Monument Valley played a pivotal role in shaping the mobile gaming scene by demonstrating the feasibility of console-like experiences on mobile devices. With the flood of microtransaction-heavy free-to-play schlop on the app stores, Monument Valley was a beacon of hope for those who wanted to play single-player games on their phones. The MC Escher-like level design and clever puzzles were adored the world over, and USTWO was considered a pioneer of single-player mobile gaming. The second game was more of the same, which everyone wanted, but the third game here is still more of the same. That’s also what we want, but we want something longer than two hours. With the series venturing into console and PC territory, the short length isn’t as forgiving.
The overall game is exactly the same as before. If you play all three of these games back-to-back, you could be forgiven for thinking they were the same game or DLC of the first. There’s not much new here outside of a more streamlined and cohesive narrative. While it’s more visually presented with a girl named Noor trying to restore a lighthouse to a tribe that lives in the ocean (or that’s how I interpreted it), there’s nothing crazy storywise and never has been with the series. A lot of emotions are invoked through the fantastic soundtrack and visuals. The bright colors and the continuation of the MC escher style puzzles with perspective and illusions at play make this series one of my favorites of all time, right next to echochrome.
The game is easy to understand thanks to visual context. Parts of the level that can be manipulated are represented with hollow pips similar to a Lego block. You can move these freely while Noor is on them, and it’s required to solve some puzzles. You can’t always expect to just move a piece and command Noor to walk to the exit. Some pieces are moved with a spinner, and these can not be moved while Noor is on one of them. These are some of the harder puzzles, and they really require you to look outside of the box and take perspective into mind at all times. There’s a new gameplay mechanic here of being able to command a boat (it’s a leaf bug with an eye on its sail that blinks). It’s such a fantastic design. These may require moving a character back and forth between platforms to solve a puzzle. Another puzzle-solving element is a growing tree and having the leaves appear on different parts of a platform. These are subtle gameplay ideas, but they are new and welcome.
With all that said, the game is still just way too short. There are only 11 levels, and you can finish the game in a single sitting. I wanted more. I have always wanted more from this series. They are spread so far apart that when they come, you cherish them like an expensive sweet. The soundtrack is ethereal and beautiful, the visuals pop on OLED displays, and the level design is like no other. These games are well worth a playthroughif you love puzzle games. Just don’t expect a lot.
For those who grew up in the 90s, that decade was a special time. Before social media, smartphones, and tech being as advanced and convenient as they are now, we were right there during that transition. We still used analog video, but computers were now more common as well as internet access for Web 1.0, or the “Wild West of the Internet,” as some people call it. There’s also something about summer vacation, no matter what walk of life you lived, that was special. This was when we were home more and our parents wanted us out more. For those who were smaller kids, it meant going further than you were allowed and exploring from dusk until dawn. As teens it means doing part-time jobs, usually working 4 hours a day, and then hanging out with friends either at the movies, doing sleepovers, or camping. Those dog days of summer are what makes teens and helps them discover themselves.
DONTNOD are masters at capturing this moment in our youth. The nostalgia factor here is on par with Life is Strange. You play as a woman named Swann who is trying to reconnect with her three childhood friends. It’s 1995. Swann, Kat, Autumn, and Nora are all 15- and 16 year old girls discovering their youth. In the present time, these women are now in their mid-40s. They have lived the first half of their lives, but they are coming together to meet at the quiet town they grew up in called Velvet Cove. It’s a small town in the northern part of the midwest bordering Canada. The sleepy town is full of bad memories for the girls. The first girl you meet up with is Autumn. As you talk about and figure out why they are meeting, you will go through flashbacks of their childhood.
The game plays similarly to other DONTNOD adventure titles. You walk around and interact with objects and listen to Swann’s inner monologue, but there’s a new gameplay idea here. Recording small video clips to make home movies. Swann wants to be a director someday, so the first scene in her room is all about the tutorials. When you hold the camera up, you will see gray boxes around objects that need to be filmed. You will find subjects for each tape, and of course this is all part of a hunt that leads to achievements. It’s a neat idea and looks good. The analog camcorder filter used looks good, but the end result isn’t. The game uses your footage, so Swann’s narration dubs over the characters’ dialogue, and it’s a mess. There are awkward animations, and the fact that you can record at any time makes things look weird and doesn’t fit the subject of the edit, such as the music video you end up making.
This is the only gameplay in the entire game outside of making choices during dialogue. The goal here is to build up a relationship with certain characters to change the outcome of the relationships towards the end of the game, but it’s very subtle and doesn’t have an impact on the core ending. The characters are stereotypical teenagers. Nora is the rebellious, loudmouthed punk who smokes and drinks. Autumn is the mature, responsible teenager who can occasionally be coaxed into doing immature things. Kat is the youngest, lives in a troubled home, and is full of anger. Swann is the overweight, shy girl who has a lot of heart and likes to be alone. These are all stereotypes we can associate with growing up. Teens usually want to be boxed into something to feel like they fit in. We have all been there in our youth. While the voice acting is mostly decent, it’s not perfect. Emotions don’t always hit home, and small talk can feel a bit awkward, like each character is in a separate room and not together. The lip syncing is even worse, with entire lines not having the character’s mouth move.
