain better gear, I needed chests from Lair Bosses. I finally found a Lair Boss that I could defeat solo, but I didn’t realise that I needed Lair Keys or other similar items to unlock the chest. These items can be obtained during seasonal events, by clearing The Pit (a tiered-level dungeon), or through random drops. Items like this are rare, have a low drop rate, and require repetitive and tedious efforts, which I am mostly unwilling to invest in. If you have a group of friends, it’s best to do these activities with them, as running these solo causes longer grinding. Higher difficulty levels can grant better drop rates, but you’re best just completing the main campaign and doing all side quests to really level up and get stronger.

These complicated mechanics are what some fans of ARPGs love. Some may just want the simple feeling of following the story and getting the best loot. The best part is that all endgame content is optional. You can choose not to engage in this content without being locked out of later DLC quests, map exploration, or completing other activities. You can choose to do these quests or not. You can also restart the game and use a new character build. This game can have an insane amount of replay value for those who truly love this kind of thing. I have to give Blizzard credit for this approach, as both endgame and the regular part of the game are completely separate, and you can ignore it or dip in and out as you see fit. You can just keep making a new character and re-running the campaigns or stick with a good build and run endgame content.

What’s here is a visual treat of a game. While the story won’t blow your socks off, it will keep you invested in Lilith and the nuances of the magical world of Diablo. The main quests are a blast and varied, but the randomly generated dungeons everywhere else get tedious pretty quickly. Half the game is endgame content that most players won’t care for, but it’s very complex and requires video breakdowns and guides to explain how to do it all, and you need at least one person to do this stuff with. Diablo IV balances a fine line of multiplayer madness and single-player ARPG story-based content, and it does it pretty well, flaws and all.

Reviewed On

Quality Mode
5.1 Surround Sound

Kathy Rain – 10 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/13/2026
Posted in: Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Switch. Leave a comment

Publisher: Raw Fury

Developer: Clifftop Games

Release Date: 05/05/2016

Available On

Whether you love or hate Sierra point-and-click adventure games, they are the gold standard for storytelling and world-building for this genre. Although many games struggle to overcome the typical issues of the genre, we can often overlook them for their other remarkable achievements. The game boasts a captivating narrative, well-developed characters, impressive voice acting, and a captivating atmosphere, complemented by intriguing visuals and music. Kathy Rain is a modern-day recreation of what made Sierra games so great, and I’m not sure I wanted a decade to discover it.

You play as the titular Kathy Rain, a troubled college student in the mid-90s who ends up stumbling upon a murder mystery involving her family. The game does an impressive job building this up from just a weekend curiosity to an all-out paranormal investigation. While 75% of the game is the build-up to the paranormal part , there’s an underlying question that I could never shake. Is Kathy completely sane? She had a troubled childhood, and there are a few scenes depicting her past, but the sudden death of her grandfather sparks a murder mystery that involves the entire town. I would rather not talk too much about the story and spoil a lot, but the story is the majority of what makes this game worth sticking to.

There are some usual adventure title issues that pop up. For one, players often find themselves unsure of what to do half the time. Without a walkthrough, you will be clicking around on every object like a mad man, trying to figure out what to do. At least the UI is well designed. Each item is labelled on the screen with simple white text, and you can click on it, and Kathy will talk about it. If there’s more than one action, a few icons will pop up around that object. There ‘s inventory at the bottom. Like all games in this genre, you can use the object with anything else to make things happen, but the object hunting can get really tiresome, stretching out unnecessary playtime. Occasionally what seems logical in real life doesn’t work in the game. For example, one scene has Kathy making a homeless person perform a play in front of someone to distract them. You need to zap him with a taser to feign a seizure for the distraction. Having to literally use every object on everything in every single screen can get really tiresome, and Kathy Rain is terrible about managing it. This game would be difficult to enjoy without a walkthrough, and that’s a shame.

