We’re back for another anthology of Brief Looks! A collection of games I played, have a couple things to say about, and couldn’t come up with enough thoughts to churn out a full five page or so review like I usually do. Man it felt like the last one of these came out a few months ago, and by the looks of it the last one did in fact come out three months ago. I’ve played a lot of shorter titles since the last Brief Look that this collection is almost composed of 20 titles, but thankfully I hand selected the ones worth about so no games that can probably be beaten within an hour are gonna be discussed. We have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s kick things off for today.
Blood: Fresh Supply
I was actually considering writing a full review for Blood. I finished a few days after I published my review for Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and had seven hours put into it leaving enough time and experience for me to write about. Here’s why I didn’t write that full review. I ended up not writing that review, because my opinions on Blood were honestly okay and I didn’t want to accidentally upset the cult following this game has. I’ve been having boomer shooter fatigue as of lately and part of the reason why is because there’s just been so many of them recently. Trying to catch up with them all is tiring and they’re all starting to feel a bit samey honestly. I don’t have anything against people who make these kinds of games. At the end of the day developers are making things they love and are passionate about, but personally I think we need to move past the boomer shooter craze at some point. Experiment and try new ideas like what indie shooters like Neon White, Rollerdrome, Metal: Hellsinger, El Paso Elsewhere, and Mullet Mad Jack do. I don’t say that opinion out loud, because if it’s anything I’ve learned is boomer shooter fans are loud. Like some of the most defensive people you'll see.
So I didn’t write my full review on Blood for some of those reasons, but this an awfully tiny site so it’s safe to say them now. Blood, also Blood: Fresh Supply the latest version, is a remaster of the cult classic 1997 shooter developed by Monolith Productions. The same people who would go on to make FEAR and Shadow of Mordor. It came out during a time when chaotic first person shooters were the craze, but it didn’t blow up in the same way Doom or Duke Nukem 3D did. It was forgotten about, but a decade later it was recognized for its personality and charm. I’ll admit that is the greatest trait about Blood, personality. It looks like a horror game on the surface but it throws so many nods to the 1990s at you. From references to Evil Dead to The Simpsons. Main protagonist Caleb is one of coolest and most interesting main characters among boomer shooters, and his journey to avenge his dead wife is one that made playing Blood worth grinding through. It was unique, but that doesn’t mean the game doesn’t have its faults. Problems that prevented me from enjoying it like a majority of people.
Blood is unusually hard even for a boomer shooter. Enemies can kill you within seconds if you don’t play effectively, basic cultists use hit scan meaning their attacks are unavoidable once you are in sight of them, and ammo can be quite hard to come across during early levels of episodes. Even in the normal setting of this game you can die easily, and it leads to this weird difficulty curve. Tougher enemies are easier to manage, but big groups of the weaker ones aren’t. Some levels you might even have to save scum your way through due to the relentless encounters and the fact this is an old school shooter meaning it has an obsession with keycard hunting. Barely giving you an idea on where to backtrack to once you find the things you need. So I tuned down the difficulty until I found a setting that worked for me, and that ended up being the lowest one which was piss easy. I will say the enemies and weapons are cool. It’s easy to tell what is what and how to dispose of them. You have basic weapons like a double barrel shotgun and assault rifle, but you have some cool ones here. A flare gun that lights enemies up, dynamite that can be thrown or ignited, a voodoo doll, a spray can flamethrower, and a few more. Each gun is fun to wield, and one design choice I like is being able to carry a medkit with you. Heal yourself with not having to rely on health lying on the ground. That doesn’t excuse the fact Blood can be a bit annoying to play. With confusing level design at times, annoying encounters, and the occasional gimmick stage. Boss fights are bad, in fact they get reused as normal enemies later on.
I didn’t like Blood. I don’t think it’s a bad game, but my time with it wasn’t very good compared to some of the other boomer shooters I’ve reviewed before. Which is a shame because it helped influence a lot of boomer shooters I like, and I can kinda understand why some people have a die hard love for this game. Again, another reason why I didn’t like this much is because I have played so many boomer shooters at this point and the increase of them isn’t slowing down any time soon. They might be reaching the tedium of military shooters faced in the early 2010s, and I wouldn’t be surprised if more critics start complaining about the huge influx of them. 7/10.