Like most other DONTNOD games, there’s not a whole lot of locales. Many are recycled, or small rooms will be for a single scene. Interacting with certain objects can change the relationship status with someone. If you are doing something positive towards someone, you will see a heart pop after selecting the line. Something that the character doesn’t like will have a heart break in half. Growth toward the character overall will show a sapling grow. If you have met a certain point in the relationship or answered a different way from before you can unlock new options which will appear with a lock opening. You can’t be in full favor with everyone, so it’s best to pick your favorite and stick with that. Some choices will change the full outcome of growth with a character anyways and change it for the rest of the story. Overall, the typical nostalgia trip wrapped in a supernatural event is what DONTNOD is good at, and it shines well here.
The visuals are a big improvement over older titles, but it’s still nothing groundbreaking. It uses the same engine as the newer Life is Strange games (Double Exposure and True Colors). The animations feel awful and hand-done, with weird physics glitches all the time. Heads would spin around 360 degrees, hair would flop around, and some characters would just warp through the ground. Clearly this is an engine issue and not a game issue, as these problems pop up throughout all of their adventure titles. The overall art style is well done with a dreamlike haze over everything to represent remembering the past, and the present feels more suppressive and depressing. At least they knocked the art style and the atmosphere out of the park.
Overall, Lost Records is a great adventure title with the same quirks and problems as other games in the studio’s catalogue. While the characters are well written, and the nostalgia trip back to the 90s is fun, the rest of the game just doesn’t work too well. There are limited areas, the dialogue choices don’t affect the ending, and the entire payoff is a bit disappointing. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the game does a good job ratcheting up the tension for a big reveal. You spend most of the first tape getting teased about a big reveal for it to not be anything super impressive or crazy. It’s a surprise, but nothing that needs 4 hours of suspense. I also feel anyone who didn’t grow up during this time won’t have the same connection as older gamers. Those would feel more at home during the present time with the presence of smartphones and modern tech and lifestyles.
When dealing with mental health or talking about it, there can be many obstacles to overcome. How do you approach it? Do you take it head-on and use a traditional narrative experience where you watch the protagonist spiral out of control, or do you use the approach Luto took and make it an interpretive indirect narrative in which the player experiences the downfall? Luto does an impressive job showing what it can feel like to experience depression, thoughts of suicide, and mental health issues. Never has a game done a similar job since Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.
What we need to understand is that the developers aren’t approaching in a “sensitive” way but in a way that we can just fully understand. Unless you are experiencing or have experienced any mental health issues or even some sort of trauma that can lead to this, we have no way of knowing. I particularly enjoy how the human mind deals with these things and the artistic interpretation of it. While I have experienced my own sets of trauma through my life, it’s still interesting to see what else is out there. You play as a man who is dealing with the loss and grief of family members. I don’t want to spoil the story, but it’s not the direct tale, but how you experience this interesting grief.
There are some trippy gameplay ideas here that I have yet to see. There is some direct inspiration from the P.T. demo by Hideo Kojima. The nearly sterile lighting and hyperrealistic house that feels lived in yet cold and empty at the same time. The buzzing of lights, ticking of clocks, and just your footsteps are all you hear. The silence can be deafening. There is a cheeky British narrator that talks you through the game, similar to The Stanley Parable or something straight from a Media Molecule game (LittleBigPlanet). However, something seems off with this narrator. As you walk out of your bathroom and complete your day as the narrator intends, you try to break the sequence. This leads to further sequence breaking and then to some meta-narrative ideas without spoiling anything.
Some puzzles involve solving looping hallways and corridor issues. Identifying numbers and observing objects in specific ways are key to solving puzzles. The first example has you trying to get a hammer hanging from a chandelier because you need this to pry wood off a doorway. You can keep walking downstairs only to end up back at the same staircase. You need to find four numbers to enter as a phone number to break the sequence and drop the hammer. You need to be observant and look for breaks in patterns. It’s very reminiscent of P.T. in that sense. These puzzles can be fun, but if you’re not good at finding them, some can be hard to figure out.
As the game moves on, some of the horror elements will pop up, and, while they are subtle, the excellent lighting effects help with this. The game is very surreal and haunting in the sense that nothing makes sense. It can be disorienting and go against the grain of what makes sense. This can be scary on its own rather than jump scares and creepy monsters. There are none in this game. Some scares are very subtle and only exist if you spot them, or the atmosphere alone can just be downright tense. You will expect something to jump up at you or come out of a doorway, but nothing ever does. That’s a fantastic way to create horror. Luto makes the scares seem like they are there, but it’s all in the player’s head. I don’t want to spoil the short game by explaining anything in detail. With a walkthrough, you can complete the game in 4-5 hours.
Overall, Luto is a fantastic psychological horror game. I just wish there were more puzzles and gameplay and some of the puzzles weren’t so obtuse. While I like that the story is interpretive, this is becoming a cliche in indie horror titles and can be tough to pull off with such short lengths. Luto does a better job than most, but it’s still not perfect. While I love the lighting and atmosphere, the game does look kind of generic in spots, such as the hyperrealism of the house and day-to-day objects. Things don’t really start looking much different until more of the surreal stuff starts to pop up.
