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 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 Atmospheric. Exceptional pixel art.

LOW Minimal story and half-baked mechanics.

WTF Cow + wolf = giant monster bone bear?

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.

A distress signal sounds. A small response group led by a fierce warrior named Naut heads out to a space station inhabited by thousands of people, only to find it quiet and desolate — but not empty. They quickly discover that the residents have been turned into terrible monsters. With survival as the only option, this small band must fight the horde to stay alive, while ultimately trying to find out what happened.

Katanaut is a 2D action roguelike where players take on the role of Naut, a warrior with a knack for swords and an exterminator of monstrous creatures. Players will infiltrate the overrun space station, pick up special abilities and power ups, and fight bosses to get to the truth of what’s happening. As players go through each level and defeat enemies, they’ll uncover new things to unlock for future runs, like new weapons, guns, abilities, and passive upgrades. 

During play, there’s a lot of emphasis on movement and flow while balancing slicing with swords and shooting enemies. For example, the player’s gun only has a limited number of bullets, and gaining more requires players to get in close with melee, so each encounter becomes a bloody dance of shooting enemies from afar before diving headfirst into the horde to get ammo back.

In addition, there’s a wealth of active abilities that can boost Naut’s combat abilities, like a ball of eldritch lightning, summoning a small group of allies, or things like shield generation or damaging enemies if players dodge-roll through them. There’s plenty of variety overall to make each run feel unique in how players will interact with the environment and the horde they’re fighting through.

In terms of atmosphere, there’s an eerie and tense energy that Katanaut nails. Every cut paints the walls of the station in blood, and the environments become more and more grotesque as players near the core. There also seems to be a hint of mental manipulation – is Naut wanting to eliminate the threat and save the world, or is he trying to learn more and harness this power for himself? Is he being manipulated by this unknown power, or will he be strong enough to resist? Only time will tell as players run through again and again.

While this all seems like a recipe for success and Katanaut does give a strong first impression, that feeling, unfortunately, fades quickly.

My biggest issue with the experience is that the roguelike elements are here, but they aren’t quite on target. For example, while there are plenty of varied and interesting abilities, the guns feel too similar and boring. Sure, the damage of a given weapon can go up or down, but none felt that interesting, or even that different from one another, making guns overall seem like an afterthought.

Main melee weapons suffer from this as well, although this might be more of a pacing issue. Katanaut offers six main weapons, but I have yet to unlock more than one additional weapon after all the time I’ve spent with it, and that includes fully completing a run.

Speaking of pacing issues, it’s not limited to the main weapon unlocks. Looking at the campaign’s structure as a whole, progression from run to run feels so incremental that the time investment doesn’t feel worth it. Increasing health by one point, increasing stamina by five points, increasing katana damage by 5% — it all feels tiny, grindy and unsatisfying, and it makes the ultimate goal of reaching the end feel like an impossible slog that will take much, much longer than I want to spend with it.

These are all significant downsides, and the story was equally unsatisfying. Does a roguelike need to have a grand, overarching narrative to be good? No. But does it need to at least have some core of a story to motivate me for why I should care about going through this space station? I think so.

I wish I could say that the payoff was worth it, but after finishing a run, I got to see the credits for the game and then opened up an enhanced difficulty — and that was it! None of the story questions were answered! What was the villain’s motivation? Why create the monsters? If I beat the boss, why do I need to go back and do the same run again, but harder? This made the “ending” fall completely flat for me, and after that narrative letdown, I didn’t feel a lot of motivation to continue.

Katanaut looks good and has potential, and honestly, it’s getting better by the day. The developer has been dropping frequent updates that offer additions and enhancements that weren’t there when I first started playing, and the push and pull of going between melee and ranged during the action feels on point. However, there’s a lot of competition in the roguelike genre right now, and in order to succeed, Katanaut‘s going to need better handling of its story and adjustments to the grindy nature of the meta-progression. As it stands today, it didn’t land with me and I haven’t stuck with it, but that could change in the future with a few more patches and upgrades.

For me, Katanaut gets 6.5 otherworldly abominations out of ten.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Voidmaw. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 8.5 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB. Players will use all types of weapons (blades, guns, grenades, etc) to slice enemies to bloody pieces. Dead bodies and gore are shown in each level. There are a lot of otherworldly horrors comprised of fleshy tissue, blood, and teeth. While there is no salty language in the game, there’s plenty of disturbing imagery throughout.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in-game, and the text is resizable. Audio is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.

Controls: Controls are fully remappable.

The post Katanaut VIDEO Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Beautiful game and intuitive mechanics.

LOW Not as unique as expected.

WTF The amount of grubs I’ve eaten.

Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.

As a member of the last bastion of society, the player has been selected to lead the forces of the Vault against the dark creatures of the dead world in which they live. Neither refusal nor failure are options — survival at all costs is the only choice. Box Dragon presents As We Descend — a wonderfully stylized and oppressive apocalypse currently in Early Access where each choice could be the difference between victory and watching humanity’s last light be extinguished.

As We Descend is a roguelike deckbuilder where players recruit a variety of units to fight against horrific monsters attacking the Vault in their attempts to put out the Lantern — it’s the last light in this world of darkness. Players will also explore the Vault to seek out important people who can help gather resources, upgrade units, offer items for sale or create artifacts with positive effects.

Combat in Descend is turn-based. Each unit has unique cards that are added to the player’s deck, and each turn, players have a set amount of resources to play as many cards as they can afford.

Players must also manage the positioning of their units in one of two areas — the guard zone or the support zone. Certain units get bonuses based on which zone they’re in, and units in the guard zone are usually the ones taking the most hits.

As enemies are attacked, a stagger meter starts to accumulate. When the meter is full, an enemy is staggered, which means it will be stunned and lose a turn, while also becoming vulnerable to critical strikes — a key tactic for interrupting powerful attacks.

