I’ve discovered in recent years that I really enjoy stories centered around a time loop. I’ve seen some excellent films use the concept, and I’ve played even better games that use it. The Outer Wilds comes to mind as a perfect example, but when I saw a first-party PS5 title was using the concept in a roguelike with a AAA budget, I was absolutely on board. Now that Returnal is here in all its glory, it’s time to find out if the latest title from veteran developers at Housemarque makes the leap from arcade bullet hell to third-person bullet hell while also navigating a complex time loop story. Strap in folk, this is one wild ride. You’re Gonna Need Two Things: Time and Patience I have a mixed relationship with roguelike titles, mostly because I like to feel like I’m making progress in a game, and when the very concept prohibits you from making consistent progress, it can be difficult to really get invested. For me, it’s all about the story. I can handle repeat runs if I feel like I’m receiving motivation to keep trying. Hades is a perfect example of a title that nails this execution. Children of Morta also did well in this regard, offering bits of story between runs. With Returnal, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. There are audio logs you can find as you go through each randomly generated run into Atropos, and specific story set-pieces give you a glimpse into a house that shouldn’t exist on an alien planet, but the way the story is delivered is neither consistent nor reliable. Depending on my performance, I can go several runs without a single piece of lore, translated text, or audio log to motivate me. Given the sheer budget here, I would have liked to see more invested into additional story elements that make each run feel like you learned something, or at the very least tease you with new potential narrative if you can get just a little further. That’s not to say that what story Returnal does have isn’t good. The voice acting is excellent, with plenty emotion conveyed when the main character realizes she’s finding dead bodies of herself from other failed attempts to escape the loop. It’s all very compelling, and I certainly wanted to know what’s going on, but I think I would have stayed for another run or two per play session if I knew there was a narrative breadcrumb waiting for me at the end regardless of my performance. Now, for most people this isn’t going to matter. Roguelikes live and die by their gameplay, after all, you’re going to be playing a lot of it. They also typically leverage randomized environments or layouts to try and keep things fresh. This is one place where Returnal does shine. It took me several runs to get out of the first biome, and the environments shifted around just enough between each run to keep me from getting bored, … Read More
DARQ Complete Edition Review – To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
Nightmares are the perfect subject for a horror game, but puzzles within dreams can often be difficult to get right. After all, nearly everything goes in dream logic, and the basis for dreams leaves you with endless possibilities. What works in the real world may not work in a dream, or it could behave completely different. Now that I’ve tied your brain into a knot, let’s talk about DARQ Complete Edition, a horror-tinged puzzler for PS5 that combines the base game with two DLCs. As a young boy trying to survive his terrifying dreams, should you follow him into the dark, or should you just leave him be? Let’s find out! A Game About Nightmares Where Dream Logic Reigns Supreme DARQ Complete Edition is a game about a boy named Lloyd who has recently become adept at lucid dreaming. Unfortunately for him, his dreams on a nightly basis are consistently nightmares that put him in twisted environments and force him to face terrifying creatures to survive the night. That’s about as far as the story goes here. On the one hand, I like the open-ended nature of the gameplay, and to its credit, the style and atmosphere are excellent. The lack of story also plays well into the pacing, allowing you to quickly jump from one night to the next since there’s not anything to do in Lloyd’s house area. It’s a double-edged sword though, because the superb style and atmosphere beg explanations. How did he become so good at manipulating his dreams? Where are his parents? Shouldn’t somebody replace those boards with an actual door in the stairwell? The game never offers any real answers or context behind everything, but the ending of the main game and the two DLCs do offer plenty of fertile ground for theories when you sit back and take it all in. For fans of games like Limbo, Inside, or Little Nightmares, DARQ Complete Edition is a game that has as much or as little story as you’d like based on your own takeaway. The game never tells you what it’s about, but it’s clear that it was crafted to convey some sort of meaning. It’s not a style that works for everyone, but for me I enjoy a little more story or context where possible. I’m not above speculation, and I enjoy it, but I felt like DARQ Complete Edition could have left a few more breadcrumbs to round out its narrative. Story aside, DARQ Complete Edition is a puzzle game at heart, with some light stealth mechanics throughout each chapter. The base game isn’t terribly long, but the addition of DLCs in this package helps things feel more fleshed out. The puzzles themselves are usually spread across the level, requiring you to gather the correct items or navigate via switches and levers. One particularly mind-bending aspect of DARQ Complete Edition is the way you can walk along walls or ceilings at your leisure. The way LLoyd presses his hand against the wall … Read More
