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While Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed looks a lot like a typical prop hunt game, it really does a lot of things so well–especially with its Ghostbusters presentation. I’m already a sucker for asymmetrical 4v1 games. Illfonic really knocked it out of the park with this one–too bad for the Epic Game Store exclusivity. When I heard Illfonic was making a 4v1 game based on the Ghostbusters franchise, I was a little skeptical. I mean, how can you capture that Ghostbusters movie feel while also making compelling (and fun) gameplay? It had to have been a balancing act, but I feel like Illfonic has mostly pulled it off, though it does feel a little light on content. Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is a 4v1 asymmetrical multiplayer game where four players take on the role of the Ghostbusters, and one player takes on the role of a ghost haunting one of five locations. As the Ghostbuster you’ll use your gadgets to track, find, and attempt to capture the ghost, destroying its respawn rifts along the way. As the ghost, your job is to haunt the building and scare off patrons. When the building is completely haunted you have a chance to win. But if the ghost loses all of its respawn rifts and is captured, the Ghostbusters win. As the Ghostbusters, your goal is to find the ghost and wrangle it with your proton packs, ultimately capturing it. If you manage to capture the ghost, it can still escape! There are three rifts hidden through each map, and as long as there’s a rift standing, the ghost can respawn. However, respawning also destroys the rift—so if you aggressively hunt the ghost, you can end the level after capturing it three times to close each of its rifts, and a fourth and final time while it’s riftless. As a ghost, your goal is to haunt the building, scare off people, and generally subvert the Ghostbusters’ effort to stop you. While some ghosts can go head-to-head with a Ghostbuster or two (especially the Basher) a full four Ghostbusters can easily tether and trap you. As the ghost, you can break tether, and even break out of a trap as its pulling you in. If you want to be extra annoying, you can even close and steal the trap. Additionally, if the Ghostbusters find one of your rifts you can take the rift and hide it into a different object—making them search for it all over again. You can also cause all sorts of little annoyances that will help slow down the Ghostbusters, like closing and stealing traps, sabotaging Proton Packs, and more. It’s important that the Proton Pack feels good, and I’m impressed with how Illfonic managed to make it actually feel like you’re wrangling a spirit at the end of an energy beam. Throwing traps is an important skill to have, because sometimes a perfectly thrown trap can mean the difference between capturing the ghost and it slipping out of your tether again. You are armed with your trusty PKE meter, too, but I found that tracking the ghost and its rifts with a PKE meter really depends on the type of ghost you’re playing against, because if a ghost doesn’t try to stay hidden it’s pretty easy to find—you just have to look for its trail of slime and other telltale signs of the ghost, like haunted objects. The PKE meter is great for sending out a burst of EM energy, stunning ghosts and destroying haunted objects. Each match of Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is pretty short, with most ending in under 10 minutes, and rarely going over 12. This is the perfect match length because it makes you want to keep jumping in for “just one more round.” It also helps that each map is perfectly sized for hunting: not too big that you run for minutes without action, but not too small that it’s impossible to hide in as the ghost. While there is gear and ghost progression in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, I actually thought it went a little too fast. I was able to unlock most everything the game had in under 12 hours of gameplay. As the Ghostbusters, you unlock cosmetics as your account level goes up, but you unlock better equipment as you use each set of gear. If you want to get a better trap, for instance, you have to have successes in wrangling the ghost into your trap. To unlock different ghosts, you just have to play the game as they unlock every 10 account levels. However, each ghost has three variants, which you unlock through playing as that specific ghost. That goes the same for its cosmetics, which unlock the more you play as any specific ghost. There are five different ghosts you can play as, each with their own stats and ultimates. Some ghosts are better at haunting the building, while others are better at scaring off people—both of which increase the haunt level. Some ghosts can fight the Busters, while with others it is best to always avoid them. While each ghost has their own strengths and weaknesses, none really have a completely unique playstyle. But their differences are enough to make them interesting to both play as, and against. One of the things that really surprised me about Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is how family friendly it manages to be, while also being compelling and fun. Even my friend, who is all about gritty realism and gore, played Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed without a complaint. It’s not exactly a scary game, but visually it borders on Pixar and realism. But ghosts don’t actually kill people—just scare off patrons, or “slime” Ghostbusters, incapacitating them for a while. As you play the game and increase your player level, you’ll unlock new story beats. Yes, that’s right: there’s actually a narrative as you progress and increase in account level. Your progress in the story has no effect on the world or the gameplay, but it does add a nice bit of flavor for the Ghostbuster fans . As much as I love Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed for the week or so I’ve been playing it, I really worry about its longevity. I’ve only played Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed for only about a dozen hours (according to the Epic Game Store’s tracker) and I’ve unlocked almost everything in the game. While I was intentionally trying to level up my account as fast as possible to see everything the game had to offer, I was still able to finish the task surprisingly fast. The one thing that I’m most impressed with Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is just how much it feels like a Ghostbusters product. In fact, everything from its character interactions with the environment to its musical cues. This is a rare game where IP marries with gameplay wonderfully. I’m just worried since it feels a bit light on content for now. However, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is great fun, and manages to even be family friendly. Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed will release on October 18th on PC via the Epic Games Store and on PlayStation 4 and Playstation 5 as well as Xbox Series S|X and Xbox One. An Epic Games Store key was provided to us for this review

Control is something that has been coming up in a lot of discussions about video games. I’m among the minority when I say “it’s just okay.” Control does some things fantastically well–especially in its atmosphere, setting, and lore. But it was just never very fun for me to play. And it’s harder to enjoy even the best story when you’re forced into parts that aren’t very fun. I know I’m in the minority on this, so save your seething hatred and just go play through the fantastically atmospheric Control. Oh, and I’m totally going to play any sequel that comes out, and even Alan Wake II, though I didn’t really like Alan Wake, either. *runs away* Control is a game that enjoyed some early good buzz and review scores—it was probably the most popular video game released in August. When Control was originally announced, the trailer was so cryptic, I didn’t really know what to expect beyond telekinetic powers and striking but trippy visuals. While it is indeed that, Control ends up being something familiar, yet unique. Control is a third person shooter, with a little bit of survival horror thrown in—and while it has heavy Resident Evil and Evil Within vibes, it also has the DNA of developer Remedy’s other games: Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, etc. My point is that Control is comprised of a bunch of ideas you’ve probably seen before, held together by a compelling premise, and its amalgamation of these familiar parts ends up making Control feel pretty unique—mostly. In Control you play as Jesse Faden—a woman looking for her brother who has been held by a secretive government agency called the Federal Bureau of Control. Control takes place entirely inside of a creepy, vast government building with supernatural properties. Hidden in plain sight, smack dab in the middle of New York City, people can’t see it unless they know it’s there. Control has some heavy SCP vibes—a user made wiki of internet “creepy pasta.” Even the formatting for the supernatural item containment files almost exactly match that of the SCP wiki—an obvious homage. There are also heavy X-Files, Fringe and loads of other