Almost exactly seven years ago, Czech developer Warhorse Studios released the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It was the studio's first project and aimed to be part open-world RPG, part medieval life simulator. An ambitious endeavor, but one that Warhorse Studio proved very capable of pulling off.

With the sequel, Warhorse Studios has essentially doubled down on every aspect of Kingdom Come: Deliverance refining the core systems that made the original great while also adding some new ones as well.

Let's be real, if you were a fan of the original, you probably just want more KCD. And Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is exactly that, and then some. Many of the issues in the original game have been addressed. And as a result, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a truly remarkable open-world RPG.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (PC [reviewed], PS5, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Warhorse Studios
Publisher: Deep Silver
Released: February 4, 2025
MSRP: $69.99

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 continues the story of Henry of Skalitz, the protagonist you play as in the original. Things pick up shortly after the events of the first game, following Henry as a more experienced warrior on a quest for vengeance against Sir Markvart von Aulitz, the antagonist of KCD responsible for burning down Henry's village and murdering his family.

Playing as Henry this time around is similar, but also very much different. He's no longer just the son of a blacksmith trying to learn the ropes as he goes. He's now a full-fledged knight, sent on an important quest along with Sir Hans Capon of Rattay—Henry's best friend in the original KCD—to deliver a message to Otto von Bergow. The quest goes awry, the pair loses the important message. This sets up the first part of the game where you must roam the Trotsky region of the Kingdom of Bohemia while trying to find a way to complete this quest.

The region of Trotsky is massive, with various villages and castles scattered throughout, connected by dirt roads that wind through dense forests and muddy rivers and streams. It's a beautiful region much like the map you explore in the original game. But later on, you'll gain access to Kuttenburg, an entirely separate region centered around the massive city that played a pivotal role in the early 15th century due to its silver mines.

Both regions are peppered with dozens of side quests that not only give you ways to level up, acquire some loot, and earn some Groschen (money), but also flesh out the immersive world of KCD2. Every piece of dialogue is fully voiced acted, and features perhaps the best voice acting ever in a game. Seriously, I wish every game had the quality of voice acting that KCD2 has. Have you ever been playing a game where the response from an NPC catches you off guard, but then you go, "Actually, I could see someone saying that if they were really in this situation!" Well, that's every line of dialogue in KCD2. It takes the immersion a step further, which you'll notice is a common theme throughout the entire game. Realism.

Speaking of the world, it's absolutely stunning. I'm playing on PC, on an AMD 7700X CPU and an AMD RX 7900 XT GPU with FSR, and for the most part, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 runs as smooth as butter performance-wise. It's very impressive just how good the game looks visually, and while I remember the original having a ton of performance issues, at least early on, that's not the case. There are some minor FPS drops here and there around Kuttenburg, but that's about it.

Of course, we have to talk about the elephant in the room: bugs. If you've played a massive open-world game before, you know bugs are simply part of the package. When you have so much going on at once, things are bound to break from time to time, and break they do. Most of the bugs I've encountered in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 were very minor; in fact, some added some extra charm and even welcome comic relief, like one I kept experiencing where my horse would for whatever reason consistently try to turn and run in on itself. No matter what direction I'd turn or look, as soon as I'd try to move forward it would snap around towards itself and continue doing so. This was a quick fix; jump off the horse and back on.

However, I also encountered some bugs that were pretty annoying, mainly due to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's finicky Saviour Schnapps save system. It's the same as the first game, meaning you only save when you sleep in a bed or consume a limited consumable called Saviour Schnapps. You also get one single "Exit Save" that occurs every time you exit the game. I get why Warhorse Studios chooses to handle saves this way; it adds to the realism by preventing save scumming, especially when your choices mean so much.

But it can be quite annoying when you're traversing through a long quest only to have your character clip into a random doodad like a wagon and get stuck, unable to move. Or when you engage in combat with several enemies only to clip into one and get stuck in a perpetually never-ending rotation of the camera as it tries to pull your body out of theirs while the enemies continue to carve you up until you die and have to reload and lose some progress.

There are a lot fewer bugs in KCD2 compared to what the original launched with, and in the few weeks I've had access to the review build of the game, Warhorse Studios has released several patches fixing tons of bugs. Like I said, in a massively open-world game like this, it'd be silly not to expect some bugs. And for the most part, I didn't encounter anything too game-breaking, only variable levels of annoying.

I wasn't too far into KCD2 when I had somewhat of an epiphany. I had encountered a group of Cumans, which Henry has come to hate seeing as they were responsible for destroying the village in which he grew up and killing his family. After speaking with the leader of the group, I started to change my view on the situation a little bit. As he explained it, he was just trying to get by himself, serving a lord and doing what he was ordered to do. He was very blunt and direct about everything, while also having a comical tone. A very entertaining character, to say the least.

Not long after, I was with the Cumans at their camp, getting completely drunk, and sharing tales. Turns out that this group very well could have been part of the group that attacked Henry's village back in the original. After many drinks, Henry and the Cuman stumbled their way into the woods, where the leader eventually tripped and passed out, completely wasted. Curious, I looked at the Cuman lying on the ground to see if the game would let me loot him while he was drunk. I could, of course, but more interestingly, I had the option to murder him.

This revelation is what triggered my epiphany: a game like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is one I often dreamed of existing when I was growing up watching a ton of medieval-time movies and TV shows. One where you get to actually make decisions, and have complete control over your choices, right or wrong. To help drive this point home, I feel it's important to note that this wasn't some main quest decision or anything like that. It was a side activity amongst many throughout KCD2, and I'm pretty sure someone else could play through the entire game and not even encounter this group of Cumans or have to make this choice. A true open-world RPG in every way.

If the open world is half of the formula for Kingdom Come: Deliverance, combat in that open world is the other half. A similar yet refined style of combat system is at play in the sequel, once again featuring a crosshair-style indicator over your enemy when engaged in combat. The indicator has been somewhat simplified; instead of a star-like indicator with five points, the bottom two points have been merged into one. This means that you still have the left, right, and overhead stances of holding your weapon, but the bottom choice now symbolizes a stab or thrusting attack with your weapon.

You'll spend much of the early game playing a sort of patient game of rock paper scissors, often waiting for your opponent to attack first, so you can block it, then following up with a counter-attack on the side they left unprotected. It's similar to the original, but also much more fluid. Attacks with your weapons respond immediately where they connect with their target, rather than seeming like a timed animation going through the motions. And much of the major combat-assisted systems from the original are still here. For example, a successful block from a shield will see that shield take some wear and tear, with wooden shields splintering and breaking over time.

It's such a satisfying and rewarding combat system, and I think the decision to make it mostly similar to that in the original was a good choice. After all, we're playing a more experienced fighter this time around with a more knowledgeable Henry, and with all the enhancements to the combat system, it naturally feels that way.

There are some new weapons as well including one of my favorites, the Crossbow. I wasn't a fan of the bow in KCD, probably because I sucked with it. But in KCD2, the Crossbow feels a lot more accurate and effective. You still have to account for uhh... bolt drop, of course, but it feels as though you could focus primarily on using the Crossbow and have decent results with it. I chose to use it alongside an axe and the occasional longsword, as the combat style is so different with each weapon that it was fun to switch it up from time to time and get better with a variety of weapon types.

Speaking of which, alongside just practicing and getting better at combat, there are two other major ways to improve your combat prowess. First, there are multiple combat experts throughout the world that you can visit to train with. Doing so will unlock new combos and skills that you can use in combat, some of which really change things up.

You'll also increase your skill level with each weapon type and gain Perk Points as you use that weapon type. There are six combat skills in total: Warfare, Swords, Heavy Weapons, Polearms, Unarmed, and Marksmanship. Each combat skill has over a dozen perks you can learn for them that make you better at that specific type of combat. For example, Polearms have a perk called First Strike that makes your first attack in every fight with a Polearm weapon 35% stronger. The Heavy Weapons combat skill on the other hand features perks like Shieldbreaker that make your heavy weapon attacks harder for opponents to block as a shield, as well as increases the damage you do to shields with your heavy weapon attacks.

Combat skills aren't the only skills with perks in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, however. There are skills and perks for Thievery, Survival, Stealth Scholarship, Houndmaster, Horsemanship, Drinking (yep, drinking), Craftsmanship, and Alchemy. Speaking of which, Alchemy and Blacksmithing have their own new and more intricate systems.

For Alchemy, you can collect herbs and other materials before visiting an Alchemy Bench and concocting various potions and elixirs. It's a pretty complex system, with most recipes requiring you to use a certain liquid as a base, and then bring it to a boil over a pot before adding a specific amount of ingredients and boiling it for a specific amount of time. The better quality materials you use and the closer you are to the exact boil time, the better quality the potion you make will be.

Blacksmithing isn't as complex as Alchemy, but is a fun and honestly relaxing reprieve from gallivanting around Bohemia. Once you've gathered the necessary materials for the recipe—oftentimes various metals—you can head to an anvil and begin the Blacksmithing process. First, you'll have to heat the metals over a furnace, bringing the metals to a bright yellow glow. Then, you move the metal to an anvil before shaping it with your hammer. The goal is to spread out where you hit the metal with your hammer, though it can be tricky to do without any sort of indicator of where your hammer swing is going to land. I actually made a good bit of Groschen throughout my playthrough by heading to the anvil in between quests and blacksmithing what I could with the materials I found.

Overall, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 exceeded my expectations in every way. Henry has cemented himself as one of my favorite game characters, and the world of 15th-century Bohemia that the developers have crafted will certainly be one I will always remember. Many games these days proclaim to have a living breathing world full of choices that matter, but few actually do. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 gives you that lively and immersive world full of choices and then implores you to make the wrong ones, and it's a hell of an experience because of it.

While Kingdom Come: Deliverance was a solid title worthy of being called a great open-world RPG, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 essentially redefines what it means to be a great open-world RPG. It's one of those worlds you not only want to tell your friends about, but you want to watch them explore it as well. I'm so torn on what I want to see Warhorse Studios do in the future. On one hand, I'd love to see what such a talented studio can do with another setting. On the other, they're absolute masterminds at crafting such an immersive and realistic early 15th-century medieval world that I just want more of it. The year just started so it's too early to be talking about GOTY, but for me, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is already at the very least a contender.

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

The post Review: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

The Civilization series has long reigned supreme over the turn-based 4X strategy genre. Even though the genre has recently become more populated with games like Humankind, Old World, and Endless Legend—all of which are great, by the way—none have reached the same level of gameplay that Civilization offers.

Realistically, that's to be somewhat expected. After all, Sid Meier's Civilization is a series that's been around for over three decades with the original releasing all the way back in 1991. Over the years, developer Firaxis Games—and Micro Prose, back in the 90's—continued to build on and refine the 4X formula leading up to the series' seventh mainline entry, Sid Meier's Civilization 7.

Unfortunately, when you're the master of a genre, you can really only refine it so much. Civilization 6 is great, but other than the addition of districts, the argument could be made that it really just felt like an updated Civilization 5.

With Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Firaxis has managed to find a way to really push the series forward in the form of its Ages system. Interestingly enough, the Ages system resolves a lot of long-stand issues with the series, while also offering more for long-term fans of the series and at the same time making the intimidating genre more approachable to newcomers.

Sid Meier's Civilization VII (PC [reviewed], PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: February 11, 2025
MSRP: $69.99

In a nutshell, Ages breaks Civilization 7 into three sections: Antiquity Age, Exploration Age, and Modern Age. At Standard game speeds, each of these Ages will last between 150-200 turns and span anywhere from 3-5 hours, depending on how long turns take you. By breaking the game into these three Ages, players have the option to play a single Age-based game that begins and ends with a single age, or they can opt to play out a longer game across all three Ages that will stretch out over a dozen hours or more.

This one change actually does a lot of Civilization. For starters, Civ players often end up on one side of the coin when it comes to game length. Some complain that the games take way too long, while others wish they could do more, and really mold their empire over the course of a long game. Sure, you could mess with game speeds and lengths in Civilization 6 in an attempt to do so, but that more or less just artificially increased the length.

Now, with the Ages system, players opting for a shorter game can play through just a single Age, while those looking for longer bouts can grow and shape their empire how they want over all three Ages in a much longer game. With the new system, each Age is also more refined to offer somewhat different gameplay, as well.

While each Age can be seen as its own sort of self-contained game, a playthrough that stretches over all three Ages will have its own self-contained goals as well. This primarily happens through the natural gameplay flow of Civilization—laying the foundation for your empire in the Antiquity Age, exploring the world and coming up with a gameplan based on your opponents in the Exploration Age, and then executing your gameplan in the end-game of the Modern Age.

The potentially shorter games of a single Age are a big welcoming point for new players, but so is a revamped tutorial system. I'm the kind of person who usually skips a tutorial, then either learns things on my own or ends up having to go back and suffer through the tutorial anyway. In Civ 7, the tutorial isn't a set of pre-built instructional scenarios or a bunch of videos or even text documentation like most games in the genre. Instead, enabling the tutorial simply adds extra instructions when you're first starting the game as well as explaining new systems or features as you unlock them, including when you reach new Ages.

Pretty much every core system of Civilization has been enhanced or improved upon in Civilization 7 as well. Visually, Civ 7 is far and above the best the series has ever looked. Not just from a directly graphical standpoint; after all, that's to be expected seeing as Civ 6 is almost a decade old now. But with Civ 7, the game takes a more realistic approach than the previous installments, which often favored a more cartoony look. This results in a vibrant and colorful landscape that really evolves as you progress through the ages.

It's always been absolute eye candy to watch the spot of land you chose to plop down your first settlement change and your empire grow over the course of a game in Civilization. With the more realistic graphics, this progression looks even more amazing. It's cool to watch your settlement advance in technology and sprawl out while keeping your Wonders through the Ages. Seeing a modern city built around the Colosseum is still always a fun sight to behold.

The soundtrack for Civ 7 is top-notch as well. This has always been a strong point of the series, and I was happy to see that each civilization still has its own unique music tracks. It really sets the mood for playing each civilization, and I'm looking forward to playing each one eventually for their scores alone.

In terms of content, Civilization 7 launches with 24 Leaders to choose from, and over 30 Civilizations across the three Ages. I believe there are a couple more unlocked by linking your game to a 2K Games account, as well as through various collector's editions. While I'm not a fan of content like this being locked out and not available to everyone, it's worth noting that there are Leaders and Civilizations available for all players of all playstyles: Cultural, Diplomatic Economic, Expansionist, Militaristic, and Scientific.

In my main playthrough across all three Ages, I started as Augustus and naturally, as Rome is my civilization, in the Antiquity Age. Typically, Rome is a Cultural Militaristic civilization. However, I ended up really taking a liking to my only close major opponent (Hatshepsut) and over the course of the Antiquity Age found myself focusing less on my military due to not really needing one, and more on science, especially because I was actually located in a perfect spot geographically for it with plenty of buffs to science to be had by working the lands appropriately.

Naturally, as I reached the Exploration Age, I shifted my civilization to Abbasid, a choice that still catered to Cultural but also Scientific over Militaristic. By the end of the Exploration Age, my dear friend Hatshepsut was consistently being sieged by Xerses and Charlemagne, leading me to shift back towards a Militaristic approach both to aid Hatshepsut but also to defend myself more efficiently. This led to me once again changing course in the Modern Age, and adopting Prussia as my civilization. Despite going into the late game in a three-way World War, I was still able to secure a Scientific Victory.

This type of flip-flopping between playstyle focuses really isn't much of a possibility in previous Civilization games. But in Civilization 7, you not only have the option to change up your focus with each Age, but you're also not penalized for it. In fact, in most cases you'll still retain a lot of the advantages from previous Age focuses even if you shift into something different in later Ages. It's a great change to the series and I can't wait to see what people who are much better than me at these sorts of games end up doing with all the possibilities within this big change.

Legacies and by extension Legacy Paths further complement this change. This new system basically gives you tasks to complete while you're in an Age. Completing them will give you buffs for that Age based on the focus the tasks were part of. For example, building a Wonder in the Antiquity Age will grant you a Cultural Legacy Point and a Diplomatic Legacy Point that can be used in future Ages. But you also receive the option to put one of those points into a specialization of Culture in a future Age that will grant you +1 Culture and +1 Happiness for every Wonder you own. This allows you to further tailor your build to your desired playstyle as you progress through the Ages.

For the most part, Civilization 7 runs great. I'm currently using an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and for some reason when using DirectX 12, my game ends up crashing after some time. Sometimes it's after just a few minutes of play, other times I can go up to an hour without issue. Thankfully, there's also the option to launch using the Vulkan API instead of DirectX 12, and I've had no crashes with it. If this is like previous issues I've had with an AMD card, this is most likely more of a driver-related issue that will be fixed when AMD drops a Civilization 7-specific driver update, but I did feel it was worth pointing out.

Slight technical hiccups aside, I also feel as though the Modern Age feels a bit less fleshed out compared to the other two Ages. The tech tree alone for the Modern Age feels a lot smaller and contained. There are also fewer branches in the tech tree compared to the prior two, and it feels like a pretty narrow progression towards the end. It's not unfinished or anything like that, but definitely noticeable.

Furthermore, I tried starting a game directly in the Modern Age, and it felt a bit rough around the edges. You get to select from a pool of starting staple points for your empire, like a city, a town, some military units, and some tech. Basically it tries to jumpstart you into a game as though you've already built up some in the first two Ages. But paired with the more lacking scope of the Age, it felt a bit off to actually play starting from the Modern Age. This may simply be curtailed by having more playtime and an overall understanding of everything going on on a systematic level, but at the moment I definitely recommend everyone starts in the Antiquity Age at the very least until you've got the game down.

I'm excited to see what direction Firaxis and 2K go in terms of post-launch content for Civilization 7. The current roadmap for the future already talks about new Leaders, Civs, Events, and Wonders, but I'm curious if there are plans to add any new major features much like the early expansions in Civ 6 did.

Regardless of my minor gripes with the game, Civilization 7 is a ton of fun. The Ages system is a major game-changer and really enhances the genre in a big way. Firaxis probably could have gotten away with a safer approach with this installment, opting for just better graphics. Instead, it boldly revamped a lot of the core systems to make the entire game more streamlined for both newcomers and veterans alike. I'm glad Firaxis is still finding ways to improve a genre it has mastered over the years, and as a result, Sid Meier's Civilization 7 has the series in its best shape yet.

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

The post Review: Sid Meier’s Civilization VII appeared first on Destructoid.

Sanrio is near and dear to my heart. Although this world of Hello Kitty and her friends only recently entered my life, I have several friends and family who adore these guys. I've lost count of the times my siblings have mentioned Hello Kitty, Kuromi, or Cinnamoroll in random conversations.

For me, this was a blind playthrough of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Although I'd known about the Apple Arcade version through several friends, I'd never played it myself, making this a fresh start rather than a direct comparison. I mainly thought the characters were cute, but playing this has since made me develop an unexpected appreciation for them and the Sanrio universe, leaving me satisfied for a while.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure (PC, Nintendo Switch [Reviewed], iOS)
Developer: Sunblink
Publisher: Sunblink
Released: January 30, 2025 (Switch/PC)
MSRP: $39.99

When I first booted up Hello Kitty Island Adventure, I was half expecting to see the Switch get yet another game about small animals occupying an island and going about their business. There was a part of my mind that feared it'd be the same game, either simplified or changed to be less appealing, giving my first few minutes a peculiar feeling of unease. Thank goodness, it only took a few minutes for me to realize there was more to this adventure than just a quick copy-paste.

Instead, Hello Kitty Island Adventure immediately greets you with the game's main cast, and Hello Kitty herself guides you through your first few minutes. Things start simple: you're on a plane with each Sanrio character, giving you an opportunity to talk to each one and learn more about their thoughts on your upcoming adventure. It's a nice way to introduce you to their world without shoving lore and exposition in your face. Or, well, you can skip this part entirely if you just want to hop onto the island and get started right away.

Speaking of the island, this map is massive. Its scale isn't apparent at first, but as you run around and discover the world around you, you quickly realize just how much is here and how much each character will rely on you in the days to come. It's sometimes overwhelming while equally exciting, especially if you prefer exploration over menial tasks.

Don't worry, though. There's plenty of questing to do if that's your thing. The only thing that overwhelmed me more than the size of this map is how many quests Hello Kitty Island Adventure tosses your way within the first few hours. Beyond story missions, you'll get all kinds of friendship quests, random side adventures, and even daily tasks to keep you playing. It's easy to log on, blink a few times, and suddenly realize you spent the past few hours doing fetch quests for the characters. There are even minigames and puzzles everywhere to get your brain going and unlock some neat little trophies.

Are these quests full of grand adventures and entertaining moments, or are they mostly mindless chores and fetch quests you can finish on auto-pilot? If anything, it feels like a mix of both. Advancing through the main storyline is satisfying, especially as you open more areas of the map and meet new characters. Between that are hours of farming materials, raising your friendship with the Sanrio cast, and occasionally having to wait a real-world day to make meaningful progress because you're one friendship level away from unlocking another quest. It's much less noticeable early on when progression is simple and quick, but it starts to drag later on at times.

On the topic of friendships, Hello Kitty Island Adventure has a peculiar system that I'm mixed on. Every day, you can give up to three items to each character to raise their friendship levels. The points you get change depending on the item's tags and a character's preferences, so giving the same item to Hello Kitty and someone like Tuxedosam will have different effects.

This game relies heavily on gift-giving for progression, with nearly every quest locked behind a specific level. You're also limited to three gifts daily for each character, forcing you to wait until the following day unless you reset your counter with a rare item. There's a part of me that likes thinking about what gifts I want to give someone without feeling tempted to speedrun the game in a few days, but another part that gets overwhelmed by the need to give out dozens of items every day. Needing several days to unlock one quest can suck sometimes, but with how much content is available, I barely noticed it until I progressed later in the game.

Even as friendship limitations make questing a little awkward sometimes, the interactions between you and each Sanrio character make things fun and interesting. They all have the same personalities and cartoony animated expressions I'd expected from them, but there's something about their style and attitudes that makes me smile every time I play. Sunblink nailed their look, personalities, and overall vibes, even if the lack of voice acting is a missed opportunity.

I'm pleasantly surprised by how much Hello Kitty Island Adventure lets you do outside questing and chatting with other characters. It has your standard skills like cooking, crafting, and fishing with some more advanced activities you unlock later down the line. A lot is locked behind quests and friendship levels, but unlocking these opens up many opportunities to explore the island in different ways without following linear paths or going into autopilot the entire time. I don't know about you, but I tend to sidetrack from quests a lot to cook some food or fish for a couple of hours, even if it doesn't help much with progression. The only difference this time is that everything you do in this game helps in some way, mostly with gifting or crafting quest items.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a wonderful game that distinguishes itself from the crowd and stands tall as a densely packed, enjoyable experience. Although it can use improvements in some areas, the Switch version of Hello Kitty Island Adventure is absolutely worth picking up if you've been looking for an Animal Crossing-like game to try out and either don't have an iPhone or are on the fence about getting an Apple Arcade subscription and prefer one-time payments. It plays well with no major performance issues — at most, I found a slightly long loading screen. Considering the game's size, though, I can easily forgive this.

With updates coming out every month and recurring events changing things up, every day feels different on this island. I'm looking forward to seeing how Hello Kitty Island Adventure's future unfolds.

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

The post Review: Hello Kitty Island Adventure appeared first on Destructoid.

I’ve certainly had worse jobs than the one given to you in Dead Letter Dept. I’ve worked in retail. I’ve worked in I.T. I know a thing or two about cursed computers.