Because this is a detective game, you have a list of topics to talk about with certain people, and to advance the story, you need to trigger the correct sequence of events. If you don’t talk to someone about a topic and miss it, you will get stuck often. It’s almost like this game wasn’t designed to be played without a walkthrough at all. Outside of that, Kathy Rain has a great atmosphere with some cool visuals and world-building. As you discover new locations in town and talk to people, you get a backstory of the town and Kathy’s family, and it really pulled me in. The voice acting is pretty impressive, and unlike Sierra games, there are adult themes here with cussing, as it’s not trying to capture a teen audience. There are some captivating visuals towards the end of the game, and the music is very atmospheric and surreal-feeling. Sometimes the game feels too grounded in reality, and the paranormal side feels like a striking contrast and actually stands out too much.

Overall, Kathy Rain is a pretty good adventure title if you follow a guide. I feel the most interesting parts of the story and the twist start to crescendo into something weird and exciting, but the climax is never really focused on. It fizzles out before things truly start getting odd and crazy, and I feel a sequel could really drive that home. While Kathy Rain has neat visuals and they look good, the resolution is pretty low, and it’s difficult to read in some spots. However, anyone who loves adventure games will really get into this game. I feel like being more adult-focused and less teen-driven can bring a layer of intensity to the game and story that most don’t go for in this genre, allowing for deeper themes and more complex character development that resonate with an older audience.

Reviewed On

Mixtape

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/11/2026
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Annapurna Interactive

Developer: Beethoven & Dinosaur

Release Date: 05/07/2026

Available On

There is a certain moment in our lives that everyone is always chasing or trying to recapture. We don’t know it when we’re in this moment, but it’s one of the biggest draws of nostalgia, especially for Gen X and Millennials. That moment is the first major turning point in our lives. Where we go from a teenager to an adult. It’s both exhilarating and incredibly frightening at the same time. This jarring shift happens faster than any of us want it to, and we are always trying to cling on to that childhood just a few moments longer, but for reasons we don’t understand. Maybe we don’t want to go to college; we want to pursue dreams or hobbies, or some of us just end up with the wrong crowd and can’t find a way out. That turning point is graduating high school, turning 18, and becoming an adult. A million social and economical responsibilities are thrust upon us and against our will, with many of us not ready for it or prepared for what society has to give us. This is that single fleeting moment that Mixtape is trying to capture, and this is probably the only game that I’ve played that has done it right.

Some of us may have had friends in high school, and after graduation we fell apart. Either by choice or unknowingly, just due to life and the way that current pushes us. Some may have gone away to a college in another town. Some may have got three jobs and are working constantly with no more time for fun. Some may have got into trouble and wound up in jail. Sometimes our parents move away after high school and we start a brand new life. Mixtape does a fantastic job of bringing you into this fleeting moment and the emotions behind each of those singular and granular events. From running away from a house party to finding a hangout spot and cleaning it up. Mixtape follows three high school friends, Cassandra, Stacy, and Van, as they try to prepare for the last major house party before graduation. This sounds cheesy and like something out of a mid 2000s teen movie, but it’s not that at all. That’s the end goal, but it’s everything in between that sweeps us up emotionally and keeps us glued to the screen.

The only other game I can compare this type of emotional depth to is Life is Strange. While that game is capturing a very different feeling of this age group, it’s similar in both aesthetic and tone. The game starts out with you skateboarding to a licensed track down a long hill. It seems overly long, the autumn leaves crunching under your wheels, the sun close to setting, and you don’t have a care in the world. Stacy is the main protagonist, and she breaks the fourth wall to talk to the player and introduce each track to her mixtape of life, if you will. She’s a music nerd and is trying to make her last and final mixtape to capture that fleeting moment, but she just doesn’t say it. This overly long downhill skate through a rural town in Northern California captures the first of those granular moments. You may remember doing things like this, but just the colours of the time of day, the orange and yellow leaves, the cool air, and laughing with your friends. The game overexaggerates each of these moments that Stacy is in while she’s listening to these tracks. It visually represents the feelings you have and probably remember. It’s truly magical.

