Do you have room in that brain of yours for some temporarily useful information? Do you want to learn about the household threats that go unseen? If so, Home Safety Hotline has the job for you.

Originally released earlier this year, it’s now being released on consoles. Being an OS sim, it’s always a weird fit on a controller, but I needed the excuse to circle back to it for review, so I’ll take it.

Home Safety Hotline (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch [Reviewed])
Developer: Night Signal Entertainment
Publisher: Torture Star Video
Released: September 20, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

Home Safety Hotline has you logging in for the first time as an employee of the titular company. The company provides information and support for home owners, giving them assistance in times of need, whether that’s because they have cockroaches or their house is on fire.

You’re given a list of common problems and take calls from clients. They’ll give you a description of the issue they’re having, and you need to identify what’s going on and provide them with the correct information by simply selecting it. It progresses through the days of the week, and each day provides your list with additional problems. You need to be as accurate as possible, otherwise you’ll be fired.

While this starts off with mundane problems like black mold, supernatural encounters begin creeping in. Things get weirder and weirder as you go. You’ll still get the odd person calling in about something like termites just to throw you off, but often, they’ve been referred to you because you’re the experts in dealing with the supernatural. In this, Home Safety Hotline walks the line of horror and humor.

It’s a very simple, straightforward concept. You simply get a description and pick the answer. For Home Safety Hotline, it’s all in the presentation. It’s presented like a Windows 95 program, with the date reading 1996. It’s not exactly analog horror, but it’s the same idea.

The calls run the gamut. You get customers who had a bad experience previously and are now irate, ones who are confused that they were told to call you, and then there are some that are tragic. “How do you tell someone their dog is dead?” my husband asked me as he watched over my shoulder. “By email,” I replied.

But the clients can be misleading. While for some, the answer is obvious, others will deliberately contain information to throw you off. There are also moments where your database has technical difficulties, and you can’t double-check information in a possible answer. If you get one wrong, you aren’t immediately notified, even if that was your last chance. It comes a few calls later, where you’ll be reprimanded by your supervisor or contacted by a now-pissed, unsatisfied customer. It may just be a quiz in the end, but these are the small ways that Home Safety Hotline keeps things compelling.

The downside to this is that the calls are always the same, and always in the same order. As far as I know, there are no random elements to the main story mode. If you get fired, you just repeat that day over, so it’s just listening to the same calls and adjusting your answers to finally make the grade. There’s no replay value in that sense, but some of the things that get unlocked after completing it make up for this.

My main issue with Home Safety Hotline is that it just doesn’t feel optimal on console. With its OS interface and scroll bars, it was made with mouse controls in mind. Functions on the screen are mapped to buttons, so it works reasonably well, but it loses some of its authentic feel. Scrolling, in particular, kind of sucks. 

To get through a lot of menus, you just use the d-pad to scroll, but it moves one press at a time. If you want to get from the top to the bottom of the list, you can only get there by pressing down over and over again. There are also visible problems with scrolling through menus. The information pane jumps the first time it hits the bottom of the visible area, and once your email inbox fills up, it won’t scroll down to whatever’s off-screen. I spoke to Mr. Puppy Combo (head honcho of Torture Star Video, the publisher), and he let me know that a patch is on the way, but whether or not it will fix these issues, I can’t confirm.

It’s not the end of the world, but it did bother me. For anyone who only has the option of playing it on console or simply wants a Switch version they can play on the toilet, then it fits that need.

Aside from that, I enjoyed Home Safety Hotline. The main story runs at 2-3 hours, but it also includes its first DLC, Seasonal Worker, which adds 60-90 minutes of runtime. Alongside that, there are some neat bonuses once you finish. Truthfully, I’m not sure the concept could get much farther than that, so it’s good that it doesn’t overstay its welcome and instead just provides extra if you haven’t had your fill.

I’m sure I’ve said this multiple times, but it is a very simple premise that boils down to a quiz with associated research, but it presents it with love and pizzazz. It’s very much greater than the sum of its parts. With its mix of the weird and mundane, it has a winning personality. It probably won’t blow you away, and the console version is perhaps not the most optimal way to play it, but it’s an enjoyable day job.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Home Safety Hotline appeared first on Destructoid.

Have you ever played a game that delivers on its core concept so thoroughly that you don’t think it could possibly be improved? It doesn’t necessarily have to be the most compelling concept; it could be quite mundane, but it convinces you that no matter how much budget could get thrown at the idea, there’s no way to top it. That’s Parking Garage Rally Circuit.

I’m not trying to tell you that this is the best racing game of all time. I rarely speak in such enthusiastic hyperbole. However, I will say, with some confidence, that Parking Garage Rally Circuit is the absolute best Sega Saturn-style parking garage drift racing game ever released.

Parking Garage Rally Circuit (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Walaber Entertainment LLC
Publisher: Walaber Entertainment LLC
Released: September 20, 2024
MSRP: TBA

Parking Garage Rally Circuit is what I’d describe if you asked me to guess the synopsis of The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift based on what I remember from the trailer I saw back in high school. The only image I have of that movie is cars drifting up a ramp in a parking garage. I’m not even sure if I’m remembering that correctly.

I love drifting. Or, at least, I love arcade-style drifting. I mostly judge racing games entirely by how well the drifting in them feels. But as much as I love drifting, I love retro hardware more. More specifically, I’m passionate about people’s passion for older hardware. I love to hear people talk enthusiastically about old consoles and computers, even the crappiest ones imaginable. I love it more when people try to represent it as authentically as possible.

One of the first things that greet you upon starting up Parking Garage Rally Circuit is a number of graphical preset options presented like different versions of the game, such as the original hardware or PC port. While this essentially just changes options like scanlines, aspect ratio, and draw distance, it puts those things in the context of the time period. If you don’t care for authenticity and want to be boring, you can individually tweak settings to your liking.

However, even if you widen your screen, you’re not going to fully lose the aesthetic of chunky polygons, fake transparency, pixelated textures, and a selection of ridiculous ska tunes. Parking Garage Rally Circuit is really committed to mid-‘90s racing games. It’s not Sega Rally Championship – it’s not trying to be – but it looks the part.

But looking the part is one thing. Racing games need to play well. It’s not really the sort of genre that can get by on artistic intent. Unless it’s Road Trip on PS2. Thankfully, Parking Garage Rally Circuit is like butter.

As I mentioned, I’m a bit of a drift queen. In video games, anyway. I don’t even have my license in reality. However, I was able to get a feel for Parking Garage Rally Circuit very quickly and was drifting up parking garage ramps like that Tokyo Drift trailer in no time at all.

As the name implies, each of its 8 tracks are set inside parking garages. Sort of. I think the last level is technically a ferry, but I digress. You might wonder how much variety you could possibly get from that theme. As it turns out, it’s a lot. Each parking garage is in a different city and range from simple two-story structures to sprawling complexes. Hazards like snowplows and falling boulders mix up the tight cornering, and hazardous jumps across towering structures keep you concentrated on your steering.

You don’t race against live competitors, just their ghosts. That is to say, it’s a time trial, with your goal being to reach the top time. As much as I like running people off the road, I’m not sure a grid would really work in such tight environments. The challenge of carefully drifting through extremely narrow turns is enough to keep you focused. If you’re feeling competitive, there is multiplayer, but, again, it’s all ghosts.

The only real downside I can point to in Parking Garage Rally Circuit is its brevity. There are eight tracks, and after you get a medal on each one of them in a class, you are provided with a new car with different performance and pushed through the tracks again with slight variations. It’s decent on paper, but it only took me a little under two hours to clear. I had a healthy pile of gold under my belt, but still more to clear. Your mileage will vary.

On the other hand, there are also secret cheat codes buried in the game. I’m told there are 10 of them, but I was only provided with two. I was not able to guess any others, but they’re supposed to be discovered and proliferated by the community. These unlock “secret cars, tracks, or gameplay modifiers.”

Despite its brevity, Parking Garage Rally Circuit packs a huge punch. It’s not just its perfectly emulated retro aesthetic or its near-flawless execution of its central concept, either. It’s just so damned happy to be here. You can feel the passion behind it, and that energy is felt in all its facets. It knows what it is, and it’s laser-focused on presenting it in the most finely-tuned way possible. I cannot fathom any game topping it in the niche of racing games contained entirely within parking garages. I’m not really sure what the best way to wrap up this review is, so let’s try this: Parking Garage Rally Circuit is miles more fun than parallel parking.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Parking Garage Rally Circuit appeared first on Destructoid.

I've been excited about The Plucky Squire since Devolver Digital first announced it back in 2022. Even though I don't usually love platformer games, I was instantly drawn to its peculiar, dimension-bending mechanics and a particular type of art style I've been familiar with for years.

I was worried at first, too. I've had my heart broken one too many times, banking on my admiration for its style, only to wind up with a messy, incoherent, or straight-up boring ordeal. There was a small part of me harboring hesitancy, hoping this wouldn't be the same. Thankfully, making an optimistic-fueled gamble with my time paid off, and I walked away happier than ever before after venturing out of my comfort zone. Well, except during a few puzzles, but that lies entirely in my problem-solving abilities.

The Plucky Squire (PC [Reviewed], Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5)
Developer: All Possible Futures
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Released: September 17, 2024
MSRP: $29.99

Throughout The Plucky Squire, you play as a famous hero named Jot whose goal is to thwart the villain, Humgrump's, plans of spreading evil and chaos across the land of Mojo. While it starts as your typical 2D RPG experience of defeating monsters and chapter bosses, you'll soon learn where the game's meat and potatoes come from: Jot and his friends are all characters in a book, and thanks to Humgrump's magic, you can hop between dimensions and advance your journey in the real (well, game) world.

I'll come right out and admit it: the jumps between 2D and 3D maps were already enough to sell me on the game before I even hopped in and checked everything out for myself. The last time I experienced anything remotely similar was when I played Super Paper Mario. I went in already feeling eager to play, and that only continued to grow as The Plucky Squire proved just how far you can push creativity and gameplay experimentation once you combine multiple game genres under one title.

When I say multiple genres, I mean it in the best way possible. At its core, it's an action-adventure game that feels like your standard "hero saves the day" premise, but there's a whole lot more you'll find as you continue forward. I even got to play a brief rhythm game along the way, initially catching me off guard but making me chuckle as I realized what was going on. You can spend a few minutes fighting enemies, only to find yourself back on the desk flying around the map using rockets. There are a ton of seemingly random elements thrown into the mix, but it makes for some hilariously entertaining moments.

With that said, the game relies on this a lot. The Plucky Squire takes around 9-10 hours to complete, and during this, you're introduced to so many features that, on occasion, it gets a little hard to remember everything. You'll also briefly use several one-off abilities for various bosses or puzzles before they disappear, leaving you either wanting to try it again or being thankful you never have to do it again. I found most of them quite fun, but a few had some funky mechanics that were a tad difficult to control. Sometimes, a trusty sword is all you really need. Either that, or I'm not meant to wield a bow.

Speaking of combat, expect to fight a lot. In both the 2D and 3D world, you're constantly up against random enemies and surprisingly unique chapter bosses. Something All Possible Futures and Devolver Digital pulled off particularly well here is giving you a reason why all these monsters are just kind of here. You also have unique battles for nearly every boss, so you won't have to worry about mindlessly slashing your sword around for minutes straight each time. If anything, my only wish was to have more to do in the 3D world, as most of its excitement came from later chapters.

I could say this about a good chunk of The Plucky Squire itself. On one hand, it's a book that follows a linear story of having a brave hero set off to defeat an evil villain. At the same time, there's barely any opportunities to venture off the beaten path and set off on brief side adventures or exploration. The puzzles add some variety and opportunity to explore. Beyond this, you're set on one particular path with no way to differentiate one playthrough from another unless you go back to find every collectible.

Fortunately, this leads to a major plus: the story. The entire game takes place in a storybook and the world beyond it, and it manages to weave everything together perfectly. This is where linearity also serves as a strength to make the plot easier to understand, digest, and immerse yourself in without getting too distracted. Every aspect of The Plucky Squire — the visuals, landscape, characters, and even audio — is all fine-tuned to fit and enhance the story. Whether you're looking for beautiful art, comedy, or occasional sad moments, you'll see all of it here. There are even plenty of puns, which I was more than happy to appreciate.

It is clear right from the start that this is Jot's story, though. While this doesn't come as a surprise, especially with him being the Plucky Squire himself and the main protagonist, the other characters are either there to give you information or follow you around as Jot does everything. A few eventually help you out later in the story, but for the first few hours, they almost serve as distractions rather than companions. Some locations give a similar vibe, acting as places you can run around in and check out but not necessarily interact and immerse yourself in. They're just kind of there, whether you like it or not.

Even with that said, I really enjoyed exploring the game's environments, especially the 3D landscape. Getting lost in all the clutter reminded me of how messy my desk usually is and got me to do some organizing. I've forgotten just how many times I accidentally found collectibles because I went behind the wrong bottle of paint, wooden block, or tree, but it cracked me up every time it happened. You can even change the world through word manipulation, making for some wacky shenanigans if you grab the right words later.

The Plucky Squire manages to expertly craft an adorably interesting story full of lovable characters, enjoyable narration, and near-perfect parallels between its 2D and 3D worlds. While some parts need just a bit more polish, it exceeded my already high expectations and gave me nearly a dozen hours of laughs, fun, and mental exercise. Plus, well, seeing its cast of cute little characters suddenly turn into buff badasses is a great bonus.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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It’s hard to really figure out what Starstruck: Hands of Time is about based on trailers or screenshots. Half of it is a rhythm game. Half of it is an adventure. The other half is about smashing things as a giant hand. Actually having played through it, I still don’t really know what it’s about.

Starstruck: Hands of Time (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Createdelic, LLC
Publisher: Createdelic, LLC
Released: September 16, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

Starstruck has you sent back from the future to try and prevent a somewhat-unexplained apocalypse. Your robot companion hones in on a pair of humans, both aspiring musicians. One is Edwin, who lives in the shadow of Dawn. The other is Dawn, who lives in the shadow of her brother.

Finally, there’s your hand, which you use to interfere with the flow of time. Do you remember that Simpsons Halloween special where Homer travels back in time and, while he initially tries not to affect the future, eventually gets frustrated and just starts smashing things? That’s what you’re doing with your hand. Initially, your computerized companion says something about not creating a paradox before realizing that, wait, you’re actually trying to create a paradox, so you might as well smash everything.

It’s fun. It’s barely necessary in terms of narrative, but just being able to lay waste to the environment is fun in a Katamari way. It even challenges you to destroy as much as possible and locate hidden things in the environment, which encourages you to just replay these segments. Messing with the timestream could have been depicted in a number of ways, and this is such a great way to do it.

The most immediately striking thing about Starstruck is its art style. Most things are presented as a diorama that mixes mundane objects, disparate toys, and plasticine figures. But it gets even better than that, as it also incorporates video elements, laying them behind the player-controlled models, which gives them a surreal effect.

There is some unevenness to the art style, but it makes good use of it. I think that, at least once, it uses the fact that you can’t really tell why something looks the way it does to later reveal what it represents.

When I played the demo of Starstruck: Hands of Time a couple months back, I was deep into packing for a move. Now that I have room to breathe without inhaling cardboard, I got out my Rock Band 4 Fender Jaguar. It made me want to play Rock Band 4 more than anything, but it also improved the feeling of the game. Sort of.

There’s no strumming. You just press the fret buttons in time with the prompts. I’m not sure how much you know about playing a guitar, but it’s very much not that. You lift and press the strum bar to move to the higher and lower pitches. It’s kind of awkward, especially at higher difficulties where you’re pressing chords, er, multiple buttons at once. It’s still fun to play, regardless of whether you’re on keyboard (that is, a computer keyboard, not the piano type) or a Rock Band/Guitar Hero guitar.

Speaking of which, it looks like the Guitar Hero 2 (360 version) Xplorer guitar gets recognized by the game and bound automatically. For my Fender Jaguar, I had to bind the buttons, but it wasn’t difficult and worked fine.

I was actually excited every chance I got to pull out the guitar, which, thankfully, comes up rather frequently. It’s a major part of gameplay. I said in my write-up of the demo that I hated the music, but thankfully, it turned out to only be that one song that I didn’t like. I mean, I still didn’t like the lyrics much whenever they came up, but the soundtrack, in general, is really enjoyable. You can play the songs separate from the story, and I would totally do that.

The adventure aspect of the Starstruck, on the other hand, is a smidge weak. I wasn’t looking for things to rub on other things, but there isn’t a tonne to really do in the world. There are guitars that you can find and equip for visual reasons, and there are optional songs to take part in (at least one, that I recall), but not a whole lot. And I think there’s a bit of a missed opportunity to get more intimate with the game world.

Which actually leads me to my main issue with Starstruck: its story isn’t entirely well told. I really want to temper my words, because I want to be clear that it isn’t bad. It has a lot of value and inventiveness. It’s just that it seems unfocused. So much so that, when all is said and done, I’m not sure what the core message is supposed to be. Was there just one? If not, then the other themes get diluted, and nothing gets full closure.

There’s symbolism like the heavy presence of ouroboros, the illusion of immortality through art, and being true to yourself. It brings up so much and explains so little. It spins its tires on plagiarism and by the end of it, I wasn’t sure if it was saying that it’s bad or unavoidable. Or maybe I’m not supposed to focus on that. Maybe it’s about the fact that you need to be yourself, because becoming famous by simply copying someone already successful will leave you feeling hollow. Or that all your heroes live in the shadow of someone else. Or maybe it’s both, as well as some sort of statement on the difference of fame and infamy.

The fact that it doesn’t really punctuate itself might have a lot to do with the fact that the narrative can’t tell if it’s more interested in the characters or the message. The characters themselves are all unique, and their problems are clearly stated, but you don’t live with them. You don’t really spend enough time with their issues to get a good understanding of their problems. I’m curious about Edwin’s TV-addicted parents. You see Lucy’s problem demonstrated, but the depths of her despair was a complete mystery to me. Likewise, I don’t understand the antagonist. I don’t get their motivations or their, er, status.

Not understanding or not being able to fully grok the point could just be me. I feel I’m typically receptive enough to recognize artistic intent, but I can’t possibly say how others will connect or interpret it. However, I still think that better attention to the characters would have paid off massively.

With that said, it’s told with enough visual and verbal flair that it doesn’t significantly matter. Starstruck knows how to set a scene effectively, so regardless of whether you fully understand the subtext, it’s easy enough to follow the grander plot and be entertained by its storytelling.

I’ve played and reviewed a lot of games this month, and there was a point where I felt breathless beneath a pile of them. However, the one I wanted to play most after starting it was Starstruck: Hands of Time, but it was also the one I needed to push down in priorities since I had more urgent deadlines. I think it says something that I had to restrain myself from playing it too soon.

It wound up being 4 hours for me, and that includes a bit of time I spent just playing the songs, searching for guitars, and repeating the smashy sections. There are multiple endings, but they are based mostly on decisions you make toward the end of the game, rather than any sort of branching narrative.

It wasn’t until the last act of the game that the fires of my enthusiasm met with a damp log. It wasn’t enough to put me out entirely, but it did take down the heat. Starstruck sets itself up for a homerun and winds up just making it to fourth base. It filled out the paperwork correctly, but forgot to sign and date the bottom. Uh, what I’m saying is that with a bit more time dedicated to its storytelling, it could have been the complete package. As it stands, you might be impressed by its personality, but you won’t necessarily be starstruck.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Capcom is digging back into its vault and finally unearthing one of its most asked-after classics, packaging its pixel-era Marvel crossovers into a single game with the Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection. It's a compilation that would, indeed, like to take you for a ride.

While this collection is probably most notable for making Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 conveniently playable, it's also a tour through a fascinating, arguably foundational, era of Capcom's brawler development. So, to tackle its disparate parts, we've put two reviewers on the case. First off, I—Eric—will dig into the multiplayer fighting game aspect, from X-Men: Children of the Atom up through Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. Then Zoey will weigh in with expert knowledge on The Punisher, the side-scrolling beat 'em up packaged in with the bunch.

Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics (PC, Switch, PS4, PS5)
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: September 11, 2024
MSRP: $49.99

Wanna learn how to do an infinite?

It’s still a little surreal to see Capcom’s Marvel crossovers playable on a modern platform. Once Arcade1Up put out its Marvel cab, it felt inevitable that some kind of port would follow. But even for preservation’s sake alone, this collection is a big deal.

When the collection bears the name “Marvel Vs. Capcom” on the title, you know what the focus is. Everything here centers on Capcom’s legendary series of crossovers, starting with a few core Marvel games and building into Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.

Seeing these games in sequence like this really helps illustrate how Capcom built these characters and concepts up over time. You can see the first iterations of Cyclops and Wolverine duking it out and how those fighters shifted over the years from X-Men: Children of the Atom all the way through to MvC2.