Max! Max, you’re back! It’s so good to see Max Caulfield again. This time as a grown adult. Our Max is all grown up. Well, that’s what I wanted to say, but a few hours into the game, you will realize that while Max is back, everything surrounding her return isn’t. This is a very forced game that didn’t need to get made. While all of us are curious as to what happened to Max as she grew up, we didn’t want a repeat of the original game. Deck Nine nailed the feeling of the first game. While we’re not in the same time period (late 2000s), we are in modern times, but with new friends and foes. The atmosphere of Life is Strange is here. The surreal soundtrack, being able to interact with various objects and hear Max’s inner monologue, important choices, well-made characters, etc. It’s all here, but in a very basic package to tie it all up.
Here’s the thing: Double Exposure literally tries to repeat the original game and story. It feels very forced and eye-rolling towards the end and isn’t believable one bit. Cloe has been replaced with Safi. She’s a hotheaded character similar to Cloe, but she also has a soft side. She’s goofy and has a good sense of humor, but you can clearly see this is a Cloe replacement or clone. Then you have Lucas, who is a Mark clone, etc. There’s a pattern here. He’s another creepy teacher who has a secret that rocks the whole story. It’s predictable, which is a shame. Instead of putting Max in a new situation with her old powers, she somehow has new powers. The power of Double Exposure. She can now hop timelines. It’s pretty silly and less grounded than the original game. While having powers is silly anyways, the first game being so grounded made it believable rather than a hokey superhero wannabe story. Treading the same ground just feels wrong.
Thankfully, the characters are interesting, but not as memorable as the original cast. They all have character, flaws, good and bad traits, and are not super stereotyped. Gameplay-wise, nothing has really changed. I would go as far as to say there is less gameplay here than in the original game, and that game was already lacking any. The locales are also not very interesting and are constantly repeated. There are too many mundane indoor environments, such as the Turtle bar, the school, Max’s apartment, etc. There aren’t any outdoor locations with sweeping vistas or more interesting indoor areas. You will spend up to 10 hours in these same locations over and over again. Max is now an urbexer (Urban explorer) so why don’t we get to see some cool abandoned buildings like during the intro sequence? The game just jumps straight into Max trying to save the planet, so we don’t get time to be with her and her friends living normal lives for a bit. That’s what made the first game so great.
Gameplay involves switching back and forth between timelines to solve puzzles, but this is just an excuse to extend gameplay. There are set nodes that sparkle, and you can jump between the Dead and Living worlds (one of the characters in the game dies, and you are trying to save her and stop it). You can pulse your power to see objects placed in the other timeline in real time before switching to it, but it doesn’t add anything interesting. There’s of course the usual collectible hunt, but that’s about it. Choices in the game are fewer and don’t have the mega impact that they did in the original. Story-changing sequences don’t come by often. Maybe once a chapter or none in some of them.
At least the visuals are improved. The facial expressions are great, and there’s a lot of detail in everything while still looking like a Life is Strange game. The upgraded visual quality helps go a long way, but sadly this was wasted on so few areas to explore. The ending is also rushed and feels inconclusive and too predictable. When the credits rolled, I just felt like the entire game was just not necessary. It didn’t add any value to the original game. Fans should definitely play, but you do need to play the original to appreciate what is here. Max recaps the original game throughout the story, but not in detail, so a lot is missing. There are a lot of references to the original that new players won’t understand. Some scenes in the ending aren’t explained at all, but are direct references to the original game such as when Mark strapped Max into the chair. For a cheap purchase you will have a fun couple of evening with the game, but don’t expect anything groundbreaking.
Oh boy, it’s another Call of Duty release. I completely disregarded it due to its brief campaign and my lack of interest in the Zombies mode. Four years passed, and here we are. I was in the mood for an FPS game that wouldn’t take up a lot of time, and I’m glad I played it. Starting with the campaign, this is one of the most entertaining in the series, and it’s a crying shame it’s so short. Activision has the budget and talent to make a good long 8-10 hour campaign, but instead we’re stuck with 9 short missions clocking in at around 4 hours. The characters are fun, the writing is tight and interesting, and the Nazi villains are fun to see on screen. You play as a team of allied soldiers who are captured by the Nazis while trying to find documentation on plans for Project Phoenix. The Nazi plan to stay alive after Adolf Hitler had allegedly committed suicide. It’s an interesting point during the war that isn’t talked about or used in WWII games much. The main antagonists are two SS officers who torture and kidnap an Australian, an American, a Russian, and a British soldier who were on the operation to steal the documents.
The game opens up with a train mission. It’s as bombastic and fun as any Call of Duty mission. The game feels immediately familiar…too familiar. It has the exact feeling of Modern Warfare. The speed, the momentum, and everything about what gives modern Call of Duty its identity are here, both for better and for worse. It feels a bit odd while holding WWII guns to be reloading them like a modern rifle. Slapping a clip off the top of a Browning. Everything feels like it’s in fast forward. I would have liked a slower, more deliberate feeling to this game, as we are returning to the series’ roots after all, but that’s too much to ask. It feels odd hopping around walls like it’s Assassin’s Creed as the Russian sniper Lady Nightingale. I feel like a WWII shooter needs a bit more finesse and a slower approach. The game doesn’t feel like Modern Warfare when it’s dressed in a WWII setting.