Besides combat, players will have an opportunity to explore locations in the Vault. Actions like visiting the inn to restore health or training with a mentor to increase effectiveness both require a card to use, so planning when to do so is part of the overall strategy here.

In practice, As We Descend’s combat feels easy to pick up, but difficult to master because many of the cards seem basic — do X damage, apply X debuff, and so on. However, many cards also have secondary effects that activate if specific conditions are met.

For example, The Zealot usually attacks once, but additional strikes occur if an enemy has multiple debuffs. Guardsmen get bonus defense when in the guard zone, and have abilities that deal additional damage that’s upped by the amount of defense they have. There are a significant number of units that provide a wide set of options for each run, so players can expect to spend a good amount of time finding strategies and synergies.

Something I haven’t mentioned yet is that players can choose their type of Vault at the beginning of a run Currently, there are two different Vault styles, with a third being developed. Unfortunately, there’s not enough of a difference between them to make the choice significant. I hope the developers work on these Vaults a bit more to make them feel different in practice, and better tutorials on them would be welcome, too — some of the resources have important stats that factor into things, but are never actually explained.

Also, there were times when I made a decision early on, only to find out this one decision doomed my entire run. Since the outcome of a choice isn’t immediately apparent, it can feel like a lot of wasted time that can’t have been salvaged.

As stated at the start of this video, As We Descend is currently in Early Access, which means that there are some rough edges that come along with that. Even so, I’m extremely excited to see what else is in store. It’s off to a great start with an intuitive interface, a welcoming combat system and rewarding strategies for those who can master its nuances. With some balance changes, tweaks and additional updates, I’m hopeful that As We Descend could end up one of the best in the genre. 

For me, As We Descend gets 8 critical strikes out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Box Dragon and published by Coffee Stain Publishing. 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 spent playing the game, and the multiple runs were completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB. Players will control multiple units with swords, spears, guns, and other weaponry to fight against monsters who will attack back with similar weapons. There is no blood in the combat. There isn’t any cursing in the texts between combat scenarios, but there are scenarios where players will be able to select things like “putting down an uprising”.

Colorblind Modes: There are colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in-game, but the text is not resizable. Audio is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.

Controls: Controls are not currently remappable. Their controls menu says “no settings are here yet”. Players will use the mouse to be able to select different cards, dialogue selections, and selecting bonuses to gain after combat.

The post As We Descend VIDEO Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Unique linking of many roguelike mechanics.

LOW None of them working together in harmony.

WTF Prisons give me damage boosts?

Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com!

The mythical harvest maiden is rumored to grant the desires of anyone who can find her. However, her power has been weakened by a group of dark wardens. She pleads for aid in ridding the world of these dark wardens, and she will be sure to repay anyone capable of the deed.

From Ant Workshop Ltd. and Wales Interactive comes Into The Restless Ruins, where players will take on the challenge of aiding the harvest maiden by delving into an ever-changing labyrinth and fighting the minions of the dark wardens. 

In this roguelike deckbuilder, each run swaps between two modes — building and harvest.

In the building mode, players will use room cards to build pathways through a wide-open “labyrinth” space while searching for magical seals. Rooms can range in size and in orientation — some are straight hallways, others are large crossroads, some diagonal corridors, and so on. Each room has doorways that must be connected together in order to be able to travel between them. As more seals are found, more space will open up in the current labyrinth for more room cards to be placed, and eventually the player will make their way to the boss arena for that section. It doesn’t all happen in one go, though.

Once players have used all of their cards and built as much as they can, they start the harvest mode. This has the player controlling their character in a top-down isometric view of the dungeon they just built in Vampire Survivors-style combat. Players will move their character around, auto-attacking any enemies that come near them. Defeating these enemies grants players new room cards they can use in the building mode during the next round. 

The challenge in Restless Ruins comes in a couple of ways.

In harvest mode, players have a torch that both lights the area and also acts as a timer that lets them know how long they have to fight and gather more cards before darkness closes in. As the torch timer decreases, so does the area that players can see. Since there’s no minimap in harvest mode, players must memorize how they built the dungeon in order to navigate it effectively. If they don’t manage to make it back to the starting point in time, players will take constant damage until they either escape, restore their torch, or die in that harvest. 

In build mode, players need to manage how rooms are placed to effectively manage resources throughout the dungeon because some rooms offer abilities in harvest mode. For example, the armory room gives a temporary damage bonus, there’s a campfire that restores some of the torch timer, a magical grove that restores player health, and more. Proper placement in build mode allows players to take advantage of these things, and will then have a better shot of surviving during harvest mode.  

Taking all this into account, Restless Ruins tries to marry several different mechanics and gameplay styles to create something unique in the genre. I do think this blending leads to some struggles, though.

Building a path through the dungeons is a unique way to progress in each level, but the random elements of the rooms players draw doesn’t always lend itself to successful runs. In one particular attempt, I only had one campfire in my deck and never got another one, which meant that I rarely had any way to restore my torch in harvest mode. Without that needed light, it was near impossible for me to get very far before the torch would burn out and the darkness would start to kill me. 

In a similar vein, harvest mode can feel boring if the right rooms aren’t drawn. Specifically, the player’s attack starts as a basic melee swing in front of them. If players don’t find a room that gives an additional secondary weapon or new basic weapon, that melee swing gets tiresome and probably won’t lead to many successful escapes during harvest mode.

Overall, this randomness leads to a sense of soft gating for Restless Ruins. It’s like I’m being forced to grind through failed runs in order to unlock new permanent upgrades to future runs in the hopes that someday I’ll see some of the other content.

These upgrades are unlocked in a number of ways. Some are earned from the player leveling up, and others are earned by achieving specific tasks in a single run — things like having ten cards in hand at once, starting the boss fight with an empty torch, and so on. There are also difficulty modifiers that alter the amount of EXP gained in a given run, but even so it remains a repetitive, fairly punishing experience.