Titan Souls
Titan Souls is pretty alright. It’s the first title made by Acid Nerve, the devs who went on to make Death’s Door an indie action adventure I really loved. Titan Souls was their first debut and you can see a lot of the DNA that would go on to inspire Death’s Door. Imagine what would happen if you combined Shadow of The Colossus with classic Zelda and Dark Souls. A game that has a lot of cool ideas and thrilling fights, but feels barren due to the emptiness and hopelessness of the world. There isn’t much of a narrative to work off of, but the atmosphere and tone of the game signals to the player that something is wrong. Your main objective is to explore, defeat titans that lie around the world, and collect enough of their souls to progress forward. The gimmick is that instead of having a sword and shield to defend yourself instead you have a single arrow. Sounds pretty crappy, but the catch is that this arrow can be retrieved or called back to you sort of like the Leviathan Axe in God of War. However, recalling it requires you to stand still so there’s a bit of risk to it. How do you nail away at bosses with a one shot arrow? Every boss has a weak spot and it’s all about landing that one hit killing blow.
Bosses in Titan Souls feel more like puzzles than actual fights. Avoiding their attacks and trying to find the opening to strike. You die in one hit which can be frustrating especially when you are trying to figure things out, but when you do finally figure out what to do and kill the titan that stomps around before you it feels amazing. Seeing the world freeze around you, removing the arrow from their body, absorbing their powers, and feeling a bit more powerful. I wish there was a reward for killing bosses in the game though. Like after you kill enough you can choose one of a few upgrades like a faster dodge, one extra hit point, or ability to slow down time for a singular moment. Still, it’s less about the reward and more about achieving that victory. Every boss fight in this game I enjoyed besides the final fight. It’s less based around skill and discovery and more about if RNG is on your side. It’s the most frustrating fight in the game and I wouldn’t be a bit too surprised if players quit at that point. The game is rather short too. Death’s Door was a game that cost twenty five dollars and it felt worth that price. Titan Souls is ten dollars less and even then it feels a bit too much. It takes around two hours to beat if you know what you are doing, and there’s very little reason to come back unless you want to test your speedrun potential. It’s a game I do think is worth your time, but you should probably wait for a sale. Overall it’s an 8/10.
Pikuniku
Pikuniku is a cute short platformer following an oval red creature with two legs and dotty eyes. The protagonist wakes up in a cave, walks outside, makes friends with the locals really quickly, and then has to go on an adventure to save them from the corporate entity that lives above them all. It’s a simple game mainly carried by its humor and wit. It got me to laugh quite a few times due to how out of the box the jokes were or how hard it was trying to put a smile on my face. I like the humor, but some people might not like it especially with how many gags seem to rely on characters screaming. Still, it’s a cute adventure and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. A majority of players will love this game, but there’s why I don’t put it any higher despite not much being wrong with it. The game has funny humor, nice art style, and is fun and easy to play. Reason why I don’t love it more is because, much like Titan Souls, I do not know if this is a game worth its price. The game is short, doesn’t have a lot to do outside of the main story, and there’s not many reasons to replay it. Pikuniku falls into the same category as OneShot and Wandersong for not having replayability, but unlike those games it’s not gonna leave anything meaningful in your head hours after playing. I say it’s a good weekend game. Play it when you have absolutely no other game to play, finish it, and feel happy at the moment. Good, but not amazing. 8/10.
Until Dawn
Wasn’t planning on playing this one, but managed to nab it at a second hand store. Until Dawn is the first title by Supermassive Games and it was their breakthrough into the horror genre. The game is well known for its story, how it plays out, and how player choices will affect who lives and dies. A simple mistake or the wrong turn can eliminate a character for the rest of the game. You can’t rewind progress until you complete your playthrough, and even then you have to redo the whole thing to potentially get a better outcome. It’s the Telltale formula taken to different heights, and it’s a good thing I bring that up because we’ll touch upon them more soon. This take on horror has been milked to death by Supermassive Games with future titles like The Quarry and The Dark Pictures Anthology, but Until Dawn was special at the time. There was no game like it, and it made the player feel as powerless as humanly possible. I say part of the reason as to why is its use of set camera angles instead of the usual third person over the shoulder camera we see in a lot of games now. I’ve never played a set camera game before, but from what I’ve heard from Resident Evil and Silent Hill fans is that there are benefits for doing so. Setting the mood for certain scenes, make the player feel like they are being watched, and not being able to tell what is outside of the current perspective. It raises the stakes for when the camera angle changes and it caught me off guard many times through the experience. It works really well.
