Games

The third installment in the Dark Pictures Anthology, House of Ashes, is a much-needed improvement over its predecessors, abandoning the ambitious psychological twists that so marred their narratives to instead offer a more straightforward, yet effective, horror adventure. The story starts with an Akkadian king obsessed with blood sacrifices, and so deemed mad by his own general, facing an imminent invasion …

The other day, I went to the movies in a shopping mall near here to watch Amazon’s War of the Worlds (I tend to make bad decisions in life), but I never managed to get inside. For as soon as I saw some rails protecting the sides of the ramp leading to the parking lot, I did what anyone in …

This review contains all the spoilers. All of them. The second game in the Dark Pictures Anthology, the collection of short horror stories presented by a sinister entity called the Curator, is Little Hope, a disappointing follow-up to the already mediocre Man of Medan, falling into the same narrative pitfalls that so marred the first game: it once again suffers …

  The Dark Pictures Anthology starts with Man of Medan, a game with some good ideas up its sleeve that are ultimately wasted on a very problematic story, which fails to develop interesting characters and build an intense horror atmosphere – especially during repeated playthroughs. The story follows Alex, a young man who has prepared a diving expedition with his …

We gotta love strange, wacky games. ANNO: Mutationem doesn’t seem like that at first, with its overly serious plot and protagonist pointing to a by-the-numbers cyberpunk adventure. But nothing could be further from the truth. ANNO: Mutationem is bonkers, ANNO: Mutationem is bizarre; it’s just shy about it. We play as Ann Flores, who suffers from Entanglelitis, a strange disease …

When it was released back in 2010, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow shook the franchise to its core, switching genres while rebooting the entire storyline. For instead of being a Metroidvania, focusing on the exploration of a labyrinthine environment, the game followed the old God of War approach of creating awe-inspiring set-pieces punctuated by brutal action. Naturally, Pierre, the purist, was …

Sometimes, a great story is enough. Masquerada: Songs and Shadows, for example, stays on the shoulders of its fascinating protagonist and central conflict, as its simple, straightforward combat system would never carry a game on its own. We play as Cicero Gavar, a man who is summoned back from exile to assist in an investigation into the whereabouts of an …

Tales of the Abyss is an excellent RPG that tells an engaging story full of complex characters and fascinating discussions about identity and free will. The core of its combat system may be too simple for its own good, but the quality of the narrative more than makes up for that. The protagonist is a young man named Luke, the …

Astral Chain is a curious action game that’s constantly mixing genres to try and offer something new to the player alongside its complex combat system. However, it ends up cluttered, suffering from too many underdeveloped ideas, and a story so shallow that it makes the original Bayonetta’s feel like Primer in comparison. In Astral Chain, we control a cop in …

This review contains as many spoilers as the game contains rats. A Plague Tale: Innocence is a stealth-adventure game that greatly succeeds in setting up an intriguing story and building a gripping, oppressive atmosphere, excelling in mood and tension during its first hours. Unfortunately, the latter half is bogged down by an increasing sense of power and an underwhelming ending. …