Gareth Chadwick
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TheSixthAxis Latest Reviews
When a new game from Suda51 drops, you know that it’s going to both ultraviolent and uniquely weird. Even so, Romeo is a Dead Man might still surprise you with just how strange it is. This is a game where the ‘Game Over’ screen is a melting head, where Romeo’s late grandpa is an animated picture on the back of his jacket, and Romeo himself wears the silliest helmet I think I’ve ever seen. It’s a game so surprising that being set in a multiverse with alternate versions of characters doesn’t even break the top ten of oddest things.
Cairn is a single player, story focused, survival game about climbing a mountain. You won’t be leaping from platform to platform, or swinging round a sledgehammer to propel yourself and your cauldron, though. No, you’ll actually be climbing, moving each of your limbs one at a time to grab handholds and wedge into cracks to scale an entire mountain. It’s not a small one, either, and it’s already populated by the remains of those who have tried and failed to reach the summit before you. It’s a dangerous situation that, somehow, becomes incredibly relaxing and meditative once you get used to it.
Cairn is a single player, story focused, survival game about climbing a mountain. You won’t be leaping from platform to platform, or swinging round a sledgehammer to propel yourself and your cauldron, though. No, you’ll actually be climbing, moving each of your limbs one at a time to grab handholds and wedge into cracks to scale an entire mountain. It’s not a small one, either, and it’s already populated by the remains of those who have tried and failed to reach the summit before you. It’s a dangerous situation that, somehow, becomes incredibly relaxing and meditative once you get used to it.
Dreams of Another is just about the most confounding game I have ever played. There is no creation without destruction, says the game, so you use an assault rifle to shoot the world back together from the clouds of bubbles around you. Meanwhile, you’re following the footsteps of a mole who dies once you get there, picking up random engagement rings or other stuff off the floor to give to a soldier who can’t shoot a gun, who tends to reward you with some grenades. Every detail from every angle in this game is weird. Listen, I’m King Weird – I reviewed and enjoyed Blippo+ in the last few months – but this? This has gone straight through weird and come out the other side – into bad.
Painkiller is a series I’ve certainly heard of, but I couldn’t tell you either way whether or not I’ve played it. I must have at some point, I’m sure, because I played every single thing I could get my hands on, but I can’t actually remember doing so. What I do remember that it’s similar to Doom, including all the hellish monsters and environments. You enter a room, kill a legion of monsters, then move onto the next room, where another legion awaits your bullets. This co-op reboot of this two decade old series gets this right, at least, but it’s a bit uninspired because of this.
Painkiller is a series I’ve certainly heard of, but I couldn’t tell you either way whether or not I’ve played it. I must have at some point, I’m sure, because I played every single thing I could get my hands on, but I can’t actually remember doing so. What I do remember that it’s similar to Doom, including all the hellish monsters and environments. You enter a room, kill a legion of monsters, then move onto the next room, where another legion awaits your bullets. This co-op reboot of this two decade old series gets this right, at least, but it’s a bit uninspired because of this.
Rise of Industry 2 is an industry management game – like if you just zoned your whole city in Cities: Skylines for industry and kicked residential and commercial to the kerb. You’ll be focusing on building infrastructure to harvest, process, and ship resources out and your only real interaction with the nearby town is accepting (or refusing) grants or other support and investing to increase the available workforce. It does all of this very well, and yet it manages to be an underwhelming experience simply because…that’s all there is here.
The Outer Worlds was a pretty big deal for me when it was released six years ago, effectively taking the same gameplay style of Fallout: New Vegas and transplanting it into a spacefaring adventure in a distant colony among the stars called Halcyon. That was all I needed; something a bit fresher, newer, with a sense of humour. The Outer Worlds 2 takes us to another colony, Arcadia, and aims to do the same again. Arguably with too much success.
Discounty is a cosy Supermarket simulator in the vein of Stardew Valley. You’ll be ordering products, stocking shelves, and then selling them to the various townsfolk of Blomkest in an effort to expand your business. Unfortunately along with that comes dealing with inattentive local government, shady local businesses, and backstabbing journalists as it seems something in this town is rotten. And all you wanted to do was run a supermarket.
There’s been many times where I’ve uttered the words “this is the weirdest game I’ve ever seen.” It happened when I first played Shadow of the Colossus as I rode a horse across empty plains, unbothered by enemies as I approached a giant, moving, climbing puzzle. It happened when Superliminal twisted my mind into confusing shapes as I tried to understand its perspective-based puzzles. It even happened when I saw a trailer for Genital Jousting. Now it’s happened for possible the final time. Why? Because Blippo+ is the weirdest game I’ve ever seen.