shadow-agency-story vibes. Despite these homages and other comparisons, Control manages to have its own unique take on things, and interesting lore. There was no shortage of intrigue, from Jesse looking for her brother Dylan, to the bodies of the office workers suspended in the air—victim of some catastrophe that has engulfed the entirety of the Federal Bureau of Control. Control is a third person shooter that leans pretty heavily on the action-shooter part. Jesse, soon upon her arrival, is made the new Director (because of course she would be) of the Federal Bureau of Control after their last director died in an apparent suicide. You get his gun—an “Object of Power” that shifts itself into multiple different firearm types—from shotgun to railgun, the archetypes all exist within Jesse’s new shifty gun. You can also upgrade Jesse’s gun with modifiers that up damage, reduce charge times, etc. Jesse will also pick up several new abilities, thanks to the various altered objects she runs across. These objects are linked to the astral plane, and Jesse can draw power from them, giving her the ability to throw objects telekinetically, levitate, dodge, and seize other enemies. She also has an incredibly impressive melee attack that throws particles in all directions—with chunks of office wall and debris flying constantly. Control’s combat is exceptionally visceral, and satisfying without a hint of gore. Firefights throw debris like confetti into the air, and tear the façade off of walls and pillars as bullets and objects fly. It’s too bad the enemies aren’t as interesting as the fights they take place in. The Federal Bureau of Control has been overrun by a “resonance” called The Hiss. It’s a terrible name, but an interesting, if cliché, concept. The Hiss has taken over the bodies of office workers, security officers, etc. and are hell bent on spreading across our world. Being trapped in The Last House is the only thing stopping them from wiping out humanity. And it gives you lots of opportunities to do combat with them. Most enemy types are soldiers with guns—albeit with cool visual effects. Some enemies share similar telekinetic abilities as Jesse—such as the ability to shield, throw objects, etc. Unfortunately, The Hiss ends up being a series of combat encounters, and never feels like the malevolent force that it is. There are a few boss fights thrown into the mix, but they are too few. Control has had a lot of thought given to its setting. The Last House is certainly an interesting one, and I found myself intrigued by the concept of the setting as much as what was happening inside of it. The whole game takes place within a massive labyrinthine building that breaks physical limitations. It has an impossibly massive interior compared to its exterior—and an interior that is constantly changing, thanks in part to the Hiss, but also as a natural function of the building. What Control does really well is presentation. It has a great atmosphere and premise. Unfortunately, most of what excited me about Control’s story and premise was relegated to window dressing—like the various altered objects, which sit behind glass. You can get some great context to the world and the goings on in the bureau, but that’s all in various bits of information you can pick up while exploring offices, etc. Control manages to have some interesting characters, even if everyone seems a little…off. I had a hard time trusting the people I met, but surprisingly, there is no social deception. They find out you’re their new director, and strangely, accept you with no question. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen actual video used in a video game so extensively, and never this seamlessly. Well, it’s not exactly seamless, but it fits the theme and tone so well, I never once thought it was out of place. This video overlays scenes, and shows off one of my favorite characters, the infectiously happy and curious Dr. Darling—who himself feels like someone directly out of the SCP wiki. For as visually exciting as Control is, it really doesn’t do much with its premise. It’s just a third person shooter with some neat abilities. Its atmosphere and lore elevate it to being a really good single player game, instead of a “just okay” one. The story is great, the powers and the combat are visceral, and fun. Control is a solid single player experience with a decent amount of life after you finish up with the story. Control is available now on the Epic Game Store, Xbox one, and PlayStation 4. This article was originally published on September 14, 2019 at this location.

There was a time when first-person shooters were known as “Doom clones”—a reference to the extremely popular 1993 game that popularized and shaped an entire genre of games, and many others that followed—and there were a ton. Since the 90s, through the 00’s and even today, it’s hard to not think about video games without thinking of the myriad of shooters—Call of Duty, Battlefield, Fortnite, etc. DUSK is an homage to a time before modern shooters, back when you could still find the utterances of “Doom clone,” and before iron sights and cover mechanics were a thing, with speed and twitch reflexes winning the day. DUSK doesn’t just emulate the retro style, it feels like it could easily exist in that era right alongside Quake. In DUSK you play as an unnamed protagonist fighting for his life. In a setting ripped straight from a horror movie, you must fight off robed cultists and chainsaw wielding madmen wearing burlap sacks on their heads. Despite DUSK’s chunky, polygonal style, the horror is translated well. Even though it does feel a little silly, it isn’t entirely ineffective. Though given a stated purpose at the beginning of your journey, your goal is to fight to the heart of the evil and find out what is driving it. DUSK is a dark game, in setting, tone, and visuals. While it might have set off a congressional hearing in the 90’s, these graphics would look cartoonishly silly to most today. Still, it tries as hard as it can for that Gen X, 90’s style edginess that was such a popular look for games of that day. DUSK pulls it off effortlessly, while even managing to throw in some Duke Nukem 3D style humor here and there. DUSK is fast: it eschews cover mechanics for speed. In this way, it emulates a style that existed before cover mechanics—where circle strafing and fast aiming are the only ways to survive. Sometimes, it’s how you just barely survive, as DUSK throws wave after wave of enemies at you. Often, this is done in clever ways—after you find a power-up, or as sort of another trap—not just a mindless wave of enemies. The enemies themselves, while also blocky polygons, actually manage to be interesting. They don’t just beeline towards you; instead, different enemies act differently. Melee enemies will try to flank you, or outright run towards you. Flying enemies will get better vantage points to shoot at you, while ranged enemies on the ground will track you down to get a firing line on you. Enemy projectiles are not instant, so even the bullets can be dodged (with enough space) making every interaction with enemies feel challenging, but never unfair. If you take damage, you definitely know it, and often know where it is coming from. You don’t regenerate health, either. Instead, you rely on pickups for both health and armor (called morale in DUSK) so you always have to be on the lookout for not only ammo to power your killing, but health to keep those bullets flying. My biggest gripe, however, is the lack of notification when you are low on health. The screen does turn slightly red around the corners, but if you are absorbed in a battle you may not know you are close to death unless you are dead. And, in keeping with this old school style, any progress you made since your last save is lost. Save points are NOT automatic, so be sure to hit “quicksave” as often as you can, and manually save if you’re taking any risks. I managed to forget this myself, despite having played games during that era, and quickly relearned a few of my old habits. DUSK throws a few boss encounters at you, but these experiences aren’t that interesting beyond the locations they exist in. Most bosses act like larger enemies, and sometimes are indeed just larger models of enemy types you will encounter later. There could have been some real potential for boss encounters, but instead you just have to fight a few tougher, bullet-sponge enemies. They’re not bad encounters, just not very interesting, either. The weapons in DUSK are exactly what you would expect from a first-person shooter of that era. You have your token melee weapon, pistols, shotguns, etc. The weapons, while fun, don’t feel like they have much oomph to them. But they get the job done, and there is enough variety to usefulness for each weapon that you’ll find yourself using each pretty regularly—depending on the situation. There are also a multitude of pick-ups and power-ups to help cut down the hordes of enemies. Pick-ups allow you to fire faster, survive lava, or even wall climb. There is even a power-up that mimics the “enemies move when you move” gameplay style of Superhot. As fun as that power-up is, though, I found it more annoying than useful. There are also plenty of secrets to find, with