Tony Bae
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COGConnected Latest Reviews
Nobody Saves the World was a bit of a disappointment for me. Coming from the Canadian developer Drinkbox Studios, I was excited for this title after playing their fantastic Guacamelee series. As they do with each of their projects, Nobody Saves the World is a new genre for the studio, a dungeon-crawler RPG. At a glance, the game is fantastic, possessing the developer’s fantastic art style and fun attitude. It even comes with some interesting original ideas.
I’ve been reviewing and previewing plenty of Metroidvania as of late, and I can say that nothing has caught my attention as Unsighted has. Made by Studio Pixel Punk, a tiny indie team of only two people, this title is an incredible achievement in game design. It not only checks off everything that makes Metroidvanias good but also executes those points masterfully with their own unique flairs. Good combat? Check. Great movement and platforming? Check. Iterative puzzle designs? Check. Truly rewarding exploration? Check. Diverse powers and weapons? Check.
If you are predominantly a PC gamer, you might not be familiar with the Story of Seasons franchise, but you’ve probably heard of the series’ original name – Harvest Moon. The highly influential classic inspired other bestsellers such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, among many other farming-based games. The franchise had to change its name due to copyright reasons with the publisher they left behind, but rest assured, the original devs are creating Story of Seasons.
Recompile is one of the most interesting games I’ve played in a while. This entire Metroidvania takes place within a supercomputer’s code, where you play as a bit of code (ahem, virus) inserted into its neural network. Birthed into this strange system, you know nothing but the small bit of information provided to you by your coder: discover what had happened to this computer.
Wildermyth is a unique game that doesn’t feel unfamiliar, especially if you’ve played tabletop RPGs before. Like in Dungeons and Dragons, you create a party of adventurers and see them grow from local village nobodies to legendary heroes. The aesthetics and gameplay call back to the tabletop origins too, with tactical grid-based combat that heavily focuses on your positioning and strategy.
Days Gone is finally on PC as a part of Sony sharing some of its exclusive titles like Horizon Zero Dawn. The open-world zombie survival game came out in 2019 to a lukewarm reception for a variety of issues. The question is, has its adaptation into PC fixed any of these problems? The short answer is yes!
Before Your Eyes is an innovative game that you control with your eyelids. Yes, you read that right. This narrative-driven title about life, memories, and death will utilize your webcam to track your eyes in order to deliver its unique story. Fret not, if you do not own a webcam but still want to experience the story, there are options to play without one (although you will be missing out on much of its uniqueness). Developed by a small indie studio, GoodbyeWorld Games, the idea sprang from their student video game project, which rightfully took home a few awards. They brought the concept to Kickstarter and after a successful drive, Before Your Eyes is the result of their hard work. The question is, does this game achieve more than a neat gimmick?
Override 2: Super Mech League by the indie publishers Modus Games attempts to recapture the cult success of the first one. A casual mecha brawler with a clean art style, tight combat, and a huge roster of characters, the game certainly looks very appealing. However, the incredibly limited single-player options and lack of multiplayer modes might make this a hard sell for a lot of players. If you are diving in, make sure to bring some friends.
Carrion snuck out of nowhere, much like the monster you play in it. With such little marketing and fanfare, I didn’t know what to expect going in, but what I found was nothing short of incredible. From its aesthetics down to the core gameplay, there is little I could fault in it. So what is it? Well, the debuting indie devs, Phobia Game Studios, categorizes Carrion as a reverse- horror game. Although this label sounds really cool, it doesn’t say much for how it plays. In actuality, Carrion confidently belongs within the classic Metroidvania genre, where you explore an expertly designed world connected by obstacles that open up only as you grow stronger. And man, oh, man, did they do the genre justice.
Disintegration is the latest effort by the Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto and his new development team V1 Interactive. They set out with a lofty goal of trying to create an entirely new genre of game, like a souls-like of sorts (Disintegration-like? We’ll work on it). This ambitious mash-up of real-time-strategy and first-person-shooter is full of charm and impressive visuals. Unfortunately, the ideas just feel… hollow. Let me explain.