Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag builds on the foundations of its predecessor to set its story in the Caribbean and put the focus on pirates and naval warfare. Black Flag’s many mistakes are old ones in the franchise, with the game being dragged down by clunky stealth, weak combat, a repetitive mission structure, and an underdeveloped story. The main character …

Shift is a pointless prequel to the great dystopic world of Wool, choosing to put its focus on all the wrong places: instead of building on the fascinating discussions of its predecessor and crafting an engaging story, it decides to spend a lot of time explaining pointless things about its worldbuilding and grinding the pace to a halt with fan-service. …

Set during the Hundred Years War, The Archer’s Tale, the first book in the Grail Quest trilogy, is much more concerned with describing the great battles of the time than with telling a proper story, whose main plot is so uninteresting that it gets ignored even by its own characters. Thomas, the protagonist, is the son of a priest in …

The first R-rated Visual Novel developed by Nintendo, Emio: The Smiling Man offers a surprisingly touching story about grief and loss, focusing on the emotional pain, the guilt and powerlessness, those close to the victims of violence feel. “It was a nice day. The kind of day where you want to take a deep breath and savor the moment,” the …

At a time when the current president of the United States is known for frequently making xenophobic statements and policies, a work like American Gods becomes even more relevant: by presenting a pluralist America, this urban fantasy novel unveils the hypocrisy and monstrosity of those positions, tracing an overview of the multiplicity of peoples and beliefs that make up the …

The Last Remnant is pure, crystalline perfection. Every facet of the game, every element, every design decision, they all work in unison to create the most excruciating experience possible. If you are looking for something that can annoy and infuriate you in equal measure, there’s no other option around that is so flawlessly, impeccably constructed to fulfill and even surpass …

Fire Emblem Fates is divided into two titles: Birthright and Conquest, with a DLC called Revelation. Birthright, however, serves as a terrible example to justify such division, making some problematic changes to the series’ classic gameplay structure while offering a narrative that is not only shallow but also ridiculously stretched – like butter scraped over too much bread – to …

The Eyes of Ara is a first-person point-and-click adventure that tries to harken back to the genre’s golden era, evoking games like Myst with its puzzle design and mysterious, eerie atmosphere. The game, however, is ultimately dragged down by its shallow story, uneven puzzles, and cumbersome control scheme on the Nintendo Switch. The game opens with the protagonist – who …

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, Genevieve Valentine’s first novel, is a different and ambitious book, presenting a strange world with a fascinating style. The Circus Tresaulti is known for its extraordinary members: people who have had various parts of their body – such as their legs, eyes, or even their heart – replaced by gears, scrap metal, and …

Beyond: Two Souls is a game that doesn’t work on any level: the story is dragged down by a disconnected structure and shallow, boring characters, while the gameplay is even less interesting, offering us choices that have absolutely no impact over the game’s main events. The protagonist is Jodie Holmes (Elliot Page), a woman who has spent her entire life …