Publisher: Super.com

Developer: Nodding Heads Games

Release Date: 08/18/2020

Rating: N/A

MSRP: $24.99

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Small indie games can usually bring some better content than large AAA budget games these days due to the smaller scope and less risk financially. Some of these games, still, rarely stand out and become huge massive success stories. Raji is a game I wish could become a success story that blows up like Journey, Braid, Limbo, or Inside, but it feels like it’s missing something to bring it to that level. For starters, the story is rather dull and uninteresting and mostly focuses on teaching the player about Asian-Indian mythology. You play as Raji who is determined to rescue her brother, Golu, from an evil demon. The story mostly focuses on mythology, but Raji and Golu aren’t very exciting characters. They feel very one-note.

The game’s main focus is combat and platforming. Combat is surprisingly deep with acrobatics and various moves that made it feel like Prince of Persia. Raji can do backflips off walls, pole spins, and each of the three weapons you acquire has a special attack, light, and heavy attack. You start out with a staff and this weapon is great for reach, the second weapon is a bow, and the third is a sword whip, and shield. You will end up switching weapons based on what enemies you are fighting. The enemy designs represent Asian-Indian mythology and look cool and are a challenge to fight. The game might seem easy at first, but there were sections where I did numerous times and the boss fights are a great deal difficult as well. However, there are difficulty spikes throughout the game. You will breeze through a few fights and then keep dying on just one that either has an unfair amount of enemies or multiple waves. You can heal by doing finishing moves, but that’s the only way in combat.

You can acquire skill points to add various elements that can damage enemies passively. These are mostly hidden in the game and require venturing off on different paths, but I didn’t make too much of an effort as the game is so short with only three large levels. Platforming is actually the most enjoyable part of the game, but the game focuses more on combat. While combat looks good and controls well, it just doesn’t have that oomph that other games like this have like Prince of Persia or even God of War. It feels like there’s no response from enemies when you hit them, there’s no weight to her movements. There’s momentum, but no feeling behind her which I feel would have taken the already detailed combat one step further. Platforming works well with wall runs, double jumps, shimmying and hopping across poles.

The game adds puzzles if you can call them that, as they aren’t really puzzles. You have to spin things to match them up, but it’s not like a typical puzzle. You can just rotate the rings until everything matches up. No puzzles here really. This is probably the weakest part about the game including the areas in level two where you have to throw out lilypads in the water to hop across. What’s the point? This doesn’t add a challenge to the game but just feels like a useless element that took focus away from something else. At least the game looks amazing with epic vistas, good lighting effects, and lots of detail. It’s clear a lot of care went into the game, but it needed more time for some polishing. I even ran into some game-breaking bugs with enemies disappearing or not appearing, and getting stuck on ledges.

Overall, Raji is a great action platformer that has some faults. It focuses too much on mythology and less on our heroine, combat controls well and looks fancy, but has no weight or feel behind it, and platforming is the best part is focused on less over combat. The puzzles aren’t even puzzles and the overall experience is only a few hours long. I haven’t played an indie game quite this fun in ages, and even with huge difficulty spikes, the game has a lot to offer.

Publisher: Headup Games

Developer: Nicolas Meyssonnier

Release Date: 10/23/2020

Rating: N/A

MSRP: $29.99

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Small indie platformers are something I like paying attention to. Pumpkin Jack caught my eye as it looks and feels like a PS2 era platformer that would have fit in at that time, but has more polished gameplay than most did in that same time period. You play as a demon named Jack who is sent by the Devil to stop an evil wizard from taking over the world. It’s a very paper-thin story, but the game is so short that anything else couldn’t really flourish. This is also akin to PS2 era platformers as most of their stories were pretty basic and uninteresting due to the length and budgets. You have a crow companion that spews hints and dialog at you, but that’s it story-wise. The cinematics are nice and the presentation for the story is fantastic, but the content is really lacking.