The current grind-heavy system also leads to boss fights that end up being lackluster. Every time I got to a boss, I had spent so much time on harvest runs beforehand that I usually defeated them without breaking a sweat. It just isn’t satisfying to stand in front of a boss and watch their health bar drop to zero within a few seconds. Those kinds of wins don’t feel earned.

So where does all this leave Into the Restless Ruins?

I personally enjoy the combination of mechanics it’s putting together, but the reliance on RNG and the resulting soft gating to success has left a sour taste in my mouth. Diehard roguelike fans may enjoy the challenge of dungeon memorization and slow progression, but I wouldn’t recommend it to casual roguelike fans, or those new to the genre.

For me: Into the Restless Ruins gets 6 punishing curses out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Ant Workship Ltd and published by Wales Interactive. It is currently available on PC, PS5, XBX/S, and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 10.5 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Fantasy Violence and Mild Blood. Players will use fantasy weapons like a sword, axe, magical staff, bow and arrow, etc. to fight fantasy creatures (bats, skeletons, shadow monsters, etc). Some will have pixelated blood splatter as they are killed.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in-game, but the text is not resizable. Audio is not needed for gameplay. (See video for examples.) The game is fully accessible.

Controls: Controls are fully remappable.

The post Into the Restless Ruins VIDEO Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to Steredenn: Binary Stars on the So Videogames podcast, Episode 436. For the original coverage of the game, please listen to Episode 435.

TRANSCRIPT: Next game on the agenda here is Steredenn: Binary Stars. I did receive a code for review, so just a heads up and thanks to PR for sending that over. This is a remake of a shooter that’s been out for a little while. I believe we covered it on Gamecritics a while back. Um, might be a video review of the original version. So this is an enhanced version. Just came out for PS5 and I believe Xbox as well.

This is a 2D pixel based shooter, like a shoot em up where you’re like in a spaceship, but there’s also a lot of, like, roguelike elements in it. Um, I think the. So okay, so I guess the, the main meat of it is like shooting, but the, the trick is like you get a bunch of different weapons. That’s where the the roguelike element comes in. Every time you start a run, you start off with your basic peashooter. You have a couple of different ships to choose from, and I think you have to progress a certain distance into the campaign to unlock each progressive ship. So like you only get the beginning one at beginning.

You have the starter ship at the beginning and then after you clear, like the second or third boss, you’ll get like the second ship. After you clear the fourth or fifth boss, you get like the third ship, so forth and so on. I believe there are 3 or 4, 3 or 4. There’s not a huge amount of ships, but each ship has its own ability, special ability that you can activate as you go to these levels. Uh, it reminds me a lot of, like, something like Gradius or, you know, something like that from back in the day, like one of the old school, like, you know, 16 bit kind of shooters, which is cool.

I dig those, um, you’ll get like, weapon choices after the end of each stage and it’ll be like, would you like a laser or would you like some missiles? Would you like, uh, little drones or would you like? You know, so forth and so on. So you choose whatever you like and whatever meshes with your playstyle. But of course it’s all randomized, so you can’t get the same thing every time. Sometimes you got to make do with something that you have not used before or that you might not like. I did not care for the shotguns, so I tried to stay away from shotgun as much as possible. I did like the drones and so I tried to get the drones as often as possible. I think the overall difficulty is pretty hard. There’s a lot going on on screen most of the time, and it can get a little bullet hell at times, especially at the bosses. Uh, so there is an easier mode which unlocks after you get a little bit of, uh, a little bit of progress under your belt. But it’s still kind of challenging. I mean, even the easy mode, I don’t think is a pushover. I mean, of course, a lot of this has to do with the fact that the stages are randomized. And like, you don’t always have the same loadout.

So it’s kind of hard to practice because you’re always trying to make do with what you’ve got. There is a lot on the screen. Like I said, uh, some of the weapons I think are pretty cool. I liked some of those a lot, like having little drones fly around a couple different flavors of drones. There’s like a bullet drone. There’s like a laser drone. You pop them out, you have a little bit of cooldown. They kind of just hang out and shoot, and if nobody takes them out, they can just like, shoot for quite a while. So I think that was pretty powerful. Flamethrower was like really good. Um, I think the only thing that I had a major well, a couple things. So my big problem with this game, I think, is that I do not like the controls and there’s no option to remap them, which is a little bit crazy because you’re not using all the buttons on the controller. So there was this thing where so number one, you just can’t remap them, right? But like when you you hold your fire button down. And in a game like this you’re always firing. So you hold the fire button down, you switch weapons. You can have up to two weapons at a time. You want to switch back and forth between your second weapon and your first weapon. You switch to the second weapon. Even though your thumb is still holding the button down.

It stops firing until you let go and then hold it back down again. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is absolutely a big deal in the middle of battle. And I fucking did not like it. Like at all. I hated that you had that little, that little speed bump when you’re firing. Also, why did you have to push a button to switch weapons? You’re not using all the buttons on the controller each. You know, each weapon could have been assigned its own button. Um, there is like, I have, like, 3 or 4 different ways. I would have wanted to configure the controls, and you can’t do anything. And I really just don’t like how the controls are laid out here. If the if the developers like them themselves, that’s cool. But you got to be prepared for people to like, want to play their own way. And button remapping is so fucking ass basic these days. Like, I really don’t have any sympathy at all for any developer that doesn’t put it in. It is just like part of the basic package. I expect when I go into, like any game, you got to let me change something around. You’ve got to give me some kind of like accessibility and just the I just, I just did not like the controls. That was actually a fairly major barrier to my enjoyment. I just it really kind of irritated me.