Laying out the lineage like this is a nice touch, and thankfully, it’s pretty easy to play through a few rounds on every game. Though the lobby system is a little finicky for my taste, it certainly functions just fine, and the netcode felt solid in the matches I ran with someone across the States from me. Playing a first-to-three in Marvel Super Heroes and then swapping over to an X-Men or MvC is pretty smooth, making it easy to jump around through Capcom’s development timeline.

While the history is nice to see, there are obvious standouts. X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is a personal favorite of mine, and it’s been done well here. The original Marvel Vs. Capcom holds up well, too, and it’s neat to see how the tag and assist systems evolved in these crossover fighters over time.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is the star of the show, though. It’s been years since I spent hours trying to climb in the Xbox 360 port, and many more since I first put a quarter in an MvC cab, so I do think it’s important to stress: Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is one hell of a game.

I mean this in a few ways, too, because as fun as it is to play so many characters that feel so powerful, the line can quickly veer into something busted. It’s a rite of passage to go online in MvC2 and get bowled over by an Iron Man infinite or someone running a classic composition of god-tier fighters.

All the nastiness is here in spades, and for the sickos who want that, I think they’ll find it. Even as a critic, I’d still recommend the absolute MvC diehards check out in-depth reports from the likes of Justin Wong to see whether the granular details have translated well. But for someone like me, a casual MvC fan who just wants to play my favorite version of Jill Valentine and fight my friends, it’s a solid offering.

A few modernizations could help onboard newcomers, like the increasingly popular one-button specials option. It’s nice to see a good training mode in here, too. All of this points to a collection that could revitalize competitive interest in MvC; while the diehards have been using alternative methods for some time, this is another point where putting these games on a modern platform helps out.

Sadly, even modernization doesn't help all of these games shine as brightly as others. The aforementioned standouts are there, and I'm pretty sure if you're buying this collection, you're buying it for Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. Everything else is gravy on top. But after a handful of rounds in some of the other games, I felt fine not running more, especially when they had fewer character options compared to the massive MvC2 lineup.

Ultimately, this collection feels like a time capsule of Capcom history. Putting all these games together clearly illustrates the through-lines, showing how Capcom and Marvel built a working relationship over years of fighting game crossovers. In that respect, it might feel a little lacking in variety. Rather than a smorgasbord of differing styles, it’s focused on a lineage, the way previous collections like the Street Fighter 30th laid out decades of iteration on a core concept.

But it’s this focused encapsulation that makes this collection so endearing for me. So much artwork and music has been packed in, alongside options that make it easy to tinker, train, or just experience the explosive wonders of MvC2 for the first time. I think if you’re a fan of fighting game history, this collection is a no-brainer. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone looking to “get into” fighting games, but I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who gets rosily nostalgic every time they hear “I wanna take you for a ride” ring out through their speakers. - Eric Van Allen

It's punishin' time

It’s always a cause for celebration when a licensed game somehow gets rereleased in modern times. While the Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection centers around the mashup titles, The Punisher sits at the beat-’em-up lunchroom table alone. A surprising addition, but one that deserves attention.

Without thinking too hard about it, Capcom was the best when it came to belt-scrolling brawlers. 1994 was a good year to be a fan, as that was when Alien vs. Predator and The Punisher were released. While AvP is probably the better game overall, The Punisher is no slouch.

You can play as either The Punisher or Nick Fury. I have no idea why Nick Fury is here, aside from the fact that he’s one of the few Marvel characters who will use a gun. I thought it would be explained in the opening demo, but it isn’t. I’m not sure why a government agent would join a vigilante in a full assault against an organized crime family. If that sort of thing was allowed, they probably could have just killed the Kingpin a long time ago.

Anyway, that’s all The Punisher is. It starts off by having you beat up thugs in a casino. Then you just follow the trail of thugs until you get to The Kingpin. You go through various crime-y locations, such as a bus, a mansion, a waterfront warehouse, and an underground grow-op. There are bosses at the end of each. You know the drill.

Perhaps the biggest twist to the beat-’em-up brawler that The Punisher brings is that if a thug pulls a gun on Mr. Punisher or Mr. Fury, they’ll pull out their pistols and respond in kind. That sounds like they were trying to say that they only shoot thugs in self-defense, but you can later pick up Uzis and assault rifles and kill indiscriminately. I guess it doesn’t count when you’re using guns you pick up off the ground: It’s the five-second rule for murder.

Overall, The Punisher is a solid brawler. The art style is one of the best parts, especially for the perpetually seething Punisher. You can practically see the veins popping out of his head. The levels feel kind of short, but the entire game clocks in at just over 40 minutes. When you get tired of the smorgasbord of fighting games that make up the rest of the collection, it makes a pretty great palette cleanser. 

Or maybe you’re just tired of kicking the crap out of your friend and want to team up for a change. You can briefly immerse yourself in the camaraderie between Mr. Punisher and Mr. Fury a few years before Mr. Punisher shoots Mr. Fury in the back. - Zoey Handley

Gather ye stones

On the whole, the Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection does exactly what it sets out to do: take these classic crossovers, apply some modernizations, gather up some historical assets, and package them all neatly together.

It's not the most wide-ranging appeal, but for those within that niche, it's hard to find too many complaints. There's rollback netcode, some fantastic games, and a Punisher beat 'em up for when you'd rather co-op than fight. If you're a nostalgic fan of the originals or someone curious about one of the most storied games in fighting history, this collection makes it easy to take a ride back in time.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Few horror games are more influential than Silent Hill. P.T. maybe? But that was a demo for Silent Hills, so it sort of still counts. Okay, to be most specific, Silent Hill 2 is incredibly influential, which leads us to Hollowbody.

The PS2 was the best platform for horror. It was the last platform where a girl could feel safe to avoid monsters while dressed in her finest, shortest skirt. Dudes could search for their missing wives in the outfit she picked out for them. Combat barely functioned in most instances. Hollowbody longs for those days, as do I.

Hollowbody (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Headware Games
Publisher: Headware Games
Released: September 12, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

The big difference that Hollowbody brings to the Silent Hill 2 formula is its semi-futuristic setting. You play as Mica, who is enjoying her future dystopian life when her very special friend Sasha goes missing. Sasha left to find some answers about what happened to the “Western Cities,” which suffered some strange biological event that forced the government to nuke it from orbit. It was the only way to be sure.

The whole event was covered up really well, leaving some people to wonder what had happened. You start out playing as Sasha as some creepy stuff happens, then you switch to Mica, who is piloting her awesome flying Ferrari over one of the Western Cities. She’s condescending to her AI cruise control for the last time, and it gives out on her, leaving her to crash in the battered remains of an English suburb. From there, the sci-fi thing kind of becomes marginal as you wander the ruins of a desolate town.

The setting is easily the best part of the entire game. Not that an empty town is anything new, but it makes good use of lighting and grey grime to sell the idea that this was once a lovely place to live, but is now decaying in isolation. The constant rain leads to a great atmosphere, even if it kind of disappears when you’re indoors. The camera will occasionally fix on a well-composed view. A lot of the horror is derived from the mystery and tragedy of what happened in this place, and that gets sold well, visually.

However, beyond that, I think Hollowbody really has trouble finding an identity. It really sometimes feel like PS2 Game: The Game, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it is a bit disappointing. As I mentioned, the whole future angle is actually rather subtle, and it tells its background in ways that you’d probably expect. There are written documents and what are essentially audio logs. 

Environmental storytelling is there, but there’s little commitment to it. A lot of places feel the same. There’s a part in the game where you enter one house, then need to cross the street to another, and they might as well have been the same house, given how the occupants both decorated and died. Even interactable objects in environments aren’t as prevalent as you might expect, despite the fact that Mica has a comment for every video phone she sees. Some areas, such as a number of apartments in one section of the game, don’t feel necessary at all. They don’t add to the atmosphere, they sometimes don’t hold any useful supplies, and they’re not narratively interesting.

The level design, in general, isn’t all that stellar. One section of the game has you trek through a large public park, find a locked door, and then have to backtrack through the park, back the way you came. It’s a long, boring hike, and nothing really changes to make it interesting again.

Then there’s a sewer section. I’d say this feels very PS2, but sewer levels never really went out of vogue. They were boring then, they’re boring now, and aside from some disorienting camera tricks, they’re boring in Hollowbody. Also, it does the thing where it asks, "Do you want to pick up this item?" but you have unlimited inventory space. Explain to me why I wouldn't want to pick up the key. What would possibly be the consequence?

There are only two really solid puzzles in the entire runtime. It took me a bit over four hours to complete the game, and while that may seem short, more could have been made from it. The section in the apartments is way longer than it needed to be.

The opening is a long stretch without monsters, which can be an effective way to build tension, but Hollowbody doesn’t capitalize on this. For a moment, I wondered if there were supposed to be monsters but I had hit a bug and they didn’t spawn. Eventually, they show up, but it wasn’t after a period of teasing that something dangerous was lurking. The enemies just show up. I think there’s a narrative reason for it, but the isolation isn’t used well.

Even when they do, they aren’t much of a threat. Not that I expected Hollowbody to turn into an action game, but I did think there’d be some hostility. Enemies shamble in small groups, and their only advantage is they can sometimes attack with little warning. I completed the game with over 100 pistol bullets remaining and a pocketful of shells. I began losing health more frequently at the end, but that’s largely because I was stubbornly using melee attacks.

Speaking of which, I found three melee weapons in the game, and I have no idea if one is better than another. I had this problem with Rule of Rose, so maybe it’s period accurate, but it feels strange that I couldn’t tell the difference between a guitar and a makeshift axe.

The story is fine, but that’s mostly all in the background. I love a good “everyone died, no one knows why” plot, and Hollowbody does it uniquely in some ways. However, what goes on in gameplay is less stellar. What irked me the most is that Mica gets phone calls from a mysterious voice throughout the game. They kind-of sort-of act as the antagonist, and having them call up the protagonist to taunt them really ruins their mystery. Not that you immediately know who’s on the other end of the line, but knowing that they’re a passive-aggressive dick is enough.

It feels like the setting was well established, as was the central premise, but actually getting the characters from point A to point B turned out to be a struggle. Not all that much really happens to Mica beyond a couple of plot points and a voice in her ear. We don’t really learn all that much about her relationship with Sasha, aside from a few warm and regrettable memories. The story doesn’t really feel like it’s about her or her friends.

I also feel like the ending was a foregone conclusion. However, I did get one ending out of a few. I’d be interested to know how things turn out in the others. Maybe there’s a better payoff in one of the others. As of right now, I’m not even sure what the criteria for them is.

Hollowbody isn’t bad. It’s a solid effort for a solo developer. There is a lot of skill on display, though I think it should have been planned in a more holistic way. The flow could be better, the narrative could be tighter, and the level design needs work. Nothing about it is disastrous, and if you’re a fan of PS2 horror, it can be worth a look at its abbreviated runtime.

It’s just not the most memorable experience, either. Hollowbody stakes its identity on being a PS2-inspired horror game and has trouble building on that and finding its own identity. The world it depicts is enticing, but it struggles to find a story there. On the other hand, it’s not uncomfortable to play. It’s enjoyable for what it is. It’s not completely hollow, but it’s far from solid.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 brings the Warhammer 40K universe to life in glorious, blood-soaked detail. This game puts you into the heart of the action in a major conflict with a story that has all the twists and turns of any good galactic incursion in humanity's Imperium. While there are a few issues here and there, it's a triumph of a translation of the miniatures tabletop game into a video game that feels like it has something for everyone.

In Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, you shoot, rip, and shred your way through a chunky 10-12 hour solo campaign that's a rush or ridiculously meaty combat and iconic encounters from start to end. It also packs in PvE and PvP multiplayer modes that, together, do a great job of easing you into the core mechanics before asking you to go out and master them for what you'll undoubtedly end up calling "glory for the Emperor."

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 (PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 [reviewed])
Developer: Saber Interactive
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Released: September 9, 2024
MSRP: $59.99

Give me a worthy adversary

The campaign in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 goes hard. You play as Titus, a disgraced Space Marine who rejoins the Ultramarines to help defend a system from a Tyranid invasion. This nasty foe descends on a world using sports and evolves quickly to defend itself from whatever strategies its enemies are using, before liquifying all organic matter and moving onto the next world.

Saber Interactive and Focus Entertainment have done a great job of taking what they learned from the swarms of zombies in World War Z and using it to make the Tyranids a formidable threat. The smaller Xenos among the Tyranid ranks rush toward you and explode in satisfying bursts of blood, while the larger warriors among their ranks work their way through the gore and provide a real challenge.

This is where Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 feels very different from World War Z, which surprised me a lot, but it suits the source material much better. You can only gun your way through so many enemies before you've got to pull out whatever melee weapon you have equipped, preferably a Chainsword, and cut through them and fight until you wear the stronger foes down to a weakened state. From there, you can trigger an execution for a grotesque and glorious finisher, of which there are dozens to discover.

Executions reward armor recharges and health, and by the end of the campaign, you'll have mastered the careful dance between staying back and hammering enemies with gunfire, and getting stuck into the hordes with nothing but a Power Sword.

Your melee weapon is also important for parrying those pesky enemies who leap the crowd and dig into your armor. Parrying is an essential skill you must learn to deal with bosses and minor enemies alike, ensuring that on higher difficulties, you don't get mauled before you're even at the tricky part.

I have to say, I didn't expect this level of complexity from the game's combat, but it fits really well. If the game was all big guns and the occasional execution, it would be dull. The combination and refined combat that's been developed here both feels and looks so good that I could play for hours without ever feeling fatigued.

Missions have great checkpointing, which always means you'll have enough ammo and grenades, but you never feel safe because you have too much. Bosses stretch you to your limits, especially the Lictor Tyranid early on, but you'll grow to understand exactly how to defeat them with the game's unique blend of gun and swordplay before too long.

When I say the story goes hard, I really do mean it. At one point, you're in the belly of a Forge World when the power goes out, and your character can hear Tyranids in the walls. Later in the campaign, you hoist a flag high and stand your ground among other Ultramarines against impossible odds, making for the most Warhammer 40K scene I think I've ever come across in a game.

Between missions, you'll return to a Battle Barge to get new intel and refit Titus with weapons you've unlocked. The thing that stuck out for me here, and in other quieter moments on the three major worlds you play across, is the chatter between NPCs. Listening to characters discuss topics such as a human toolbox recalibrating their eyes or watching a sermon to the Emperor, to which mighty Space Marines kneel and listen, felt amazing. It's as if I was transported into the world of Warhammer 40K, something I've been trying to achieve since I first started painting a Necron army when I was ten years old.

Even something as simple as walking feels brought to life with the weight an Ultramarine should be, sparks flying from his boots on metal and small objects shattering as he walks through them with the arrogance a space warrior should have. The dialogue feels like several people polished it because it feels like it's been pulled from the universe. Every line is deliberate, with no embellishment or over-explanation. You understand more from these words than you do in some entire paragraphs from other games, and I think that helps gel every other element together to make newcomers feel at home in this far-flung futuristic version of our galaxy.

I don't want to spoil the game's midway twist here, but suffice it to say that it feels like it was ripped right out of the pages of White Dwarf or the Black Library. You begin the game knowing nothing and having only one objective, and end it doing something else entirely with a set of revelations weighing heavily on your shoulders. It's incredible to experience as a fan of the universe, and it's thrilling even for those who aren't because of the regularly occurring epic moments that are impossible not to be pulled in by.

The other side of the story

The second of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2's three game modes is a multiplayer companion to the campaign. In Operations mode, you'll tackle missions that fill out parts of the story you see in the campaign, but don't get to play through. This is where you understand how a Hive Tyrant took so long to kill, or what was going on when the vox blackout occurred.

The missions themselves are short and very replayable. I couldn't put the game mode down once I'd started, thanks to the balanced rewards you get for every mission and the exhilarating risk of hopping into a mission you know so well on a slightly tougher difficulty level.

There are a few new mechanics in Operations missions that make them stand out, such as regular enemies who can now call in reinforcements and puzzles that you need to solve while also fighting back against the hordes of enemies every mission throws at you. For the most part, though, they're designed to be pure multiplayer fun, and that's exactly what they are.

While yes, there's definitely some point to seeing the other side of these stories, the real reason to play is to experiment with different Space Marine classes, weapons, abilities, and earn XP. This mode is where I saw all the multiplayer elements from World War Z bleed through, and that's an extremely good thing for any game to have.

Each class offers a unique experience in-game, with various special abilities such as healing and an overpowered melee attack for a short time, a Jump Pack, or even a shield that can protect you and your allies. Each class has a huge skill tree that you'll earn perks in and can purchase to unlock their benefits over time to craft the best builds for the toughest missions on the highest difficulties.

Every weapon also has levels to grind, unlocking more perks and making you a more efficient killing machine with every hour you sink into Operations. Of course, the biggest draw of multiplayer in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is unlocking new cosmetics. You can't craft your own Chapter (a company of Space Marines) without first gaining access to every color and part to customize, and then you can go nuts making the most obscene or beautiful warriors the galaxy has ever gazed upon.

Stem corruption

The final part of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2's offerings is a PvP mode called Eternal War. It plays into all the same progression systems as Operations mode, but is solely focused on PVP. I didn't know what to expect going into this mode, part of me really thought it wouldn't work, but it's thoroughly enjoyable and fits well within the universe.

One team plays Space Marines, generally seen as the forces of (relative) good, and the other is Chaos Space Marines, who are bad by all accounts. There are only a few modes to play around with, but it's the combat that saves this game mode. Player health has been tweaked to meet weapons in the middle, so you're not obliterating one team with a single class.

Just like in Operations and the campaign, you need to use melee, grenades, and long-ranged weapons to win. However, I noticed a spawn camping issue while I was playing. For some reason, the game took too long to shift where my team was spawning from, so we lost a lot of points to two Heavy Space Marines who simply fired at roughly where we'd appear for a minute or so.

Eternal War is definitely the weakest mode in a game that sets the bar incredibly high. There's something to love here, and it's a nice distraction from all the PvE missions you'll be grinding, giving you something else to master and a reason to mess around with your builds and cosmetic styles in the Battle Barge before returning to a harder mode in the campaign.

In both Eternal War and Operations, I experienced server issues in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2. These came and went, and might just have been down to the player base being limited to those who have an early access edition of the game. I did see the developer reaching out to fans explaining that it's working on the server issues, so I feel that these are likely more prevalent but are something that could be fixed with time.

I've seen Saber Interactive take World War Z and foster an amazing community around its PvE missions, with new content added regularly based on player feedback. Based on what I've seen from the developer so far, I have no doubt that it plans to do the same with this game but kick things up a notch. We already have a roadmap for season 1 that includes things like new enemies and a horde mode, which I can't wait to see, as well as even more fancy cosmetics to unlock.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is a great game in its own right, and it will only get better with ongoing support. But you can get a lot out of the title without ever engaging with the online elements. The story and lore on show in the campaign are a great reason to get this game alone, and everything else is just a giant, Battle Barge-sized cherry on top.

I can't praise this game enough. It's as if the Emperor himself oversaw its development, pulling on the threads of time and space to bring the right people together at the right time to make it. There are flaws, sure, but it's a damn good game and a flipping fantastic Warhammer 40K game. If you even remotely enjoy the universe, this will blow your mind. As I mentioned at the top, though, you can go into this game with no prior knowledge and still have the best time with it because the experience is solid, the world is completely realized, and the gameplay is highly engaging.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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While El Paso, Elsewhere was among my favorite games released last year, this year’s offering from Strange Scaffold has left me somewhat cold. That’s okay. Clickolding and Life Eater were pretty experimental and they just didn’t gel with me.

I was going to overlook I Am Your Beast. Something about its trailers didn’t gel with me, either. At this point, I can’t even remember what it was that made me stick my nose up at it. That’s because when I actually sat down to play it, it didn’t take long to gel with me at all.

I Am Your Beast (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Strange Scaffold
Publisher: Strange Scaffold, Frosty Pop
Released: September 10, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

You play as Alphonse Harding, who is very violently opposed to doing one last job for his employer, the COI. He was, supposedly, told many times before that doing one last bit of wetwork would free him from his employment, and now he’s just done. Jaded would be putting it lightly. He reacts to being pulled out of retirement by killing every one of his co-workers in the area. When more get sent in, he kills them, too.

I Am Your Beast is pretty loose with its narrative. It’s hard to really get a feel for the stakes, as it’s largely just you in a forest, killing anyone wearing khaki in the area. The job, your employer, and the goals behind them are left pretty vague. They sound cynical, but so does everything else. The enemy soldiers are extremely blasé about the whole “being killed by a hyper-competent mega-soldier” thing. It either sounds like an expected outcome or an annoying inconvenience.