I don’t like stealth in Call of Duty, and it’s just as broken here. Running around and hiding in vents and under tables just slows the game way down. A high-octane shooter like this does not need any stealth. It’s easier to just shoot everyone in sight. The only reason to actually use the stealth is when it’s required or for achievements. Enemy placement is not right for stealth combat, and patrol patterns seem random. Enemies will also stay in an alerted state once seen, so it’s just pointless. The stealth takedowns are pretty cool to see, though. One new gameplay mechanic not seen in a Call of Duty is flying planes as the American. It’s fun; it doesn’t last long (only a single mission), but the preflight check and taking off just feel cool. There are no other vehicles to drive or even ride on in this game, which is kind of odd.
Outside of the campaign are multiplayer and Zombies. I’m not a Zombies expert, but I do know that this is a return to form with no story or weird map puzzles like in the Black Ops series. Some may like this, and some may hate it. I personally do not care either way. I tried Zombies for a couple of hours, and it was…fine. Multiplayer is the best part of the game, but it’s subject to the usual Call of Duty nonsense. The maps are at least really good, and the way the weapons fire makes it a bit different than modern games. They are less accurate and, of course, less modern, so you don’t get all these crazy attachments for the guns. I won’t bother going into detail on maps or anything, as, sadly, the game is mostly dead. I made it into a couple of matches, but that was after sitting for 20+ minutes waiting for enough people to join.
With that, this game is best played as a super cheap discount for the campaign and maybe some multiplayer with friends, but don’t expect much playtime out of this. I really wanted the campaign to be longer. There’s a lot here that works with interesting characters and a great script, but it’s just cut so short. The authentic WWII weapons feel good, and anyone who is a veteran of past WWII shooters will instantly recognize all of these weapons. Zombies mode is fun, but a drastic change from Black Ops Zombies, which some people may not like, but as it stands, this is a modern Call of Duty game. All that will be left one day is just the campaign and offline multiplayer. What’s here is entertaining for an afternoon of fun, but that’s it.
Well, we finally made it to another Silent Hill release. This time it’s excellent. I will start off right away with that. After the utter disappointment of Downpour, the last mainline game in the series, everyone thought the series was dead. After the failure of resurrecting the series with the abysmally boring dungeon crawler Book of Memories for Vita and the terrible HD remaster of SH2 and SH3, it felt that Konami was done with the series. Downpour had some good elements, but it was a terrible game to play. With the huge success of the SH2 remake from Bloober Team, it feels like Konami is going full steam ahead with the series once again. For those who don’t know, the “f” moniker at the end means “forte” to contrast the “Silent” part of the title. While it’s not clear if this is a mainline title or not, as this is the first game not set in the titular town on the East Coast of the US.
SHF is set in post-World War II Japan. Hinako Shimizu is your leading lady this time around. A shy high school student who has a disturbing and dysfunctional family and ends up getting trapped in what seems to be monsters and red fungus and spider lilies taking over the town. Hinako relies on red capsules to stave off headaches. As you play through the game, Hinako is seemingly teleporting to a Shrine world, when passing out, and the real world, which is the town of Ebisugaoka. This is a small town, similar to Silent Hill itself, that’s full of lower-class citizens who rely on living off the land. The game strays far from the Western horror we have seen in the series and relies more on Eastern horror and Japanese folklore. It’s hard to get used to, but the themes and Silent Hill DNA are all here. The enemies move like mannequins; they look grotesque and horrific, the music by Akira Yamaoka is absolutely fantastic and takes the usual Silent Hill music we are used to and adds an Eastern flair during the fog world (real world). The music here is somehow darker and scarier than it’s ever been. There’s more emphasis on unease and disturbance. The soundtrack is full of out-of-tune instruments, wailing cries and hymns, and screeching string instruments, all mixed with traditional Japanese folk music. It’s a nice twist on the soundtrack while keeping it sounding familiar. Kensuke Inage composed the Shrine world pieces, and they contrast well with Akira’s music. He is mostly known for composing music for Musou and fighting games of various franchises.
With that said, Hinako controls really well, and she should. She is small and lightweight and can run around with ease. Combat is the best the series has had so far. While it’s simple, it is hard to master. You can dodge in this game, and that’s the hard part. Enemies will flash red, and for a split second you can press the heavy attack button to do a powerful attack and stun them for a perfect dodge. Hinako also has a focus meter that she can charge up, but this uses focus energy. If you get attacked while trying to charge your focus, it will take a portion of the bar away, and you need to use various items to restore this. You also need to manage a stamina meter used for sprinting, dodging, and attacking. If you run out, Hinako will run out of breath and will pause for a few seconds to recover. They took a page from the Silent Hill: Origins book, and weapons now have durability. It works much better here, as you can carry up to 3 weapons and repair them with toolkits. There’s light, medium, and heavy durability. Weapons like kitchen knives are fast, while crowbars and lead pipes are normal speed. Axes are slow and do massive damage. There are no firearms in this game. The combat is raw and visceral, and it feels like Hinako is just doing what she can to survive. She’s not a warrior. You need to manage these systems, heal, and store meters while fighting off enemies, like the series’ staple. Run. Run like hell if you can.
