This is the final entry in the trilogy (the first 2 games being Downfall and The Cat Lady), and it's probably good that the series didn't go any further than this. It isn't bad, exactly, but it's got some problems. The gameplay is just the same as in the previous games, and there's nothing wrong with it at all; the puzzles are all pretty logical and not too difficult to figure out. The problem comes in the actual story and characters. For one thing, the tone is ALL OVER THE PLACE; one minute I'm walking through fields of horrific imagery, right after some really horrible domestic abuse scenes, and the next, I'm watching a silly montage of things in a nursing home for the elderly. Oh sure, you just wore a severed pig's head as a mask, but now let's make a beard of bubbles for this old lady! It kept doing this, too, and since this is based in horror, it was pretty jarring. The characters were a little flat, too; I'm a sucker for a young woman coming of age story, so it should've been an emotional slam dunk, especially for someone who's also been through some horrible things growing up, but this one didn't really resonate with even me that way. Again, it wasn't bad, and I don't regret my time with it - I certainly enjoyed it more than The Cat Lady - but I would've been just fine having stuck with Downfall.
I didn't have much faith in this Point-and-Click Adventure when I'd heard that Steven Spielberg was involved - I've seen Ready Player One; this man doesn't know video games - but it's actually REALLY good. It starts out like that asteroid movie (you know the one), but with a painfully shoehorned in plot twist less than 5 minutes in, it turns into something much more. The world is as beautiful as it is eerie, and an absolute wonder to explore, not to mention that you'll find a central hub area and numerous shortcuts, so it's quick and easy to get around. Most of the puzzles are pretty logical, too, so while you might need a guide, it's more to reign in the massive amount of things you'll be keeping track of than, "What does this lever do? I've been stuck here for 3 hours!" The only real flaw is the dialogue, which is so '90s it hurts. Seriously, I don't mind things that are a product of their time, and there are worse eras than the '90s, but SO MUCH of the writing is filler comprised entirely of "witty" and characters just being insufferable to each other and to the player. Some of the zingers don't land because of this, too; it's from that era where everyone was "trying too hard," so a lot of them are delivered in such a flat tone that they don't really work. There are lots of potential interactions with the characters with very well fleshed out dialogue trees that I just didn't bother with because I hated most of the characters. It's a pretty minor nitpick, though, since the visuals and exploration really do a good job of carrying the game.
Pure action, fully destructible environments, and balls-to-the-wall style make this a hell of a good time. You have various action movie heroes with bro names (you start with RAMBRO) and you shoot your way through terrorists to kill Satan at the end of each stage. You get tons of new characters along the way, and while a bad roll of the dice can really screw you over, since your player character is chosen seemingly at random, restarting is quick. It's frustrating at times - some of that coming down to level design, and some coming down to boss design - but it kept me going just to see what would happen next.
Ever wanted to escape to an abandoned planet with your significant other and just fly around in the grass, pick up some food, and go back to the space ship to cook and cuddle? Well, Haven's probably going to be a new favorite! As a couple, you explore a planet, and as you do, you try to uncover the mysteries that arise. You can cook, purify creatures that were corrupted by a weird pollution, and hang out together, and both battles and events fill your relationship meter. Once that's full, you can get blitzed on space moonshine, and that's how you level up. The combat is fairly simple - almost like a reverse ATB - and my brain is NOT wired for coordinating the attacks together, but it's not a huge focus, so I did just fine without even dropping the difficulty. The gameplay has enough variety to keep things fresh, but still remains pretty simple; the real strength is in the writing. In my opinion, love stories usually suck in games, because the couples usually aren't that interesting. These two hit so close to home that I kept having to stop and check the house for cameras. They have real struggles that they go through together, but they act like a real couple would; they have their affectionate moments, but they disagree and bust on each other and even fight on rare occasion. Relationships aren't this perfect pop song of, "Ooo, Girl/Boy, I Love Your Love's Lovin'", and this gets that very right, but at the end of the day, they love each other enough to face almost anything, and I got WAY too attached to them. Even better, the developer patched in same sex options! You want to be two dudes or two chicks, you can do that, and it changes nothing; the writing and voice acting are still just as good! I played the demo, and even as a straight couple, I loved them, and having this kind of option is just the icing on a lovely cake. It's on the shorter side, but it's just as long as it needs to be.
I really wanted to love this one, but I can really only like it. It's a great island adventure with tons of exploration, and a base of operations filled with people I really grew to care about, especially the titular Dana, who is warm and caring and just adorably weird. The action was excellent (once you figure out how to map the buttons in a sane way) with perfect guarding/dodging to spice things up, and skills no longer take an eternity to master. The plot is balls-to-the-wall crazy, but I think that fits a series that's always been less about story and more about running around, exploding strange monsters with a sword while electric guitars squeal in the background. Speaking of which, this is one of the best soundtracks the series has had in a long time; it does a better job of treading the line of hard rock and coke-fueled J-rock from the most intense anime ever. Unfortunately, it's at least 40 hours longer than it needs to be. You have constant raids on your village, and they are ALWAYS right in the middle of a dungeon; they're scripted, so ANY other time could've been chosen for them to happen. They're a bit like tower defense, but you actually control your characters, and they aren't all that bad, but they're really unnecessary and badly placed. On top of that, you have hunts, which are similar, and night missions, where you get thrown into a different version of an existing dungeon, but with half a dozen miniboss-level baddies chasing you at any given time. The game has some pretty bad pacing issues in the second half, too; I was almost always under the recommended level, sometimes significantly, and I'm not one to run away from fights. At the very least, I didn't have to do absolutely everything to get the best ending, even if that ending did make me want to punch something. Overall, I'm glad to have experienced this game, but it could REALLY use an editor grind down the excess content and meandering plot.
