Games

The World Next Door is a frustrating game. It presents a story about alterity, introducing a world of magical creatures just a portal away from ours, with a protagonist who feels more at ease in this alien environment than at home. It subverts match-three puzzle games, creating a dynamic combat system that requires constant movement and thinking. And then it …

Hob is a top-down exploration game that, despite some great art direction and its vague story, can quickly become repetitive in its design, as we are constantly executing the same extremely simple actions over and over again in different locales. The world of Hob is one in which technology and nature are both entwined and in conflict. The first area …

The tricky thing about mysteries is that the answers to them are rarely more fascinating than the questions themselves, which can lead to a disappointing payoff if those answers are the only thing that matters to the narrative. Observation falls into this trap: it successfully builds an intriguing atmosphere of dread in its first hours, telling a story about a …

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is a competent but ultimately safe JRPG, failing to explore the few new things it brings to the table. It’s a simple JRPG that offers a bland story that never makes up for the by-the-books gameplay of the franchise. The plot follows an unnamed hero – he serves as our male avatar …

“I don’t believe whoever wins or loses, or whoever loses or wins, will lose or win. Everybody’s gonna lose,” Dilma Rousseff. The Last of Us Part II is an improvement over the first game on basically every level. It’s a harrowing experience, offering a gut-wrenching story about the never-ending cycle of violence perpetrated in the name of justice that is …

This review contains spoilers. The Last of Us is a competent post-apocalyptic zombie game about a troubled, violent man making troubled, violent decisions. It may never quite manage to successfully integrate its gameplay systems into the story, which leans too heavily on the clichés of the genre, but still offers a carefully built nihilist narrative and a couple of memorable …

Based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s most famous work, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a game that fails to harness its own potential. While its main story is hopeless, being shallow, repetitive, and contrived, when it comes to gameplay, it actually presents a great new idea even if it keeps sabotaging it at every turn. Shadow of Mordor’s story takes …

“When education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressor” – Paulo Freire. Dragon Age II is a rare type of RPG: instead of offering an epic, episodic adventure, filled with exotic people and wondrous locales to explore, it has a single, almost barren location and a thematically focused story. Its reused assets and simple …

Dear Esther’s story is told by enigmatic voice messages that eventually contradict themselves, causing disorientation and confusion. Its setting is eerie, enveloped by a dreamlike atmosphere that rejects common logic. It’s a fascinating game that only falters when it tries too hard to make us replay it. The gameplay in Dear Esther could not be simpler. Our character is stuck …

The Turing Test is a puzzle game that is often at odds with itself, packed with design decisions that work against the discussions present in its story. It’s a game that contradicts itself at every turn. You play as Ava Turing, an engineer on board a space station above Jupiter’s Europa, who one day is awakened from cryosleep by an …