Each room you end up in (each of the three friends) has objects you can examine, and Stacy will narrate with her inner voice, similar to Max in Life is Strange. There’s a similar vibe with the way sketch lines dance on screen and harsh sunlight filters through the room. The characters move in a stop-motion animated way, and this helps invoke that feeling of remembering your past. The game is set in the late 90s, so only those who grew up then will remember this specific time period. Internet was scarce, and there was no social media or smartphones yet. While I wasn’t in high school yet at the time, I was in the 4th grade when this game was set, so I have similar memories of playing outside with friends without a care in the world. Laughter echoing in my mind as I think back to those innocent days of youth where the only thing I had to worry about was how my hair looked. These are clearly also some of the only concerns with Stacy and her friends. They want to party and drink beer, and Stacy wants to be off to New York to chase down a music producer to show her a mixtape she has made to start a new career, school be damned.

When you select the orange highlighted items in each room, you will fall back to a memory. This is how each character is introduced and their personalities unfold. The developers did a fantastic job of giving us these three new characters in just a few hours and making you care about them. The writing is sharp and tight, and there isn’t a single scene wasted. The voice acting is fantastic, and I really got sucked into this game and never put it down. Each memory consists of a mini-game or some sort of simple gameplay element. That’s the only major drawback to this game. There isn’t much gameplay here. Some of the mini-games, such as flying through the air and doing jumps, can be fun, but again this is an exaggerated feeling. Maybe you’re just walking home from a friend’s house but feel so high with endorphins that it feels like you’re flying. This euphoric state is the type of emotion that is evoked from the player. Every feeling is visually represented rather than just talked about.

Most of the scenes are bonding experiences each person had with each other, but the overarching story involves trying to get to that beach party and the unaddressed feelings of Stacy leaving for New York and possibly never coming back. It’s pretty emotional and moved me quite a bit towards the end. Cassandra’s overbearing parents and Van’s underbearing mother both get thrown in, and it all just worked. I’ve played so many short indie games that just can’t do a story or character arc right in such a short time because it requires sharp writing because you can’t waste a single scene. Running through a local abandoned dinosaur exhibit and taking photos on a crappy digital camera, trying to rent videos while drunk, etc. The music is also a huge part of stirring up emotions, and it feels like each track is set just right. We’ve all heard these songs before, and I recognised most as I grew up with my parents listening to these songs. Most are set between the late 60s through the 90s, ranging from rock to post-punk and grunge metal.

Overall, Mixtape is such a nice surprise and a treat for those who grew up in the late 90s. The analogue media that floats around the game’s mechanics and vibe is something that a lot of us miss. It just reminds me how much smartphones and social media have destroyed creating intimate moments with friends and the feeling of discovery. We aren’t forced to go outside anymore and make memories but instead can create them digitally. While I understand the benefit and convenience that this tech has brought us, there is also an ugly and dark side to it that can’t be ignored. Between Mixtapes‘ fantastic visual style, licensed soundtrack, and the very specific way of invoking emotions, there’s so much crammed into this 3-hour game. The three characters are well-written and surprisingly memorable, and I feel like this game is something I might go back to someday.

Reviewed On

5.1 Surround Sound

Cloudpunk – 6 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/08/2026
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S. Leave a comment

Publisher: Ion Lands

Developer: Ion Lands

Release Date: 04/23/2020

Available On

Cyberpunk games that are good are far and few between. They either nail the aesthetic but don’t have a good story or gameplay. Even fewer have interesting lore wrapped around their particular flavour of cyberpunk world. Cloudpunk does this part right. Building interesting lore on top of a compelling story with interesting characters, but sadly not getting the gameplay part right. Despite this caveat, the game is worth playing if you love stories and interesting worlds to explore. Cloudpunk pits you as a delivery driver, Rainia, who migrates from the Eastern continent to the city of Ravalis to escape her past. You end up doing delivery work for the titular Cloudpunk black market service. What unfolds is Rainia getting pulled into a crazy plot with interesting characters and the fate of the world itself.

