Trone Dowd
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Writing For
InverseLatest Reviews
After 12 hours, I retired my controller feeling deeply conflicted. While the journey was enchanting, oozing with unparalleled style and majesty, it fell just short of being as magical as I hoped. It’s sheer audaciousness makes it an easy game to recommend for those looking for something original in a sea of trend-chasing games. But its shortcomings could leave some players yearning for a fuller experience.
Split Fiction is a triumph in game design and the best co-op experience you can play today, full stop. It’s a work that cements Hazelight Studios as one of the medium's most inventive and ingenious developers making games today. And like the few games great enough to reach these heights before it, we’ll undoubtedly be talking about Split Fiction’s brilliance for years to come.
There’s a wonderful game tucked away underneath S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 impenetrable surface. When riding high on the ability to go 15 minutes without dying and surviving back-to-back enemy encounters, it works as developer GSC Game World likely intended. At a time when gamers are more willing than ever to play games that challenge them to be more deliberate about their actions, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will undoubtedly find its audience for years to come as its predecessor did. For fans of the source material — there’s an added layer of artful frustration that mirrors the nihilistic world set forth by the authors.
Super Mario Party Jamboree, like any other great Mario Party, isn’t some big departure from what was first established in 1998. There are some good times to be had in the new modes, but they serve more as a fun distraction from what these games do well. For a package as jam-packed with fun ideas and content, Jamboree is easily one of the most entertaining multiplayer games you can own on the Switch today.
Unfortunately, removing the faults of the original game leaves behind a very simple platformer. Epic Mickey has so many cool ideas that it never elaborates on despite its initial promises. The hand-hold-y nature of the original Wii game is alive and well and feels incredibly out of place at a time when more people than ever are familiar with not just video games, but the genre of platforming games.
Dungeons of Hinterberg is a gorgeous, sincere, and snuggly little adventure. It doesn’t do anything groundbreaking, but its individual parts come together to create an immensely fun package that feels like a warm cup of tea on a cold dreary day. Fans of the cozy genre owe it to themselves to check this one out. The engaging puzzles and dungeons also warrant a look-in from those who have fuzzy memories of solving the elaborate temples of older 3D Zelda games. Dungeons of Hinterberg is a masterful mix of the modern cozy game and the wondrous sense of adventure of old-school role-playing classics. Spending a few days in this magical, quaint little town is sure to be time well spent.
The Chinese Room has crafted yet another horrific and thrilling narrative to add to its arsenal of titles that practically pioneered the genre that so many others have contributed to over the last decade. It’s a novel love letter to fantastic films that have withstood the test of time some four decades later. It offers fun, nail-biting adventures that feel true to those authoritative, genre-defining works.
Third act woes aren’t enough to overshadow an otherwise fantastic game. From its gorgeous world, stellar writing and voice acting, and score that’s already on the short list of 2024’s best, Tales of Kenzera is a game I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone who believes in the medium’s ability to evoke very real, and above all very human, emotional experiences.