Paradise Lost Review – A Poignant Journey into The Heart of Grief
One thing I’d like to make clear is that I am not a fan of the term “walking simulator.” As a writer, I find that what I like to call “narrative adventures” offer a way to experience a story through light interaction and decision-making. Calling something a walking simulator devalues the work that goes into telling an interactive story. With that out of the way, Paradise Lost is a narrative adventure out now for PS4 and playable on PS5. It’s a story set in an alternate version of post-WWII where the Nazi’s decimated Europe with nuclear weapons, and our main character finds himself exploring a seemingly abandoned bunker that for reasons that become known as the story progresses. Does this dive into a version of history that never happened tell a story worth experiencing, or should we leave this paradise to the fold of time? Let’s find out! A Gripping Exploration of an Alternate Timeline Paradise Lost is a game that excels in creating a rich and detailed atmosphere right from the beginning. This level of immersion is due to a few things, but in no small part to the richly realized environments and little touches like being able to see your entire character’s body as he jumps off ledges or climbs through elements of the environment. The game’s story didn’t grab me immediately, but as it progressed through the roughly four hour run time, I found that it very organically reveals more and more about the events that transpired prior to your arrival, and the reasons for why you find yourself in this elaborate bunker. I say bunker, but it’s more of a sprawling underground city with multiple districts and distinct areas. In this version of history, the Nazi’s decimated Europe with nuclear weaponry, leaving the area in Poland where you spend the game nearly uninhabitable on the surface. With a few clues to go on, you play as a 12-year-old boy with nothing but his wits, a photograph, and a lighter to guide him in the beginning. The story is told through some flashbacks, dialogue between the boy and one other character (I’m leaving out their names as they’re not revealed right away in the story), audio recordings, and of course, the good old fashioned method of finding in-game documents. Where Paradise Lost’s story worked really well for me was in the way that it doesn’t show all of its cards until later. You’ll spend the first chunk of the game alone and eventually make contact with someone via the camera / microphone system, but even the documents play coy with what the Nazi’s were up to in this massive underground society. I imagine that some people will predict several elements of the story before they come to fruition, but I even found myself surprised at a few of the developments. It’s also a story with some flexibility thanks to a few different paths you can take through environments and moments where you interact with a complex machine … Read More
Black Legend Review – Glimmers in The Fog
Strategy RPG games have enjoyed a few breakout hits in recent years. Whether it’s the wild success of XCOM 2, or the surprisingly satisfying Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, perhaps my favorite thing is when the genre experiments with new and interesting settings. With Black Legend, turn-based tactics heads to the city of Grant, blanketed in a poisonous fog and riddled with cultists. An intriguing setup to be sure, but does this tale of mercenaries sent into a doomed city go toe-to-toe with the greats, or will the cultists win this battle in the end? Let’s find out. A Diamond in The Rough For Strategy Fans The setup for Black Legend is certainly enough to grab your attention. Playing as mercenaries sent by the king, you enter the town of Grant, which is covered in a thick fog and eerily quiet. An evil alchemist by the name of Mephisto has somehow conjured the fog, which drives people mad if they aren’t given an antidote. As a result, the townspeople all hide in their homes, not even opening their doors for fear of exposing themselves to the fog, or worse, running into the cultists that now roam the city. Throw in a literal bestiary for the various enemies and creatures that travel with them, and you have a great recipe for a horror-tinged setting. With the huge potential this premise offers, it’s a shame that the story itself isn’t given more of a focus. Cutscenes and conversations play out from the same camera angle as the gameplay, with voice acting that meanders between decent and far too stilted to be believable. One example of the latter is the way that certain explanations or tutorials are told to you via narration in addition to text. Having an in-game character talk about game mechanics or controls breaks the immersion for me. While it is possible to customize your character and recruit different party members, none of the options are particularly memorable and there’s no real development to them from a story standpoint. There are side quests and side conversations you can have with people through their doors, but the static delivery of the story really fails to capture the potential of the setting and the premise, which is a shame because there’s a lot of interesting details put into the enemies and the city of Grant itself. There’s also incentive to explore the city, and despite the lack of denizens, the city has a sense of presence thanks to some smart audio design and the uncertainty of when you’ll run into a group of cultists. Chests scattered around the various districts also give you incentive to poke around, but before we dive into the gameplay and mechanics, it’s worth noting that the game does not have a map of any kind. Instead, there are road signs throughout the city that will point you to other signs and can be used in conjunction with your compass at the top of the screen, but … Read More