Cloudpunk does a great job trying to make you feel small in its oppressive overworld. The lore for how this world has come to be is pretty deep, and there is a lot of NPC dialogue and quests surrounding this. The game is set hundreds of years into the future in which few cities remain and most of the world’s population are inside those. There is a class system where capitalism has taken over the world for good, and CEOs live on top of the clouds with better air and water, while the poorest live in the duct systems, farming algae and surviving cold storms from the massive city ventilation system. It’s a really fun world to be a part of, and hearing all of these stories helps build all of this up. Like the best RPGs out there, from The Elder Scrolls to The Witcher, the small parts are what matter the most. You get a large map, and each part of the city is broken down into burroughs. When you land in a part of the city that is walkable, you can see faces on the mini-map. These are optional NPCs to talk to that either give side quests or just some lore to fill you in on the everyday life of people. The morality about androids and them having rights like humans as well as the abuse they go through and how they are implemented into society is very detailed here and sucked me right in. Phillip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov are clear inspirations here.

Outside of walking around and talking to people, you can pick up items scattered around that are just junk parts. Either sell them or keep them, and they might be useful for someone, but most of the time it’s just for cash which is needed for gas, repairs to your HOVA, and adding optional cosmetic upgrades to your apartment. You spend most of the game in the HOVA cars, and as you zip around, you can easily damage the car and have to repair it. You can buy a few simple upgrades and eventually get to pick a much better car halfway through the story. The HOVA feels fine to drive, but navigating this game gave me Jak II vibes, and that’s not super great. The game’s world feels like it was built in the PS2 era. Very small maps that are cut up between loading screens. The same “whooshing” sound effects as you pass by cars. Many of the neon signs repeat often, and while the scale of the city is grand, it’s all an illusion. The foggy sky, distant neon buildings, infinite skywalks and buildings. None of this is explorable just like older games from 20 years ago. When you do land on a walkable area, it’s mostly just sidewalks to run around to the next navpoint. There are no puzzles or combat in the game, so it’s just a vehicle for an enjoyable story and interesting lore.

I wanted Cloudpunk to be more. I really got invested in the characters. There are a few plot twists in the story and the character arcs that got me hooked. I kept coming back to the game wanting to know what happens next. The writing is incredibly sharp and intentional. The voice acting is a bit different from many other games. It sounds like real-life dialogue. A lot of emotion and nonchalance from Rainia over life-or-death situations. There’s depth to all of the characters. The game forces you to struggle with feelings about androids and whether they should be treated like machines or humans. This is all just in the dialogue. I can only imagine if this game had a larger budget with a more detailed world to explore, this could be something huge. Deliveries are also all the same. Pick this up and drop it off. Sometimes you get a choice to decide the fate of certain characters, which is nice, and you really do sit there and think of the consequences.

Driving around the same areas for nearly 10 hours gets tiring quickly. I wound up ignoring everything else in the game, such as stopping at food vendors and merchants, as they served no purpose. The only truly grating issue was that lengthy dialogue would play out with nothing to do. There’s no navpoint given to you so you can drive while listening to the dialogue. Many times I just sat there staring at the screen for many minutes. Outside of this, the voxel art style is to be desired. I didn’t care for it, but the overall style they go with is passable. I feel like the game’s world isn’t done justice with this art style, but the neon-soaked blacks and greys work well enough to invoke emotion when streaking through the sky to the next destination. The music is really good, with retrowave-style synth and techno music as well as the never-ending rain. There’s a lot of potential here in a sequel or something, but there are a lot of reasons for someone not to care for this game. The game features up to 7.1 surround sound. With my 5.1 system the world came to life. HOVAs whizzing by, characters walking around, rain pattering on buildings, sirens going off behind me. The soundscape is half of what drew me into the game.