I like how character fates lie in your hands. You can get rid of who you don’t like, or try really hard to help the ones you do like survive till the end. Pay close attention and be perfect when you need to be. The game doesn’t take too long to play and encourages replays to see different ways the story can play out. There are a couple things I don’t like about the game though, because as with all games that are special for a certain time being Until Dawn did not age like fine wine. The game is one of the earliest exclusives for the Playstation 4 and attempts to push the tech to areas it can’t handle. Framerate tends to dip often and it’s noticeable. The game at the start gives you the choice of choosing a traditional control scheme and motion based. They don’t mention that sometimes the game wants you to stand still for the normal control scheme, which is a bit misleading in my opinion. For quicktime events that require you to press the right button I wish it was based on when you press it rather than if you press it. The game gives you such a short window of time to react that if you press the wrong button one character can get screwed over easily. Mistakes that could’ve been prevented easily, but then eliminates some of the horror of this game. The game took me five hours to beat, but I wouldn’t say it has enough replay value for more than two playthroughs or that it’s worth anything more than twenty bucks. Why do I say that now? Cause there’s a remaster coming out later this year, and I bet it’ll cost sixty dollars despite this game being almost a decade old. Until Dawn is good, but in some ways I’d say it’s a bit overrated and not as good as other horror titles out there. 8/10.
Ruiner
I’ve never played a twin stick shooter before. The closest is Weird West, but that’s somewhat of a far stretch seeing how it’s trying to be an isometric immersive sim. Decided to give a whirl at the genre with Ruiner, a twin stick cyberpunk shooter developed by Reikon Games. You follow an unknown assassin as he attempts to storm a heavily guarded tower and KILL BOSS. It literally flashes on his helmet in the beginning. He fails to do so and is left for dead, but is rescued by an unnamed hacker and local engineer. Back from the dead he now must kill the local gang leaders, find out where Boss is, and try to kill him properly this time around. Ruiner has a distinct enough art direction to help separate it from most cyberpunk games I’ve played. It’s use of the color red and shading specifically gives the world a grim feeling. Knowing what roams the streets is bad, but what lurks in the shadows is possibly worse. The game has a killer cybernetic soundtrack to match the tone and feel of the world, and it’s always reminding you of your main objective. To KILL BOSS. I won’t spoil too much of the narrative because there isn't much, but I say this game falls somewhat in the same category as Far Cry 3 and Spec Ops: The Line. Getting you into an addictive gameplay loop before pulling the strings and showing the monster you’ve become by the end. Not communicated as effectively, but done well enough for me to notice.
Gameplay-wise it’s pretty fun to play although somewhat easy on the lower difficulties. I can tell it took some influence from the modern Doom games with how you recover health. Enemies will drop health pickups with glory kills allowing you to be invincible for a short period of time and allow you to perform gorey moves to make enemies burst with health refills. Weapons work a bit like Hotline Miami in that they have a limited amount of ammo, and instead of picking up a refill or reloading you toss them aside and pick up another. It creates this rush where you are always on the move for tools needed to survive, and I like it. Everytime you clear a room a little vacuum drops into an area, and you can activate it to suck up remaining weapons and receive experience points. Gain enough and you level up, and leveling up gives you skill points. These points can be spent to boost stats and gain perks. Ruiner is a bit of an action RPG, but I’d say it’s a really weak one. None of these upgrades feel all too meaningful and there’s never a point where you should stop, interact with the world, and gain extra info and side content. The game is always pushing itse;f forward which leaves everything outside the main story shallow. If you want a true twin stick shooting RPG then play The Ascent which I heard mixed things about. Other than that I’d say Ruiner is quite good. It’s not doing anything new, but it makes use of its short runtime to deliver a killer experience. Recommended if you like these sorts of games. 8/10, pretty good.
