Kay returns to her hometown in North Louisiana, her mother passed away, and her brother has disappeared. She is followed by a robot Millions. In her search for her brother she will unveil dark family secrets, the secret history of the town and will come into contact with weird and fleshed out characters and events. It's reassuring to see that the narrative is strong, implementing themes of depression, slavery, nature vs nurture, and by implementing some real life locations and local history, with near future dystopia, you have a story line that will stay with you, after the end credits go dark. What works well within the game? Art style, they brought in over 30 artists, and these pixels and the locations and characters are lively, and you will sometimes loose yourself just glaring at them for minutes. Narrative is quite lush, the characters are well written, the dialogues have gravitas to the words, and the descriptions of the places come from some great post modernistic novel. (Pynchon comes to mind, or even Philip K. Dick) Although the gameplay seems standard to your point and click adventures, you have the inventory, combining items, speaking to various characters, the world building did it for me. Various swamps, gas stations, convenience stores, and factories and streets, give us a vivid world which isn't that far from the real one. It might be too text heavy, but they have done something similar to Disco Elysium solution and how it can be more pleasant to the eyes. And they even added option for the dyslexic, which is a nice touch. OST does help a lot to set the dreary mood, a mixture of ambient electronic music and metal band Thou give a harsh metallic sludge contrast. It all feels so domestic, even though I haven't been to Louisiana before. But I can feel it in this game. If you are looking for a unique sensation, wonderful art style and clever storyline, then you will be in for a treat.
Blacksad is a comic book created by Juan Diaz Canales screenwriter and the artist Juanjo Guardnido, and they have been releasing it for Dargaud for quite some time. Since the comic book has quite good setup of noir mysteries in the anthropomorphic animal based world, similar to ours, and quite specific art style with vivid expressions and world building. It was interesting to see how it would translate into a video game adaptation. Pendulo studios are no strangers to point and click games, their Runaway titles were humoristic and serviceable, but Blacksad is a different beast. I didn't like that the controls were tank like on mouse and keyboard, if you have a joystick it is a much better experience. They simplified it to be as basic and barren it can be. Although it has some interesting mechanics, Blacksad has a feature where he uses his senses of smell, eyesight and sound to find more clues, and there is a something akin a thought cabinet where you can combine the clues that you found to get resolution for the case. The animation can be quite janky and uncanny valley, basically couple of characters have great animation for their expressions, while the rest look like dolls. (especially female characters) I deem that the animation style doesn't serve justice to the comic, it could have been much better, but I do think that the studio loved the original material, they even worked on a story with the creators. And the storyline and the mystery are very good, there are twists and turns and this is the driving force to finish the game. Also the game is badly optimized, you will constantly see the loading sign, you go into a new place, loading, conversation over - loading, it's weird to see something like that in a game that came out in 2019. There were some bugs, game crashing when the senses menu is open and not being able to get out of it. I would suggest that you buy it when it's on a sale. Hopefully the team will work on new Blacksad titles, and improve.
First thing that you are going to like in this game is the gaming mechanics. Your character has several ways to traverse the rocky cliffs, and hidden temples, by changing the land with his laser (slicing and dicing!) and using rockets to propel and move things out of the way if they are to heavy for him. Cell shaded animation is quirky and has a specific style if you are into indie darlings. The world is also bountiful with lore which can be found in details on the walls, caves, said temple. But don't expect no J.R.R. Tolkien. As for the animation It has a nice throwback to Adult Swim animation and early Cartoon Network stuff. Soundtrack is weird and zany, and it does help extended the game play by changing the tunes on the radio. They are the lifeblood of the game and give you juice to go through. As for the story, it's quite simple a kid could make it up playing with their toys, by the end I wasn't amused by it and I really didn't care how would it end, but how far will they go with the puzzles and solving your way throughout hazardous situations. Also this is a collectable game, but I didn't put too much of a efforts since I didn't feel that it would be rewarding to complete it hundred 100%. You also have challenge rooms which vary with quality. Get it while it's on a sale, the game is hardly long 5 hours, probably can even be finished in a less time frame.