You can upgrade by using money from selling items at save shrines. You can exchange some healing items or find valuables hidden everywhere. You also need an Ema board to upgrade your character. You can upgrade your life, stamina, and focus meter as well as your passive ability size. You can equip up to three Omamori, which are found throughout the game. These add passive abilities like extra health, stamina, easier-to-do perfect dodges, refilling life upon death, allowing you to run a little faster, etc. This is a great way to add some depth to the combat system without it feeling like a full-fledged RPG or something more complicated than it needs to be. If you want an easier time, you are encouraged to explore and find extra keys or go where you might be scared too.
Shrine worlds have specific weapons that don’t have durability. I don’t want to spoil the story, but about halfway through, Hinako gets a very powerful weapon in the Shrine world. However, in the Fog World, she’s very vulnerable, and while enemies are easier to fight, she is weaker. In between fighting, you need to use your map like the traditional way. Blocked doors are scribbled out, open doorways and pathways have arrows, and objectives are circled. It’s a great map system and has worked well throughout the series. You won’t get lost like in older titles, and there are clear objectives. Puzzle difficulty is still here, and they become harder with more vague hints the higher you go. The puzzles are great and require full manipulation of objects and deciphering clues logically. The harder puzzles are in the Shrine world, as well as more combat. In the Fog World, you are trying to avoid combat and get to the next objective as quickly as you can.
The game’s story was written by Ryukishi07, whose pen name is famous for the When They Cry manga series. That series is known for intense drama, pain, and suffering. This clearly is translated into the story of Silent Hill f. While the series continues the tradition of needing some player interpretation, it’s a bit more structured. The series continues to deal with mental health and disturbing moments of human nature. There are some really dark scenes in this game, and as the story crescendos into madness, the player is left to interpret the goings-on more and more, which is fine by me. This is also the longest game in the series. I did a full collectible playthrough, and it took me 22 hours to finish. Even if you blasted through the game, you are still looking at a near 20 hour game. There’s a lot to see here, and the visuals are absolutely stunning. The game does use Unreal Engine 5, so there are some technical hiccups here and there, but on my playthrough they weren’t too noticeable. The game captures the essence of Silent Hill, and we can finally say that AAA survival horror is back.
The premise of Gloomy Eyes is intriguing. It takes a post-apocalyptic zombie setting and adds a twist. Humans are living among zombies, but they are hated and are considered vile. A girl, Nena, finds a zombie boy her age who is tame and wants to integrate back into society. In the end, they are kids and just want to do kid things together, but her evil uncle, The Priest, has blocked out the sun so he can use zombies for slave labor. Nena and the zombie boy Gloomy explore levels and solve puzzles to navigate their way around to find the sun and stop her evil uncle.
The only voice is the narrator, The Gravekeeper. You can swap between Nena and Gloomy, as each has different ways of interacting with objects. Nena is the only one who can push buttons, pull levers, climb ladders and vines, and insert items into slots such as fuses. Gloomy can toss objects and push objects. Don’t think this makes Gloomy useless, as they are both needed for other reasons. Gloomy can go near zombies, while he can’t go into bright lights. Nena can’t go near zombies, or she will be eaten. A lot of levels have multiple mini-puzzles to get to certain areas. One level has you assembling a boat, and each piece is a small puzzle within the level. You need to push and pull objects, turn lights on and off, and throw bricks at generators or signs to block light. There are some stealth areas in which you need to snag keys off of the backs of enemies. They walk a single patrol route and have flashlights or trap guns. These areas aren’t very hard.
Some of the puzzles only seem challenging because of the camera. It’s not always positioned in your favor. I wouldn’t see certain paths and get stuck because I couldn’t figure out what to do, only to realize there was a hallway or door hidden because I couldn’t turn the camera enough. It’s not a big issue and rarely happened, but I still want to mention it. The levels are varied and get switched up a lot. You also have the entire game sandwiched with solo scripted levels to give your brain a break from the 10 or so levels of straight puzzles. The levels become multi-puzzle right in the middle of the game. I never got bored, and while the narrative won’t keep you going, the variety in puzzles and level design will.
The visuals are very charming and have a Tim Burton vibe mixed with Psychonauts. It’s a very 90s Halloween vibe, and I really like it. The cheesy haunted mansion level notwithstanding. The character designs for Nena and Gloomy aren’t anything special, if not a bit grotesque in a bad way. The bug eyes and large heads didn’t do anything for me, but the overall charm and atmosphere of the game reminded me of PS2 era games, so I stuck with it. The story won’t do much for people either, but it is charming in a way. Nena is incredibly lonely and wants this zombie boy to be her best friend and will do anything to make that happen. It has a predictable ending, but the story is there to glue the puzzles together and string you along. The boss fights (there are a total of two) are Mario 3D esque being very easy and simple.
Overall, Gloomy Eyes is a charming little puzzler that will entertain you for an evening. The charming visuals, soft narration, and varied level design will keep you going. The music isn’t anything special, We have all heard this stuff before. It’s the typical mysterious Halloween music with xylophones and triangles. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you hear it. It does give me a sense of nostalgia for early PS2 games with that Halloween vibe, and I quite liked it. If you want a fun puzzle game and love Tim Burton or Psychonauts, then give this a try.