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
Shantage: Half-Genie Hero is a good game. Everything up to this point and beyond is good, and this is another exception of a game that tons of players will enjoy. I never played a Shantae game before nor did I plan to play one, but this was a good starting choice and I think it will be for anyone wanting to hop into this series. That being said, I think this game is a bit overrated. It’s one of the most weirdly designed platformers I've played in a long time and its inconsistency is what prevented me from enjoying it like a majority of people. You follow Shantae as she goes on a quest to gather parts for a machine and make connections with the genie realm. Simple story with a ton of connections to previous games and antagonists that I do not understand. I feel like I would’ve gotten them more if I had played previous games, but that’s what happens when you jump into the middle entry of a series. The game is pretty fun to play when it wants to be a linear 2D platformer about getting from Point A to Point B. Navigate around obstacles, defeat enemies, and fight a boss at the end of a level. Shantae controls pretty well, but she feels kind of slow. She moves at the same speed a character like Shovel Knight does, but part of the reason why she feels slow to me is due to how she is animated. The game uses 2D animation for its characters and enemies and while they are colorful and well drawn I don’t think the animation is stellar. Something I hate to say seeing how I love animation and the work they put in.
Animation of Shantae is rough. Art direction and style is good, but there’s not enough fluidity to make every action in this game satisfying to watch or perform. Levels are well designed and fun to traverse through. There’s enough challenge to not make each stage engaging enough without having to reach Celeste B-side levels of difficulty. I’d say Shantae is a nice beginning platformer for anyone wanting to get into the genre. Whether or not it’s one of the best is debatable, because like I mentioned earlier it’s good when it’s a tightly designed linear adventure. It’s not when it wants you to backtrack through a stage allah metroidvania style to find an item you need to move forward in the narrative. It also doesn’t help when you start at the beginning of a stage you just played and cannot skip to later checkpoints. Leading to needless and tedious backtracking. Even with all the backtracking and side content the game is still really short. Probably the shortest 2D platformer I’ve ever played personally. There’s not a whole lot of reasons to come back besides getting the good ending, but they did add a lot of content since the game came out so that’s good. Overall Half-Genie Hero was alright. It’s not a platformer I’m gonna look back upon for doing anything unique, which is weird because I’ve played platformers other people would find more forgettable but yet have left a really positive impact for me to look back on fondly.
I know a lot of people are gonna look at this without properly reading it and think something that goes along the lines of, “He doesn’t like it cause it’s a platformer and platformers stereotypically are thought of as a childish genre.” I f*cking love platformers man. It’s the genre I grew up on and I’m always excited to check one out. Shovel Knight is still one of my favorite games of all time. I love Psychonauts, Rayman Legends, Celeste, Tinykin, A Hat In Time, Pseudoregalia, the 3D Super Mario games, Gravity Circuit, The Messenger, and metroidvanias. Do not tell me that I look down on platformers because I didn’t fully love the game with the dancing hot genie lady. I think it’s a good game but compared to everything else I’ve played it feels overrated. 8/10.
Kentucky Route Zero
I don’t know why I like Kentucky Route Zero. I don’t know why I’m placing it higher than some of the games I mentioned before. The only reason why I played it is because it looked pretty and Skill Up chose it as one of his top ten games of 2020. This should not be a game I like, because when you take a thorough look at Kentucky Route Zero it’s not a very good “game” if you know what I am saying. It controls like a click and point adventure, but there are no puzzles to think of. No tasks to keep in mind besides moving forward, and no objects you have to pick up so you can interact with a puzzle best before you. The game is mainly composed of dialogue, and it tends to ramble on at times. Going on about different philosophies and characters’ feelings, and it's hard to keep track of everything once you flipped through enough text. It all began to blur together and it got to a point where I didn’t even know what this game was about. I knew what was going on and where the plot went, but the overall message of the game was hard to depict. What is this game and what is it about? The more I thought the more it confused me, and that was the point.