And I could never like, I could never, like, get into the flow. Um, there was always something about the controls that was kind of bugging me, which I didn’t care for. Steredenn puts you through a lot of unnecessary finger juggling instead of letting you just get in the shooter zone, and there also isn’t a lot of permanent progression. Every time you start a run, you’re going back to zero. Which I guess is fine. I mean, going through one run of the game takes like 45 minutes or something like that. So it’s not like a huge ask, but it would be great to be able to start the campaign with like different weapons or like have a specified loadout or something that you kind of just like customize as you go. That would have been a really nice option. It is not there. So again, just kind of wishful thinking. So overall, I think Steredenn is fine. It’s pretty good. I mean, I can see some places where it could be improved, but if you want like a 2D shoot em up, um, we’re not really getting a ton of these these days, so it’s not like we have, um, like a million choices. We’re not spoiled for choice right now, so I think it’s pretty good. I do appreciate that Steredenn attempts the roguelike formula to keep gameplay somewhat fresh, but at the same time, getting set back to square one when you die without the option for more of a starting boost starts to wear you down after a while. Like I kind of feel like, okay, I wish something different was happening. I wish there was some more change happening after a couple runs. I’m like, okay, like I’m good. Like I feel like I’ve got the measure of this game.

So I think it’s like, I think it’s all right, but I think it could have been better. Um, and I don’t have any experience with the previous version, so all I’ve got to base my opinion on is this version in front of me. And so I think, um, to give it a full SVG review, I think I’m probably going to give it like, I don’t know, like like six and a half. There’s a lot of potential here with fun weapons and a good concept, but the solid supporting elements needed for any good roguelike just aren’t here. There are a lot of obvious holes that could be filled — better meta progression, customizable controls — that would make the overall package so much better.

I mean, I had fun with it. I think it’s pretty solid. It just seems like it’s not quite living up to the full potential. Um, especially when you compare it to other games in the genre right now where you’re seeing a lot of developers, you know, really adding some cool features and really kind of encouraging people to lean into the roguelike aspect. I feel like this one doesn’t quite go far enough, so I feel like a pretty solid 6.5 is where I’m landing on Steredenn: Binary Stars. Although I did have a pretty good time with it. So there you go. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Pixelnest Studio and published by Red Art Games. It is currently available on (platforms). This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately five hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Fantasy Violence and Mild Language. There is no official description, but this is just spaceships shooting other spaceships in space, done in pixel art style. Nothing to be worried about here.

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles cannot be resized or altered. The minimal dialogue in the game is delivered completely via text, and no audio cues are needed for gameplay. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. One of the L shoulder buttons is to swap weapons, X is to shoot, O is special ability, and the left stick controls the ship.

The post SVG REVIEW Steredenn: Binary Stars appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

This is a transcript excerpt covering the review of Kiborg on the So Videogames podcast, Episode 438.

BRAD: The last game of the show here is a very unusual one. It’s called Kiborg. K I B O R G. Have you heard of this one?

CARLOS: I have, and actually, I saw you playing it.

B: You did?

C: I saw you on a console, and we don’t really check in much on that. But I did see it was like Brad is playing Kaiborg and I’m like, I was gonna play that.

B: Oh, dude. Okay.

C: It’s multiplayer right?

B: No, I don’t think so. There’s no multiplayer on it. It’s just a one player.

C: Oh, no. This is the roguelike game. Yes, yes, yes, which I also was thinking about buying. Yes, I know that, yes. Okay.

B: So Kiborg comes from developer. Would you mind looking up who the developer is? I forgot I meant to look it up, I forgot, but I have played a couple of the games. They did Redeemer, which I didn’t play, but I bought and I heard people say that it was pretty good. And then they did.

C: Oh, they did Redeemer, which I liked.

B: Yeah. And they did one before that, which was um. Oh gosh. It was like about these mech suits that were like killing zombies or something. I don’t know. It’s another game or something. I’m doing it. Okay, so back to studio.

C: Sobaka Studio and the games Redeemer and Remedium.

B: Yes, yes, yes. Remedium. I didn’t play Remedium proper, but they did one that was like a side story and it was like Remedium Knights or something. I can’t remember what it was, but it was like basically steampunk mechs killing zombies in this world. And I was like, dude, this game is dope. Like, it’s it’s low, low budget for sure. Small team, janky AF. But like, it was actually really fucking fun. And I finished it and I’m like, this is really cool. I hope that they keep doing games. And lo and behold, I picked up this game.

Uh, well, PR sent me a code and I didn’t realize it was the same developers. And as soon as I started playing this, I’m like, God, this is janky and low budget, but this is fun as fuck. And I look it up, I’m like, oh shit, it’s the same people. It’s Sobaka studio. Okay, cool. Like, I’m in, I’m in, I’m man. I love that.

So what this game is, it’s like, uh, nihilistic, fatal game show in the future where you. You’re the survivor. They throw you into this gross environment very much like the running man from Arnold Schwarzenegger or something like that. You know, like, it’s like that kind of like fatal game show kind of a thing. And you play as this one specific guy, and, uh, you don’t really know much about it, but you, you start the game and you go into these, uh, roguelike generated levels.

Each level is is basically the same. You kind of do the same, run through the level every single time. So environment is not really the thing that you’re here for. What you’re here for is real time, third person, like brawling, beat em up combat, you know, lots of combos. You have a heavy punch, a light punch, you’ve got a spin attack, you’ve got a dodge, and then you’ve got a couple other minor things. Um, you go on these runs where each room is just filled with, like, mutants and freaks and zombies and what have you, and you beat them up with, like, various combos and stuff like that. All pretty straightforward. Excuse me. Um, but the hook to this game and the thing that makes it really good is that the roguelike system of power ups is just fucking cool as shit. It’s really fun. So from a visual perspective, it’s awesome. Like, you’ll go into a room, you’ll get a power up, it’ll be like you’ll have three choices. It’ll be like right arm, left arm or spine or something like that. There’s also like legs. There’s also heart. There’s also head. I think those are like all the different parts. Um, and so like there’s all these different suits in the game.