Right there, I connected with Dead Letter Dept, especially since I like typing. I probably would have been happy if I was just playing Data Entry: The Game. But, as it turns out, there’s more to it than the simple satisfaction of a job well done. There’s also some effective but unconventional horror.

Dead Letter Dept. (PC)
Developer: Mike Monroe, Belief Engine
Publisher: Belief Engine
Release: January 30th, 2025
MSRP: $14.99

Cursed computers aren’t necessarily a new thing. Pony Island, Home Safety Hotline, and I know that there’s an obvious one I’m forgetting. Don’t let that dissuade you. While the concept might not be the most unique, Dead Letter Dept still has a lot to offer.

You’re cast as a young person who is moving to the city by themself for the first time. You’ve not only got some new digs, you’ve got a new job. And that job is to examine undeliverable letters and transcribe the correct address if you can read it. These letters are stained and ripped, and some of them are just written by people with horrible penmanship.

But the transcription is what it literally is: busywork. It’s not really a challenge. The letters aren’t small puzzles that you need to decipher. They’re mostly a storytelling tool. Proofreading addresses start giving way to stranger things, like bitter or tragic postcards and odd, alarming messages hidden betwixt. I mean, obviously something is going on underneath. Obviously. This is a horror game.

Before each work day, you start off in your horrible apartment. Your bed sucks, you haven’t finished unpacking, and there’s a locked exterior door that the landlord says leads to the fire exit, but that seems suspect. There isn’t much to do in the apartment, so you leave and take a walk to work. It’s truncated a bit, but the walk still does a good job of building the hopeless atmosphere.

As you go through your workdays, things just get stranger and stranger. At two or three hours for a playthrough, things escalate rather quickly, but the pace feels just right. It doesn’t play coy for very long. A couple days in, and the jumpscares start happening. And when I say “jumpscares,” I don’t mean that monsters start grabbing your ass at the water cooler, I just mean that sudden noises will start occurring offscreen or the computer will glitch out suddenly. It is what it is, but Dead Letter Dept capitalizes on it quite well by gluing you to the computer screen. If a sound seems to be coming from behind you, you can’t just turn your head to look at it, you just have to go on working, and working while spooky stuff goes on around you is one of my favorite styles of gameplay.

And while jumpscares may be cheap, that’s not all Dead Letter Dept has. It also has immaculate environmental storytelling. Its atmosphere is heightened by a disturbing lo-fi fuzz filter, careful use of lighting, and a very selective and surreal color palette. It leans heavily into cool colors that you wouldn’t normally associate with specific environments. Interior hallways, for example, are almost entirely a sickly green color.

It’s hard to fully communicate it in writing, but the visual and audio aesthetic of Dead Letter Dept allows it to drive above the legal limit. At its core, its gameplay is simple; limited, even. It’s clearly the work of mostly one person. However, it nails its atmosphere so perfectly that you can’t see the seams. It’s better executed than most big-budget productions without losing the fingerprints of its creator.

And while a single run is only 2-3 hours, that’s not the whole story. It’s made for multiple playthroughs, thankfully not using a roguelite format. Instead, there are just multiple endings. It’s not simply based on decisions made throughout the game, either. Instead, it’s just up to you to figure out how to derail things in different ways, and that’s a rather interesting wrinkle. There are hints on what you need to do, but nothing overt, leaving you fighting for your life in different ways… But, you know, within the confines of data entry.

The downside is that, while there are some random elements, there perhaps aren’t quite enough letters to keep things fresh on each playthrough. I guess there are only so many ways you can obfuscate an address, but – and I can’t believe I’m complaining about this – this job could use a smidge more variety.

Mike Monroe and Belief Engine really know how to get a lot of mileage out of a simple idea. It would, perhaps, be accurate to say that Dead Letter Dept is better than the sum of its parts, but, truly, I think that fails to illustrate just how great its parts are. The simple joy of data entry is wrapped in a soft tortilla of a well-communicated atmosphere and a well-executed aesthetic. Through its medium, it finds the horror in mundanity and uncertainty. It’s a message worth receiving.

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

The post Review: Dead Letter Dept. appeared first on Destructoid.

Basketball has never been better in video games than it was in NBA Jam. Unless you count Acclaim’s run in the game around the millennium, which unfortunately makes up most of it, but when NBA Jam is NBA Jam, it’s the best. It’s just unfortunate we haven’t seen it since (holy crap) 2011.

It’s expensive (I assume) to license the names and likenesses of NBA players, so while RoboDunk lacks flesh, it has it where it counts: dunks. 

RoboDunk (PC, Switch, PS4, PS5 [reviewed], Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Jollypunch Games
Publisher: Jollypunch Games
Release: September 25th, 2023 (PC, Switch), January 21st, 2025 (PS4, PS5 Xbox Series X|S)
MSRP: $14.99

RoboDunk lifts the brutality of NBA Jam’s 2v2 gameplay (technically built off of Arch Rivals) but puts its own twist on it. Most prominently, there is no shooting. I mean, some of the robots have firepower, but they won’t throw the ball unless it’s to pass. The only way to score is to dunk. To make up for the lack of three-pointers, you can charge your jump, and the higher the charge, the higher the jump, and the more points you gain. 

Like NBA Jam, violence has no repercussions, so you’re encouraged to throw elbows and shoulders to dislodge the ball from your opponent’s grasp. Alternatively, when you have the ball, you can also throw up a temporary shield around your robot that shocks anyone who tries to touch your ball. Each bot has its own special weapon that works on an ammo system. Some will drop turrets, others shoot lasers, and some just have a different type of tackle. You get money for doling out punishment, so there’s no reason to not make the competitors go home in tears.

RoboDunk’s central mode bills itself as a roguelite, which essentially means that you take on runs, progressing through harder and harder matches until you eventually fail and have to start over (though you can pay to start from a more advanced stage. With the money you earn from matches, you can buy more bots, upgrade them, or unlock new perks that appear randomly before matches.

The core gameplay is solid. It’s as brisk as its main influence, never really stopping gameplay as you push toward the enemy net and get pushed back in return. The charge-dunk system provides some good risk and reward, as charging up your jump leaves you exposed but allows you to pile on the points faster.

Each match in the roguelite mode has different modifiers, including what hazards hit the court, such as rolling spike logs and random meteors. They also run at different lengths and for a varying number of rounds, making it important to actually look at the setup before diving in and adapting to what’s in front of you. Taken entirely based on the core gameplay, RoboDunk is simple but entertaining.

The actual roguelite framework, however, I’m not all that hot on. It’s presented as a progression where you’re given a choice of three matches, each of which offers two semi-permanent perks and features different rulesets. While this works from the perspective of being a roguelite, it takes away from its feel as a sport. It feels like progression only in the literal sense, but it doesn’t feel like you’re accomplishing anything meaningful.

More importantly, however, the perks are over-crowded, and money comes so damned slowly. You get a payout depending on how high you score, how hard you hit, successful shielding, and your use of weapons, and then this is subtracted or increased by the difficulty of the match. On a good match, I’d see around 50 of the in-game currency. This can be boosted by choosing bots that you don’t use frequently. As the robots sit on the bench, they’ll gain a percentage boost, so you’ll get a higher payout. This is actually an interesting wrinkle since it means you won’t just stick to one robot and pour all your upgrades into it.

However, since you’re spending money on new perks, new robots, and upgrades for those robots, actually making meaningful progress feels extremely slow. What’s worse is that the difficulty modifier is extremely small, so it never feels like you’re getting adequately rewarded for winning harder matches. It really deadens the drive. There’s less compulsion to push harder and further since it feels like everything is at a constant rather than a curve.

There’s one complaint that I feel weird about, but I think I can explain it: robots have no place in basketballs. Hear me out. Part of what made NBA Jam’s more outlandish elements more effective is the fact that you were watching real NBA players dunk from great heights and hit the floor. It’s less effective with robots. I completely believe they’re capable of superhuman dunks because they’re not human. I have no idea whether or not getting shoved into the concrete would hurt these particular machines. Visual feedback was used to communicate impact, but because there’s no skin in the game, I always felt a disconnect in watching things unfold.

The robots themselves, and even the arenas, are supported by a surprising amount of background lore, which does a lot to flesh things out. There's a lot to do and discover, but it struggles to feel worthwhile. It never really feels grounded. Being able to connect is a key part to enjoying sports, not just in video games, but in reality.

Having another player join you really helps things since, rather than being a random assortment of machines, it’s you and your chum playing basketball. As multiplayer often does, it lessens the complications caused by the slow progression and adds more meaning to the matches. You can also strategize better with one player handing defense and the other going in for the dunk. Co-op also demonstrates how well all the mechanics work together.

And that’s kind of the bottom line: RoboDunk works quite well on a functional level. Its dunk-centric basketball is a quick, enjoyable snack. Its toy-like aesthetic and minimalistic stop-motion animation is effective. However, the framework just doesn’t support it quite right. Barring my (possible superficial) thoughts about robo-dunkers, the roguelite setup doesn’t provide a compelling experience. It’s a decent game to pick up and play, but it’s not the slam dunk it should be.

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

The post Review: Robodunk appeared first on Destructoid.

The metroidvania genre is all over everything these days, especially in the indie sphere. A dime will get you a dozen. I get the appeal; it’s one of the best ways to tell a narrative in a 2D game. But when there are so many coming out at any time, which one do you choose? It’s easy to feel burned out on them.

So, I’ve been ignoring a lot of titles that boast the metroidvania label in their press releases. I’ve probably missed out on some good ones, but I just can’t look at another rectangle-dominated map screen. Okay, one more, I guess. Blade Chimera caught my attention because it’s created by Team Ladybug and WSS Playground, the folks behind Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. Not my favorite game, no, but solid and dependable. Plus, it’s cyberpunk this time around, so that’s always a win in my book.

Blade Chimera (PC, Switch)
Developer: Team Ladybug, WSS Playground
Publisher: Playism, WSS Playground
Release: January 16th, 2025
MSRP: $19.99

The plot in Blade Chimera is strikingly boilerplate, but the setting is at least unique. It takes place in a near-future Osaka where demons run amok. 30 years previous, people started transforming into monsters of folklore and legend and caused a ruckus. During that time, The Holy Union, a pseudo-religious group, overthrew the government of Japan and took control in an effort to protect people from the demons.

Now, this is where it gets kind of trite. You play as Shin, a guy recently found cryogenically frozen, and because of his prolonged stasis, has no memory of his life before being frozen. However, he kicks ass, and quickly ascends the ranks of the Venatars, The Holy Union’s enforcers. However, he’s principled and frequently questions if indiscriminately mowing down demons is morally correct, especially after he meets one that can turn into a sword.

So, from the start, you can kind of guess where this all is going. I wish I could say that the characters and situations make up for its predictability, but that would only partially be accurate. There are some fun moments, but it’s clumsy at best.

That’s starting off on a bad note, but that’s the biggest problem out of the way, and it’s nothing huge. The game itself is butter. Like Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, it’s tangibly Castlevania: Symphony of the Night-inspired. Forget the Metroid part; its entire framework is Symphony of the Night. Its protagonist even sports long white hair.

However, Shin is proficient in firearms. You wind up with three attack buttons, two being whatever you want them to be, and the last belonging to Lux, the aforementioned big sword. The game suggests that you use one button for ranged weapons and the other for melee, and that’s sound advice. Before Blade Chimera even verbalized it, that’s how I designated the buttons in my mind.

Lux is more than just a big sword; she’s also your source of magic attacks. You unlock these through an upgrade tree, and using them effectively can make all the difference in boss battles. As a sword, you can plant her in the wall or ceiling to hold a button or act as a platform. She also had the ability to exploit “time rifts” that were scattered around. These do an inconsistent variety of things. They’re often used for simple puzzles, but mainly, you find them as grappling hooks, bridges, or hidden pathways. It’s all simple, simple stuff, but it works as a way of mixing up things a bit.

Uniquely, Blade Chimera doesn’t really use traversal powers to gate off your exploration. It does to some extent, but mainly for secret areas. You unlock powers like double-jump and dash by leveling up, so it’s up to you how they’re prioritized. Instead, you’re mainly gated off using actual gates that you don’t have the keys for. However, the actual locked doors are rare enough that they don’t have the chance to really feel artificial.

It’s also very good at incentivizing exploration. This is largely through its 56 hidden jigsaw pieces. Throughout the world, you’ll bump into doors that can only be opened if you have enough of the pieces. If you go to the effort of rooting them out, you’ll find some of the best weapons and items behind them. It strikes me as being the bluntest way of hiding such goodies, but it’s strangely satisfying.

It’s maybe the art style that does such a good job of covering such artificialities. I hadn’t paid much attention to the marketing, and the Blade Chimera doesn’t overtly talk about it until later, but just based on the enemies and environments, I could tell it was future Osaka. Considering that, like most metroidvania games, you’re exploring an abstract 2D world, it says a lot that a cities culture can be communicated so clearly, even to someone who has only visited the place once.

But the pixelated sprites are where it truly shines. There’s an incredible amount of detail in every frame of animation, breaking away from its Symphony of the Night inspiration. The same variety of huge bosses that were so prominent in Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth make an unmistakable appearance here and are just as thrilling. But more importantly, to a geek like me, Ladybug doesn’t commit any pixel-art faux pas. There isn’t a mixel to be seen, and everything seems to move on integers, which keeps things looking authentic. It also speaks to the underlying passion when an artist goes the whole mile to present a specific aesthetic, and it’s so well executed here.

To stretch the gameplay out a bit, there are side missions you can take, but it’s here that you find another soft spot in Blade Chimera. I initially went about trying to complete every side mission, but I found they come in two flavors: Interesting story asides and onerous grinding. The vast majority belong to the latter category. It will task you with eliminating demons within certain criteria, such as in a specific area or ones that are a specific color. What this often boils down to is finding a point in the map where these demons exist, then exiting the screen and re-entering to respawn the enemies and taking them out until you reach the goal. Ideally, you take on these tasks alongside your main objective, but these only lined up for me in a few instances.

The other side quests are more worthwhile. They usually involve helping citizens out by seeking out items or investigating crimes. More importantly, they feature moments of character development. The most interesting is perhaps between Shin and a particular rival. You can generally identify the side-story missions because they have a much higher payout than their grind-centric counterparts. I feel like the busywork could have been completely excised without compromising anything since I ended the game with far too much money, and I felt the runtime was appropriate for the genre.

Blade Chimera is exactly as I expected: solid and dependable. It’s not the most remarkable game I’ve played in the genre, nor is it very inventive. Despite its cyberpunk leanings, it perhaps leans a bit too hard on its Symphony of the Night aspirations, which hamstrings its attempts to find its own identity. Not to mention that its narrative is so predictable, the only thing that kept me guessing was whether or not it was trying to be subversive or if it was actually that obvious.

However, it’s done with a lot of skill and a tangible amount of passion. If it’s something of a clone of Symphony of the Night, it’s less plagiarism and more “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It makes itself worthwhile with solid design and enjoyable combat. It hides a lot of its flaws beneath a communicative art style that captures its setting and its characters so well. It’s maybe not what I’ll reach for first the next time I’m in the mood for a metroidvania, but it’s a symphony in its own right.

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

The post Review: Blade Chimera appeared first on Destructoid.

Originally released as a Nintendo Wii exclusive in 2009—and only in Japan—Tales of Graces was eventually remastered and brought to the Western audience on the PlayStation 3 in the form of Tales of Graces f in 2012. Now, almost 13 years later, the JRPG has been remastered once again and made available on pretty much every modern platform with Tales of Graces f Remastered.

Nowadays remastered can mean a lot of things when it comes to games, anywhere from basic ports to a more modern system to a complete remake like Final Fantasy 7 Remake. In the case of Tales of Graces f Remastered, it means updated graphics to look better on modern displays, alongside a plethora of quality-of-life additions ranging from small to huge.

Most of the additions simply make this over two-decade old JRPG more accessible and fun to play, while keeping most of the experience authentic and true to the original. Which, I'm not afraid to admit, is one of my favorites in the 'Tales of' franchise.

Tales of Graces f Remastered (PC, PS5[reviewed], PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch)
Developer: TOSE Co. LTD
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Released: January 16, 2025
MSRP: $39.99

Yup, you heard that right. If I had to pick an absolute favorite, it would probably be the most recently released Tales of Arise. But before then, I'd put Tales of Graces f up there alongside Tales of the Abyss as my favorite, mostly because of its fun high-speed battle system that was a standout in the series. Thankfully, developer TOSE Co. LTD has left the battle system fully intact from the original.

The story of Tales of Graces f Remastered takes place in the fantastical world of Ephinea, a world divided into three different countries: Windor, Strahta, and Fendel. At the start of the game, the main protagonist, Asbel, and his younger brother Hubert find a peculiar purple-haired girl named Sophie near their town. Sophie is suffering from amnesia and has no idea who she is or why she is there. Asbel and Hubert take Sophie back to their village, only to encounter Prince Richard, the future king of one of the other three kingdoms. The four become friends before an unexpected tragedy results in the group all going their separate ways.

From here, Tales of Graces f Remastered jumps forward seven years to a time when the three kingdoms that were all previously at peace are now under the threat of war due to a series of events that transpired over that period of time, resulting in the childhood friends reuniting during rather trying times as the three kingdoms are under the threat of an all-out war.

Like most JRPGs, the story of Tales of Graces f Remastered is an important part of the game. I think the reason I enjoy the story of Graces so much is due to the constant tension brought on by the element of political intrigue, something often absent in JRPGs and, more specifically, in the 'Tales of' series. It's not without its faults—it certainly suffers from some of the usual JRPG cliches, especially with its characters—but the constant twisting and turning of the story due to backstabbing and politicking sets it apart from other entries in the series.

While I enjoy the story, it's important to highlight that I very much recommend you play through the optional 'Lineage and Legacies' after completing the main story. It was originally a DLC that actually serves as the ending to Tales of Graces, resolving a lot of ongoing subplots and overall puts a nice finishing touch on the main story as well. The Lineage and Legacies DLC, as well as all the other DLC that was released for Tales of Graces f other than a few pieces of license-restricted cosmetics, are included in the remastered version.

Tales of Graces f Remastered utilizes an action combat system where running into enemies on the world map will send you into a real-time battle against the enemy. You can run around the battle map as well as block or dodge attacks, all while attacking your foes with a variety of attacks, including A Artes (physical special attacks) and B Artes (magical special attacks. Using a system called Chain Capacity (often referred to as CC), you can combo Artes together to deal massive damage. As you progress through Tales of Graces f Remastered, accomplishing various achievements will unlock Titles for each of your characters that also grant new Artes.

I remember trying to get the platinum trophy for Tales of Graces f which required you to get 100 Titles for each of the playable characters. This was a huge time sink, as many titles simply required you to grind them out mindlessly. With Tales of Graces f Remastered, you get full access to the Grade Shop, a special shop that allows you to enable and disable certain systematic changes to the game on the fly, such as Double Item Drop chances, increased experience and currency gains, and more. Believe me when I say some of these will really cut down on the grind, especially if you're looking to get all the Titles. In the original, you could only access the Grade Shop after completing the game. For those who have played previously and are looking to have a less grindy experience, this is a very welcome quality-of-life addition. And for those who don't want it, you can simply choose not to enable any of the buffs from the Grade Shop.

Alongside the Grade Shop, here are some of the other quality-of-life additions in Tales of Graces f Remastered. On the overworld map, you can toggle your run button into a dash button to more quickly traverse the world. You can also toggle enemy encounters on or off via a simple setting in the options menu, so if you want to avoid battles and just progress the story for a bit, you can do so. All cutscenes and dialogue skits are skippable (thank god) and destination icons for your next main story quest destination have been added when on the overworld map.

At the end of the day, Tales of Graces f Remastered is everything a remaster should be: graphical upgrades that make an old game look better on modern platforms, a trove of quality-of-life additions that make the game better while staying true to the original version, and inclusion of all the DLC for the complete package. It's really solid value, especially for those who have yet to play Tales of Graces in either of its previous two forms, since this is essentially the ultimate version. Now I just hope Tales of Xillia 1 and 2 or maybe even Tales of the Abyss are next!

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

The post Review: Tales of Graces f Remastered appeared first on Destructoid.

After a hands-on preview of the first three chapters of Dynasty Warriors: Origins back in November 2024, Origins became one of my most anticipated releases of 2025. The first three chapters got me hooked, and I not only wanted more of the fast and simply fun-to-play combat I'd come to expect from the franchise, but I was genuinely looking forward to continuing the story.

Admittedly, this is not quite something I had expected going into a Dynasty Warriors game, especially once again telling the tale of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a tale the series has already told man,y many times. But I found the angle of placing the story and its direction more in the player's hands an exciting and enjoyable way to push the hack-and-slash series forward in terms of storytelling.

Thankfully, developer Omega Force doesn't let its foot off the pedal after the first three chapters, and in fact, things only get bigger and better as Dynasty Warriors: Origins progresses, both in terms of battle size—arguably the franchise's staple feature—and absolute scale.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins (PC, PS5[reviewed], Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Released: January 17, 2025
MSRP: $69.99

Dynasty Warriors: Origins kicks off at the beginning of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, a period of peasant revolt and uprising in Chinese history that is essentially the progenitor of the fabled Three Kingdoms period. Players take on the role of The Wanderer, a formidable warrior experiencing amnesia at the time the events of the game kick off. Now, typically, I'd argue that an amnesiac main character is a bit bromidic in nature, but it fits what Omega Force is doing with the essential reboot of the franchise with Origins.

Even though the Romance of the Three Kingdoms saga has been told time and time again in this franchise, using an actual single player character rather than having you play as various historical leaders and soldiers from the period opens up unique narrative points for Omega Force. Throughout the game, you'll make friends and enemies with characters from each dynasty and are often given the choice of who to side with and join on the battlefield. It's a much-welcomed and pleasant surprise to play a Dynasty Warriors game where you get to make some choices that actually feel like they matter and have some weight behind them.

As someone who's always appreciated the historical period in which the series takes place, this is the first time I've felt an actual bond with the characters rather than just assigning a "good guy/bad guy" label based on whether they were an ally or foe on the battlefield. Speaking of bonds, there's an actual Bond System at play that allows you to grow your relationship with various lords and officers from the Three Kingdoms era, unlocking unique story events with them as well as unique rewards. Maxing out a bond with a character leads to a special cutscene highlighting the bond between you and that character.

While I do think the unique player-created character being the MC was the right move, it did, unfortunately, affect the overall connection I had to the main character in a negative way. Throughout most of the campaign, your character is rather reserved and unemotional, mostly due to the fact that he doesn't even remember exactly who he is which is. As you progress through the story, your memories return, but in the end, I found myself more interested in the connections I made with the various other major characters rather than my own character.

There are ten weapon types throughout Dynasty Warriors: Origins, most of which unlock as you play through the campaign, with the Halberd unlocking after completing the campaign. The weapon type you use dictates your playstyle, Battle Arts (essentially skills in battle), as well as the combos and attacks of both your Heavy and Light attacks. Each time you use a weapon of a specific type, you'll build up your proficiency with it, unlocking new attacks and combos with them. It also progresses your overall Rank, increasing your character's Health, Attack, and Defense, meaning changing it up and trying out new weapon types can still build your character strength even if you end up not sticking with it.

I found myself drawn to the Twin Pikes weapon type, massive axe-like weapons that your character wields in each hand. I felt like a full-on berserker, cleaving through hordes of enemies with ease while occasionally jumping into the air to leap slam down on my opponents with the Twin Pikes. They deal a ton of damage—in my limited testing, possibly the most overall outside of the late-game unlocked Cresent Blade and the post-game unlocked Halberd—and come with a ton of AoE attacks to really mow through battles.