some levels having many such secrets to uncover. There are three episodes total to play through, with each episode consisting of about nine levels each. You’ll be fighting through various locations, like farmsteads, secret laboratories, military bases, and ancient ruins on your journey to stop the source of the evil. The level designs in DUSK range from the mundane to the inspired. Some levels are completely forgettable, and others use ideas that I have never even seen before in a first person shooter—old, or new. I don’t want to get into too many specifics, lest I spoil some neat moments, but rarely did I find myself bored with DUSK’s levels. Sometimes it may be a little hard to figure out where to go next (there are no waypoints) but each level is small enough to be run through in about five minutes—shorter if you know where to look. There are plenty of shortcuts and other interesting areas that make DUSK seem perfect for speedrunning. In classic first-person shooter style, most of the time the only thing blocking you from progression through each level is locked doors. Red, yellow, and blue keys are usually scattered about, and finding them is the only to progress. Just hunting for keys isn’t fun, so DUSK likes to throw surprises out to make your trek back to locked doors either more hazardous—or in some cases, outright trippy. Even the options in DUSK help maintain an “authentic” retro experience. You can even change the graphic levels to make it look more authentically retro. I was even able to set it up to look exactly like Quake did on my crappy Pentium 90 that was barely able to run it. Despite these graphic filters, I think DUSK looks great with its low polygon aesthetic. The soundtrack and sounds are all spot-on, too. The soundtrack is appropriately heavy for most of the game, and gets your blood pumping appropriately for the amount of polygonal chunkiness you’re about to unleash. The sounds themselves are also “authentic,” with the perfect balance to make them sound like they were recorded as .WAV files back in the 90s. DUSK fully embraces its retro nature. As with graphics and gameplay, even the multiplayer has a retro feel. With its multiplayer component an obvious homage to Quakeworld, DUSKWORLD is your online portal and your window to fragging other players. Now you don’t have to worry about your mom picking up the phone and killing your internet connection. Despite that, it doesn’t seem like many people are regularly playing DUSK’s multiplayer. I jumped into a match, but with only two other players on that particular server (the most populated I could find) I don’t think there was enough time make an accurate assessment of its capabilities. It looks like a hell of a lot of fun, though! DUSK succeeds where a lot of similar titles have failed. Games like Strafe tried SO HARD to give us that classic 90’s shooter feel, but managed to only get the pixelated look with barely any of the flavor or feel. DUSK feels like a modern version of classic, deserving to sit right alongside Duke 3D or Quake. With little modern quality of life improvements, some gamers may find DUSK a little unpalatable, but it perfectly does what it sets out to: recreate the 90’s shooter look and feel. This article was originally published on 12/18/2018 at this location.

For today’s game I wanted to highlight a hidden gem: Scavenger SV-4. This is a game I’ve never seen discussed anywhere, and I think that’s because it was a little ahead of its time. It wasn’t until games like Dusk popularized the low poly horror genre later that year. It’s a shame, because Scavenger SV-4 is a bit like Iron Lung in its presentation, but it’s IN SPACE, and that automatically makes it 100 times cooler and scarier. The Steam Summer Sale is upon us again. Sometimes, I feel like it’s a bust–every year I buy way too many games, with few ever hooking me. It was mostly the same this year, until I ran across a strange, rogue-lite ship-based sci-fi game. It was released early this year under the unassuming title Scavenger SV-4. Actually, everything about Scavenger SV-4 is a unassuming, making it easy to pass by–I almost did, but despite its unassuming quality, its premise grabbed me. The Steam store page describes Scavenger SV-4 thusly: “Part simulator, part roguelike, it has elements of action, combat, resource management and a dash of horror. It is not quite like any game you have played before.” I remember thinking that last sentence was a pretty bold statement, but I was intrigued. I’m really glad I checked it out. If that sounds intriguing enough for you, I totally recommend picking it up. If you’re not convinced, keep reading, but beware: there are minor spoilers ahead. The premise of Scavenger SV-4 is the same from playthrough to playthrough—you’re a lone explorer who has parked their ship above a radioactive planet in hopes of finding something—but the details are different each time. There are many rogue-lite elements, including permanent death. You start by making a character—choosing their name, and making a few other cosmetic choices for that run. Everything else is decided for you: your character’s motivations, background, and how the planet below is arranged. I don’t want to spoil too many aspects of Scavenger SV-4, since most of the fun I had with it was through discovery, but the crux of the gameplay is this: you send a rover down to the planet to explore, collect artifacts, and then send your rover back up to your ship. The only way you interact with the planet is through the rover’s sensors, cameras, or whatever other modules you install—meaning, the best you usually see is the real-time camera image that often suffers from interference from all of the planet’s radiation. The rover itself is completely self-sustained, and capable of many tasks. It can fly to and from the planet, collect artifacts (with the proper installed module), and is capable of bearing modules that make it capable of all sorts of tasks, including combat. Despite how focused on exploration Scavenger SV-4 is, you will run into some resistance on the planet that will require weaponry. Your rover can sustain damage, as well as the modules it carries. If the modules are damaged they must be repaired—if they can’t be, they are lost. You either have to find an artifact that can serve as a replacement module or you have to do without. If your rover is destroyed, your ability to explore is gone, and that playthrough is essentially over, making it time to start another run. Your base of operations is your spaceship, which starts each mission already in orbit–you won’t actually fly it. The ship never changes in layout or function, but there are different events that require different solutions be implemented on your ship. Again, I don’t want to spoil any of these events, as discovering them for yourself is half the fun, but things can get kind of scary in space sometimes. The ship has systems that can be controlled with various consoles. Sometimes consoles will shut off and require a reboot, which can be done from the engineering section. The airlocks can all be opened, to blow out oxygen (or anything that you might not want on your ship), or you can use the doors to seal off any specific area. The science bay is used to research any artifacts you find to discover potential usefulness, or even lore tidbits. As you’re orbiting a highly radioactive planet, radiation damage to your character is a constant concern. You can stave this off with trips to the med bay, but there’s only so much the automated medical system can do before you start suffering from permanent effects. This means that you have to act relatively fast, as you only have a few hours in orbit in real-time before the radiation becomes too much. The run ends when you decide if you’ve collected enough, or you die. Afterwards, you are given a screen detailing the aftermath of your journey, and your score is tallied. Based on your choices, the aftermath can vary. One non-spoiler example is this: stay in orbit too long, and you may not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of your discoveries. Scavenger SV-4 is a hidden gem. It might not have the most modern graphics, but it is extremely compelling for those who like the idea of exploring a dead planet from orbit. When I first tried it out, I played it for several hours straight—like a good story, I couldn’t put it down until I was done. Scavenger SV-4 is available now on Steam, and will be discounted 20% for the remainder of the Steam Summer Sale, which runs through July 5th. This review was originally published on 07/03/2018 at this location,