The concept of a video game taking over real life isn’t just a metaphor. There have been numerous instances where excessive gameplay has resulted in fatalities. But what about a game literally invading the real world? Is it actually real or a hallucination of the main character? Among Ashes explores this idea of a late 90s to early 2000s setting of a real game taking over the protagonist’s life. You play as a nameless gamer who ends up playing some indie game that his friend found and sends you the link over MSN Messenger (it’s MSN; it even has the same chimes and sounds). You can use the computer with a Windows 98 style setup. It’s not super interactive, but you can click links that open a web browser to a forum. The game inside the game is called Night Call. It’s a lost game from a developer that ends up putting it on this horror fan forum. You, of course, play this game along with your friend, and every so often you will go back and forth on the messenger talking about events in the game and what’s happening in real life.
Among Ashes is a melding of genres. It starts out as a Resident Evil clone with PS1 style graphics in a first-person perspective. You arrive at a mansion and are greeted by the maid. You make your way upstairs to talk to the resident doctor about reports of a woman screaming. Of course, this leads to puzzles, wandering around aimlessly with no direction, and combat. Combat consists of beating enemies over the head with a baton. You can block, which helps, but you also get a shotgun and revolver at certain points. It’s best to save the ammo for when you are surrounded by enemies, but I also recommend playing with a guide. There is a hedge maze that’s incredibly confusing to navigate, enemies respawn (they don’t die permanently), and there are typical lock puzzles, math puzzles, gathering hints puzzles, switch flipping puzzles, and so on. There are even a few chase scenes and a maze-like cave system with an enemy chasing you towards the end, and you have to flip switches and open gates. It’s frustrating and doesn’t add the right kind of tension to the game.
There are a couple of other game types thrown in here. There’s a game within the game of Night Call that’s for the Commodore 64. It’s an 8-bit action game that is required to play to advance the story. It’s not good, it’s repetitive, and it can get really hard sometimes. You only get three hits and you’re dead, and enemies can swarm you. There’s also an FPS Doom clone you can play inside the game, which is pretty bad, but it gets the point across. I will say that the game nails tension and atmosphere, and the monster designs are pretty insane. I love the scares here too. There are a couple of jump scares and just subtle scares, such as a monster staring at you through a gate. Not every scare is in your face. Some can be missed if you aren’t paying attention.
When you get up from your computer in the real world, it almost feels like a breath of fresh air, but things get crazy here too. Objects appear, things become rearranged, and you are very quiet. It was also refreshing when your friend would IM you, as the game feels very isolated, which is a good thing that it nails. I felt very alone, and any sign or hint of another person was so relieving despite how brief it was. The last act of the game falls into the usual indie horror trope of doing crazy things like constantly changing rooms, teleporting you to different locations, recycling older locations, etc. At least, the story maintains coherence throughout and doesn’t deviate significantly towards the conclusion.
Outside of the great atmosphere and tension, the game just lacks in the actual gameplay department. It’s not fun to play, and the mechanics, while trying to be purposefully bad to fit the type of game it’s trying to emulate, just aren’t done well. Respawning enemies, confusing mazes, obtuse puzzles, and weird boss fights that don’t feel good are all over the place. I liked the story; the Web 1.0 feeling on the PC is nailed perfectly, and the tension is there. I just wish this was wrapped up into an actual fun game to play. Thankfully, it’s over in 3-4 hours.
As much as I love Gears of War, and for how iconic and revolutionary it was at the time, it doesn’t need three remasters. Yes, that’s right. It was already remastered before with the 2015 Ultimate Edition release. It was originally released on PC for the first time under the Games for Windows banner and featured DirectX 10 updated visuals and a brand-new chapter in Act IV that involved taking down a Brumak. The Ultimate Edition was already disappointing to some, but having the game further remastered was still nice, and I ate it up. Here we are a decade later, and the impossible has happened. Gears of War is now on PlayStation. This is the second most coveted Xbox franchise next to Halo. How could this possibly be? What kind of timeline have we jumped to? Well, if Xbox’s current downfall isn’t enough to spell it out, then I will. Microsoft is losing money on their GamePass feature as well as the Activision buyout and needs to desperately get their games on more systems. That’s okay, as the PS5 Pro version is the best console version.
With the shock aside, at least the price tag is nice. For $40 you get a remaster and a full multiplayer suite. For those who never played Gears of War, they are in for a real treat. For me, this is the fifth playthrough (twice on Xbox 360, once on PC, once on Xbox One S, and once on Xbox One X for the Ultimate Edition). The Ultimate Edition is also currently broken on PC and the original release has long since been taken down. So, outside of Xbox, this is the best offer for PC and PS5 players. The campaign is still fantastic despite how short it is, and its age is showing. Shooters back in the mid-2000s were still maturing, and we were still in the linear hallway shooter phase. The game still looks fantastic, and while nearly every game that used Unreal Engine 3 of the era was compared to Gears of War, it was the granddaddy of “grey and brown” games. This was on purpose. You are thrust in the middle of a war on a fictional planet called Sera (Earth is never mentioned), and a new beast called the Locust has emerged, committing full-blown genocide. It’s up to Marcus Fenix and the four-man Delta Squad to deliver a lightmass bomb to destroy their tunnels and stop them for good.
