HIGH Ricocheting through the last 20% of “Weave” with sparks flying en route to a record time.

LOW The overly technical and slow “Palm” track.

WTF It is insanely goofy that the sharpest turns are the easiest.

The simplest kind of racing comes in the form of the slot car. There’s no drafting, no steering, no brakes — just a grooved track and a way to go faster. Little Laps leans into this simplicity. There’s no story, no characters, and little customization, just 18 tracks (all accessible immediately) and 15 cars (unlocked by getting achievements) run by two buttons, one to go faster and the other to restart.

Most of those tracks are attractive, if somewhat lacking in background detail. The colors occasionally grate on the eyes, however, especially in the track labeled “Night”. The various cars amount to being just skins, as there are no differences in handling — it’s a slot racer — or acceleration, which is universally sluggish.

The key quirk of Little Laps is that velocity entering the curve doesn’t matter. As my parents know well, a slot car will take off into the air if it hits a hairpin too fast, but in Little Laps any curve can be passed safely as long as the accelerator isn’t touched while the car is turning.

An amusing consequence of this feature is that it inverts expectations about handling. Gentler curves become dangerous places where it’s easy to keep the accelerator down a fraction of a second too long. Hairpins become prime opportunities to gain speed, since they can tolerate the pedal hitting the metal almost up to the last instant.

When this gets going it looks great. Cars throw off sparks as they drift through absurdly sharp corners and weave automatically through wild S-curves with their tires squealing. An available “best time” shadow provided a yardstick against my own performance and global leaderboards let me see my progress against other gamers.

I enjoyed playing Little Laps in small bites, and it’s well-suited to the rhythm of making a few quick attempts at a record time, possibly shaving a few tenths of a second off this lap. In case of a wipeout, I can just hit the reset button and get right back in it.

Or, that’s what one would hope.

The sluggish acceleration rate has another consequence, in that the key to a record lap is entering it with momentum. The first lap, starting from a dead stop, will never produce a record time after the first attempt. As I continued to optimize play, I sometimes found that I needed a second lap to get up enough entry speed to have a chance at a record.

This means that a player isn’t really right back in the action after a wreck. Each restart entails a sluggish first lap before there’s any chance at improving time. Sometimes that lap helped me calm down after a stupid mistake, but mostly it felt like a waste.

Worse, that slow initial run doesn’t offer the opportunity to learn anything about timing acceleration for record-lap tries. As I played, I often noticed myself being more conservative than was reasonable (even when I was trying for a record) simply because I wanted to avoid those wasted laps.

That dead start ends up being a real drag on the whole experience, which is a shame. Little Laps is a charming and zippy single-button racer, but in a stripped-down, minimalist experience everything has to be just right and here a major element isn’t.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Conradical Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on a home built Windows 11 PC with a single GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card, a Ryzen 7 processor, and 64 GB of RAM. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There is no multiplayer mode.

Parents: As of press time this game has not been rated by the ESRB. It contains nothing worse than a car flying off a racetrack (with no visible wreck damage) and should logically be rated E.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game has no dialogue or story text. I found that the sound of tire squeals was helpful in judging when to let go of the accelerator, and accordingly found it somewhat more difficult to improve my times when I turned off sound.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. By default the space bar serves as the accelerator and R resets the race. Menus require the mouse. On an Xbox controller the A button is the accelerator and Y resets. Note: I found that when using a controller to move through the menus the cursor sometimes got “lost” and I had to back out with the B button.

The post Little Laps Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH An extremely satisfying gameplay loop.

LOW It’s not very obvious on how to “win” a run.

WTF Body horror… in my roguelite?

We’ve done it, folks. We’ve made a slot-machine roguelite. I think we can pack it up for the rest of time because we’ve made the single most addicting videogame known to man.

In all honesty, CloverPit somehow works as a videogame on a level that I didn’t know was possible. Instead of sticking to a source material’s roots and then adding endless customization like poker in Balatro, or weaving in story to build a larger world as seen in Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers, CloverPit takes slot machines in a more horrifying direction.

Here, the player is trapped in the “CloverPit,” a 5×5 box of a room with a slot machine, a coin depository, an item shop, and not much else. It’s here where the player must play a slot machine and deposit enough coins by each deadline, or else risk the floor opening up and falling to their death. There are ways to rig the machine and items to save the player in times of distress, but ultimately, they’re at the mercy of Lady Luck.

So much of what makes a videogame great is atmosphere, but atmosphere isn’t limited to just music or the art direction. It’s ultimately a collection of small choices that make the experience enjoyable or memorable — sound effects, lighting, and small programming quirks. 

CloverPit has all of these and more. It’s filled with a kind of alchemy that I can barely explain in words, but it has that special sauce where every mechanic is designed to to keep people playing for as long as they can. Each set of spins sounds off with a garbled, electronic announcer saying “Let’s go gambling!” followed by satisfying sounds whenever the machine scores a pattern, and dissatisfying ones whenever they come up short. 

…But the horror is where CloverPit starts to get interesting.

See, the player is “promised” a way out of the pit if they score enough points on the slot machine – but that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Each time they pass a scoring threshold, they’re forced to play again but just reach a higher point total. Eventually, they’re asked to get enough points to unlock a key that seems like a way out, but…

These evil undertones are even more exaggerated by CloverPit‘s dark, hard polygonal art style – which actually did make me feel like I was trapped in a pit with no escape. I felt compelled to play the slots, not just to beat the game, but to get the hell out of the pit. 

Unlike similar roguelites such as Balatro, it’s not obvious how to build a winning run in CloverPit. A slot machine seems like the most luck-of-the-draw machine out there, but CloverPit teaches the player how to win through various trials by fire. Since each round is a gamble, the player had better capitalize on every opportunity by knowing what they want to get out of it.

Each round starts with a choice — spin three times and get two tickets to buy items, or spin seven times and only get one ticket. Rounds pass with more and more choices, where players need to balance keeping enough coins to pass a deadline against buying items that will ultimately increase that coin total. Sometimes a spin will produce enough coins to pass a deadline early, granting the player an extra bonus of coins and tickets to splurge in the item shop. Yet maybe passing that deadline early isn’t the best idea – maybe they want to keep spinning in order to to bank coins for future rounds if they find their winning strategy is petering out. 