Overall, Cloudpunk has sharp writing and well-written characters with enough lore and a unique take on a cyberpunk setting to be worth your time. I feel a lot of the extra stuff is a waste of time, and the map design is very early 00s feeling, and that can be both good and bad. There’s nothing to do outside of driving around and doing deliveries minus a timed mission here and there. The art style, while quite good, has a voxel style that doesn’t do the overall art direction justice, but what’s here is pretty good and worth your time if you love stories and lore.

Reviewed On

5.1 Surround Sound

Crisol: Theater of Idols

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/03/2026
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Unsupported, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox Series X|S. Leave a comment

Publisher: Blumhouse Games

Developer: Vermila Studios

Release Date: 02/10/2026

Available On

Have you ever been afraid of the Sun? In Crisol you should be. You are Gabriel Escudero. A warrior sent by the Sun god to set things straight on the twisted island of Tormentosa. The story is very disjointed, difficult to follow, and overall not very interesting. It has some neat ideas peppered throughout, but the game is so spread out that the story elements are lost on the player. The main hook in Crisol is the blood weapons. You get five different weapons that share ammo with your health. This makes the game a survival-horror light, as the horror elements aren’t really explored much and just lightly tossed in. You must fight living puppets, which are neat and interesting-looking enemies, but the same few repeat often. In fact, there are only four types in the entire game. The types of enemies include melee puppets, crossbolt puppets, stalker types, and flying puppets. It gets old really fast, but it’s not the only thing that gets worn out in the game.

There are a lot of balancing issues in this game. For starters, you only get five weapons in the game. Your starter weapon is a pistol. You get a double-barrel shotgun a bit later, but weapons are spread pretty far apart, and you don’t get the final weapon until the last level. The main gameplay element here in combat is balancing health and ammo, as they are one and the same. You reload by pressing the spikes on the gun against your hand, and this draws blood out to fill your ammo. Of course this makes the game harder, as you are now scrounging for health stims and dead animals to absorb their blood. This is the only way to heal. Combat is, sadly, a bit janky-feeling. Animations are very slow, and you can’t quickly get out of animations. For example, if you are reloading, Gabriel looks at his hand before you can shoot. Another example is there’s a delay with the melee attack to parry, and this never feels right. Most of the enemies in the game are melee enemies, and they can swarm you. I never felt like I had a good arsenal to deal with these enemies. The pistol is really weak until halfway through the game, where you can get enough upgrades. The shotgun uses way too much health to reload, so you only use it to get out of a tight situation, which isn’t what the shotgun should be for. I mostly used the pistol through the entire game.

This really makes the game boring and repetitive. Once you fight the first few puppets and the weird and creepy tone sets in, you are over it. You later get a sniper rifle, which is very slow to reload and feels mostly useless as most of the combat is close quarters. The last weapon you get is a sub-machine gun, but it is incredibly slow to reload without any upgrades and is hard to keep stable and does little damage. This arsenal just never felt good to use or felt balanced. On top of all that, you need gasoline cans to sharpen your knife as it dulls with each attack. These survival-horror-type elements just don’t feel good here. There are a couple of boss fights, and the final boss is an unfair chore to fight. There is also an automaton named Dolores that roams certain areas and can grab you. These areas require you to sneak around and solve simple puzzles, and I felt these were annoying more than anything. Many times her AI would glitch out, and she would stop right in front of a hiding spot and never move, requiring me to run and risk getting hit.

Most of the game is running around finding keys and solving elaborate puzzles that can be fun or annoying depending on who you are. The clues are pretty useless, and I resorted to guides for most of them. Each main area has a central hub you come back to that has a save point and an upgrade station, and most of the game repeats like this. Run around various hallways shooting enemies, solve a puzzle, find a key, and repeat. Most of the game felt like a chore to play, as there was no variation in between. There were no scripted events, no opportunities for exploration, and nothing else to engage with. Just run around hoping you’re not getting turned around just to do it again later.

