Brendan Caldwell
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Writing For
Rock Paper ShotgunLatest Reviews
Except in this case, too much is gained. Tetris is a game of removal, of emptying a space - not filling it. The explicit goal is to have as empty a field as possible. Some deckbuilders do mimic this philosophy. Think of the way Slay The Spire encourages removing cards from your deck, paring things back, streamlining your loadout until you are flicking out the same five cards on hypereffective repeat. Drop Duchy doesn't go for this at all. It is an additive game, not a subtractive one. Here, c...
Even outside of those giggling japes, there are endless smile-raisers. The inventive playfulness of Blendo is on full display. There's a James Bond styled opening song that you walk through as the credits roll. Exposition chats are accompanied by an old-fashioned projector that lights up the room with figures and diagrams. Finish a level and the game will sing "Niii-naaaaaaa!" in celebration. It's got so many little flourishes like this. Granted, I'm predisposed to love a Blendo Game, after t...
Not only are animals woven into the hurt of humanity as symbolic spiders, mistreated gators, and tortured birds, but the closing shots of many chapters will see ordinary and silent forest creatures watching in quiet contemplation as Hazel drifts away on the back of her catfish friend. Towards the end of the game, these animals - the smallest unit of animated environmental storytelling - gather around Hazel in a way that signals support from a kingdom beyond her ken. It is one of the game's qu...
And that's really it. The setting will largely dictate whether or not it speaks to you. I found it more appealing than the other big Creeds of recent times. I lasted mere hours in Odyssey's ancient Greece, and the same for Valhalla's 9th century England, but much longer in Mirage's golden age Baghdad. That simply comes down to being more into Islamic architecture than Greek myths or Viking longboats. Assassin's Creed, for all its faults and weaknesses, is as close as video games can get to ti...