Carli Velocci
Twin Mirror has some great ideas, including a visually and narratively appealing Mind Palace system, but the weakness of its main character and its "tell don't show" method of storytelling drag the whole endeavor down.
Lovecraft fans will have to look elsewhere. While Moons of Madness has some exciting ideas and goes a long way on its premise alone, the story is too dense, and the gameplay is too simple to make it worth your time... unless you need to kill five hours.
In this series we look at Clementine, see a child, and then experience where she ends up, getting to feel the disconnect between what it means to be a kid and how to be an adult. You can make the argument that being an adult requires making the hard decisions, and that's what The Walking Dead series comes down to.
Shadow Warrior 2 feels hollow
Mineko’s Night Market has lovely art, but its boring chores and lifeless NPCs make it much harder to get caught up in its rhythm than it is in other life sims.
It's easy to forget that, as with Clementine, there is still more to come. Episode 5 is on the horizon. We just had to sit through something else to get there.
The heroes in film noir aren't flawless—they stumble through the story, rarely win a fight, and often pay a heavy price in the end. At least they try, though, and the same can be said for White Night.
In a way, the game, too, is a shell of what it once was. Season one was a slow build and a horrible pull. There was a lot of humanity to it, focusing on its characters above anything else. The sequel has a lot of that pull, but none of that subtlety or ease. So far, it's just a list of tragic events. This is, of course, just the first episode. As we've learned from the first game, it only gets worse from here. Maybe it'll also get better.
Control's AWE Expansion will satisfy a lot of Alan Wake fans who have been theorizing for nearly a decade about what happened to the writer. While it does introduce some great ideas, you'll ultimately have to wait for whatever Remedy does next to get real resolution.
It's a game that wanted to be Icarus and fly, ahem, too close to the sun, but couldn't even manage to get too far off the ground.
The Bradwell Conspiracy is a game that gets in its own way when it comes to its most important element: puzzles.
The latest from Dejobaan therefore seems like a stepping stone, a strong premise and peaceful beginning with little longevity and little to do outside the foundation of the game. You have to wonder if there will be more to write in the future.
It's not the gamey aspects that are remembered, but the small, personal elements that make up a relatable narrative. It just all happens to involve time travel.
There's a lot to like in Twelve Minutes, but when you start to get into the puzzles at the core of the game, things begin to get bogged down.
Bloodline represents Ubisoft going back to its roots on the Watch Dogs franchise, and your mileage will vary. Either way, it doesn't feel like a Legion DLC.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is interesting enough but feels a bit empty
Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals offers a highly personal and unpredictable horror-themed adventure that repeats a lot of the first game’s ideas, and it's still worth tuning into.
A House Divided is more of a standalone Walking Dead episode than the first one was, drawing inspirations from the first game without being too reliant and mimicking, while also looking ahead to what's really in store for Clementine. It harkens back to what made the first game so special: the way seemingly small things have huge reverberations. While the first episode served as a loose prelude, the second episode serves as the real introduction. It's full, fleshed-out, and ultimately everything you would want in a Walking Dead episode.
Tyranny's bad guy morality system is a little on the nose, and other aspects of the game sometimes suffer. But the game's dedication to that conceit works, setting a path of bargaining and self-examination. Even amidst self-doubt, I did summon a volcano and destroy a library — and I’d probably do it again.
Last Stop takes a lot of risks, and for the most part, it succeeds. It's a game about interconnectivity in a modern world, but a few flaws keep it from rising to the heights it wants to.