If you've enjoyed Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, then this game is for you. The great tactical combat with dark-ish ambience and intriguing story returns. The characters are interesting and varied, but I believe the relationships felt very opposite of "show-not-tell", and maybe a bit rushed. (And it's also disappointing being limited to only 3 people per party, so some characters won't even get any use out of them...) There's a lot of environmental storytelling, but sadly you're not able to look at things more closely. There's also some (optional) puzzles. The combat is where the story shines, with its emphasis on positioning, usable items, special powers & character abilities, explosive barrels, and the 4 weapon types (assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and bouncing discs). The stealth options are very limited, but if approached correctly, you may reduce most enemy numbers before the real combat even starts. But with Unreal Engine being used, expect great drops / variations in performance. Also the lighting felt a bit off to me at moments. All in all a great tactical story game I recommend trying out.
Gamedec presents a cyberpunk setting with appealing visuals and a fitting soundtrack. It's a bit meta with you playing a detective that enters games to solve their cases. There are many important (and less important) choices to be made - which may affect how/whether you solve a case (but mostly don't affect the ending itself). Levelling-up your abilities is dependent on your attitude towards the characters - and they directly affect the options one gets in the dialogues - which is to say that attempting to acquire all the abilities will make you feel like a psycho. (Technically there is also an "optimal" starting ability.) Story itself is intriguing, with a bittersweet ending at best (as is a standard for cyberpunk settings). It may have felt like there was still quite some room to expand into nearing the end, but I did enjoy the 30h I spent playing the game.
This game does the "you're the monster" trope correctly. It's reminiscent of that one Aliens game where you may play the research subject that uses all their abilities to escape. As mentioned, you need to use stealth, and all your abilities - which you collect/evolve over time - to escape a facility filled with researchers and armed guards, and enter the wide world. Kinda plays like a metroidvania. Sadly there is no map, but the game is linear enough (unless you wish to collect all the ability enhancements.) Puzzles are not really difficult (except maybe one or two.) Short and sweet. I had a lot of fun with this role reversal, so it's an easy recommendation.
It's an interesting story-heavy game that's a bit different from the well-known Telltale formula - mostly that your choices not only affect people but also shape their way going forward (and you can collect gifts whilst walking around which you can then gift to companions for expanded dialogue options). Speaking of, the game introduces a colourful cast of characters - which are (with their relationships) the core of the game. You get to play a protagonist that starts of as an abusive person (mostly because their word powers are about enhancing negative feelings) but you get plenty of chance to improve on that (even though most options allow you to be mean). The most fun part is that often being quiet (or at least wait) is the better choice (though there are cases where you're forced to use powers). Some dialogues are a bit cringey, but most of the interactions are well produced. If only spoken and written text were not so unmatched, and that there were less cutoffs... The visual direction is great, and the story is also saved/recapped in a comic form, interestingly enough (though some decisions didn't seem to reflect correctly - which did bother me greatly.) Also the word power names might be a bit... on the nose? The combat, while being intuitive with its use of word powers and combos, feels unresponsive and somehow unsatisfying. And all the character quips are terrible, not gonna lie (especially when they get interrupted and restarted constantly.) Now for the other main actor here - the music gameplay. The rhythm-game mechanics are really well made with a nice design and positioning. The songwriting part is also a cool touch. I just wish that there were music/band differences with more members on the team (and maybe more songs). I mostly enjoyed the basslines - at least of the latter few songs (but don't ask me about lyrics because my brain just decides to muddle them with the music.) All-in-all a good game that could've been great were it properly cooked.