Kentucky Route Zero is a game about many things and the overall message will depend on how you perceive the information you are given. It could be about dying dreams and how despite all the work and effort you give in life to achieve said dreams it’ll be meaningless. The game could be time running out and being able to accept loss. It could be about despite all the madness in the world around us we continue to march forward. Maybe it’s about family, growing up, or maybe it’s about beauty. Just beauty in the smallest things. I know it sounds very cheesy to say it at this point, but Kentucky Route Zero is art. I may not love this game, but I respect what it attempts to do and say. I think the game could benefit from cutting down paragraphs and voice acting. This game was both published and funded by Annapurna who have been able to fund higher end indie games in the past. Despite the lagging moments Kentucky Route Zero found a way to suck me back in. Like I was getting ready to quit around Act 2, but then all of a sudden a bar I was sitting in turned dark. The room lit blue and a singer with an electronic void sang a song about love long gone. Let me choose the lyrics and how the song played out. It was a highlight moment in the game and it’s one of my favorite musical moments in a game now. Kentucky Route Zero is a hard game to recommend and I wouldn’t call it a game at all. It’s still worth your time though. 8/10.
Boomerang X
Earlier we talked about how I’m getting really sick of boomer shooters, so let's discuss a unique indie shooter worth checking out now. Boomerang X was developed by BANG and is the most arcadic fun I’ve had with an indie shooter since Rollerdrome. There’s no plot to speak of and that is okay, because it puts a heavy emphasis on its core combat loop and does it well. You throw a boomerang shuriken at your foes, can recall it, and even zoom towards where you throw. Which you are going to want to do with how much verticality there is for each level. Enemies will be on high shooting projectiles at you. There’ll be flying foes, enemies with one specific weak spot they like to hide, spots you can’t stay in too long, or environmental hazards you want to avoid. It is constantly putting pressure on the player, and rewards those skilled enough to fight in the most stylish way possible. It can be frustrating at first, but once you get into the groove of things you feel like a total badass. Scraping together whatever you can, making it to the final wave, having barely enough health left, and somehow getting by. I like this game. It’s only two hours though and that might make the twenty dollar price tag hard to justify. Just wait for a sale like I did, and you’ll get your money's worth. The team who made this game are onto something. There’s not a lot going on but they made the most of it, and I wonder what they’d be able to do if they got a bigger budget and more time to think of a grander idea. Boomerang X is great, 8.5/10.
Mirror’s Edge
I’ve been meaning to play Mirror’s Edge for a long time now. I love platforming, fun traversal mechanics, and games with beautiful vistas you can stop and gaze at. Mirror’s Edge caught my attention for how it was a parkour game. Something I haven’t seen before or touched since. Well until Titanfall 2 came out, but I’m talking about a mainly parkour focused experience. I picked it up at a second hand store, spent a whole weekend playing it, and walked out feeling impressed. I can’t believe no one has made a game like it since. Well there was Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, but no one talks about it and what it did to the franchise. In this game you follow Faith as she tries to uncover a huge conspiracy that somehow involves her sister and politics. I will admit the story is not great. I like the pacing, the animated cutscenes within chapters that have lovely art styles, and the stakes. What it’s about though is not handled very well and the final confrontation is a bit disappointing in my opinion. The core game though is really good and is the number one reason why this game holds up more than a decade.
Run through every stage, try to deal with enemies, and make it to your goal. You can wall run, wall jump, leap quickly over small objects, roll before you hit a ground, slide, swing off monkey bars, and more. Levels for the most part do a good job guiding you towards the objective. A few times they don’t, but there’s a button you can press to point yourself towards the right direction. You could play slowly, but the game finds ways to punish you for not reacting correctly. Whether that be to send cops with guns at you, choppers with machine guns, or later on parkour police. That is a joke I stole from TheGamingBritShow. Sorry. However, it rewards those who master the many tricks at their disposal, the flow of the game, and in future replays the layout of each stage. It’s not a long game despite the Triple A status, but it’s certainly a replayable one worth knowing the ins and outs of. Top this with gorgeous environments. For 2008 this game held up incredibly well. With a city glistening in white, red, and blue. Clear skies almost all the time and this art direction is part of the reason why it’s easy to tell what is what and where you should probably head. I like Mirror’s Edge, but it did find time to annoy me. I like the movement, but sometimes it doesn’t do what you want to do. The game is fun when it’s a parkour game, but not when it wants to be a shooter. The game sometimes forces you into combat, and this is where you have to bitch slap an opponent in the hopes they’ll drop their gun and shoot everyone wildly. It also doesn’t help that the aiming cursor is small and is a slippery top aim. Leading to what is the most sloppiest shooting in a video game. Aside from those complaints Mirror’s Edge is still great. It’s one of the better games EA put out and shame there’s not more. 8.5/10.