PlayStation Store Shutdown Coming For PS3, Vita, and PSP Stores (Update: Sony Reverses Decision)
There’s always been a debate between physical and digital formats for games, and while I’ve long been a proponent of physical media, I’ve found myself leaning towards digital in the last two generations. It’s just easier to download a game in many cases than try to deal with delayed shipments or shipping costs in general. Update 4/19/21: Sony has decided to go back on their decision to shutdown the Vita and PS3 stores. The PSP store will still go down as intended. The cancellation of the store closures was relayed via a post on the PlayStation Blog by CEO Jim Ryan. In this case, it seems the vocal outcry from gamers managed to turn the decision around. Original story follows: A recent report from Polygon confirms that Sony will shutdown the PS3, Vita, and PSP stores in the coming months, making it impossible to purchase these titles digitally after the shutdown. With the PS5 coming in an all-digital format, this news could shake people’s faith in Sony’s ability to make their games playable years into the future. A Terrifying Prospect for Game Preservation I used to be someone who clung tightly to my old consoles and physical titles, but in my pursuit of trying to cleanse my belongings Marie Kondo-style, I started to think that the digital approach was the way to go. It’s scary to think that all of those titles I have on my PSN account for the PS3, PSP, or Vita systems would no longer be available as soon as July of 2021. Thankfully, the official announcement confirmed that you would be able to download any games you’ve purchased after the shutdown via the game library. Even so, after the shutdown, digital titles will no longer be available for purchase on these respective stores. It’s hard to say which way this kind of news would go, but if I were someone who bough a PS5 digital version, it would make me pretty damn angry seeing as how this could happen to me years down the road. In a perfect world, this kind of news would precede some sort of announcement that backwards compability is coming or PS Now is getting the whole library of PS3 titles, but I highly doubt that’s going to be the case. What do you think? While this isn’t official news, it’s possible we could see this kind of announcement come from Sony with no news as to how these games may be preserved for future generations (quite literally). What do you think about this kind of shutdown? Is it too soon? Should it happen at all? Let us know in the comments! Article by – Bradley Ramsey Insert date – 3/23/2021
Can’t Drive This Review – Jan de Bont Would be Proud
Racing games are typically an exciting combination of speed and competition, and some of them feature track builders for those who want to practice their hand at crafting the course itself. What if I told you that there’s a game that combines both of these, in real-time, that also hilariously references Jan de Bont’s Speed films, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock? Welcome to Can’t Drive This, the PS5 game where one person builds the track while the other one drives. Oh, and the other big twist? If you slow down for too long, you’ll blow up. The need for speed is real here, but does Can’t Drive This capitalize on its premise, or will you be hitting the brakes before long? Let’s find out. A Compelling Premise That Burns Out Too Soon Can’t Drive This is one of those games that resulted a double-take and a wry grin from me as soon as I read the premise. A cooperative title where one person builds the track and the other drives on it in real time? Sounds like good old fashioned chaos, and I am here for it. The game’s tutorial is also hilarious and very self-referential. The references to the film Speed are also the inspiration for my own nod to the classic piece of cinema in my review here. The game even gives you a pat on the back for watching all of the tutorials, which I particularly enjoyed as someone who enjoys fun tutorials, which is realize is an oxymoron to some gamers out there who’d prefer to just get into it. From Pixel Maniacs, the developers of ChromaGun, Can’t Drive This continues their focus on a unique premise, but unlike ChromaGun, Can’t Drive This doesn’t quite chase this ideas as far as it can go. When you boot the game up, you’ll have four modes to choose from, but let’s start with what you can do on your own. Can’t Drive This is a game that expects you to play with others, but it does include a “lone racer” mode that allows you to swap between building and driving. The option is appreciated, but it pales in comparison to the other modes. A full single player mode would have been great, but in lieu of this I would have rather seen another multiplayer mode instead. Moving to the main focus, you can play Can’t Drive This in both local and online co-op. The former is up to four players, while the latter is limited to two. This simple fact also locks out one of the modes, Capture the Egg, which you can only play with four players locally. This mode is essentially capture the flag, but with a giant concrete egg as the game describes it. Where Can’t Drive This capitalizes on its premise is the Yardage and Game of Drones modes, both of which focus on the building and driving mechanics. Yardage is the core experience, challenging you to drive as long and as far … Read More
