Rock Paper Shotgun
We write about PC games, and things to do with PC games.
Latest Reviews
Wargroove
Wargroove, on the other hand, is faithful to not just the spirit but the body of its inspiration, keeping both the pleasures and some pains of the old toy war game, pointedly refusing to change most of the basics, and instead simply adding extra layers: online multiplayer, map editing, a...
My Time at Portia
So maybe the game’s laundry list of genres spread developers too thin (thin enough that they apparently forgot to pay some people...). And maybe the final product still has its fair share of rough edges. But despite that, I still found my hours in Portia charming. These simulators have recycled...
So, that said, is this particular endless space war worth enlisting in? If you’re looking for an incredibly deep 4x - no. If you’re up for some big, beautiful, dramatic RTS campaigns with weighty, satisfying combat, and don’t mind waiting for a patch to iron out a few creases -...
Resident Evil 2
That's where Resident Evil succeeds. Not in the drivel spouted from its character's mouths, but in the bullets spewed from their guns. Or better yet - the clicking of empty chambers, or the spine-chilling scratches of scrabbling overhead. I may hate lickers, but I'm also a little bit in love.
Pikuniku
This is a joyful, happy-faced good time. There are "boss fights", but they're deliberately not an impediment to progress. (One especially in a way that I shan't spoil, but gosh it made me laugh.) The chatter is plentiful, but always fun to read (or enact). And it's extremely funny.
Bury me, my Love
These are minor things, but slightly destabilising things. Not to the point that this is not a journey worth making. The intensity of the decisions, the mounting fear when things go wrong or days pass without hearing from your partner, the relief when a message comes, the joy of silliness...
The First Tree
And sure, yes, no matter how blandly ordinary our childhoods might have been (and goodness knows mine was) we all come away from the loss of a parent with regrets, of unspoken words, of unresolved histories. I'd love to have played a game that tried to explore that rocky landscape,...
Overland
In practice, as Alice Bee also found in our Below review, there's a sense that its striking art and world remained tethered to early, even rudimentary mechanics with a misjudged sense of hard graft vs accomplishment. A sense that, perhaps, both games have clung doggedly to aggressively punitive ideas that...
Below
So what’s the point? Well, to look at it. To run around in the grass. To examine the strange ruins and wonder about them. To see the crystal crab monsters advancing when you fall over a tripwire, because somehow they know. To hear the clack-clatter-clack as they die, and fall...
Dusk
I've adored this. It's so damned smart, the level layouts as good as anything from the '90s heyday of the genre (perhaps with the exception of Dark Forces? I'm not sure if I'm willing to let that game's meticulous architecture slip from the top spot), the secrets rewarding to hunt...
Insurgency: Sandstorm
Thing is, the dirt's getting kind of old. I know I'm never going to play enough for the good times to outnumber the bad. Certainly not compared to dedicated players, who already dominate the servers. Ultimately, I've only got so much patience for games where the victor is nearly always...