This goes for most of the game honestly. While what is here is really solid it’s very elementary and basic. Combat consists of one button mashing over and over with an aerial attack. You can send your crow out for a quick hit from afar, but the main attraction is the various weapons you acquire at the end of each level. Ranging from shovels, scythes, magic orbs, and a shotgun. The arsenal is quite fun and keeps things mixed up, and so do the enemies. The enemies are well designed and one of the strongest points in the game. While you can button mash you must also dodge as dying is quick if you aren’t on top of your moves. Some enemies require being stunned first, some will spawn until you destroy their spawn point, some are strong, some are weak, and each enemy needs a certain approach to them.

The main focus outside of combat is platforming. You will be pressing the jump button at least once every 2-3 seconds without a break. Tons of platforming that can get a bit tricky, but the momentum and physics of Jack feel just right and the double jump helps quite a bit too. This would be a pretty monotonous game if there were just platforming and one button combat. To break this up there are some mini-games you can play with some using only Jack’s head that have you doing Simon Says, guiding bombs, memory games, etc. There are also on-rails sections in each level that require dodging and shooting down enemies. It’s quite fun, but you realize there is a formula in each level and while these are different such as riding in a minecart versus being carried by a giant bird they are essentially the same mini-games with different skins. At least the amount you do these is varied with some levels having a lot and some having only a couple.

The only thing you collect in the game is crow skulls used to unlock costumes, which feels pointless as the game is about 4 hours long and there’s no replay value. You see everything the game has in the first playthrough and due to its repetition and overall basic gameplay I have no desire to go back through. It’s fun while it lasts, and can offer a decent challenge, but it’s very formulaic when you step back and look at the game as a whole. The level design is great with various spooky themes like mines, graveyards, swamps, forests, and a neat Christmas level, but again, this is a PS2 era designed game with 2020 flair. The boss fights are probably the most unique things in the game, but I can say if this game came out 15 years ago it would have been a smash hit.

The visuals are also very dated looking a couple of generations old despite using DirectX 12 and even having ray-tracing and DLSS support. The textures are just muddy and low-resolution and they’re meant to look like an older platformer, and the game had a low budget, but it still needs mentioning. However, with the tight controls, great platforming, decent challenge, and unique enemies and bosses, the game is just good enough to recommend for a one-time playthrough. The story is paper-thin and uninteresting, the combat is simple, but there are five different weapons to use, interesting level design, and there’s an actual challenge.

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: id Software

Release Date: 10/20/2020

MSRP: $19.99

Rating: Mature

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At the end of Doom Eternal, I was left with a bit of disappointment. Too many things were forced into the game and it got tiresome towards the end. New enemies were uninteresting and slowed the pace down some, too much platforming, and the difficulty was all over the place no matter what difficulty setting you were on. The Ancient Gods, sadly, exacerbates this by adding a new enemy that, once again, slows the pace down and is just an excuse to use a certain weapon mod. There are no new weapons, just three newish levels. I say newish as the third level – The Holt – is a recycled Urdak level. It’s boring and uninteresting, yet the first level, UAC Atlantic, is just a giant science center in the ocean. The Swamps, the second level, was the most interesting of the three, but they aren’t amazing overall. 

The story takes place right after the ending of Eternal with Doomguy trying to kill the one true Seraphim God to end all demons. It’s mostly just dialog over intercom here and there and just barely advances the already silly Doom Eternal story. Outside of a few codex pages, there’s not much else to the story here. In fact, there are even fewer secrets to find. Just 1ups, BFG ammo, codex pages, and there are six Gore Nests and three Slayer Gates. The Gates will give you an extra perk that has been added, which aren’t very useful, and the Gore Nests reward new Slayer Skins. That’s pretty much it for secrets, but the levels are very long and incredibly difficult. Combat arenas are tougher and longer and I died numerous times in each level even on the lowest difficulty. This is my biggest issue with Doom Eternal. Doom 2016’s areas felt hand-tailored, but Eternal’s feel randomized. Even the final boss is insanely difficult with too much jumping and worrying about obstacles rather than just shooting. 