Harding is also voiced by Xalavier Nelson Jr. (the director at Strange Scaffold), and he’s largely just the same character as James Savage from El Paso, Elsewhere. He speaks in a low, overly-calm voice with a cutting, lighthearted edge. If Alphonse Harding had turned out to be James Savage having a nightmare at the end of the game, I probably wouldn’t have been surprised. I mean, I really like that voice. The dialogue is fun, and the delivery is great. It’s just… the same character with a different backstory. 

The narrative also lacks depth, mainly delivering cliches of action movies with hyper-competent, nigh-invincible protagonists – my favorite kind of action movie – and it’s really hard to tell if it’s taking itself seriously.

The game itself, on the other hand, clearly doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s an action game of the highest speed. You’re challenged to complete simple objectives and exit the level as quickly as possible. Sometimes, this involves killing all the enemies, and other times, you just need to touch a few laptops. However, your expedience is what is really important.

I’m having some difficulty recalling a movement system I enjoyed as much as I Am Your Beast. While it has some parkour elements, it’s not focused around them. You can climb trees and cross wires, but you can’t, say, run on walls. There’s no diving like in Max Payne (or El Paso, Elsewhere, for that matter.) There is also no bullet time to help you make sense of the chaos.

Where it’s successful is where most games find their success in combat: it’s very readable. It’s easy to tell what object you’re about to grab from the environment, and whenever you hit an enemy in the face with something, you know that their weapon is going to come flying out of their hand directly into your path of movement. It makes picking up a branch, throwing it at an enemy, stomping on their head, catching their knife, and then hurling that at another enemy both possible and intuitive without needing to boil it down to dedicated interactions or QTEs.

It’s clearly a game based around the philosophy of making the player feel powerful. Enemies will bark out ridiculous, panicked statements like “Harding’s using headshots!” just to fluff up your ego. Marketing material calls it “he's-in-the-walls player fantasy,” which feels appropriate.

It doesn’t last very long, though. Or, at least, it doesn’t maintain that momentum for long. I clocked in at 2 hours. It pulls the brakes on you a couple of times, the first requiring you to complete a certain number of optional objectives and the second requiring an S rank on at least one level. The cutscenes, which are almost exclusively big dialogue subtitles displayed across a pan over a forest, actually take up a large amount of runtime. My husband complained that every time he looked at my screen, all he saw were subtitles.

However, the main narrative serves just as a foundation for the gameplay. It encourages you to complete side objectives and try and increase your rank on each level. It doesn’t really reward you very well, but being able to act with its frenetic combat is its own reward. That’s actually quite refreshing since a lot of games these days prop themselves up with minuscule prizes to keep you interested. I Am Your Beast just lets the fun do the talking.

The soundtrack is also enjoyable, but because the game just felt like a flash of entertainment to me, it was hard to really take it all in. It’s the same composer as El Paso, Elsewhere, and I kept listening to that soundtrack after the game was done, so I’m happy. Xalavier Nelson Jr. lends his vocals to a few tracks again, which I enjoy, even if it furthers the feeling that he’s typecasting himself.

I Am Your Beast is weak in some areas, but not significantly so. A large portion of it is just fine, but what’s good is really good. It manages a combat system that is fast and chaotic while still remaining intuitive, which is an impressive feat. Part of me wonders if something like this could be applied across a wider, longer game without diluting it. As it is, I Am Your Beast applies it perfectly, making it a short-lived but impactful experience.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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I’ve been space trucking since I was a teenager and discovered Elite 2: Frontier and Frontier: First Encounters. Later, it was Freelancer. Somewhere along the line, I lost the love of moving freight through the vacuous unknown. That was, until Star Trucker.

Often, the actual delivery portion of any given space game is optional. There’s usually piracy, combat, maybe mining. There are lots of ways to make a buck in the endless expanse of the universe. Star Trucker, on the other hand, is entirely about trucking through the stars. It’s more than just pressing the pedal down; but all its additional features are in service of your delivery.

Star Trucker (PC [Reviewed], Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Monster and Monster
Publisher: Raw Fury
Released: September 3, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

Star Trucker starts you off broken down at the side of the, er, road. One of the very first things you do is put on a space suit and eject from your cab to patch holes in your truck. More than anything, the biggest challenge you’ll face in the cold expanses of the universe is maintaining your vehicle.

One thing that Star Trucker is not is Euro Truck Simulator 2. While it can be relaxing, you won’t find any room for meditation, as controlling your vehicle isn’t as simple as turning on cruise control and keeping it between the lines (though, there is cruise control if you want it). It leans to strike a balance between realism and fun, which means the physics take into account the zero-G environment. You have to ensure there is air in your cab and that the interior isn’t being overwhelmed by the temperature of the exterior.

Most of the functions of your truck are tied to a battery or UCC. You have to change out the batteries when they deplete and swap out the UCCs when they fry. On top of that, there are air filters that need to be routinely changed. Also, you need to make sure your gas tank is topped up, and the hull isn’t full of holes. It can get stressful, and I bring this up early because I want you to know what Star Trucker is, because it may not be what you’re expecting.

The money you make from the freight you run is probably going to go right back into your truck. Batteries are expensive, and air filters are ridiculous. You won’t be able to just take dangerous jobs, show off your mad skills, amass a pile of wealth, and pile your cab full of supplies. It’s almost unavoidable you’ll always be struggling to keep the gravity on. At least on the recommended difficulty setting.

This is going to be a sticking point for a lot of folks and is likely, to some degree, a balancing issue. While I prefer it when a game keeps you under pressure for its runtime, it could get annoying. Air filters will become the bane of your existence because they cost about as much as a mid-complexity, long-range drive. That’s if you can get them.

Prices on all goods fluctuate as a way of enabling you to run additional commodities and make money on the side. This also affects batteries and air filters. Sometimes, you’ll limp your way into a market and find that air filters are priced up 25% and out of your budget. That’s if you can find them at all, because they’re sometimes just not in stock. In my experience, it’s when you need them most that they’re out of stock.

I had moments where I was swapping in and out of my space suit to make the most of the remaining oxygen-generating power of my life support system. Other times, I had to choose between replacing the gravity core or oxygen. As I mentioned, I prefer it when a game never loses its effectiveness in keeping me under pressure, but it was starting to get frustrating.

Another advantage to its miserly manipulation of commodities is the way it forces you to become intimate with your truck’s functions. You can, for example, shut off the lights inside your cab to preserve power. You can reduce the heat in systems with reasonable temperatures in order to further reduce consumption. Had penny-pinching not been a necessity, I may never have played with the dials on the dashboard.

On the other hand, beyond keeping your truck in running order, there are upgrades and cosmetic options you can buy. However, the cosmetics are so expensive I never bought a single one. And I can’t imagine why. They go up past $10,000. And none are better than the other, so the price range is a real head-scratcher. I never bought a cosmetic. Painting your truck is cheaper and has a more visible effect, so why would I spend good air filter money on a hood ornament?

The upgrades also don’t seem to make a whole lot of measurable difference. Your fuel gauge will predict how many KM (or miles, if you’re into that sort of thing) you’ll get out of your tank, but I noted that I could get 93km on a full tank, and when I upgrade the fuel efficiency, I could get… 93km. I don’t know if that’s an accurate measurement – it’s hard to gauge the distance you’ve traveled in space – but you’d think I’d be able to see the difference.

There’s a main questline to go through, which is a neat addition. There’s a selection of truckers who all want your help and will provide you with upgrades as you proceed. There’s actually a decent amount of diversity in the missions. One has you rip a reactor out of a space colony before it goes critical. Another has you picking up discarded cargo. The story isn’t anything I’d consider special, but it’s more than I would expect from a game about space freight.

My only issue with the story missions is that, while they’re necessary for progression, they don’t provide any monetary reward. You have to take a break from trying to scrape together air filter funds to actually take part of the main quest, because they won’t pay you. You do eventually get items that are necessary to progress further in the game, but these feel like milestones, not rewards. It leaves normal story missions feeling thankless. Screw these other truckers, they can’t even spare an air filter?

I also want to note that all hauling is done through little nodes. You can cruise to a jump gate and then jump through to the next node, complete with an extravagant little hyperdrive process. Some of the areas have suggested highways that you can take for safety purposes. You can go "off-road" if you want, but there are often debris fields. You can avoid the little pieces of space junk with some careful driving, but it's likely to slow you down. Cleverly, it's a bit like actual off-road driving.

I know that this is all sounding negative, but I actually really enjoyed Star Trucker. While I ran into some bugs, and maybe the balance isn’t entirely where it should be, I think the team at Monster and Monster did a good job of taking a big, detailed concept and fitting it into a game without much bloat.

Despite that – or maybe because of it – I do have things I wish were included in the game. For example, while the game’s philosophy seems to involve playing as a person instead of just a truck, your person doesn’t have any needs. You don’t have to sleep, despite there being a bed in the cab, and it would have been really useful for passing time on deliveries that needed to be within a specific timeframe. I also would have loved to walk around in space stations and enjoy a delicious space burger in a space diner, but I understand that space dining is a much more massive time investment than it sounds.

I also wish there was more to repair work than just swapping out batteries and air filters. Fixing fuel leaks or replacing the space brakes. I kind of get the feeling that something like that may have been in the design document but they ran out of time to implement it, but that’s just speculation.

As it stands, I thought Star Trucker was a good time. Not an ideal time, and I don’t think it will be everyone’s cup of Space Joe, but I think it does what it sets out to do. The creators had a vision they wanted to achieve, and I think they hit near enough to the mark to call it a success. As long as you know what you’re getting into, it’s a worthwhile experience. It might occasionally grind your gears, but it’s a breath of fresh air with the right filters.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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I never really watched Rugrats. I don’t think I could relate. I was never a baby. At least, not that I remember. So, it wasn’t the license attached to Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland that drew me to it, but rather that it’s a newly developed NES game. I don’t know babies, but I do know the NES.

For the console version, there is a modern frontend you can play with. It makes the graphics look more in line with the cartoon. Beyond just overlapping the 8-bit backbone, everything is animated in a way you might expect from a modern 2D platformer, complete with background effects like parallax scrolling. However, it’s all built on top of a game made to run on hardware that first hit the market in 1983. That’s how it plays; it’s an NES game.

However, if Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland had released, say, back in 1991 when the cartoon hit the air, we’d probably still be talking about it with an amount of reverence similar to Duck Tales.

Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland (PC, Switch [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, NES)
Developer: The MIX Games, Wallride
Publisher: The MIX Games, Limited Run Games
Released: September 10, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

So, again, I don’t really know Rugrats. Even as a ‘90s kid, I maybe only saw snippets of the show and never watched an episode. I wouldn’t have been able to match names to the characters. The storyline involves the babies wanting to play a new Reptar video game, but since they’re deadbeat babies without jobs, they can’t afford it. So, they just imagine it instead.

There are six levels to choose from off the start. There’s no suggested order to them, even though there’s not quite equal when it comes to difficulty. However, the babies don’t get new abilities, nor is there a Mega Man-style boss weakness system, so it really doesn’t matter where you go first. They’re all areas around the house, but while they start off in the physical realm where parents dwell, the levels quickly turn into more video-gamey environments.

The gameplay has obvious inspiration from a few different titles, but the most significant is Super Mario Bros. 2. Some enemies can be thrown, and the desert level reeks of Subcon. However, the flow of the game is completely different. It’s not a clone of anything, you just dig up tiles of dirt and pick up enemies. It feels rather distinct.

When I looked at the demo earlier this year, I had some concerns about its inclusion of co-op. The concern was mainly that two of the giant player sprites would take up most of the horizontal limit on an NES, leaving little room for enemies without a great deal of flicker. The developers got rather creative to avoid this. 

There aren’t all that many enemies, for starters. Much of the challenge comes from strategic placement of foes coupled with short but tricky platforming sections. It’s also a rather slow game, using flip-screens to break up segments of levels. Enemies are often typically placed at different heights, which helps avoid taking up more of that precious sprite limit. There is flicker (which is kind of amusing on Switch, though there’s no option to turn it off), but it’s a totally acceptable amount and nowhere near Super Dodgeball territory.

You could also change over to the HD style, which the game actually starts in. Both music and the art can be swapped over. I didn’t like it quite as much in HD. It starts off zoomed in to a 16:9 aspect ratio, which cuts off the top and bottom of the screen. Worse, the backgrounds become fuzzy when zoomed in, while the player characters do not. I’m not sure if this is a Switch problem exclusively, but it’s not pretty. Thankfully, you can zoom to a 4:3 ratio where everything looks better.

I mostly played in 8-bit since I’m old (not 8-bit old). Part of this is because the art style is more readable. You can tell exactly how high each baby will jump and where the edge of a platform is. It’s not that I struggled with the HD graphics. I just love the NES. We’ve established this.

The 8-bit soundtrack is especially good. It’s not that it’s infectiously catchy, like something from Mega Man 2, but it makes good use of a variety of instrumentation effects. Each level has a distinct sound to it, but no tune really feels weaker than the others. The HD versions are fine, but with the added range of sound, it feels kind of flat.

There are three levels of difficulty to choose from, with the default letting you swap between the four playable babies at any time: Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil. Each one has different stats for lifting and jumping (again, not unlike Mario 2), and if one takes too much damage, you can swap to another to preserve them. That is, however, aside from the highest difficulty where you pick one baby and are stuck with them for the entirety of the level. It’s not as difficult as it sounds, and might be preferable to hearing the pause noise repeatedly. It’s not a bad noise, but it’s one that I’ve heard too many times.

The bosses are also not terribly impressive. Some are reasonable, but others badly needed tuning. Even the final boss, while an interesting concept, isn’t particularly exciting. It’s nothing egregious, but if I had to point to one place in Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland that could use improvement, that’s where my priorities would be.

And you have to understand that Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is an NES game that adheres to all of the NES restrictions. The HD options are nice; it’s like a modern remaster being released simultaneously. But if you aren’t fond of vintage platformers, then this is going to be a hard sell. It’s a short-ish experience, and it’s not Mega Man.

However, as far as NES games go, Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is as solid as they come. I said this earlier, but if this came out during the NES’ lifespan, it probably would be well-remembered. Maybe not as well as one of the system’s absolute classics, but at least in the same niche as Little Nemo: Dream Master. Released today, it’s another very curious case of a new licensed game getting released on an old console. That’s already very exciting for me, so the fact that it’s also a well-tuned game is just gravy.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland appeared first on Destructoid.

Over the years, I've been watching Astro Bot's career with interest. The series had humble tech demo origins, and now, it's a full-on mascot platformer.

This little bot has a lot of potential, and now with a full game under its wing, developer Team Asobi has managed to knock it out of the park — and then some.

Astro Bot (PS5 [Reviewed])
Developer: Team Asobi
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Released: September 6, 2024
MSRP: $59.99

Astro Bot may go the traditional "level select" platformer route, but there's a lot under the hood as you continue through the roughly 10-hour core adventure. I'm not going to spoil basically anything from said adventure, including all of the cameos, Sony homage levels, and challenge-esque bonus stages, so don't worry about that. No need to fear: Astro Bot is far more than just cameos and Easter eggs. It stands on its own as a breezy, and occasionally challenging platformer.

The general flow, and wordless setup, will be very familiar for those of you who orbit this genre (especially Mario, and specifically Mario Galaxy, which this takes a few cues from). Astro Bot is just minding their own business when poof, a big bad shows up and wrecks their ship. It's up to them to assemble a crew of robots (the main collectible in the game) to fix the downed craft, then take off for a final confrontation. Along the way, all of the bots you pick up (which range from regular old NPCs to deep-cut cameos) will be hanging out in the hub, which also serves as a way for players to change costumes, find secrets, and generally hang out.

The hub is straight-up adorable. You can lightly interact with the unique bots you've saved, all of whom sequester themselves with folks from the same franchise. Every half an hour or so, I'd find myself going back to the hub just to see what they were getting up to, and buy them more goodies with the game's core currency, gold.

You can go back to the hub at any time through the game's world map screen, which houses a few secrets of its own, amid a host of optional and required levels, all capped off by a boss fight in each zone. It's a cute way to add a little more agency to a rote-level select concept, and the secrets aren't so esoteric that you'll be pixel-searching. Again, Astro Bot is all about ease of play, baked right into its DNA.

As the titular hero, Astro Bot has all of their old tricks at their disposal, which consists of two core moves: a punch/spin, and a double jump/hover mechanic that also shoots lasers out of their boots to damage enemies. The game does a lot with just these two concepts, and you do not need any prior franchise knowledge to pick it up and play.

Where Astro Bot really brings out the big guns is with the individual levels themselves. Most (but not all) have a fleeting power-up gimmick, like a chicken robot that serves as a vertical jetpack, or a pair of frog boxing gloves that are linked to L2 and R2 for left and right-hand punches, respectively. It also houses one of the best "shrinking mechanic" levels I've ever played.

Because Astro Bot rarely lingers on one single mechanic, I found myself wanting to dive into optional levels on a constant basis. The game offers a constant sense of discovery, within the levels themselves and as a central tenet of its design. Of course, the levels look lovely, and expand upon what was offered with the pack-in for the PS5's launch.

Although I wouldn't say that the DualSense functionality is a selling point, it does still feel incredibly snappy to control Astro Bot itself, and the little sounds and haptic feedback are once again tied to whatever terrain you're stomping around on. This creates a cacophony of sound, especially as I was blasting the game's catchy soundtrack.

Astro Bot is also completely reasonable when it comes to divulging its secrets. If you're missing one bot, puzzle piece, or warp from a stage, you can go back in, get that missing link, and quit immediately: you'll keep that collectible without having to finish the level. You can even dive back into a level you've already completed, and buy a power-up for 200 coins that helps you sniff out those last remnants you need to 100% a world. It's very, very, chill, which gels perfectly with the general tone of Astro Bot.

If you're a platforming fiend, you'll probably be 100%ing the game either way, and that'll take roughly 15 hours to hit everything (again, the story is around 10 hours; less if you're looking to rush through). At no point did I ever feel like it overstayed its welcome, and for this review in particular, I ended up snagging 260/300 collectible bots (FYI, you need 200 to fight the final boss and finish the game properly). I'm going for the Platinum this week, and free DLC aimed at "speedrunners" has been teased for later this year.

Astro Bot on PS5 feels like the culmination of every Team Asobi project before it. Given how many mascots Sony has lost over the years (this game's constant cameos certainly reminded me of that!), I'm completely on board with them adopting the little bot as their new face. They've earned it.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Astro Bot (2024) appeared first on Destructoid.

I can’t say I was expecting remakes of the long-dormant Famicom Detective Club series, let alone a completely new entry. That’s to say nothing of how it was announced. The series lived and died on the Famicom Disk System (excluding some dalliances on the Super Famicom).

In a way, the visual novels feel very representative of the genre’s heyday on early Japanese home computers. Detectives were a popular subject, and the Famicom Disk System had a handful of its own. Here in North America, visual novels, in general, are niche, and retro detective stories are a niche within a niche. So, it’s refreshing to not only see these games for the first time in English, but also get to join in the revival.

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club feels very much like a continuation of both the style and spirit of its predecessors, for better and worse. Before I even start talking about it, you probably already know if you’re on board to check it out.

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club (Switch [Reviewed])
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: August 29, 2024
MSRP: $49.99

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club takes place a few years after The Missing Heir (which is the first game released and the second game chronologically). The trio at Utsugi Detective Agency gets called into action by the police to help them with a murder. A schoolboy was found strangled. More unusually, a paper bag with a smiling face drawn on it was placed over his head.

The paper bag is referenced in a local urban legend about a paper bag-clad man who promises crying girls a way to smile forever before strangling them and leaving them wearing his signature smiling bag. However, more realistically, it harkens back to a series of murders 18 years prior to the start of the game, where girls were found strangled in the grinning headwear.

The plot gets a few wrenches thrown into the gears. First, the original serial murder victims were all girls, whereas this one was a boy. The boy was also strangled with a rope or cord, while the girls were bare-handed. However, the fact that the original victims were found wearing paper bags was kept out of the press, so the likelihood of a copycat is rather low. So, it’s time to pound the pavement.

I want to stress that Emio is not an investigative game. It’s purely a mystery visual novel about detectives. You don’t have much agency when it comes to figuring things out; you’re mostly along for the ride. I don’t say this to disparage the game. I just want to set expectations.

However, the format does get in the way. You generally go around interrogating people, and this takes the form of asking questions, looking at stuff, and thinking. You’re sometimes given a list of questions, and you kind of just click through them. You ask about one subject, and eventually, the person you’re talking to just starts repeating themself. So you start asking about something else, and when you stop getting new information, you think, and that unlocks more. It’s not a far cry from the format of the first two games, but I’m not sure it was worth keeping it for continuity’s sake.