Each weapon type also has some unique cadences that you can learn and execute to give you even more of an edge for dedicating the time to learning the weapon. For example, with the Twin Pikes if you hold Guard and then initiate a Heavy Attack and continue to spam the Heavy Attack button, you'll spin around whirlwind style—like I said, a berserker—continuously. If you manage to time your final Heavy Attack press right as the attack lands, the final attack is empowered, dealing more damage and resulting in a cool enhanced attack animation.

Thinking back on my childhood experiences with the Dynasty Warrior franchise, it's easy to remember what made them stand out so much: the massive battles. With Origins, Omega Force redefines massive battles, with some maps hosting up to 10,000 soldiers on the screen at a time. As you progress through the campaign, the battles not only get bigger but more intense as well. Along the way your army will grow as well, giving you access to new Tactics that will allow you to issue commands to nearby soldiers in your army. The Tactics you can use range from issuing a charge to cut off an advancing army or launching a targeted arrow strike to thin out numbers.

This added gameplay element felt like a refined version of the system in Bladestorm, another series by Omega Force and Koei Tecmo that features massive battles, and it's a welcome addition. There are also times when the Tactics you issue are incorporated with major development points in the historical story of the battles you are fighting in, resulting in sweeping changes to the battle and even the battlefield. The ability to so fantastically interweave the storytelling into warfare is impressive and a big step forward for the narrative approach of the series that until now has been rather lacking. And, it's all done without holding back the core strength of the franchise: its fast-paced hack-and-slash combat. If anything, it amplifies it.

Completing the Dynasty Warriors: Origins campaign unlocks a New Game Plus mode that allows you to continue building your character from where you ended the campaign while going back and exploring the various choice points throughout the game and giving you the opportunity to see how things differ based on your choice. You can change which faction you join, to see how the entire story would have unfolded had you joined that faction instead, all while continuing to level and power up the same character. In this sense, the NG+ mode feels more like the classic replayable grind of the series and one that I actually look forward to doing, which hasn't been the case since Samurai Warriors 4 for me.

Everything that makes Dynasty Warriors great has been built on and amplified in Dynasty Warriors: Origins. The fast-paced combat is more fluid and satisfying than ever, and I think the decision to allow players to build up their own character is the right move for the franchise moving forward. I wasn't sure how Omega Force could take a series coming up on three decades old and make it appealing to newcomers while appeasing long-time fans, but they found a way. For me, this is the best Dynasty Warriors yet, and I'm excited to see what's next.

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

The post Review: Dynasty Warriors: Origins appeared first on Destructoid.

It was difficult to be a Nintendo fan during the Wii years. The initial hype around its motion controls died pretty quickly when it became clear its real-world application was extremely limited. Worse, Nintendo seemed to be looking to gain favor with a broader audience and it seemed that its output suffered.

What sucked most was that it felt like motion control was being shoehorned into everything. Mostly because they were. I think 2010’s Donkey Kong Country Returns is exemplary of this. Retro Studios did an admirable job continuing Rare’s legacy, but the absolutely baffling decision was made to incorporate controller shaking. In particular, you had to shake the controller to get DK to roll. Rolls were necessary as a form of attack, but more importantly, rolling was used to extend jumps. Precise jumps, specifically. Jumps that you would see in the hardest levels. And it didn’t matter how simple the motion was, it was unreliable.

There was no reason for it, it could have easily been bound to the same button as “pick up/grab,” you know, just like it was in earlier games. You couldn’t turn it off. The mere fact that it had to be this was frustrates me to even talk about, but actually playing the most difficult levels with this hamstringer drove me insane.

So, anyway, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD doesn’t use motion controls and is better for it.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Switch)
Developer: Retro Studios, Forever Entertainment
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: January 16, 2025
MSRP: $59.99

Technically, you could play Donkey Kong Country Returns without motion control on the 3DS already with Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, but I feel like this sort of game needs a bigger screen.

The original Donkey Kong Country series was a heavy-hitter on the SNES, practically putting Rare on the map. If someone tells you that those games were only loved for their graphics and had standard gameplay, they were clearly in a Genesis household. Rare may have fronted with the lavish 3D-to-2D sprites, but the level design was top-notch. Sometimes maddeningly so. Loads of variety across its worlds.

After Nintendo and Rare had split, it seemed unlikely the series would continue in any form, so it was a surprise to see it again in 2010, and even more surprising to find out that it’s every bit as good as the original trilogy (motion control frustration aside). Honestly, while I prefer the vibes of the SNES titles better, the levels in Donkey Kong Country Returns reach offensive levels of creativity. From riding rockets to avoiding giant rhythmic hammers, it’s a master class at setpieces. It provides a stiff but fair challenge across its eight (main) worlds, and constantly finds new ways to surprise.

One of the first things that greets you when you start up a new game is a difficulty setting. There are two, and they’re hilariously named “Modern” and “Classic,” which made me wonder what year this is. “Modern” is easier because I guess COVID caused our thumbs to atrophy and our patience to thin. You have three hearts by default, and Cranky’s shop carries more items.

Beyond the fact that something from 2010 is considered no longer modern, I find it amusing that there’s an easier difficulty because Donkey Kong Country Returns already has difficulty options. It caused a bit of discourse at the time, even before the Dark Souls Easy Mode debate. There’s the Super Guide that plays the level for you if you screw up a few too many times, something that became insulting after the motion controls let me down during difficult segments. There are also potions that make you invincible for a while. But, yeah, extra difficulty options never hurt. I just wish they didn’t also make me feel old and worried for the new generations at the same time.

The story of Donkey Kong Country Returns is somewhat divorced from the original series, which was an escalating fight against an insane lizard. Donkey Kong’s banana horde is stolen again (as Cranky Kong points out, “So, who hasn’t stolen your bananas at this point?”), but this time, it’s by a strange army of tiki idols that can hypnotize the wildlife. Thankfully, DK’s advanced primate brain is immune to hypnosis, so he sets out to reacquire his bananas, assumedly before they turn brown.

Much of Donkey Kong Country Returns feels like a re-tread of the first game. You have all the barrel blasting and mine carting that made that title stand out. Moreover, the heaps of tantalizing secret items that are dangled just out of reach make a return. While it’s a linear platformer, Retro Studios followed Rare’s example of sticking extra challenges and hidden nooks to find as you race to the goal. More importantly, you’re rewarded for searching things out, with additional levels awarded, mainly for collecting all the KONG letters.

The view is zoomed out a lot farther, and climbable surfaces have been added, which allows levels to have a lot more verticality to them. This also means that minecart sections require fewer split-second reactions. Personally, I never had a problem with the minecarts in the SNES game, but I know some hate those levels, so maybe this is less vexing? If it’s not, you’re going to hate the rockets.

Alongside the minecart segments, there are levels where you ride a rocket barrel through a forced scrolling section. These require you to press the jump button to pull up and raise your altitude, so it requires a bit more awareness than, say, a scrolling shoot-’em-up. It requires a feel for the responsiveness of the rocket, and there are some really narrow parts that might end up frustrating. I loved the rocket segments each and every time; they may be my favorite part of the whole experience. There’s something to be said about the simplicity, but Retro Studios was still able to put in some incredibly thrilling segments around your rocket-propelled journey.

The bosses are a bit more of a mixed bag. Each one is heavily pattern-based, and there’s a lot of variety between them. Unfortunately, that same variety means that some are better than others. I had difficulty even figuring out what I had to do on some of them. Adding to that, the collision detection in Donkey Kong Country Returns is questionable a lot of the time, and this seems to manifest most when it comes to bosses. I’d find myself taking damage when I was clear of danger to the point where I captured a video of one moment, then viewed it and confirmed that the two models didn’t intersect. What the hell? I’m not sure if the shaky collision was this way in the original version. It’s only a minor annoyance overall; it just seems like an out-of-place loose thread in an otherwise tight and polished game.

The graphical glowup in Donkey Kong Country Returns is pretty understated. It’s mostly what it says on the tin: a higher-resolution version of the original. Donkey Kong has some added fuzz, but it’s clearly set before Tropical Freeze since he hasn’t yet discovered the amazing conditioner that gave him his incredible coat in that game.

The best comparison I can give is to say it’s like Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. Nothing has really changed art-wise. The lighting is better, but it’s far from astounding. The textures are sharper, but they haven’t really changed. Backgrounds are largely untouched. It’s not the same magnitude of upgrade that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door got, it’s largely just Donkey Kong Country Returns with more pixels.

It was nice to revisit the game. I find that with platformers, unless they’re extremely unconventional, they kind of get sectioned away in my brain. Even when they’re particularly well-executed, as is the case with Donkey Kong Country Returns. But actually sitting down and playing them, I find I can still appreciate them.

And while Donkey Kong Country Returns HD doesn’t revolutionize the game, it still manages to become the definitive version of the title. If you haven’t played it before, you owe it to yourself to try it out. Retro Studios outdid themselves. They took what came before and expertly expanded and improved on it. It’s an astounding display of creative level design that is near unmatched in sidescrollers. And now you can play it without having to shake your controller.

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

The post Review: Donkey Kong Country Returns HD appeared first on Destructoid.

Oh, I’ve been waiting for this. My Summer Car has been in Early Access since 2016, and I’ve eagerly awaited the chance to review it for real. It’s finally here, which means there’s no escape. It’s time to pull this bad boy apart.

But I want to be upfront: My Summer Car is wildly unconventional. It has an almost incomparable design philosophy, completely shirking the evolution of games that came before it. As a result, it’s clearly for a specific type of person, but I can’t tell you what that type of person is, nor can I tell with any certainty if you would fit in that category. At best, I hope I can get you curious enough to try it. At worst, you won’t get what I’m talking about.

My Summer Car (PC)
Developer: Amistech
Publisher: Amistech
Released: January 8, 2025
MSRP: $14.99

My Summer Car transports you to rural Finland circa 1995. You’re dropped into the shoes of a young adult left unsupervised for the summer. You’ve got a moped, a front-end loader, and a car that has been busted down to its individual components. The obvious focus is getting that car put together, but the end goal? Ehhh.

There is technically a way to roll the credits without dying, but doing so relies on arcane knowledge. Personally, I’d say the end goal of My Summer Car is whatever you make of it. There are a lot of things that you can do, and some of them result in rewards. There are also a lot of ways you can fuck up, and many of them result in death.

Yeah, death. Rural Finland is a dangerous place and My Summer Car loves to see you suffer. It prominently features a permadeath. This can be turned off, but that comes with its own inconveniences. Alternatively, if you’re savvy, you can create backups of your saves so you can resume later in case of catastrophe.

It’s down to preference as to whether you’ll accept permanent death. I always leave it on because it adds much weight to how you interact with the world. You will buckle your seatbelt and drive more safely if you know that slipping off the narrow roads can undo your progress. However, it’s a cruel game. If any of your mortal stats completely deplete (hunger and thirst, for instance), you can drop dead. There’s a chance you’ll be killed if you pick up the telephone during a thunderstorm (I looked it up, and apparently, that can happen in reality). I once died because I didn’t flip the master breaker before changing a fuse.

Oh, apparently, you can die if you piss on the TV. I don’t know why you’d try that. I guess if you felt the need to just hose down the living room so your parents know you now own the place. I’m not sure why someone would go to the effort of designing and programming that particular way to die, but that demonstrates the developer’s bizarre priorities. One of the new threats is that if you leave the door to your house open, a wasp can get inside. The player character is allergic to wasp stings.

Even if you have death turned off, My Summer Car has many ways to punish you. If you leave the stove on when you leave the house, there is a chance your house will burn down. That's it. No more house. Technically, you can still survive homeless, but I’m sure you can understand why this would be inconvenient. You can also be thrown in jail if you try to evade police or murder someone (either accidentally or intentionally). Otherwise, there’s always the risk of getting in an accident and totaling your car. The worst part of that scenario is the long, long, very long walk of shame you have to perform back to your home.

Wrecking your car isn’t necessarily the end of your Finland adventure. You can drag it to the local mechanic, Fleetari, to repair. As far as I know, you can’t permanently destroy anything, but it’s hard to tell with this game. Fixes require money, however, and economics are difficult. There are a lot of odd jobs you can do, including chopping and delivering firewood, picking strawberries, sucking septic tanks, and selling homemade alcohol. However, they aren’t always available and some of them have roadblocks of their own, such as having to pay for the septic truck’s gas.

If My Summer Car has anything like what you’d describe as a gameplay loop, it would be work, get money, spend money on car maintenance. But that kind of breaks down when you realize that building the car is mainly for its own sake.

Johannes Rojola has the design sensibilities of a seagull full of cocaine. Efficiency is a foreign concept, and almost nothing added since the start of Early Access has been to the benefit of the player. My Summer Car is a nest of side activities, sub-plots (as if there’s a main plot), and cruelty. He goes into minute detail about some of the strangest things. This might be the most complicated simulation of a sauna that humanity will ever create. I’m not sure who else would think to allow you to piss on the stones.

The whole car construction thing is a real work of effort, though. Each piece is affected by physics, so you’re literally picking things up, moving them to where they need to go, snapping them together, then bolting them on. Like almost everything in this game, it’s temperamental. It’s not the most efficient or intuitive way to do this, either. It works, the depth of it is incredibly satisfying, and you would probably never see this in a big-budget production.

One of the strangest quirks of its design is how much it allows you to clip through objects, and it’s stranger still that you’re practically required to do it to find all the bolts on the car. Many games go to great lengths to keep things corporeal and avoid letting the player phase through the geometry. My Summer Car just says, “fuck it,” and makes it a feature. If something important falls through the floor, you can find it at the landfill.

But, as weird as the design can get, it’s all in the service of some steadfast commitment to realism. While a lot of death in the game can seem unfair, everything fatal is rooted in reality. Yeah, maybe you don’t expect to die just because you’re chopping wood while filled with more alcohol than a brewery, but common sense would tell you it’s a bad idea.

It’s also realistic in the sense that rural life is boring. There’s nowhere to go, there’s nothing on TV, there’s nothing to do. Work is sometimes slow to come in, and much of it requires you to plan your day around it. It isn’t efficient to go and suck out one person’s septic tank; it’s better to wait until all your customers require the service and then do a circuit. You can fill the trailer full of firewood all you want, but the guy who buys it will only request it once a week. The dance pavilion is only active on one day of the week, repairs and orders take time to finish, and the drunk who needs a ride home only calls sporadically.

Also, make sure you pay your phone bill. I was wondering why no one was calling with jobs, then realized that the phone company had cut me off.

If anything, the real challenge of My Summer Car is finding ways to fill your time. Frankly, part of my over 200 hours of playtime was spent idling in the game world while reading something at my desk. If you ask me, it’s boredom by design. It really lets you feel the ennui and makes the simple feeling of getting in the car with somewhere to go feel impactful. Every accomplishment is magnified. Weird, weird stuff.

If there’s one place I’m less enthusiastic about, it’s that absolutely nothing in My Summer Car is explained. In 2016, I figured out how to put a car together by rubbing stuff together and finding out how it fit. But that only gets you so far. It won’t help you tune the engine or tell you what to do when you blow a cylinder. There’s also nothing in the game that tells you that you shouldn’t piss on the TV or that you can cook sausages on the stove by placing them directly on the burner.

This means you must rely on outside information, such as the My Summer Car Wiki. In a way, this makes up for the fact that you can’t just converse with the folks around you to learn things. In reality, you might be able to bring up in conversation that you can only stay awake if you drink a cup of coffee every five minutes and be told that you have caffeine addiction. You might mention to the store clerk that you want to piss on the television, and they’ll say, “I wouldn’t do that, friend. That’s how my uncle died.” That’s kind of outside the boundaries of what’s feasible in game design.

Especially since everyone speaks Finnish in Finland. As you’d expect, a lot of this is subtitled, but not all of it. The stuff that is subtitled might be subtitled poorly. There are talk radio programs, and I can’t help but wish I knew what they were saying. It does lend to feeling like you’re living in a country that doesn’t speak your native language. Although, since your character is canonically Finnish, the exchange student excuse doesn’t make much sense. On the plus side, I now know how to swear in Finnish.

Though, really, if there’s one thing I absolutely hate, it’s the constant degradation of your Satsuma’s individual engine parts. I’m not just talking about the oil and brake fluid, but the alternator and pistons. You can’t just buy new replacement parts, only Fleetari, the mechanic in the area, can fix them. It’s expensive. You have to pull the entire engine out of your car and hand it to the mechanic; he won’t just do it himself at his, y’know, garage. It also takes a little while for him to finish. That would be bad enough, but they degrade so quickly.

It can feel like you’re driving a machine made of gossamer. Even if you don’t bump it around or drive it hard, it’s going to need to see the car doctor way sooner than you’d want. You can drive the van instead, which doesn’t degrade or break down, but it feels weird playing a car-building game and having to take it to a different person to repair behind the scenes every couple of weeks.

There’s a popular supplement for the game, MSCedit, which lets you open your save file and modify it. Cheating, essentially. Well, cheating overtly. However, there’s a point at which the game’s obstacles start to get in the way of your enjoyment, and for me, it’s having to worry about whether or not a piston is on the verge of blowing because I drove Grandma to church one too many times. It’s a step too far and probably should have stopped with replacing fan belts, spark plugs, and gaskets. I get that it's part of the game's intentional design – the Satsuma is supposed to be a piece of crap – but I hate it.

As I said, the endpoint of My Summer Car is extremely nebulous. I’m not sure how you’d really reach it without knowing the criteria in advance because it gets pretty specific. Yet, despite this, there are pretty lofty goals to achieve along the way. Getting your Satsuma certified as road-worthy is one. Winning the rally or drag races would be another. Helping the drunk guy move into a new home is a big event. You only get there by simply existing and surviving in the harsh environments of Finland.

There are plenty of lackadaisical simulators out there that revel in their own awkwardness. I’ve stared into the dead eyes of enough Unreal Engine assets to last a lifetime. But My Summer Car is not that. For all its ugliness, its rough edges, and the way it shirks conventional design, it’s a completely earnest product.

Rojola has said that he is “developing dream games for [his] own enjoyment.” Whether or not it’s your dream game is another matter. For me, it very much is. It’s one that I’ve returned to frequently since its Early Access life for another taste of its brutal depiction of Finnish rural life. The friction it creates with its harsh punishment provides meaning to those peaceful moments as you drive along its winding dirt roads. It might strike some as boring, too cryptic, or too unwelcoming, but regardless of whether or not it’s your kind of ride, it's exactly what it intends to be. There is no experience quite like My Summer Car.

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

The post Review: My Summer Car appeared first on Destructoid.

I have fond memories of the original release of Freedom Wars back in 2014 on the PlayStation Vita, as it felt like one of the more unique exclusives on the platform. Fast forward to today, over a decade later, and developer Dimps and publisher Bandai Namco have brought the action RPG to the modern console and PC market in the form of Freedom Wars Remastered.

When it comes to giving a title the remastered treatment, Freedom Wars may just be the ideal candidate. Even though over 700,000 copies of the original were sold, being exclusive to a handheld console still meant many never gave it a try, even if it seemed right up their alley. It's a game that even in over a decade ago I felt it could potentially feel and play even better on a console, so it's great to finally have that opportunity.

Freedom Wars Remastered (PC, PS5 [reviewed], PS4, Switch)
Developer: Dimps
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Released: January 10, 2025
MSRP: $39.99

If you didn't have the privilege of playing the original back in 2014, Freedom Wars Remastered takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future where all of humanity exists inside enormous underground prison facilities called Pantopicons. At birth, every human is sentenced to one million years of imprisonment simply for existing in a time where resources are scarce, and the surface of the planet is inhabitable. By completing missions for your Panopticon—typically going out and slaying giant monsters called Abductors Monster Hunter-style—you'll reduce your lengthy sentence and earn rewards for doing so to incentivize you to keep chipping away at it.

Of course, you can easily add to your sentence, as well. Stand around too long while you should be actively completing your mission? Here's an extra decade to your sentence. Have the audacity to waste your Panopticon's time by failing a mission? Here's a few thousand years. Your sentence is mostly just dressing to the events going on in Freedom Wars Remastered, but I have to admit the gameplay loop feels even better when you see the fruits of your labor result in that sentence going down.

I found the story of Freedom Wars Remastered to be quite intriguing a decade ago, and it probably holds up even better today than it did then. In 2014, it seemed a bit too farfetched, but as we head into 2025 many aspects of the grim reality of the title's setting seem to hit home just a bit harder this time around; themes of government surveillance, a punishing social credit system, and the value of human life and freedom being reduced to a mere number are just some that echoed with me more.

The gameplay loop of Freedom Wars Remastered is simply yet enticing enough. Choose a mission from your Panopticon, then head to a preset map to complete said mission with some simplistic but fluid action RPG combat. You have both ranged and melee weapons—which of course, being a Monster Hunter-like game, you'll upgrade using parts you knock off the monsters you defeat—but can also jump around and also even quickly traverse the battlefield through the use of an item called a Thorn.

All Sinners (the name for those serving a sentence to their Panopticon, so pretty much everyone) has a Thorn which is essentially a lasso mixed with a grappling hook. It allows you to try and bring down certain enemies but, more commonly, is used to quickly sling around the area. There are even some rather unique aerial attacks you can pull off by using your Thorn appropriately, which is both fun and rewarding as they often allow you to target otherwise hard-to-reach parts on the Abductors.

Freedom Wars Remastered is also a fully functional multiplayer game in more ways than one. Most importantly, you can team up with or even do battle against up to seven other players at once, either working together with a team of four to take on Abductors, or in a PvPvE style setting against another team of four.

Another cool multiplayer element is that when you start the game, you choose from one of many locations as the Panopticon you represent. At the moment, it looks like only Japan's 47 prefectures are available, but I know in the original Freedom Wars there were also some generalized Panopticons for various countries, which may be the case when full release hits. Your sentence serves as your "score" and is compared against other players, both globally and in your Panopticon, in the form of a leaderboard. It's a cool feature that also ties in well with the societal narratives of the story, which is fun.

Overall the combat of Freedom Wars Remastered is fast-paced and fluid like you'd expect from a game taking inspiration from Monster Hunter, but it's a bit more simplistic than MH. But it still manages to stay fun and rewarding feeling throughout the entire story and campaign.

The main upgrade of the remastered version is the visual enhancements, allowing for up to 4K resolution and 60 FPS on PlayStation and PC, as well as upgraded textures. The improvements are definitely noticable—remember, this was a Vita game originally, after all—but don't expect anything revolutionary. The upgraded textures make things look more modern and overall crisp, but some graphical elements such as facial animations and various animations during cutscenes don't seem to have received the same amount of love and still show signs of a past generation (or two).

My main complaints after my roughly 30-hour adventure through Freedom Wars Remastered echo the same complaints I had over a decade ago when I played the original on Vita. The story is intriguing and mysterious enough to have kept me hooked, but the end result is extremely disappointing. It's about as much of a cliffhanger as it gets, and certainly sets things up for a sequel that never happened. Hopefully, the remastered treatment is a hint that a sequel is finally coming, one I'd certainly welcome with open arms.

Crafting and upgrade weapons have received a bit of a rework in Freedom Wars Remastered, but some of the bigger flaws like very few actual worthwhile stats worth pursuing on your gear and a rather lackluster pool of end-game options still exist for those that look to continue their play after the credits have rolled.