So like one suit is all about defense and you can have like the left arm of that suit will give you like a plus whatever defense. And it’ll put up a shield. Or you can do like the head of the electric suit and it generates like static electricity that’ll like chain lightning through your guys. Or you can do the right arm of the Guardian suit, and it makes bombs whenever you punch a guy or something like that. So you can not only does your body, like, transform, like it looks like the suit that you change so you can have this really patchwork mixed up body, which I think actually looks pretty cool. You can have like a weird metal chest and a fleshy arm, and your head is like normal human head. You got these backwards feed and all that. Like, you look like a fucked up dude, but it’s cool, like, in a good way. And each limb does something different. So like every time you’re going through the game, you’ve always got like these new parameters of like what you’re doing. Like in one game I had like one of the suits where you do where every time you kill a guy, it creates bombs. And so like, I would have to like, run in and like, I want to kill guys, like, as soon as possible.

I look for like, the smallest, like little peewee guy, punch him out, and then bombs would come out of his body and they would attach to the bigger guys. And I was like, running away from. Right. So that was like my big, uh, thing for one run and then another run. I got like the electric suit. And so it was like, every time I shot a gun, the bullet exploded and like, this electric shot. And then I got this thing, that chain lightning, that thing out. And so, like, I became like, like, really, really gun focused in that run. And so, like, you look different. And then also every single time you’re doing something, it feels very different. Like your strategies, even though the core of it is like beat em up, like punching and combos, you’re always doing something slightly different. Like sometimes, uh, one of your particular combos will get like a new a new move. Like if you’ve got, like, this one, Uh, right arm or something. If you end a combo with a heavy punch, he does, like three extra, like lightning punches at the end of it. And so you might as you might not have been using that combo beforehand, but then once you got this arm, you’re like, oh, I really want to lean into this combo now because it’s like way stronger.

C: Interesting. I had no idea. By the way, that was a mechanic. From going back to the PR thing. Like, I feel like I just got the vibe of like, it’s a beat em up and that’s it. Yeah, but all the things you’re telling me is more interesting too, though.

B: Oh, dude, I started this game and like before, I had a lot of stuff unlocked. I’m like, okay, this is fine. Like, it’s actually. But then I unlock some stuff, I’m like, oh, wait, wait wait wait. It’s actually pretty cool. Like there’s all this other shit. Every run feels like super different. And I’m always like in my head. I’m constantly thinking about, okay, new mechanic this run, what am I going to do? Like this time I’m getting close. Next run. Oh, I gotta stay far away. I gotta shoot this guy from far away. Don’t get close. Sometimes there’s this other suit that lets you create friends. And so you’ll have, like, like three other buddies in the room that’ll be like your minions. And they’ll be taking all the aggro for you. Totally changes your strategy. You’re taking them out from a distance. This other, uh, in another one you have like a shield. And so you want to get hit because it’s building up, uh, like like reflective energy and stuff. And so like, rather than avoiding the hits, you’re like wading into the hits. And so like, every time you do something different, like, it totally changes the way you feel. And so it takes this very straightforward, simple game and makes it like these moment to moment decisions based on your build. It feels like a different run every time, which I think is like super, super interesting.

I really like it a lot. I think that part is really good. I love that they leaned into the aesthetics of it too, because just seeing your arms and body and head and stuff, change is really great. And the thing that really sells the whole experience is that there is an upgrade tree. It’s huge. Like it’s massive upgrade tree. It’s so big that you have you can like zoom in and zoom out of it because there’s so many branches to it. And every time you do run, you get money just from like, you know, beating up guys and beating bosses or whatever. So every time you come back to the main game, you can probably buy something like, I feel like the economy is pretty good to where you’re always getting at least 1 or 2 new power ups, like 10% more health or like punches do 15 more percent or oh, you unlock the brand new special move, or you unlocked a brand new combo or something. Uh, like, you can unlock all sorts of, like, little perks. And I definitely notice a difference, right? Like, I wasn’t getting very far in the beginning. And after playing for like 1 or 2 days, I’ve unlocked, like, you know, a bunch of stuff. I’m like, okay, I am consistently making it like much further bosses.

That felt impossible to me. I am now regularly beating with no problem, you know? I mean, you still have to be pretty good, but like, you know, you feel like even though it’s tough, you’ve got a chance. Like you can still kind of like see what you can do. And it’s the kind of roguelike to where, you know, right off the bat, whether you’ve got a kind of a good run going or not. And so sometimes you’re like, okay, I don’t feel like this builds come together. I’m going to focus on earning money this run, and I’ll just get money and go back to the skill tree, buy a bunch of stuff, and then sometimes you’re like, oh shit, I got like, all the electric stuff and it’s going, it’s all popping and I’m going to just keep going. You like, steamroll through a couple bosses. You’re like, oh shit, this might happen. So I think it’s like a really, really, really well put together, um, roguelike. I think I haven’t played one like this in quite some time. Reminds me a lot of, uh, this is going to be a mega deep cut. And if anybody knows this game, you’re my new hero. But it reminds me a lot of, like, Rengoku on PSP from like a million years ago. Oh, yeah. There’s no way you know of that one, right?

C: I do, I do.

B: Do you! okay.

C: Yeah, yeah. I remember I had a PSP, I think I played it.

B: Yeah. It’s like the same kind of thing in Rengoku back in the day. You’re an android in this, and every time you fought another android, you could choose which piece of them you wanted. And then you added it to your body. So, like, you would have, like, a blade arm on your left arm, you’d have a grenade launcher on your right arm, you’d have like, a pistol for your fucking head and you’d have, like, all this stuff, and you look like this weird patchwork monstrosity, but you could get, like, some really crazy builds going in that game. Rengoku was like, amazing, like way ahead of his time. I would love for people to bring it back, and this is kind of channeling that same energy where you kind of like have these different builds and like I gotta say, like, I have not really been bored of it yet.

