Francesco De Meo
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WCCFtechLatest Reviews
Remedy Entertainment is a development studio that doesn't need any introduction. The Finnish developer has been around for a very long time, and in the long years of activity, it has released some incredible games that have etched themselves in the minds of those who experienced them, like the first two entries in the Max Payne series, the two entries in the Alan Wake series and Control, the game which effectively kickstarted the Remedy Connected Universe that connects the latter two series, and who knows what else in the future.
Since the Souls series formula has become popular among players, countless games have tried to recapture what makes FromSoftware's hardcore action role-playing games so engaging, but only a few have managed to even get close. Among these is NEOWIZ and Round8 Studio's Lies of P, which still stands, a few years since its release, as the game that got the closest to recapturing the haunting atmosphere of the beloved Bloodborne.
The announcement of Elden Ring Nightreign last year was a surprise for most players. Following the release of what has become FromSoftware's most celebrated action RPG to date and its expansion, it has been reiterated multiple times that a sequel was not in development, suggesting that it would be a while until Tarnished could return to the Lands Between, counting teased IP expansions that most thought were a few years away. The doors of the Roundtable Hold, however, could not stay shut for long, and the iconic location is about to be opened up to welcome the Nighfarers and aid them in their difficult battle against the Nightlords to repel the Night Tide and possibly restore the fractured reality of Limveld to the former splendor of its older days.
Spanish game development studio MercurySteam may not be among the most popular video game development studios ever released, but the Spanish team would definitely deserve far better recognition for having contributed much to popular classic series like Konami's Castlevania and Nintendo's Metroid. It's with the latter series that the developer showed its chops the best, creating with Metroid Dread what is, in my opinion, one of the best entries in the entire franchise. Still, MercurySteam has yet to put out that one original game that would put them on most players' radars.
Ever since FromSoftware's Souls series started rising in popularity, the vast majority of action role-playing games developed by smaller and more established studios have been inspired in some capacity by the Japanese developer's franchise. While many of these games are great experiences on their own, they highlighted how the genre is suffering from some homogenization, where very few are the games that try to break from the mould and offer something different. For this reason, I could not help but appreciate Empyreal's approach to the genre when I first tried it in February.
When Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was announced last year, it came out of nowhere and immediately captured the attention of role-playing game enthusiasts. With traditional party-based role-playing games finding less and less representation in the AAA space, the debut game from Sandfall Interactive looked like the game that could bring the genre into the spotlight without being a nostalgia-fueled experience, as the setting, story and main cast of characters looked very unique, and far removed from those we are now used to see in similar games. In the end, the game's dark fantasy Belle Époque setting, the members of Expedition 33, and the turn-based combat system with a twist weren't just a fluke meant to lure in jaded fans of classic RPGs. They are the well-developed elements that make up one of the best role-playing games released recently.
No matter how it is looked at, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is one of the few video games released to date that can be described as magical. Launching at a time when the medium was about to blow up like it never managed to do before, the fourth entry in the series by Bethesda took everything its predecessor did right, and brought it up to eleven in such a way that no one who happened to get acquainted with Emperor Uriel Septim VII in the dungeons of the Imperial Prison could ever forget the journey through Cyrodiil to prevent the forces of Oblivion from ravaging Tamriel.
In the recent past, we have seen the rise of titles heavily inspired by gaming greats that offer an enjoyable time thanks to the high quality of their experiences, which makes it easy to see past the almost complete lack of innovation. At the same time, some of these games allow fans of genres that don't see much representation nowadays to experience more of what they love. This is exactly what Storm in a Teacup's Steel Seed is: a very solid action-adventure game that immediately brings the Uncharted series, and in turn, other games that have been heavily inspired by it, like the Star Wars Jedi series, to mind that delivers a solid action-adventure experience that all fans of the genre will surely like.