Gears of War was applauded back in the day for its fantastic cover system and level design. Marcus snaps into cover with ease. He can switch covers close to each other, roll out of cover, and use the Roadie Run feature, which brings the camera down near his legs while he crouch sprints for a cinematic effect. Gears of War was all about feeling like a movie. The over-the-shoulder camera perspective was heavily inspired by Resident Evil 4, and it works well here. When you aim your gun, the camera zooms closer, right up to Marcus’ face. It was something that was never seen before at the time of release. Gears also pioneered the Active Reload mechanic in which you need to press the reload button at the right time, and any bullets reloaded in that clip do extra damage. You will eventually have muscle memory of this feature and rarely ever miss. If you do, the gun will jam, and you will need to wait a few seconds before firing or switching weapons. It’s an awesome feature.
Gears‘ weapons are also well designed and perfectly balanced. The default Lancer Assault Rifle, an iconic weapon now, shoots large clips, has surprisingly good accuracy, and has a chainsaw mounted on the bottom. You can rev this up and saw an enemy in half. Even 19 years later this never gets old. The gib system is satisfying, with enemies exploding into chunks from grenades or getting sawed in half. One other feature that was well regarded was the sound effects. Gears of War has a distinct sound system and has never been replicated. The crunchy sounds of the guns, the reaction of enemies getting hit (which was a big deal) from enemies getting gibbed by grenades, or the subtle sound effect of “one more hit and you’re dead, so get into cover.” Gears of War took a page from Halo and featured a recovery system for health. A red Gears logo slowly appears in the center of the screen as you get hit. On higher difficulties (I cleared this on Hard, but not the hardest), it requires patience, careful flanking of enemies, and using the right weapons. The PS5 DualSense adds a layer to that crunchiness of the weapons. The adaptive triggers and vibration work wonders allowing to now actually “feel” how the weapons should be. This can’t be experienced on Xbox.
The level design requires you to flank enemies and close emergence holes. Tossing a chain grenade into a hole will close it up and stop respawning. They don’t infinitely respawn, but only killing two that crawled is better than waiting for all six. The Locusts are formidable foes and well designed. Not only do they look menacing, but each one has a design language that tells you how to approach them. Enemies can wear helmets, meaning headshots won’t work right away, and the Theron Guard have full armor, which takes longer to take down. The bigger Boomers have Boomshot grenade launchers and are bullet sponges. Then there are the occasional enemies like the Wretches, which are small ape-like creatures that come in swarms. There are Berserkers, which can only be taken down by a Hammer of Dawn, which is a satellite-guided laser. It’s freaking cool despite only being used three times in the game. The Berserker can’t see but can hear you, so you need to guide it around with sound to knock walls down to open up the roof for the satellite to triangulate. It’s neat.
The downside to Gears of War, and the aging part, is not only how linear it is, but also how sparse the story is and how little is explained. While the game is greatly expanded upon in the sequels, and especially the novels, it just feels like it’s over too soon. You want to get to know Delta Squad more. Their personalities are great and well written. Marcus has a dark past (why was he in prison at the beginning of the game?). Dom is trying to find his missing wife but is only mentioned a couple of times. Cole is an ex-football player, but his past isn’t talked about at all, and neither is Baird, who is the nerdy smart guy of the squad. It makes sense that in the heat of this war, going point to point with no breathing room means there’s no time to get to know anyone. Thankfully, this was changed in later sequels, but it’s just odd that this isn’t a remaster of the entire trilogy. The banter between the squad is great, and many new players will want to know more.
There are also some other things that didn’t age well, like some of the clutter in the levels. There are random chairs, stoves, and home appliances kind of haphazardly strewn about in ways that make no sense. The entire game is built like a video game and not like a world people would live in. Some areas just don’t make any sense. I don’t feel like I’m fighting in a city but a video game level. Despite how much Gears wanted to be taken seriously, its world-building is really lacking. Thankfully, the campaign is less than 6 hours long, and you can play with a buddy in co-op; that’s always fun. Just don’t give up on the series yet if you have never played it before. There is more to come. There also aren’t a whole lot of weapons in this game. The arsenal is small, and you will mostly stick to a couple of guns. I also hate how useless the Boltok pistol feels in this game. It’s the only weapon with no feedback when it hits enemies, and the snub pistol is pretty much MIA after the first act.
The multiplayer suite is…fine. I was never a fan of Gears multiplayer. I feel the gameplay doesn’t translate well when fighting against others. There are also some of the better modes from later games missing like Horde. Many will get frustrated with cheap deaths like the rolling shotgun blast. It does feel like an old-school shooter with regular modes that are missing in most of today’s games, so some players will find this refreshing in a world of Call of Dutys and Fortnites. This is an unnecessary remaster to begin with. The game runs smoothly on PS5 Pro at 120 FPS with no dips. The game uses the Pro’s PSSR and there are enhanced textures and lighting. It looks pretty much identical to the PC version. At least, I couldn’t tell the difference. If you’re new to the series or are a hardcore fan, I would say the low price is worth it. While the campaign will only last an evening, the multiplayer may be enough for people to keep coming back.