Bleak Sword
Bleak Sword is the latest indie soulslike game I’ve played and it’s really good. Lies of P got me back into soulslikes last year and recently I’ve playing Shadow of The Erdtree for fun. Trying to debate whether I should review or not seeing how it’s DLC and normally I don’t cover DLC. In the meantime, here's Bleak Sword developed by More8Bit. You play as an unknown adventurer wanting to bring peace back to the world. The kingdom you once lived under has gone corrupt, half the denizens have turned into monsters, and it’s all because of a cursed sword known as the Bleak Sword. Your job is to fix all this, and the best way to do so is to attack, dodge, roll, and I-frame your way around everything you see. Story isn’t much, dear god I’ve said that a lot and it’s getting really tiring by now, but I like how it’s presented. Everything is made up of pixels, but the game tries its best to give everything a cinematic feel. Whether that be the art direction and the way cutscenes are shot. It’s a game that elevates pixel art to new heights, but whether it has the best is debatable. Is it Octopath Traveler or Hyper Light Drifter levels of quality? No, but any game with a distinct visual identity is great.
Gameplay feels like a mixture of Dark Souls and Super Mario. Let me explain. There are twelve chapters and twelve levels in each of them. Each level is a combat challenge where you face all the enemies thrown at you in the room you are in. Defeat all the enemies and you get to press on. Experience points are gained upon each level completed, and you can revisit old stages to gain more. Lost health will be restored by a fraction, and sometimes you gain equipment and items from stages. I like how progression works. Experience bar goes up, and you choose one of three stats which are usually maximum health, attack power, and defense. Revisiting older stages shows how powerful you are by then and it feels great. The same cannot be said with how equipment and item drops work. It feels really random and the quality of said items range. I remember the game giving me sh*t belts even during the late stages, but then I replayed an early level to get some experience points and I got a belt that granted me a bunch of benefits and no downsides. The combat is all about playing in a twitchy manner. Flipping around the arena and striking a foe when they are exposed. Stamina drains quickly, but you gain it back from parrying and dodging does not consume any so playing defensively can be helpful at times. Most new foes introduced will kill you the first time you encounter them, but once you pick up on their work you get back into the rhythm of things. Bleak Sword is good. It’s hard, but very fun to play and it does not overstay its welcome. Recommended for any soulslike fan. 8.5/10.
Steamworld Dig
I reviewed Steamworld Dig 2 a long time ago and my appreciation for it has gone up with how many chaotic games there have been. It has a good core gameplay loop, progression, and artstyle but the one thing I claimed was that I never played the first Steamworld Dig. I assumed it was worth skipping seeing how the second game is just that again but better. Well I played the first game now and honestly it aged really well. Is it as good as the second? No, but for the startup for what is now a franchise with entries like Heist, it’s upcoming sequel, Quest, and Builder this is a nice simple relaxing game. Dig into the earth, try to carve a safe path to reach rare ores, and trade the ore in for cash you can spend to unlock better equipment for your digging journey.
You feel stronger by the end of the game with all the upgrades and equipment you pick up, and the game challenges you with the enemies lurking beneath the surface (pun intended) and environmental hazards like falling stones that can kill you instantly. Any problems I really have aren’t much besides the fact Steamworld Dig 2 has added a lot since the first game. Well I guess I can try to list them. Having to go back to the surface to empty your pockets and refill health is a good incentive to make use of the town. Having more incentives like lantern fuel and water feels a bit annoying especially when you are deep into the world. The second game had a stronger narrative and this one not so much. In fact, it’s nonexistent for the most part. The art style isn’t as good, but other than that it’s still Steamworld Dig. It’s fun, relaxing, and worth playing. 8.5/10.