Dead Space series creator Glen Schofield’s Callisto Protocol was overshadowed by a remake of his own creation–and there’s a reason for that: Dead Space managed to capture the feeling of sci-fi horror in a way no game did before it. And while the original manages to hold up, the Dead Space remake is pitch perfect and graphically gorgeous. I’m really appreciating this trend of horror game remakes, and Dead Space definitely raises the bar. When Dead Space released earlier this year, I knew I would have to write about it eventually. I was a huge fan of the Dead Space series–and I even tolerated Dead Space 3 more than a lot more than other fans did (I know, I know. I’ve heard it all.) This Dead Space remake was more than just a new coat of paint over old geometry: it was made from the ground up in the style of Capcom’s Resident Evil remakes–and as a result, it’s one of the best sci-fi horror games I’ve ever played. Dead Space is a third person survival horror game. I'm throwing “action” in there because the original Dead Space was made right before the trend of making you run away from monsters that you can’t kill. Instead, it makes its necromorphs difficult to kill, and throws you into desperate situations in an effort to dispatch them. And aiming center mass won’t do it, you have to cut off their limbs–something you are taught not through a tutorial or tooltip, but by blood scrawled across the wall where you retrieve your first weapon. While some games struggle to skirt the line between terror and schlock, Dead Space navigates this hurdle with ease. It also doesn’t just throw terror in your face the entire time -- the developers knew to slow the action down to build the tension back up. There’s also a tendency for the necromorph enemies to show up in areas you have already cleared out, making sure that you’re always on the lookout for potential dangers. Dead Space does an excellent job with its weapon design. The original came right around the time developers stopped getting creative with their guns–and I’m glad that we got some more “engineering” type devices to fight the necromorphs. There are some redundant feelings between the weapons, however, like the Line Gun feeling like a giant Plasma Cutter. And while there is a more traditional firearm with the Assault Rifle, it’s never quite as satisfying as the various engineering tools Isaac wields The stasis ability in Dead Space is also something that sets it apart from other games, and makes the action sequences not only more bearable, but also more dynamic. Introduced as a way to slow down doors and solve other such puzzles, it also has the ability to slow down necromorphs. This makes it an incredibly useful tool against an enemy that moves quickly and has erratic behavior. There’s even a “gravity gun” in Dead Space in the Handheld Graviton Accelerator. This is another item with puzzle solving abilities that also allows its usage in combat. If you’re out of ammo, and if you can find something to hurl at the enemies you’re not helpless. Most of the praise I’m giving Dead Space is for things that the original game did. The remake, however, not only makes some changes–but brings up the graphical fidelity to an impressive level. It’s hard to find a game that looks better than Dead Space. The remake did make some other notable changes, too. For one, Isaac’s face is revealed at the end, something player’s wouldn’t see until Dead Space 2 originally. There’s also the ability to fly in zero gravity in the remake–something that was, again, relegated to the sequel. You’re also spared having to man the defense turrets in a strange sequence that felt completely out of place in the rest of the game. Dead Space is almost a perfect horror game. It walks a fine line between making you feel vulnerable and giving you the ability to fight back. It’s a game that other have tried to emulate–even its original creator–but nothing has topped Dead Space in terms of sci-fi survival horror.

Ok, so this isn't exactly the kind of thing you'd expect to see here. I mean, it's called *Cozy* Grove, not Creepy Grove, right? And you'd be right. But the thing about Halloween is that the fun should be accessible to all, and truth be told, some people don't really like bloody, gorey or even super scary things. But those people may want to still enjoy Halloween in their own way, with trick-or-treating, movies like Nightmare Before Christmas, and something more Goosebumps than Stephen King. That's where Cozy Grove comes in. Are there cute animals and a bunch of small tasks to keep you integrated into your little village full of bears and birds and whatnot? Yes, there are. But are there also fires that demand daily sacrifice, boneyards and ghosts? Well...also yes. Cozy Grove is haunted, adorable, and perfect for a low-key Halloween leadup. It starts off innocently enough. You’re a little scout, heading off to a fun little scouting adventure in a little place called Cozy Grove. I hadn’t heard much about Cozy Grove except that it was supposed to be some sort of Animal Crossing clone type game. I was tentatively excited for my scouting adventures, because, let’s face it, I was full on obsessed with Animal Crossing: New Horizons–not only did it come out at exactly the right time to be the perfect escape, but I’d already had some pretty big attachments to the franchise thanks to my husband introducing me to the series back in the days of the DS. If it’s hard to do a sequel, it’s even harder to ape something so beloved and have people who liked the original thing like a new thing that’s like it. Fortunately, what I heard about Cozy Grove was…not super accurate to say the least. See, Cozy Grove plays a lot like Animal Crossing, but it won’t even take three hours for your tour to go, well…a little dark. If you’re a little scout you’re probably expecting merit badges, arts and crafts, hikes and songs around the campfire. What you might not be expecting is a forest full of ghost bears, who aren’t too keen on your presence, since they were all killed in a big giant forest fire that was the result of the negligence of one of your fellow Spirit Scouts. Shortly after talking to the first bear who’d let me in a little, Charlotte Pine, I had to talk to a strange and, I still assert, somewhat sus campfire named Flamey, who helped me get acquainted with my new life on the island, and helps hook you up with the various residents to meet their needs. Now that you’re here for the long haul thanks to an unmoored boat, you’ll have to help repopulate the island with its ursine residents, and help guide them through their memories to restore them to life and the island back to full glory and color. Help them uncover more of their stories and you’ll in turn get that day’s allotment of Spirit Logs, which keeps Flamey happy, if sort of scary in his insatiableness. You’ll accomplish this through a series of daily quests and tasks that include fishing, collecting, finding hidden objects, cooking and talking to various bears who have some truly strange dispositions and backstories, and day by day piece the story of the island back together, in the hopes of proving yourself as a Spirit Scout and maybe one day getting back home to your parents. Cozy Grove features a lot of the same sorts of mechanics you’ll find in Animal Crossing or even Stardew Valley. You start out with a small plot of land and a tent that you can expand, and a backpack and campsite that offer precious little storage. The various bears will teach you how to craft things, including the tools you’ll need to mine for ore, fish, dig and chop down the big twisty weeds that crop up all over. Eventually, as days go by, you’ll add the ability to bake and even use a dowsing rod to look for relics to unearth. Just like in Animal Crossing, there’s a fashion element, with a giant kitsune fox named Mr. Kit who offers a daily selection of wares including some fun fashion choices for you to peruse and lust after. You’ll earn money selling items you harvest, including fruit from trees, and mushrooms, tubers, radishes and the like from the ground. There’s even a seagullbear who catalogues new discoveries and rewards you for your donations a la Blathers. There’s a few other interesting mechanics at play, though, including one I both love and loathe–the color mechanic. When you first arrive at Cozy Grove, precious little of it is in color. As you work to unlock a bear’s story and help guide it to peace, the story progresses, as indicated with little hearts that fill gradually. Each time you unlock a new story point with one of the bears on the island, they’ll temporarily light up their corner of the world. This does a few things. Most obviously, it adds some contrast and beauty to the land, making it easier to spot things like leaf piles and digging spots, but it also allows you to harvest goods in that area like fruits and nuts. It doesn’t last though, and you’ll need to keep progressing the story daily to keep the color going. There’s also a decoration mechanic at play in Cozy Grove, beginning at your campsite. Every valuable object and creature in Cozy Grove has a list of likes and dislikes, and most have happiness meters to fill up, too. Decor, which can be crafted, gifted or bought, comes in a few varieties, like spooky, cozy or rustic, and can be rare, epic or common. Putting an item a plant or animal doesn’t like near them will reduce their happiness and make their harvest less fruitful, or nonexistent. And though you’ll start decorating at home, as the demand for resources goes up, so will your need to string more and more decor across the island, lighting up areas in full color and ensuring the happiness of trees, flowers, birds and deer all over. My biggest gripe with Cozy Grove, at least in early gameplay, is that it has a pretty harsh ratio of available resources to required resources for quests. I got pretty involved in the character’s backstories