Open-world games have become stale and boring. It appears that developers are merely creating open worlds without any enjoyable activities within them. Mafia’s open world is deceptive but beautiful, refreshing but also sort of pointless. Mafia tries to go back to its roots, literally, by bringing us to the times before the Italian mafia came to the USA. The Old Country subtitle is exactly that. This is a prequel to the original game before any family made it to Empire Bay. We play as Enzo Favara. An orphan miner who has been enslaved by a mafia family to work until he seems like he will die. The first chapter of the game introduces us to various characters, combat, and essentially a tutorial area. You will notice the game is very cinematic, with a lot of dialogue and cut scenes and scripted gameplay.
I hope you like scripted events because they are everywhere and there are a lot of them, and it’s mostly that. I personally felt this was refreshing. There was less emphasis on pointless mind numbing fetch missions. However, the game was clearly incomplete and cut off at some point during development. The open world is nothing but a tease and a backdrop to go from mission to mission. There’s nothing here. The world is literally empty of anything to do outside of a few missions, like finding new upgrades and upgrade statues. You can listen to dialogue with characters while riding in cars or on horses to missions, but after that you can just skip to the destination. This is one of the most pointless open worlds in any modern game. There’s no traffic, no people, and no real towns outside the main town, San Celeste. I honestly didn’t mind this. I was just surprised at how this game didn’t really need an open world. This is a shame because the first generation of cars around is really cool, and the horse back riding works well too.
With that said, the main attraction is the characters, and it’s some of the best this year. Every character is full of life, and I really wanted to know more about them all thanks to the tight writing and amazing script. Enzo is a great character to get behind. He’s humble, not perfect, but very loyal. His love interest ends up being the Don’s daughter, Isabella. She’s a great character to get behind too and ends up becoming the most important character in the game without giving spoilers away. The game’s story flows similarly to other mob stories such as The Godfather and The Sopranos. There’s a similar ebb and flow to everything and constant danger always being present and around every corner. Some might say that Mafia doesn’t tread new ground, but that’s okay. There are some stereotypical setups, like two rival mobs needing to make amends, love interests getting put on the back seat, the Don’s blood relative being a total douche nozzle (Cesare), and so on.
The gameplay features some excellent gunplay. There aren’t many guns in the game, but you will constantly swap between them based on your situation. Additionally, the game includes effective stealth mechanics. You can hold two weapons at a time and always have a knife on hand. The knife is a more fleshed-out mechanic than in most games, as knife fights are a big part of the combat. Boss fights consist of one-on-one knife duels similar to a sword fight. You can parry, break blocks, and do heavy and light attacks. It seems simple at first and feels more like a whack-a-mole style system, but there are enough moves here that require you to use quick reflexes. When a red flash appears, you can dodge and then counterattack. Regular attacks can be parried, and of course you can slash to your heart’s content. It’s not overused and is mainly reserved for boss fights, so I never got tired of them. In the middle of the fight, a scripted cinematic will play out too. The main focus of the combat in this game is shooting.
Shooting feels really good, which it didn’t in previous Mafia games. You can hide behind cover and blind fire as well as pop out and shoot enemies. It’s best to go for headshots here, as only a few shots will kill you. You can hold up to two bandages to heal, and you will chew through these fast. Weapons like revolvers, shotguns, and rifles are all on board, so nothing fancy or crazy. You can toss molotovs and grenades too. Once an enemy is down, you can loot their body for cash and ammo. Stealth gameplay works here because enemy placement isn’t random and you can track patrol patterns. Many areas can be done without killing anyone, but the added addition of throwing your knife is a great feature. Only a specific type of knife can be thrown. When you select your arsenal layout, you can choose different knives that deteriorate slower than others. A thrown knife must be recovered, or you lose it for that mission. You can use sharpening stones to bring your deterioration bar back up. You also use your knife for opening doors, locks, and boxes full of loot, so you need to use it wisely.
There are some minor RPG elements here. You can’t level up or anything, but you can equip charms that add passive abilities such as carrying more ammo, reducing knife deterioration rates, making your footsteps less obvious, etc. You can equip up to six, but four need to be unlocked by buying slots at the store. There is only one store in the game, and you must drive there each time, which I find frustrating. Here you can unlock weapons, clothing, and customization items for your cars. I find this all pointless, as the story missions give you weapons when they are needed, and driving cars has a minimal impact on gameplay. One of the biggest gripes I have is that the story introduces these open-world concepts to you, but you can’t drive around except during a few missions. This means you can only visit the store a few times during the game, and once the story is over, there’s no point in continuing unless you want to get every achievement in the game.
Despite the open-world portion of the game feeling half-baked, I enjoyed my 12 hours with Mafia. This may seem too short for some, but the story was satisfying, and I felt like I could go back and get the few collectibles that were left at a later time. For anyone wanting an authentic Mafia experience, they will be disappointed in everything but the story. The combat has undergone significant enhancements, and the visuals are outstanding. I also loved the authentic voice acting for the characters. They have weight and authenticity behind their roles. We don’t get video game stories like this very often anymore.
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