Kell Andersen
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Writing For
Push Square Latest Reviews
Games are often about how many people you can slaughter, and the efficiency with which you can do so. This makes death abstract – a means to an end. The more death you can cause, the more points you’ll get, and the more points you get, the more likely you are to win. Last Day of June isn't about death in the abstract. In fact, it's about just one death. And it’s not about causing that death – it’s about trying to stop it from happening in the first place.
Blackwood Crossing is about the relationship between a brother and sister. You play as Scarlett, an adolescent girl slowly drifting away from her younger brother, Finn. The game starts on a train, which serves as its thematic hub, and then works its way out to various other locations – some literal, some symbolic.
In 2Dark you play as Smith, a man with a tortured past. On a camping trip many years ago his wife was murdered and his two children kidnapped. In response to these tragic events, he dedicates his life to not only finding his own children, but also saving other kidnapped youngsters.
There have been a lot of permadeath roguelikes released recently. In fact, the only thing more ubiquitous than permadeath roguelikes themselves are tedious and facile declarative sentences about how many permadeath roguelikes have been released recently. This writer should know - he's written a lot of them. They're usually followed by equally tedious and facile declarative sentences about how the particular permadeath roguelike at issue does something to differentiate itself.
Lost Sea is a top down indie roguelike with a unique visual style and retro sensibilities. Clearly, there is a danger for it to get lost in a sea of superior competitors. We'll be the first to admit that that joke was pretty obvious. But just because a joke is obvious, doesn't mean it isn't true.
Porting PC simulation games to consoles is fraught with danger, with systemic complexities and control issues abound. Thankfully, Prison Architect manages to avoid most of these pitfalls, and serves as an exemplar of how the genre should make the transition in future.
Grow Home is yet another small indie-esque release from Ubisoft, following closely in the footsteps of Child of Light and Valiant Hearts. It combines unique gameplay, a stunning graphical style, and a cute story about robots and plants in an attempt to recreate the sensation of rock-climbing. But does this plucky platformer climb to the top of the vine, or should you leaf it alone?
There are still bed sheets hanging on the clotheslines in the deserted streets of Shropshire. They sway lightly in the wind; the ethereal vestiges of a place that once was. In many ways, they're the perfect analogy for Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, an experience which is astoundingly gorgeous in a subtle, unassuming, and overwhelmingly sad way. This is a game which feels unlike anything else that you've ever played, one which will masterfully wrap you up in its gentle and heartbreaking world, and one that you won't be able to stop thinking about for days after its completion.
What if the combat-free opening hour of BioShock Infinite stretched on for much longer? Indeed, what if you could explore the beautiful ruins of a destroyed city without having to constantly fend for your life? Submerged – a game developed by ex-Bioshock staffers, incidentally – attempts to answer these very questions. But does this sailing sojourn live up to this potential, or does it sink to the bottom of the ocean?