Limbo
Inside was another well known indie game I reviewed almost two years ago in what’s basically the preconcept for the Brief Looks series, and it was a game I really liked. I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect it to surprise me. Limbo, the first game by Playdead Entertainment, is still great but it’s easy to see why more people like the second game. Not just because of the recency effect, but because Inside as a game is more accessible. Limbo puts a heavier emphasis on puzzle and physics platforming, and for the most part it’s good. Trying to figure out what to push on forward or get around the obstacles in your path. It can get annoying at times and much like Inside it’s a lot of trial and error until you succeed. It’s satisfying when you do, but after a bit you kind of get annoyed by the puzzles. You want to push on and appreciate the horror, artstyle, and presentation of the game which isn’t something I’d come to want more in a game. Speaking of which, Limbo has less payoff. Inside was surprising for its chaotic ending and where it took itself at the end, while Limbo gives off this feeling of “that’s it?” Super underwhelming and the lead to it is nothing. Like it just happens and the game ends. Like I don't want to make it sound like this game is bad. It’s good. It’s really good. The DNA that would make up Inside is here and it aged like fine wine. It holds up incredibly well and honestly I’d say play this before going into Inside. See how Playdead would create one of the most memorable and interesting indie horror games. 8.5/10.
The Wolf Among Us
Alright we’re starting to hit masterpiece territory and we’re kicking it off with the game that got me to look more into choose your own adventure games. More specifically Telltale works. The studio I thought I’d never touch seeing how their games are pretty much movies, or that’s when I thought because I learned to grow up and appreciate anything instead of bitch about things all the time. The Wolf Among Us is one of the best pieces of work by Telltale Games for a reason, and its sequel has now become one of my most anticipated games for the future. It takes place in a world where fantasy fables are real and they live among us. They use spells called Glamour to blend in within the real world, and those who can’t afford them are shipped off to the Farm. The ones that remain in the big city take on jobs, live their lives, and do what we’d usually do except they are basically immortal. However, crime tends to arise amongst the fable community and it's why there’s a law enforcement to help keep everything under control. You are Bigsby, otherwise the Big Bad Wolf in fable history, and you now serve as the sheriff for the fable community.
You try your best to not be the person you formally were and maintain control in what are the most dysfunctional people you’ve ever seen. A series of murders have been popping up recently and people are demanding you to find the killer. These events lead to all sorts of places and it is your job to figure everything out. I like the universe of this game a lot. It was based off the Fable comic book series published by DC Comics, and I’m gonna be honest I had no idea these books existed. I went into The Wolf Among Us on an empty slate and I’m glad I did because I ended up getting more hooked and surprised by this world than I thought. Seeing all these iconic fables and characters I grew up with pop up in interesting ways. Watching the mystery unravel, seeing how it plays out, and starting the next episode immediately just to see what happens next. It was like watching a show, which is good because it’s the feeling it's trying to capture.
A noir tale with a pinch of exotic spice, and I love it. The Telltale form of storytelling works well with The Wolf Among Us considering the protagonist. You play as a man a lot of people look down on. Someone who ruined a lot of people’s lives and somewhat continues to do so. You have a choice to either continue that image or try to be better. Be kind, offer sympathy, try not lash out, or lose control and become the person they fear you for. Telltale games specifically the earlier ones are good at offering the illusion of choice, and The Wolf Among Us does it splendidly. I really want to talk more about this game, I really do, but I don’t want to spoil it too much. I want to talk about all of the characters you meet, the plot twists, how they play out, and the many scenarios where you nail a guy down for info or go full on beat just to get what you want. I don't, because that would mean you have no reason to play this game.
It’s one of the best narratives I’ve experienced recently and I hope the sequel exits development hell soon. The only complaint I got is that the ending could’ve been better, that’s it. This game is a work of art and it alongside the last game on this list, which you'll happy to hear about, show why the earlier days of Telltale were so special. Why they are remembered fondly to this day despite what happened later on. 9.5/10.
Slay The Princess
I should not have enjoyed Slay The Princess as much as I did. It’s a visual novel and these are games I don’t review not because I look down upon them but because there’s nothing to discuss about them besides the narrative. Spoiling the narrative for a game is a really scummy thing to do and do a disservice to the talented writers behind them. Yet, Slay The Princess drew me in and I’m very glad it did so. You are on a path in the woods, and at the end of this path there is a wood cabin. Inside the cabin is a door to a basement, and within that basement is a princess. Your job is to slay her and if not the world will end. That is the premise of the game, or it could be if you just follow the instructions simply. You are given a lot of options upon each “run” and without spoiling too much the choices you make will change what type of princess you meet. The game uses time loops and distortion to take the narrative to different terrains, and it all works really well. Seeing different incarnations of the princess, their personality traits, what they represent, what they desire, and how they try to deal with the individuals before you. The game explores existentialism halfway through the journey. Wondering what you’ll do when this is all over, or what will lie if you do allow the end of the world to happen. If you cease to exist, what lies after death, and how afraid you are when nothing remains. It’s wonderfully written, but this game does not advertise itself as an existential crisis. It advertises itself as a love story.