This decision-making in CloverPit feels also more weighty than other roguelikes because of the chances that I would be stopped in my tracks due to bad luck. Many runs become dead-on-arrival if the player doesn’t get items that either increase the score from each successful spin, or items that rig the slot machine to make certain symbols appear more often — and don’t forget about the chance to spin a 666, which causes the player to lose all money earned in that round! 

…But when I put things together correctly, avoided the 666 and I did win – ooh boy, that was the best feeling ever.

I haven’t even scratched the surface of what the slot machine has to offer in terms of winning strategies or clever tricks, as there are countless items to unlock, game modifiers to equip, and just more to play. In a decade where certain titles toe the line between gambling and games, CloverPit performs that dance beautifully and produces an unforgettable roguelite experience as a result — it’s a delight, and one of the most delightfully frustrating things I’ve played this year. 

Score: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Panik Arcade and published by Future Friends Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PC. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is rated T for Teen on the ESRB. The game does have a small amount of gore and blood. Players must equip bloody human bones to get past certain portions of the game and there is blood lining the shelves within the cell the main character is trapped in.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game’s story is text-only but the subtitles cannot be resized. The game is not fully accessible. There are no audio cues needed for successful play.\

Remappable Controls: CloverPit is mouse and keyboard only, and there are a few different layouts for keyboards included beyond QWERTY. There are no remap options besides those.

The post CloverPit Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The atmosphere is top tier.

LOW Repetition and recycled content.

WTF …Happened to my save file?

Like every games writer approaching the end of the year, I’ve started to compile a list of my top 10 games of 2025 in an effort to appease the algorithmic gods that give this writing hobby of mine some semblance of meaning. As someone who is less constrained by the new release schedule than many, I like to focus on my top 10 experiences regardless of release date, so I don’t have to overlook any titles that impressed me. With that being said, here’s a sneak preview:

Pacific Drive is likely going to take the gold.

Loading into the original title, I expected a narrative heavy driving adventure. What I experienced was an extraction-based survival challenge with a large splash of SCP and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

The player’s time is divided between maintaining their car’s condition by avoiding dangers in an anomaly-filled forest and looting every resource they can find in order to upgrade the car for even deeper ventures into a mysterious place called The Zone. I’m not a car guy, but I loved every second of my time exploring and learning about how the world worked, and by the time I was set to leave my garage for the final time, I had an appreciation for a game that tried something different and nailed the atmosphere it was going for.

With the recent release of the “Whispers in the Woods” expansion, I took the opportunity to grab my car keys and hit the road for another journey… and I have thoughts.

As an overview, the DLC adds an 8–12 hour side story campaign to the main title alongside new anomalies, new mechanics and a fully voice-acted narrative. The original mix of cozy and unnerving from Pacific Drive‘s initial release has been replaced with a spookier, more sinister tone as we learn more and more about a fanatical cult operating within The Zone. 

For players who read “Pacific Drive but spookier” and are already sold, then feel free to stop reading here. For everyone else, I can happily report the atmosphere in Whispers in the Woods has been amped up and the visuals continue to look phenomenal. However, there were a few bumps in the road… I was initially taken with the DLC, but as I started to settle into the new, poorly-explained gameplay loop, cracks started to appear.

There are two new main systems to contend with. Instead of collecting energy to form an exit gateway as in the original Pacific Drive, the player now needs to collect a certain number of “artifacts” that will be sacrificed at an altar to open an escape route. These artifacts each have their own quirk that will apply to the player and their car, with the effects ranging from good to ‘get rid of this thing as fast as possible’. I do like the fact that the player can no longer tell where the level exit will appear. Previously the escape could be trivialized by plotting a clear route, now the player needs to adapt on the fly, leading to far tenser rides.

Secondly, holding on to too many artifacts will gradually increase The Whispering Tide. If it maxes out “they” will begin hunting the player across the map, I will not be elaborating further because that’s part of the experience, but thankfully, this aspect can be offset this by equipping the remnant with attuned parts which will help hide the player’s presence from “them”.

In theory these are both fine systems, leading to more varied escapes and encouraging veteran players to update their car. Sadly, these new attuned parts are just glowing versions of existing parts, so I was forced to unlock everything again, minus the joy of discovery and added frustration because they are harder to repair. While different artifacts do have slightly different impact levels, the player almost always has the ability to choose either a positive one or an ignorable negative effect. This leads to the gameplay loop feeling very similar to the original Pacific Drive — simply collect enough circular energy sources to escape through a portal.

This repetition is not helped by the story missions being essentially the same task repeated seven times. Go to a new area and find an audio file, listen to it to unlock a trial with a special gameplay condition, complete the trial to unlock a new area, and repeat. The areas each have their own quirks and the trials often come with substantial restrictions, but I was left wanting when it came to the diversity I had hoped for from an expansion. The new anomalies are interesting but I had encountered the majority within a few hours of play and none caused me to change my approach to the maps, which are still heavily filled with well-known anomalies.

When it comes to the actual narrative, I prefer the story of the main game. However, I do want to acknowledge that the DLC offers strong voice performances to accompany the player throughout their journey. I was a disappointed to see there was less environmental storytelling than the first go-round and that it was almost all contained to audio logs, but the characters are at least interesting. For newer players, the story is completely separate from that of the original Pacific Drive, so players can drop in and out without concerns of spoilers.

I wanted to be able to write this review and profess my love for Whispers In The Woods as a reason to revisit one of my favorite titles of the past few years, but it left me wanting. On paper it’s more Pacific Drive with a Halloween skin, but I wanted more from an expansion. If it had been marketed as a smaller ‘trials’ pack my expectations might have been more in line with the actual experience.

There is clear care put into this expansion and it’s easy to see the vision Ironwood Studios had, it just didn’t land with me. However, I do hope they continue trying to experiment because I would love this studio to create a new experience as much as I love the original Pacific Drive.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

— Adam Sharman

Buy Pacific Drive: Whispers In the Woods — PC — PS — XB

Disclosures: This game is developed by Ironwood Studios and published by Kepler Interactive. It is currently available on PC, PS5 and XBX/S. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 9 hours of play were devoted to the expansion, on top of 32 hours in the main game, and the game was completed. There is currently no multiplayer option.

Parents: The game has an ESRB rating of T due to Fantasy Violence and Language. Pacific Drive can be very unnerving when the player is unaware of the world around them and the expansion has a horror theme including ghastly enemies that can ‘charge’ the player as a mild jump scare, although their threat level is minimal. The visuals and soundtrack of the expansion further play into this horror element but no violence is shown to the player character.