early, but having to wait a couple of days to a week to get the resources to make one egg or repair one tool feels overly punishing. It’s something early players have mentioned to the devs and they seem to still be adjusting, but it’s a huge pain point. At current, I’ve got about 3 bears I wish I could unlock more story with that I simply can’t due to a lack of iron ore, eggs or some other such item that can’t be easily gathered in large quantities, even though the recipe for one boiled egg, for example, means collecting a dozen. This can be alleviated somewhat through the shop and wandering salesman, but they aren’t available every day, and I really feel like the resources required still needs a tweak. Meanwhile, the dark undertones keep creeping to the surface, with references to liches and old gods, mysterious “you-should-have-said-something-fish” and drowned mermaid souls you’ll reel in, strange statues and relics and some truly terrifying stories and parcels received via my favorite bear on the island but probably the most troubled, Patrice Furbac, an extremely lovable bear who just wants to deliver mail and hang out with her wife, and keeps getting truly terrifying mail that leaves her in cold sweats, including a parcel full of bloody bear paws. There are terrible things that happened on Cozy Grove island, and after about a week and a half of gameplay, I feel I’ve only scratched the surface. Finally, at least on Nintendo Switch, Cozy Grove doesn’t run very well at all. Not only did I run into save issues, my character would get stuck, and very often when the world would become colorful, it would jitter and sometimes even freeze my game, as it also did when digging or harvesting. What Cozy Grove does best is cross the familiarity and cutesiness of a game like Animal Crossing with a sort of Lovecraftian kind of mystery and a forest of really odd but troubled characters you’ll like and want to help. I love its hand-drawn style, and though its sense of humor is pretty dark, it’s garnered real laughs. As much as I went in thinking I wouldn’t like the game, and as much as I still don’t like the game some days when resources seem scarce and I’m off on a wild goose chase for blue leaves, I found myself determined to keep going, to find out what really happened in Cozy Grove, and hopefully, help Patrice and her friends find real peace. Cozy Grove is cute, fun, slightly disturbing and a little frustrating, but I think it’s a place I’ll visit for a while longer to find out more. Cozy Grove is available April 8th on PC via Steam or the Epic Game Store as well as via Apple Arcade and for Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PlayStation. This review was originally published on April 21, 2021 at this location.

I have a love-hate relationship with roguelike games. If I find a really good one, I’ll forget that I have ever had any issues with the concept. However, when I play a bad one, I curse the fact that the roguelike style game has become so ubiquitous. Days of Doom is a roguelike turn-based post apocalyptic tactical RPG. Your goal is to drive across the wasteland in search of Sanctuary–fighting all sorts of zombies and bandits along the way. There are also random events that allow you to gamble in hopes of finding something useful–and shops where you can buy and sell items, and acquire new heroes. And every single damn thing this game does has been done better. That’s not the bad part. The bad part is that when I think about the best roguelike turn-based post apocalyptic tactical RPGs, Days of Doom wouldn’t even be a consideration. Okay, that might sound a little harsh. Days of Doom is competent. That is–it’s not a bad game. However, it’s not a very good game–and it’s not a game that’s particularly worth your time. I mean, it works on a technical level. I didn’t run into any crashes when I played. But it’s so middling that I find it hard to even write about. The entire world is a cliche, and not presented in a particularly novel way. And the actual gameplay is frustratingly boring. Combat encounters are slow, and while there is a bit of strategy involved in getting through them, I found myself trying to rush through them in hopes of getting to some actually interesting content. There are melee focused characters, and others that can support others–and none of that matters because it’s just not very fun. Days of Doom suffers the most in its gameplay loop. And that’s something that’s broken on such a fundamental level, the developers would have to overhaul battle pacing, the campaign map, and much more to elevate Days of Doom beyond its mediocrity. It doesn’t help that Days of Doom is priced as a AA title, and it’s not even worth half that. It’s so uninspired and by-the-numbers that it’s almost a shame that time was wasted in its production. I know people worked on this game, and they certainly can put together a video game. It starts and everything. If you’re reading this review and think that I don’t know what I’m talking about and that Days of Doom is great: please, share your opinion. If someone can get some joy out of Days of Doom that’s fantastic. But this bitter old reviewer just couldn’t find the fun. A Steam key was provided to us for this review.

What's a month long listicle without a few surprises and deep cuts? Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is a little unassuming. At first glance it's a dating sim/visual novel with anime style. But what lies beneath is a whole lot of horror. And not just jump scares (though there are definitely some moments) We mean existential dread, actually triggering, really, really scary stuff. It's memorable because the dread sticks with you. This game brings the kind of horror that really gets in your head and makes you need to step away from the entire thing for a while. I do recommend it, but with a few caveats, including a CW for suicide, self harm and violence in general. Go into it knowing this is more real life horror and less monsters in the closet and you'll do fine - just give yourself an out if you need to take a mental break. It’s fair to say I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I was offered Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! for review. Despite its popularity when it released back in 2017, I hadn’t really heard a thing about it. I saw part of a trailer during a games presentation earlier this year, and therefore knew that it had some “horror” elements but I expected…I’m not sure. Suffice it to say whatever I expected, it wasn’t Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!. And maybe, just maybe, I’m lucky to have not known, since I get to experience the expanded version with all its new unlockables, side stories and extras packed right in. I love a good narrative, and I enjoy visual novels, so I jumped on in, and well after the end credits rolled, I’m still thinking about it. For better or worse. Different people have all different feelings on trigger warnings, and some folks may even respect them but not tend to take them seriously for themselves. I want to vehemently advise against blowing off the game’s content warnings and to consider carefully, if going forward, enabling the setting in the game that warns you if you are about to see something that won’t sit well. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, as most had figured out long before I did, is not at all for children, despite its sort of kawaii, let’s go on dates and giggle surface. It’s not “Boo!” scary either. It is turn the lights on, hug a pet, check in with yourself psychological horror. And I would not recommend it if you are not feeling okay–even if you’re highly anticipating this expanded release. It’s not about jump scares and it’s not even about scary images. Instead, it gets under your skin. When Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! says it’s disturbing, don’t take it as a challenge. In Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, you’ll play as yourself–or a version of yourself. You sort of enter the story with a predetermined background and personality–which is something I don’t typically like. You’re shoehorned into the world, a slightly curmudgeonly but goodnatured guy who, like many teen boys, is a little bit girl crazy. Not particularly weird, right? Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! starts off in true visual novel fashion, with gameplay consisting of advancing walls of text, making some dialog decisions and writing poems. It is a literature club after all, and…is that what literature clubs do? I don’t know, but for the purposes of this review, let’s say it is. The poems are very important to the gameplay, and where some strategy comes in. You’re there to spend time with a bunch of beautiful girls after all, and you’re going to have to decide who to flirt with. The “poem” you write is actually a mini game in which you select different words to try to appeal to the different personalities of the girls you’re interested in. There’s Yuri, a shy, secretive type who’s eloquent and intellectual, Natsuki, the sort of super cute but tough type, Sayori, your best friend as long as you can remember who dragged you into this ordeal, and Monika, the extremely popular, athletic, beautiful–well, you can probably fill in the rest. Most of the action takes place inside the school where you’re attending literature club, with a few other outside scenes, and most of the action takes place in conversations, in a cheery background with upbeat music accompanying it. Though much of what happens happens in text, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! does a great job with visual and auditory cues and compliments. When tensions rise, the music changes. When you say something a little awkward or weird, you’ll get actual raised eyebrows. When you’re flirting…well, it’s gonna get steamy, potentially. Honestly, the sort of romantic visual novel thing never really appealed to me, oftentimes because it made me uncomfortable. I knew I was supposed to be flirting and trying to attract someone but it didn’t feel good or right. Surprisingly, though your character says and does some questionable things, there’s a lot of surprisingly good insights they make, and just in general, at least at first, it seems that there’s a lot more to everyone than meets the eye, and that though these four are different people, they really aim to understand and accept each other. At first. Another thing that Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is so good at is nuance. Each little element is there for a reason. This is the beginning of the genius, I think, of the game. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is fantastically, deliciously, insidiously subtle. Things shift, but not seismically. People say things that seem a little weird, something in the background is odd, or there’s a quick flash of something just at the edges. Characters sometimes break the fourth wall, and sometimes speak in what seem like nonsequiturs–but not so much that the game becomes absurd or over the top. Pacing is fantastic, and you won’t be able to dwell on minutiae for long. There are lots of decisions to be made, after all, and second-guessed, since it’s never 100 percent clear if you’re doing the right thing or not. That’s the case in almost every narrative game I’ve played recently, but it’s glaring here. No matter what you think you’re doing right, the next moment will have you questioning it all. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is, put most simply, a mindfuck. It has you on your toes, it lulls you into a false sense of safety, it tears you out of that, then it completely changes again. I don’t want to spoil the story at all, so all I can say is, you won’t see it coming. No matter what. Time and time again Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! subverts expectations. To me, that’s one of the signs of great art, and something that’s hard earned. No matter what the genre–comedy, romance, horror, etc…we all feel like we’ve seen it all. Not only have we seen it all, but we’ve seen it all flipped on its head, and we’ve seen those big twists coming a mile away, too. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is one of the very few games, movies, books…that really, really keeps you guessing. No matter what I thought would happen next, no matter how much i thought I’d outsmarted the narrative, it kept surprising me. And scaring me. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is some of the best horror I’ve encountered in film, literature or games period. I was unsettled almost immediately, but before long, turning the lights on and mocking myself for doing it. It’s slow burn horror, too, not achieved with cheap jump scares or gore, and not at all predictable in its timing. It’s more a feeling that something’s wrong, or that underlying feeling of being ill-at-ease than it is a hiding under your desk feeling, and it keeps you staring into the face of it because you can’t look away. It’s a horror that creeps, and gets inside you, and makes you wonder why you won’t just put the game down and walk away sometimes. Surprisingly, though too, it can be affirming, and almost therapeutic. There were some times that Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! legitimately horrified me, and at least one or two times where it also made me shed some tears out of a legitimate feeling of release. I’m not sure I even wanted to like Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, but I ended up loving it, despite having realized after finishing it up for this review it may not have been the best time for me to play it. Even so, I persisted, and found myself trolling the game for unlockables and different endings well beyond what I had to for the review. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! has the subtle hand of a master chef in Dan Salvato. It messes with everything, but not at random and not maliciously. It doesn’t come in mocking the genre, nor does it become masturbatory to it. It’s intentional and careful not to be insensitive at the same time. It gets into your head, in a way that’s interesting and unsettling, and leaves you wanting more. And though I still stress paying heed to the warnings, I also heartily recommend this to anyone looking for something interesting, unsettling and different. Whether you’re a fan of it from back in 2017 or not, you’ll find lots to love in this iteration. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! features extra cutscenes, a 13 track soundtrack, a ton of unlockable images and even some behind the scenes things that can provide even more insight into the game’s creation, and makes this release well worth the price of admission. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! releases today on PC via the Epic Games Store and Steam and for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4|5 and Xbox Series S|X. This review was originally published on June 30, 2021 at this location.

Sons of the Forest is still in Early Access, but it’s shaping up to be an exciting game. I refused to let myself play much more than the first hour or so in, to save myself from spoilers. However, I’m itching for a new open world survival game with a compelling narrative, and Sons of the Forest looks really appealing about now. Despite its jankiness, I have some fond memories of The Forest. My summer of 2018 was filled with laughter and cries for “more bones for the bone basket” as my friends and I fought off legions of cannibalistic mutants. Those were heady days—literally filled with so many severed heads. Sons of the Forest seems to be more of the same, full of familiar terrors, but with a surprising amount of polish for an Early Access title. Sons of the Forest is a first person open world survival game with horror elements developed by indie studio Endnight. You play as an agent sent to find a billionaire on a remote island full of cannibalistic tribes and mutant terrors. Things go wrong right from the onset as your helicopter crashes, leaving only yourself and Kelvin to survive—unless you’re accompanied by friends in multiplayer. Kelvin represents one of the new changes in Sons of the Forest—companions that can help you gather materials and build structures. They won’t help you fight however. While Sons of the Forest is an open world game that tracks stats like hunger, thirst, etc, it's also a game with an underlying story. As you look for the missing billionaire and his family, you'll run into roadblocks, and you'll need to search for items to overcome them. To do that, you'll need to get into the bowels of the island -- into its deep dark caves, where all the most horrible creatures dwell, and where the island keeps its most compelling mysteries. Since you’re not looking for your son this time around, as you were in The Forest, you might not feel as guilty frolicking around with Virginia, or taking your time building the biggest and coolest base you and your friends can manage. Base building works similarly to how it did in The Forest, with a guidebook acting as a building catalog of sorts. You choose what you want to build, place an outline of the structure, and you and your companions can bring materials to complete it. Combat in Sons of the Forest is probably its weakest feature right now. While there are a whole bunch of horrific creatures to fight, using melee weapons feels weightless. Enemy AI can be interesting, however, with some enemies advancing to harass you with rocks while others sneak up behind. It would be great if there were hotkeys you can assign to weapons, but right now we’re stuck with its cool, but unwieldy inventory system. Sons of the Forest has released into Early Access, which will last from six to eight months—an optimistic estimate, since its predecessor took around four years to finish development. However, Sons of the Forest is at a high level of polish already. According to its Early Access info box on its Steam Store page, developer Endnight plan on adding more to do, discover, and build while keeping community feedback in mind. With over 2 million copies already sold, Sons of the Forest hardly needs my recommendation. I’m just excited to see how it looks when it finishes its development. I do hope that Endnight tweaks the combat system a bit, however. While it isn’t perfect, Sons of the Forest is definitely fun solo, or with up to seven friends. This review was originally published on February 27, 2023 at this location.