Murder aside, Emio is kind of a cozier detective game. The subject matter is grim, but the story isn’t told with much tension. I think telling you what the story doesn’t have in comparison to what you might expect could ruin the surprises more than telling you what it does, so I’m going to refrain from doing that. Instead, I’ll illustrate it like this:

There is an early scene in the game where you wait for a bus. This isn’t a timed thing. It doesn’t have really much impact on the narrative. To get through it, you do the exact same thing you do everywhere else: you poke through the menu to try and find the options that move things forward. It’s long, quiet, and somewhat comical. It’s not padding, nor is it significant. It’s just more time to spend with the protagonist in a way that makes them relatable.

And there are a few of these scenes throughout. Conversations with characters that don’t really have any meaning or significance. There are characters without any meaning or significance. There’s a scene where a character keeps wincing in pain, and when you find out the reason for it, you discover that it wasn’t anything important or concerning. The whole story could have been told much more concisely, but it relishes in bringing you into the world. Perhaps a little too much.

It’s not even that it’s boring. Usually, when you’re trapped in a scene, there’s something fascinating about it. The characters that it’s so keen on showing are legitimately interesting and well-rounded. Suspicion is cast on so many of them that it’s easy to wonder what dark spots they have and how they tie into the overall mystery.

The main problem with its storytelling is its astounding lack of focus. It throws threads in all directions and raises so many questions, that the conclusion has to do a lot of scrambling to tie them together. A few don’t really wind up in that knot to any satisfying extent. When all is said and done it’s a bit of a mess, but manages to find paydirt where it counts.

Emio spends so much of its runtime setting up dominos just so it can satisfyingly knock them down at the end. That works in a lot of media, but video games take a lot longer to get through than a movie or even most novels. Expecting a player to stand at a bus stop for a portion of the story just so the ending hits marginally harder is a big ask.

Regardless of how I feel about Emio overall, I’m happy to have experienced it. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, publishers put a lot of thought into whether or not a game was worth localizing. We missed out on a lot of RPGs in the West because the games in the genre sold about as well as boxes of pre-chewed fingernails, and many titles didn’t have a chance because they were too Japanese. Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is both very niche and very Japanese, but Nintendo still found it worthwhile bringing it across the pond. They probably aren’t even forecasting record sales; it’s just less risky to attempt it in today’s industry.

With that said, I’m not sure Emio is going to stick with me in the same way that Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo will. If anything does cement itself in my mind, it will be its conclusion, which is so incredibly impactful, partly because you’ve spent so much time immersed in the very human side of its mystery. It’s also impactful because it’s incredibly dark in a way the rest of the narrative only hinted at. You'll just have to do some digging before you find the body.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club appeared first on Destructoid.

I've always loved the pace of turn-based tactical titles like XCOM, but find myself leaning into games akin to Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. I prefer the light-hearted approach to the genre that's generally less punishing, because I know my soldiers/characters won't fall for good on the battlefield.

That's why I like Steamworld Heist II so much, and while it definitely has its flaws, it's a great game for those who want a decent turn-based tactical time without the teeth-clenching risk of a beloved character disappearing because you made a single mistake.

SteamWorld Heist II is a terrific, turn-based tactics title that eases you into its gameplay loop before piling on complexities that serve only to make you hungry for more missions. Its bite-sized heists coupled with an expansive overworld, memorable and unique characters, banging soundtrack, and approachable job system will keep you busy for dozens of hours.

The scope of SteamWorld Heist II starts out small but grows exponentially over time, and while I feel like some of the added grind could be done away with, it's still an incredibly enjoyable experience.

SteamWorld Heist II (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5 [Reviewed], and Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Thunderful Development
Publisher: Thunderful Publishing
Released: August 8, 2024
MSRP: $26.99

Earn freedom on the open seas

After a brief introductory mission in which you meet Captain Leeway and his crew of Steambots, you're quickly shown the engrossing gameplay loop that will have you hitting just one more heist after one more heist before you're done because you can't quite bring yourself to stop.

SteamWorld Heist II's gameplay is spread out across multiple elements that gel together surprisingly well. At its heart, this is a tactical turn-based heist game in which you head out on short-ish missions around a massive map. Each mission has a rating to give you an idea of its difficulty before diving in, and the more challenging they are, the more crew you can usually bring with you.

Every heist sees your crew break into a location to try to steal loot, which sometimes takes the form of intelligence, Steambots in need of rescuing, story-specific items, or reputation. All of them feel different from one another and keep the game fresh, even if you're smashing heist after heist, chasing reputation to advance the story. You can mix things up in the moment-to-moment gameplay to make the game feel even more vibrant, with several options for how any character can approach a situation.

Every location has multiple routes for your crew to take, and enemies will be positioned along those routes that you'll need to destroy to get to the loot and escape. Each turn, your Steambot crew can make a couple of moves, such as firing and reloading, moving and firing, or throwing a grenade and healing. Crew members all have unique abilities you unlock over time as they successfully complete more and more missions, leveling up in the process.

The job system is fantastic because it's wide open for you to use your favorite characters in any role. With each mission completed, characters earn experience for those jobs, so you can swap your Steambots in and out of the roles you need rather than ending up stuck with three Engineers or Snipers for a tough mission that you desperately need a Reaper for. It's also very satisfying to see a character hit max level in multiple roles, which is easily possible thanks to an XP banking mechanic that applies XP from a fully leveled job to the next job it's possible to level when a character completes a mission in that role.

At the start of the game, you'll mostly use a Sniper to take out enemies from afar, while a close-ranged specialist Reaper cleans up after and throws a grenade in a pinch. But after hiring a few crew with your hard-earned Gallons, you'll have a shotgun-wielding Flanker Steambot who identifies the perfect flanking position and has advanced movement, or a melee specialist who can run down even the toughest Dieselbots the Navy has at its disposal.

My go-to crew for missions quickly became a Sniper, Engineer, Reaper, and Chimney, the melee-specialist. Chimney is my favorite character, because she has a can-do attitude and, once she's gained a few levels, is the best tank I've ever seen. I used her to take enemies out, which healed her, as missions began; my Sniper to hit the biggest foes from afar, and my Reaper to clean up where he could. My Engineer Steambot varied, but mostly focused on providing healing backup and the occasional potshot to finish enemies off.

Variety is the spice of life in SteamWorld Heist II, and that applies to every aspect of it. You can completely customize your crew with new weapons you find or purchase, additional items to give them new tools and buffs, and abilities like Rage, which give them more power when damaged. I found a bone sniper rifle early on in my playthrough but swapped it for a banjo rifle that had less firepower but didn't need reloading. If you get the banjo rifle, equip it immediately because it'll change your life.

Steamworld Heist II does a fantastic job of rewarding your actions with rare weapons and plenty of loot. Even when you hit the stagger points in the story that task you with completing missions to gain reputation for a story-specific reason, you feel like you're making progress in terms of equipment and skill. It's not without its punishments, though. If you tackle a couple of missions and fail to make it back to a bar to rest before being taken out by enemy ships in the overworld, you lose all of your loot. Mercifully, reputation is saved between deaths, which I appreciate because it feels like the game respects your time without being overly forgiving.

Foes are smart in every mission and move around just as much as you do. You'll have to battle turrets, captains who apply shields to other Dieselbots, sword specialists, riflebots, and even shamanbots among the Rattlers, who have replaced their metal parts with bones and can make your life an absolute nightmare.

In one mission, I found myself feeling on top of the world as, despite blaring alarms, I wiped out every Navy Dieselbot as they appeared in waves because I'd positioned my crew so well. In another, I was broken by Rattlers, who fight ferociously and can summon more soldiers to your position. You never know what you're getting into with any mission, and that feels more and more exciting as you play.

A gracious checkpoint system allows you to re-attempt a failed mission from 2-turns back, and your crew will revive after a good night's rest if destroyed. The stakes are still high though, because every mission awards Stars, Bounties, Gallons, and loot. Gallons are used to hire crew and buy weapons, Bounties help you unlock helpful special items each day, and Stars are your reputation, unlocking new rooms in bars around the overworld, but also acting as a crutch for padding out the game's length.

The reputation system definitely gives you a good reason to grind missions for stars so you can unlock the ability to buy better gear and weapons, but it feels like it's used to add time to your playthrough more than necessary. Early on in Heist II, when you're progressing quickly and butting up against the game's difficulty, the last thing you want is to play four or five missions just to push your reputation and move the story along.

Conversely, I found that the late-game is when you feel like you've mastered missions and want to push the difficulty up, which is the perfect time for the game to give you a couple of grind sessions. It's a minor inconvenience in the great scheme of things, but it definitely makes for a point before the mid-game where you feel like you can't get through missions even on the easiest difficulty and wonder what you've done wrong.

All this disappears before your first real boss encounter, though. By that point, you feel like you've got a handle on things and relish the challenge of harder missions. I found myself actively seeking out missions with the most stars to earn because I knew they'd be meaty and had the most risk for huge rewards, making my time feel worth it no matter what I was doing.

The only part of SteamWorld Heist II that doesn't live up to the quality of the rest of the game is the overworld exploration. In this mode, the screen pulls back, and you sail your submarine between areas, fighting Navy and Rattler ships with equipment you'll collect over time. It's fine and is a nice break between missions, but I always found myself dreading these travel sections and willing them to end.

It becomes more interesting over time and with upgrades, but I still never enjoyed them as much as the heist missions. It's a necessary evil, though, because the world of SteamWorld Heist II is filled with far more missions than you'll complete during the story unless you're doing a completionist run. There's so much to do, and the elation of discovering yet another new mission from which to grab every star goes some way to counteracting what I see as downsides in the overworld exploration sections.

One thing the overworld travel really does well is show you where you are in the world and where you're going. In a game about sailing the open seas and effectively being a steam-powered robot pirate, this is essential. It adds to the lore of the world without it feeling forced, so you know what everyone's talking about when they discuss the Navy's wall after seeing the imposing structure for yourself, or the frigid ice in Arctica and the monstrous discoveries you make below its waters. You also make the link between mission locations and characters you've met very quickly because names and descriptions match up well and expand the world without ever actually making it feel overwhelmingly big.

The overworld serves to make your submarine a tangible character rather than purely a base of operations. You can upgrade it and the characters you recruit from it, spending the resources you collect each day to build yourself into a formidable force. The upgrade system isn't so involved that you'll need to min/max anything, but it's impactful enough that you'll notice your speed boost, added firepower, and shout with joy when you get an extra bunk so you can recruit a new crew member.

A water crisis, a legacy, and a crew to look after

The story of SteamWorld Heist II is nice and simple and never gets in the way. Captain Leeway and his crew take his mother's submarine back from the Navy, who have been hoarding water supplies in the wake of a water crisis that's causing the steam-powered citizens of this world to rust up and die, and fight back against this authority choking the waterways to uncover the truth behind said crisis.

Every character is fantastic, from Leeway to the most unremarkable Steambot in the corner of one of the world's many bars. Thunderful did a great job of giving each of them a personality and appearance that makes them stand out. There isn't one NPC I don't have something to say about, whether it's the not-at-all obvious Navy spy telling Steambots to get free water from a suspicious outpost, or the two cloaked Steambots who look like this world's version of voodoo shamans.

As you acquire more crew members during your playthrough, you can chat with them and learn more about who they are as Steambots in the submarine. I loved checking in with everyone between missions, just in case there was some contextual story I might miss. Leeway himself is the most developed character and struggles throughout the story with the burden of his quest, the expectations everyone has of him because of his family's legacy, and the fact that he has to be brave all the time when he doesn't always want to be.

Heist II's bosses and story-essential characters are the biggest highlight. An eccentric engineer, mad scientist, Navy Commander with a grudge, and the queen of the Rattlers with more bones than sits right with me in a game with robot characters. The dialogue never goes on too long, but they all stick in your mind as you play, and they make every story beat so much better.

The areas I love the most are the bars, especially Hardwater. SteamWorld Heist II's amazing soundtrack comes to life in each one, and I spent far too long just hanging out at Steambot bars, waiting for a song to finish before heading out on a mission or ending the day. The sound design overall is also just top-notch. Part of what makes every mission feel so thrilling is the clank of your crew's feet, the harsh noise of a lock being engaged or a door closing, and the meaty shots and explosions.

Despite looking like a light indie game you might finish in a day or so on the surface, SteamWorld Heist II has surprising depth and is a game you could easily replay two or three times across the several difficulty options it offers.

SteamWorld Heist II is a phenomenal title that offers you the best when it comes to short, tactical encounters with thrilling turn-based gameplay. It's not without its frustrations when it comes to story progression, but pushing through will reveal to you a game with incredible mission variety that you can mix up even more using your crew. Thanks to its checkpoint system and no punishment for mission failure, it's incredibly approachable and opens the turn-based tactics genre up for anyone who doesn't want to play something as intense as XCOM.

The post Review: SteamWorld Heist II appeared first on Destructoid.

What happens when a game-breaking bug turns out to be a tougher fix than initially thought? If you're Chilla's Art, you delist the game on Steam and release a remake a year and a half later. The Bathhouse: Restored Edition has been rebuilt from the ground up, and now it's time to clock back in. It's time to find out if the supernatural can top the horrors of working in customer service.

The Bathhouse: Restored Edition (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Chilla's Art
Publisher: Chilla's Art
Released: August 9, 2024
MSRP: $7.99

You step into the shoes of Maina, a 23-year-old woman who's traded living in the city for running a bathhouse in the countryside. She's compelled for reasons unknown to her and takes up the position through an internal transfer that secures her an apartment as part of her employment. All in all, it sounds like a pretty good deal and is one of those things that's totally doable in your early 20s.

Upon her arrival to the perpetually stormy street that hosts her new abode and workplace, we're introduced to the Landlord. He's an uber-creep whose face looks like it was modeled on an impression of tree bark on Silly Putty. Aside from owning the apartment building Maina is staying at, he runs the bathhouse where she'll be working. It's a thinly veiled power dynamic that carries through the rest of the game, with nothing being done to subvert expectations.

The Bathhouse is about as subtle as a blunderbuss in every other aspect of its narrative. Customers are downright hostile for no reason, there's absolutely a spirit haunting the establishment, and Maina is objectified and harassed with zero recourse. All of this ties in with the gameplay mechanics to drive home the point: Maina's voice and desires don't matter and she's simply there as a "thing" to be used by the NPCs and story.

The foundation for the story, Maina's coming to this village, and the larger narrative are great concepts. However, nothing is built upon that foundation, leaving it to feel lacking. The Bathhouse clocks in at around three and a half hours to complete, which is plenty of time to tell a compelling story. Instead, our time is spent on throwaway NPCs and banal scares.

I can appreciate what Chilla's Art was trying to do here, as the concept itself is brilliant. I'm an absolute sucker for sims like House Flipper and PowerWash Simulator. Throw in a healthy dose of spookiness and you'd have to actively try to make me dislike it. So, you can imagine my disappointment when The Bathhouse managed to be subpar in both respects.

The simulator aspect has more meat on it than the horror side, which isn't saying much because running the bathhouse is about as fulfilling as the infamous bread meal shared by Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Customers come in, you take their money, give them their requested goods, and then monitor them like a hawk while maintaining the temperature of the baths.

It's this constant running around that eliminates any sense of dread or fear. Sure, there's spooky stuff happening and the occasional attempted jump scare, but I'm too busy keeping sexual deviants out and fighting with the fickle water heaters to care. The setting is fantastic, but the story and atmosphere are never allowed enough time to breathe and do their work.

It's hard to say that simply adding features will make it better, as that sounds dismissive of the effort that went into creating this artwork. It seems that Chilla's Art was so laser-focused on the core idea, that it forgot to add the details and flourish that other titles in both spaces employ to make them so engaging.

Even if the pacing was adjusted, the character models and animations are so bizarre (not in the good way) as to nullify any sense of horror. Faces and features are distorted enough to enter the uncanny valley, but never make it to the other side of artistic intent. Walking animations are stilted and some characters, who totally aren't ghosts, simply disappear.

These flaws are only exacerbated by the litany of bugs on display. Playing in full-screen mode isn't an option thanks to the borders being cut off. Motion blur can't be disabled (which is an unforgivable sin), overall performance isn't consistent with bouts of stuttering, and a few game-breaking bugs are present when trying to get specific endings.

The Bathhouse is a victim of under-delivery. It feels as though it's scared to step out of line and ultimately fails to succeed as either a sim or horror game. Had Chilla's Art really leaned into it and incorporated the horror elements as part of the sim, it could have been amazing. There was real potential to mess with the player's head in a Hideo Kojima fashion that was squandered on a subpar story focused on violence against women.

Chilla's Art has a long history of making games in this style and has built up a cult following. The developer's games are bite-sized adventures into a digital world of pulp horror. While they fill that role of inexpensive uncut gems that delight a few, I would love to see a few more passes on a title and have it really shine. As it stands, even this "restored edition" feels like a first draft rather than a finished product.

The post Review: The Bathhouse: Restored Edition appeared first on Destructoid.

I sometimes feel as though I’m deficient in the sort of nutrients found within the Ganbare Goemon series, but then I remember that I’m still playing them. New fan translations are still arriving. However, I would like to secure a future supply, and that’s where Bakeru comes in.

Or so I thought. To be straightforward with you, while the inspiration is clearly there, Bakeru is also deficient in the sort of nutrients found within Ganbare Goemon. That’s maybe not as damning as it sounds, but it definitely means you’ll need to check your expectations.

Bakeru (PC, Switch [Reviewed])
Developer: Good-Feel
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Released: September 3, 2024
MSRP: $39.99

Bakeru comes to us from Good-Feel, the folks behind Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Yoshi’s Woolly World. More relevant to this discussion is the fact that they were formed by people escaping from Konami. There are many on the team who have been involved with the development of a Ganbare Goemon game, including Etsunobu Ebisu, who helped program the second Famicom title in 1989 and whose appearance was the basis of Ebisumaru, Goemon’s sidekick.

The nucleus of the idea behind Bakeru was probably to be a spiritual successor to Ganbare Goemon. You have a blue-haired lead, he travels across a wacky version of Japan, and the antagonist is employing the strategy of holding an endless festival to enslave the population. The lead is a tanuki rather than a noble thief, and it’s modern day Japan with traditional elements rather than Edo-era Japan filled with anachronisms, but it’s close enough.

From there, the differences start stacking up. Bakeru plays very well, whereas I can’t remember playing a 3D Goemon game that didn’t feel loose and shaky. The titular character attacks with taiko drumsticks (and included drum) which are alternated between using the left and right bumpers. You don’t necessarily have to alternate, and the game is easygoing enough that you don’t have to master all the moves, but it’s perhaps more involving than bopping people with a pipe.

Unfortunately, about a dozen levels in, I realized I wasn’t having fun. You travel from prefecture to prefecture, but their representations are a little too basic. They are, of course, strange abstractions from reality (not sure why Okinawa is an underwater resort), but they’re often wide, flat corridors filled with groups of enemies.

It does get better once you clear the first act of the game. It improves enough that, while I was beginning to fear slogging through the rest of its over 50 levels, that fear was relieved after getting through the opening 16-ish levels. Progression changes so that you’re clearing regions one prefecture at a time, and more interesting level variations get dropped into the mix. I didn’t fall in love after that, but it became entertaining enough that I didn’t feel I was slogging until I had to push through the last sizeable chunk of the game for this review. Don’t do that. Play it in bits at a time.

The level design never becomes fantastic, but it does become more playful. The visual variety between prefectures can be rather vast, and new obstacles are constantly brought up, sometimes for a single level. For every two that feel token, there’s usually one that is more surprising. It wasn’t enough to fully engross me, but it keeps things enjoyable.

It can be difficult to pinpoint why Bakeru doesn’t live up to the (admittedly often rough) Ganbare Goemon series, but I think the big reason might surprise you: there are no hotels. There are no hot springs to bathe in (though there are levels set in them), nor are there stupid, pointless mini-games to waste time at. There isn’t an assortment of restaurants that all have the same function. There are no towns at all.

That may sound like it’s an unreasonable point of comparison. Bakeru doesn’t have to wholesale copy the (very malleable) formula of Goemon, it can be its own thing. A lot of the side activities in Goemon may seem superfluous. However, on reflection, they’re necessary to tie the journeys together and break up the levels. They are a vector to draw you into the game’s world, even as bizarre as it is.

Without them, you have over 50 disconnected levels. Because you never see a citizen of Japan in these prefectures (unless they’ve become those masked people), the world feels empty. As splendorous as it is, there’s a desolation to it without someone telling you that while Oracle Saitaro may be a madman, at least the invasion has gotten them off work for the day. Instead, you only hear conversations between Bakeru and the circle of friends he gathers around him. It’s rather lonely.

