Disco Elysium is a standout role-playing game, with dark, intelligent and funny writing merged with a skill check system that rewards you for both passing and failing. This results in a text and story heavy RPG that plays like a dense, rewarding, interactive adventure novel. The writing is probably its most notable aspect. There's a lot of it and it's fully voiced and voiced well. It's interesting, surreal and funny whether it's a local enforcer scaring you off or one of your inner psyches individually tracking and sizing the 8 pairs of footsteps at the murder site. It occasionally gets self-indulgent, especially when dealing with political philosophy but this is a small nitpick. The gameplay is special in how well it intertwines with the writing. Skill checks with dice rolls and stat based modifiers drive progression. There are white/repeteable and red/one-off checks and both can be modified by your previous actions and context. The repeatable actions often interact with other quests, characters and the environment and there are interesting outcomes for both successes and failures. Overall this works well and makes it rewarding to fully explore and interact with the game, but it can break down and lead to difficulty progressing. An inventory and unlockable feats/perks round out the other systems. Incredibly this means no combat and none is needed. The game's story is strong, underpinned by its writing. There are several threads running throughout including your murder investigation, local politics and your amnesia and substance abuse. These remain consistently strong but weaken slightly at the very end. Thematically the game is dark and has drugs, sexual violence, extortion, war and economics. The art and soundtrack are both great and fit the context, reinforcing the numerous highs and lows of your character's life and Revachol. Overall, it won't be everyone's taste but for a lot of people it'll be worth trying. And there's nothing out there really like it.
Sunless skies is an exploration and trade driven roguelike set in an intriguing, vibrant, dark and dangerous world. It's key gameplay pillars clash, leaving a game that is less than the sum of its parts. The core gameplay is exploring, travelling and fighting through the world, the sunless skies, with extensive choice driven narrative segments in-between. There are several gameplay loops which you'll repeat constantly. The most common is trade and travelling between routes you've already explored. This can be pretty mind-numbing, especially since you'll need to spend hours travelling back and forth between locations you've already explored. The repetitive travel is broken up by exploring new areas and progressing the various stories that exist in the ports, with the characters you meet, and the world. These bits are enjoyable, especially the narrative segments, but they're relatively brief. This is made worse by much of the story being locked behind items, and the design of the game means there's a fair chance you'll need to take another mindless trip just to go get the items in question and progress the story. The game potentially functions as a roguelike as well, with your future captains inheriting benefits from any dead ones. While this supports replayability and the choices the game offers, you will lose all progress with your current stories, and I think most people will not want to lose this progress, especially considering the slow gameplay. Luckily this is not the default, unlike its predecessor Sunless Seas. The music is atmospheric and the visuals evocative, but not outstanding. Overall if you're looking for a game with a rich world to explore filled with intriguing stories you might enjoy Sunless Skies. As long as you don't mind that most of time you're actually going to be ferrying goods between the same locations, again and again and again.
What Remains of Edith Finch is a story-driven game sharing Edith Finch's journey into her family's mysterious and unfortunate past. The game is split between exploring her family home and interactive vignettes of her family members' passing. These vignettes are the highlight of the game, and the best ones present some of the most creative interactive storytelling seen in games. The story is well-written and interesting, though I found it too ambiguous on certain key plot points, which diluted the potential message and the experience of the game. The main drawback will be how passive and slow paced the game gets in certain points. Further, even the best vignettes are limited in their interactivity and the game will often seem more like an interactive movie. I think with the game's short but sweet length, and the quality of the interactive scenes, this isn't a big issue but it will not be an experience that everyone will enjoy. The visuals and audio are evocative, and well placed to enhance the mood of the various environments you'll experience. The game can be finished in a couple of hours, which I'd take as a positive considering the strength of the story, but it might not be for everyone, especially at full price. Note that the game deals with dark and disturbing themes, including the death of children.
This is a fun platforming and puzzle game, with heaps of atmosphere. The gameplay is generally tight, with good puzzle design. The main drawback is there's occassionally a lot of trial and error, usually by dying, but these moments are usually short. The game's atmosphere is pretty much undeniably great but its story is divisive. The story is mainly told and expressed, through the background, area and events you witness and participate in. There is no clear or strong narrative, leaving much of the story unclear. Some players love this, but I personally found it a let down. I felt there was way too much that was open to interpretation. This game is short and replayability is limited, but it's enjoyable while it lasts. If you enjoy puzzle platformers, dark, atmospheric games, or games with open plots, I think you'll enjoy INSIDE.
This game is stylistic, haunting and full of atmosphere, and it's easy to feel captivated throughout your dangerous journey to escape. Movement and gameplay is mainly platforming and using your character in physics puzzles. This is probably the weakest area of the game. While the controls are OK, movement in 3D is not precise and dying is common while trying to figure out which routes are safe and which are blocked off. This is compounded by an unhelpful save system, which will often make you repeat content needlessly. The stylistic visuals and atmospheric sounds are great, and fit the game well. The game can be finished in a few hours, making it an easy and rewarding experience to go through, without any unnecessary bloat or filler content. If you're concerned about the value of the game try and pick it up whlie it's on sale.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 has racked up accolades, but its gameplay design means it has a mixture of creativity, fun, and stifled, frustrating gameplay all at the same time. - The story is decent. The main plot is solid, but falls apart near the end. The companions are OK, and have an interesting impact for the quests that cross-over with theirs. In other parts of the game they might as well not exist. Sidequests are decent and there's a variety of them. - The tone of the game is inconsistent, but some people enjoy it. The game's content is dark but a lot of the writing and voice work is meant to be funny. I found the voice acting mixed, nearly everyone has an over the top British accent. - The game often offers a lot of freedom, but its inconsistent and often random. There are plenty of choices, more than many similar games offer, but their impact is often not reflected in the story or narratively. - Gameplay offers lots of tactical options and flexibility. The skill system is refreshing and allows lots of change. Unfortunately, many of the fights are set up so that the player starts off at a disadvantage, which is made worse by the game's use of heavy crowd control and an armor system that blocks it. This often leads to metagaming, save scumming, a tedious, heavy reliance on items or losing control of your characters. - There's lots of missing quality of life elements, from manually searching for containers, slow running speeds, inconsistent battle formations, etc. Thankfully mods will help with some of these. - It's a pretty, vibrant game with a soundtrack that meshes well with the content. Overall, I'd recommend getting the game if you're looking for a game with more focus on tactical fights, or if you like games with weird and funky ways of finishing quests. Just don't expect a fully coheisve experience/story or frustration free gaming.