Despite the issues, though, Freedom Wars Remastered is a fun time, especially for anyone looking to sink their teeth into an action RPG with the loop of slaying big monsters for parts to upgrade their gear. The story is intriguing and engaging, and overall worthwhile to experience even with the cliffhanger ending. The combat is engaging and fun, and sure to scratch that Monster Hunter itch. Even over a decade later, Freedom Wars Remastered is an extremely satisfying endeavor with the constant reward of seeing your million-year sentence drop lower and lower as you progress, a feeling that's been a bit absent in this 10-year window since the original.

The post Review: Freedom Wars Remastered appeared first on Destructoid.

2024 was another huge year for games, with enough to keep everyone occupied for the foreseeable future. Despite constant decision paralysis, though, the eight hours I spent with the deranged, demolition-happy Dynamite Anton and his coworker Annie in Antonblast were the most unabashed fun I had playing games all year.

Ever since Summitsphere's buckwild platformer was first announced, I have been preparing myself to play the spiritual successor to some lost Wario Game Boy Advance game. I wasn't, however, prepared to play a Sega Genesis game. That's exactly what this is; it has a very specific, and I say this with love, funk to it that you only get from the library of Genesis or Sega CD. Perhaps, in some alternate universe, Antonblast dropped in the mid-90s on both Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, the latter version playing a bit more brightly with some rigid edges. Mayb e with fewer belches, screams, and profanity-laden proclamations.

Our gruff title character is on a side-scrolling mission to get his coveted spirits back from Satan, who wants Anton for himself so he can become the reddest person in the world. Anton and Annie — both playable from the start — set out to stop Satan with some assistance from a beleaguered casino owner named Brulo. To do so, they'll need to blast through 12 stages, seeking out Anton's spirits, setting Brulo's detonators, and getting the hell out of there before the whole damn level explodes. 

Antonblast (PC [Reviewed], Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Summitsphere
Publisher: Summitsphere
Released: December 3, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

Despite the distinct aesthetic, Antonblast wears its Wario inspirations loud and proud. Hopping on specific pads lets him leap in and out of the foreground with ease. Anton can charge in a similar manner, too, paving the way for momentum-based platforming that comes in especially handy at the end of each stage. Once Anton sets off the detonator, IT'S HAPPY HOUR, and he has a few short (but relatively generous) minutes to go back from whence he came in the most explosive way possible. These escapes are often the most challenging and thrilling sections. While Antonblast is generous with checkpoints throughout the main stages, you'll still probably find yourself attempting some of these move-it-or-lose-it escapes multiple times before succeeding. 

Everything cribbed from the Wario Land series is amped up by an order of magnitude. And for the record, there's always room for more like it. Bricks, dumpsters, and discarded bathtubs burst and shatter as Anton plows through them, the screen screeching to a split-second halt each time to heighten the impact. Enemies standing in your way go flying off the screen with a cartoonish whizz, one of dozens of Saturday Morning sound effects that make playing Antonblast feel like a spoonful of sugar-coated cereal shot straight to the veins. Even by the time the credits rolled, I never found myself tiring of Anton's exuberant shouts, or the way he sounds like a bomb dropping from a B-52 whenever he does a nose dive from an improbable height. 

The stages are all spread across a small hub area, complete with shops that contain exorbitantly-priced health power-ups, some single-use items, and other superfluous knick-knacks. Anton will eventually be able to afford most of it with the way he tends to rack up casino chips along his path of destruction. All you really need is maybe a single extra heart to help deal with the damage, especially on the increasingly tough boss battles scattered through the hub. 

The bosses are truly a delight. They all have their own absurd gimmicks, and none of them feel like retreads, even when you end up squaring off against more than one jacked-up mole. It's clear they put a ton of thought into them, from the first wrassling ring showdown to the multi-stage final battle with Satan. It's Treasure by way of Earthworm Jim. You'll likely die and retry a lot as you try to figure out the best strategy against each foe, but thankfully, the longer fights have checkpoints before each new form. This is one of those little slices of grace that keep Antonblast from sliding over from fun to frustrating. 

Thanks to tight controls and a move set that's exciting to master, barreling Anton through all these challenges is an exercise in haphazard glee. There are certain areas that call for more precise platforming, but most problems can quite literally be solved by ramming your head into them repeatedly. The overwhelming visuals fit this style of play nicely. It never seems as if Antonblast is overdoing it, because nothing else would make sense. When Anton or Annie turn into a pinball or set off on a rocket swordfish — two of many stage gimmicks that refuse to wear out their welcome — the cacophony of screams and violent environmental eruptions that ensue feel right. 

All of this madness combined with a pitch-perfect soundtrack from top to bottom to make a piquant spirit that widened my eyes more than a few times. That's ultimately what impresses me most about Antonblast. It is such a tightly-realized vision that you can't help but appreciate and respect it. The energy levels are absolutely through the roof. There are no doubt a small handful of frustrations to be found and some of the saltier, the fully-voiced dialogue might keep you from showing it to the younger members of the family; none of that should hold you back.

Everyone should play Antonblast at least once, but good luck with that. There are still spirits to collect, and I'll be riding this rollercoaster again in no time. Now, bring on the speedruns; this is gonna be a… I'm not gonna say it, but you get it.

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

The post Review: Antonblast appeared first on Destructoid.

The Legacy Of Kain series has finally risen from its tomb once again after 20 years of slumber. True vampire behavior, sure, albeit not the one originally intended by its creators.

Crystal Dynamics tried to follow up on 2003's Legacy Of Kain: Defiance with the spectacular-looking Legacy Of Kain: Dead Sun, but it ended up being canceled for what I must believe were dark reasons. What we now have is not the full-fledged continuation of the story, or even the now classic soft reboot.

It's a remaster of the two classic Soul Reaver titles by Aspyr, the same studio behind the damn good Tomb Raider original trilogy remasters, and it does not disappoint!

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered (PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Aspyr, Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Aspir
Released: December 10, 2024
MSRP: $29.99

Looks-wise, Aspyr once again makes fans an offer they cannot refuse. You can swap between the remastered graphics mode and the classic ones on the fly. If you're only here for the newer graphics, you will be very happy as both games — especially the original — got a very respectful glow-up.

This is not a remake, rather seemingly Aspyr's attempt at making the original games look as good as they ever could. As a longtime fan of the series, I'm quite satisfied by the approach. The only possible downside is how it might fail to capture the attention of new players for not featuring current gen graphics.

I wasn't too keen on the first trailer Aspyr showed. Some of the enemies — Melchiah, the first boss, especially — looked a bit too colorful for the monstrous pile of decrepit flesh he was supposed to be. I'm very happy to announce that Aspyr saw it as well and ended up doing a welcome glow down to the game's enemies. The first Soul Reaver is now just a bit more light and colorful than it once was, but it sure does remain by far the most beautifully foul-looking of the two.

If you just want a modern way to replay the classic one, this is also the game for you, as you can now enjoy the original graphics in never-before-seen high-res. On PC, at least, this remaster surpasses even that of the Tomb Raider trilogy. Even though the Tomb Raider PS5 remaster's classic graphics mode introduced higher res, it forced players to "enjoy" the game at the original PlayStation's choppy framerate. Not here, though. Both games run silky smooth on either graphics mode even on far-from-prime PC hardware.

Quality of life improvements are aplenty, as well. Whereas the gameplay of either Soul Reaver has aged far more gracefully than that of the Tomb Raider's OT, it could still do with a revamp — and it sure did get one. The camera is now fully modernized, allowing players to control it with the right thumbstick, providing much more intuitive controls, and leaving the shoulder buttons free for other functionalities. There are also graphical indicators popping up whenever you come close to an item that you can interact with. It might strike some as too much hand-holding, but, at least in the original format, some of the game's important visual elements could prove a little too difficult to tell from mere scenery.

If you look at the screens above, you'll also notice the presence of a compass. That's also an addition made by the remaster. I originally laughed at the idea, as the compass in Tomb Raider has always been one of the most clowned-on useless features in the history of gaming, but I didn't have the full picture. That compass actually works pretty well when combined with the map, which is another new feature. It had only recently come to my attention that some players found the world of the original game to be a bit labyrinthian, so this is sure to help create a smoother experience.

Another thing playing in the remaster's favor is the story — one of the elements you can't really change much — because it remains as fantastic and engrossing as ever. Ditto is responsible for the game's voice performances and music. All the most important and less-fixable features of this series have truly aged like good old blood — of the kind you need not fear.

This remaster also has a lot of extra stuff that fans will absolutely love to dive into. Whereas Soul Reaver 2 had a less-troubled development cycle, courtesy of following-up on one of the original PlayStation's best games, the development of the original was famously chaotic.

While you'd never tell from just playing the game, the original game was the result of a very rushed development cycle. It was never meant to spawn a series but to tell a one-and-done story. Though I'm glad in ended up growing into something bigger and better, I — and so many others — spent years wishing I could visit the vast amount of material that ended up cut.

Now, on top of a lot of cool concept art, fan art, a lot of written lore to help guide players through this world, players can also access a bunch of cut levels for the first time. These areas aren't available with the remastered graphics and don't have enemies or functioning puzzles, but fans will understand just how great it is to finally visit places that had gone down in history as myths.

Aspyr is showing their craft and care, which fills me with hopes that studio truly is the one to finally make the upcoming remaster of the second — and wonkier- Tomb Raider trilogy work.

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

The post Review: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered appeared first on Destructoid.

Almost four years after being announced, the next canon adventure for Indiana Jones is here with the release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This isn't Indy's first foray into the gaming world, but it's been a decade and a half since the daring archaeologist had a playable adventure.

Now I'll admit, I'm not a diehard Indiana Jones fan. I've seen all the movies and enjoyed them—yes, even Kingdom of the Crystal Skull—but it's not a franchise I've found myself rewatching many times over the years like Lucasfilm's other IP, Star Wars. However, I am a huge fan of Wolfenstein and, therefore, developer MachineGames. I didn't realize just how awesome the concept of a MachineGames-developed Indiana Jones would be until the developer, with publisher Bethesda Softworks, revealed the title in 2021 as being a developer in close collaboration with Lucasfilm Games.

Across my roughly 20-hour journey, I explored dark tombs and ancient archaeological dig sites while fending off Nazi soldiers and navigating deadly traps. And while the journey wasn't flawless, it was a lot of fun. From its gameplay and mysteriously grandiose story, to the witty and quirky quips you'd expect from Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the most authentic playable version of Indy yet, and one I'm happy to have experienced.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (PC [reviewed], Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: MachineGames
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Released: December 8, 2024
MSRP: $69.99

The story of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set in the year 1937, between the events of the original Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the third film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. After a brief intro where you explore a South American tomb and get introduced to the controls of being Indy, which, of course, includes you making use of his trusty whip and escaping a giant boulder that comes tumbling after you, Indy returns to Marshall College only to find it's been ransacked.

After cleaning up the place, Indy discovers one of the artifacts he previously found is missing, and with only a medallion referencing Vatican City being left behind. And thus the events of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle begin, with Indy heading to the Vatican to track down the stolen artifact and determine why it was stolen in the first place.

While the argument can be made that developer MachineGames has historically taken a gameplay-driven focus in its previous titles (Wolfenstein and Quake), with somewhat of a more backseat approach to the story, that's not the case in The Great Circle. With four hours of cinematics, the storyline is the focal point here, and it's a good one.

After tracking down the stolen artifact, Indy realizes a long-standing secret order in the Vatican is working with the Axis powers (Fascist Italy led by Benito Mussolini and Nazi Germany led by Hitler) to try and uncover and bring to life some sort of spiritual event that is connected to a series of sites built throughout history that form a perfect circle around the world, AKA The Great Circle.

Look, I'll say it, this may be the best Indiana Jones story yet. Throughout The Great Circle, you'll encounter classic staples of the franchise, like comical quips and deadpan stares from Indy, all while exploring beautiful parts of the world like the Great Pyramids in Egypt and the ancient Sukhothai Kingdom in Thailand. I was worried that the plot taking place in the year between two movies would make it feel rather redundant. After all, logically speaking, if this story mattered so much wouldn't we have heard about it? But thankfully, that's not the case, as the story continues to ramp up throughout Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, culminating in a rewarding and impactful ending that, in my opinion, leaves its mark on the franchise. This is canon, after all.

My only gripes with the story were essentially afterthoughts by the end, but is certainly worth mentioning. The pacing of things is a bit off at times, especially at the beginning of Indy's adventure. After the introduction, you head to Vatican City, which I expected to be a quick way of further setting up the story before heading out on an epic Indy adventure. However, your visit to the Vatican is far from quick. You'll run around Vatican City interacting with various characters and uncovering hidden tombs for a while—for me, it took about four hours—before heading to your next destination.

Don't get me wrong, Machine Games created a beautifully dystopian Mussolini-controlled Fascist Vatican City, it just feels like you're there a bit too long, and I was definitely ready to leave well before you actually do so. In the end, the events in the Vatican are important, and it does introduce you to a lot of the characters you'll continue to interact with over the rest of the game, it just felt a bit offputting to be kick off the adventure running around the Vatican for a few hours.

Of course, a proper Indiana Jones outing can't rely on story alone. At its core, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a stealth-focused game. As you sneak into various Fascist-controlled tombs, dig sites, and even entire cities, you'll have to do so while navigating around patrolling guards and soldiers.

As someone not so good at stealth games, this was a bit daunting at first. But thankfully, stealth isn't necessarily required in The Great Circle. If you manage to get spotted, you initiate mostly hand-to-hand melee combat with the soldiers. You can block, parry, and even dodge attacks while managing a stamina bar to swing back at your opponent. Of course, the noise will often attract other nearby soldiers, so you'll often end up taking on a small army before you can proceed. But while this is often a near-impossible task in most stealth-focused games, The Great Circle is very fair at letting you fight your way out of blowing your cover and still get back to the task at hand.

You'll also find a ton of melee weapons scattered throughout every area where you can pick objects like a shovel, a pickaxe, a hammer, or even just a plunger and use it to stealth-takedown or even engage in melee brawls with your opponents. There are various guns you can find as well as loot off of enemies you defeat, but they are often very limited in ammo. Oddly enough, the gunplay in The Great Circle feels very tight and well-designed. I didn't engage in many firefights as Indy, but when I did, they were a lot of fun although a bit short-lived.

Overall, the combat in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle fills its purpose: to provide some fun gameplay elements while exploring Indy. It's nothing game-changing, but it works. With it being a lesser focus compared to the story, exploration, and puzzles The Great Circle has to offer, I think it was a great choice by MachineGames to make combat less hassle and more fun. It's nice not being forced to stealth or feeling like you're doomed when you get caught.

The real gameplay strengths of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, though, is its puzzles and exploration. Each of the three main areas you explore—Vatican City, Giza, and Sukhothai—are open-world hubs. You're free to roam around them as Indy as you wish, taking on side quests, exploring on your own, or progressing the main story. There are actually quite a few optional activities available in each of the three hubs. I did some of them, which resulted in my roughly 20-hour playthrough. For the most part, they will build on backstories for certain characters or areas, but the optional content doesn't really affect the main story. If someone wanted to ignore all the side content, I expect they could get through The Great Circle in 10-15 hours, whereas a completionist looking to do everything might be looking at upwards of 30 or more. There's plenty of content here, and it's up to you how much you want to explore.

Regardless of how much you explore, there's one thing you can expect to find in both the main story and optional side content: puzzles. I have to hand it to MachineGames, every puzzle was unique and assuming I missed out on some through the optional content, there are a ton of puzzles in The Great Circle. For the most part, they get more and more creative as well, as you progress further through the game. There are a couple that were tricky to solve, but using a Camera item you get early on, you can take pictures of key parts of the puzzles, and Indy will essentially think out loud, which provides you with clues on how to proceed through the puzzle.

At times, the puzzles were so easy I thought for sure I was missing something, only to be shocked to see that I had the right solution and that was it. At other times, I found myself really scratching my head on how to proceed. In all of those moments, however, taking a picture with the Camera provided enough of a hint to get me thinking in the right direction, and I never had problems progressing.

Aside from the early pacing issues, I did encounter a handful of bugs. Nothing game-breaking, thankfully, but they often ranged from silly to annoying. More than once, I'd be engaged in hand-to-hand combat with enemies, and they would seemingly just get overwhelmed and stand in place. It's like I broke them, and no matter what I did they would just stand there and let me hit them while circling around me.

Another very comical bug I experienced early on while in Vatican City at least made for a good story. After sneaking around Vatican City doing tasks for an Indiana Jones-ally named Antonio, I returned to his location to find him sitting in a chair with an object impaled through his chest, staring at me, eyes open wide. Assuming he was murdered for working with Indy as part of the story, I moved forward to try and get a better look at the situation when suddenly Antonio spoke: "Well, Indy, did you bring me any photographic evidence?" Turns out that somehow, an interactable melee object had just glitched out and was just clipping through him.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an incredibly authentic Indiana Jones experience, and MachineGames really makes you feel like you are Indiana Jones. If you're looking for an epic journey of exploration with a fun and mysterious story, that's exactly what you'll get with The Great Circle, and with a high level of polish to boot. The combat can feel like window dressing at times, but it doesn't really take from the adventure. The exploits of Indiana Jones are all about exploring, puzzle solving, and having some laughs, and there's plenty of that to go around in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

The post Review: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle appeared first on Destructoid.

I remember reading a preview for The Thing in a magazine back before its release. The game, I mean, not the movie. It’s certainly a game that sounds interesting on paper. So, it’s been stuck in the back of my mind for decades, but I never really made the move to play it.

Why would I? I hadn’t watched the movie, and reviews at the time of launch were lukewarm. I knew it developed something of a cult following since then, but even among fans, I heard the same thing: The whole psychological element was too ambitious and didn’t actually work very well. I’ve been left to imagine its failings.

But I rarely miss a remaster from Nightdive Studios, and since they’ve taken on the task of polishing up The Thing, then the stars have certainly aligned. I even went and watched the movie while running a fever and cuddling with my dog, just to make things memorable and a little awkward. But you don’t necessarily need to have watched the movie to understand what’s going on in the game. I think you should, though, because then you will truly appreciate how completely daft this game is.

The Thing: Remastered (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch)
Developer: Nightdive Studios, Computer Artworks
Publisher: Nightdive Studios
Released: December 5, 2024
MSRP: $29.99

The end of The Thing: The Movie was left pretty ambiguous. I don’t really want to spoil it for you beyond that. It’s a great movie. And since its ending was left so open, a narrative follow-up had a lot of room to breathe. A story could be really delicate with things and even heighten the mystery of the original. That’s not what The Thing: The Game does, however. It stomps right up to the movie and starts breathing down its shirt. The only mystery it heightens is how this wrecking ball got here.

This was 2002, and the standards for video game storytelling couldn’t get much closer to the floor. This is especially true for shooters. It was a time when Half-Life was still naively hailed as having spun a tale rivaling Citizen Kane. So, I probably shouldn’t have expected much, but The Thing: The Game has the sort of narrative I would come up with off-the-cuff if I was trying to make fun of the concept of a sequel to The Thing: The Movie.

You play as Captain J.F. Blake who sounds so much like Kyle Travers from Final Fight: Streetwise, I actually had to look up the voice actors to convince myself it wasn’t. It takes place right after the movie, so it’s still the 1980s, but he has one of the most popular hairstyles of the late ‘90s, right down to the spiked-up bangs. He’s Special Forces, and that’s all there is to him. He’s the only competent person in the universe, and he knows it. There isn’t an ounce of humanity to the guy; he’s just a brick. A big, grumbly block who wears forest camo pants in Antarctica but won't put on a hat because it would mush down his hairdo.

It starts off interestingly enough. Blake’s Team arrives at U.S. Outpost 31 from the movie and start sorting through the wreckage. It’s a very understated time in the game, as it mostly just introduces you to the concepts of the game while allowing you to visit set pieces from the movie. It’s kind of quiet and tense, which is so uncharacteristically restrained for the game in hindsight.

The team did consider what made the movie great when they came up with the design. The one thing they added that I think works well in the game and doesn’t get enough credit is the fact that you can’t linger outside for long. It’s winter in Antarctica and nobody brought a toque. You’ll freeze if you don’t find shelter. This gets squandered when 80% of the game is in tight concrete corridors, but the hostility of the open air is a nice touch.

What gets the most marketing hype is the trust/fear system, which is just… I get why they’d focus on it in advertisements, because it’s something that makes the game unique, but it’s so poorly implemented that it might as well not be there at all. The Thing: The Game is a squad-based third-person shooter, and the idea is that you need to keep your squad from freaking out when any one of them could be a thing in disguise. The idea is that you, as a player, don’t know who to trust.

The fear aspect works the best, but it’s not very impactful. Your squadmates start getting nervous when they’re around gore and dead bodies, but the problem is that the areas you traverse are absolutely lousy with corpses, so it's hard to tell when you're in a fear zone. It usually only becomes a bit of a problem if you stand around in a room with a mess on the floor. Once (and only once), I had to physically push a squadmate out of a room so he could get a breather and get a grip. So, it kind of works; it's just really clumsy.

When I completed the game, I got an achievement that said I never let a single squad member reach maximum fear level. That means I actually don’t know if something cool happens when they completely lose it because I was apparently a really soothing presence for those around me. Maybe it’s because I constantly live in fear and anxiety, so I know how to empathize with others feeling it.

The trust system is completely pointless, though. Sure, some dudes will refuse to follow you because they think you might have a thing in your pants, but getting them to come around is just a matter of shoving ammo into their pockets. Their trust is only between you and them; squadmates always trust each other unless it’s for story reasons. They don’t need to kiss and trade ammo. For that matter, it's hard for them to distrust you once you've loaded them up. They’ll only start feeling iffy again if you keep shooting them. They don’t seem to think it’s weird that you obsessively check every notepad and carry an armory on their back. Ammo is the only thing they trust.

The whole idea that any one of them could be a thing is the least meaningful layer. It’s true, some of them will sprout tentacles. You can do a blood test to see who’s human, but it doesn’t really work. Like, at all. Dudes you already tested might turn out to be full of things anyway. That doesn’t matter though, because the moment they start to change, all your teammates will suddenly snap and start shooting at them before they’re even done transforming. Even if they didn’t, the friend-things aren’t any tougher than any normal thing. They aren’t a threat. So, who cares if you can trust them?

That’s the biggest problem with The Thing: The Game’s superfluous systems; it doesn’t try for tension. You play as some generic good guy. Practically a super-hero. At the best of times, The Thing: The Game is a dumb shooter. It smells like the early ‘00s. It’s not really a horror game; it just has some gross bad guys.

Your squad isn’t consistent, either. They get swapped out at almost every loading screen. They don't have charming personalities to get attached to. It doesn’t matter if Simmons exposes his thing. Simmons wasn’t special. There’s an identical dude down the hallway.

It’s a good remaster, though. Absolutely solid. You can tell the tech folks at Nightdive had fun working on a post-millennium game since they loaded it up with all kinds of fancy lighting effects. True to their M.O., they kept it looking like something you’d expect from the era, but it’s not hard to see and appreciate the glow-up. It also ran flawlessly on my PC.

There isn’t as much in terms of extra material as a few of their previous releases. You can view the game’s original trailer and there’s some concept art, but not a whole lot that’s insightful. I was kind of hoping that a game that looks to have fallen apart in production would have more of a story to tell, but if it does, it won’t be found here.