But even ignoring the vibes, Bakeru’s moment-to-moment gameplay isn’t spectacular. There’s platforming and new mechanics get added throughout, but nothing profound. You gain four transformations by the end of the first act, but they aren’t profound either. There were many levels where I didn’t use them at all. They’re entirely combat-oriented, except for one, so transformation is rarely a requirement. I feel like it’s a mixed opportunity to not add some sort of unique ability to each.

Despite not being exciting, the gameplay is rather polished. The framerate would drop on the Switch version, but that’s the only major blemish I saw. The visuals are clean and colorful, the controls are tight, and the combat is responsive and flows well. But I feel that’s part of the problem. It’s polished so smooth that there aren’t any edges. Bakeru’s ambition never reaches very far, so it doesn’t really stumble. Mundane but well-executed is rarely better than ambitious and wobbly.

At least the soundtrack is pretty good. Some of the tracks feel like they could have been ripped from a Ganbare Goemon game. It’s a nice mix of traditional Japanese instrumentation and video game-specific melodies.

Bakeru is a love letter to the country of Japan, that much is obvious. As I traveled the country, I was always invested in seeing how the prefectures I’ve visited are represented. I can only imagine how exciting it is for people who actually live there. One of the collectibles you gather in each level is trivia, which is a mix of facts about the area and also just weird and interesting stuff. If there’s one area that Bakeru is extremely effective, its how it portrays Japan.

Everywhere else, it’s less successful. It’s not bad. I’d even say it’s very solid. It’s just somewhat bland. In its effort to provide a smooth surface, it has sanded off a lot of personality. Despite being over 50 (rather lengthy) levels long, in a few months, I probably won’t remember much about Bakeru. It provides a loving representation of Japan, but doesn’t let you live in it. It lets you visit, but you’re not allowed to leave the resort. I'm just saying: A fight between a teapot robot and a giant onigiri is a lot more effective if you've met the people you're stepping on.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Bakeru appeared first on Destructoid.

If there's one thing I appreciate in both games and sentences, it's brevity. Johan Vinet, the solo developer behind Castaway, must share a similar appreciation. The founder of Canari Games (LUNARK) recently released his latest work, and it's a punchy little sendup to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and other portable entries that delivers on its pint-sized promise.

Anyone who has ever played a portable Zelda game will find welcome familiarity in the opening scene of Castaway. When we first gain control of our plucky little hero, he finds himself coming to on a desolate beach. Unlike Link, though, he ended up there after his spaceship plummeted from the sky. Not only was his ship busted, but some rogue pterodactyls saw fit to nick his key items and — please cover John Wick's eyes for this part — his beloved dog.

While our hero's road to retribution is far more G-rated than Wick's, he still needs to pick up a weapon and hit the puzzle-filled trails to get his gear and his pup back. The top-down action that follows serves as a charming homage to Nintendo's action-RPG series. Castaway is brilliantly colorful — perfectly mimicking the Game Boy Color aesthetic of titles like Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages — and offers a taste of adventure that's just potent enough to make its hour-ish runtime satisfying.

All told, Martin will pick up three key items during his journey. Naturally, it all starts with a sword; perfect for clobbering creepy crawlers that dash at you in a few different forms. There's the standard four-legged enemy, a slightly tougher version that splits into tiny baby creatures, and one encased in stone. The latter will require your second key item: The pickaxe. A trusty hookshot rounds things out, and by the time you get that you'll be able to solve any conundrum this small but mighty island can throw your way.

Beyond a modest handful of enemy types, there are a few bosses to contend with before the credits roll. For the most part, they act as echoes of foes we've all fought in the past. There's a nefarious snake that reveals its weak spot after hitting both heads. There's a sea monster — which may or may not be the same snake, just submerged this time — and so on. The bosses are the perfect summation of what is essentially a light sampler platter of ideas that all beg for some form of expansion.

While some may balk at the idea of an hour-long game, Castaway explores just the right amount of concepts before it comes to a close. It might not be that easy to overlook if other options weren't in place, but there's a bit more to dig into beyond the main game. In addition to toggling various difficulty options — including an "Unfair" mode that only lets you take one hit before dying — there's a Speedrun mode for those who want to roll through as fast as possible. 

The real meat lies in The Tower. This is the other side of the coin to Castaway's quest, giving players two hearts and tasking them with making it as far as they can up an increasingly challenging tower. Those who have mastered similar games shouldn't have too much trouble, but it's a great way to keep the action going. You'll also get to spend more time with all of your items, just in case you felt like the hookshot came in a bit too late to make the most of it.

When everything comes together, Castaway feels just substantial enough to recommend. Many will still find it too short, but it's not all bad if your only real complaint is that you want more. I love projects like this, and it's something I'd be keen to see more of in the future. You can really tell when a developer is channeling something they adore and doing their best to put their own spin on it and show everyone what they can do with a specific set of tools. If this proves successful, I really hope Vinet is afforded the opportunity to revisit the world, or at least one in the same vein. For now, though, at least I can rest easy knowing I got my dog back before it even had time to miss me. 

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Castaway appeared first on Destructoid.

One of my favorite things about gaming is the incredible variety of genres, difficulties, and accessibility. It's like if Baskin Robbins wasn't relegated to producing only ice cream and decided to get real weird with the flavors.

With the AAA bubble collapsing inward, indie studios like KeelWorks are rising up to take in disenfranchised gamers. Can this studio knock it out of the park with its debut shmup, CYGNI: All Guns Blazing, or will it succumb to the trappings plaguing the industry at large?

CYGNI: All Guns Blazing (PC [Reviewed], PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: KeelWorks
Publisher: Konami
Released: August 5, 2024
MSRP: $29.99

Reading the promotional material for CYGNI: All Guns Blazing will have you beaten over the head about how pretty the shoot 'em up is. It feels like a magician trying to distract the audience with one hand while preparing the trick with the other. While the distraction is indeed quite gorgeous, this ultimately undermines the other aspects of the performance. It quickly becomes apparent more time should have been spent making the gameplay equally beautiful.

CYGNI: All Guns Blazing has a hard time deciding its tone. The pilot is rendered in a style very reminiscent of Pixar films like Big Hero 6 and for reasons which elude me, the opening cinematic even features a gratuitous shot of her pulling her pants up over a thong-clad bottom. It's such a weird inclusion that instantly makes this hard to recommend for a younger audience, despite there being nothing remotely sexual for the rest of the game.

Cinematics are either fully rendered affairs or illustrations with minimal movement, akin to cost-saving measures seen in titles like Destiny 2 or World of Warcraft's later expansions. Levels, the pilot's ship, and enemies are otherwise rendered in a more realistic way with the bosses looking like the offspring between a chainsaw and an H. R. Geiger illustration. It's simply all over the place and much like myself in college, is beautiful, yet confusing.

The narrative is oddly present for something riding in the back seat while visuals and gameplay sit up front. It's clear a not-insignificant amount of time was spent creating the world of CYGNI and crafting the lore of using alien technology to bolster humanity's own. I found the concept of these eldritch mechanical beings slumbering until humanity awoke them by harvesting their "corpses" fascinating. Unfortunately, it only exists to set up a bare-bones explanation of why we're shooting these aliens.

In terms of gameplay, CYGNI: All Guns Blazing could have benefited from more time in the oven. There is an overwhelming amount of shallow mechanics at play. Instead of forcing the tutorial on players, this option is off to the side and ultimately sets the player up for failure. This is compounded by the fact that the first stage is arguably the most difficult and longest. It's a trial by fire that will leave all but the most masochistic a trifle aggravated.

The biggest issue with CYGNI's gameplay is balancing. There's no even progression and you'll be punished for things you don't know exist. With the first level feeling more like an endgame level, players aren't able to acclimate themselves to the various systems and mechanics. Even worse, you're going into it underpowered for what it is.

Unless you're playing on Easy, you'll only have one life through levels that are upwards of 20 minutes long, have no checkpoints, and will have you tackling multiple bosses. Unlike other games in the genre, there's no point system where you can gain another life. Should you run into a barrier that appears out of nowhere and immediately die, it's too bad.

This, in turn, has a negative impact on the upgrades, which are crucial to surviving missions. Enemies have a chance to drop Energy Points on death. These points are used to replenish shields, increase firepower, or fire missiles. They are also used to purchase upgrades. This means that you'll be forced to walk that line between using points to survive and saving enough to actually enhance your ship. Don't die though as all of those points disappear like a fart in the wind should you die.

Sadly, the upgrades are mostly useless. Side drones increase outgoing damage and additional homing missiles are great, but everything else is moot. For example, CYGNI has a layered approach to combat in that you'll need to deal with foes in the air and on the ground. However, you can only attack one layer at a time and it's incredibly rare not to be fighting both simultaneously.

Attacks against ground troops are weak, even with upgrades, and more often than not it's better to simply ignore ground troops so as not to be completely overwhelmed by splitting your attention. Hell, giving me the option to change my ground attack to something like a carpet bomb would have been a thousand times better.

Finally, your ultimate, the Shield Blast, might as well not be a thing. This attack uses your shields to unleash a screen-wide AoE that obliterates everything. The problem is that enemy reinforcements quickly repopulate and you no longer have a shield. Should you get tagged by a stray shot before you can replenish them, that's it. You're done. Time to start over.

Not being a masochist, I opted to play on Easy with the intent of purchasing upgrades and then tackling harder difficulties. With a few choice upgrades, Easy became just that. Yet, attempting Medium is a fool's errand as that core balancing issue rears its ugly head. There are simply too many enemies, too many projectiles without any meaningful evasive maneuvers, and the levels are way too long. Honestly, you could bisect each level and end it with one of the enjoyable boss fights and it would be so much better.

All of this then makes me reconsider the $30 asking price. All in all, it took me about four hours to beat the campaign, unlock all of the upgrades, and replay it a few times over. Sure, there's a local co-op and an Arcade Mode that's just a points-driven version of the campaign, but it's lacking too much to ask that much money.

Perhaps if it was balanced better, had more meaningful upgrades, or strove to play as well as it looks, it might be worth it. As it stands, I'd say wait for a sale and don't bother paying more than $15. It's a fun way to kill an afternoon and gives you a taste of the genre, but that's about it. Here's hoping that developer KeelWorks can learn from its debut effort and bring its gameplay design to the same level as its visuals.

The post Review: CYGNI: All Guns Blazing appeared first on Destructoid.

Earth Defense Force 6 is among the strangest games I’ve ever played. I don’t mean strange in an Earth Defense Force kind of way; I’m no stranger to EDF. To explain how fascinating this game is, I’m going to get deep into spoiler territory. There’s no way around it.

For those of you who would rather not have the game spoiled, here’s a spoiler-free summary of my thoughts: It’s Earth Defense Force 5 if one of its developers woke up from a fever dream with deranged inspiration for how to extend it by nearly 150 missions. Even if you finished EDF 5 a few months ago, you might go into EDF 6 and not see much has changed aside from more dirt, a new narrative, and a couple of other small additions. It is not much of an upgrade, but you couldn’t ask for a better continuation.

But calling EDF 6 a continuation is greatly underselling it. It does, for better and worse, build directly on top of the previous game, but it does so in such a novel and bizarre way that you can’t help but forgive it.

Earth Defense Force 6 (PS4, PS5, PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Sandlot Games
Publisher: D3Publisher
Released: July 25, 2024
MSRP: $59.99

In terms of non-spoilers that I can tell you, I might as well cover some of the things in the trailers. Earth Defense Force 6 starts off a few years after the last game. Humanity drove the invading Primers off. However, the war took a massive toll and left the world in ruins. With only 10% of the population remaining, humanity is struggling and failing to get society working again. There has been no rebirth of civilization.

You start off trying to protect these ruins from monsters who were left behind after the invasion. It’s established that you’re playing as the same protagonist from the last game. Even though you “saved” the Earth, only one scientist dude remembers you, and he dresses like one of the executives from American Psycho for some reason.

It’s bleak. Your commanding officer keeps commending you and your teammates for avoiding civilian casualties, even though the city you protect is just burnt-out ruins without a person in sight. Like in most EDF games, they make a big deal when the newest, hottest tech is being rolled out on the battlefield, but when it actually does, it’s just recycled mech torsos mounted on the back of trucks. It’s an amusing bit of self-awareness that manages to hammer home how much humanity’s victory really sucks.

At this point, the game is just EDF in grey-brown ruins. It still features gameplay centered around defeating hordes of monsters and picking up the weapons and armor that fall out of their pockets. There are four classes – Ranger, Wing Diver, Air Raider, and Fencer – the same as there was in the last two games. The new terrain isn’t pleasant to look at, but it does feel unique compared to the cities of previous games.

That’s it. EDF in wrecked cities is all you get for a little over a dozen missions in the beginning.

Okay, so now we’re going into spoiler territory, and this is where things get really weird. 

The Primers show up for a second invasion since humanity is already on its last legs. The storytelling gets a bit sketchy at this point, but the important detail is that humanity is fucked. There aren’t enough people left to mount a defense against the Primers’ renewed attack.

As a last ditch, you and your fellow soldiers attempt to bring down a big, ring-like ship. However, when you destroy its flashing weak spot, you’re suddenly transported back in time. Back in time to Earth Defense Force 5.

That isn’t hyperbole. You quite literally, with no stretching of the truth, get taken back to the EDF 5 mission, "Turning Point". Some of the dialogue is tweaked slightly in a very sly way that actually ties into the new narrative, but note-for-note, the mission is exact. I could show you side-by-side screenshots of the EDF 5 and EDF 6 versions, and only the slightly different HUD would tip you off as to which was which. Even the placement of the cars in parking lots is the same. It is the same map, it is the same mission.

At this point, it’s hard to tell if this is extremely stupid or remarkably genius, which is generally how I’d define the Earth Defense Force series as a whole.

If you find recycling of assets from previous games vexing (I don’t know why it would), then Earth Defense Force 6 will break you.

I want to be clear: Sandlot isn’t going to make you play through EDF 5 again. Things quickly diverge. You may think that the first thing you do after arriving from the future is warn people and impart your knowledge of the enemy’s glowing weak spots, but there’s fat chance of that. You’re a silent protagonist, after all. What are you going to do? Communicate through emotes?

Instead, it’s the aliens who are trying to change the future. They send back their latest human-killing tech to make sure they win this time, and they do, so you eventually wind up right back at the start of the EDF 6 but in an even bleaker situation where humanity just lost. 

As it turns out, the guy dressed like the executive vice president of the company joined you on your quest backward through time. So, he convinces you to attack the ring-ship at the same moment you did last time, which sends you back in time again to the same moment. You once again get remixes of EDF 5.

This time, everyone thinks you’re so damned amazing because you know the weakness to all the monsters. You’re basically Doomguy at this point; killing aliens and giant ants has been all you’ve done for years, so you’re just amazing at it. The scientist dressed like an accountant also uses his future knowledge to introduce new weapons into the EDF’s arsenal in an attempt to change fate.

And that’s what Earth Defense Force 6 is. It’s Groundhog’s Day with giant ants and bigger firepower. But what is stranger is that it works.

My biggest problem with the Earth Defense Force games has always been the repetition of the titles. They’re invariably a million missions long, and the formula begins to wear thin. The addition of new classes, dynamic enemies that will run away or try to flank you, and lots of big glowing weak points have done a lot to stretch the formula, but by the time you hit the fiftieth mission, most of the grass has been worn down to a brown, dusty path. EDF 6 is approximately 2 million missions long (147, to be exact), and this is still a problem.

Where the constant moving back in time helps things is that you’re repeatedly pushing through EDF microcosms. Each loop is still long, but it leaves you waiting in anticipation to see how things will be different. Humanity keeps getting its ass kicked, but will this finally be the loop where things change? How are they going to get out of this pickle? It’s easier to be patient when it’s only, like, 30 or 40 missions to find out.

The fact that the narrative also has you break from the series’ usual super-competent but otherwise common soldier approach also helps you feel powerful. Each time you get sent back to EDF 5, your commanding officers and fellow soldiers become more and more bewildered and impressed that you know how to shoot at obvious weak points. It’s easy for a protagonist to get lost in the story of a world getting burnt to cinders beneath the heel of an unstoppable threat, but Earth Defense Force 6 slowly builds you up until you are clearly a worthy adversary against a world-ending invasion.

That’s not to say that the storytelling is any better in EDF 6. Pretty much every development is told through conversations on the radio that you’re not any part of. Much of the dialogue is entirely daft to the point where you can’t tell when it’s being deliberately ridiculous and when it’s trying to be somewhat serious. On other occasions, it’s difficult to know if a character is trying to communicate important information or if they’re making an in-character, off-base observation that isn’t based in the reality of the plot.

You can, at least, catch enough of the gist to understand what is going on. Tannoy is just a very distracting way of telling a story.

It’s extremely disjointed. Things never really flow from one mission to the next, and NPCs rarely mention previous events. It also does that thing that happens in every EDF where you can’t kill something until it’s the designated time to do so. It’s impressive that Earth Defense Force 6 (and all games in the core series) tell grand stories without the use of cutscenes, setpieces, or relatable characters, but it doesn’t mean it does it particularly well.

Going into Earth Defense Force 6, I didn’t expect I’d spend this much time talking about the narrative. If I listed what I love about the series, its story would be extremely low on that list. However, it’s amazing how much a different narrative framework improved the formula. The gameplay is still extremely repetitive, and the constant feed of new monster types only does so much to keep it fresh. But the constant unpredictable twists and turns give reason enough to dig through its almost 150 levels. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, it pulls out something completely bizarre.

That said, I still wish Sandlot would shake things up. A metagame framework, like something from an XCOM game, would do a lot to lift up the destruction and violence. Failing that, we’re long overdue for a new Robot Alchemic Drive.

Earth Defense Force 6 is easily the best game the series has seen so far, and it attains that title in an unexpected way. While its gameplay could be charitably described as a continuation of EDF 5 (or a complete rehash, if you want to be mean for some reason), the way it uses its narrative to repeatedly spin things in surprising ways drastically changes the feel and flow of the mission-to-mission gameplay. It’s still the same loveable mix of possibly deliberate tokusatsu campiness and jank, but something’s different this time. If you've never been able to decide if the EDF series is completely stupid or remarkably brilliant, this will keep you wondering, but also fascinated.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Earth Defense Force 6 appeared first on Destructoid.

Sam & Max is something that I love and I wish it was more popular. However, I know that if it actually did become more popular, I’d probably become fatigued quite quickly and stop loving it as much. Sometimes we don’t know what’s good for us.

However, it has been 14 years since the last Sam & Max adventure. Unless you count 2021’s Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual, which I don’t because my eyes have not yet been tainted by VR. That last time was Telltale’s Sam & Max: Season 3: The Devil’s Playhouse, which is the last game in Skunkape Games’ remastering effort.

Back when it launched, I really dug into Season 3. I was enraptured, but because of its episodic nature, I got halfway through the third episode before losing momentum and never finishing the rest. So, I was happy to get a reason to try again, and it was worth it since this was easily the best season of Telltale’s series.

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (PC [Reviewed], Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, Switch)
Developer: Skunkape Games, Telltale
Publisher: Skunkape Games
Released: August 14, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

If you’re not familiar with Sam & Max, it’s really difficult to describe. They’re Freelance Police, which puts them in a position to abuse their dubious power, and they’re chaotic enough to do it. The pair are essentially a twisted vaudeville act, with Sam acting as the straight man and Max being violently unrestrained. The absurd and loose premise means that continuity and worldbuilding aren’t very important, and they can be dropped into essentially any sort of story.

The Devil’s Playhouse is a pretty strong example of this, as the five episodes meander across different tones and genres. The first, titled “The Penal Zone,” has shades of B-movie sci-fi. The second is a period adventure. The third kicks off as film noir before abruptly transitioning into something harder to describe. There’s an overarching plot that is a lot more Lovecraftian, but it all threatens to turn on a dime at any moment.

Strangely, the Telltale series, including The Devil’s Playhouse, are among the more subdued takes on the series. Other titles are a little more sugar-energized, including 1993’s Sam & Max: Hit the Road, which was the blueprint for Telltale’s point-and-click adventure approach. The Telltale games have much more dialogue, which slows down the manic pace. This isn’t a big issue. I just think comparison within one franchise is neat. If that makes me boring, well, I thought that was already established.

Despite its more casual gait, the story doesn’t lack in weirdness. It involves Earth being invaded by a talking space gorilla while Max, the hyperkinetic rabbity thing, gains psychic powers from touching a View-Master. The next five episodes center around an artifact called “The Devil’s Toybox” and the Toys of Power it contains. The plot then meanders through all kinds of cosmic horror.

What makes The Devil’s Playhouse a bit more appealing than the previous seasons – especially now that they’ve been remastered – is the fact that it sticks better to an overarching plot. All of the episodes end in some sort of effective cliffhanger. Despite this, each one feels unique and adds its own twist.

