Latest Reviews
And by proving that a nearly 30-year-old design needed reverence rather than reinvention, Gothic 1 Remake quietly makes the case that the best a “remake” can do is trust that the original was right all along.
Given the poor experience Matt had with this game, we were not going to force him to play it all over again “just in case.” Regardless, doing so would be impossible before our publication time, let alone the game’s release on Friday, with its 20–30-hour runtime. So please keep this...
Celestial Return is an enjoyable narrative RPG, where the simple encounter systems work well enough and the cosmic horror feel to its main adversaries displays enough of a point of difference to make its cyberpunk city worth visiting over so many other similar locations. But the familiarity of the main...
Culdcept Begins is a triumphant return for a series that’s been dormant for a decade. The new presentation style may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s the most cohesive visual design in the franchise, with special attention paid to clarity and consistency in its UI befitting such complex mechanics....
The best thing I can say about Echoes of Aincrad is I no longer feel nostalgic for the PS3 generation. Whatever goodwill I had going in is completely drained. I came in thinking that era deserved another chance. I left reminded exactly why we moved on.
And Roger
and Roger captures the sum and substance of dementia by centering on the perspective of a character with the condition, unveiling a point of view that is often avoided. Seeing the world through Sofia’s eyes leaves a lasting impact, communicating the symptoms of dementia in an understandable language that doesn’t...
Crimson Desert
The subgenre that gave me some of my favorite RPG experiences has quietly been losing the studios that built it. Just in the last two years, we’ve lost Piranha Bytes and Spiders. The kind of game they made, patient, systemic, built for a specific kind of player willing to meet...
Schrödinger’s Call is a transcendent experience, one that I had to take multiple breaks from due to how heavy and emotional it was. It stands as one of the most thoughtfully designed and written video games I have ever played, and I would recommend just about anyone who is looking...
Writing these reviews feels gross, because I know this is a small studio that worked hard on Echo Generation 2, but I have to be honest—I did not enjoy myself much at all. Playing felt akin to biting into a chunky voxel burger that had no flavor whatsoever. Just mushy,...
Town of Zoz
As it stands, these core design problems, coupled with a host of technical issues (frequent crashes, bugs that softlock the game, textures loading improperly half the time, etc.), leave me unable to give a wholehearted recommendation. Perhaps if the developers tweak the combat system and iron out some of the...
While a few flaws make The Adventures of Elliot fall slightly short of a perfect experience for me, it’s still a bold experiment. It is filled with characters that, although sometimes lacking in complexity, win you over with sheer heart, especially Casper and his companion Mao, a troubled woman from...
Ultimately, LumenTale: Memories of Trey is a fascinating and occasionally frustrating experiment. It represents a bold new evolutionary branch for monster-collecting RPGs. Time will tell whether this specific branch can survive the harsh ecosystem of the genre, but its successful mutations give it some strong fitness factors. A highly commendable...