Colorblind Modes: There are colorblind modes alongside a host of accessibility features.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game has subtitles for all dialogue, which is the sole way the story is conveyed. No audio is essential for gameplay and the subtitles cannot be tweaked beyond on/off. While some anomalies have audio cues, these are all accompanied by some level of visual cue. It can be helpful to hear certain anomalies without looking, but this has minimal gameplay effect. The car can develop quirks which include the horn being honked as an effect, which may be more difficult to identify for players with hearing difficulty, but this is a rare occurrence and there are ways to identify the quirk without hearing the sound.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls on both keyboard and controller.

The post Pacific Drive: Whispers In The Woods Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Nuking the dragon with an array of archers before it torched anything.

LOW Wounded swordsmen taking space in my army without ever returning to action.

WTF This is obviously a fantasy world, yet there are no fantasy buildings or units?

The past decade has seen a flood of creative city-builders setting a new standard for the genre. It’s unfair, of course, to expect every indie team to turn out a Frostpunk or The Wandering Village, but the bar has been raised. That means some reasonably competent titles that don’t stand out will be forgotten, and unfortunately, that’s the fate I expect to befall Becastled.

Becastled is a phased-combat city-building game. The player’s forces can only build, recruit units, and gather resources during the day. Every night, “Lunar” enemies attack from a nearby spawn point and follow predictable paths. On each fifth night, a more powerful force attacks. At the edges of the map are a few towers that, when destroyed, provoke a more powerful attack featuring a boss. Destroying all of these towers grants victory.

There’s no campaign to speak of – the closest thing Becastled offers is a series of tutorials – and the meat of the experience is the freeplay mode described above. There’s also a sandbox mode that feels somewhat pointless, as it removes the core resource management aspect of play. A limited map editor is also available. For purposes of this review I tested the sandbox mode, made a few maps, completed the tutorial, and played five full rounds of varying difficulty in freeplay (each of which ran 2-4 hours).

Becastled’s maps are made of irregular polygons of territory, each of which can have a resource and trees, and one curious feature about these resources is that they don’t really deplete. Even on higher difficulties I never had a mineral or food resource run out. Except in the winter season, forests regenerate completely every day. This bounty eliminates the typical progression of city-builders, and among other things, it leads to oddities in city planning like massive stone walls that completely enclose a forest. Another curiosity is that the world of Becastled is clearly one that’s full of magic – the game’s “Lunar” enemies include a golem, a dragon, and a necromancer – but the player can’t create a building or unit that has any obvious magic capability — the closest one can get is an herbalist.

That herbalist building is not initially available, and must be researched on the rudimentary tech tree, which is only about two steps deep on average. Researching new techs is instantaneous and requires only that the player spend resources, primarily wood. This points to a significant resource imbalance in Becastled, as the need for wood is awfully steep since it’s needed to create every early building and also research every tech to get additional resources. Even obtaining the ability to trade other goods for wood requires 2000 units of wood in research, not counting what’s needed to recruit and sustain manpower and gather gold.

The lack of any other resource can be worked around, but if the player spawns in a map with no wood next to the initial position, they might as well restart. Strangely, the bare-bones map editor has no method for adjusting the position or density of forests, so even when creating a specific optimized world, one is utterly dependent on the RNG to get enough wood in the early game to survive.

I also noticed that units sometimes had trouble getting where they needed to go, or that they would make strange movements. This was most notable with the military units — archers would sometimes teleport outside of walls and troops would sometimes get trapped by a cluster of their comrades. Workers would also sometimes get stuck on terrain or be mysteriously unable to reach their work sites, even when nothing had changed from the previous day. Also, walls laid out near lakes would sometimes simply not get built.

During my time with Becastled, I noticed it being patched almost daily, yet each patch seemed to make pathfinding worse. The last time I played, military units would regularly fail to move at all when I clicked on a destination, and numerous workers failed to reach their work sites every day. This leaves me with some doubt that the pathfinding problems will be addressed.

While those are serious shortcomings, the fundamental problem with Becastled doesn’t really lie in its systems — the key issue is that there’s just no hook here. There’s no unique resource, no unusual mechanics, and no unexpected interplay between units or buildings. There’s not even anything approaching a graphical twist. Becastled is simplistic and straightforward to the point of being generic, and the magic that’s missing from the player’s build menu is also absent from the experience as a whole.

Becastled is certainly a game a person could spend hours playing, but in a genre crowded with unique and fascinating takes on the concept, I can’t think of a reason why one should put time into a title with so many annoyances and so little to recommend it.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Mana Potion Studios and published by Mana Potion Studios and Pingle Studios. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5, Switch, and XBO/X/S. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on a home-built Windows 11 PC equipped with a single GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card (driver 581.80), a Ryzen 7 processor, and 64 GB of RAM. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed (as described above). There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10 and contains Fantasy Violence. The violence is totally bloodless, just little guys falling over. If it can hold their interest, this is an all-ages joint.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: During main play there is no dialogue. In tutorials, dialogue is accompanied by text boxes (not true subtitles, example of text below) that cannot be resized. There is narration in the opening movie but no subtitles. During play there are no essential audio cues. This game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: On PC, this game offers partially remappable controls. Keyboard and mouse bindings can be changed, but it is not clear whether controller mapping can be changed (indeed I couldn’t find a page that even had the mapping on it). In KBM mode panning and rotating the map is primarily on the keyboard while the mouse is primarily for zooming. While hotkeys to perform a few functions on selected buildings are available, most selection and other functions uses clicking and dragging of the mouse. I found the game awkward to play with a controller. The left stick controls cursor movement (sluggishly) and the right stick adjusts the view. Buttons are used to select but once a building is selected the D-pad must be used to enter its menu and assign workers (using the face buttons).

The post Becastled Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The Dark Grip power up is a blast.

LOW It’s a roguelike, so expect some runs to be complete write-offs.

WTF Dashing forwards doubles as a deflecting move?

Absolum takes place in a fantasy world where certain types of magic are militarily suppressed by a tyrant known as the Sun King who enforces his rule by locking up or murdering anyone who gets in the way of his ambition. Our heroes set off on an adventure to fight back and topple this system, only for things to go badly wrong roughly ten minutes into their mission.