There’s clear inspiration from BioShock and Resident Evil here. From the various types of puzzles and main menu unlocks (gallery and models) from RE to the art deco style of BioShock. It looks great for a budget title. I felt that there was way too much pointless clutter everywhere, and the game is incredibly linear but hard to navigate. The map is mostly useless, as there’s no arrow or flashing icon of where to go next. Some levels were mazes of doors, hallways, ladders, and unlocking shortcuts. There are secrets in the game that give you chests, health upgrades, and more silver bulls to spend for upgrades. You need crow relics to buy passive abilities which I felt just didn’t do much. Many of these felt useless. What you really need are the silver bulls for weapon upgrades, and these are essential for survival. Without maxing out most of your weapons by the end, you won’t really get far.

The game suffers from a lot of FPS drops and dips down into the teens frequently. There were also multiple crashes when reloading from death, and the overall feeling of the game isn’t exactly polished. The game just feels like random hallways and rooms put together to make a level. There’s no cohesive flow to anything visually or mechanically. The entire game feels like a video game level from 2012 rather than a believable world. I applaud the small team for trying to do something different, but they bit off more than they could chew here, and it shows. The game is entertaining for those desperate for an early 10s FPS or something similar to Resident Evil or BioShock. The unique weapon mechanic isn’t balanced well enough to really pull you in, and the story is so disjointed and confusing that you won’t really care. There’s also the awful voice acting from everyone but Gabriel. The voice acting was so bad in some spots that it really pulled me out of the game. The story isn’t strong enough to save the game and the art style only goes so far. For the $20 price tag there’s some good value here, but don’t come in expecting greatness like the game it’s inspired by.

Reviewed On

5.1 Surround Sound

Mouse: P.I. for Hire

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/03/2026
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S. Leave a comment

Publisher: PlaySide Studios

Developer: Fumi Games

Release Date: 04/16/2026

Available On

1940s cartoons have slowly grown in popularity, but especially their art style due to copyrights running out mostly from Disney. This had led to many horror projects or inspirations from these shows (Bendy, Cuphead). Mostly stemming from Steamboat Willy and his ilk, Mouse: P.I. for Hire doesn’t just take inspirations from the cartoon era it replicates but also other first-person games like Doom. Mouse is a first-person shooter that is very similar to the first two Doom games with some obvious elements of the newer reboots. First and foremost, P.I. for Hire is a fantastic game to look at. It’s not easy to make a black-and-white game due to the lack of colours that are used to give visual clues to gamers. Clearly the developers used white on black contrast to deliver basic video game language to players, and that’s quite tricky.

While I would love to say that Mouse is a fantastic Doom clone and is basically Doom: Steamboat Willy Edition, there are some glaring issues that kept this game from greatness. While the shooting mechanics feel really good and every gun has it’s own purpose and style there are some balancing issues with Mouse. You start out with the Mouser (haha), which is a semi-automatic pistol, and that’s totally fine. However, you get stuck with this single weapon for way too long. In fact, the weapons are spread so far apart it makes you want to stick with just a single gun. Like the newer Doom reboots, there are tons of pickups in every area. You rarely run out of ammo, so this doesn’t encourage mixing things up. That goes hand in hand with enemy design. Doom has a very distincft design that forces you to switch weapons for different enemies and their distance. Mouse desperately wants to be a close-quarters arena-style shooter, but these areas just aren’t big enough. There also isn’t enough multi-layering to give you breathing room or strategies. Most levels all play out exactly the same, which is multiple corridors bookended by an area with monster closets and almost no verticality. Some act as hubs, and as you come back around throughout the level, more monster closets will open, but this becomes very tedious.