The second episode, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, has you take the role of the pair’s early-20th-century grandparents, Sameth and Maximus. It’s interesting, as you follow the story in a non-linear fashion by switching between film reels and bringing knowledge in later reels back to earlier ones to solve puzzles.

The third episode, They Stole Max’s Brain, opens with Sam going full film noir and savagely interrogating people on the streets. The film noir motif hits the brakes too early, which is unfortunate because it’s a memorable detour. Characters reacting to his depressing monologues is one of the funniest moments in the game. But there I go, wishing for too much of a good thing again.

The Devil’s Playhouse subscribes to the early formula for Telltale’s adventures, which was informed by the older Lucasarts’ point-and-click games. The problem with Telltale’s early adventures was that they were just okay from a gameplay perspective. As much as I love the Sam & Max games and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, it’s mostly for their sights and sounds and not the puzzles.

While it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why they’re underwhelming, I think it’s mainly from how they’re communicated. In older adventure titles, the scenes would often be set in a way that draws focus to your goals. There would be something obvious in the background, a character that is repeating their actions, or just a number of clearly interactive objects. Sometimes, you’d need to explore to get context, but usually, you knew where your focus should be.

Telltale’s Sam & Max games are more about exploring to get context. Often, you need to talk to everyone possible and look at everything in the environment to figure out what strange thing is central to your next problem. This might be partially a problem with the episodic format since backdrops get repeatedly reused and can’t be set up in such a particular way.

The puzzle design isn’t terrible by any means. They just aren’t as satisfying as they should be. That makes the requisite exploration a little more boring.

The narrative of The Devil’s Playhouse is, overall, the best of the three Telltale seasons, but its final episode is rather disappointing. While it has a great setup, it feels like the story required a longer runtime to tell properly. It introduces new story threads quickly, then brushes them aside even faster. Characters from previous seasons show up without reintroduction. Meanwhile, the ending was so poorly cut together that I had to watch it twice to figure out what had happened.

Speaking of which, the final twist is then brought up and almost accidentally resolved. It seems that point-and-click adventure games have a tendency to trip up during the climax, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. However, all the ingredients to a satisfying conclusion were there, they just didn’t get enough time to bake. I hate to repeat myself, but it’s disappointing.

The result is a series of episodes that I enjoyed but won’t be in a hurry to return to, though I’m certain I will eventually. I love Sam & Max, and even if The Devil’s Playhouse isn’t them at their peak, it is enjoyable enough to witness as a fan. I’m at least happy that I finished the season this time.

That’s sort of how it was when The Devil’s Playhouse was released. Telltale made a lot of solid but unspectacular point-and-click games, and Sam & Max lived in that era. It was followed by the solid but unspectacular Back to the Future: The Game and the somewhat disastrous Jurassic Park: The Game before we wound up on their seminal The Walking Dead. At that point, their formula changed completely as they sped toward death by mismanagement.

But even if unspectacular, it’s easy to love the games from Telltale’s early days, and it’s obvious that the developers at Skunkape do. While you can still tell that the game was first released in 2010, the glow-up is substantial and effective in making it feel more at home amongst its modern peers. I’m still hoping that, now that the Sam & Max games have been remastered (and assuming their next move isn’t to make a brand new entry), they look at remastering my beloved Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. A girl can dream.

The remaster of The Devil’s Playhouse is a loving polishing that lives up to the standards of the previous Skunkape efforts. Better yet, Season 3 is easily the best one. If you’re looking to get into the series, it’s probably still better to jump in at Season 1. If you’ve been along for the ride this long, then you won’t be disappointed. The Telltale Sam & Max series may not be the most mindblowing point-and-clicks you’ll ever witness, but after playing through the first two seasons, you owe it to yourself to cap it off. Can’t think of a reason not to.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse appeared first on Destructoid.

Dredge is a fabulous indie cosmic horror fishing game that eases you in with a solid fishing mechanic and a few mutated catches. The story and gameplay are engrossing and had me hooked from start to finish, which is why I'm so glad that its latest and final DLC, The Iron Rig, is the best excuse to start a new save file.

Dredge: The Iron Rig is both a story and world expansion for the base game that manages to preserve the core experience to the point that you'll have a better time with it if you restart the game instead of continuing on from a near-complete playthrough. The DLC's focal point is a huge oil rig that's visible from every part of the map, looming in the distance like some great metal giant just waiting to come to life and chase you across the seas. Mercifully, The Iron Rig doesn't do that. It does something much more sinister.

Dredge: The Iron Rig (PC [Reviewed], Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Black Salt Games
Publisher: Team 17
Released: August 15, 2024
MSRP: $11.99/£11.99

A new world beneath the surface

You can't access The Iron Rig in Dredge until you've reached the base game's third major location. This ensures you know what you're doing and have most of the equipment you'll need when you finally decide to visit the hulking metal structure. This is the DLC's greatest strength, because it helps keep the base game's story and progression intact. The way you slowly gain new technology and upgrades through the story helps you master them all, and The Iron Rig is all about increasing your power, so it wouldn't do for it to break that progression right off the bat.

You will notice the impact of the DLC from the very first moment you set sail on a new save file, though. Strange crates now appear in specific locations all over the map. Of course, the game teaches you to dredge up anything and everything you can, so these crates quickly fill up your storage as you hold onto them for a rainy day. That rainy day is your arrival at the oil rig just after reaching Stellar Basin.

The crates you've collected are used to build and unlock parts of the rig, allowing you to meet and greet the odd new characters it introduces. They're just as strange and haunted as the residents of every other location in the game, but each one seems to be trying to escape their past. They add a lot more flavor to a playthrough, and I had a great time working with them to unlock new features of the rig and use their services.

After a short while, the true nature of The Iron Rig is revealed. Once operational, the oil rig inadvertently causes a huge rift in the bedrock under the seas you thought you knew so well. This causes a thick black substance to bubble to the surface and forces new fish species to return to the ocean, having only previously appeared as fossils. It's obvious Black Salt Games had a blast with these creatures because you've got ancient fish, crustaceans, and even things we don't fully understand in 2024, like the Tully Monster.

As you might expect, you'll pick up quests that revolve around these new species and that dark substance, but the base game's undercurrent of cosmic horror only grows with this new development. You have no idea what's going on, and the DLC's events only worsen over time, adding to the overarching narrative of this cursed collection of islands.

The most important thing about the way The Iron Rig's story evolves over time is that it follows Dredge's natural progression. It takes you through each area of the game in the same order you follow in the base story, which felt like it let me see them all in a completely new light. The progression also plays into the equipment you need to use in these areas as they change over time. Despite having already completed an area, you'll need to improve your equipment with strange new rods and gear if you want to return and advance The Iron Rig's story.

While some residents of previously visited locations will mention Ironhaven and the dark ooze covering their local waters, many others don't. I found this a little stranger than is usual for Dredge, just because these are massive alterations to the environment, and I expected to see more mentions of it in dialogue. However, this is an odd game with odd characters who fit just as well in the world, whether they mention changes to their surroundings or not.

The Iron Rig's characters more than make up for this, though. They're incredibly chatty and strange and toe the line between unnerving you and making you feel like a firm friend. They're super unsettling and don't feel like a part of any of Dredge's communities. This fits perfectly because they're outsiders, so they shouldn't be similar to any of the locals. Black Salt Games hit the nail on the head with them because they really are this cosmically haunted world's definition of a rag-tag group of outsiders, all clearly hiding from their past or attempting to hide their intentions in the most remote location in the world. The problem for them is that location has just as many secrets as they do.

The Iron Rig gives you more reasons to fish and dredge up materials, but it can be a bit of a slog if you don't utilize the new gadgets you can grab from the rig. Standard equipment like trawler nets and crab pots are altered to allow you to gather the thick black liquid rising up from the deep and collect the materials strewn throughout the ocean by crashed ships. You'll also need a new set of rods to catch every new fish and crustacean the dark liquid brings with it because the infusions the rig provides protect your line from the unknown substance.

This speeds up progression through both the base game and DLC somewhat, but with the added seven hours or so The Iron Rig tacks onto the base game, it doesn't feel any less meaty. I tried to play through the DLC's story in tandem with the base game, and nothing ever felt like busywork. The initial story helps you grasp the basics, and The Iron Rig lets you stretch your wings, so to speak.

For all the new technology The Iron Rig adds and the renewed speed at which you can get it, Dredge's attention to detail may be its own downfall when it comes to the DLC. After acquiring upgrades for my engines that added new abilities but also massively increased my speed, I found that traversing the world actually became more difficult. I kept bumping into rocks that I never hit even when my boat was fully upgraded in the base game.

I want to stress that this only happened in a couple of areas, such as the Collector's island and locations where there are many objects to dodge as you travel. It's not a dealbreaker by any stretch, but it did frustrate me because I knew I shouldn't be ramming these things, and the only difference is that The Iron Rig has given my boat more power than I can clearly handle.

I fell in love with Dredge all over again while playing The Iron Rig. It completes the game in a way I never thought I needed and makes it feel brand new. Every point that the base game made about humanity's impact on the world and the unknown implications from...well, the unknown, is heightened by the DLC. It's the perfect reason to replay, a fantastic excuse to stay in bed all weekend and play a cozy horror game, and a new way to make yourself wonder about what's lurking out of sight the next time you look out at the vastness of the ocean.

The post Review – Dredge: The Iron Rig appeared first on Destructoid.

I had dreams and aspirations once. Good times. However, they’ve never included becoming a drift, err… dryft racer. That’s a long and daunting path. I’d probably need to get my driver’s license first.

Dryft City Kyngs doesn’t require those sorts of credentials. All you need is to sell your soul, buy whatever wreck is available, and use whatever skill you have in a desperate attempt to find meaning in life. Too real, guy. Too real.

Dryft City Kyngs (PC)
Developer: magicdweedoo, Nonsense Machine
Publisher: magicdweedoo, Nonsense Machine
Released: June 13, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

Dryft City Kyngs is the story of the offspring of a former Dryft Lord. Your mother really wants you to follow in your footsteps, but being the disappointment you are, you wait until adulthood to really make an attempt.

After a flashback to motherly drill training, you spend an indeterminable amount of time in suspended animation (I assume) before finally getting shunted out into reality (such as it is) to get a job and a car. I’m not sure why your character took this long to do those things, but that’s where you come in.

A great deal of setup in Dryft City Kyngs is hilariously randomized. Your avatar’s name is created by gluing together three random syllables, often resulting in bizarre monikers. the company you work for is selected from a mash of random, meaningless, market-friendly-ish words. Even your job interview is an automatic discussion made from random questions and answers.

It sets up a bizarre and forgivingly loose framework. “Loose” is one of the descriptors I’d apply to Dryft City Kyngs. Because of all its complicated randomization, nothing feels solid. Nothing feels important. And that feels amazing.

When you wake up in the morning, it’s time to go to work. You jog over to the building, check your workstation, and start chipping away at your pile, completing the small selection of tasks for the day. I don’t think you have to do your job. I’m not sure there’s a way to be fired, nor have I been reprimanded by the boss or co-workers. However, I also didn’t push very hard because I legitimately enjoyed going to work in Dryft City Kyngs.

The things you do at work are as bizarrely depicted as most everything in the game. Tasks include mashing buttons to write a program, creating a pointless logo, or performing the all-important coffee run. It’s a distressingly insightful look at the conformity of office culture. Doing your job gets you paid, which is only somewhat important early in the game. The best way to earn money is just to complete the races.

Your car starts off with low stats, but gradually, you earn chips that you can spend to upgrade its stats. These come hard and fast in the beginning. If you put your chips into speed and acceleration and learn how to time your nitro boosts, then the races are inconsequentially easy to win. You can complete three of them in a day, which pays substantially more than your job. You can also complete quests for your “friends,” which also doesn’t pay well, but I enjoy pretending to be popular and reliable.

The story has you attempting to defeat the Dryft Lords so you can confront the Dryft Kyng and take their crown. You may find this surprising, but you don’t actually need to beat the Lords in a race. They each have challenges, which usually involve driving, but not actually racing. Drifting, for that matter, is optional, though maybe “dryft” isn’t actually a stylization and isn’t related to the manipulation of traction and momentum.

You go from chapter to chapter, tracking down a Dryft Lord, then getting them to hand over the challenge. It’s a breezy game. By default, there’s an objective pointer that you can always follow, which makes the actual exploration aspect of the game somewhat pointless. On the other hand, the fact that the objectives are sometimes unclear, it’s almost necessary.

The problem there is that Dryft City Kyngs doesn’t really require much connection. There’s a lot there that you don’t need to do, and that means that, for the most part, you can just follow the objective marker to the end credits. You’d have to be a very boring person to do that, but I also feel that a certain amount of friction is necessary to create a compelling experience. Dryft City Kyngs has very little resistance. Having content is fine, but if it isn’t meaningful, then neither is the experience.

The lack of connection could be a massive problem, but because Dryft City Kyngs is laid back about most things, it never becomes a chore. The driving physics are so enjoyable that completing side challenges or repeating the same few tracks repeatedly is slow to feel mundane. Even bouncing around the city, deflecting off buildings, and running over pedestrians so hard they combust is a joy. Your pockets are endlessly deep, so visiting a store and buying a bunch of everything ensures you can complete sidequests easily.

It also makes up for many of its shortcomings with its boundless personality. Your job feels pointless, but it does so well in depicting the vapidity of office culture that it’s almost the best part of the game. If you don’t refill your health or energy meters, your character will lose consciousness and be taken to the hospital. You’re charged a fee, but you can continually ask to have it put on your “tab,” then just never pay it in a sly way that deliberately undermines what would be an annoying penalty for forgetting to eat.

This is complemented by an art style that looks like it was torn from a ‘90s teenager’s notebook. It’s like the whole game was drawn by the last remaining illustrator of POGs. It’s drawn with obnoxious colors and features characters that are as fascinating as they are ugly. It speaks to me.

As much as I enjoyed Dryft City Kyngs, I do wish certain elements got better attention, and everything fit together better. If everything was that well executed, it would be perfect. If the side-questing and life simulator facets were more meaningful, it would be divine. However, that’s ignoring the fact that it attempts so much already and has a lot of intricacies for a title developed by a small team.

So, what we got is the closest thing to the DS/GBA version of The Urbz since the DS/GBA version of The Urbz. I mean that as a very flattering compliment.

The intentionally lackadaisical attitude and random dialogue elements was more than enough to keep me glued. The off-kilter world and solid dialogue heightened the experience. And the fact that I want more from Dryft City Kyngs is proof enough that it’s worth playing. It’s unique and joyful, effortlessly combining the weird with the mundane.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Dryft City Kyngs appeared first on Destructoid.

Any time an expansion pack releases, it goes one of two ways: yet another Sims 4 binge, or a measly one-day playthrough. So, when Sims 4 Lovestruck made its debut, I was curious to see where it would fall on this spectrum. 

I had my initial doubts about it, given that past DLCs haven't exactly hit the mark. But after spending around a week with it, any uncertainty I had was thrown out the door. 

The minute I stepped into this new pack, I immediately noticed a change in romantic relationships. It refreshes the Sims 4's age-old mechanics and instills a much more realistic concept. Simply put, it makes the dating world exceptionally entertaining, with a sprinkle of mature content. Sorry, kids, you'll have to sit this one out. 

The Sims 4: Lovestruck (PC [Reviewed], PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Maxis Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: July 25, 2024
MSRP: $39.99

Lovestruck's biggest selling point is, of course, romance. It broadens the scope of what the game already has with relationships and dials it up a notch. In the past, Sims 4's romance department was a breeze; talk for a few hours, and viola, you're now married, with a kid already on the way. But with Lovestruck, it's much more complex than that, with the expansion's integration of dating activities, Attraction, Turn-Ons/Turn-Offs, and so much more.

Attraction and Turn-On/Turn-Offs tie in together, determining how Sims react to one another. In Create a Sim, you'll see a new section that allows you to select romantic dislikes/likes. It can be major themes, such as certain career goals and distinct personality types. There are also a few minor things, from outfits to hair colors. So, if your Sim walks past someone with, let's say, blue hair, don't be surprised at them for wanting to profess their love right then and there if their likes line up.

The more another Sim encompasses your character's favorite Turn-Ons, the more likely they are to fall in love. But just like in real life, not everyone you meet will be compatible with them. I had one Sim wholly head-over-heels for someone until they got the ick from the other being unemployed. It's a harsh world (even in the Sims), yet I find content like this utterly relatable and realistic. I've heard and lived through similar occurrences in the real world, so to see it come to life in The Sims 4 makes the game much more inviting.

It does raise a question, though, of why this necessary feature isn't in the base game. It's a common inquiry that seems to appear every time a Sims 4 DLC drops. For Lovestruck, I would say the Attraction level should have been a part of the vanilla version. I know we can't win them all, but at least base game users have gotten some handy tools with the recent CAS apply all and eyelashes update.  

On the other hand, I understand why these exclusive features are only available as an add-on, considering the amount of work that went into them. The dating activities and Cupid's Corner, specifically, open up a whole new world to the romance scene.

The online dating app Cupid's Corner is, without a doubt, the best mechanic in Lovestruck. Instead of going out into the world to find the love of your virtual life, you can open up your phone and hop on the date with the click of a button. Those who have participated in the 100 Baby challenge will undoubtedly see its advantages. Thanks to Lovestruck's accessible dating app, your baby daddy supply won't ever run out, and depending on the Attraction level, you might not have much of a problem with the challenge.

What makes Cupid's Corner even better is the fact that other players' Sims can show up on the app. I found this out when a Simmer-made Shrek slid into my DMs. That's definitely a sentence I never thought I would write, but The Sims 4 is always full of surprises.

Dates, in general, have been entirely improved upon, including options such as Get to Know You, Romantic, and Romantic Repair Dates. Previously, outings catered to the simple stuff, whether it be sitting and talking to your date or having your very first kiss. The Sims 4 Lovestruck, however, widens this concept through various dating activities.

You'll have more control over dating by choosing interactions specifically for stargazing, music, exercising, and other categories. I like having this freedom to decide how the outings turn out rather than solely relying on romantic interactions. Sometimes, I want to keep things platonic, at least in the early stages, and the new dating features help make that happen.

Then, things take a naughty turn when Lovestruck's costume collection comes into play — or, should I say, foreplay? This new pack offers several interesting choices in Create a Sim, bringing some of the wildest outfits I've seen by far. To spice up the relationship, your Sim can now dress up and seductively dance in front of their special someone. The sexual innuendos are pretty apparent, with the likes of eggplant and peach costumes. Hence, why Sims 4 was never really family-friendly.

Beyond the costumes, the CAS and Build Mode content isn't too abundant. There are a few good choices here and there, yet they are less significant than some of the other iterations. You could say the same for Lovestruck's new world, Ciudad Enamorada, which doesn't have many points of interest to make it stand out. In comparison, Get Together offers 27 accessible lots, while Lovestruck only features 10. Not to mention the fact that the Beso Rapido motel is merely a rabbit hole activity. (Please make hotel customization a thing, Maxis Studios.)

Although the customizable content is somewhat abysmal, the gameplay is the main attraction of The Sims 4 Lovestruck pack. As someone who has played the title since its inception, I've noticed a massive difference to normal playthroughs with the EP's unique scenarios and romantic ambience. One unique feature, in particular, is the 7 Wild Dates challenge, where you must have seven perfect dates for a reality show. It's been a while since I've seen a challenge like this in The Sims, and it's made the experience all the more thrilling. And, even if dating isn't really your thing, there's a new Romance Consultant career that has you play the role of Cupid. Though it's not as game-changing as the Get to Work careers, I still enjoy finding new ways to make money.

NPCs have also become more lovey-dovey since Lovestruck arrived. Couples often cuddle up on the bench and talk to each other, making them feel more a part of the world. It's a simple touch that is much appreciated, unlike the traditional Sims who independently go about their day.

Considering all these elements, I'm amazed at how much the Lovestruck pack contains. It could've just improved romantic interactions and let that be the end of it. But fortunately, it's an expansion pack that I can't seem to play without. Plus, an add-on with new Woohoo spots, like motels and venue closets, is always good in my book.

Despite being out for nearly a decade, The Sims 4: Lovestruck has rung me back in again, even after all these years. It's refreshing to see the characters become more lifelike, in which gameplay takes a unique turn. So, I suppose I am going to do my Sims 4 binge. Maybe it's high time for me to finally get that 100 Baby challenge done.

The post Review: The Sims 4 Lovestruck appeared first on Destructoid.

One of my favorite sub-genres is the type of adventure game that takes place almost entirely on a fictional operating system. It allows me to play out my fantasy of not having to use Windows every day.

I know, I know. I could switch to Linux, but learning new things is scary.