Everything Announced For PS5 at Square Enix’s Spring 2021 Showcase
In a world of digital streams and showcases, Square Enix threw their hat into the ring with a presentation on March 18th that packed a few interesting updates and announcements for PS5 owners! Let’s dive right in and see what was revealed! Outriders is still fun and looks to have some variety (Play the demo!) Outriders is the new game from People Can Fly, and the demo has me sold on it being something I could sink some hours into. Is it completely original? No. Is it fun in co-op and offers cross play? Absolutely! The demo was a blast with friends, and the Trickster class is my go-to. Being able to play across PC, Xbox and PS5 as well made it super easy to get a team together, and for that alone, I’ll be checking it out! Marvel’s Avengers comes to PS5, and Black Panther is on the Way! Marvel’s Avengers may not be as good as it could be, but I’m still holding out for a No Man’s Sky Scenario. In either case, PS4 owners can now upgrade to the PS5 version at no extra cost! The downside is that migrating your save is a little complicated (okay, it’s a lot complicated), and if you’re anything like me, your PS5’s hard drive is already sweating. In either case, the upcoming free Black Panther expansion looks pretty sweet with a new biome to explore, and I’m still hoping this game can turn things around because I love the idea. Balan Wonderworld Gets a New Trailer, and I Hope it’s Better Than The Demo Balan Wonderworld is one of those games that I’ve only heard about, but man did I heard about that demo being…not great. The new trailer seems okay and colorful enough to possibly be a fun visual spectacle, but if I’m being honest I’m not sure who this is for, outside of the younger gamers out there. Life is Strange: True Colors Comes in September From Deck Nine Games Life is Strange: True Colors is the next main title in the series, coming September 10th, 2021. The new character and her empath abilities are very interesting, and the feels are real in the trailer here. I also love the motion-captured animation as that’s been a weak point of the series up until now. Deck Nine handled the Before The Storm game, which I liked! Here’s hoping they can knock it out of the park again with this one. Project Athia Becomes Forspoken, and is that a Motherf#$^ing dragon?! Project Athia was one of the more bombastic looking titles to be announced for PS5, and with this new sneak peek we learned a couple of things. For starters, the main character seems to be from our world, or at least a present day one because of her shoes and her reaction to seeing a dragon for the first time (see the header above). While Forspoken won’t be out until next year, it’s one I will certainly be keeping … Read More
In Rays of The Light Review – Shadows of The Future
My first experience with developer Sergey Noskov’s work was 7th Sector on the PS4, but I was impressed with the level of fidelity, the smart puzzles, and the superb atmosphere. When I heard about his new title, In Rays of The Light, I knew I had to check it out. This is a remake of a 2012 title from Noskov called The Light, and it comes to us with a modest price tag to reflect its intentional short run time of a couple hours. Some of my favorite experiences in gaming come from these bite-sized experiences, but does In Rays of The Light leave a lasting impression, or does this haunting trip through a post-apocalyptic world leave little to remember? Let’s find out! A Brief, but Powerfully Atmospheric Adventure In Rays of The Light is game that prides itself on the strength of both its presentation and its atmosphere. Despite giving you a rusted pipe to carry around early on, the game won’t throw enemies at you. This is a methodical adventure through the ruins of a post-apocalyptic world where the end has already come and gone. It’s up to you to explore, solve some puzzles, and ultimately learn more about what happened. One thing I noticed early on is the haunting atmosphere that clings to everything around you. The game’s music is excellent, but the its the absence of it that really drives home how alone you truly are as you walk the halls of a school that has spent what seems like decades succumbing to nature. The early portions of the game have you exploring various rooms, hunting down keys, and reading notes through the main building before venturing outside and eventually into the basement. Throughout all of this, In Rays of The Light always makes you feel like someone could be waiting just around the corner. Despite the abandoned nature of the environments, there’s this feeling of a missing presence in all of the rooms and throughout the grounds surrounding the building. It’s a combination of things, from objects and furniture strewn around the rooms, to clever use of music and audio, to the methodical pace of your movement. Even hitting the run button doesn’t quite move you fast enough to really fly by the details around you. One thing I will say is that the default sensitivity is a little low, but I was able to turn it up in the options menu on PS5 to where it felt more responsive, though quick reflexes are not a requirement. While there isn’t much in the way of spoken dialogue, I do recommend having the subtitles on, as they seem to control whether you see messages such as “there’s no power” when you interact with objects. You’ll also get translated subtitles for the times where there are spoken lines if this is turned on. There’s no real direction throughout In Rays of The Light, but this allows you to explore and complete the various elements of the game … Read More
Doodle Devil: 3volution Review – Is it Good to be Bad?