They clearly couldn’t do anything about the game’s weaknesses. That would take more than a remaster. It’s not just that the fear/trust/infection systems were buggy or weren’t fully implemented. No, the original developers had some high-concept ideas and tried to put them into a dumb shooter, and they didn’t fit. The dumb shooter was the prevailing force, and there’s no undoing that.

I also ran into a lot of glitches. I’m not sure which ones were already there and which were introduced in the remaster. I’m also not certain which ones will be fixed by the time you’re reading this since I got to touch The Thing early for this review. And really, the glitches I ran into were mostly just hilarious. I did have to load a recent save to undo a bug a couple of times, but more often, they were just funny, benign things.

The best one happened early. Your squadmates will sometimes throw up when they’re in a bad situation. I can relate; anxiety makes me throw up, too. However, one dude apparently started the puking process right as a cutscene started. The camera snapped back to show the two of us walking into frame, he continued the process of throwing up, but it wouldn't interrupt the animation. Instead, it played the retching noise, and all the vomit came out from between his legs, so it looked like he was violently evacuating his bowels onto the floor. I laughed so hard. I still giggle whenever I think about it. I caught it in my gameplay capture, and I keep watching it.

Really, as much as I think The Thing: The Game is kind of terrible, I did find it entertaining. The story is just so braindead and full of cliches that I wanted to see more to find out if it was going to be so obvious the whole way through. It definitely has reverence for the source material, but it wasn’t exactly gentle when it came to building on it. To be fair, I would have been surprised if it had even come close to matching the movie in terms of storytelling, so it’s maybe what I should have expected from a 2002 licensed title.

I still applaud Nightdive for this remaster. They’re the only ones with the guts. Regardless of how I feel about the game itself, they gave it the same loving attention that they normally do. More importantly, it’s a licensed game, and those tend to be the most unlikely candidates for a re-release.

Part of me wishes their effort was spent on a better game, but the other part is happy that I got to experience the absolute mess that is The Thing. I know it sounds weird to hear, “This is a mess; you should totally check it out,” but that’s what I’m saying. The Thing is a fascinating cluster of missteps, and a completely unconvincing facsimile of its source material. But it’s hard to look away when it turns itself inside out.

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

The post Review: The Thing: Remastered appeared first on Destructoid.

Every so often, I get the urge to play puzzle games just to see if I am as smart as I (sometimes) think I am. I don't usually pour too many hours into them since my brain can only handle so much. Yet, my experience with Dungeons of Dreadrock 2: The Dead King's Secret was the complete opposite, as I constantly lost track of time with its many puzzles. I even had to force myself to put it down, with the thought of "just one more puzzle" lingering in my mind. 

DoD2 continues off from the original narrative, featuring the same retro-inspired art style. I'm new to the series, but understanding its storyline wasn't too much of a stretch. It's your classic adventure where the hero, aka the sorceress, ventures into a treacherous place to find the Crown of Wisdom.

Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 - The Dead King's Secret (Switch[reviewed], PC)

Developer: Christoph Minnameier

Publisher: Christoph Minnameier

Released: November 28, 2024 (Switch)/December 5, 2024 (Steam)

MSRP: $14.99

While playing the game without the original is possible, I recommend putting in the time for the first one. The two stories are heavily connected, with key characters from Dungeons of Dreadrock frequently appearing. In fact, there are several split-screen moments when the characters clash together in an effort to thwart the Dead King's evil plans. It's a cool concept to see, and it's made for some pretty unique gameplay. But, of course, the true highlight of The Dead King's Secret is the puzzles. There are about 100 levels to clear, each containing a complex challenge to decipher and a few enemies to keep you on your toes.

What I greatly admire about this game is how different each puzzle is from the last. It's not a typical rinse-and-repeat process in which puzzles start to blend together. Every challenge feels carefully crafted, making them stand out individually. On one level, you'll have to memorize specific movements of enemies, while another can revolve around reconstructing a skeleton.

The puzzles are also unlike anything I've experienced before. They all have a unique charm that goes beyond traditional puzzle games. One prime example of this is how levels can connect. A trapdoor you passed by earlier can be crucial for later, requiring you to drop a weapon to help you out on the following floor. Even enemies must be lured to the next stage to assist you with other foes. I like this concept that makes you rethink what you did previously, and it's got some brain gears moving that I didn't know were there.

The farther you go down the levels of DoD2, the more challenging it gets. Fortunately, you can use cheats to skip stages or unlock hints to explain what you need to do in detail. You'll get one clue to help steer you in the right direction, and if you need some extra guidance, you can continue to unlock the rest to complete the level. I tried my best not to use it just for the sake of pride. However, I admit that I had to rely on it during the later stages.

It almost felt impossible to finish some levels without the hints. Maybe it's merely a user error on my part, or perhaps you actually do need to use them every once in a while. I'd be curious to see if anyone out there could accomplish it without 'em. I know it's a tall order, but it would be a nice challenge if you're looking to shake things up.

Besides the puzzles, there are numerous battles you'll go through each stage. I will say that it's not the most intricate system since it's mainly just the sorceress unleashing a single strike directly ahead. On the other hand, the game does mix things up a bit with the various tools you acquire during your journey. For instance, you'll gain a flute that can deter enemies, followed by an ability to turn into a bat. It helps make combat feel less tedious, giving you more ways to take down your enemies.

The boss fights also feel like a puzzle in their own right, where you'll need to strategize your movements and time your attacks. The final stage, in particular, was the ultimate puzzle-solving test, forcing you to remember patterns and not providing many hints to help you out. Like many levels, this one will have you doing things over and over again until you get it right. It can sometimes be frustrating, but once you overcome it, you'll feel pretty accomplished. The music makes you feel even more victorious with its epic medieval-like soundtrack. I found myself dancing along with it, celebrating the feat of every passing level.

The ending to The Dead King's Secret is worth the time needed to clear 100 levels, which is 10 hours or so. It would've sucked to go through all that just to have a subpar conclusion, but luckily that wasn't the case with DoD2. One of the main reasons why it was so remarkable is the fact that there are two endings. I never expected to see this feature in a puzzle game. By its conclusion, I already had to jump back in to see what other choice I could have made.

Dungeons of Dreadrock 2: The Dead King's Secret is a must-play for puzzle gamers. Challenges never feel the same, and they'll have you thinking outside the box to try to solve them. The victorious feeling after completing puzzles can get addicting, and you may have a hard time putting it down, just as I did.

Plus, if you enjoyed this game, you can look forward to another entry, as it's already been confirmed to be a trilogy. I'll undoubtedly be there for the next one and have plans to tackle the original to play catch-up.

The post Review: Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 – The Dead King’s Secret appeared first on Destructoid.

How good are you at following instructions? How about while you’re under a timer? What about when your life depends on it? Me? Maybe not so great. Maybe.

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is probably the last game I’ve been anticipating for the year. Well, that’s assuming a couple of them that have been quiet for a while aren’t going to drop. Anyway, playing the demo, it’s hard not to fall in love with its tricky diagnose-replace-repair gameplay laced with dark humor and a severe potty mouth.

So, I voraciously ate into it when I finally had it in my hands for this review, but after all the time I put into it, I still haven’t hit the credits. After, urgh, 25 hours, I still haven’t found the bottom of Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, but I’ve seen enough to tell you that you should definitely play this game if you think you can withstand the punishment.

Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop (PC)
Developer: Beard Envy
Publisher: Kasedo Games
Released: December 5, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is, on the surface, a game about repair. Folks drop in with their ailing spacecraft, and it’s up to you to diagnose problems and make repairs. Each ship is separated into modules, and each craft has a random variety and number of them. The modules range from fuel, oil, and oxygen to AI, reactors, and just one big lever. You’re told what needs fixing, so you don’t need to figure out which of them is broken, but each of them breaks in different ways, so it’s up to you to figure out what needs to be repaired and what it looks like when everything is working.

This is all handled through a tactile interface where you pull levers and push buttons. Once you find something broken, you have to head to the store (right next to the repair bay) to buy a replacement and slot it in. You can get a welder that will restore shattered parts, but I found it somewhat unnecessary, as parts are relatively cheap. It’s a game that feels similar to Papers, Please, but with less paperwork and more refilling blinker fluid.

To help, you’re provided an all-inclusive instruction manual that goes over everything you need to know… mostly. You usually don’t have context for what is going on until you’ve seen the module itself and have gotten to know the various parts. Even when you do, it’s not difficult to make a mistake. You might get a pancake wrong or forget to close a hatch when you’re finished. Personally, I’ve never gotten to the point where I’m completely confident in front of a reactor. But then, if you get a step wrong, they blow up in your face and take, at the very least, you along with them. Possibly the neighborhood, as well.

You play as Wilbur, a hapless guy with a four-eyed fox head. He’s just the latest in a line of mechanics employed at Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop. Hints are dropped at what happened to the previous ones, but you can probably guess. You’re given free rein of the shop. Most of the profit you make is yours, but every three days, you need to pay Uncle Chop R.E.N.T. to maintain your employment.

However, before you even really get grease on your hands, some dude shows up and blows your (fox) head off. It’s a good indication of how things will go from here.

You’re saved by a coworker who also happens to be the living personification of death. You’ve made an impression, so he will “zoop” you back to the start of your employment every time you screw up bad enough to die. The purpose of this isn’t completely clear at the start, but it’s nice to have job security. Also, yes, this is technically a roguelite.

There are two modes of play in Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop. The first has the day passing by in real time, leaving you to try and fit in as many jobs as possible before bedtime. This means there’s a lot of pressure, and you’ll have to flip through that manual of yours pretty quickly whenever you’re faced with something you’re not completely familiar with. It also leaves more room for mistakes.

The second way of playing removes the time limit. You’re given room to complete three jobs and can take as long as you want on them. Making a mistake (or “fucking up,” as the game puts it) results in heftier penalties. However, in my experience, it’s a far easier way to play. When you’re given as much time as you need, it’s easier to complete a job without any mistakes whatsoever.

It doesn't necessarily feel like the intended way to play. However, it also feels like a necessary compromise. Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is brutal. It throws new stuff at you all the time, practically smashing you directly into a wall. It can be cruel about it. Just wait until the first time you see a reactor. Yeah, you read that manual in advance. Go ahead. It won’t help. You’re one forgotten switch away from nuking your face off.

Sometimes, after the first R.E.N.T. is taken care of, a dude will land with pipe bombs strapped to his ship. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got the day timer going, you’ll have one-and-a-half minutes to deduce what wires you should snip using the Venn diagram from hell. I got really good at bomb defusal. I’m a wiz at reading Venn diagrams.

Even when you’ve got all the time in the world, one fuckup can be all it takes to gutter a run. Some customers have the “Perfectionist” trait, which means that if you make a single mistake, it will completely negate everything you got correct and leave you out of pocket. It’s a gamble since you only need to leave one too few shots left in their identification module to lose all your hard work. If you miss R.E.N.T., your job being terminated is the least of your concerns.

There’s also the chance that a customer will show up requiring a fix you can’t provide. This sometimes happens before you have the “Pancake” machine required for building specialized parts, but I also had one that needed a fuse that wasn’t available for me to purchase yet. I’m not sure this is intentional design. The game will sometimes let you know when you don’t have the machines needed to fix a ship before you take a job, but it doesn’t work every time. I’ve learned to just buy the Pancake and Encoder machines immediately at the start of the first run and avoid rebreathers on the first day.

But even still, my last run was ended because I took a job from an armed customer. He tried to rob me, but when I refused to empty my pockets, he shot my brain off. This is Fuck Around and Find Out: The Game.

It’s okay, though. Every time I got my run nuked, I’d just slump my shoulders and decide if I had time for another run. The only aggravating part about it was that my deadline was coming up and I like to have a game beaten before writing the review since you never know when something will shake apart at the last minute. However, I think I’ve gotten to what is essentially an end (there appears to be multiple). I just know that there’s a tonne left hidden because the places you can stick your fingers to find secrets are on display at all times.

What made it so hard to stay mad at it was that, even after restarting dozens of times, I was still being presented with new stuff. Not necessarily modules; I know how to fix a rebreather in my sleep. It’s the interactions with customers and coworkers. Every time one gets out of their ship, you never know if they’re going to give you a hug or complain about how you smell like wet dog. Visiting the speakeasy before or after work also gives you the opportunity to see more of the station’s denizens and pick up side quests.

But it’s maybe the fact that Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop doesn’t lean entirely on cruelty to Wilbur that makes it more tolerable. As much fun as it is to see a hapless protagonist suffer, and it feels appropriate in a workplace environment, it can get tiresome. Instead, most of the characters have a softer side. Droose, especially, outwardly seems to care about Wilbur, and some moments with him are endearing. He and some of the customers will offer frequent words of encouragement, even if others are deliberately trying to blow you up.

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is a lot. It’s a lot more than it has to be. While its design is tight and well-executed, it offers an obscene amount of variety and seemingly endless things to see. Which is good, especially if you’re like me and you find yourself in a hellcircle of 11th-hour fuckups that prevent you from witnessing the final clock out. And I think it says a lot when, despite how badly I’ve been savaged by its unforgiving nature, I’m happy to start up a new run and try again.

It’s pretty clear that not everyone will think that way. A game about throwing levers and getting blown up repeatedly isn’t going to gel with some. And while there is some permanent progression, the only thing you carry over between runs that will help you is what you were able to learn. A fondness for troubleshooting will get you far.

But regardless of whether or not this is the type of game you think you’d enjoy, it’s clear that Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is exactly what it wants to be. It’s an expert mix of cruel work-a-day tinkering and dark, vulgar humor. A bottomless well of savagely comedic moments, beckoning secrets, and puzzles that require Ikea furniture-level manual comprehension skills. If you’ve got room in your skull for some truly useless knowledge and can tolerate having your face stomped on a few times, you’ve got a friend in Uncle Chop.

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

The post Review: Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop appeared first on Destructoid.

In 2021, developer Mistwalker self-published an RPG titled Fantasian, helmed by fabled studio head and founder Hironobu Sakaguchi.

According to Sakaguchi, development on Fantasian began in 2018 after the developer had recently replayed Final Fantasy VI, one of the popular RPGs from the series that he had worked on. While the idea of a Sakaguchi-led and Mistalker-developed RPG piqued the interest of many RPG enjoyers—myself included—the RPG was released as an Apple Arcade exclusive, playable only on Apple devices.

Now, three and a half years later, those like myself who don't have an Apple device finally have the opportunity to check out the RPG on consoles and PC. Mistwalker and Final Fantasy developer and publisher Square Enix have worked together on Fantasian Neo Dimension, an HD version of the RPG with upgraded graphics, English and Japanese voiceovers, as well as various gameplay adjustments and enhancements.

Despite the upgrades, I had fears going into Fantasian Neo Dimension that the transition from being built purely for iOS to consoles and PC could be a rough one. But while there are some noticeable signs and reminders throughout Fantasian that the RPG was clearly originally developed for mobile devices, such as simplistic yet big blocky UI and some limited mobility on certain maps, overall, the Neo Dimension version plays well and does a great job of hiding the fact that this was originally a mobile game.

Fantasian: Neo Dimension (PC, PS5 [Reviewed], PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Switch)
Developer: Mistwalker
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: December 5, 2024
MSRP: $49.99

If you're a fan of previous Mistwalker RPG gems like Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and The Last Story, you'll know that creative storytelling and unique gameplay features to the genre are the developer's strong suits. Fantasian Neo Dimension starts off with the main character, Leo, finding himself suffering from amnesia in a strange machine-inhabited world—properly named the Machine Realm—that serves as the tutorial and introduction to the game. Accompanied by two peculiar machines that are helping him, Leo manages to use a strange portal device to return to his own world, the Human Realm.

As the story progresses you'll learn more about the strange and fantastical world Leo lives in, where the people who live there reside alongside a strange Mecha Infestation that has started to plague it. Along the way. You'll meet new characters that join Leo in his journey as well as learn about Leo's past and exactly what he was doing that resulted in him ending up with amnesia and in the Machine Realm.

The story of Fantasian Neo Dimension is a unique and worthwhile journey that fans of classic Final Fantasy titles like FF6 will enjoy. There are even segments where various characters' backstories and pasts are explored in artistic scenes overlaid with full voiceovers where the character relives memories from their past, which, if you have ever played Lost Odyssey, will feel quite familiar.

Speaking of art, Fantasian utilizes stylized dioramas that look very crisp and detailed with the 4k upgrades of the Neo Dimension version. Paired with the epic score by legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu, the world of Fantasian Neo Dimension is an immersive and fantastical one that's reminiscent of JRPGs with massive creative worlds to explore. And for Final Fantasy fans, one of the additions to the Neo Dimension version is that players can swap out the background music for battles with the battle music from various Final Fantasy games, including FFXIV, FFXVI, and FF7 Remake/Rebirth. The battle music in Fantasian is great, but it's nice to have the option when you want to change things up!

In terms of gameplay, Fantasian is a turn-based RPG similar to what you'd find in Final Fantasy 1-10. However, each character has skills and attacks with varying trajectories that you can manipulate to hit multiple enemies and really change the tide of battle. For example, the main character Leo has a skill that shoots in a straight line, so if you can line it up just right you can hit multiple enemies. Another character, Kinacan bends her trajectory in a curved line. It's an added element to the typically straightforward combat system of turn-based RPGs that added some extra nuance and strategy that really innovates the system. It's like Super Mario RPG where you can do a little more to make the combat more engaging and fun.

Another effort to shake up the traditional turn-based RPG trope is a system called Dimengeon. Early on in Fantasian, you unlock this system, which allows you to essentially "skip" any random battles you would otherwise encounter randomly while traversing the world. Instead, the enemies you would have fought are placed in your Dimengeon Machine. Once the machine is full or if you choose to manually activate it before then, you will engage in battle against all the enemies stored inside. Special gimmicks can appear inside the Dimgengon battles that give you various buffs when attacked. Pairing this with the trajectory system allows you to store up a bunch of enemies in your Dimengeon Machine before wiping them out in mass. It's a convenient system for skipping battles when you just want to quickly get from point A to point B as well as to more easily kill hordes of enemies at once.

My only issues with Fantasian Neo Dimension are quite paltry and mostly stem from the RPG originally being made for mobile devices. As I said before, the UI, and therefore menus, dialogue, and world map still shows the foundation of being on a mobile device. Things are blocky and clearly made with the ability to tap on things easily in mind. Neo Dimension all obviously works with a controller, but I do feel like an updated UI that looks less blocky and simplistic would have gone a long way for a world that is otherwise rather detailed and beautiful.

Fantasian Neo Dimension takes all the great things about classic JRPGs and finds ways to innovate on them while still keeping the innate charm and feel the genre is known for. And while there have been plenty of great RPG releases in recent years, there's something special about Fantasian Neo Dimension that melds the old with the new to create an enthralling and nostalgic journey in a unique high-fantasy world that's simply a ton of fun to play.

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

The post Review: Fantasian Neo Dimension appeared first on Destructoid.

I really enjoyed the grab bag that was Taito Milestones 2. It featured some predictable hits but then flanked them with some hilariously dreadful games, or, as I put it in that review, “bad in an almost impressive way.” So, I’ve been looking forward to Taito Milestones 3 for another injection of titles.

This collection is dominated by a coalition of the Bubble Bobble and Rastan series. But, like before, there is also a smattering of more obscure titles. However, this time around, I wouldn’t say any of them are “impressively bad.” But rather than just talk about them vaguely in the preamble, I’m going to take the approach I’ve started doing with arcade collections, and I’m just going to do a short review of every game in the collection. There are 10, so brace yourself.

Taito Milestones 3 (Switch)
Developer: Hamster
Publisher: Inin Games
Released: December 10, 2024
MSRP: $39.99

Bubble Bobble

Bubble Bobble is the best game that lets you play as a bubble-blowing dragon that can turn people into corndogs. It’s the most known quantity in this Taito roundup, one of their longest-lived properties. I have a certain affinity for the game, having owned the Game Boy version (where the hell did it go?) and encountered it in arcades a few times, once at the hockey arena in Bobcaygeon of Tragically Hip fame. Another time was at the Toronto Union Station, where it beckoned me from across the arcade with its chirpy music.

The only problem with Bubble Bobble being on Taito Milestones 3 is that it’s one of those games where you might already own multiple versions of it. Few Taito-related collections drop without its inclusion. That’s not an issue for anyone who doesn’t own it already. If you’ve somehow avoided it, you should totally have it in some form. If you already own it, it's a bummer that it’s taking up room here. If you’ve never played it, wow, guy, get on that.

It’s great with two players (in fact, if you want the best ending, you have to beat it with another person). However, if you’re used to the console versions, you might find the lack of continues to be a bit jarring. There’s actually a secret to avoid starting over. To continue, you need to cram more credits into the machine, then hold the start button as you’re losing your last life.

Rainbow Islands

Rainbow Islands is technically the sequel to Bubble Bobble, but they’re rather dissimilar. Following the events of the first game, Bub and Bob have been transformed from radical corndog-conjuring dragons into diminutive Fatty Arbuckles who piss rainbows. And rather than try and process every monster on the map into food, the rotund twins have to climb to the top of a series of platforms.

You can use your rainbows to walk across, and stacking them up is the key to climbing. However, if you jump on them, they shatter, but this can take out enemies below you. Directly hitting enemies with rainbows will also just remove enemies; they’re deadly. Throwing rainbows at certain spots will spawn food. I haven’t seen a corndog appear, which is unfortunate.

It’s a pretty solid game, except for the bosses. The bosses just suck, barely putting up a fight and following patterns that are typically easy to exploit. The two-player mode is also alternating instead of Bubble Bobble’s simultaneous cooperative, which is extremely lame but not the collection's fault.

Rastan Saga

Rastan does not feel like a real game. I’ve described a couple of games like this previously, but pretty much every cartoon in existence had an episode where the protagonists get sucked into a video game, and it’s always way off when it comes to video game logic. Like, it’s obvious that the writers and animators know nothing about video games aside from vague concepts. That’s Rastan, except it’s a real game.

Which isn’t to say it’s bad. It’s just the fact that the protagonist is a generic, muscled, Conan-like barbarian who walks with a stiff upper body and swats at enemies with various classic weapons. The music is good, but it’s crunchy and meanders about. 

But for something that is so generic it’s almost surreal, Rastan is a pretty fun game. Its usage of pester enemies, especially during platforming and climbing sections, can get pretty vexing, but it has good flow and pacing. The bosses are surprisingly entertaining, as well. It’s not the best game, but in terms of the shirtless barbarian genre, I can dig it.

Rastan Saga 2

I think Taito Milestones 3 heard me making fun of Rastan Saga’s appearance, so it came at me hard with Rastan Saga 2. By that, I mean that Rastan Saga 2 is magnitudes worse than the first game. I’m not sure what happened. They made the sprites bigger, which was how 2D arcade games tried to flex back in the day, but they’re all low-detail and dopey looking, and there are only a few frames of animation to most actions. The bosses are all ridiculous slapfights, and the hit detection is just cruel.

But the level design is horrendous. Unlike the various scrolling methods of the first game, these are all flat and cut out of big blocks. What really ground my goat was some of the jumps they expect you to make. There are places with a ceiling directly above your head, and you’re expected to jump up and over a pit. This means that, to not hit your head and stop all upward motion, you need to scooch out until you’re hanging on the ledge by a pixel, then jump up and over. 

After making one such jump on the second level, I realized I had to play through to the end of the game in that sitting because I wasn’t willing to suffer it a second time. Unfortunately, that’s not the only instance of those shenanigans getting pulled in this game.