Really, I like worming my way through fictional systems. Even hacking games like Uplink are brain candy for me, but when they’re combined with a narrative, like Hypnospace Outlaw, they’re even better.

The Operator is similar to the idea, but since it casts you as a government worker, you’re at least getting paid well.

The Operator (PC)
Developer: Bureau 81
Publisher: Bureau 81, Indienova
Released: July 22, 2024
MSRP: $13.99

You play as Evan Tanner, a man with severe cataracts that obscure his eyesight unless he’s looking at a computer screen. You begin on his first day as an Operator in the legally distinct Federal Department of Investigation. Your job is to assist field agents by helping them dig deeper into evidence.

This may surprise you, but you soon discover there’s a deeper conspiracy going on. And I’m going to tell you, it’s not all that clever about it. On your first case, you get a list. It’s barely related to that first case, but, like, everyone has seen that list and it gets brought up at every turn. There are over a hundred names on the list, most are crossed out, a few are circled, and one is mysteriously redacted.

You’re given access to a database of names and a few programs that are used about once throughout the game. Very quickly, you’re contacted by a hacker who goes by the handle of HAL. They give you more details about the conspiracy in exchange for your assistance. This sort of feels like that resistance group in Papers, Please, where you have good reason to help them, but you also don’t want your employer to find out. However, unlike Papers, Please, I’m not sure you can fully be discovered, but I didn’t test to see how hard you can fail.

The Operator does a lot of things decently enough, but many facets of it could have been done better. For one thing, the grand conspiracy isn’t all that interesting, nor is it that well-developed. A lot of hand-waving is done in the form of happenstance. Things fall neatly into place when they are ludicrously unlikely. If the plot had paced itself better and given some of its ideas space to breathe, the whole thing would have come out a lot more believable. Instead, it relies on fridge logic; stuff that seems logical in the moment until you walk away and think about it.

The gameplay is also fun but not very deep or challenging. I thought I’d be plumbing the nooks and crannies of the presented data, but a lot of the time, it was mostly just interpreting instructions. The puzzles were more brain teasers than tests of skill. I didn’t get caught on anything and found myself trying to make my own challenge by getting ahead of the story or trying to get into inaccessible files early. It’s not always a failure on the game’s part if I try to find my own stimulation, but it does feel that way here.

On the other hand, while the characters similarly lack depth, they fill the needs of the narrative quite well. The agents are extremely likable, and the central antagonist is mysterious enough to feel like a threat. They maybe won’t live on in your memory, but they fit their role well enough that you’ll probably care when the pudding hits the turbine.

There are only a few agents you actually work with, and each has their own case. They’ll ask for your help with something they’re stuck on and send over evidence for you to analyze with your fancy, government-funded software. They’ll ask you to find one specific thing in that evidence, whether it’s a name, an address, or something amiss. You find exactly what they’re looking for, then connect it with the keyword on the top of your screen to see if you got it right.

I mentioned that the problems don’t really become apparent until you’ve walked away from The Operator, and that’s because, in the moment, it can be compelling and exciting. While the mystery is clumsy, digging into it and trying to make the connections is handled well enough, even if it should have probably slowed down a bit.

The mechanics are varied. While some of it is sifting through data, toward the end you get into a sequence that feels like a single-player Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes and another where maps and security cameras come into play.

There is genuine strength in the fact that these sequences take up substantial parts of the game’s runtime. There’s no time to really consider The Operator’s weaknesses when you’re so constantly immersed in its strengths. But, when all is said and done, you might find yourself unsatisfied with how superficial it all seems. It could have been much more.

Maybe that comes down to expectations. When I see an OS sim, I expect that the fictional file browser and command prompt are there as a way of providing the tools to get through the game’s various challenges. The Operator mostly just gives you tools that only relate to specific puzzles. The chemical composition tool isn’t there as something that might help you crack a case, it’s its own puzzle and nothing else. Instead of making you feel inventive and smart, it just makes it feel like you’re making progress.

That’s fine if you go in knowing that. The Operator presents a number of fun puzzles and situations and gives you a story that is compelling, if rather clumsy. It’s about 5 hours long and manages to be entertaining throughout. Once it's over, you might find yourself unsatisfied by its strict straightforwardness and the short leash it keeps you on. However, if you’re able to settle into the rigidity, you’ll find something enjoyable but hollow.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: The Operator appeared first on Destructoid.

Oxford Dictionary defines a cuckold as “a man whose wife has sex with another man.” In modern parlance, it has been appropriated to describe an erotic fetish involving deriving pleasure from watching one's partner in a carnal act with another. It’s often…

Oh, the game’s name is Clickolding? Well, this is embarrassing.

Clickolding (PC)
Developer: Strange Scaffold
Publisher: Strange Scaffold, Outersloth
Released: July 16, 2024
MSRP: $2.99

Clickolding comes to us from Xalavier Nelson Jr.’s label, Strange Scaffold. Recently, it gave us El Paso, Elsewhere, one of my favorite games of 2023, and Life Eater, which is also a game. The developer is all about experimenting, and Clickolding is certainly an experiment.

You find yourself in a motel room, with a man in a mask staring you down and a tally counter in your hand. The man instructs you to click it. Then click it again. Then click it 9,998 more times. At that point, the tally will roll over back to zero.

He just wants to watch. He wants to see you in the perverse act of pressing a button repeatedly. Just you and his tally counter in an incremental embrace as he watches from his chair in the corner of the room. Roll that counter over, get paid, and then avoid eye contact whenever you bump into each other in public.

Here at Destructoid, we don’t kink shame.

While your depraved button pressing is the center of the action, you’re also able to move around the room to… fidget, I guess. There are interactive objects scattered about, but largely, you’ll only poke at them when your client/aggressor tells you to. At the most complicated, you have to find a key, but by the time that happens, you might have already found the key through the course of your pacing.

As the tally racks up, the masked pervert will talk to you. The idea is that the narrative advances as you climb to 10,000, but it really doesn’t go anywhere.

Clickolding positions itself in a way that suggests it’s about difficult subject matter such as prostitution and shame. It kind of is, but it’s wearing mittens. Not that it needs to be overt, but it should at least be insightful. It’s not. There are sometimes euphemisms and other times it’s more cryptic, but it never gets a punch in. It doesn’t delve very far into the person who is watching you. If it tries to make the player feel shame for their actions, it’s not effective. If it wants to frame the kink that it is representing in an empathetic or judgmental way, it completely fails to do so.

The narrative was where Clockolding needed to hit hardest, and it’s more of a soft stroke.

There are things that Clickolding does well. For example, the clicking works. If you click fast, the number goes up quicker, and if you click slow, it doesn’t. It’s a really good way to shorten the lifespan of your mouse and carpal tunnels.

Beyond that, the atmosphere is well executed. The motel room is small, cramped, and just crappy enough to be believable. You move in increments, like an old dungeon crawler, so you aren’t able to inspect things closer, giving everything a sort of claustrophobic feel. There aren’t many places you can hide from the gaze of the masked man, but you are allowed to leave if you want to lose all your progress for absolutely no reward.

I don’t want to spoil things, but there is an epilogue if you click well.

There isn’t really much else to say. Clickolding is Clickolding. It’s $3, and it gives you a reason to click 10,000 times. There are games out there that cost much more and don’t provide nearly as much clicking.

Clickolding really needed to nail its narrative to be a successful experiment, and it really doesn’t. It’s much too unfocused and far too superficial, never really drilling far into its subject matter. There were a lot of directions that could have been taken, and none of them were. That doesn’t mean that Clickolding doesn’t have value, but it’s not something that needs to be experienced. You could get the same pleasure from just watching.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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I have endless affection for the NES. I’ve trodden on much of the console’s catalog, so I’m always looking for new ways to experience it in new ways. A little competition never hurts.

If you’re not familiar, the Nintendo World Championships was a competition held in the US (which isn’t actually the world) in 1990. People from around the country competed in qualifying rounds, hoping to reach the finals in Universal Studios Hollywood.

Since then, Nintendo occasionally circles back to the concept, having held updated versions of the Nintendo World Championships in 2015 and 2017.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is more-or-less the home version of the idea, allowing you to compete with other players around the world or on your couch in a different selection of challenges each week. It’s the same idea with less excitement.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Switch)
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: July 18, 2024
MSRP: $29.99

Let me be clear right off the hop: Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a speedrunning game. It’s not an alternative to NES Remix, which had speedrunning challenges alongside additional challenges that actually changed gameplay around in sometimes inventive ways. These are NES games presented as untouched wilderness; exactly as they were back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but you have to play them as fast as possible.

Most importantly, it’s competition focused. You can play by your lonesome, but it’s most entertaining in its multiplayer, whether you’re competing directly or not. 

There’s a purely single-player mode where you’re given a growing selection of game excerpts that grade you based on your time. However, if that’s what you’re looking for, I wouldn’t recommend it. Most (not all) of the challenges are clipped from the first few stages of the games they represent. I don’t know about you, but I’ve played the 13 included games repeatedly throughout the years, so it wasn’t difficult burning through the offered challenges, even without much speedrunning experience.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition was a weird one to review. When I started, the online modes weren’t available, and the servers only went up a couple of days before the embargo. The timeframe wasn’t a problem, but it obviously wasn’t designed for someone to just play the speedrun mode.

Each new challenge in speedrun mode is unlocked by spending coins. However, the coins you get back for completing a challenge are invariably much less than it costs to unlock one. If you pull off an S-rank on your first try, your winnings still won’t cover unlocking the next challenge. In order to get through it, I had to start grinding challenges to build up my coin stockpile. It wasn’t an ideal experience.

It was a different story once the servers went up. There are two online modes: World Championships and Survival.

World Championships is pretty straightforward. There’s a selection of games represented that you can play repeatedly to try and get the fastest time possible. Then, at a specified date, you’re compared against different categories to see how well you did.

Survival mode is more like the offline, multi-player party mode. You’re stacked up against seven other players to compete for the fastest time across three rounds. The game selection is pre-determined and set into two divisions, with the games rotated out after a certain date. 

Survival mode isn’t a live competition. The runs are done by real players, but you’re only facing off against their ghosts. This means that you can keep retrying a division until you get a set of players who all fumble the events. This also means that if you get placed against a player who is an actual speedrunner, you can try your luck again for a set of dilettantes more your level. I know that when I saw a player complete a Super Mario Bros. 2 by hopping across Beezos, my blood ran cold. That’s fine, as Survival mode is more for your own entertainment as a stand-in for the local multi-player.

And that’s largely it. There are plenty of speedruns across the 13 included games. The World Championship changes weekly, meaning there’s always something to do. But that "always" is always speedruns.

What’s interesting is that this wasn’t even how the real Nintendo World Championships even worked. The real events were score-based, featuring tweaked versions of the games, whereas NES Edition is entirely time-based. Considering its mission statement is to bring the experience of the Nintendo World Championships to people who weren't able to experience them, it's a bit of a strange decision to just make them solely speedrun challenges. I assume it was formatted this way so Nintendo could automate the competitions, but there are probably more creative ways to have done this.

It feels very low effort. There are some nice touches, like the sound of an audience while you’re playing in competition, unlockable pins and avatars, and other ways to introduce yourself to your competitors, such as the ability to choose your favorite game from all the officially released titles across the NES and Famicom libraries. Another more appreciable extra is the strategy guides that you can view for the last challenge in each of the games. While, they're not always necessary, they offer challenge-specific hints in a format that evokes strategy guides of old.

But when it comes to actual gameplay, it feels very drab. There’s nothing really creative, like some sort of campaign progression. You don’t get new ways to experience the classics like NES Remix. If you’re not into speedrunning, then all of these games are already available on Nintendo Switch Online’s NES service. At least then, you won’t be interrupted every few seconds.

The end product feels like something that’s for a niche within a niche. It’s not something that is for fans of the NES, it’s for fans of speedrunning. Even then, it’s probably most on target with people who love speedrunning and have a large group of retro-minded friends.

For everyone else, the competitions are enjoyable; I just don't see them holding anyone's attention for long. You can log in each week, do your best, and then, I don't know, go and play the full games.

It feels like it would fit better as an additional mode to some sort of NES Remix compilation. And that’s ignoring the fact that NES Remix 2 already had a mode based on the Nintendo World Championships. Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition is a celebration of the classic console; it’s just one that lacks excitement and is too exclusive for its own good.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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We've all cooked up a storm in slice-of-life farming games like Stardew Valley, survival MMOs, and the occasional Zelda game. Rarely are those systems that complex, though, and they're almost never linked to your overall progression in the story or character's growth. In Magical Delicacy, cooking is at the heart of every aspect of gameplay, and it feels all the cozier for it.

Magical Delicacy (PC [Reviewed], Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Skaule
Publisher: Whitethorn Games
Released: July 16, 2024, 2024
MSRP: TBC

In Magical Delicacy, you play as Flora. She's a young witch who has traveled to the harbor town of Grat to advance her understanding and mastery of magic in a place where witches were always rumored to have thrived. When she arrives, it's a different story. Everyone expects Flora to already know her craft, and only a few seem to have any knowledge of witches.

Still, the settlement seems keen for Flora to help as many people as possible by cooking up a storm and delivering a lot of food, and a few magical potions, where required. She's left to fend for herself after being bamboozled into buying a small shop in the middle of Grat, where she knows absolutely no one.

The intro is brisk, but gives you all the information you need to get moving. Despite having a decent story that'll suck you in with its mystery and intrigue, the game is quite fast-paced. The core gameplay mechanic revolves around meeting new residents of Grat, chatting with them to get a request for food, and then delivering that food.

Of course, nothing is ever that simple. Flora must learn new recipes by finding them around Grat or purchasing them with currency earned from deliveries. Ingredients must also be foraged from around Grat, purchased, or grown at Flora's shop.

Even when you've got every ingredient you need, there's a wide array of cooking equipment you can upgrade Flora's kitchen, allowing you to cook increasingly advanced recipes. One of the first tools you'll unlock is the oven, which requires you to make a few deliveries and meet some interesting characters before you're even close to getting it.

The cooking system itself is nice and meaty. I spent a good few minutes working out what ingredients to use with each, staring at my pot or oven to ensure I got the best result. Ingredients are split into set types, such as herbs, mushrooms, and ground, and each recipe requires a bit of certain types. There are also staple ingredients, such as Rock Salt, that must be used in some of the food you'll cook up.

Ingredients can be ground and processed in other ways before they're cooked for more complex recipes, but everything must be discovered organically. For example, I purchased some wheat because I knew I needed flour, and things clicked when I purchased a Mortar and Pestle for Flora's shop. This allowed me to grind the wheat to make the flour to craft the dessert that had been requested.

Magical Delicacy isn't just about delivering food to make people happy, though. Over the course of the story, and by making more deliveries, Flora will unlock recipes for potions that can unlock paths and abilities to explore more of Grat, access new ingredients, and increase her abilities as a magical culinary creator.

You'll feel how the developer was inspired by 2D platformers and Metroidvanias through the gameplay as you advance and unlock new areas of the stunning environment. But the game is also about slowing down and taking it easy. Grat is packed with benches for Flora to sit and chill out on, pulling back the camera so you can fully admire the pixel art environments and listen to the cozy soundtrack playing away in the background.

I played Magical Delicacy for hours and hours, but it never felt like a chore. The game's natural sense of progression and regular deliveries are a satisfying reward for the work you put in, and even waiting for the day/night cycle to pass by as you enjoy the sounds of the harbor town has a point, because you're waiting for ingredients to grow or characters to move around.

The controls are precise, and only a few tricky platforming sections require you to push your muscle memory to the limit, though they're not essential to the main story and only unlock cosmetics. Outside of a single graphical issue where the moon followed close behind Flora's head on one screen, I didn't have any issues.

Magical Delicacy is a joy to play and a relaxing experience that, despite having a grind you must work through, feels no more stressful than looking at a cookbook and working out how to prepare and then make the meal you want.

It's one of those games that will live in your head even while you're not playing it, as you think about what characters have requested and how you can meet their needs. There's something to learn in every session with it, be it a new use for an ingredient or a revelation in the story that you've been holding out for.

Take a few jumping puzzles from a 2D platformer, a pinch of progression from a Metroidvania, the story of a gorgeous indie title, lashings of pixel art, a dollop of relaxing tunes, mix well, and bake until you can see the personality rising out of it. If that sounds tempting, that's Magical Delicacy for you.

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The looter shooter genre is fraught with difficulties. Titles like Anthem and Outriders show promise and nab an audience, but quickly die off, whereas others like Destiny 2 and Warframe are generally positively received with some caveats. It seems like the formula is so obvious and a studio only needs to reach out and grab it. Could Nexon pull off the impossible with The First Descendant?

The First Descendant (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Nexon Games Co., Ltd.
Publisher: Nexon
Released: June 30, 2024
MSRP: Free-to-play

I'm going to be blunt with this: The First Descendant's story is largely irrelevant. Like a kaiju film, NPC dialogue only exists to move us to the next encounter. Standouts like the villain Greg and slimy weasel Jeremy stick out due to their out-of-place names alone. It's like when the transfer student showed up at my high school and introduced himself as Zebulon. Equally tragic, said school was not in Tokyo-3, and there were no ensuing kaiju battles to offset the day's doldrum.

Unlike the ho-hum story, The First Descendant goes all out in design and presentation. The characters and environments are simply astounding to look at thanks to the blend of futuristic technology, surreal and desolate landscapes, and encroaching divine elements. It doesn't hurt there's a solid roster of hotties to play as.

The First Descendant isn't so much inspired by other media as it directly lifts from them. The character Bunny is a mixture of Overwatch's Tracer, in terms of personality and abilities, and D.Va in terms of design, while her Ultimate outfit bears a striking resemblance to Major Motoko's from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Then there's the litany of Destiny 2 "inspirations," from icons to the Different Dream sniper rifle being easily recognizable as an IKELOS weapon.

These possible infringement lawsuits waiting to happen have me taking a step back and really looking at The First Descendant. It doesn't do anything original, and is more a potluck of other ideas and properties than anything else. That being said, this is the finest-looking potluck I've partaken in. The plating on this spiraled ham is superb.

Unfortunately, these exquisitely rendered latex-clad butts and luscious landscapes aren't presented without issue. When playing on my desktop or laptop, both of which are plenty beefy and have a wired connection, there are a concerning number of random framerate drops. No amount of settings adjustments alleviates the problem and there are numerous posts across social media from PlayStation 5 players reporting an even worse experience.

The performance issues don't stop there as server stability is another large concern. The First Descendant was effectively down for the entirety of its second day and issues like rubber banding, input delay, and disconnects are a regular occurrence right now. It's to the point where when the screen freezes, I know it's one of two lag spikes and I'll have to wait five seconds to see where my character has ended up.

It's incredibly frustrating when running more difficult content where there's a large number of enemies or attacks happening at once, or when doing an activity like a Void Intercept where a single death can ruin a run. Failure to get on top of these issues quickly has the potential to do irreparable harm. Player patience might evaporate quicker with a free-to-play title as there was no initial investment on their part. Combined with other, intentional decisions, these could quickly turn away potential players.

Dragging me out of my despair is The First Descendant's gameplay. When it's running without issue, it's nothing short of amazing, and why I'm rooting so hard for this wonky looter shooter. It's an engrossing blend of gunplay and power usage with a build-crafting system that has me obsessing about the possibilities and gnawing away at the puzzles laid before me in the Colossus battles.

The core gameplay loop is: start in an area, do two to five open-world missions, run a dungeon, fight a literal Colossus, and repeat. Each part is a lot of fun and can be tackled differently according to your Descendant's kit. The open-world missions often pit you against swarms of hyper-aggressive enemies, dungeons almost always end in a fight where you must decipher the puzzle of the orbs in a Sisyphean battle, and the Colossi are the big show. Once you've cracked the code on beating the likes of the Dead Bride or Pyromaniac, it's easy to forget the issues The First Descendant has.

Well, that is until you contend with the overly convoluted crafting system and over-the-top number of materials, accrual methods, and time gates standing between you and putting together a build. Item descriptions are anything but helpful and the game is misleading in how it wants you to approach some content.

At several points, notably the Dead Bride and Pyromaniac fights, there are strict DPS checks that must be beaten. It's not a matter of playing better, avoiding team wipes, or persistence. You're on the clock, and if you can't melt the boss in that time, the run is over.

Due to the expensive nature of putting together a build to try, experimentation is limited unless you have plenty of time or cash to burn. For me, the game came to a complete standstill when I encountered the Pyromaniac. The only way I could beat it was by purchasing a new character, grinding them to max level, grinding out resources to put together a new build, and then putting together a team through a Discord server, as in-game matchmaking wasn't ever going to get it done.

