If you're in the mood for a short blast of cutesy RPG fun, look no further than Costume Quest, developed by Double Fine. As a studio that excels in creating interesting, quirky universes, Double Fine has crafted another one here with a good dose of character, a little bit of comedy and a whole lot of Halloween candy. The turn-based play is lifted from games like Final Fantasy, although here it's extremely simplified and easy to learn. You'll not be struggling with tactics or having to use items to buff your characters, as fighting is mostly relegated to a couple of choices and some QTEs. It's a simple system and works well for the target audience of the game, or even just as a more casual, relaxing experience. Perhaps the worst thing about Costume Quest is that its gameplay never evolves at all. After 20 or so battles you'll be feeling the repetition kicking in, as battles remain mostly the same throughout. There are a couple of boss battles but these are basically all about knocking that boss' HP down to 0 and keeping yours up. Likewise, outside of battles you'll mostly be going around collecting candy, using it to buy Battle Stamps and collecting materials to create new costumes. Despite the repetition, aspects of all these gameplay elements are genuinely fun at times, and the world feels magical and interesting. I finished both the main story and the DLC in around 8 hours in total, with some backtracking and an occasional bit of problem-solving and working out how to proceed. It's a brief affair, but I feel that it's a better game for the shorter length, with a longer game perhaps making that repetition hurt more than it does. I enjoyed my time with the game, and felt happy I'd gotten it for the sale price. When it's going cheap snag Costume Quest and you'll undoubtedly enjoy it too.
I recently finished Season 1 of The Last Door and found it a fun, interesting little point 'n' click game, with a strong central mystery that didn't completely come together by the end of its four episodes. Of course, there was always a Season 2 in the pipeline with a view to finishing the story and answering the lingering questions, and I'd say that The Game Kitchen accomplished that fairly well here. The gameplay and art style remains much the same this go around, and I'm pretty fond of both. I've always found this kind of art style appealing, and even without a lot of definition I feel that the themes really stand out well. Gameplay consists of lots of pointing and clicking, as well as solving a myriad of puzzles. I found a few of them a tad maddening here, moreso than I did in the first season. I'm ashamed to say that I got so stumped a few times I resorted to a walkthrough. Yep, I'm that guy and I'm not proud. I can't say that I enjoyed Season 2 as much as the first, despite being grateful for the answers I was given. I think knowing less in that first season meant that you truly felt some of the creepy terror as you wandered around attempting to figure out what was going on, whereas here there's a clearer picture being painted and you don't feel as captivated by it. Still, I'm glad I played through both seasons and the little minisodes. There was love and care poured into these games and, while not perfect, they should form a part of any self-respecting point 'n' clicker's collection.
I've been a sucker for point 'n' click games since I was a kid, so to see good-quality ones still being made in the naughties is rather a treat. The Last Door certainly benefits from its streamlined episodic structure, with no episode taking longer than around 45 minutes to finish up. There's almost no voice acting, so everything is text-based and the art style is refreshingly simple. Some people don't seem to like pixel art, and here there's little definition or outlines in the artwork, but I found that it works surprisingly well and the aesthetic comes through quite strongly for me. The Game Kitchen is a Spanish developer, and I feel like one of the weaknesses here is an occasional bit of awkward/dodgy English. There's an attempt to be very intellectual with the writing, which mostly works, but some clunky/badly-worded English comes in and saps some of that away here and there. I also felt, having finished this first season, that the story never quite came together in a satisfying way, with plenty of questions being raised and few answers being given. Here's hoping the second season (which I'll be starting after posting this review!) clears some of that up. Overall, a pretty strong effort with a likeable art style and a solid mystery. Me likey.
I was initially a little worried going into Soma, having heard when the game originally came out that it was less horror-centric, with its influences clearly being gleaned more from Asimov and sci-fi stories than the Gothic chills of 'Amnesia: The Dark Descent', the studio's previous game. Indeed, Soma sheds some of that creep-factor but, in doing so, manages to streamline Frictional's fantastic interactive systems and injects it into a superbly-crafted story that focuses on identity and finding a place in a very, very different world to the one you left behind. The voice acting is solid across the board, and delivered within a story that gradually reveals itself over the 8-10 hours or so you'll be putting into it. You'll be pleased to know that Soma, despite wearing its sci-fi influences on its sleeves, still has plenty of chills in it as you scramble to hide from monsters, peering around dark corridors on underwater ships. In fact, I'd say this game got to me a little more than Amnesia did! Frictional continues to deliver impressive horror experiences, which are refreshingly free of weapons or any kind of action at all. If I had any complaints, they'd be fairly minor, but chief among them would the insistence on blurring the screen whenever you've taken damage. If there aren't any health points to jack into nearby you'll be stuck running around with distant objects looking very blurry until you've topped up again. I was also quite surprised that the game gives you so much to interact with, yet very little of it contributes meaningfully to the story or your character all. The world is just full of bits and bobs that you can pick up and lockers you can look through, but I found that 95% of those items were useless and most of the drawers and lockers were empty. Overall, Soma is absolutely worth your time and delivers in pretty much every way you'd want it to. It's a more polished experience than Amnesia and makes for a superb Halloween treat.
