Platform: Xbox One
Fantastic music and gorgeous noir visuals accompany an existential detective point-n-click puzzler examining pretty heavy themes. A few softlock bugs at launch, but overall a cool, ambitious game.
I wish there were more truly co-op games like this. I could have done without all the cutscene interruptions, but almost everything else makes up for it. Lovingly crafted and quite funny at times.
A wildly impressive mix of survival, creative building, exploration & combat primarily developed by five people. Valheim manages to find and maximise the special sauce within all of its components.
A whimsical perceptual puzzler full of smart ideas. It’s just long enough, with its brevity perfectly exploring its core concepts and ultimately satisfying greatly. Very impressive.
Deckbuilding… reverse-tower-defence… strategic… dungeoncrawler… roguelite? Hard to describe but wickedly clever. Polished, fun, challenging & very addictive. Set to be a classic - play it.
Beautiful and slightly mind-bending at times. Fantastic music, writing and VO. Controls can be a bit janky, and puzzles feel a bit directionless in the middle acts, but overall very, very good.
A unique & interesting take the genre, attempting to link the difficulty of wilderness, survival, adaption & even evolution with gameplay. The result is obtuse and at times painful, but I respect it.
I am not good at driving games but I was dying to play this. Indeed I was very bad at it, but very much enjoyed the masterfully crafted artstyle and way it lovingly communicates the… art of rally.
I hate this phraseology, but it’s hard to avoid: Papers, Please meets Sim City. A crushing, brutal survival citybuilder which will have you searching your soul and stretching your ethical boundaries.