Forget horror; this is what Halloween is all about. Most associate the season with dark, dingy rooms and grotesque creatures (usually zombies), but Costume Quest does something a bit more interesting. Trick-or-Treat is (or at least was) a time when you get to explore your neighborhood at a time you don't usually get to see, and with minimal supervision to boot! You get to be whatever you want and every house gives you free candy; what's not to love? This game does an excellent job of capturing both that experience and the child-like sense of wonder that came with it. The gameplay is simple: you wander around the neighborhood, going door to door for treats. Sometimes, you get tricks, and you'll have to battle monsters. Fights are pretty simple; it's basically just Paper Mario with a big special attack you can perform every 3 turns. You make new costumes to change what kind of warrior you are in battle, and there are other collectibles along the way that provide small benefits. The game is broken up into sections to keep exploration from getting too overwhelming, too. Where the game really shines is in the rest of the presentation. The environments are mostly dark with a beautiful glow, the color of which varies depending on the area, and it PERFECTLY represents what Trick-or-Treat was like. Better yet are the costumes: they look like a typical kids' costume while you're walking around, but every battle begins with an over-the-top transformation into a real robot, knight, or whatever else you're wearing. Attack animations are great, and the special moves are just as over-the-top; my personal favorite is Anthem. The story is cute and imaginative, and even if it isn't a huge focus, it fits in really well. This is the sort of thing you play for the charm and the experience; if that sounds good, then this is absolutely worth a go.
This top-down Action-Adventure stars a turnip who is as adorable as he is awful, and that's part of its charm. You explore a charming world, fighting enemies and solving puzzles. Nothing gets super deep or intricate, which might turn some off, but on the other hand, you never have to stare down every little pixel to find some super obtuse secret. The story does take some interesting turns, though, and the scenery does an interesting job of tying into that. Just lean into it and have some fun!
This Point-and-Click Adventure is... not terrible. I played the demo, and the first case is an absolute scream, but the writing takes a pretty big nose-dive after that. A lot of it is just random pop culture references for no real reason; I counted 3 Simpsons references in a row at one point. It's a bit tiring, but it's broken into cases, things move very quickly, and each case is pretty short, with very little moon logic. I can't really recommend it, but you could do a lot worse.
This installment takes the franchise in a different direction; it's now mostly a mix of Bayonetta, Dark Souls, and Super Metroid. No map, but you can explore the world as you see fit, and obtain new movement abilities to reach new areas. What really killed it for me was the combat; it's fast and fluid, but the controls are surprisingly unresponsive, especially the dash, healing, and transformation. This wouldn't even be a problem, except even little trash mobs can kill you in 4 hits or less; one of those other elements (or even just the camera) NEEDS to work well in a game like this, but it's just broken. Some fiths are easy, some are hard, and most feel like a toss of the dice. I'm being generous with the rating, because some of that might be my fault, because of how I leveled or whatever. I do also enjoy getting all the different weapons and using their special powers. The art is beautiful, though, especially Fury's design. The world is surprisngly colorful; not as pretty as that of its predecessor, but the underwater sections are just stunning. Unfortunately, this is tempered by some shockingly incoherent writing. I could see bits and pieces not connecting with the other games, or even the same game, if you have multiple writers, but there are some pretty major details that got screwed up, and one of the most baffling cutscenes I've ever witnessed; I'm STILL not entirely sure what happened there, and the game never really addresses it, either. Not that the writing in this series is mind-blowing, or why you should be playing it in the first place, but this was noteworthy. Fury's pretty awful, too, but to her credit, she does change and grow over the course of the adventure, even if the writers come right out and say they're throwing up their hands as to how. I wanted to like this a lot more, and it does have some great elements, but it breeds a little resentment what it dragged me through by dangling those carrots.
This takes the original and adds RPG elements and a loot system. On top of that, you play as Death, who is less a big brick that gets into fights, so he is much more lithe and nimble. With that, along with scrambling up walls, leaping between poles, and wall-running, movement just feels GOOD. This gets even more interesting once you start getting differnt tools, which are integrated very well into the level design. It's not without its frustrations, especially with the direction on your dodging while locked on, but overall, the gameplay is excellent, and builds on the first game. The visuals are absolutely stunning; while the first game was mostly a barren post-Apocalyptic wasteland, this game has some very unique and visually striking locales. The starting area (and intro) are fairly generic countryside, for the most part, but once you get past the first map, otherworld beauty just radiates from every location. Some of the weapons are a bit over-designed and silly, but with the fact that you can see every weapon AND ARMOR on your character, I can't complain too much. The soundtrack does a great job at enhancing this, too; it's not something I'd necessarily want to hear out of context, Jesper Kyd does a great job at drawing me right in. Even the voice acting is pretty solid; there's a lot of subtlety to Death's character that is conveyed through the way he speaks. The writing is also a big improvement; it's not quite so GRITTY GRIMDARK AND SUPER SERIOUS. It does play it straight, but doesn't go too hard, so it fits pretty well. The plot is pretty intricately woven, but not so much as to be convoluted. In fact, some of the cutscenes had me cheering later on, for how badass they were. The ending is a bit ambiguous, but the series is meant to be one long narrative, so it's fine.