Said heroes do have an ace up their sleeve though — while they can technically die, it doesn’t last long until they’re reborn in a sanctuary hidden away from prying eyes. So, after being stabbed, bludgeoned, bitten or burnt to death, they’re able to dust themselves off, power themselves up with various goodies from their previous attempt, and have another crack at taking down the Sun King.

Most of the enemies are a standard fantasy medley of orcs, goblins and humans poking at things with spears for the most part. That description also fits the playable characters who are a decent enough cast of misfits, and personable enough once they get talking. That said, Blaze Fielding levels of character design excellence are not to be seen here.

My main choice was the sword knight Galandra, a strong all-rounder. There’s also a Dwarf with stone-hard fists and a blunderbuss, a frog sorcerer who floats around the battlefield unleashing magical justice and a patchwork rogue type who seems the optimal choice for anyone looking to perform freeform combos. The first two are available from the outset, the latter two must be discovered on the journey.

While Absolum is definitely a roguelike, it offers a mostly-traditional 2D side-scrolling approach. Stroll from the left side of the screen to the right mangling anything that gets in the way, pick up gems and loot to either help in current or future runs, and choose a preferred path through the chaos.

If the setup is standard side scrolling fare, then it’s fair to say that the developers have pretty much nailed the combat. Players can run around, dash towards enemies to deflect their attacks, dash up or down to avoid them as well, and use a large variety of special moves to mince through enemy hordes. There’s even the occasional Golden Axe-style mount for added lethality and protection.

One twist to this formula is the addition of Rituals. After nearly every encounter in a given location, the player is offered various rewards ranging from gold and gems to Rituals that can substantially change their playstyle with tweaks such as punches setting foes aflame or well-timed dodges blasting them with lightning.

There are also character-exclusive perks like the Dark Grip, which I fell completely in love with since it turns out that strangling dudes in Absolum is totally awesome. Stroll up to some dirty-looking malcontent, hoist them up into the air by their throat and wait until they turn blue and die, coughing up large chunks of mana in the process.

It should be mentioned that the benefits of some options aren’t always exactly clear, as Absolum is often missing basic information in info panels such as how much damage being choked actually does (lots) to enemies or how effective a floating spectral sword is at stabbing dudes, but experimenting with new discoveries is all part of the experience.

In fact, ‘discovery’ is a watchword here as Absolum shows strength through the variety of things hurled at players. Especially in the early runs, there’s almost always some twist coming out of nowhere to open up new routes, make new friendships or reveal new enemies and bosses lurking in the shadows. One time I was waiting for a lift to another area, only to have a bunch of grenades hurled at me instead. I’m not sure if this was due to the character I picked or not, but my Dwarf didn’t get a warm welcome in that zone.

Of course, this variety in conjunction with the random nature of roguelikes has a downside. When scavenging for life-replenishing food after rough battles, it’s often (literally) a feast or a famine — pointlessly abundant one run with waste aplenty, then an absolute void of sustenance the next. The same goes for abilities and power-ups — one run offers perfectly synchronized Rituals that complement each other, and the next is nothing but a ramshackle collection of redundant nonsense that doesn’t mesh.

If I had a complaint besides the random awful luck of roguelikes, I’d have to say that I’m getting sick of seeing boss characters that borderline cheat by being slathered in hyperarmor that allows them to ignore player attacks until it shatters. It comes across as a bit lazy, honestly — there’s one Warlord boss in particular that takes nasty advantage of this with huge grab windows that last too long, able to snatch players out of combos, mid-attack. It’s not exactly game breaking, but I’d be happy to see it toned down or binned completely moving forward.

I’d also hoped for something to add replay value after killing the true final boss, but Absolum doesn’t introduce any new features that I’m aware of– no randomizers, no new skill tree unlock, and no surprise bonus characters. Given how generous the devs are with content up to that point, it’s a little strange to see the content feed suddenly stop dead like that. Rolling credits feels almost anticlimactic a result.

Minor quibbles aside, Absolum is an excellent beat-’em-up full of cool combos, neat build variations, random events and enjoyable roguelike power evolution spearheaded by a team that Absolumetely knows what they’re doing when it comes to crafting quality content. For fans of roguelikes or side-scrollers, this is one to check out.  

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Guard Crush/Supamonks and published by DotEmu. It is currently available on XBX/S/PS5/Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 17 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 0 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes due to lack of available players pre release.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, and Use of Tobacco. The official description reads: Absolum is rated E10+ for Everyone 10+ by the ESRB with Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, and Use of Tobacco. This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the roles of rebel heroes battling a fantasy villain. From a 2D side-scrolling perspective, players use swords, spells, and melee-style attacks to defeat creatures and human enemies (e.g., goblins, raptors, captains, ghosts) in “beat-’em-up”-style combat. Battles are highlighted by impact sounds, colorful light effects, and cries of pain. A red puddle of blood is depicted on one ground level. One character is seen smoking a pipe. The words “damn” and “hell” appear in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles that cannot be altered or resized. I don’t recall anything in the game that would require the use of hearing for successful play, so I’d say it’s fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Absolum Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Speed. High body count.

LOW No real story. It’s a one trick pony… but it’s a good trick.

WTF My adrenaline and focus levels.

One of the first games I ever sat down to write a full review on was Severed Steel. It’s a first-person shooter from solo developer Greylock Studios, where the player controls the titular Steele — a one-armed woman with a penchant for parkour and over-elaborate gunplay. Sure, there was a SUPERHOT-esque story presentation, but frankly I was too busy having a blast slow-mo diving through window frames and throwing empty guns at foes to be concerned with it. Three years later we see the release of Greylock Studios’ next project, Echo Point Nova, which asks one simple but tantalizing question:

“That great stuff again, but what if we added a hoverboard?”

Ok, that’s not the only change, but Echo Point Nova is very much doubling down on the DNA of its predecessor. While the more cramped cyberpunk superstructure of Severed Steel has been changed to a vast open-world, the overall goal remains the same — go fast and kill everything.

Upon starting, I wake up in some sort of crash pod and am swiftly informed that my mission is to “investigate the planet” and “kill bad guys. Thousands of bad guys”. Any narrative foundation is almost instantly forgotten as I step forward and grab my revolver. Echo Point Nova is not something to be played for the story, as what little story and lore is present mainly serves as a vehicle for the developer to bring the player up to speed and point them in the right direction. From there the map is revealed to be a sprawling setting of floating islands that almost all contain some sort of battle and reward.

