Everhood: An Ineffable Tale of the Inexpressible Divine Moments of Truth is as if Undertale and Guitar Hero had a rebellious son who became a drug addict obsessed with death. I don’t want to elaborate. But it’s my job, so here I am, elaborating. For you. The first minutes of Everhood: An Ineffable Tale of the Inexpressible Divine Moments of …
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Timespinner
Timespinner is a narratively ambitious 2D Metroidvania that delves into a cycle of war and oppression while boasting a strong art direction and a brilliant soundtrack. It also leaves some of its mechanics underdeveloped, but you know, nothing is perfect in life. Except coffee. There’s nothing wrong with coffee. The game’s protagonist is Lunais, a young woman who lives in …
Read More »Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Based on Norse mythology, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is psychological horror disguised as dark fantasy: its suffocating atmosphere is the consequence of tackling such themes as depression and grief while diving into the mind of a character whose mental illnesses infuse each event with hopelessness and despair. Hellblade feels quite claustrophobic because it doesn’t observe these issues from a safe distance, but …
Read More »House of Ashes
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 …
Read More »Sonic Frontiers
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 …
Read More »Little Hope
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 …
Read More »Man of Medan
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 …
Read More »ANNO: Mutationem
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 …
Read More »Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
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 …
Read More »Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
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 …
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