Noah Caldwell-Gervais
This author account hasn't been claimed yet. To claim this account, please contact the outlet owner to request access.
Writing For
Polygon Latest Reviews
Heat Signature is one of the tightest indie action games I’ve played, packing a maximum amount of excitement into a minimum amount of time and space. My first few hours with the game were genuinely wonderful, filled with rapid-fire moments of delight and triumph. But when I hit my personal skill ceiling, I could do no more than repeatedly bang my head against it. I respect Heat Signature. I admire its success in accomplishing with such skill what it set out to do, and if it had been more forgiving, it wouldn’t be as tense. Heat Signature’s laser focus on in-depth mechanical play with high consequence is at once what made it satisfying for me to play and what made it easy to put down and walk away from when I hit the limits of my tactical creativity.
Breached is strong in how it uses the first-person perspective for storytelling, how it builds identification between player and protagonist by blurring the lines between them in a minimalist way. But the actual game systems struggle to keep up with the atmosphere and presentation. The weakness of its mechanical systems and the simplicity of its scavenger hunt undercut the experience a lot, especially on multiple playthroughs — even though multiple playthroughs is an intended feature of the game.