Now when the player is presented with a big map, minimal story and a whole lot of combat, the combat and movement need to be great to compensate for the lack of other traditional features, and I’m happy to report Echo Point Nova succeeds on both fronts. The hoverboard’s overly slick movement can take a bit of getting used to, but as the player unlocks more jumps and grapples they will find that riding along the ground begins to feel more like an optional extra rather than a given as they maintain momentum by slingshotting around loose bits of rock and riding along walls. 

Movement doesn’t just serve as a way to carry the player between fights and hunt down collectibles, though — it’s also their main means of defense. Anytime I found myself stuck in a corner without a plan, a flurry of bullets would quickly deplete my health bar. It’s an effective system to keep the player moving and maintain adrenaline levels, as slowing down is frequently punished. 

Onto the combat. Does firing an RPG, grappling the rocket into the sky, flipping upside down in slow motion, pulling out a sniper rifle and popping goons sound like a good time? If not then we clearly have very different ideas of entertainment. The combat is the meat of the experience, feeling heavily inspired by the frantic speed-based style of shooting inspired by works like Quake or Tribes: Ascend, and I adore it. 

As someone who usually enjoys a slow-paced tactical shooter, I was concerned I might have trouble adjusting to the constant movement required for success, but found myself adapting quickly. For anyone in the same camp, Echo Point Nova comes with a boatload of accessibility options, so the difficulty can be adjusted to suit the player. The masochists can crank it up to maximum with minimal health, while players who want to feel like a god can drop the difficulty down and play with unlimited slow motion.

Game environments are fully destructible, so when in doubt the player can make their own entrance or exit through terrain to find cover. However, I found this element to be a bit underutilized compared to Severed Steel, as any wall that takes more than one swing to break through would bring my momentum to a screeching halt.

The enemy and weapon variety are also both strong, with bosses being a particular standout. One of my favorite moments in Echo Point Nova was fighting one of the initial bosses,  gliding over sand dunes to launch a high speed assault against a mechanical worm, swinging through its interior to target weak points before shooting out the other side. I didn’t know that I wanted a crossover between Dune and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, but I’m not complaining in the slightest. Every fight ending with a gun or perk unlock to continually mix things up is just the cherry on top. 

Combat arenas opt for a minimalist look, with different islands on the map being sparsely populated by ruins or trees. This seems an intentional design choice, though, as it can already be a challenge to keep track of enemies on relatively open levels. The dynamic soundtrack has a fantastic mixture of chill, almost ethereal electronic tunes to accompany the player as they grapple through the clouds before shifting to slightly more animated and heavier tones for combat and boss encounters. It’s certainly more subtle than one might expect, but it always feels appropriate and punctuates the player’s actions nicely.

Echo Point Nova is a representation of what I love to see from an indie game. Take one key mechanic, polish it to a mirror sheen, and leave the player with a fantastic gameplay experience. It’s a worthy follow-up to an already adrenaline-filled experience, and it’s been getting continuous post-launch support including a whole new map with developer commentary.

If the idea of gunning down bad guys while kickflipping through the sky doesn’t appeal, then there’s nothing in Echo Point Nova that’s going to convert someone. For me, though, Echo Point Nova does exactly what it says on the tin and excels at it — and honestly, that’s enough to keep me coming back with each update to maintain my 100% completion.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

— Adam Sharman

Disclosures: This game is developed by Greylock Studio and is self-published. It is currently available only on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download and reviewed on the PC.  Approximately 19 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was finished with 100% completion including post-launch content. 0 hours of play were spent in multiplayer mode. Up to 4 player co-op is available as a scaled version of the single player mode.

Parents: The game is not currently not rated by the ESRB. According to the developer it contains “stylized first person gun and melee combat, with blood splashes and blood wound decals on enemy character bodies.” There is a reduced blood option for those who are concerned but given the speed of the combat the blood is certainly not a focal point Echo Point Nova is still very focused around gun violence so parents should be advised.

Colorblind Modes: There is no dedicated colorblind mode although some colors can be manually changed.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles but there is no audible dialogue beyond enemy noises which do not impact combat. Minor story and lore dialogue are communicated via text. While these boxes can’t be traditionally scaled, they are static in the world so the player can get closer to them for a larger view.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls on both keyboard and controller. There is no diagram. Controls follow familiar first-person shooter norms. WASD controls movement with the mouse being used to aim and shoot. The number keys and mouse wheel can both be used to swap between weapons while familiar ancillary keys like F, Q and G are used for melee, grapples and ‘grenades’ respectively

The post Echo Point Nova Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The chain tires – snowy roads be damned!

LOW Inadvertently locking myself out of the true ending.

WTF The snow-covered frozen corpses I kept finding.

If I showed up for the first day of work and was greeted with empty city streets, caustic shopkeepers, and sub-zero temperatures that apparently send me to a bizarre void world after several seconds of exposure, I would probably turn around and go home – which is probably why I’ve never been hired by the Easy Delivery Co. 

As a fresh-faced recruit, players will brave blizzards and uncanny townsfolk as they cruise snowy mountains delivering packages and piecing together the truth behind a mysterious village.

The core loop of Easy Delivery Co. is simple enough – select a job, head to point A to pick up, deliver to point B, get paid.  Structured as a semi-open-world courier simulator, charting a route across three primary burgs is left to the player’s discretion.  Longer distance deliveries net higher payouts which, in turn, can be redeemed for gasoline, vehicle upgrades, and supplies to guard against the cold.

Weather plays a key role in Easy Delivery Co., with any time spent outdoors presenting the danger of rapid hypothermia (and a quick return to that spooky void world – Yikes!)  Purchasing items such as logs to build a fire or coffee to keep up one’s cold tolerance and speed are crucial for surviving the long, cold nights.

Aesthetics are crucial for Easy Delivery Co.’s success and, thankfully, it more than delivers with its abrasive lo-fi ‘90s styling forming a rock-solid foundation for its foreboding world.  Jagged, warping power-lines crisscross vacant streets.  Tires spin, straining doggedly against slushy terrain while kicking up chunky white pixels in their wake.  High beams click on in the waning daylight, taillights rendering as warm halos in dithering snowfall. There’s a fuzziness to the whole affair – a juxtaposition of warmth and chill that is at once disconcerting as well as curiously comforting.