Champion Wrestler

I left Rastan Saga 2 in a frustrated daze, so if I’m a little too positive on Champion Wrestler, that’s why. It’s great! Well, kind of. It’s a pretty typical setup of shortening your opponent’s health bar before going in for the pin. What I like best about it is that it’s really mashy. When you get pinned, you mash the two buttons to try and get free, and when you pin, it’s the same thing. I think that’s what makes a good arcade wrestler: enthusiastic mashing.

It also has Rastan as one of the characters, so I got to beat him up a whole bunch. It turns out I’m actually really good at Champion Wrestler (at least on its default settings). After getting a feel for the controls, I didn’t lose again until after winning the title. Maybe it’s just easy, but if that’s the case, don’t tell me. Let me have this.

Each round is capped off by a detailed portrait of the winner and loser. The winner always gets to do things like drive around in a sportscar with a bikini-clad woman and rub themselves with money, while the loser often finds themselves picking through the trash. It’s, uh, sometimes kind of depressing.

Cadash

This is another one that I had prior experience with because Cadash is rad. Well, okay, Cadash is kind of basic and clunky, but it ties in RPG systems like stat building. In a way, it feels more like Dungeons and Dragons than the actual Dungeons and Dragons game that Capcom put out. That’s partially because the levels have some degree of exploration to them and there are NPCs to talk to. It satisfies arcade operators by keeping you on a timer you can replenish using items and spells.

The original version supported four players, but only by linking two cabinets. Pulling off in this version would have been impressive, but the extra mile wasn’t taken here. However, the two-player mode can still be fun if both players understand that there may be a bit of grinding required to stay ahead of the game.

I like Cadash. It has that classic tabletop RPG feel. It’s extraordinarily clunky and has a habit of screwing you over, but its inclusion of stat progression makes it a welcome change from straightforward action games. The timer system, as much as it's there to make you empty your pockets, is lenient enough to not feel rushed. It’s not the most intricate game, but it has it where it counts.

Thunder Fox

It’s easy to get some real Rush’n Attack/Green Beret vibes from Thunder Fox. It’s a run-and-stab shooter, mostly, but there are a lot of little side vignettes where you fly dopey-looking vehicles or ride them across the water. It’s, uh, not quite as good as, like, any number of games I could compare it to, but it’s also not awful.

It’s so unremarkable I’m having trouble thinking of anything else to say about it. Yeah, I guess we’ll leave it at that. It’s a pretty generic cross between Contra and Rush’n Attack.

Runark (Growl)

Weirdly, the title screen presents this game as Runark (the Japanese title), but when you launch it, it’s Growl (the international title). I guess it doesn’t matter since I don’t think there are any major differences beyond the title, but it struck me as a bit awkward.

In any case, Growl is a wild game. It’s a beat-’em-up where you play as a ranger trying to violently stop poachers. Up to four players can rip their shirts and join in, and it is chaos. Growl throws heaps of bad guys your way, and the rangers aren’t afraid to pick up guns to use them in the service of protecting animals. Just hordes of dudes and these women who are dressed like they’re using their bare legs to climb the corporate ladder.

Absolutely hilarious. You walk through a series of same-y backgrounds, freeing wild animals who will then assist you. Enemy limbs can be liberated from their bodies with a well-placed explosion. There are some incredibly funny digitized voice samples. It’s really not the best beat-’em-up, but it makes up for a lot of its deficiencies with its ludicrous premise.

Warrior Blade: Rastan Sage Episode 3

Taito really went all-out for the third game in the Rastan series. It was originally available as a double-monitor arcade cabinet, like Taito’s own Darius 2. The characters are huge, which, as I’ve already said, is the way arcade developers like to flex their graphical horsepower. And the sound and music were clearly mixed around the idea that you’d be sitting on a subwoofer.

Surprisingly (especially after playing the last game), it’s also quite decent. Rather than being an action platformer, it’s a straight belt-scrolling brawler. There are three characters to choose from, and you get to pick from four levels to decide your route through the game. The combat itself isn’t varied, so instead, you’re put through a lot of different set-piece levels where you ride on a dragon or fight while sliding down a hill. The hit detection is a lot more fair, and the bosses are huge.

Even more surprisingly, it isn’t all that difficult. That might be because the cabinets it would come in would often charge more than a dollar to play, but that didn’t stop Darius from being tough. Warrior Blade might not be the best beat-’em-up I’ve ever experienced, but it’s enjoyable in its own right and a welcome apology for Rastan Saga 2.

Dead Connection

Here’s an interesting one. Its inclusion is a special treat since, if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that it’s been ported or re-released. It’s also a somewhat unique game, as it’s a single-screen shoot-’em-up where you run around movie set-like dioramas gunning down thugs. Apparently some FBI agents have had enough of crime and have decided to just take down Marlon Brando’s lackeys using whatever force necessary.

If I saw Dead Connection in an arcade or laundromat (and I never did), I’d definitely slot a quarter. There’s something captivating about the way it’s zoomed way back from the action. Your bullets tear through the scenery as enemies pop up behind cover. You’re free to roam as necessary to flank your foes or just explore.

The main downside is that aiming sucks. It’s eight-direction, and you need to rely on its auto-targeting since there’s no nuance between those directions. It’s also hard to tell when your shots are going to collide with obstacles, and sometimes, it feels like your bullets are lodging themselves into thin air. Enemies don’t have that issue, so you just have to keep diving to avoid incoming shots while trying your best to find good vectors. It can be a bit frustrating, but it’s something you get used to with repeated playthroughs.

I almost forgot to mention, the version here is the Japanese release. I don’t know why, but it means the text isn’t in English. This doesn’t matter when you’re in-game, but it does mean that the cutscenes are still in Japanese. That’s lame. It’s possible they’ll patch it on launch day, but I’m not certain.

The Collection

As it was last time, Taito Milestones 3 is actually just a collection of games in Hamster’s Arcade Archives series, some of which aren't yet available individually. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I don’t have much to complain about with Arcade Archives. Except maybe the price, and Taito Milestones 3 relieves that a bit by allowing you to buy in bulk.

But what I'm trying to stress is that the collection is a launcher for individual games with the Arcade Archives wrapper. It’s a bit awkward, especially since the emulator itself has gone through a few iterations, and that’s reflected here. They’re consistent enough, but some of them have a softening filter by default that you need to turn off if you want crisp pixels. Unlike an individual Arcade Archives release, you don’t get all the regional versions. This is the strangest when it comes to Growl, which is called Runark on the title screen, and Dead Connection, which, for some reason, uses the Japanese version. Weird stuff.

Despite that, I’m happy with this iteration of Taito Milestones. It’s nowhere near Capcom Arcade Stadium in terms of features and content, nor is it as robust as past collections like Taito Memories. But I’ve played enough sub-par collections recently that I’ve come to appreciate this level of care.

The post Review: Taito Milestones 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

There’s always been some debate around whether or not games are art, but in the late aughts and early ‘10s, some decided to really push for it. Sometimes, this resulted in kind of mostly successful experiments like Citizen Abel: Gravity Bone or Limbo, while other times we got more unfortunate, pretentious attempts like The Path.

It was a really insecure time for video games. We seemed to want some sort of permission to take this hobby seriously, so it’s like, collectively, as players and developers, we tried to prove video games were something they weren’t. Oh, they’re totally art. You can see that in games about flipping eggs and trimming hedges. But it’s more about harnessing the interactive element to get that piece of yourself across. A developer might try to capture how they think or see the world by asking you to live it. I’m not sure what The Path was supposed to say. Don’t do what you’re told?

We’ve largely moved past that, or at the very least, games that are 100% message have more of a purpose. A self-assuredness. It often feels more earnest and less pretentious. Which makes Miniatures something of a blast from the past.

Miniatures (PC [Reviewed], Switch, Mobile)
Developer: Other Tales Interactive
Publisher: Other Tales Interactive
Released: November 14th, 2024
MSRP: $5.99

Now, I’m not actually saying Miniatures is pretentious. No, I'm the pretentious one today. But, it’s at least making no mystery of the fact that it’s a digital art exhibit. What I mean is that it is only interactive-adjacent, and it is very art. I wouldn’t even call it narratively focused because the stories are pretty abstract. You’ll either connect with them, maybe just find them amusing, or maybe you won’t.

For me, it reminds me of extremely late nights of being bored in front of Teletoon. Nights when my parents were out, so I had free reign of the TV and could watch whatever bizarre concoction was on the station in the later hours.

Teletoon would often air things from The National Film Board of Canada, which was actually the butt of a Simpsons joke back in the day (not while they were still good). Very cultural stuff, but a lot of it was extremely strange. Sometimes, it would be something relaxingly amusing. Other times, it would be a piece of Canadiana, with the deepest of it being something from our aboriginal cultures. When you’re a pre-teen at 11 pm, it doesn’t matter what it was. Any attempt by an animation student to stretch their legs would hit like some sort of forbidden fever dream.

That’s what Miniatures took me back to; a decaffeinated Saturday night in my father’s La-Z-Boy. It’s four short chapters that sometimes make you poke the screen. On Switch and mobile, you can literally poke the screen, but here I was just poking it with my mouse pointer. Clicking, if you will.

I’m not trying to be dismissive, but the interactivity is very basic in Miniatures. One of the chapters has you trying to arrange a band of small sand-critters in a little sand-critter town in an extremely roundabout way. This was by far the most amusing one for me, as you largely press on places you think something should happen and then watch while that something happens. It’s well-animated and amusing, so that’s something.

There’s one where you pan the screen around to follow a story, and every so often, you need to click on something in the environment to uncover a trigger that allows you to move on. This one was my least favorite, not because of the lack of interactivity but because I didn’t connect with it. As far as I could see, it was a directionless story that wanted to look like it had something to say but didn’t say anything at all. Or maybe I just didn’t see the message.

As for the other two, I can at least understand what they’re trying to communicate, but I think a lot of Miniatures fails because it will elicit a feeling and then not do anything with it. They don't use that feeling to deliver any sort of message. These are short, short little chapters – miniature, if you will – so if they want you to just soak in the feeling, then there isn’t much time to do so. One strength in the artistic side of video games is that by having the player take part in something, you can hold their head beneath whatever you’re trying to convey, and when they're good and soaked, hit them with what you want to say. Miniatures neither has a point nor does it drown you for very long.

But, with those last two, I at least got the vibe they were putting down. One seemed to focus on childhood loneliness and discovery, while another gave a sense of tension and dread. I’ve found I’m typically able to pick up on subtext, even in games that aren’t taking an art-first approach, so I’m not deaf to what’s going on in Miniatures. I mostly have two problems. Number one: I don’t think it leverages the advantages of an interactive medium for conveying ideas. Number two: I don’t connect with the ideas that are here.

This makes it kind of hard to review a game like this because its effectiveness will vary from person to person, and I can’t speak to what you’ll feel. Maybe you’ll see yourself reflected in one or all of the games here. What I can say is that from an interactive standpoint, as well as a narrative one, I find Miniatures lacking. In comparison to other games that I would applaud for their contributions and approach to the art form, this wouldn’t be high on the list, but I wouldn’t throw it away wholesale, either.

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

The post Review: Miniatures appeared first on Destructoid.

Words have weight, which is why I swing them around with reckless abandon. I’m not sure that’s what Great God Grove is about unless you only take it literally. It’s more about identity, authority, communication, and misunderstanding.

It’s the follow-up to Smile For Me by Limbolane. But while the two games have similarities, you might miss the relation just by looking at it. One game has you interred in an asylum, while the other has you fixing the relationships of the gods. However, what they have in common is head nods and fixing people.

Great God Grove (Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Limbolane
Publisher: LimboLane, Fellow Traveller
Released: November 15th, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

Great God Grove puts you in the boots of a Godpoke, which is, as far as I can tell, a sort of courier. To be honest, I’m not clear on a few concepts here. For all I know, a Godpoke might just be someone who wears a poncho. You arrive at the eponymous grove just in time to see the gods close a giant rift in the sky that threatens to end the world. The problem is that the gods aren’t entirely interested in saving the world. They’re far too wrapped up in their own problems.

Previous to your arrival, the last messenger of the gods, the mysterious King, sent letters out to all the gods. The letters are obvious attempts to drive wedges between them, but as King had always been a trusted friend and reliable enough to be elected to become the next god, they took those words at face value. Now, nothing is right in the grove despite being a crucial time for the whole world.

Before you even get to the grove, King’s trusty mail cannon, the Megapon, lands directly in your lap. With this device, you can suck the words out of one person’s mouth and slap them in the face of another. Or just right back at them. That happens sometimes.

Being the wise person you are (or maybe just because it’s a linear narrative), you set to work righting King’s wrong. Immediately, you’re deputized by Inspekta, the God of Leadership, to help their lackeys, the Bizzyboys, figure out what happened to King and why they decided to hurt everyone’s feelings. However, the leader of the Bizzyboys, Capochin, is only out to please his boss, while the rest of the members are completely incompetent and hapless. So, it all comes down to you.

Largely, Great God Grove resembles a point-and-click adventure game. You can’t suck up any sentence or grouping of words you want; only specific, highlighted things that characters say can go in your Megapon. In this way, they work like any item in something like Secret of Monkey Island. You find hints in the words of the people you’re talking to and deliver something that will get them to perform some task for you, even if that’s just moving out of the way.

There’s a bit of a learning curve. For the first area, I wasn’t picking up on the cues, but after the second, I was able to proceed with some expedience. I didn’t get hung up very often, but I have to wonder if that’s going to be everyone’s experience. Great God Grove has an unusual design language built around its central hook, and I’m not sure if gaming literacy will be as important here as actual literacy. I’m not sure if every player can adjust, or maybe I’m the odd one because I had some issues in the first area. I can only speak to my own experience, though, and in my experience, I didn’t have much of a problem for most of the game.

Each area of the grove is home to one or two gods. In each one, King has spread some sort of misinformation to throw things into chaos, and your overall goal is to sort things out to restore the status quo. Sounds easy, but being an adventure game, it takes more than an apology to work things out.

What really elevates Great God Grove above a typical adventure game is an abundance of style. It mixes 2D characters and objects with a 3D world Paper Mario-style. It’s based around Day Lane’s distinctive, sketchy, expressive style. While animation is sparse, each character has a massive range of poses and emotions that they transition to each new window of dialogue. It can be quite captivating.

Many of the gods are rendered in full 3D, but they’re styled in such a way that it can be hard to tell. Like the 2D folks, the gods spring from pose to pose, with more traditional animation thrown in occasionally to spice things up.

There are also live-action puppet vignettes that you can watch for not much reason aside from enrichment. They generally just involve the Bizzyboys giving advice and some background information about what’s going on in the world. As it turns out, I’m really into puppets eating sandwiches. 

There isn’t much out that that looks quite like Great God Grove. The style is executed so consistently and with so much blunt-force pizzazz that it’s incredible that just a handful of people put the whole thing together. There are so many facets of its visual style that look as though they would be very difficult to execute, so the fact that they didn’t choose an easier, more conventional route is impressive. It pays off because, if absolutely nothing else, the way this game looks will be seared into your eyeholes.

Great God Grove has a lot to say about identity and the way people will stomp on others just for recognition. The gods themselves aren’t much different than ordinary people. They just exist on a less accessible plane of existence. As such, even though you can walk up and talk to them, their followers seem to just believe what they hear and speculate on what they might be thinking, which often is what leads to miscommunication. Misinformation is rife, and people take advantage of that.

Humans seem hardwired to climb. There’s a fear that our lives will be meaningless or forgotten, so we strive for recognition. And to secure our recognition, we’ll often stomp down the people beneath us. We yearn to wear the stomping boots, and a decent person can turn awful the moment they put them on. You face a lot of that in Great God Grove.

At the same time, it’s a very optimistic game. With your intervention, the troublemakers you meet see the error in their ways and express a desire to atone for their actions. Call me cynical, but I find most people are more likely to become defensive when faced with the consequences of their actions. People dig their stomping boots in and seek justification for what they’ve done. Maybe I just need a stronger word cannon.

In terms of gameplay, I could honestly take or leave Great God Grove. It has great pacing and a unique approach to the adventure genre, but I find the situations in which it’s applied generally unexciting. Not overly mundane, but I think with urgent focus on the threat and more dangerous situations, the dialogue would have more of a chance to shine. But it already shines pretty brightly.

Great God Grove is an immensely polished and precisely executed game, and that’s the most impressive part about it. Its pacing and aesthetic are finely honed and there’s nary a loose thread to be found. A bit more punch and the narrative would be perfect, but it presents a good amount of depth to sink into. It also features puppets gnawing on a gigantic hoagie, and really, what more can you ask for?

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

The post Review: Great God Grove appeared first on Destructoid.

Lego has really become a staple in the video game world over the years, taking over popular worlds and adding the more casual and silly Lego charm. Last year, the Lego universe expanded a bit more outside of the box with cart-racer Lego 2K Drive and the open-world survival Minecraft-like Lego Fortnite. But the next chapter in the Lego universe, Lego Horizon Adventures, is a bit outside the normal Lego formula.

While previous action-adventure Lego games have taken place inside the worlds of legendary movie franchises (Star Wars, Marvel, Jurassic World, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc.) Lego Horizon Adventures is unique in that it serves as an abridged reinterpretation of the original Horizon Zero Dawn.

My biggest concern going into Lego Horizon Adventures was that I wasn't sure how well the world of Horizon would translate into a Lego game. As great of a game Horizon Zero Dawn is, it's mainly because of its incredible story, vast beautiful open world, and fast-paced and challenging gameplay. All of these are things that Lego games typically strip out when converting to the Lego universe.

Lego Horizon Adventures (PC, PS5 [Reviewed], Switch)
Developer: Guerilla Games and Studio Gobo
Publisher: PlayStation Studios and Sony Interactive Entertainment
Released: November 14th, 2024
MSRP: $59.99

Lego Horizon Adventures starts off just like Zero Dawn. For those not familiar with Horizon, the world is a post-apocalyptic United States 1,000 years in the future. Humanity has been scattered and forced to form primitive tribes that try to integrate the technology of the "Old World" into their everyday life. In terms of story, I can't stress enough how much of the story of Horizon Zero Dawn is omitted, trivialized, or simply not explained in Lego Horizon Adventures. I know that's common for the Lego games, but I just want to point out that if you haven't played the original and are interested in doing so at some point, I'd recommend doing so before jumping into the Lego world of Horizon.

Instead of roaming around exploring the mysterious world, you'll play through mostly linear levels split into different areas. Between each level, you'll return to your tribal village where you can interact with NPCs at the village—though there's not much reason to do so—as well as rebuild the village how you want. Then, head to the entrance into the area of the level you want to embark on and repeat the process. Each of the levels in a specified zone is similar in design and layout, but not completely identical. There are a few side paths you can go down to open a chest full of studs but for the most part, the levels are completely linear and very quick, with each one only taking a few minutes to complete.

When I first discovered the village building feature, I had hoped it would be meaningful and unlock new interactions or even more systems to explore. Instead, it's mostly just cosmetic fluff that allows you to choose from a variety of prebuilt structures with different coats of paint—mostly themes from other Lego franchises like Lego City and Lego Ninjago—to throw down in your village as you complete a certain number of missions. It's essentially a moneysink—err, studsink—for spending your currency earned by playing through the levels, but for the most part, everything is just decoration.

Embarking on a mission will take you on a linear journey through the area, progressing a part of the story as you run through the level doing some light platforming, collecting studs, and fighting off various enemies that spawn throughout the level including humanoid cultists and staple animal-like machines that Horizon is known for. The machines have unique weak points similar to those of their counterparts in Horizon Zero Dawn. When targeted, you'll inflict massive damage to the machines, allowing you to take them down much quicker.

The gameplay itself is about what I expected from a Lego version of Horizon. You hold square to nock back an arrow then fire it in any direction, aiming with your thumbstick. As you kill enemies they can drop various powerups such as a version of your bow that catches your enemy on fire on hit. There are three element types: fire, ice, and lightning. Some enemies are weak to certain element types, but even if they aren't they can still often be taken down in a few hits with your bow. Hitting them with the element they are weak to will often just cut that down to one or two hits.

There are also utility items you can grab to expand your arsenal further. There are a wide variety of items—often silly ones—that allow you to engage in combat in a variety of ways. One such item acted as a massive hammer that allowed you to slam into your enemies. Another had you quickly build a, uh, hot dog stand, where the vendor threw explosive hot dogs at nearby enemies. Yep, hot dog bombs.

I'd describe the combat in Lego Horizon Adventures as better than most of the Lego games, but overall still a bit lacking. My biggest gripe with the combat is there is no evade or dodge roll type of mechanic, which I feel would really add to the combat here. A lot of the enemies do telegraphed attacks that show up as a big AoE circle or a line that you have to get out of the way of before the enemy charges at you. But without any sort of dodge action, you must stop attacking and then just run out of the way. It slows down the combat and at many times I still found myself hitting a button to try and dodge out of the way just because it really feels like you're supposed to be able to.

I think my biggest issue with Lego Horizon Adventures is that I don't really know who it was made for. Even though it's an abridged reinterpretation of the Zero Dawn story, far too much has been omitted, watered down, or even just downright skipped or not explained to make the story anywhere near as coherent or meaningful. If you haven't played Horizon Zero Dawn, this certainly isn't just an alternative replacement to the experience. There's too much missing, and everything that makes Horizon Zero Dawn the great game that it is is simply not there in its Lego rendition.

And on the flip side, if you have played through and enjoyed the original game, what reason is there to experience the watered-down Lego version? For most Lego games, the entire storylines for the games (once again, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic World, etc) simply don't have playable media in which you can explore their worlds. Joining the Lego games universe allows you to actually play in those worlds for the first time whereas otherwise they can only be explored through their movies. That's not the case here; if you want to play in the Horizon universe, you can play Horizon Zero Dawn or even Horizon Forbidden West.

To be clear, there's certainly an audience for Lego Horizon Adventures. If you're a big fan of the Lego game formula and either love Horizon Zero Dawn or have no interest in ever playing through it, there's some fun to be had blasting through the game, especially if you have someone to co-op it with. But for me, I quickly found the entire experience very repetitive and not a true representation of what makes Horizon special. Look, I'm a Lego fan. But this time around, I feel it really doesn't do the source material justice.

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

The post Review: Lego Horizon Adventures appeared first on Destructoid.

I have so many arcade games available on my Switch; it’s obscene. Also, kind of expensive, which we’ll get to. But with the short length of your standard arcade title, they’re easy to dive into when you need a snack.

So, here’s Irem Collection Volume 2, which is, as you have most likely guessed, the follow-up to Irem Collection Volume 1. Irem is perhaps best known for their R-Type series, but the developer was among the best in the arcade days with hits like Kickle Cubicle and Undercover Cops; games that could go under the radar and are therefore ripe for inclusion in collections.

But perhaps the most important contribution from Irem is Metal Slug. Not the actual game – that was Nazca and SNK – but it was the place where the staff behind Metal Slug first stretched their legs before setting out on their own. And nowhere is this more apparent than in Gun Force II, one of the games in this collection. There are also two other games here.

Irem Collection Volume 2 (Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Switch [Reviewed])
Developer: Irem
Publisher: ININ Games
Released: November 14th, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

I’m going to go through the individual games included in this collection, but I want to give a word about how they’re packed: awkward. Kind of awkward. Not every game collection needs to be Atari 50, but Irem Collection Volume 2 is barebones on top of unintuitive. The volume of the menu, for example, is substantially higher than the games themselves. Each game has a “casual” and “classic” mode, the difference being that you can’t participate in the leaderboards in casual mode, but you get access to game settings, cheats, and rewind. I’m guessing that they’re presented separately for leaderboard reasons, but I don’t see why they can’t just warn you when you try to turn cheats on. You can use autofire on both, which seems strange.