One of the games I played when I first got a smartphone was this simple app where you combined base elements to unlock more complex items. It was just a drag-and-drop interface with very little flourish. It even had a basic name like “chemistry” or something. Nevertheless, it was addicting, even if I ended up just trying combinations at a certain point. Doodle Devil: 3volution is the latest game in a series that follows a similar formula, but throws in the theme of being pure evil and coming up with things like the seven deadly sins in your various combinations. Does this darker side of the Doodle God games offer an evil evolution worthy of your time, or is this title about as fun as a vacation to hell? Let’s find out. A Fun Core Loop With Unnecessary Baggage Right off the bat, it’s worth noting that Doodle Devil: 3volution is not an expensive game at all. While games like this originate as smartphone apps fueled by microtransactions, the exchange here is a slightly higher price in exchange for having everything in-game. With a price of $8.99, I’m taking the cost into account as I discuss the ups and downs of the experience. That being said, Doodle Devil: 3volution offers the standard gameplay that those familiar with the series are used to, while also adding a few extra modes that we’ll discuss momentarily. For those not familiar with the series, Doodle Devil begins with some base elements and a single category for you to work with. Using a combination of trigger inputs and button presses, you’ll pair things together like fire, water, earth, and so forth to create more complex things like steam.and lava. As you explore combinations, you’ll unlock other categories to keep everything organized. The twist with Doodle Devil is that you’ll be unlocking things like the concept of torture, the river styx, the seven deadly sins, and yes, even sex. I raised my eyebrows when I saw the game’s icons for some of these things, but nothing is inherently offensive. An option for younger players is in the settings as well for those who may have younger gamers playing alongside them. Things happen fast, and combinations are almost always rewarding in the opening portion of the game. Once you hit about 50 or so unlocks though, things slow down and you’ll find yourself accidentally redoing combinations without realizing it. An in-game store allows you to purchase upgrades that prevent you from seeing the same animations or giving you the abiilty to spot which items have combinations, but these need to be purchased first. It’s not a big deal, because the game gives you 10K gold off the bat to grab these things, but at that point it would have made sense to just enable them by default. Gold is also spent on purchasing hints or outright suggestions on what to combine, which is nice when you just need a nudge to keep things going, but the game … Read More
State of Play February 25th, 2021 Highlights: Final Fantasy VII Remake on PS5 and Other Exciting Announcements!
Sony’s State of Play series is back with a new 30-minute look into PS4 and PS5 titles and announcements. As always, there were some ups and downs, but let’s talk about the big updates and news! Everything Announced at Sony’s February 25th State of Play Stream The announcement for this stream came out of nowhere this week, but we’ve managed to check out all the news from the February 25th’s State of Play. Here are the highlights: Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is getting PS5 upgrades on March 12th. Faster loading, DualSense features like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, 3D audio, and the ability to transfert your saves as well! Returnal is still coming on April 30th, but we saw some new gameplay and heard some more details about the world and story. Knockout City, first shown off in Nintendo’s Direct, is coming on May 21st. Looks like a fun take on dodgeball! Sifu was announced from Sloclap and looks to be an excellent brawling game with a kun-fu influence. It’s coming sometime in 2021 Solar Ash from the creators of Hyper Light Drifer showed some new gameplay and confirmed a 2021 release date. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach received it’s first new footage and seems to be a big upgrade for the series with fully open environments and enhanced graphics. Oddworld: Soulstorm is coming April 6th, and it’s going to be free for PlayStation Plus members! Kena: Bridge of Spirits is coming August 21st and looks absolutely stunning as always. Like a Studio Ghibli film meets Pixar. Deathloop showed some new gameplay, along with a confirmation of a May 21st release. Looks like another hit from Dishonored developer Arkane Studios Final Fantasy VII is coming to PS5 as a free upgrade for existing users. Not only that, but a new story DLC starring Yuffie will be available the same day: June 10th. It’s entitled Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade. Some interesting updates in here! Seems like we’ll have to wait for the summer before some bigger releases start coming out, but in the meantime, let us know what you think of the latest State of Play in the comments! Article by – Bradley Ramsey Insert date – 2/25/2020