You are a guy which has a bad deal of cards one night, and the Dire-Wolf (voiced by Sting) curses you to walk through America and to gather stories for him, and spread them through the continent. On paper this sounds awesome, but the execution of it, is quite bad. The stories are accessed by clicking on locations and then later implementing the stories in discussion with certain characters which you need to get to like them. The more you talk about them the stronger and weirder or tamer they get. The said characters you encounter are also parts of the American heritage through they years, so their voice work and stories are interesting. After some time you will find out that the game play is empty, you are basically walking, and changing the stories from time to time when they are over used. There is a speed button, but I have to tell you this is a bad design choice, hold CTRL, then you start whistling and clicking the notes, but in this way you get robbed of hearing the most positive thing from the game it's OST! There is also a way to travel by trains, it can cost you money or health or by hitchhiking which doesn't cost you anything. They imputed a lot of care in each song, which are really done with great taste and detail, you will see that passing through every state changes the way the song is played, and sang in different languages. Art direction is neat from time to time, each story has it's own artist and style, but after playing the game, you start to see they are repeating quite a lot for various stories. During the game play of 10 hours or so, I've encountered the following bugs and glitches, camera starts wildly panning and zooming out by itself. The frame rate drops and it takes about a minute or so to stop. And lastly the bug where the game doesn't allow me to control the character but just goes and on on, until a restart is done. I would advise that you only get this game while it's on sale and to lower the expectations.
We have a rouge like RPG more akin to the old hack and slashers like Diablo. And what is it about? It's about a Bergsons family living near mountain Morta and their lives are under threat of a elder god which spreads the corruption through the land. For a 2d pixelated art style game, the developers implemented a lot of work on every detail about the main characters, it's really tough to show emotions for each of them but they did it. The worlds inside the game are colourful and lively, but after some time you start to see that a lot of things are repeating in the background (for example the sand world, Barahut) and you get a sense of deja vu. Music is also quaint, and it can get louder and pumping as you are battling bosses in every world section. Every character has their own skill sets and the upgrade tree, but there is a catch it's in your interest to play and upgrade every character so the whole family can benefit from it. Instead of items you get the runes which upgrade your initial skills and there are divine graces and charms which give more benefits and help you to traverse the land. The story itself is alright, most of the charm from it comes from the Bergsons, and it's really nice that you get treated with story cinematic, they keep you pushing to play the game further. The other side of the game play has a lot of collecting to be done, scrolls with backstory, items to fill out your household, also there are some quests which give you additionally upgrades for characters. Now If I have to pinpoint some negative sides is that the places you reach and monsters that you fight become repetitive as you get more powers, it would be nice that there are new elemental traps or like mini bosses that you can randomly encounter around the worlds. I do see that the developer are still updating the game as we speak and that there will be a paid expansion. If you are a fan of hack&slash and action rpgs, and that you want a co-op game this one is a keeper.
For Double Fine and Tim Schafer this was their first outing and what a great first game it is! Synopsis: Young acrobat Raz ends in Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp to achieve his potential of becoming a Psychonaut. In his travels through the peoples minds he will unleash a great potential and discover a conspiracy at hands. The gameplay is the following, it's like most 3d platformers of the old age, the controls can be wonky at times if you are using keyboard and mouse. If you get a controller you will have it easy at the end levels, trust me. But man oh man, if you love the unique level design and setting then you will be in a real treat, and I wouldn't like to spoil any of it, because it needs to be experienced. Graphics have aged a little bit, altough they choose a cartonish 3d style which held up over a decade, but a little graphical upgrade wouldn't hurt it in the long run. One of the best aspects of the game except the level design, is of course the humour, it oozes from every scene and character interactions that you have within the game, and it still holds up quite well after all these years. I would also like to mention that there are some great ideas about the powers which you gain through the playthrough which I didn't see implemented into any games after this one, which is a shame because with the technology nowadays it could have been experimented more. I gotta give props to Peter McConnell which did the whole OST, basically every track sticks to your mind and gives life to every level you go through, also you can hear a lot of finesse in the usage of strings and percussions and the piano and how it all comes well produced and arranged for every track. This is a game that I have played more than five times in my lifetime and every time I go through it I spot more details which I didn't the first time. I also cannot wait for the sequel to finally come out, hope that they will upgrade on everything and provide us another treat.
Let's take a look at D4, it's by a japanese video game developer Swery who takes the influence from western pop culture and adds his take on it. Bad:Gameplay is mostly based on QTE, I know that this was a Xbox kinect release and probably for that time this was a great way to play it. But I really do think that QTE are a bane of video gaming design, I would really like if they were rooted out completely from games. Now as far as the rest of the gameplay functions, this is your standard run of the mill point and click video game adventure, almost even a walking simulator if there weren't these QTE in action scenes. And there are a lot of mini games which come there to refresh the classical gameplay but they also wear their welcome very quickly. Cell shading graphics altough good at that point, have aged poorly and it clearly shows that even on a budget (and nobody can tell me that there was a large budget implemented here) graphics don't age gracefully. Good:I really digg the interactions between the main cast, voice acting was mostly solid. Music was also atmospheric and depending on the situation could pump up the atmosphere. But since we won't be getting a sequel and cliffhanger is a heavy one, maybe just like in case of Twin Peaks being cancelled and then returning back, this game may get it's time to find a wider audience and maybe Swery gets the rights back and then decides to finish it... As for the deluxe edition there are few goodies included, one part of the soundtrack which I've mentioned is solid. You can see also the art book, which left me a little bit lackluster. Also there are voice scripts for the cast. Plus some cosmetic DLC for the clothing of the main characters. if you really don't have anything interesting to play and you want a little bit of narrative weirdness with your games, then you should get it when it's on sale. It will keep you occupied for 6 to 7 hours.