It uses an emulation platform that I’ve seen before in Ratalaika/ININ re-releases like the Cyber Citizen Shockman games and the Ninja Jajamaru: Retro Collection. That’s not necessarily a good or bad thing. I just want you to know what you’re in for, if you’re familiar.

There’s no supplemental documentation or credits for the original games, which lacked them at release, and we still don’t know who some of the developers were for the games. What’s galling is that the physical collector’s edition of the game comes with things like reproduction arcade flyers and a visual compendium, so it’s not like they don’t have anything to show, they just chose not to include them in a digital format.

Annoying, but let’s talk about the games.

Air Duel

The odd one out in the collection is Air Duel. It’s the only scrolling shoot-’em-up of the bunch. It’s extremely challenging, but you’re not exactly going to run out of quarters here. It'll be a real climb if you want to place on the leaderboards, though.

You can choose between a helicopter and your typical futuristic jet-thing. The jet thing works about how you’d expect one to work in this kind of game, but the chopper’s gunfire will turn in the direction you’re pressing. It’s awkward at first, but learning to use it gives you the advantage of being able to stay out of the direct line of gunfire and still attack. I didn’t like it the first time I tried it, but after clearing the first level, I can’t imagine playing without it.

About a zillion of these types of games were released through the ‘80s and ‘90s, and you can get a lot of them on Switch. In comparison, Air Duel is fine. I like it, but it’s not likely to be the game I reach for next time I’m in the mood. That will probably be something like Raiden or Raystorm. On the other hand, I now have the worldwide high score on this game. Take that, three other people who have early access to Irem Collection Volume 2. You suck.

GunForce (Arcade)

I’m technically going out of order here, but I feel like the arcade version should come first. GunForce is a run-and-gun like Contra, except with more vehicles and way clunkier. Its subtitle is “Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island,” which is just an incredible mash of words.

GunForce is so clunky that it might take a bit to acclimate. Your dude moves so stiffly, and enemies just pour in from the side of the screen. Crowd control and learning to dodge don’t come as naturally as you’d probably find in a Contra derivative. 

Once you do get a handle on things, it can be an enjoyable game. It gives you a new vehicle practically every few steps and these range from jeeps to helicopters. Powerups drop constantly, and you’re able to grab onto overhanging objects. It’s just getting into or out of a helicopter, climbing a ladder, or letting go of an object that can take a bit of fighting, and in a game like GunForce, a little bit of fighting can mean another lost life.

GunForce (Console)

I keep forgetting that GunForce even came out on SNES/Super Famicom. That’s probably because it’s not talked about all that much. Not in my experience, anyway. Its inclusion here is more of a “good to have” than a “need to have” situation. It’s largely the same as the arcade version but squished down for less powerful hardware. It plays very faithfully, with the biggest difference being that, on classic difficulty, you’re saddled with a handful of continues. Occasionally, there are too few continues since a bad situation can make you drop lives fast. Other times, there are too many because there are only a few levels.

The biggest drawback is that it’s a lot less colorful. GunForce wasn’t a colorful game to begin with, but anything vivid it did got flattened out on SNES. It’s a shame because the console was capable of more. It’s still an okay translation of an okay game, but being a shadow of another game in the collection makes its inclusion feel somewhat unnecessary. Good to have, though.

Gun Force II

Gun Force II is the last arcade game to be developed by Irem. Named Geo Storm in Japan, it’s largely a different beast from the original GunForce. What links them is the fact that they’re both run-and-gun shooters, and they have you jump into a tonne of different vehicles throughout the levels. Otherwise, they feel pretty distinct.

There’s still a noticeable degree of clunk to be found in Gun Force II, but it makes up for it by being absurdly over-the-top. Your dude comes equipped with two guns at all times, and at any given time, 80% of the screen is covered in explosions. It’s a game that never lets up, constantly throwing new situations at you. Turning on autofire just makes things more insane. And more fun.

It’s not Metal Slug, but you can see the similarities. You rescue captured people who, in this case, are scantily clad women in torn clothing. The enemy's screams are exactly the same. You can also see a lot of art style similarities between the two, though it’s less pronounced and consistent in Gun Force II. Only Takeshi Okui is confirmed to have worked on the art, but I’d be very surprised if he was the only one from the Metal Slug team.

The Collection

Gun Force II is easily the standout of the bunch. I’ve talked to smaller developers who have worked on run-and-gun shooters, and they often cite it as an inspiration. It maybe doesn’t make the whole collection worth it, but it’s definitely worth playing.

And that’s kind of the hang-up here: whether or not the collection is worth it. It’s one standout title (Gun Force 2), a good one (Air Duel), and one that is simply okay (GunForce). You get different regional versions where applicable, as well as the console port of GunForce. There isn’t really any supplemental material (which isn’t totally unusual), and the UI could be better. The value isn’t quite where it should be. It’s slightly more expensive than buying three Arcade Archives titles and worse value than something like Taito Milestones.

So, overall, Irem Collection Volume 2 is less than spectacular. If the games really appeal to you, then the collection doesn’t diminish them, but it also doesn’t elevate them. In terms of value, you could do worse, but it’s not an immediate recommendation. They’re your quarters, do what you want with them.

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

The post Review: Irem Collection Volume 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

Chicken Police: Paint it Red grabbed me with its weird, photomanipulated animal-people characters, but held me there with its heart. It features a storytelling that shows a love of worldbuilding and warm characters in a noir setting. So, I’ve been greatly anticipating the follow-up, Chicken Police: Into the Hive.

It’s been given a good runway. A lot of the seeds for its events and characters had already been planted in Paint it Red, as well as the prologue side-game, Zipp’s Cafe. It was ready to be bigger and better than what came before and was poised to launch a new chapter in the Wild Gentleman’s World of Wilderness setting. Then, halfway through the game, the wheels came off of it, and now things have become more complicated.

Chicken Police: Into the Hive (PC)
Developer: The Wild Gentlemen
Publisher: Joystick Ventures
Released: November 7, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

Into the Hive starts in much the same way the first game does. A dame walks into the home office of Detective Santino “Sonny” Featherland, asking for his help with an off-the-books case. Her husband has gone missing, or rather, her husband’s body. But it’s not a murder that he’s trying to solve. None is suspected. It’s the mystery of why someone would dig up his body (as well as others) and steal it.

To make matters more complicated, the man was an insect, one of the oppressed citizens of Clawville who have been segregated to a part of town known as “The Hive.” Insects aren’t allowed out of the hive and animals, especially cops, aren’t allowed in. Undeterred, Sonny grabs his partner, Martin “Marty” MacChicken, and they set out to crack the case.

Things play out very similar to the original game. You travel Clawville, gathering clues and talking to people. Occasionally, you’ll play a mini-game. Then there are other times that you have to interrogate someone by asking a series of questions to endear yourself or annoy them enough to get some sort of revelation out of them.

There aren’t too many surprises in terms of gameplay; it’s still heavily a visual novel with adventure aspects, but not many of them. One of the biggest improvements here are with its art style. This may sound weird, but the lipsyncing on the animal heads is way better. Rather than a generic jaw drop, they move in different ways to pronounce syllables. It’s such a strange thing to focus attention on, but it’s actually a pretty slick and appreciable change.

Also, if you, for whatever reason, hated the black-and-white film noir look from the original game, it isn’t long before you can change it over to garish technicolor. While I played in color for a while before switching it back to monochrome for most of the game, the color is well done. It’s not just turning off a filter, instead, a lot of attention has been given to making color mode having as much of a distinct look to it as the original black-and-white. The colors are inappropriately bright, with even neutral colors popping off, and Characters wear garish outfits. It’s a great alternative if you get bored of the simpler shading.

The narrative itself starts off more confidently. At this point, the lore has been built up around it, so it doesn’t need to throw off as many off-hand comments to try and set the scene. It doesn’t have to make things up as it goes along. It fits together a lot better, and that comes through in the dialogue.

The first two acts are excellent, giving pieces at a time and getting you to figure out how they fit together. It can be pretty heavy-handed at times. You’ll no doubt know who the real villain is and what is happening to the stolen bodies well before the game overtly tells you. I was expecting this to lead to some sort of twist, but the red herrings seem to be only for the characters themselves and players will get no surprises. Things become to come undone from there.

There are five chapters to the game, and you begin to see things weaken in the third. It becomes most obvious when the characters know a location they have to go, but are aware that it’s dangerous and will likely be a trap. Rather than figure out an elegant plan, they just do the obvious and go in the back door. Then things just happen because they’re scripted to. There’s an excellent mini-game here, but I wonder if the visual novel format has caused an issue with the storytelling. It feels like there should have been a greater amount of action in this scene that just wasn’t there.

Nonetheless, it’s not too bad at that point. After that, however, I’d say it’s just bad. For the final two chapters things just move around in the most obvious of ways. The characters form a plan that even a child could think of and band together. It’s hard to understand the stakes, overall motivation of the antagonist, and why many involved would have a personal interest. Little threads that were left dangling aren’t tied up at all, but rather just swept aside, and they will never get properly tied into what’s going on.

And then you move through what feels like sets that should have had greater purpose and screentime, but are largely just there to be moved through. Everything gets wrapped up without much understanding of how anything has really been solved by the conclusion. It seems that the antagonist had everything worked out, but they had missed one little detail: gun. And that’s that. Job well done.

It’s obvious something went wrong here, but I’m not sure what. The credits begin with what sounds almost like an apology starting with, “This game was difficult to make.” It then explains that COVID-19, the industry downturn, a change of publishers, and “personal tragedies” had made development challenging. It then says, “But the story seems to have been stronger than all of these. We had no choice but to make it, to close this saga, and still give it a new beginning…” That’s broad enough to be interpreted in different ways, but just reads to me as a wrench got thrown into their plans.

The second half of Into the Hive feels like something that has been merely blocked out. The central plot points and events are there, but you’re just led through them with little agency of your own. No real puzzles, just hop on and get where you’re going.

Beyond the reasons given in the credits, I feel that a few things have gone unsaid. From my perspective, it looks like Into the Hive ran up against the limitations of the visual novel format, its own ambition, and the universal rule that something eventually has to ship. Whether that last part was more motivated by publisher deadlines or development fatigue, I obviously have no idea.

There were a number of scenes, especially at the end, that should have had some sort of action sequence or cutscene. Like the first game, you can head down to the police shooting range for target practive. Here, you’re even given the opportunity to try out three guns. Unlike the first game, which had scenes where you put that training to use, Into the Hive doesn’t even feature one gunfight. I’m not saying that Sonny and Marty should have started mowing down foes, but the gang war setting would have really facilitated it.

And then there’s the fact that, between Paint it Red and Into the Hive, there was the standalone prologue, Zipp’s Cafe that was released, and another spin-off starring fellow detectives, Moses and Plato, in development. On top of that, there’s WILD Tactics, which looks like a bigger production overall. I have to wonder how many plot points in Into the Hive were set up specifically for later games and how much was adapted to accommodate. And that’s saying nothing about how busy the team must be.

It’s always strange to progress from a part of the game that seems so vivid, well-thought-out, and lovingly configured to a second half that feels like as many strings as possible were grabbed and tied together, which still left many more forgotten and dangling. In some ways, it reminds me of the ending of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2; you quickly snap from one of the best games you’ve ever played to a patchwork slideshow desperately holding together everything that wasn’t finished. It’s like waiting for fireworks to go off, and someone walks up and pisses on the fuse.

It’s going to take a while for me to process my disappointment when it comes to Chicken Police: Into the Hive. Beyond just being excited about the game, I was excited to see how the World of Wilderness would develop beyond these tales of two detectives. I think I’m still interested, but now, something’s rotting in the midst of it all. 

Into the Hive isn’t the bigger and better follow-up that Paint it Red deserved. It’s only half of one, and what happened to that other half is a mystery of its own. All that was found was an empty shell and some bloodied remains. Not the way it deserved to go out.

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

The post Review: Chicken Police: Into the Hive appeared first on Destructoid.

The Mario & Luigi series wasn’t in the best state following AlphaDream’s closure. The last actually new title was Paper Jam in 2015, followed by two remakes. It was a rough final chapter in the studio’s life.

Paper Jam was the worst reviewed in the series (to be fair, Laura Kate Dale, writing for Destructoid, gave it an 8 out of 10). The second remake, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, was the worst-selling to the point where it was a possible contributing factor to Alphadream's bankruptcy.

Thankfully, the series lives on with Mario & Luigi: Brothership. Being one of the successor series to Super Mario RPG with a unique focus on the two title characters, I feel it has a lot of merit. Brothership demonstrates that but falls way short of its potential.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch)
Developer: Acquire
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: November 7, 2024
MSRP: $59.99

Brothership is one of the more mundane premises in the series. Following digestion, dreams, and a crossover, this one simply has the two brothers transported to another world in need of saving. The central hook is that they find themselves in command of a ship-like floating island and need to travel the expansive ocean to visit other islands and link them together. It’s a mix of unique and trite.

The hapless world is Concordia. It was once a continent held together by the Uni-Tree, but someone came along and destroyed their unifying flora. The continent broke apart, with the pieces cast in all directions. The once united populace now struggles in isolation, and it’s up to Mario and Luigi to bring everyone back together. In a way, it’s the most obnoxiously overt allegory, but it still manages to hit narrative paydirt occasionally.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Mario & Luigi series, they’re RPGs that focus on the eponymous duo. Alongside Paper Mario, it’s a follow-up to Super Mario RPG on the SNES, which is to say it’s something of a JRPG-lite. It’s turn-based, like what you’d expect, but it ties in reflex-based actions wherein you can press a button at the right time during an animation to defend yourself or make your attacks stronger. This was first featured in Mario RPG, and Mario & Luigi extrapolates on this to the extreme.

Battles generally involve the two brothers assisting each other in combat, with even basic attacks having them help each other. Hammer and jump attacks are pretty straightforward, but then you get to Bros. Attacks, which have much more variety. In order to get the most out of a Bros. Attack, you have to master their associated mini-games which often challenge reflex, perception, and your ability to remember which brother is assigned to which button.

As for new features, a big one is “Luigi Logic.” This has Luigi thinking really hard about a situation and coming up with a solution. This is really funny because sometimes the solutions are just impulsive and rely on nothing more than brute force and determination, which suggests that Mario is just not capable of thought. But mostly, it’s just the pride on Luigi's face when he figures something out that really drills in the charm. Dude’s just so damned pleased with himself, it’s infectious.

The Luigi Logic moments often show up in boss battles, giving you a chance to do a lot of damage and sometimes stun the boss. They allow for some setpiece moments to crop up that really affect the battle, and some of them are pretty cool, even if they are usually cropped up at the worst times for me.

The dynamic battle system makes the Mario & Luigi games feel distinct next to their more typical genre kin, but it does have the downside of forcing you through the same mini-games repeatedly as you proceed through battle after battle. The repetition could be mitigated by keeping gameplay brief and offering palate-cleansing sections between more battle-heavy dungeons; it’s just too bad Brothership doesn’t do that.

No, not at all. When I finally wrapped up Brothership, it was around the 42-hour mark, and at that point, I was just done with it, which isn’t totally uncommon for me with longer RPGs, to be fair. But Brothership not only suffers from the repetition of its battles but also from an inconsistent and bloated pace.

There are five sections to the game, and it starts off well enough. You hop from island to island, and they stay rather small affairs, giving you a taste of variety without getting bogged down. Then, Brothership sags through the second and third areas. It’s a protracted stretch that could have been significantly abbreviated. Nothing much happens narratively. Nothing that couldn’t have just been wrapped in as a sub-plot to another section. Honestly, I probably would have puttered out and lost interest in this part of Brothership if I wasn’t playing it for review.

Things pick up in the fourth part of the game and continue into the fifth, with some of the best moments happening during this time, but then it doesn’t know when to stop. You can’t maintain a climax for, like, 10 hours. Excitement doesn’t last that long. A narrative shouldn’t peak and then plateau, because then it becomes dull. The punch loses impact. If I had managed to survive the previous lull, I most likely wouldn’t have made it through the denouement, but I had to power through it.

Brothership is such an inconsistent game. It can be extremely witty one moment, then clueless the next. At some points, it skirts with something profound in its narrative, then refuses to deliver. There are so many places in this game that could have been cut down or abbreviated, but a lot of it feels there just as a way of extending the game. It doesn’t feel rushed or unpolished; there’s just too much of it, and it gets in its own way.

And it’s a shame, because there’s a lot of charm that does a lot to keep the experience. It’s focus on connections and bonds works well with Luigi and his brother. There is so much fraternal devotion on display in every moment, it’s almost enviable. They are presented in such a way that their coordinated outfits begin to make sense. 

It’s expressed so well with its art style and lavish animations. Brothership is a great-looking game, even without a lot of graphical horsepower and trickery. It bursts with personality and gives so much depth to a pair of mute palette swaps. It’s just too bad that so much of the rest of the cast feels trite. The villains are villainous, the henchmen hench well, and, as usual, the support character evokes my visceral rage. On the bright side, it means the brothers shine brighter.

When all is said and done, Mario & Luigi: Brothership isn’t a bad game; it’s just too much of a decent thing. If it had restraint and its pacing was planned better, it could have been the best in the series. Its transition from a strictly handheld platform to consoles is a great one, putting the additional horsepower to good use.

But because it was allowed to grow so long, what would have been easily overlooked inconsistencies become major annoyances. Eventually, all of its problems start to overshadow its successes and they begin to fester. What would be a joyful experience gets washed away in a sea of grey leaving nothing to connect with.

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

The post Review: Mario & Luigi: Brothership appeared first on Destructoid.

The first time I hopped into the Black Ops 6 beta, I was hooked. So much so that when it ended, Modern Warfare 3 just couldn't cut it for me anymore.

So, now that Black Ops 6 is finally out in the world, I no longer have to look outside the window on a rainy day in the hopes of getting back that magnificent Omnimovement. Even though the bar was already set high, Black Ops 6 still exceeded my expectations, making me understand why I became a Call of Duty fan in the first place. It's brought back the only thing I ever want in video games: fun. Just pure entertainment with a touch of ragequits here and there.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S [Reviewed], PC)

Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software, Beenox, High Moon Studios, Activision Shanghai, Sledgehammer Games, Infinity Ward, Demonware

Publisher: Activision

Released: October 25, 2024

MSRP: $69.99

Black Ops 6, like most Call of Duty entries, comes in three layers: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. Although the campaigns don't normally get the spotlight, I still immensely enjoyed this aspect. Transporting us to the hip '90s, every step in this narrative is rich with history, featuring easily recognizable figures like Bill Clinton. I always appreciate when games incorporate a bit of history, providing a unique learning experience.

The timeline takes place after the events of Black Ops Cold War, bringing back key characters like Frank Woods and Russell Adler. You'll primarily play as the new hotshot, Case, a man of few words. The team's goal is to investigate the Pantheon, a paramilitary force with the power to instill fear with their governmental conspiracies. They'll turn everyone against you and your team, and it's up to you to get some justice. 

You'll switch back and forth between the safe house and the mission, setting up your strategies first and then carrying out the plan after. Most quests also have the choice to go guns blazing, like most CoD entries, or play it out without making a sound. I would say it's a mixture of Grand Theft Auto 5's team-based heists and Metal Gear Solid's Tactical Espionage. It's something different for the Call of Duty world for sure, and it adds more replayability with the many ways it can be played. 

The story itself isn't the most monumental, especially in comparison to the original Black Ops' thrilling narrative. Nevertheless, its cinematics and brutal takedowns will make you feel like you're some action hero in a movie. The kitchen fight, especially, got my heart pumping, ending with an enemy's head getting boiled up in a fryer. The character and environmental visuals make it even better in light of how realistic they truly are. Sometimes, I would forget it was a video game just because of how true to life the characters looked. 

CoD's multiplayer has finally reached its peak

Considering that Black Ops 6's Campaign only lasts for five to six hours, the real stars of the show are Multiplayer and Zombies. Since BO6's release, I've spent hours on end in both modes, and I can't get enough. Despite my initial hesitation about the '90s-inspired weapons (I can't help it. I like my modern stuff, okay?), I've thoroughly enjoyed the available weaponry. Wielding each gun feels much more smooth than my time in Modern Warfare 3. Combining it with Omnimovement furthers it's easy to move mechanics, and it's quite possibly become my favorite FPS gameplay because of it. 

Since it's so smooth to play, I feel like everyone's been on their A game, bringing out those "sweat lobbies" that almost every shooter player has experienced. The maps, in particular, add to the challenge, primarily the small-sized Face Off locations. Skyline, Derelict, and Warhead are my top picks, with their unique points of interest. There are so many hidden spots you can use on these maps, giving you more opportunities for those surprise enemy attacks. What's more, Nuketown has rolled out for the game's post-launch, which will likely be my next favorite on the list. It's already brought a sense of nostalgia to see this beloved map return, stemming from the classic Call of Duty: Black Ops.

I would still like to see more maps in the future since there isn't too much variety in BO6's locations. Plus, there are some that I dread playing, like Vorkuta and Stakeout. They aren't the most fun to play, given how easy it is for other players to target you (it could just be a skill issue on my end, though). The spawn traps have also become a problem; some have used this tactic to farm kills at an annoying rate.

In some cases, I've noticed that the TTK (Time to Kill) isn't the greatest. On the one hand, I feel like the CoD goat with the many instant eliminations. Then, other times, I feel like I don't deserve to be called an FPS player at all the longer it takes to bring the enemy down. However, as more updates roll out, it's slowly getting more balanced with TTKs.  

Classic Zombies is back and better than ever

Now that we've dug into Multiplayer and the Campaign, it's time to talk about my most treasured feature of Black Ops 6: Zombies mode. I've been an undead lover ever since I picked up the magical stuff in Origins, and I'm so happy that BO6 is bringing more content like this back. While I did like the open-world vibes of Modern Warfare 3: Zombies, playing Black Ops 6 made me realize how much I missed Treyarch's take on it. 

The classic round-based levels return in BO6, raising the mode's challenge the more you push through. Currently, only two maps are available: Liberty Falls and Terminus. I know there was some hesitation amongst the players with Liberty Falls, mainly due to its previous bright appearance and smaller size. Regardless of this, I found the map to be much more inviting than the massive Terminus. Sometimes, I don't want to overstrain myself, primarily at the beginning of a game, so it was nice to get a feel for it initially. Furthermore, Treyarch darkened the look and feel of Liberty Falls to incorporate Zombies' iconic doom and gloom feel. 

Terminus excels in this approach with all the darkness that shrouds this enormous map. Two storylines are also unfolding here, one with a zombie outbreak in Liberty Falls and the other involving a prison escape (zombies are still there, of course) in Terminus. Both maps connect together, centering around the rag-tag team Mackenzie "Mac" Carver, Maya Aguinaldo, Grigori Weaver, Oskar Strauss, Dr. Elizabeth Grey, and Stoney "Raptor One" Maddox. Carver has to be one of my favorite Operators due to his hilarious one-liners. I like anyone who references SpongeBob SquarePants, and that's exactly what he does. 

But what I truly love is the myriad of Easter eggs that can take you on some of the wildest adventures. Even though there are only two maps, there are so many opportunities for you to explore. The Main Quests are one of the most elaborate missions I've encountered. Similar to previous Black Ops' Zombies modes, there are not really any instructions for them, letting the CoD community band together to solve them.