I think about it when I’m not playing it, which is a sign of a great game — I really want to get back to it and try this build or try that thing. Or if I can earn 500 more dollars, I can unlock this other option, and that will change how I play. And I’m just still like exploring the combos and exploring the the passive abilities and stuff. So it comes off like kind of a low budget, kind of like small project. And I think it’s only 25 bucks or something like that.

Once you unlock a few things and understand how it’s working and what it’s doing, it’s clear to see that the developers get it. They fully understand what the fun part of this formula is and they’ve dialed in on that fun. Even though it’s not pushing the most pixels and it’s not the deepest thing around, what they’ve made here absolutely works and it’s fun as hell. Dude, I think this game is so good.

C: Cool. Yeah, I will check it out. And also, um, my only thing is like, if there’s not enough persistence, you know, to keep me going, but this sounds like it does because it sounds like every single time you’re doing something.

B: Yeah. I mean, you unlock new weapons. Yeah, exactly. You cannot like when you start, you have nothing. And then after you’ve been playing it for a day, you’ll have, like double your health bar. You’ll be able to start with like one of the mutation mutation powers. You’ll start with a gun and a weapon where you didn’t have anything before. And so like you just like you’ll build up over time. It may not be huge leaps, but I will say that the thing that this game understands better than most is that the things that you do unlock and the things you do change, they feel significant, like it feels like you’ve done something different. Yeah, you can see the improvement. You can feel the step. It’s not just like a 0.012% increase on flame damage or something. It’s like your your combo like stuns guys where it didn’t used to stun them or like you’ve got this bullet reflective shield that you didn’t have before, or you have a whole new head that you didn’t have before. Like they really do feel like significant steps, which I think is really the key to keeping an experience like this, feeling fresh. So I think this one is I mean, honestly, like, I feel like this is like one of my favorite games of the year. I was having like a total blast with it.

C: Surprised. Okay, cool.

B: Yeah, it’s good stuff. Kiborg check it out. It’s 25 bucks, I think everywhere, which is a steal for a game like this. Just give it a chance to blossom once you jump in. This is a lock for one of my top ten this year, for certain.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed published by Sobaka Studio. It is currently available on PC, PS and XB. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed multiple times, both campaign and the (endless?) arena mode.  There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, and Language. 

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles are available for almost all dialogue (I noticed a few lines during play that weren’t subbed, but they were flavor, nothing relaying important information.) Text cannot be resized or altered.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable but there are a couple of presets that players can choose from. Left stick moves the character, the face buttons handle various attacks, and the shoulder buttons are used as modifiers to activate various bonus attacks or abilities.

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

HIGH Unique mech designs and interesting pilots.

LOW “Forced” grinding and reliance on random drops.

WTF Jumping spider mechs are terrifying.

TRANSCRIPT: Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.

The Axis forces have taken Europe, and their brutal tactics and technological superiority has them poised to conquer the world. However, a small group of resistance fighters have hidden themselves, gathered resources, and are now ready to fight back with powerful mech suits.

Grit and Valor: 1949 is a realtime roguelike tactics game where players control up to three mechs for the resistance army and fight against the Axis powers in an alternate World War II setting. Each mission will have players protecting their command vehicle while fighting multiple waves of enemy soldiers and mechs.

As players progress through the campaign, they’ll fight through four sections of Europe — the British Isles, Scandinavia, Western Europe, and a final conflict in New Germany. At the beginning of each section, players choose the mechs, their loadouts and the pilots they want to bring along, and each area takes between 30-60 minutes to complete, depending on luck and getting good drops throughout the mission.

At the start of combat, players will get notifications showing which direction the enemy will be coming from, letting them move their mechs around freely to get the best positioning before they strike. For example, fighting from a higher elevation or hiding behind cover grants damage and defense bonuses.

Mechs will auto-fire at the closest enemy within their range, so good positioning is half the battle. The other half of each battle hinges on correct use of Grit and Valor‘s rock-paper-scissors system, here called the weapon triangle.

There are three mech types, each with a weakness and a strength. Assault mechs are strong against Flame mechs, Flame mechs are strong against Blast mechs, and Blast mechs are good against Assault mechs. Naturally, mechs deal more damage to those they are strong against and take more damage from those they are weak to.

On top of this weapon triangle, each mech also has a unique pilot with a special ability that players can use at will — things like a self-heal on their own mech, calling in an airstrike, dropping mines, and so forth.

As a whole, the combat feels fluid and easily manageable. It’s easy to read elevations and every enemy type is clearly marked, so players can easily determine the best placements for their mechs. Players can also take as much time as they need to evaluate each battle , as the ability to pause is present.

After each wave, a supply drop will give players a bonus to choose from, and some encounters will have a some side objective that will award additional currency if the player completes it. These side quests can be things like defending specific buildings, destroying enemy buildings, or capturing supply points.

Between runs, players can upgrade their mechs or unlock new ones. They can also upgrade pilot abilities and buy armor for the mechs, and these things can be swapped freely between runs, so it gives players freedom to find the best combination that works for their playstyle.

In terms of permanence and progression, an aspect crucial to modern roguelikes, players can unlock general perks like enhanced cover, enhanced command vehicle abilities and movement, and discounts on shops throughout each run. These things stay unlocked from run to run, helping a player get a leg up over time, and the upgrades felt like they all came at the perfect time. For example, completing the British Isles unlocks a few upgrades, and since the next section immediately put me up against tougher mechs, it all lined up nicely.

In terms of atmosphere, Grit and Valor has it in spades.

The diselpunk setting got its hooks into me quickly and I was eager to fight off the fascist regime. Each of the mechs and pilots feel unique in styling and design — the worn-out blacksmith that grafts armor mid-fight to a mech, and rich jetpack pilot that can jump a mech across the battlefield were favorites. Interestingly, all of the Axis characters are partially robotic themselves, and I loved the sniper boss with the scope for an eye.