The Ancient Gods feels mostly like stuff from the cutting room floor rather than an actual expansion. There’s almost nothing new here outside of 2.5 new levels and a few perks and two irritating enemies. Yes, like Maurader and Maykyr Drone, these enemies just slow the pace down. We get another Maykr Drone that has a shield and is only vulnerable when it’s down, and then there are the Spirits. These possess demons and make them stronger and the only way to kill them is to use the Microwave Beam or kill all the enemies in the area so it disappears. Super annoying, not any fun at all, and just slows things down. I would have liked to see a new weapon or a new actual demon.

Overall, The Ancient Gods are still fast-paced and fun Eternal combat, but it’s just not enough new to be considered anything more than some lost levels. Fewer secrets, new annoying enemies, insanely pumped up the difficulty, longer and less interesting levels, and only three new perks. It’s still plenty of fun and if you finished Eternal early on then this will give you a few hours of mayhem to get another taste, but it’s nothing to write home about.

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: id Software

Release Date: 03/19/2020

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $59.99

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Doom (2016) helped resurrect the aging and dying franchise. Doom 3 was scary and atmospheric but lost the fast-paced action of the original games. Doom bought this back in 2016 with a rocking soundtrack, fantastic visuals, fast-paced shooting, and what felt like Doom brought into the future, it was nearly perfect. Eternal follows in the footsteps of Doom 2016 by trying to expand the lore, story, and combat altogether. It does a great job doing this, but it does bring about some problems that didn’t exist in the first game. 

You are still Doomguy or the Doomslayer trying to stop Hell from invading Earth. id Software did a great job expanding the lore via a codex that has some interesting reads on the backstory of the Doomslayer and his origins and what the world is that he’s trying to save and destroy. The locations are more varied this time around with more back and forth between Hell and a mix thereof. Combat is basically the same as well as the demons you encounter minus a few additions. A new shoulder blaster has been added that can shoot fire or ice bombs as well as a flame. I feel this was probably the most useless addition as it’s one more thing to remember while you’re furiously trying to kill enemies. The ice bomb can freeze a group of enemies if you’re backed into a corner and the firebomb does a decent amount of splash damage. The flamethrower though…what was the point? On the other hand, you have a new super punch ability which can be used to knock out some demons’ armor and open walls for secrets. You also get a new dash ability as well which is used for platforming.

That’s another thing that’s been added is more platforming. You can wall climb on some surfaces and jumping from platform to platform works well enough but feels wholly unnecessary. Secrets consist of numerous items from songs to unlock to play in the Fortress of Doom, codex pages, toys, and an all-new upgrade system for the Praetor Suit and weapons. Weapons get two mods each and can then be upgraded with weapon runes. There is also a mastery upgrade that requires certain requirements to be met or you can skip the challenge with a mastery token. You can also upgrade your health, armor, and ammo with certain passive benefits. There’s a lot of upgrading and acquiring and I feel this is an excuse to make the game feel artificially expanded. I preferred the simpler game of Doom 2016 with regular upgrades found. I feel Eternal is doing too much for a game that’s supposed to be very simple. I also feel the new reboot series has run its course at this point. There’s not much else the game can do really.

The combat itself feels fine and is incredibly challenging and mostly unbalanced towards the last few levels. There are 14 missions so it’s much longer than the last game running about 10-15 hours if you explore every nook and cranny. I found exploring for secrets quite enjoyable and fun as everything is on the map and you just need to figure out how to get there. There are also combat challenges such as timed gore nests, and crucible challenges that give you keys to unlock a hidden weapon. You can find sentinel batteries to unlock rooms in the Fortress of Doom which is the new hub area that also has upgrade items locked away. It’s fine enough, a pain to navigate, but an interesting idea. I again feel that Eternal strays a little too far from the traditional Doom path in favor of more modern methods to make the game feel bigger and expanded when in essence most people come to Doom for the visuals, gore, fast-paced shooting, and interesting levels.