There is a main hub that has your office where you pin clues you find in each level. You can also upgrade weapons with found blueprints and buy ammo and collectibles as well as play a baseball card-style poker game, which I didn’t find very interesting or fun to play. Maybe because I’m not a baseball fan. Money is accumulated incredibly slowly, so you have to be mindful about what you buy. If you don’t care about collectibles, you only use it to buy ammo so you’re stocked up before each mission. I wish there were more uses for money; again, this is part of the balancing issues in this game. When you upgrade weapons (up to three times), you get a cool visual added to the weapon but also a secondary fire option which harkens back to Resistance or Ratchet & Clank, but they aren’t as clever. The shotgun lets you charge up a double shot; the double-barrel shotgun lets you fire both barrels; the James Gun lets you shoot a burst of ammo; the mouser lets you do 3-round bursts. It’s not very diversified, and despite the amount of weapons you get, there are still more balancing problems with these. The pump-action shotgun and double barrel are mostly repetitive. The double-barrel is slow to reload and doesn’t let you carry much (12 rounds), and there are no long-distance weapons. Everything is short- to medium-range, but there are no long-range areas. There is only one explosive weapon (cannon) and one throwable (TNT), which make another pair of weapons repetitive. The brain gun is fun but doesn’t do much outside of exploding heads but requires constant contact. There’s a freeze gun, which I didn’t find useful, as it only freezes one enemy at a time and takes too long. I can go on.

I mostly stuck to the pump-action shotgun and the James gun, as those two complemented each other. Close-quarters damage and being able to shoot many enemies at once. I rarely touched the Mouser after unlocking those two. There’s a paint gun that does a bit more damage, but what I wanted were weapons that do splash damage or another type of fast-firing weapon. The enemies also always repeat. There are enemies with shields, melee enemies, big melee guys that take a lot of damage, and flying enemies, and that’s about it. This gets old really fast as there are nearly 15 levels in the game. Many levels look the same, with several set in swamps, warehouses, movie lots, etc. With everything being black and white, I wanted to see more diversity in scenery. You can unlock passive abilities like hovering, double jump, wall run and climb, but these are rarely used and felt like afterthoughts. There are no puzzles in the game either. The only puzzle is technically tail-picking, which is a nice change from The Elder Scrolls style of lock-picking. This consists of pins and a maze-style lock. You have to push the pins while moving through the maze. Some are timed and some have hazards, while others have limited moves. The problem is that once you do a few, they are all the same with zero challenge. This compels you to skip optional safes and doors in order to progress.

That’s what you will do through most of Mouse. Moving forward just to get to the next thing. The story is mildly interesting, but poorly told. It feels very disjointed, and half of the time I don’t know what was going on. There are multiple cases going on at once, and a lot of them cross over. There are typical noir-type stereotypes in the game, and they just were not clever or interesting. The voice acting is good, and I like some of the mouse-related puns, like ‘fondue’ being alcohol and ‘cheese powder’ being drugs. The boss fights are probably more interesting, but the final boss fight is an absolute pain due to the cramped arena with not enough room to move around. Despite all of this, the game is fast-paced, and I did enjoy just shooting everything in sight. That feeling from Doom does come across in the game, but the only truly interesting area was the “hallucination” level in which you jump around a fantasy area and go to hell and find the chainsaw. Most of Mouse’s problem is that it takes itself way too seriously.

The rubber hose animations and art style are fantastic to look at, and the game feels good to play. The weapons are great to shoot, but the levels feel way too similar to each other, and many of the game types of areas repeat. There’s no deviation in design, and the same few enemies repeat forever. There are no puzzles, and tail-picking becomes easy way too quickly. Passive abilities aren’t used much, and the weapons are poorly balanced with both alt-fire modes and overall use against enemies. Many weapons serve the same function, causing you to stick to the same few throughout. That doesn’t make the game unenjoyable, just repetitive, and many players may quit early on. The story isn’t very interesting and the characters are dull, but it’s still a great shooter at its heart, and I kept blasting my way through the game, having fun despite how serious the game took itself.