Unfortunately, each of the combat maps feels too similar to the next. Sure, one may be covered in snow and one might be more metallic and industrial, but there are no environmental hazards or special features on any map, so they all play identical to one another.

There’s also a lot of reliance on grinding and luck is required for good drops or inventory available in shops. After each run, players will get random mech parts (weapon, legs, engine, and so on) that will upgrade a mech for the next combat. While they help, it’s random how much they help. A weapon that enhances crit damage can swing anywhere from a 5% to 15% increase, so getting lucky plays a part in winning a run.

There’s also randomness in which mech will get an upgrade, as players can’t divide the loot as they see fit. One run had a single mech getting almost all of the upgrades, but since other two on my team didn’t get much and stayed weak for too long, that run was doomed.

Something else worth noting is that enemies seemed categorically stronger to the point that it felt impossible to win a run until I’d unlocked some things first. Whether upgrades were spaced out evenly or not, the first few runs felt like they were forced losses — annoying, and not a great look as far as roguelike design goes, but it didn’t stop me from continuing on.

Despite the rough edges and parts that need a bit of polish, I’m enjoying my time with Grit and Valor. The mechanics are solid and easy to pick up, and unlocking and trying new mechs and pilots is great. However, the repetition of the content and the slow progression means this war might wear down all but the most dedicated soldiers.

For me: Grit and Valor: 1949 gets 7 leaping mech suits out of 10.

Buy Grit and Valor:1949 — PC

Disclosures: This game is developed by Milky Tea Studios and published by Megabit Publishing. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 8 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T for Strong Violence. Players will be using flamethrowers, machine guns, and grenade launchers to attack and destroy enemy mechs and other units. Some are human soldier units, but there is no gore in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in-game, but the text is not resizable. Audio is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.

Controls: Controls are fully remappable.

The post Grit and Valor: 1949 VIDEO Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Stomping the Dungeon boss as the Order.

LOW Basically every time I fought the frustrating Keep boss.

WTF Why is the river such a weak terrain?

Given the opportunity, a random number generator will screw a player over. Games that lean heavily on randomization, such as roguelikes, fundamentally must balance the inevitable frustration of busted runs with a compelling experience of play. Many games meet that standard, but unfortunately Drop Duchy falls just short.

Like most roguelikes, Drop Duchy is built around performing repeated runs — in this case through a lightly-randomized series of combat rounds and resource pickups, and three fixed bosses. The setup for combat will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played Tetris – tetrominoes appear at the top of a field of play and can be rotated before dropping them to the bottom to build complete rows.

The tiles consist of various kinds of terrain and the buildings that interact with them. For instance, a Farm transforms surrounding Plains tiles into Fields, giving a bonus to a Watchtower that gains more units from the latter terrain type. As enemy buildings drop too, arranging tetrominoes so that the terrain benefits the player and not the enemy is a key strategic goal.

In Drop Duchy, completing a row harvests the resources of the terrain (such as grain coming from Fields or Plains) rather than making it disappear. An empty tile prevents harvest, and there’s no way to “uncover” a mistake. Once the tiles reach the top of the play area, the round ends and the player can send military units from his buildings to take on those in enemy buildings (with a classic rock-paper-scissors vulnerability system). The reward for victory is a selection of new buildings or technologies that give passive boosts.

The individual rounds can vary greatly depending on the array of terrain available, but are generally unlikely to end a run and feel too relaxed. The bosses have unusually-shaped fields of play and mostly depend on penalizing the player for putting tiles in forbidden zones. I enjoyed two of the bosses, but I felt that the second boss was poorly tuned, with too much excluded space and penalties that were too stiff for violating it. Many of my runs ended there.

That nonetheless meant that most of my runs exceeded 30 minutes – almost as long as the longest game of Tetris ever played. It’s to its considerable advantage that most games of Tetris are considerably shorter than that: the low stakes make it easier to laugh off the brutal unfairness of the RNG. The time investment of a failed run of Drop Duchy makes it feel inordinately bad to receive, say, an unlucky run of S, Z, and O-shaped tetrominoes in a boss level.

The salve for a failed run is intended to be advancement along Drop Duchy’s progression tree, which is unlocked by fulfilling its many Challenges, which range from gathering certain amounts of a resource to performing particular tricks with certain buildings.

Unfortunately, unlocking new elements didn’t always feel like progress. Gaining the river terrain complicates the earlier parts of the run with few benefits. Most cards interacting with this terrain are not strong and are entirely ineffective if there are less than 15 contiguous river tiles, making them high-risk, mid-reward selections.

New mechanics like Faith have few benefits until the player puts large numbers of the associated buildings into his limited set of tiles. If they don’t turn up, the result is a busted run. Outside of runs with their associated faction, these tiles mostly feel like they’re taking up space.

Even the sheer number of new buildings and techs gets in the way, pushing the encounter frequency of the most useful buildings down significantly. As I got further and further along the progression tree, busted runs where I simply never got offered useful military buildings became too common. When I did get a strategy going, I often found myself in a trap where I couldn’t get the additional buildings I needed to strengthen it. This became another reason to dislike the river — after a while I simply stopped regularly pulling buildings that could make use of it at all.

The unlockable factions are a mixed bag as well. From the start, one can choose the Duchy faction, which relies on small, agrarian buildings that accrue resources easily and are easy to place in the boss fights. The late-unlocking Order synergizes neatly with the otherwise-troubled Faith system and also features a number of interesting upgrade and harvest abilities.

The Republic faction, on the other hand, relies heavily on large buildings and on transforming terrain into “town”, making it unusable for many other buildings. This faction was especially difficult to use against the second boss.

Sometimes a roguelike can pull a player back in with aesthetic components, but Drop Duchy doesn’t really offer anything compelling. The terrain is largely dull, though at least the mountain tiles vary entertainingly. The buildings are nicely drawn but not especially memorable and they don’t do anything interesting like change based on faction or upgrade level. The music is fine, but there’s just not enough character in the graphical design to make that next run feel necessary, and no story to speak of.