The narrative is, for the most part, told indirectly through conversation with the denizens of Mountain Town and the surroundings hamlets.  The player has one ally, MK. They’re apparently the only lucid character in the area, providing context for the proceedings and also acting as the primary quest giver.  The townsfolk in Easy Delivery Co., seemingly confined to their storefronts, are generally standoffish.  Some are downright hostile, but most just seem depressed and lonely as they reveal their neuroses and desires in casual conversation.

While uncovering the secrets at the heart of the wintry town and its melancholy inhabitants becomes the primary objective, the narrative ultimately ends up feeling like a bolster for the tonal elements, as opposed to an end in and of itself.  I appreciated the pervasive unease and slow rollout of details, though I didn’t end up feeling terribly invested in the outcome, with the climax hinging on an emotional connection I never experienced.

Further buoying the stellar presentation is Easy Delivery Co.’s strong mechanical core.  Controlled from the third or first-person perspectives, players will spend much of their time in their (surprisingly nimble) mini ‘kei’ truck, but on-foot journeys across the unforgiving tundra are occasionally necessary.

The kei truck proves a faithful steed, and I relished every opportunity to manually open its tailgate as I loaded a package (dutifully closing it behind me), kicking on the headlights and puttering into the wavering dark.  There is a reactivity in its handling – bouncing on its suspension over bumps, or losing traction as I hit a patch of snow or ice. It was rarely enough to jolt me off course, but just enough to demand my attention.

For the most part, Easy Delivery Co. lives up to its titular difficulty, but there is a subtle hostility in certain aspects of its design. 

The most notable of these is the map system, or lack thereof.  There is no mini-map, and while a full map can be accessed from the menu, it contains no indicators as to the player’s whereabouts — only a waypoint for the destination.  While the level design isn’t terribly complex and a healthy smattering of road signs helped keep me on course, I couldn’t ever shake the feeling of being vaguely lost. 

Overall, Easy Delivery Co. is a resoundingly successful marriage of tone and mechanics.  The developers demonstrate a keen eye toward player engagement, offering just enough depth to require my focus, but not so much as to distract from their haunting world.  While the narrative ultimately falls a bit flat, the quiet moments of brewing tea by firelight and harrowing drives through blinding blizzards will stick with me long after I make my final delivery.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Buy Easy Delivery Co. – PC

Disclosures: This game is developed by Sam C and published by Oro Interactive. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC.  Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: At the time of this review, this game has not been rated by the ESRB.  While there is no violence, blood, or gore there is spooky imagery that might be scary for younger or more sensitive audiences. Additionally, while there is no explicit sexual content, there is mildly suggestive dialogue during conversations with certain characters. 

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. I did not experience any issues when playing this game without sound, all audio cues are accompanied by visual indicators.  This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable.  While the primary controls cannot be altered in this game, the “Accept” and “Back” buttons can be reversed in the options menu.

The post Easy Delivery Co. Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to Discounty on the So Videogames Podcast, episode 453. For further coverage, please see episodes 452 and 451.

Brad: Okay, just wanted to, finally, for the final. Final time, circle back on Discounty. We’ve been talking about it off and on for at least a month or so. finally rolled credits last night, and I will say, I was kind of surprised that I rolled credits. this is the case where I really like the game left me wanting more. I would have gladly played another ten, 20 hours of this game, and I kind of wished that there was so a little bit of like, it sounds bad to say that I was disappointed it was over, but I was kind of disappointed it was over for those who might have missed it

Discounty is a game.. a 2D indie? kind of a top down. Well, I don’t know, 2D, just whatever. How do you call it? I always struggle, I’ve been in the video game arena for like 40 fucking years. What do you call a game that is 2Dut you’re not looking straight down. But the characters are like side view, but like also the map is 2D. What the fuck do you call that besides 2D? I don’t even know.

Carlos: We’ve said three quarters view.

B: But it’s not three quarters view, though. It isn’t isometric. It’s not… whatever. Fuck it. Whatever. It’s the same thing as Stardew Valley, you know?

C: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

B: Okay, I need, like, a really definitive… I can’t just say 2D because that’s too broad. But it’s not top down either, because you’re not looking at characters heads. What the fuck? 40 years and I still can’t describe it. Anybody listening? Help me out. What the fuck is a good title? Okay, it doesn’t matter anyway. Moving on…

So you move to town, you start a grocery store, and you stock the shelves and you rearrange the store, and you run the store every day, which is really well done. It’s very streamlined and fast and fun. But then you’re also dealing with side quests in the town where it seems like something spooky is going on or something weird is going on. And so you’ve got like these side quests which are not super long and involved, like they’re very light, they feel very appropriate for the game. So you’ve got like your side content, which keeps you busy during night time. You’ve got your store content which keeps you busy during the day. It’s just really, really well done. It’s really measured and polished and balanced. Graphics are great. I think the controls are nice.

I think the UI is great. Everything about it is really well considered. I think the scope is right on. I’ve had just like a blast playing it. It just feels like a very, very well put together game from somebody who really thought carefully about what they were doing and really made sure all the pieces fit together. It was great. I had a blast the entire time from start to finish. The only thing I think that I had an issue with, and this is kind of what I just mentioned a second ago, was like, it feels like it stops a little abruptly. I’m not going to spoil anything. I absolutely think it’s worth playing. I loved it, had a great time. Would recommend it. No problem. , it just feels like when you get to the next big thing, it kind of is like, and there’s the end and I’m like, oh it ended a little bit too abruptly for me. But again, I guess it’s better to leave me wanting more rather than going on for 20 hours too long. Yeah. Like, you know, oh, I’m so sick of this.

C: Which we’ve had.

B: We’ve definitely have had. That’s the norm. Honestly.

C: Two follow up questions. First, how long have you played… how long, how many hours then?

B: I mean, it’s hard to say because I was playing a little bit every night before bed. I want to say it’s like not longer than 20 hours. It might even be shorter than that.

C: Well, that’s not bad.

B: No, no, it’s very reasonable. It’s probably in fact, it’s probably shorter than that. It just seems longer because I was playing it in such small doses.

C: Second question, can you keep playing after credits or is it not that kind of game?

B: You can like you can keep playing if you want to just if you just really like super enjoy running the store, you can keep doing that infinitely. But there are no more like side quests. There’s nothing else really to like to do other than to run the store, which is fine.

C: Ok well all right, well, I still I’m still interested and I still might pick it up because.

B: It’s a good time. It’s a good time. I don’t want to end on a downer because I had a blast with Discounty and I would love DLC or a Discounty 2. I want the developers to expand what they built on. I think the mechanics are smart, the size is smart, the pace is smart — it’s it’s just really, really well done.