Reviewed On

Quality Preset
5.1 Surround Sound

The Shore: Enhanced Edition

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/30/2026
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Xbox Series X|S. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Iphigames

Developer: Ares Dragonis

Release Date: 04/30/2026

Available On

There are not a lot of good Lovecraft-based games. It seems that there is a curse in the video game industry where Lovecraft-based games tend to excel in one aspect but fail in others. This trend extends from the point-and-click adventure titles for IBM PC compatibles all the way to today. Most of these games were only memorable for their visuals, monsters, or the challenges they faced during development. The games include Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Call of Cthulhu (2018), and The Sinking City. These all had interesting elements to them but weren’t great games on their own, often suffering from issues such as poor gameplay mechanics, lacklustre storytelling, or technical problems that hindered the overall experience. The Shore is, sadly, no different, but it does have a striking art style with some fun and memorable moments.

The Shore was already dated on PC back in 2021. It felt like a walking simulator from 2012. It’s very slow, plodding, there’s not much dialogue, and it’s mostly about exploration and soaking up the atmosphere. The new updated version for consoles has improved visuals, combat, and a different opening sequence, making it more engaging and appealing to both new players and fans of the genre. The game starts out similar to other dreamy walking simulators that were a staple of the 2010s. Games like Dear Esther, The game draws inspiration from other dreamy walking simulators, including Among the Sleep, What Remains of Edith Finch, The Suicide of Rachel Foster, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. These games defined that genre, and even before that, The Path from 2008 helped drive intriguing story concepts on a lower budget. The Shore has that look and type of voice acting. On an island with a lighthouse, you are a part of a shipwreck. You can wander around collecting items such as notes in bottles that tell what happened to the crew. You must also collect items to progress, which is where the genre’s tropes come in.

There’s no map or any clues as to where to go for the first half of the game. You can come across some fantastic objects that are from another world. The game features a strange ritual pit, a weird reflective orb, several obelisks and monoliths, as well as various Old Gods, including Azathoth, Shub-Niggurath, Nyarlathotep, Dagon, and Cthulhu himself, among others. Some of these sightings are optional and require specific items or just wandering around thoroughly, such as collecting ancient artefacts or completing certain quests to unlock them. These emerging beasts are fantastic. The sheer size is daunting, and I was awestruck at how awesome they looked despite how dated the overall graphics are. As the game moves on, the visuals get weirder and more otherworldly. You end up wandering through intestines, cosmic walkways, and Giger-inspired caverns. The art style is fantastic, and you can see clear inspiration from Giger and his artwork. The biomechanical nature is subtly emerging in various architectural designs while remaining true to the Cthulhu mythos.

The inclusion of combat in this game is unusual, and it does not function effectively. I mean, it does what it needs to, but the game isn’t an FPS at all. You get a strange pyramid object that shoots a beam out that can stop various monsters in their path. There are a couple of chase scenes as well, but later levels are a bit labyrinthine and difficult to navigate, which took some of the fun out of the exploring and sightseeing. After you leave the island, the 2010s-inspired walking simulator vanishes, and you are in the depths of cosmic horror, solving simple puzzles and lasering Under Gods. The game is incredibly short, clocking in at less than 2 hours with a guide. This may not justify the cost of the game to many unless you are a hardcore Lovecraft fan or love weird indie adventure titles. Any fans of the above-mentioned games will have a good time.

In the end, that’s what The Shore is. The Shore offers a delightful experience with stunning monsters to admire. The first part of the game is a bit dry and dull, but thereafter, it picks up. The Old Gods, with their insane level of detail, are a captivating sight, and the constantly changing trippy visuals keep you engaged and push you forward. If you can endure the initial 30-45 minutes, the game gains momentum and becomes quite entertaining. I wish the game were longer. I wanted to see more of these Gods and insanely giant monsters. What’s here is worth a fun afternoon, but it would be difficult to convince those outside of the target audience.

*Review code provided by publisher

Reviewed On

5.1 Surround Sound