Drop Duchy attempts to ease the hard feelings of a busted run with its progression-unlocking Challenges, but the proliferation of new features feels like it dilutes rather than strengthens subsequent runs. As a consequence, Drop Duchy falls too far into the frustrating regime of RNG-dominated games. There’s an interesting concept here, but Drop Duchy lacks the kind of snappy gameplay or compelling aesthetic that would sustain it through the unfairness of waiting in vain for that dang line piece that just won’t drop.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Buy Drop Duchy – PC

Disclosures: This game is developed by Sleepy Mill Studio and published by The Arcade Crew. It is currently available on PC via Steam. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on a home-built Windows 11 PC equipped with a Ryzen 7 processor, 64 GB RAM, and a single GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card (with various 576.x drivers). Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed (all factions and game modes were played and ~80% of the progression tree was unlocked). There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: As of press time this game has not been rated by the ESRB. Beyond simply acknowledging the existence of armed conflict and religious heresy, there’s nothing here to object to.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game has no dialogue nor are there any significant sound cues. Therefore, it is fully accessible.

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

The post Drop Duchy Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The combat system is responsive.

LOW Repeating enemies and sometimes easy-to-dodge bosses.

WTF Why is there an enemy that eats a fish raw mid-attack.

If I had to think of a word to describe current trends in game development, it would most likely be fusion.

Most developers, at least in my opinion, have never been better at genre-bending and blending two or more subsets of games that work together well. Think Neon White combining a deckbuilder and a time-attack shooter, or the developers of Nine Sols making a Metroidvania soulslike.

Tyrant’s Realm mixes it up and it just makes sense — it’s a mix of roguelike and soulslike, and with art seemingly transported from the PS1 era, it straddles both genres to great effect.

The player begins in a dank dungeon as a decrepit-looking prisoner, trapped in a cell which they eventually escape. Armed with nothing but a long stick and a sorry excuse for a shield, I had to travel through this dungeon full of mazelike rooms while looking for an exit. I then journeyed through five different dungeons with a boss at the end of each across tenor so attempts before beating my first run, and collected new weapons and armor while doing it — all while possessed soldiers and enemy fighters tried to kill me.

The combat of Tyrant’s Realm is a strong point. Fairly standard for a third-person soulslike, it has a clear emphasis on attacking at the right time during an enemy’s attack pattern, and dodging, parrying, or blocking in all other instances. My character had a stamina meter and a health meter that I could refill with a set number of healing flasks.

It might not sound like I’m praising Tyrant’s Realm by writing that the combat is “fairly standard,” but for a title in this genre, the perfect combat loop would be one copied from Dark Souls and its sequels, and Tyrant’s Realm executes its own version of this system to a T. Dodges are responsive, blocks are effective, and I never felt like the game was cheating me.

It also visually molds with the character animations — it would seem like it’s a graphically wonky roguelike, but it runs smoothly. Even when combat was a bit repetitive towards the end areas, it still clicked.

Yet even within combat systems as tight as soulslikes, there will be some problems. The only two minor knocks that I will give Tyrant’s Realm’s combat both come with the lock-on system — making the camera spin out of control when locking on to a group of enemies, and trivializing boss combat by allowing the player to infinitely walk in one direction around the boss.

The story? It mainly takes a backseat in the overall experience. My job was to try to make it to the final room in the entire “realm” ruled by an evil wizardly tyrant. After beating him, I was returned back to the start to try to beat the tyrant on a harder difficulty.

Forgetting combat and story for a moment, there’s one more portion to Tyrant’s Realm — the roguelike. Nothing exemplifies this genre’s inclusion so much as the physical layout of the dungeons. There are distinct regions all over the map that I went to, but each one was a randomization of room layouts, enemy placements, and loot chests. It provided a new-ish experience to each area, but nothing groundbreaking by any means.

Similar to the room layouts, each larger area would have around two chests in each room filled with a random assortment of weapons, armor, and shields. The weapon variety was a major reason why I wanted to keep playing once I’d beaten my first run. Outside of the typical sword, axe, and spear lineup, there were hidden gems like the trident, the Wolverine claws, and the gigantic wooden mallet. To be expected, the shields and the armor yield less eye-catching items, but some had immense buffs compared to others.

Apart from item variety, Tyrant’s Realm also offers a decent amount of replayability. After beating the final boss, players can up the difficulty on each subsequent run. Level II includes “elite” enemies on each level that do more damage and move faster. Level III makes all enemies elite enemies, but with this increased difficulty comes increased rewards.

Unfortunately, the roguelike aspect of Tyrant’s Realm suffers a bit from lack of options, consequence-less randomizations for shields and armor that only express themselves in how fast the character moves, and a difficult means of progressively unlocking new gear on the lowest difficulty — collecting coins from defeating enemies.

On the lowest difficulty, every dungeon results in about 50 coins collected, and bosses give 100. Some of the cooler gear costs up to 400 coins, and more significant upgrades like additional healing flasks cost even more. Granted, these are minor complaints from someone who beat the lowest difficulty quite easily within a few tries, but the pace of unlocking might be significantly slower for players who have a tougher time with the content.

Ultimately, Tyrant’s Realm executes a gameplay loop that’s rewarding enough to render its minor inconveniences just that — minor inconveniences. It’s another successful, joyful genre-mashup that anyone looking for a retro-inspired soulslike will have a good time with.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Buy Tyrant’s Realm – PC

Disclosures: This game is developed by Team Tyrant and published by Skystone Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PC. Approximately 5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB, but this game is not made for kids. It involves slashing, stabbing, and killing with digital weapons and there is blood visibly represented as well.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Dear & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is no dialogue in this game, and the only “story” bits are told through pop-up text on the screen. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The game’s controls are fully remappable.

The post Tyrant’s Realm Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.