C: A good problem to have.

B: It’s like the best possible complaint.

C: Yes. I was just talking to my buddy Damien last night about short games. And again it came back with Silksong and he just played a couple and I feel bad. I can’t remember the names of them. I’ll I’ll find it. And you can put in the show notes. But he just played two and he beat both of them and I’m like, you know. Or he beat one and he’s about to beat the other. And I’m like, oh my goodness, that’s what I want right now in my life. Yeah, I want to beat these short experiences. And we go in cycles, you know, like sometimes I want Assassin’s Creed and just like to live in those worlds forever. Yeah. But just recently, like, Diablo is different because I can put that up and pick it up and put it down. You know.

B: It’s more of a lifestyle.

C: Yeah, yeah. But other games like hell, which we’ll talk about in the show, you know, they’re if they’re pretty huge in scope, I’m like, oh, I don’t know. You know, I just want to like beat something. So yeah.

B: Well, before we get off of this Discounty, I do want to give it an official score, since I talked about it so many times, and I’ve gone through the whole journey with the people here listening.

So I feel like it’s a great game. Like I said, at the end of the day, my only complaint about Discounty is that I wanted more of it, and that’s probably the best problem you could possibly have. It was great from start to finish and I wanted more, but it does what it does well — it gets in, it gets out, and it’s a great example of of how to deliver a measured experience. And I feel like a solid eight is a good place for that to live.

C: I totally I totally predicted that score from you.

B: Did you? Okay.

C: In my head I said it’s he’s gonna say eight.

B: There you go. Eight out of ten.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Crinkle Cut Games and published by PQube. It is currently available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E and contains Alcohol Reference. The official description reads: Discounty is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB with Alcohol Reference. This is a role-playing/simulation game in which players help a character salvage a grocery store in an old harbor town. Players organize and restock shelves, assist customers, and befriend local characters. A bar location is named the Drunken Tern, with billboards depicting a bird with bubbles over its head.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue comes in the form of text which cannot be resized or altered. There are no audio cues needed for play. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. There is no control diagram. The left stick moves the character, the face buttons handle interact/confirm/cancel. The plus button brings up a menu. The entire control scheme is fairly straightforward.

The post SVG REVIEW: Discounty appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The animation is way better than it has a right to be.

LOW The story barely evolves and remains one-note from start to finish.

WTF Some of the fauna encountered expire horrifically during battle.

Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson is a 2D JRPG deckbuilder with rhythm action elements. Players take control of Rob, a talented but unknown musician from a remote area who harbors big dreams of trekking across the world and smashing his way to victory at the upcoming Battle of the Bands hosted by musical megacorp SMR.

However, whispers abound regarding this tournament. Could it be that SMR are instead up to nefarious schemes, rigging these battles so that only the most malleable and easily-bought contestants make it through to the end, winning a tournament that’s little more than a hollow scam to exploit musicians for corporate greed?

Well, yes. It pretty much says as much right from the start. Anyone expecting wild plot twists is going to leave disappointed, so expect musical assassins and goons to be deployed en masse to prevent Rob from winning the competition fairly.

See, music isn’t just a pleasant or occasionally irritating distraction in this world — it’s how people survive. Out in the forests and grasslands, acoustically empowered foes lie in wait to annihilate Rob via the medium of turn-based battles, and it’s here that the rhythm-based battle system comes into play.

Starting out with his trusty six string guitar, Rob can assemble a deck of commands that are randomly drawn from a pool. Three in a row can be set in motion to attack and debuff opponents, or heal and strengthen Rob’s defenses, with timing based QTE’s assigned to each action. Hitting these QTEs accurately can influence battle by enhancing damage dealt, or mitigating damage taken.

Rob will find three additional instruments to unleash havoc with, each of which has its own battle theme when in use. The Bass Guitar is a heavy hitter, the Synthesizer features a warlock style approach of slamming out buffs and debuffs, and the Eight String causes damage to Rob in order to power up its attacks. Each instrument also has passive qualities, with the Synthesizer triggering equipped mods if enough frequency is gained during the turn, for example.

Sound complicated? It can be if desired, though the extremely mild difficulty means that learning the nuances of the battle system isn’t necessary. QTE checks can also be disabled, which I did as I found they weren’t adding anything to the experience — with the Guitar Hero-style “Crescendo” super attacks being the one exception. After building enough meter and initiating the Crescendo (or having a boss encounter do the same to Rob) a musical highway of notes appears alongside a cool animation. It’s a neat touch.

The graphics are… interesting. I don’t think the style is anything to write home about, but the animation is almost unnecessarily lavish. Every attack has a different animation associated, including found or purchasable ones that can be cut into the deck. Cutscenes and Crescendo sequences have clearly had a lot of effort put into them, and it’s downright weird to see a fairly generic graphic style have an almost overwhelming amount of care put into the animation. It might even be a negative in some ways — with no way to skip many of these animations, they slow battles down more than necessary.

Exploration is pretty typical stuff. Each town has a few shops and NPCs, and Rob will occasionally encounter simple puzzles such as shoving boxes, copying environmental patterns or ensuring switches are hit in sequence. There’s a decent diversity of environments, but it’s notable that none of the characters Rob meets along the way are even remotely interesting or fleshed out. It harms the sense of discovery when all that’s waiting in the next outpost are more inconsequential background faces chucking out the odd music pun.

Fretless is remarkably frictionless, but not necessarily in a good way. Standard enemies pose little threat, but still take a while to whittle down with no way to skip attack animations or immediately stomp underpowered adversaries. I killed most bosses on my first attempt, with one of only two deaths in the entire game occurring because I killed myself attempting to learn the Eight String Guitar — which, as mentioned earlier, sacrifices Rob’s health to strengthen its attacks and can kill players who aren’t being judicious with its use.

Bizarrely, the final stretch of the adventure devolves into a monumentally non-thrilling stealth sequence where being spotted by roaming guards results in being evicted from the premises and starting over. On the one hand it’s simple to stay hidden, as their field of vision is projected around them in plain sight. On the other, it’s an absolutely terrible sequence that took far too long to get through, not helped by the fact that I spent ages looking for an exit, only to find that the camera perspective made said exit look like a solid wall.