I was stuck for days and it can't help but feel intentional as, at that level, there's only one viable character to use, as Pyromaniac is nigh invincible against guns and non-ice powers. Everything I had been doing up to that point was entirely useless.

It's these nudges and design choices that make The First Descendant feel like Nexon is milking players for everything it can. From the aforementioned crafting system to forcing players to buy recolored alternate outfits just to unlock the ability to customize the colors by buying dyes, it feels scummy. Worse, should you grind out a new Descendant to use, you need to shell out some cash for another character slot or delete one of your existing Descendants to make room. Throw in some Ultimate Descendant bundles that retail for $100 and it really feels like Nexon is in the business of whaling.

I am nothing but conflicted regarding The First Descendant. It's a Modern Prometheus of parts and ideas that looks and plays wonderfully when it works. However, the Dr. Frankenstein who assembled it is clearly profit-driven and has a bit of a reputation for its microtransactions. Throw in the equivalent of a Dell Dimension 8400 for a server and things look grim. I don't expect The First Descendant to get a lot of support in the time it's around, and I'll enjoy it for what it is, but I won't make the mistake of believing it will hold much attention outside of a small, dedicated player base.

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I’d wager that pigs will come before the Strike series when it comes to taking flight again. What began with Desert Strike in 1992 was last seen with Nuclear Strike in 1997, unless you count 2006’s EA Replay for PSP. If you even remember that.

The Strike games – particularly Jungle Strike – are one of my relaxation titles. I think it’s the constant drone of the helicopter blades combined with warm memories that calms my soul. I wish I was playing it right now.

With the series AWOL, it then turns to other creators to take lessons from it and craft their own unique twists. Megacopter: Blades of the Goddess is one such, and it’s certainly a unique direction.

Megacopter: Blades of the Goddess (PC)
Developer: Pizza Bear Games
Publisher: Pizza Bear Games
Released: June 21, 2024
MSRP: $15.99

If I had to define what made the Strike series so memorable, it would be the fact that it didn’t contain the action you’d expect from an isometric helicopter game. Instead, you had to be extremely careful as you tackled the range of objectives in each map. Resources, such as healing items, fuel, and ammunition, were both rare and limited. Flying around, taking potshots at everything would end in your own burning wreck before too long.

Megacopter isn’t that. It’s much more action-based. There’s a winch that you use to collect health, ammo, and other supplies, but there’s more than enough on hand to blaze a trail of destruction without slowing down. In that way, it’s more like Army Men: Air Attack, if you’ll forgive the deeper cut.

However, it knows this about itself. You play as Jack Copter who is selected to pilot the eponymous Megacopter. Before long, he learns that this piece of military hardware is actually some sort of Aztech deity that thirsts for blood. Thankfully, This discovery gives Jack pause, but everyone else around him seems really partial to blood, so whatever.

The crew is dealing with an invasion of Reptoids. They’re maybe using pizza to, I don’t know, enslave humanity or something. I’d say pizza is a pretty good vector for undermining humanity. I wouldn’t trust anyone who said they didn’t like it.

Gameplay is largely flying around and shooting at things. Between missions, you can spend Pizza Bear Tokens and sacrificial hearts you pick up on upgrades. During the missions themselves, you can spend some time blasting open crates for more money. That’s about the lot of it. Oh! You have a winch.

Not that I was expecting much more. However, the Strike series got a lot of extra mileage out of its maps by having you accomplish different objectives. That’s one of the biggest letdowns of Megacopter: there isn’t really much in terms of mission variety. There are a few where you have to defend an object on the map, and they aren’t great. The most creative it gets is a late mission where you deliver pizzas. Which, to be fair, is pretty great.

There are bosses, which are where things are at their most exciting. There’s a lot of aiming, projectile dodging and knowing when to pick up supplies. There is no winching, however, which I think is a missed opportunity. Like, you could pluck out their eye or drop something on their face. Just spitballing here. Winches should be treasured.

Even if it isn’t fancy, the basic gameplay is fun. There’s some satisfaction in figuring out the most efficient way to take out some of the enemy units, and the flight mechanics are well-tuned. However, it is all quite rough and unambitious.

The graphics, in particular, are inconsistent. Many of the close-ups aren’t great, with odd proportions and perspective. Worse is the fact that, during cutscenes, it often displays a great deal of blurriness that suggests heavy image compression.

It also attempts a retro style with a pixellated look but doesn’t fully commit to it. Beyond just having pixel resolution that’s all over the place, the resolution for many of the objects, in general, is so high that it loses the retro feel and instead just looks awkward.

On the other hand, it reaches for a neon-lit, comic book aesthetic that largely works and very nearly gives Megacopter a distinctive style. It’s simply undermined by its inconsistencies, but it’s not totally lost.

However, the UI is monstrously ugly. It’s completely functional, giving you an easy read of all your important vital signs. It’s just one of the most hideous HUDs I can remember experiencing lately. The colors, the transparency, the placement of certain windows, and the font all feel like placeholders that were never replaced. It’s also another case where a high-resolution font is placed over pixellated graphics, and that’s one of my biggest pet peeves.

I wouldn’t normally bang on about the appearance of a game’s UI like this, but it’s something I had difficulty getting past every time a text box appeared overlapping another window.

The music is fine, but I’d swear there’s really only one song in the mix. It’s a fairly straightforward synthetic cyberpunk sound, so it’s enjoyable, but if it ever changed, I didn’t recognize it.

The dialogue is more consistent in its quality, which I’m not sure was meant to be any sort of focus. There’s a blase quality to its storytelling, where context is given with a sledgehammer. A particularly memorable example of this is when it needed to be explained why these military types would sacrifice people to power up their death-copter. The explanation is just, “Well, those guys are dicks anyway, so we probably shouldn’t feel bad about it.

Just by the nature of humor, it’s not going to click with everybody. But there’s an unabrasive playfulness to it. Even when it doesn’t take itself too seriously, it still manages to crack off a few enjoyable exchanges. The characters aren’t deep, but they’re distinct enough to get the jokes across.

The narrative, as a whole, doesn’t benefit from its unfocused, lackadaisical approach to the point where I often couldn’t tell what the grand conspiracy was or where things were going. However, considering Megacopter is a helicopter action game, which doesn’t provide much opportunity for depth in storytelling, the lack of a solid narrative isn't much of an issue, while the entertaining dialogue is appreciable.

At the very least, it’s over before it wears out its welcome. It’s maybe 6-8 hours, which is probably how long it would take to get through Jungle Strike. There are four bosses across four locations and a decent amount of missions that move at a good clip. There isn’t a whole lot of reason to replay it after all is said and done.

The mileage you get out of Megacopter: Blades of the Goddess will depend on how malnourished you are from Strike depravation. It’s fun but very rough. It is reasonably but not mind-blowingly fun. It is substantially but not unforgivably rough. The former is certainly more important than the latter. However, more consistency is needed to give this bird its blades.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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I've been riding the Hoyoverse train for a few years now, with the ever-popular Genshin Impact and the futuristic Honkai: Star Rail. So, when I first caught wind of the developer's next title, Zenless Zone Zero, I was curious to see how this new venture would stand out in its growing library of gacha-driven titles.

Since its initial reveal in 2022, the next action RPG from the developer has undergone several open beta tests. HoYoverse has spent round after round of its early access tests fine-tuning the otherworldy, apocalyptic adventure and turning it into something brilliant and distinct from its predecessors. Recently, I joined in for my own trial run in the latest early access build, diving into the world of ZZZ knowing it was completely different from Hoyoverse's previous entries, especially with the absence of open-world features.

Initially, I believed this element would really sour my experience, though I soon realized how much I liked not spending endless amount of hours just to get to one spot on a map. Plus, the cutscenes weren't too drawn out, saving more time. You can think of Zenless Zone Zero as a gacha game for those not quite as interested in longer moments of exposition, perfect for someone like me with a shorter attention span and eager to throwing enemies around.

Zenless Zone Zero (PC [reviewed], Android, iOS, and PlayStation 5)
Developer: HoYoverse
Publisher: HoYoverse
Released: July 4, 2024
MSRP: Free-to-play (with microtransactions)

In Zenless Zone Zero, you'll experience the life of the main protagonists, Belle and Wise. The siblings are known for their technological expertise in the last contemporary civilization, New Eridu. As apocalyptic scenarios tend to do, you soon learn the rest of their universe was destroyed by the supernatural Hollow disaster, unleashing the monstrous Ethereal enemies. Belle and Wise are tasked with getting humanity out of this mess by assuming the role of Proxies, a profession that helps guide others in the alternate dimensions of Hollows. 

What's unique about this feature is the fact that the main protagonists don't get involved in combat whatsoever. They'll mainly stay on the sidelines and cheer on other characters who dare enter the Hollow. It's a tad untraditional, sidelining the central character as non-combatant, but it gives you a chance to get to know the rest of the cast. And, it's not like Belle or Wise take a back seat entirely, either, given that they roam New Eridu and make decisions during missions.

Any time you begin a quest out of New Eridu, you'll immediately gain control of the Agents. The characters, Billy Kid, Nicole, and Anby, are among the first you'll encounter, and they are a part of the rag-tag team, Cunning Hares. This is where combat comes into play to eliminate those pesky Ethereals. This is perhaps one of the parts I enjoyed the most, as Zenless Zone Zero's fighting mechanics rely heavily on teamwork-based tactics that remain smooth and fluid through even its busiest sequences.

It's easy to maneuver characters around the battlefield in light of its intuitive targeting system, too. The RPG is good at guiding you to its next opponent after the current target drops, avoiding weird breaks in the action, and keeping up that seamless flow of battle. As a standout feature, the teamwork weaves itself into nearly everything, as Agents often help each other over the course of the story. Assist attacks are, by far, my favorite of the bunch, as it switches out the current fighter to unleash another strike with the sub-in.

It's an excellent alternative to the standard dodge, and it can be even more beneficial if you time it right. And while mostly satisfying, I spent a chunk of ZZZ's early game breezing through a bit too easily. Perhaps it's an early access thing, or that's just Hoyoverse with early-game training wheels. I will say it grew a little dull in parts, but the layers of ZZZ's other inner-workings were more than enough to keep the appeal here.

Despite this setback, I still found combat exceptionally entertaining, primarily with the Agent's distinct Attributes and Fighting Styles. The system works like any other RPG, using different elemental attacks and certain roles, such as Support. I had a lot of fun wielding Billy Kid, specifically, wielding one of his attacks where he wildly fires bullets in a circular motion. I've used this move more than a few times now, and I can't seem to stop, just so I can see how cool it looks. It's also satisfying to watch the Wipeout slow-motion scene, which triggers after you've killed the last enemy. It's a small and simple detail that feels glorious after a challenging quest. 

While all the fighting is going on, you'll also be met with the unique Hollow Exploration. Instead of walking to points A and B in missions, you'll need to move your character in a board game-like layout, selecting the spaces you want to go to next. There will be a bunch of points of interest presented here, from reward collectibles to boss fights. In most cases, players must think strategically when moving characters, or they may end up disrupting the path.

Although I'm more of an open-world lover, it's refreshing to see exploration done this way. I think of all the times I've gotten frustrated in adventure games, depicting the typical scenario of fighting numerous foes to reach a specific area. This stress is completely gone in Zenless Zone Zero, as many pathways can be quick and easy to complete. Of course, not all journeys are short-lived, regarding the more difficult landscapes that put strategic thinking to the test.

Reaching the finish line in Hollow Exploration returns you to New Eridu. It's a relatively compact map, especially compared to Genshin Impact's massive landscape. However, it somehow feels much bigger than it actually is, thanks to its variety of exciting features. The video store, Random Play, will be your main base of operations. I lived out my Blockbuster fantasies here by selecting the movies for the store's loyal customers. 

Once you step outside, you can enjoy a nice hot cup of joe at the Coff Cafe shop or get some grub at the Waterfall Soup. It's a nice change of pace from the constant combat intervals. Oh, and these shops provide buffs to your character to get you ready for the next fight. My favorite of the New Eridu points of interest is the Godfinger Arcade. I always like it when there's some form of Inception, letting you experience a game within a game. So far, I only got to try out two arcade ventures with Soul Hounds III and Snake Duel. The second game takes me back to the retro days of Snake, moving around a creature to increase its size.

The Arcade and food shops cover only a portion of what's available in New Eridu. ZZZ also has upgrade shops and VR training to maximize your character's build. The VR training makes up for those undemanding battles, considering that they provide more advanced trials to throw you in for a wild ride. On top of that, New Eridu offers plenty of side quests to familiarize you with its residents. I quite enjoyed these small adventures, even when it's just as simple as kicking around a ball with the adorable Bangboo creatures. The cuteness of the Bangboo, alone, is what turned me into a real sucker for ZZZ, mainly because they are incredibly valuable assets for battles.

On the other hand, exploring everything in New Eridu can be slightly overwhelming, despite the rest of the RPG's care for respecting the balance of tedium. I got lost a few times trying to remember how to do specific tasks mentioned earlier in the story. Fortunately, there's a tutorial section to get you back on track.

Venturing across New Eridu and the rest of the map is also a reward in its on ways, too. I can tell that miHoYo has spent a lot of time designing the characters and the environment around them with its array of fashionable outfits and tiny details. Characters come to life with their vibrant personalities, striking ensembles, and cheeky dialogue. The cast's back-and-forth banter made ZZZ a standout alongside the studio's other beloved RPGs, and there's assuredly a few contenders here for spots alongside some of the developer's most endeared.

Even more so, Zenless Zone Zero switches up the beat by replacing some cutscenes with comic-style strips. Not only are they visually pleasing to look out for, but they also shorten the pace of long-drawn stories. It's quite different from my days in Genshin, but the shorter, moment-to-moment encounters appeal way more to the me who isn't always in the mood for some of those longer sequences.

It's an excellent alternative for Genshin Impact fans looking for something new. Even if you're not into some of the other Hoyoverse titles but still fond of its service model, ZZZ presents a nice change to gacha games in general. There's plenty of content to keep you entertained for hours on end despite the lack of open-world title, and with so much to do, it's easy to appreciate the absent strain of long treks. Not to mention that the Zenless Zone Zero will only continue to grow with its expected updates.

Ultimately, ZZZ delights with guiding design principles—remembering what so many adore about other Hoyoverse characters while breaking those moments up into short, snappier pieces. It's rather easy to pick up and put down, and for something on the go, it's certainly the preferable Hoyo title. For now, I'm all on board with New Eridu, and eager to watch the cast and world grow in many of the ways Honkai and Genshin have, too.

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The Legend of Heroes franchise from Nihon Falcom enters a new land with Trails through Daybreak’s journey into the modern-styled, gorgeous Calvard Republic.

With an almost entirely new cast of likable main characters, this is one of the strongest entry points for newcomers to the series. Trails through Daybreak evolves the series with key gameplay changes, but still retains the classic wit and charm fans expect.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak (PS5 [reviewed], PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC]
Developer: Nihon Falcom
Publisher: NIS America
Released: July 5, 2024
MSRP: $59.99

For the first time in a good while, players need almost no knowledge of prior games to jump into this one. The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak kicks off with a swift and fun intro to Van Arkride. Van leads his titular Arkride Solutions, a handyman-like office in the Calvard Republic’s capital, Edith.

In some ways, Van's day-to-day life mirrors past Trails heroes like Lloyd or Estelle. He takes on random jobs like deliveries or investigations for money. The catch, however, is this protagonist is far from the heroic type. Van lives and breathes the moral gray area in everything he does. He has no qualms, for instance, in lying to law enforcement or killing someone when necessary.

This “true neutral” stance from Van results in Trails through Daybreak’s most impactful addition to the series: alignment. Players have three different alignments known as Law, Gray, and Chaos. Rather than pledge yourself to one side, they act more like Persona’s social stats. One side quest might be altruistic in nature, like tracking down a scammer, and result in a few Law points. However, another task might be shadier and give you Gray or Chaos points if you choose to, say, threaten a stalker yourself rather than turning him over to the law.

Many of the requests, known as 4SPGs, that Van receives even have multiple conclusions. You could turn someone in for stealing or let them off the hook once, both of which grant different alignment points. This freedom of choice is rather novel for the series and adds this layer of player control to the story. Better yet, these aren’t just flavor text, either. There are entire emotional ending sequences you can miss out on in story beats if you pick a different choice.

Nihon Falcom's incredible storytelling from past games returns in this title, too. While the main story suffers a bit (more on that in a moment), the side missions and requests are the true stars here. Going back to the exclusive scenes, there is an early request about an older thief turning over a new leaf before his death.

The request takes the player on a rollercoaster of emotions to return a stolen item to someone from the thief’s past, which I won’t dare spoil here. However, at the end of it all, the player is given two vastly different options for how to finish the request. You can honor the thief’s wishes, or go against them and do the “right thing.” The latter was what I chose, and it led to the most tear-jerking moment in the series. And the wild part is, you can miss all of that if you pick the other ending.

Trails through Daybreak sprinkles so many fascinating moments like this throughout the game. I would even argue these optional side quests are better than the core main story. Unfortunately, this is one of the more weaker, by-the-numbers main plots for the series. Van and his rapidly growing crew of problem-solvers have a pretty unsurprising plot about searching for mysterious items that eventually leads to saving the country.

All in all, this is a story we’ve seen many times before in the Trails series. That isn’t inherently a bad thing, but the cast itself leaves a bit to be desired. Van himself shines as this rugged and older hero compared to the happy-go-lucky Lloyd or Estelle from past games. He also isn’t afraid to do what even Trails of Cold Steel’s Rean wouldn’t do and murder someone, if necessary.

However, the cast somewhat falls apart aside from Van. Most of the party members, such as the child mercenary Feri, have rather heavy-handed backstories that are a bit too forceful with its tragedy and doesn’t give enough time to care. Then there are even worse situations with the lovable playboy Aaron, which Chapter 2 entirely centers on. For some reason, though, the chapter just brushes past his unresolved, rather problematic inner conflict and never addresses or even mentions it again for the rest of the game, despite him traveling with you.

This idea of moving a little too fast with the main plot and missing out on key character and story developments even applies to the gameplay. Past games are known for their plethora of minigames, from gambling to card games. None of that is here in Trails through Daybreak. It is the first core game in the series to not feature fishing, for whatever reason. Worse still, you visit a casino multiple times at one point and the game doesn’t bring back classic minigames like Blackjack.

I have to wonder if those side activities were sacrificed in order to deliver the aforementioned extremely well-written side quests and combat evolutions. Though some of the combat will feel familiar to fans, Trails through Daybreak is by far the most revolutionary game in the series when it comes to its battle systems and visuals.

Players move characters around within a certain distance on a battlefield. You then execute various commands each turn, such as use skills, physical crafts, or defense. Each move or spell the player uses has a specific range, such as a huge circle, single target, or long line. You have to carefully maneuver around the field in each fight to win.

The catch in this game is the addition of action combat. Yes, Trails through Daybreak has both turn-based and action-RPG gameplay. You can opt for the usual turn-based combat, or hack-and-slash your way through enemies. This action alternative is a bit too simplistic; only offering a single attack and dodge, but it speeds up most of the easier fights. Plus, this makes the game more approachable to players who may not like traditional turn-based combat.

Things get a little more complicated from there, though. The party member links system from past games returns in this title. You can link up with a party member in the classic turn-based fights for that person to do a free follow-up attack for extra damage. The difference this time is it centers around positioning. Before, you picked the link partner for each party member and they can run anywhere on the field. This time, though, they physically have to be next to each other to work.

While this is fluid, since you can switch links with someone anytime, it also forces you to bunch characters together. This slowed down combat for me. In addition, I felt forced to make awkward decisions, like put a weak ranged character up in danger up front just to benefit from the extra damage. Fortunately, the action combat makes up for that. I spent most of my time using it, but the game forces you to use turn-based for certain bosses and the like.

I didn’t mind this too much, since Trails through Daybreak has a pretty breezy difficulty. This helped me to take my time and explore the stunning country of Calvard. This game starts out in the richly detailed and surprisingly modern Edith. But it later takes you to idyllic villages I would want to live in; Chinese-inspired port cities, a tech-focused metropolis, and more. Nihon Falcom even got me to like deserts. Every single inch of this game feels like the designers had a reason for it to exist. I stand by the fact that Nihon Falcom has the best city and world design in gaming — just look at Crossbell — and the developer continues to shine in this entry.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak feels like the Trails game for newcomers. The sharper graphics, modern cities, action combat, and general lack of fluff make it a solid starting point. Some existing fans may dislike the lack of minigames and extra content, but Nihon Falcom makes up for that.

Trails through Daybreak has the best side quests in any game I’ve played. I mean, I cried like, three different times. And these are just optional moments, too. The sheer storytelling and world-building alone makes this game worth a look. Overall, this is a great foundation for the next era of this series.

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