Speaking of levels, the game does overstay its welcome around mission 10 and feels like it just drags as you chase the final boss around. Not only are they incredibly difficult and almost unfair, the levels end up being repeats of previous levels, and the Urdak level is boring to look at. I do like the first 8-10 areas as they are interesting to look at with demonic imagery, gore, and just overall interesting atmospheres. The demons are great to look at and fun to shoot and tear apart. The quick-time event animations are much faster this time around and more varied. Each demon has it’s own set of front, aerial, and rear animations. Blue for health and orange for more ammo. You also have your chainsaw with three fuel cans to get yourself a large number of orbs, but this also is one of my gripes with the game. You have to rely on using the chainsaw to acquire ammo and health from enemies more than you do picking them up around you. Instead of giving us larger ammo capacities, you have to constantly scrounge for ammo and it drives me insane. I understand you run out of ammo sometimes in Doom, but every 5 minutes? I would die sometimes because I ran out of ammo and chainsaw fuel so what do you do then? Use your super punch and hopefully have a weaker demon around for a scrap of ammo. This focus on ammo scrounging really needs to shift in the next game.

The multiplayer in Eternal is much better than Doom 2016 as PvP is out the window this time in favor of demons vs the Slayer. Two demons and AI bots versus one Slayer is kind of fun at first, but after about 3-4 hours in these modes, I was over it. It just doesn’t hold my interest like Unreal Tournament or Quake’s Deathmatches did. Doom was never really well known for multiplayer and while it’s much better here, I wish id would just focus on the single-player only. Overall, what we get is a great sequel to Doom 2016 with fantastic visuals, a rocking soundtrack, great weapons to shoot and demons to kill, and just amazing fast-paced shooting. The last few levels are boring and overly difficult and the added stuff to combat feels like filler and fluff to pad a game that was already great.

Publisher: Bloober Team

Developer: Bloober Team

Release Date: 08/30/2019

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $29.99

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The Blair Witch Project was a movie that scared the living crap out of me as a child and is still scary to this day. The mockumentary style film was done very well and was so convincing my own mother thought the movie was real lost footage for the longest time. The iconic effigy of the stickman, the child handprints, standing in the corner, the cabin in the woods with the basement, all of it is in this game. You play as Ellis Lynch who is a sheriff in the town where the Black Hills Forest lies. You are trying to find a lost or kidnapped boy named Peter Shannon. Ellis ends up fighting his own demons and becoming another victim of the Witch and the forest.

The game starts out easy enough and scare-free. You get introduced to the game mechanics and the walking simulator begins. Within the first 20 minutes, the first scares start, and you are already lost in the forest. Through the entire game, you have a canine companion named Bullet who is used to sniff out clues when you find items in the forest to progress further to find Peter. You get a few tools such as an older camcorder, a flashlight, a cell phone, and a walkie-talkie. These are all used in the game for scares and jumps and they’re used really well. You can hail Bullet and call him towards you or have him seek to find the next area to explore, but this stops about halfway through the game. A weird “combat” mechanic is introduced and only used a few times by shining your flashlight on ghosts/demons that run around and circle you. Bullet will growl in their direction and if you don’t flash them to death quickly they will kill you. It’s only used a few times and I felt it was scary the first time then underwhelming thereafter.

Most of the game is comprised of walking around collecting photos, breaking effigies, and finding tapes. The camcorder is well used here as it is both a gameplay tool and used for story purposes. Red tapes allow you to manipulate time by rewinding events so they open passages or leave items around Ellis. It’s not super hard to figure out as each clip is less than 20 seconds and it’s very obvious what the game wants you to pause on. The blue tapes just add story context, but the camera is used later in the game as a way to see hidden objects such as trails and enemies as your flashlight eventually becomes useless. The game isn’t an open world, but the areas are large and you will spend each section solving some sort of puzzle, but exploring the game is downright frightening. Bloober did a phenomenal job scaring you with real terror and fright. They use the unknown for a fear factor and you never know what’s lurking in the woods. You feel isolated, alone, scared, and for the longest time, I didn’t’ want to play the game as I was really scared. One scene in the middle of the game has Ellis trying to clear a path in a sawmill and running around the area in the dark with the only lights that make you feel safe, even for a few seconds, die on you and go out makes the terror that much better. 

