Sin Vega
This author account hasn't been claimed yet. To claim this account, please contact the outlet owner to request access.
Writing For
Rock Paper Shotgun
PC GamerLatest Reviews
Empire-building re-envisaged as managing elaborate production chains, then re-re-envisaged as another 4X with repetitive micromanagement and weak, bland AI.
An atmospheric, bold attempt to reinvent its own society-moulding subgenre whose story and building features too often frustrate with too few options or distract with too many.
A strong turn-based foundation and colourful setting held back by grind, blind chance, and a need for efficiency over tactical variety.
An accomplished fantasy 4X with RPG leanings and cleverly interlocking systems that plain hasn’t grabbed me personally, despite some colourful ideas.
Wildermyth is a turn-based tactical RPG, but it's also a brilliant story factory, and one of the best games you'll play.
A legend-building RPG that deserves to define the next decade.
That might seem surprising, but you really have to see it moving. It's unspeakably pretty. There's one bit where you're taken up a whole city tier, via a long platform lift, while having a conversation with Control as you climb past endless layers of catwalks, roads, and railways, all bustling with movement. You don't feel like the centre of the world. You can really believe the whole city is moving all the time, whether you're there or not. You might not be able to do much besides walk and drive around it, but it's one of the best cities I've ever seen, and I spent a fair amount of time just idling around and watching it go while listening to the rain, the muffled thumping of nightclubs, and the excellent music (and alternating silences! Bonus point!).
Feeling comfortable and provided for is important. That's not really a truth that Coffee Talk explicitly gets into, but it's fundamentally what it's about. It could have been longer, it could have been more substantial and dramatic. But it's a good way to relax for a few hours.
Superliminal is more like a tour than anything. And again, I'm impressed that its visual tricks work so well - but I just didn't feel all that motivated by either them or the narrative. Its setting worked as an excuse for its reality-warping oddness, but was otherwise squandered. I can remember almost nothing of its script. The twist wasn't what I was expecting, and works well because of that on a meta-level, but it's immediately followed by a moralising conclusion that the story and tone hadn't earned, and which in any other context I would have found deeply patronising.
To its credit, runs are never wasted - cumulative attempts will unlock more shop items, weapons and game modes for future characters, and after each level you have the option to bank your money so future characters can withdraw it, or pay on credit. There are lots of secrets, and the possible combinations of mutations available can make runs very different. Enemies are well distinguished from each other, and when things are going well, it feels good to play.