This game has been beset by problems since release. Mired by bad reviews, most gamers just wrote it off as a generic zombie game. While Days Gone certainly looked generic on its cover, it ended up being a pretty good game that was just as much about people as it was about surviving against zombies. It really does take a few hours before it becomes fun, though–and that’s a front load of commitment that not a lot of people want to endure. However, if you do, you’re treated to a zombie game with an excited horde mechanic and a story that managed to be compelling. Bummer we won’t get a sequel. Very minor story spoilers follow: When I first saw the announcement for Days Gone at last year’s E3, I immediately thought, “why do we need this game?” I mean, it’s an open world zombie game—and that’s been done to death—and it didn’t even look particularly original. But after spending a lot of time with Days Gone, I started to realize that I was enjoying myself. My first impressions weren’t great, but by the end, and despite its occasional misstep and glitch, I was trying to experience everything I could in Days Gone—and I realized it’s a pretty damn good open world zombie game, even despite my initial reservations. Days Gone is an open world, third person zombie game that takes its inspiration from almost every open world game, zombie game, and every other game I can think of. There are even slight survival elements—though you don’t have to eat or drink. Even your relationship with your motorcycle and reliance on it, while unique, turns Days Gone into a sort of zombified Red Dead Redemption 2. The biggest thing I have to be up front about with Days Gone is the time commitment involved to get to the “good stuff.” I played for about 10-20 hours before I really got into Days Gone. I initially hated everything about it: the characters, the motorcycle controls, the generic zombie “freakers,” etc. I think the only initial redemption was the inherently fun gunplay, and compelling open world. The characters I ran into were all your typical post-apocalyptic “only the assholes survived” type jerks, or religious nuts. Ho-hum. And that isn’t to mention the clichés in the gameplay mechanics. But all of these elements ended up coming together in a way that’s actually pretty fun, and interesting. Just like in almost every other post-apocalyptic zombie story, the humans are the real antagonists, while the zombies (freakers, in this case) are a force of nature—a constant background threat, and occasional obstacle. But the freakers in Days Gone turn out to be one of the best, open world implementation of “zombies” I’ve encountered in a video game. The freaker variations are generic (big strong one, fast one, small ones) making the most common freaker you run into the threat. Noise attracts them, and it’s hard to fight more than one or two at once early on. The large, roaming hordes of freakers are a constant (and sometimes sudden) threat, and one that could mean death if you can’t get to your motorcycle fast enough. Your motorcycle is one of the main characters, and your constant companion through your adventure. You’ll be upgrading it, refueling it (quite a lot before upgrades), and repairing it. If you get knocked off of your bike, there’s the real chance of becoming swarmed. With the constant threat of human ambushers setting traps (like wires across the road) getting knocked off of your bike will happen. Weaponry in Days Gone is handled a little like games like The Division or Destiny—just without the gear score. You can have a sidearm, a main weapon, and a “special weapon”—usually a heavy machine gun or sniper rifle. The open world in Days Gone is compelling, and it feels worthwhile to explore. Its representation of post-apocalyptic Oregon wilderness is a pretty setting to ride through. The open world takes cues from the Ubisoft-style of open world—with outposts to capture (called “ambush camps” most of the time) and lots of other things to explore and find. There are several main camps, all of which have their own characters, vendors, and currency. I can’t remember the last time I’ve played a game where the currency isn’t shared between different factions. It’s an interesting touch that requires some thought, but ended up not changing the gameplay in any significant way. Endearing yourself with these camps will give you access to better motorcycle upgrades, as well as better weapons, etc. There are three tiers of trust with each camp, but trust tier 3 is something you won’t really have access to until near the end of the game. You can turn in freaker ears for bounty—money and reputation—but without the firepower you have access to in later games, this would be a long grind. Sam Witwer (from Force Unleashed) plays Deacon St. John, the rough and mumble biker protagonist that always has something to say—even mumbling to himself constantly while he’s alone. He rides motorcycles, didn’t care for the law much before the outbreak, and cared about nothing more than his bike and his “old lady.” He’s certainly a “badass with a heart of gold” type that is just another cliché in an ocean of them. But, it works. And let me just say: what a fucking name. Deacon St. John sounds simultaneously like a religious figure or a professional wrestler. Or even a place? I don’t know. He hails from Farewell, Oregon and was (is) part of the Mongrels Motorcycle Club. His best friend is a buff dude named Boozer and he mourns the loss of his “old lady” when the outbreak first happened. The story is actually good. It REALLY doesn’t seem good at first, and with the way it is first introduced, it seems like a version of Last of Us with bikers and a more convoluted storyline. Deacons St. John’s wife is injured during the initial freaker outbreak. Knowing his wife would die from her wounds, St. John sends her away on a helicopter, which lands at a rescue station that is almost immediately overrun. St. John spends the next two years mourning his wife, only to discover that her fate wasn’t quite what it seemed—and he navigates the politics of post apocalyptic camp life while following the clues that will uncover the fate of his wife. It’s a story that’s full of interesting characters, with twists that kept me hooked the whole way through. The story essentially feels like three pretty good seasons of a zombie TV show. The first season is an introduction to the world, the freakers, and the camps you help. The second season introduces the “Lost Lake” camp, which propels the story forward by introducing characters that will be recurring throughout the game. And the third season changes the formula up in significant ways, which I don’t want to spoil those who might take the 20+ hours (or more) to get there. And that’s the thing. I mentioned it earlier, but Days Gone really takes a HUGE time commitment before it even starts to get good. Despite all of the moral quandaries the game presents, you don’t really get any choices in the matter. The narration is on-rails, despite its open world nature. While the freakers are pretty generic, the lore built up around them is intriguing. They’re not undead–rather, they’re people affected by some sort of virus. They talk about how the virus is transmitted—something about young people and old people being more susceptible—but a lot of that is told in background narration. Still, they’re an interesting force of nature, if not a little inconsistent. The freakers build nests made of excrement and sticks, and they cram themselves together in these small spaces. But they come out at night or during inclement weather, so what are the nests even for? They sure are fun to burn out, though. The freakers move in hordes, and one of my favorite late-game activities was hunting down every horde and eliminating them. Some hordes only have a few dozen freakers in them, but other, larger hordes remind me of something out of World War Z. In fact, the in-lore recordings have people describing the hordes climbing over each other and tearing people apart, much like World War Z style zombies, even though that actually doesn’t happen in-game. In fact, if you are overrun by a horde of freakers, or you pull a bunch of freakers into an enemy’s camp (one of my favorite things to do) no one gets torn apart at all. I mean, I’m not one for gruesome violence for its own sake, but there are so many references to people getting torn apart by hordes, just watching them knock people down to death was disappointing. Despite this, the roaming hordes of Days Gone were one of my absolute favorite parts of the game. These hordes also gave the open world a significant feeling of danger when they exist—and it feels a lot safer when they’re gone. While not perfect, and even occasionally bad, Days Gone is worth checking out. While it takes a significant time commitment to get to the good parts, those good parts are pretty damn compelling. I enjoyed the story, and actually find myself wanting to know what happens next—especially after a crazy twist that’s revealed once the main story is concluded. I really didn’t think it would be something I needed in my life, but now just find myself wanting more Days Gone. Days Gone is available now on PlayStation 4. This review was originally published on 05/16/2019 at this location.