Since I already praised The Brotherhood for their work on Beautiful Desolation, I was interested to see how they started and that is how I got to Cayne. And I must say that I hated the whole experience, I know that it can be heart breaking to a game developer to see and read something like this, but it's for the best. Story: You are pregnant woman named Hadley and you are thrust into a unknown facility and are trying to save your life and of the unborn baby. I found it irritating that her "character" had a defense mechanism by telling stupid jokes. Voice acting was alright, the screams are great. Had zero chemistry and due to no charisma of her own and very bizzare dialogue I didn't enjoy the protagonist at all. There aren't a lot of characters here, and basically most of the story is thrust upon you by reading PDF notepads, and it doesn't work especially that you can see that they are based in a advanced future, there could have been audio logs but I gotta say that they also couldn't save the game from being bad. Gameplay isn't fun here. There I said it. Basically you also go around collecting items and are trying to solve puzzles. Like with Beautiful Desolation which had several puzzles which could be sorted out, and then some that had minor hick ups with the signs and how to solve them, here you are left like a naked babe into the woods and they don't make any sense. You will be clicking everything and anything on every possible to get a solution. That is just bad game design. Now to give them some credit here, some designs of the interiors are interesting and it really shows that when they are willing, they can get that part of job done very well. I wouldn't recommend this game to somebody to check The Brotherhoods work, definitely start with Beautiful Desolation but Cayne can be skipped it will save you a lot of time. Now I feel trepidation to play Stasis at one point.
I really wanted to like Dex. I love the cyberpunk genre, and this game had similar vibes to books like Neuromancer, there was some stuff clearly inspired by Matrix and other slew of titles, but it simply fails short with the gameplay and the main story. What is good, the game can look gorgeous at times. The world is alive and I dig the grime which is present at various locations. The way which you choose to play the game is up to you, the skill tree is large, and it even gets more interesting once the implants are made available later in the game. There are many quests and they really went out as to how you can finish them, Guns blazing, stealthy hacking or simply talk your way out of them. Also some of them are refreshing since they aren't only your basic fetch quests. So props on that line! Music is also solid and sets a good atmosphere for the most of the game. Fast travel, this is a blessing, because there would be a lot of backtracking if this wasn't implemented and I thank the developers on this. Now the bad, the story is basically lame and contains a lot of generic moments, it jumps the shark by the end of the game and my interest was only to finish it since I've already played it for 10 hours. Fighting is a bit of janky, and I really don't like that you can swipe kick the enemy and they fall down and that you cannot kick them and make damage until they are up again. Stealth is also a missed opportunity within the game, and I don't think that it works because I was running behind the enemies and chocking them without any sort of a problem. Hacking game starts out interesting but in the end also becomes bland they could have incorporated couple of more variations instead of killing the firewalls and power cubes so a pathway could be opened. And in the end I would only recommend the game to be played if you currently don't have anything else, and to get it when it's on a discount.
I found out about the game through ACG (shorturl.at/bPU15) channel. The promise of a vivid and imaginative world based on African folklore and point and click adventure gameplay have raised a interest for the game. Good: The graphics and world building are great, every place you will visit through the playthrough will leave you in wonder and will stick with the unreal imagery inside your mind. The character design is also solid and I like the head bobbing animations during the conversations and the UI which draws it inspiration from early Fallout games, it's always nice to see a reference and when it's done in good taste. Music by Mick Gordon and The Brotherhood is also effective, it's quaint but it can strike a emotional bar when it needs to, and to sink in with the backgrounds of the locations, and the characters which populate it. So and so part: As for the story it starts out pretty straightforward, main characters are two brothers Mark and Don Leslie, due a unfortunate circumstances and events out of their hands they end in a different land and need to find their way to survive. There are also puzzles, most of them are fine and can be managed without a guide, but by the end of the game there will be a couple of head bangers. For example the one with generator totems, you get the image which shows you how to solve it but it doesn't signal what needs to be done to finalize it, then I had to go online and get a walktrough explanation. Bad:Voice acting: This can either break your love of the game or extend it, main characters are unconvincing, I mean you end up in a totally strange land and for the most part they are bland and stiff. Random characters have bad quality for their voices, but there are some which are quite good. One of the most irritating things in the game is that you will do a lot of backtracking, I am sure if the developers implemented a way to give us a sign or something like a reference it would be much easier.