It’s unfortunate that I find myself having to put the boot in this hard to what’s obviously a passion project from an indie developer, but my emotional state playing Fretless oscillated between boredom, irritation and occasionally finding it all mildly pleasant. Perhaps it will hit differently for someone who’s into the music scene or deckbuilders, but as a JRPG fan who’s partial to a good rhythm action game, it hit a bit of a bum note for me.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Ritual Studios and published by Playdigious Originals. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher. Approximately 8 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game has not been rated by the ESRB.  It’s fine for kids, I’d think, with its upbeat approach to nearly everything that’s going on and cartoonish villainy from the bad guys. However, watching the skin melt clean off (potentially artificial) wildlife to reveal a skeleton as they die seems massively at odds with its usual vibe, even if there’s no blood involved.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game’s story is told entirely in text, so subtitles aren’t needed. While music is a big part of the game, I don’t recall anything from the rhythm based gameplay that didn’t also have a visual cue that would suffice.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Fretless: The Wrath Of Riffson Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Gorgeous stop-motion aesthetic. Perfect soundtrack.

LOW Shambolic menus and UI.

WTF YouTubers shouldn’t be allowed to do voice acting.

When Judero, the first game by Talha and Jack Co., released last year, there were a handful of brief “hey look at this” stories from the big outlets, and there were some reviews, but by and large this utterly unique, drop dead gorgeous stop motion videogame assembled over what must’ve been painstaking years of labor was largely dropped by the journos, enchained as they are to the SEO Wheel of Pain. In any just world, Judero should have been fawned over, awarded many accolades, and gone on to make the developers a hefty passel of money.

We don’t live in a just world, of course, and Judero scraped together merely a small cult of appreciators. It was large enough, however, to make the Kickstarter for Talha and Jack Co.’s second game, Mashina, a success.

Knowing only that it looked beautiful and having never played a stop-motion videogame before, I jumped on the opportunity to review Mashina when it released. I was surprised to discover that beneath its beautiful handmade exterior, Mashina is a straightforward mining title, descended directly from Motherload, with only minor tweaks to the undeniably addicting-but-simple core established by that browser game all the way back in 2004. Surprised, but not displeased. Mostly.

For those who haven’t played Motherload or its few modern derivations, here’s the basic structure — there’s an overworld players can walk around in, with shopkeepers and quest givers, before jumping into the underground and digging through dirt, rocks, and other subterranean cruft of varying densities, unearthing precious minerals that are stowed away and later cashed in. Said cash can be used to purchase upgrades, which allow more efficient mining, which allows for larger future profits to buy more expensive later upgrades — we see where this is going, and where it’s going is to a pleasant, albeit mostly mindless, way to lose a handful of hours. These kind of mining titles aren’t idlers, but they are kissing cousins to that genre, gently massaging some low and lizardlike nodule in the Gamer Brain.

As I said, Mashina does make some tweaks to this hoary, dirt-encrusted formula. Mashina herself, the player character, doesn’t have a fuel or oxygen gauge, which are common limiters in this type of experience. Really, the only things stopping a player from digging down indefinitely are limited inventory space, and the need to go topside for the drill upgrades necessary to bite through more ornery materials.

Another quirk? Minerals aren’t added to the inventory automatically. Instead, they have to be picked up manually and fit into a Resident Evil 4-style gridventory. There’s actually a skill available that does the sorting without player input but, as someone who is creepily ardent about RE4, a tasteful Tetris-enjoyer, and general grid appreciator, I never invested in it, preferring to do all the sorting by hand, as God intended.

Okay, I have expended all the words I wish to regarding mechanics, because the real draw of Mashina lies in its aesthetics. Almost every graphical element is comprised of real-world objects and crafts. All the characters are hand-fashioned, stop-motion dolls, and their various paraphernalia made from the sort of odds and ends that turn up and live forever in junk drawers. As such, one of the undimming joys of this title is seeing new characters, drills, trinkets, and other props, and what they’re crafted from.

Also, the soundtrack is a continual delight. There is only one way in which Mashina resembles Grand Theft Auto, and that’s in its implementation of an in-game radio with different stations, each with their own host, music, and vibe. It’s not the most tonally diverse collection of songs, as there are presiding elements of lo-fi, shoegaze, almost-too-precious indie folk across all stations, but not a single tune crosses the line into twee. It’s really, really good stuff — so good, in fact, that while digging games are usually a prime choice for muting and watching something on the ol’ second screen, I always gave Mashina’s soundtrack my full attention.

“Story”-wise (heavy quote marks in effect) the overworld is full of other Bobots who want Mashina to do things for them, and they all have quirky personalities. That sounds groan-worthy, but this is genuinely quirky, original and full-hearted goofiness, not the manufactured preciousness that passes for quirky in a lot of cozy games. The ‘bots here come across less like uwu-coded dopes and more like a gaggle of preoccupied weirdos, each firmly ass-in-saddle on their own personal hobbyhorse, and that’s cool.

If the aesthetic, music, and character were stripped away, truthfully Mashina would be a middling entry in the mining genre. It’s not deep, not especially streamlined, hardly innovative even relative to the circumscribed bounds of its niche genre. It’s also easy. The menus are terrible. The building mechanics are underbaked. The economy collapses within the first few hours. The menus, I repeat, are terrible. Mechanically compared to any other mining game of repute — none of which are that complex or rich — Mashina comes up short.

But — and this is probably the only time I have ever said or felt this — the mechanical guts and all the other stuff that goes with it – don’t really matter.

Mashina’s simplicity fits its mission, as Talha and Jack Co. have chosen the correct genre. Anything more complex or demanding would need heaps more polish and fathoms more depth to be feasible, and a commensurate extension of all its precious intangibles to go along with it. However, Mashina is about a bunch of robo-dweebs relaxing at the end of the world, and it wants to help players relax in their own collapsing reality.

I respect it as art much more than I respect it as a game, and taken as a whole, I love it as an experience. Nice work, Mashina.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Talha and Jack Co. and published by Judatone Games. It is available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher. Approximately 6.5 hours of play were devoted to the game, and it was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB. There’s nothing inappropriate in this game whatsoever. There is no violence, the only “enemy” is just a robot with the wrong switch flipped — it goes back to being nice with the click of a button. Some of the humor is too oblique and weird for younger players to understand, but it’s nothing parents should worry about them being exposed to.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All of the dialogue is accompanied by on-screen text, but the subtitles cannot be resized.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls for both keyboard+mouse and controller.

The post Mashina Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.