I find this very interesting about Slay The Princess. How could a game with lovecraftian horror and dread somehow still be a love story. I’ve wondered that since I did my first playthrough, but the more I think about it the more I realize. Look at all the different incarnations of the princess. Each one represents different personalities and key traits you may find in a partner. It explores those traits and the flaws of them. Maybe you want someone who is on their knees for you. One who is happy all the time and does what you want. Then you realize someone who does what you want all the time isn’t truly happy and this kinda leads to a hollow relationship. How about someone who is abrasive and fierce, but this leads to a relationship where one or the other is scared all the time of what the other person will do. How about something destructive, obsessive, or downright wrong. This game will find multiple ways to showcase everything that can go bad in a relationship, and yet you continue to find love. Why? Well that’s hard to explain. What is love to you? How do you find love despite everything I just listed? It’s weird. I can’t explain it well myself because I never had a relationship nor pursued one, but Slay The Princess does a good job at expressing this. The pursuit to love even when you shouldn’t. I think this is about existentialism game, but I see why its about love.
It’s a wonderful game that can be beaten within a day and I urge you to play it. 9.5/10.
Telltale’s The Walking Dead
Telltale’s The Walking Dead is one of the best narrative driven games I’ve ever played. It is a game talked about to this day for how well executed its narrative is, and it’s easy to see why it lives rent free in all those players’ heads. It’s my siblings favorite game and it holds a special place in her heart. A pure example of why videogames are art to her and where the medium can go. For the longest time I knew why this game was good, but I never played it myself. I picked it up after beating The Wolf Among Us and wondered if it beat the high standards my previous favorite Telltale game had. Not only did it beat those standards, but it managed to make me cry by the end. Which is cheesy to say since that ending made the majority of players cry, but it felt a bit special to me seeing how the majority of video games don’t make me cry. The ones that do usually are the ones that did the most narratively up until that breaking point. The Walking Dead is a game about a man trying to redeem himself and raise a girl in an otherwise cruel world.
The crime was murder, he became disconnected with his family since then, and when he tries to get back to them during the outbreak he finds them dead. All he has left is a girl he picked up off the street. A girl who misses her parents and is all alone. So he does what he thinks is best. Tries to raise her and protect her. Not only redeem himself for all he did in the past, but have the one thing he wanted before. A family to care for.He meets several survivors over the course of the game, and you can either help them or exploit them to help your cause. The Telltale formula is one that works best with The Walking Dead because of the situation you are in and have to face. Do you want to harm someone to get the supplies you need? Will you fight against them if they harm you or your child? Do you react brashly during a stressful situation, or do you remain calm and do the right thing no matter what? You are railroaded to a specific ending, but these smaller choices feel like they matter. They are then and there, and just when you think someone will last a bit longer they are gone. Things get worse, more people die, you have to do worse things in an attempt to survive, and eventually you run out of time. The end is drawing near. You have to say your goodbyes.
Your body is tired, your mind is weak, and you just want to be able to rest. Forgive yourself for all you failed to do. To protect the one you cared for and be with them just a bit longer. You don’t want them to go on alone, but you know they have to at some point. The Walking Dead is not the best apocalypse story for what you have to do to survive, but because of how it also captures parenthood in trying times. A lot of people can relate to this moment in the game. Having to let go of your child. Telling them to be brave and move on in the world. Hoping they’ll be the best person they can be even when you are laid to rest. The only other game I can think of that has done this is God of War: Ragnarok. Both of these game endings work for a lot of reasons. The person who you once were, try to be now, and hoping you leave a good impact on your child. So that one day they too can be a good person and avoid the mistakes you made, or teach what you taught them to their child too. There will be mistakes and regrets, but that’s part of life. I don’t care if you are turned off by Telltale game design, the illusion of choice, some of the characters in this game, or whatever. The Walking Dead is one of the best narrative games of all time for a reason and that’s why I give it a 10/10 for being incredible. It’s a must play for anyone. I'm gonna go cry more now.
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