However, as the story progressed I didn’t understand what was going on at all. There were scenes where Ellis was having flashbacks of war, but it never stated he was in one, at least not that I remembered. He’s obviously struggling with depression and PTSD as he’s constantly fighting with his wife on the phone and has a record of going crazy. I just never understood how the forest worked, or how the Blair Witch was incorporated into all of this. It’s obvious the 90’s film’s influence is present with a campsite that has the tent the crew used in the film with the flannel shirt, the cabin at the end of the game is almost a spitting image and is the scariest part of the game, but this section drags on way too long lasting 45 minutes. I was running down endless hallways with my camera and the story pretty much stopped here. I didn’t learn anything new about Ellis or the Witch or what is going on. It was just random events that we already know and jump scares. Having to creep around parts of the house to avoid enemies was scary, and using the phone’s messages to tell you not to look up or writing that said look away was sending chills up my spine, but this endless rat’s maze is one of Bloobers largest problems in their design. Both Observer and Layers of Fear suffered the endless hallway syndrome with no story progression and random events. 

When it was all said and done the game has an amazing atmosphere and should be played during October or a sleepover or something. It’s very entertaining and the puzzles are very light and there are tons of scares here for most people. I would have liked a better story, stronger characters, and more explanation of the Witch, the forest, and the entire legend overall. The game is very short ending in about 4 hours and there are zero reasons to go back outside of scaring new friends. The game looks really good with great lighting effects, but it has an overall stiffness to it that I didn’t like. Bullet’s AI is dumb as dirt as it actually broke my game a few times requiring restarts as he couldn’t find a certain path or would blip out of existence and break the game. The game is also horribly optimized and runs poorly on PC even with high-end hardware. There is also no ultrawide screen support. Overall, the game is a fun and scary afternoon, but don’t expect a good story or anything like that.

Publisher: Jesse Makkoken

Developer: Jesse Makkoken

Release Date: 11/13/2018

MSRP: $8.99

Rating: N/A

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I never played the first game, but Distraint 2 caught my eye due to the visuals and atmosphere it portrayed. You play as a man who is faced with severe depression from the guilt of evicting tenants from their living spaces. While this is his job he can’t take the guilt anymore and tries to commit suicide. You then play the split second that flashes through your head before doing so to regain hope and fight the darkness within. It’s a touching story and really shows people the process of grieving and depression and helps spread the message that mental health is a serious issue.

The game is played on a 2D plane and puzzle-solving. The puzzles are light and simple with the most complicated being a slider puzzle (which I despise) but overall the puzzles aren’t tough. There is a lot of finding this object and place it in the right spot, but the three chapters are short and it’s hard to get lost. You move from room to room just discovering what can be examined or talked to and then remembering where that piece goes. The game’s enjoyment is mostly in atmosphere and horror. Every so often a Creature of Fear will appear and you must hide until it passes. The sounds are eerie and the visuals are a treat.

There’s honestly not much game here. With each chapter there is a lot of dialogs to move the story forward, there’s a small green orb to save your progress, and then you just move from room to room to find all the objects to move on to the next chapter. At least the areas didn’t overstay their welcome and it was some labyrinthine complicated mess that some 2D horror games end up being. Each room was easy to remember and was distinct so once I found an object I had that “A-Ha!” moment of where it would go. It’s pretty satisfying and the game pushes you through at a steady clip not being too slow in any one spot.

The visuals are a mix of 8-bit pixelation, lots of grainy filters, eerie music and sounds, and a lot of camera tricks and overall just a foreboding sense of dread. The game pulls this off well and it was rather intense through most of the game will little reprieve in between. The problem is the game is about 2 hours long and there’s no gameplay really. I love these “walking simulators” that tell great stories, but rarely have they been done well and are memorable. If you have a short run time and there’s no game really you are totally relying on characters, story, and atmosphere and if those aren’t out of this world it won’t impress most people. While the game itself and message were fine, I didn’t care about the characters and pretty much forgot about the game after turning it off.