The Evil Within series is a bit obscure these days. Directed by Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Evil Within is a difficult and gritty survival horror game. Evil Within 2 is a competent follow-up that is much more polished than its predecessor–but somehow loses some of its charm. However, Evil Within 2 is a fantastic survival horror game and one of my favorites of 2017. Tango Gameworks’ Evil Within released in 2014 to mixed reception. Uneven framerate, a strangely disjointed story, and unyielding difficulty overshadowed a gritty, nightmarish game that is, I think, worthy of cult status. Unfortunately, deep discounts within months of its release and bad word-of-mouth has kept Evil Within from widespread popularity. Evil Within 2 goes out of its way to undo some of the transgressions of its predecessor and it turns out to be a solid survival horror game. Immediately apparent is Evil Within 2’s smooth, even framerate and much improved controls. There are vast improvements in almost every aspect. The skill point system is much more streamlined, as is weapon upgrades. The story is also an improvement over its predecessor. Evil Within reveled in placing you in nightmare world situations with little connection to each other. Evil Within 2 has a much more cohesive story and setting. Protagonist Detective Sebastian Castellanos has been troubled for the three years following his ordeal in the alternate reality simulation called STEM. The nightmare of the first game was just a simulation – but with deadly real-world consequences. The evil Mobius corporation has set up another artificial reality STEM system and things have gone wrong again. Sebastian’s former partner and Mobius sleeper agent Juli Kidman convinces Sebastian that he must reenter STEM to save his daughter, who he previously thought perished in a fire. It turns out she was actually kidnapped by Mobius and is the core of their newest STEM system. Sebastian is sent in after other attempts fail, and inside he finds another hellish nightmare, now centered on a town called Union. The story itself is improbable and, frankly, insane, but it has its charm and it is more self-aware than the original even managing to inject some humor into the whole ordeal. There are good chunks of Evil Within 2 that are set in large open environments that allow you to explore at will. There are secrets to be found, along with side quests and valuable healing items and ammo. While not quite as ammo restrictive as Evil Within, you must still conserve munitions if you want to survive. Stealth and avoidance are sometimes the best options, but the ability to craft ammunition for all weapons makes the guns-blazing approach viable for those who find the ammo to do it. The open world nature of the town of Union allows Sebastian to completely avoid some conflict by finding alternate paths. There are safe houses and NPCs scattered around the world that not only progress the story, but add incentive to look around this hostile environment. Evil Within 2 is a polished game, but it just doesn’t seem as scary as its predecessor. Evil Within reveled in low ammunition and helplessness, and while Evil Within 2 makes attempts at it, it never quite captures the grindhouse horror feel of the original. There are difficulty settings that allow the experience to more mirror the original as the default setting feels softball in comparison – but that isn’t to say it’s still a walk in the park. Even with the ability to craft ammo, it is still scarce and there are many interesting and grotesque new horrors to be found. Ironically, I found Evil Within 2 the scariest when it called back to the original. Also missing were the difficult and intense boss fights of the original. There were some great set-piece bosses in Evil Within 2, but I just wanted more of them. Evil Within 2 offers massive quality of life improvements, but it loses a tiny bit of its charm and grittiness in the transition. A great survival horror game with a compelling but banana-pants insane story that manages to make its predecessor better in the process, Evil Within 2 is full of genuinely good horror game moments even if it isn’t always that scary. If you want a horror game this Halloween, this is one to pick up. Evil Within 2 is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows. This review was originally published on 10/18/2017 at this location.

Made in the image of Build Engine classics like Blood, Cultic is a “Boomer Shooter” that pits you against an evil cult. Luckily, you have access to a whole lot of guns accompanied by some extremely satisfying gunplay. If you’ve played through it before, there’s been free DLC released in the form of an “interlude” map that bridges the gap between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. It’s too bad Chapter 2 is going to be paid DLC. Oh well. You can always get your frustrations out by blowing up cultists! I don’t mind the rise of retro shooters, or “boomer shooter” to those who insist on using that term. While I don’t like to call them “boomer shooters” I definitely appreciate the rise in these old school inspired games. I spent many hours of my youth fighting sprite-based demons through pixelated corridors. While some retro style shooters really missed their target, others like Dusk raise the bar. Cultic, while not the best I’ve played, definitely feels like an old school shooter. Cultic is a first person shooter that is inspired by Build Engine shooters like Blood. In fact, Cultic almost feels like a Blood knockoff, or even a spiritual successor in a way. Cultic has an emphasis on horror, and that means mowing down legions of cultists (how appropriate) and the demons they cavort with. You don’t have much choice, however: you rise from the dead into this nightmare, and it’s up to you to mow down legions of cultists to find its cause—and stop it. If you’ve played any Build Engine games, Cultic will feel familiar—yet a little off. That’s because Cultic is styled like an older game, but has the bells and whistles you would expect in a modern experience, including dynamic lighting, physics, and a fully 3D worlds. The enemies, however, are sprite-based—and boy, they’re ugly. I don’t mean ugly as in horrific, but rather, ugly as in muddy sprites with a pixelated distortion. I don’t know why retro shooters insist on making their graphics so muddy—perhaps it’s to emulate CRT monitors and low resolutions or video cards with limited color palettes—but the result is something that manages to be a little uglier than actual retro first person shooters. Since Cultic is a shooter, it’s important that the shooting part actually feels fun—which it does. Weapons have the appropriate heft and oomph when fired. Enemies lose their heads or explode spectacularly into piles of gore if blown up, or shrivel into husks when set on fire. There is also a decent variety of weapons available, ranging from the usual shooter fare to the more exotic. I really appreciate the variety of enemies in Cultic. A lot of retro inspired shooters just have waves of enemies that walk to you, but Cultic has enemies that behave in more interesting ways. Human enemies will hang back and shoot you and take cover while inhuman enemies tend to be more feral, and will attack you. There are certain other enemy types that will try to remain hidden and harass you from a distance—or even telekinetically, by throwing objects at you while they’re out of line of sight. Some Build Engine games were known for their large levels, and Cultic has seemed to take this information sincerely. Each level is pretty big, in fact, I found them to be a tad too large. I often found myself backtracking to find where I needed to go next. Now, backtracking isn’t automatically bad, but with such huge maps it’s no fun. But Cultic’s levels manage to be atmospheric, and they incorporate some genuinely spooky moments. Cultic is a decent retro shooter that pays homage to classics like Blood: and it does a pretty good job. I wish the enemy art was a little more interesting, and there was less of a “retro” filter over the whole thing. But the gunplay is great, and the level design is well done—despite the levels being on the larger side. If you like old school build engine games, especially games like Blood, you’ll find something to like with Cultic. Cultic will be available tomorrow for PC via Steam. A Steam key was provided to us for this review. This review was originally published on 10/13/2022 at this location.