A lot of hard work goes into crafting Wonder Weapons, such as the Jet Gun and Beamsmasher, which are essential tools for the Main Quests. You'll use them to defeat the most formidable creatures out there, and there's nothing more satisfying than the rewards and triumphs you gain afterward. 

On top of the main storyline, you can have some fun with the Side Quests. I couldn't believe how many Easter eggs Treyarch's packed in, from zombie disco bowling to a treasure hunt riddled with cursed coins. Its brought out concepts I would've never imagined in an undead world, but I love being along for the ride. 

So, if you've been missing the classic Zombies, Black Ops 6 is where it's at. You'll get lost in all of its Easter Eggs, which will undoubtedly expand with more updates. Multiplayer will continue to grow, too, whether it be with new maps or quality-of-life improvements. 

Black Ops 6 proves that the Call of Duty series is here to stay, and hopefully, it'll get even better from here on out. 

The post Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 appeared first on Destructoid.

I really enjoyed the first Life is Strange game. Sure, I found Max a little bland as a character, but it was still a captivating story I wasn't used to exploring at the time. Now, with Max returning in this direct sequel, I was intrigued to see what's changed.

Now that I've given in to my curiosity and spent around ten hours flying through this latest entry, let's have a quick chat about Life is Strange: Double Exposure.

Before diving into this, I need to bring up the original Life is Strange again. Although I won't be spoiling Double Exposure here, the game does expect you to have played the prequel and references multiple major plot points from it. I'll avoid spoiling these, too, but I will make direct comparisons to both games with this in mind.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure (PC [Reviewed], Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5)
Developer: Deck Nine Games
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: October 29, 2024
MSRP: $49.99

I was already optimistic about Double Exposure after playing the first game. Although I haven't gotten around to playing the other entries in the series, with True Colors sitting comfortably in my Steam Library to play later, I was still excited about this one. Life is Strange was never a perfect ten for me, but it's the closest a choices matter game has gotten so far.

When I first heard about this sequel, I was a little skeptical about how it would take a similar murder mystery concept from the first game and change it in a way that makes it unique. At first, we're introduced to Max, her best friend Safi, and another important character, Moses. The entire premise focuses on Safi's death, mimicking the Rachel Amber story from the first game, with Max discovering she still has her mysterious powers. They may take a different form now, but they still have the unintentional butterfly effect consequences they had the first time around.

If you've already finished the first game, you know exactly how much things escalate early on, with some seemingly random plot twists added for shock value. Double Exposure takes more than a few bits of inspiration from its prequel, but I like how it ties everything together. Like before, everything has a purpose and severe consequences. Well, outside of the dialogue.

Unsurprisingly, Double Exposure follows a very similar premise and plot structure. The twists are a mix of surprises and ones that elicited "Oh, I guessed that two hours ago" reactions from me. It almost felt like a nostalgia trip to the first game, especially as I got through the story's second half. Although not particularly impressive anymore, it was a familiar setup that helped me understand what was going on without feeling lost.

And yet, even with that said, I was still hooked the entire way through. During my original Life is Strange playthrough, I was pleasantly surprised by how easily I got immersed into its story despite some of the characters being a tad one-dimensional. Double Exposure also captured this feeling. The only difference is that this time, Max was easily one of the most interesting characters to learn about, and her growth in this time skip is apparent. Age has done a lot to her, and although she's still a bit nerdy, she's also a lot more confident and bold. What can I say? She's a cool gal.

Speaking of the time skip, having this take place this far into the future was a solid move on Deck Nine Games' end. Although I certainly related to a few characters in the original Life is Strange, many of the issues Double Exposure's cast faces hit much closer to home, making their circumstances and dialogue choices relating to them feel that much more significant.

Life is Strange's characters have definitely been the highlight for me so far, and Double Exposure is no exception. There are far fewer memorable characters this time than in the prequel, but they're genuinely fascinating and enjoyable to talk to. The romance options were especially fun to get to know, even if I would've liked more depth to the relationship-building. The game's justification for not doing so made sense but left me wanting more.

That's my overall feeling towards Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Everything happens so quickly, and I certainly think there was room to get to know the cast a little more, including how Max has been doing since we last saw her. You can get to know people if you snoop around the environment enough, but there was some room to expand further, even if it slightly padded the runtime. Even with that said, I was still happy to meet some new LiS folks and experience some references to others from the first game.

There are a few specific characters from previous Life is Strange games that make a comeback in some peculiar ways. A particular one that stuck in my mind appears in the second half of the game, but I'll let you discover who that is and some of the bizarre antics that arise from it. Let's just say I got an unexpected chuckle in between Max's serious and stressful circumstances. I even got surprise laughs from plenty of conversations in this game, which I wasn't expecting when looking back at the somewhat bland dialogue from the prequel.

One point I was initially conflicted about but ended up liking is Max's reintroduction to her powers. While I won't go into them much to prevent spoilers, I enjoyed the changes Double Exposure makes, even if most of it felt like convenient plot devices. When it came to actual gameplay, I had a lot of fun experimenting with the whole timeline-shifting change, especially when seeing how various events impacted the world. Looking past the overarching plot and conflict, seeing the little details in people's behavior, environmental changes, and even different music depending on which timeline you're in all help elevate the already impressive story-telling aspects Life is Strange is known for.

Overall, Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a satisfying sequel that ties in the events of its prequel well. It remembers and stays true to the original story without straying too far from its core. Although it relies a little too much on your having played the first Life is Strange, it continues the adventure well and balances the feeling of familiarity while still keeping things refreshing. If you enjoyed the first game, you're in for a treat with this one.

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

The post Review: Life is Strange: Double Exposure appeared first on Destructoid.

It’s cursed. Food truck games are cursed. I just want a good food truck game, but this keeps happening. Despite being someone who encourages people to play less-than-spectacular games, I haven’t been able to finish a food truck game.

This goes back to Food Truck Simulator in 2022. I was quite excited about that game, but when it arrived, it was full of bugs and design issues that caused me to drop it midway through the game. Fruitbus is essentially a repeat of that. Every time I sat down to play it, either a bug or just an annoying design decision would cause me to walk away until I just decided enough was enough. It breaks my heart, but I didn’t finish Fruitbus.

Fruitbus (PC)
Developer: Krillbite Studios
Publisher: Krillbite Studios
Released: October 28, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

Conceptually, Fruitbus is fantastic. You play as someone who has inherited their grandmother’s food truck. It’s seen better days, but all it needs are some new wheels, and you’re off into the world. Your job is to convince her old regulars that they need to attend a send-off feast for her.

It’s sweet. In a somewhat morbid but very human detail, Grandma’s remains – that is to say an urn with her ashes – are strapped into the passenger seat. What’s really screwed up about the beginning, however, is that your mother is totally not down with grandma’s send-off. She doesn’t support you running a food truck, so she retreats to her home on the farthest reaches of the archipelago, only showing up occasionally to tell you what a disappointment you are. I’m paraphrasing her here.

In fact, no one is really feeling much gratitude toward Grandma. In order to get them to the feast, you need to fix their petty problems and feed them food that will remind them of what a great chef your grandmother was. These islanders are a bunch of jerks.

The gameplay loop is essentially foraging for ingredients, feeding customers to gain money, and using that money to buy new tools and upgrade the Fruitbus. Along the way, you help the islanders with things like forming a band or fixing a lighthouse.

As I said, it’s a great idea conceptually. It’s underpinned with a charming art style, although, I’m not a fan of the exaggerated stop-motion animations. I can at least respect them. The islands are rather small, but the limited space is well used with small towns and long, open roads. They’re not the most visibly splendiferous, but, hey, that’s fine. There are three islands, and to get to each additional one, you need to repair a radio tower and pay a toll.

Again: run a business, do side quests, unlock new areas, tools, and ingredients. It’s a solid formula. It could work. I’m not sure where to begin when describing where it doesn’t.

The quest design is probably the biggest issue. It’s handled in an immediately familiar way: you drive into town, someone has an icon above their head, you talk to them, and they let you know what they need doing. This goes in a log book, which reveals you’re looking for seven RSVPs, and an unknown number of side guests.

Where I ran into frustration is that these guests are irritating. The Crafter is the worst example of this. When you talk to them, they can’t even think about going to grandma’s funeral until they find their lucky coin. Okay, where should I look? The log book says that they need to have one of Grandma’s smoothie recipes, and that should jog their memory. Mango, banana, lemon. Groovy. I sell it to them, they drink it, they say they don’t feel like they have the courage to attend the farewell feast without their coin. Bitch, where? Give me a damned hint. A general vicinity where you had it last. A quadrant of the island. Just narrow it down a smidge.

Then there’s the chilli [sic] pepper. The critic wants a salad that features a chilli pepper, which isn’t something easy to come by. I correctly assumed I’d find them at the volcano. I climbed to the caldera, and an eruption spat some out. They’d land, sit for a moment, then disappear. No problem, I got about four of them. I didn’t go straight back to the critic. I toured the island first. The inhabitants used up all my peppers. I went back to the volcano, and there were no chilli peppers. No problem, I’d wait for them to respawn. So, I wait, and I wait, and I wait. I figured that this watched pot wasn't going to boil, so I did other things for a while. I come back much, much later, and still nothing. I never saw another chilli pepper.

And I don’t know what is better attributed to bugs, because they happened frequently. The one that really broke me was on the second island. Wheat everywhere, an oven in the shop, a bread pan, we’ll be making bread soon. I had a hard time finding a scythe for the wheat, but it wasn’t too difficult when I stopped to think about it. Fixed the windmill, got a scythe, and gathered wheat. Tried to make flour.

The windmill is anything but intuitive. What I eventually discovered was that you need to stack eight pieces of wheat in one of the openings. The first time I did this, no flour came out. So I checked the input slot and found I could pick up the wheat that it had swallowed. Except there was something weird about this wheat; it’s like it was partially removed from the world, but I was picking up a remnant of it. Since I had no flour, I saved, quit, and went back in. No flour, and now my scythe was gone.

I figured that was where I was done, but I eventually went back. This time, I was able to make flour. I went through the needlessly annoying steps just to learn to make bread, and eventually wound up with a loaf. The first person asking for a sandwich asked for an ingredient I had not yet encountered. No. That’s it.

This may all sound like nitpicking, but these aren’t isolated incidents. I ran into annoyances and bugs throughout, and it’s hard to really demonstrate that without honing in on a few big ones. Problems ranged from small ones that were easy to ignore to bigger ones that would cause me to close the game and come back later, hoping to work around them. It seemed like it was one thing after another, and it left very little time to actually enjoy the things Fruitbus does right. Every time the developer would release a patch, I’d jump back in, but the experience would remain the same.

Making a good food truck game in this style is harder than it looks. Simply being able to create a driveable vehicle that can hold multiple physics objects without everything falling out, disappearing, or breaking, is a feat of strength. Surprisingly, the bus itself is pretty stable. There were quirks, especially when loading a game or moving furniture, but nothing too vexing.

A lot of the issues I outlined and other big stoppages I ran into could be ironed out with time focused to careful playtesting. I think that another couple of months, and Fruitbus would have been closer to where it needs to be. But barring a last-minute stomp on the brakes, this is how it’s launching. I really, really wanted to love Fruitbus, but I can only review how it was served to me.

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

The post Review: Fruitbus appeared first on Destructoid.

I was introduced to Suda51 through Killer7, and was enamored by No More Heroes and its sequel. After that, I feel like things fell into a bit of a lull. He did a lot post-Desperate Struggle, but I mostly remember Shadows of the Damned, Lollipop Chainsaw, and Killer is Dead.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy them; it’s more that I really love Killer7 and No More Heroes. Those games, I just found them to be fine. Enjoyable but not extraordinary. But that was a long time ago. My tastes have matured, I'm more open-minded, and I look at video games in a broader way, so I was looking forward to giving Shadows of the Damned another chance with the Hella Remastered version. Some people really dig it, so maybe I just wasn’t able to appreciate it properly at the time.

Unfortunately, this time it’s no different. Maybe I don’t give my past self enough credit, because another playthrough has not improved my opinion of the game.

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch)
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher: Grasshopper Manufacture
Released: October 31, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

I want to start by saying that Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is not “hella” remastered. It is barely remastered. I’m certain that some things have visually improved, but I don’t think the geometry has been touched. I’d call the textures “cleaned up,” but I’m pretty sure they’re the exact same ones but maybe less compressed. There were moments when it would do close-ups of some objects, and the surface was just smeared and blurry. 

Shadows of the Damned wasn’t a terrible-looking game for 2011, but it wasn’t impressive, either. It wasn’t intended as some sort of technical showcase. But why call it a remaster when it just looks like someone turned the settings up from High to Ultra? It has extra costumes and New Game+. It runs at 4K and 60fps. Some of the visual effects have been improved, but it still looks like Unreal Engine 3 piss. A port is fine, especially for the price. Maybe call it the “Hella Definitive Edition.” But if you want to call it remastered, at least put a rug down.

Anyway, Shadows of the Damned is about a guy and his talking gun descending into Hell to make dick jokes for several hours. Not that there’s a problem with dick jokes. Destructoid was founded on the principles of dick jokes. I just want you to be prepared for what you’re getting into.

Shadows of the Damned plays a bit like Resident Evil 4 if you suck some of the production values out of it. You play as demon hunter Garcia Hotspur as he takes his transforming pistol, Johnson, on a road trip through hell to rescue his girlfriend, Paula, from the Lord of the Underworld, Fleming. The goal is to reach a castle that always looms on the horizon, the Castle of Hassle.

That’s pretty much all there is to the story. You advance level by level and take out some baddies along the way. Much of the narrative meat is actually just backstory. Being a former demon himself, Johnson will explain the workings of the underworld while you occasionally come across books that reveal the pasts of the bosses you face. It’s not the most exciting storytelling, but it works. Its goal seems to be attempting a dark fairytale, but I don’t think that comes across very well.

However, the dialogue between Garcia and Johnson helps elevate it, so long as you can stomach the humor. It is packed with references to sex and genitalia, sometimes through double entendre and other times just overtly. Not all of it hits, and some of it completely missed me, but the duo is charming enough. They may not stop talking about their members and the members of others, but at least guys are able to bond over their dicks.

I wound up enjoying Garcia’s wholesome devotion to Paula. Although she’s heavily sexualized throughout the story, at one point even showing off her tits, Garcia is mostly just concerned with doing right by her. It’s a subtle trait that sometimes gets lost beneath the heaps of dick jokes, but it’s appreciable when it comes up.

When you get into the gameplay of Shadows of the Damned, it winds up being unspectacular. A largely linear affair with a heavy focus on combat without a real hook. A lot of the setpieces revolve around a darkness that will envelop the area, which will damage Garcia if he spends too much time in it, but otherwise, it’s headshots and weak points with a bit of dodging thrown in for good measure.

At least there’s gyro control for aiming. Or there is on the PS5 version, and I assume that’s true for the Switch. It helps in a lot of places, especially when you’re grappling with the Big Boner.

Everything about it is a mixed bag. The graphics are often really mundane and drab, then every so often you get an interesting character design. But then, even the interesting characters are smudged in dirt, which makes it difficult to really appreciate their design. It’s sort of the product of the generation it was released in.

The soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill) is pretty great, but like everything, it kind of gets lost. It doesn’t stand out as much as it should and winds up being easily forgotten. It’s easy to forget that this game was made by some of the industry’s greatest, because it’s just kind of flat.

I’m not the only one who thinks that, and I don’t just mean that by looking at the original run of reviews. The hella original version was published by EA, and if you want a feel for the dysfunction behind the scenes, it’s what gave Suda51 his grudge against former EA CEO, John Riccitiello. Suda hates the guy so much that he named an antagonist in later No More Heroes games after him – Damon Riccitiello. That was his name in Travis Strikes Again. He toned it down in No More Heroes, calling him Damon Ricotello, as if that hides the influence.

Shinji Mikami stated back in a 2012 interview with CVG that he thought Suda51’s “heart was broken” by the constant changes EA requested for Shadows of the Damned. He said it wasn’t the game that they had envisioned by the time it came out. It’s not like they could have fixed it in the Hella Remastered version, because they had to change so much. Instead, Suda took some of the early drafts and made the comic Kurayami Dance with Syuji Takeya.

That’s not to say that Shadows of the Damned couldn’t have appealed even with those circumstances. While I appreciate the creative vision and detest the business end of development, it doesn’t always doom a production. But regardless of it, Shadows of the Damned is rather bland, even with its constant dick-waving. Maybe I’m naive, but I can’t imagine it turning out this way without executive oversight. Obviously, Suda51 is proud enough about the game to consider it worth releasing again, even if it isn’t exactly a gloss-up.

I gave Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered a fair chance to win me over, but I feel the same way I did when I played it back in 2011: underwhelmed. It’s just now, all these years later, I’m a lot better at analyzing its problems and communicating them. It doesn’t help that the remaster is barely a remaster at all. The buddy relationship between Johnson and Garcia as well as Garcia’s devotion to Paula have their charm, and the dick jokes do a lot of heavy lifting. However, it’s difficult to get over just how grey and humdrum the underworld is.

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

The post Review: Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm one of those strange people who enjoys playing betas for games when I get the chance. As a writer here it's in my nature to help people through stuff like guides, and I have an (at times) unhealthy obsession with gaming, so helping a developer make their game better is a nice marriage of the two.

Yet like a lot of people, I also use these betas to help determine whether I'll enjoy the final product. I approach these cautiously as some issues are part of the beta experience, but it's a great way to judge whether the core experience is for me. That was exactly what I did with Wayfinder over a year ago, and I came away not entirely sold on the MMO style since its always online status and my inconsistent WiFi didn't mesh well. Even then, I struggled to see what being an MMO brought to the game. Judging by the initial reception to Early Access, others felt the same.

However, while that's where I'd normally walk away never to touch the game again, Wayfinder is a unique case. Through the course of Early Access, the game has driven itself away from its MMO roots into something more tightly focused, driven by single-player and co-op ambitions over something much larger and more time-consuming. Despite some shortcomings being tough to scrub away, Wayfinder has brought itself up to being something far more worth the asking price. Not only that but a shining example of how some games are simply better without live service being tacked on.

Wayfinder (PC [Reviewed], PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5)
Developer: Airship Syndicate
Publisher: Airship Syndicate (formerly Digital Extremes)
Released: October 21, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

If you're unfamiliar with Wayfinder following its early access makeover (or simply never knew about it), it's a single-player or co-op action RPG where you play as one of eight Wayfinders, characters with unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. While one character is focused on supporting the team with damage reduction and healing, others are focused on damage over time, target debuffing, or raw DPS. As a Wayfinder, your goal is to stop the spread of the Gloom, an interdimensional infection that claims all life it touches, plunging its regions into shadow and chaos.

This isn't the most unique premise, but where Wayfinder stands apart is oddly in how some of its roots are still upheld. It might be in a new genre, but much of its quest structure, dungeon layouts, and boss design are ripped straight out of MMOs. It feels closer to a single-player/co-op MMO than an action RPG honestly, even if that might contradict itself. I've never been into MMOs too extensively (unless you count my obscene amount of hours in Warframe) mainly because of how much pressure you can have in dungeons or raids with other players. At its best, you might have one or two people not pulling their weight, and at worst, someone's spamming in the chat about how you didn't execute the exact button combos that they would've as if you're a different person and not their clone.

Stripping that away while still letting you queue up with random players is a game-changer since it lets you either be a one-man army or squad up and make some new friends. I ran my entire playthrough solo and while some encounters were very challenging, it was always possible with enough effort and careful positioning. I also played on the second-highest difficulty, so perhaps I asked for that.

No matter who you're playing with, the game has a lot for you to sink your teeth into. Leveling all those characters up can take upwards of a hundred hours if you work at it, and there's a lot of side content in case you're itching for more. For build crafters there's more than enough to customize between ability upgrades to enhance the way certain abilities play with each other, talents to provide incremental stat upgrades and new perks, and a whole host of "Echoes" to apply to your gear to give even more stat upgrades. It's a lot to sink your teeth into, but it never feels too overwhelming provided you understand your Wayfinder's strengths and weaknesses well. As one example, I focused my build on Venomess toward Weapon Power and Crit Rating, proceeding to do a ton of damage with each strike while applying endless amounts of poison. She was easily my favorite character of the eight, but I got some good mileage out of both Grendel and Silo as well.

Alongside some great character designs and progression, Wayfinder's dungeons are among some of the best in the business. While they can get tiring after the first dozen runs of a particular layout, these never seem to overstay their welcome as far as main story content goes. Even when you do have to repeat dungeons, there are plenty of ways it freshens things up such as modifiers that change how you approach that dungeon, procedural layouts that are different each time, and events that provide unique puzzles or combat encounters.

Yet despite the strengths of these dungeons, it's the bosses that steal the show. Thanks to its MMO origins, most of Wayfinder's bosses take on unique movesets that you wouldn't always expect to see with a game sporting a narrow focus like this. I don't want to give too many of the surprises away since learning these bosses is part of the fun, but each tends to provide unique challenges that reward careful dodge timing, positioning, and strong DPS. Normally I dread the moment I'm about to enter a boss arena in games, but this care and attention to detail made bosses easily some of my favorite content.

As a cherry on top, the game is presented beautifully. Voice acting is all well done and emotional, the soundtrack gets your blood pumping while offering some enjoyable ambiance for certain dungeons, and each of the regions is crafted beautifully. It's rare to see a game utilize a cartoonish art style and still turn out picturesque, but Wayfinder strikes that balance. Whether it be its dense forests interspliced with ruins, icy frost lands, or lush caves, it's hard not to stop and admire the scenery frequently.

While I could sit here and sing its praises, some of the stains from Wayfinder's MMO origins weren't washed out. Most notably, the plot and writing can best be described as a word salad. Exposition dumps are dropped onto your lap with the frequency of loot drops, while nouns are thrown so fast at you that it's hard to keep track of. Combine this with abandoned plot lines and a story that wanted to end after the second major area (though the third location is very nice), and it isn't the most compellingly crafted. You probably didn't look into Wayfinder expecting a narrative masterpiece, but it doesn't detract from its faults.

Side quests also pale in comparison to the main quests. Many of the quests feel more akin to fetch quests or "go kill 10 of x enemy" type mission design that make them very forgettable. One notable side quest had me go into a dungeon with a specific modifier to collect two objects, then go into a non-modified version of that dungeon to interact with the NPC who gave me the quest. Then it had me do that again, and again, and again. Eventually, I gave up and went back to the main story, especially since I'd grinded out enough XP to be caught up fully anyway. It's easy enough to ignore, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't seen far better elsewhere.

While not as big of an issue, Wayfinder's optimization and polish did cause issues at times too. I only had one crash in 30 hours, but the framerate varies wildly depending on where you are in the world. I had anywhere between 30-120 FPS depending on location and battles, meaning I needed to turn down some settings and limit it to 60 FPS just to get something stable. There were also plenty of bugs, like final boss enemies despawning after I died once or certain objectives not spawning unless I restarted a dungeon fully.

My gripes aside, I'm pleasantly surprised by just how far Wayfinder has come since I first played that beta. From its lukewarm early access launch, the game has transformed into an experience that's well worth your time if you're a fan of the ARPG/MMO genres. It's the sort of game that brings me hope that, even if this isn't the spark, many more developers will see the value in pivoting their live-service ambitions into something more manageable for a small team. As Wayfinder shows, doing so can result in an experience that's not only better for the developers, but better for players too. I also pray for more single-player/co-op games with MMO elements, but I imagine those prayers will be answered rarely if ever. One can dream.

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

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