Tom Ravencroft
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KeenGamer Latest Reviews
I am known for my position that Disco Elysium is the best game ever, and I’m not sure if Esoteric Ebb is going to dethrone it, but it’s definitely going on the medal podium. This is Disco Elysium by way of Planescape: Torment, but with the humor of Discworld, a detective roleplaying game that’s less about killing monsters and leveling up and more about the joy of screwing around in a fantasy world.
It is a pleasure to encounter games that make me remember my youth, and Crisol: Theater of Idols is the kind of game that makes me fondly remember the 90s. In a world of constantly-launching and failing live service games, forced multiplayer, battle passes, and other ways to milk the player dry, this is a single player game that you can play on your computer by yourself, which feels like a damn miracle to begin with. It’s also weird in the way that big titles aren’t allowed to be anymore,...
Rome is well-trod ground for games, but most of them are more like the HBO series Rome, focused on violence and chaos. You’ve got your Total Wars and your games about gladiators and your games about the myths and violence of Rome…but maybe what really gets your pulse racing is…aqueducts…city planning…architecture, yeah? Something for the true sophisticates.
Some games try to be fun and entertaining interactive experiences and some try to tell engaging and gripping stories, and some are desperately trying to be movies. But sometimes they manage to catch a vibe. You kids with your broccoli hair and your iPads might not remember the desolate feeling of flipping around basic cable or satellite TV on a weekday, trying to find something to watch, but there was a time when you were stuck with whatever happened to be on, and, buddy, that was it. And wha...
Some games try to be fun and entertaining interactive experiences and some try to tell engaging and gripping stories, and some are desperately trying to be movies. But sometimes they manage to catch a vibe. You kids with your broccoli hair and your iPads might not remember the desolate feeling of flipping around basic cable or satellite TV on a weekday, trying to find something to watch, but there was a time when you were stuck with whatever happened to be on, and, buddy, that was it. And wha...
Sometimes, games sound deranged when you explain them, but when they come together so elegantly in gameplay, it’s almost impossible to sound sane about them, especially when they’re so good you want to rave like a lunatic. To start from the beginning, you have a train full of dragons and demons and fairies and mad scientists and mushroom people and you’re trying to storm Heaven (like, THE Heaven) and fight angels and LISTEN HERE INDIE ROGUELIKE DECKBUILDERS DON’T NEED TO MAKE A LOT ...
When last we saw Drop Duchy, I was intrigued by the prospect of Tetris but it was also a light strategy game with building, production, military units, and combat. The full version is here not and it is definitely that, a combination of Tetris and a tile-based board game with roguelike elements like randomized paths, deckbuilding, and the usual “combat, stop and shop for upgrades, trade resources, and get new cards” gameplay.
To avoid constantly repeating myself, let’s point at my two previews to cover the basics, then we can just jump right in with “What is the full, released game like?” It’s still retrofuture 1949, the Nazis still won, but you and your resistance movement are still fighting them with giant stompy mechs instead of rational, logical debate. The release version opens up campaigns in Scandinavia, Western Europe, and New Germany (and the British Isles campaign got some polish) as well as the ...
Ron Swanson once said, “Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.” Merchants of Rosewall wants to be a cozy store simulator. It wants to be a cozy small town with a dark mystery to unravel game. It tries to be both of those things and does neither of them well. It half-asses two things instead of whole-assing one thing. Ron was right. He always is.
But if you’re willing to put up with that sort of ongoing pressure on your health and sanity (oh, how very meta), it is, at least, an intriguing experiment and a certainly unconventional game in a genre that usually tends to be more about 360 noscopes and sick kills than reckoning with the fragile mental health of your band of heretics who may or may not be falsely accused as they seek to escape a monastery. One day, they’ll make that The Name of the Rose Black Ops they keep hinting at, but until then, this is what we’ve got.