Wesley LeBlanc
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Latest Reviews
Resident Evil Requiem is about two people whose lives are forever altered by the worst day of work ever. Those same people then risk it all to save someone. This act is unfeigned, full of the corny sincerity that is a staple of this series, and it is the heartbeat the hordes of undead they will maim are missing. Resident Evil Requiem is also a game about roundhouse-kicking zombies, physics-defying motorcycle chases, and a story that requires years of crisscrossed history to fully understand w...
Reanimal is an adventure game: you press forward, avoid untimely deaths, collect keys, and work with your partner to escape. But Reanimal is also a punctual game about the cost of war, and the children, always innocent, whose lives will forever be marred by the actions of adults – endlessly greedy, cruel, and disgusting. Developer Tarsier Studios has crafted its best gameplay yet, with cinematic cinematography, macabre puzzles, and a dynamic use of mechanical and engaging verbs. Its co-op d...
It’s fitting that Code Vein II is set in a world of vampires. As I hunted down these bloodsucking creatures in the present and 100 years in the past to prevent the collapse of the world, I felt trapped within its clutches, like a castle guest desperate to escape but unable to do so. Across 42 hours of monotonous game, I found little warmth here. Its skin, a distractingly garish and ugly visual style, is as cold as its blood, a combat system that struggles to fuse original ideas onto a skele...
Total Chaos’ headlines over the years as a public-facing project center on it being a total conversion mod for Doom II. After more than a dozen hours with it, that’s the least interesting aspect of this game. Total Chaos is about one man’s escape from an isolated and desolate coastal mining town run amok by a rotting disease that’s infected both his mind and the very town itself. Its story is vague and mysterious, but reveals itself plainly in metaphor as a fight against cancer, leavi...
There was a 20-minute period early in my playthrough of Routine where I walked back and forth between rooms and through hallways in this game’s abandoned, defunct, and seemingly malfunctioning lunar station in search of one simple thing: my own ID number. Papers plaster the surrounding walls, explaining that every person on the station must carry their ID badge with them at all times, including me. I look everywhere for that badge, needing to input my ID into a computer terminal to advance ...
There was a 20-minute period early in my playthrough of Routine where I walked back and forth between rooms and through hallways in this game’s abandoned, defunct, and seemingly malfunctioning lunar station in search of one simple thing: my own ID number. Papers plaster the surrounding walls, explaining that every person on the station must carry their ID badge with them at all times, including me. I look everywhere for that badge, needing to input my ID into a computer terminal to advance ...
The Outer Worlds 2 doesn’t drastically change the already great formula developer Obsidian Entertainment created with The Outer Worlds more than half a decade ago. Instead, this expansive sequel follows in the footsteps of many other great RPG follow-ups, with more places to explore, more loot to find, and crucially, plenty of new ways to directly influence and shape your own adventure in space. Though its main narrative is anti-climactic, I’m left amazed by how much Obsidian was able to ...
It’s been four years since Little Nightmares II, and in that time, original developer Tarsier Studios has left, with Supermassive Games of Until Dawn fame stepping in to continue the series. Despite the change-up, Little Nightmares III feels right at home in this strange universe, mainly because Supermassive does little to rock the boat, instead using the series’ greatest hits and a couple of underutilized additions to create another spooky adventure.
Poland-based studio Reikon Games has only been around since 2014, but in its decade of development, it has made a name for itself creating stylish, action-forward cyberpunk games. Its debut, 2017’s Ruiner, was itself a great isometric shooter, but in hindsight, it was a look toward the studio’s future and its second game: Metal Eden. Like Ruiner, Metal Eden is a futuristic neon-lit shooter set in a cyberpunk dystopia, but this time, from a first-person perspective. It blends excellent fir...
Mafia: The Old Country, on paper, contains a lot of promise for the series. It’s a return to linear form, eschewing the biggest problem with Mafia III; it brings players to the earliest period of this series’ timeline; and it’s set in the mafia homeland of Italy, refreshing the formula with Sicilian countryside instead of East Coast metropolis. Though it’s a beautiful game, with an excellent Sicilian dub to boot, it unfortunately leaves a lot on the Don’s table, failing to rise to t...


