2003’s Manhunt is a brutal, gritty title that occupies a strange place in Rockstar’s catalog as something that should be considered the company’s best work, yet it remains overshadowed by their own mega-hit franchises. This bleak, uncompromising meditation on the nature of voyeurism questioned the player’s participation in horrific bloodshed, and has since become something of a cult title — and PIGFACE is certainly one of its descendants.

Set in a post-industrial wasteland, PIGFACE places players in the role of a woman with a bomb in her head. Faceless handlers have assigned her to murder members of a drug-dealing gang across a handful of locations, and what little characterization the game offers has those same handlers shocked by how little pushback they receive from their living weapon – almost as if she’s as much down for all the murder as the people playing the game. The gameplay is as basic as the graphics – this looks like a Quake-era experience and feels like gritty, vicious shooters of that time, back when most titles were developed by a handful of people and when it was easier to smuggle bizarre and extreme content into even major titles.

After choosing a mission, the player picks their loadout from a decent arsenal – but in a twist that feels strange for an FPS (and may have been inherited from Manhunt) the player can only bring a single ranged weapon. This creates a bit of awkwardness, as the player is asked to decide on a playstyle before they have a sense of what the level is like, and pre-mission the briefings are not particularly voluminous. So, there’s often nothing to do but guess whether a sniper rifle or a shotgun is better for any given area, and if that doesn’t pan out, they can hope to snag a more appropriate weapon off of a dead body somewhere along the way.

The strange part is that for a game seemingly built around experimentation and taking chances, the developers punish players harshly for mistakes. Any time they fail a mission, a steep financial penalty is incurred. While guns only have to be bought once and ammo is free, healing syringes cost money, ensuring that if a player fails a particularly difficult level more than a couple of times, they’ll be forced to try again with even fewer resources, and consequently, less chance of success.

Enemy AI is also a little on the spare side at this point. I’m sure it’s a difficult to balance and all of the enemies can be best described as drug-addled wastrels, but they were remarkably unobservant and unresponsive whenever violence kicked off — enemies will watch a guard’s head get blown off with a sniper rifle, shrug, and then get right back to their patrol seconds later. Setting off explosives or blasting away with a machine gun might attract reinforcements, or it might not – enemies were largely unpredictable in an ‘is the AI broken and not responding to triggers?‘ kind of way.

Still, there’s plenty to be optimistic about here. The violence is every bit as brutal and upsetting as one would hope given PIGFACE’s obvious inspiration. There are huge blood spatters with every shot, and enemies scramble around and scream as they’re injured, making the whole thing feel doubly unpleasant.

This unpleasantness also permeates every bit of the world. Every room is full of trash and dirty needles. The player is asked to shut down drug factories, and all they find are a few drums and jars crudely linked together with hoses and tape. This game is about the absolute lowest-tier of criminal being executed by an assassin who lives in a dingy one-room apartment next to a set of elevated train tracks. It’s a celebration of the grindhouse aesthetic and seemingly pointless violence – although as the story gets developed in later updates, that might well change.

PIGFACE is in a rough Early Access state at the moment, with inconsistent enemies and no real narrative to speak of. I don’t expect the graphics to get any better – the low-end look is the point — and it’s a clear throwback to a rougher, more brutal past. Anyone lamenting that we never got a Manhunt 3 will find a lot to love here.

Assuming gameplay is rebalanced and more levels are added – I beat all five in just under an hour – this is extremely promising. Hopefully the devs manage to turn it into a more complete experience, as games this heartlessly brutal are few and far between.

Or maybe this kind of game being rare is a good thing? I’ll let history be the judge.

The post PIGFACE Preview appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

If I’ve taken one lesson from the Steam spring sale, it’s that there are a lot of deck-building roguelikes out there. In fact, there are too many for my wallet to handle.

Make no mistake, the subgenre has proliferated in recent years because the mechanics blend together so well. The luck of pulling the right card at the right time and collecting the best additions to a deck lends itself to the luck-based try-die-repeat formula of roguelikes. 

However, the genre is getting quite saturated, and new entries have an even tougher uphill battle to be noticed alongside megahits like Balatro and Slay the Spire – but based on the seven hours I spent with its demo, Shuffle Tactics might just be a real contender.

The kingdom of Asteria has been infected by a dark magic known as Glimmer, and it’s up to the protagonist (multiple characters are unlockable) and whatever motley sidekicks they can find along the way to save the kingdom. Shuffle Tactics applies the deck-building roguelike formula to the tactics RPG genre with enough personality and mechanical crunch to stand out from the rest.

The first big pull is presentation. Shuffle Tactics features 16-bit pixel graphics that hearkens back to the best tactics RPGS of yesteryear, or even some recent entries like Triangle Strategy. The animations are smooth and detailed, and I was especially impressed by the final blow cinematics that top off a boss battle – these flourishes are a nice little treat after typically grueling fights.

Graphics aside, I think the big sell are the mechanical systems in Shuffle Tactics. Each card is accompanied by a bevy of keywords that indicate buffs or debuffs that can be chained together in effective combos. These buffs don’t just add strength, but often more complex interactions like “Bloodlust,” which increases the power of a card based on how many enemies have been damaged, or “Sadist,” which means the card will do more damage to a target if they’re below half health.

There are also elemental interactions — ice becomes water, and water makes enemies ripe for an electric attack. On the other hand, fire can warm them up and take off that “wet” status, but it can then give them some burning damage. 

These interactions can be daunting at first – players will need to take time to read the descriptions for keywords by highlighting them on each card, and figuring out how to maximize buffs and debuffs to maximum effect takes some effort. Keep in mind, so far I’ve only explored the first character — the next character to be unlocked has a completely different scheme involving totems and elemental effects.

Of course, as a roguelike, the player will unlock additional cards and charms that add even more effects, and this is where the real joy of roguelikes comes in– figuring out ways to absolutely break the game.

For instance, starting character (the Doberknight) has a sword he can throw and call back. The cards for each the throw and the return – two separate actions – always appear in the card draw. Add a charm that gives “Aegis” (a keyword that blocks the next attack) and you can stack up a near-invincible killing machine.

Figuring out how these systems work together is a skill the player will need to work on, but it fully aligns with the spirit of the genre, with players growing more powerful with each subsequent run due to their knowledge and cleverness expanding with each attempt.

As the current build is a preview, I did run into a few bugs and balancing issues (enemy numbers and their buffs can get wildly out of control) but these are things that I imagine developer Club Sandwich will nail down before a full release. It’s also obvious that there’s a lot more content than what’s on offer in the demo, but there’s enough meat in this slice to get a good taste of the full meal yet to come.

Shuffle Tactics is shaping up to be a treat for fans of deckbuilders, roguelikes and tactical RPGs. Its mechanical complexities and unique keyword systems offer satisfying depth that won’t hold the player’s hand. For anyone who enjoys this sort of challenge, it’s one to take notice of.

Download the Steam demo on PC now

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HIGH Colorful Characters. 

LOW All setup, no payoff.

WTF Make your friends kiss!

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is the latest game from developer Don’t Nod, famous for Life is Strange — a series I’ve been a fan of since its first installment. After playing through a preview chunk of Lost Records, I’m cautiously optimistic for this new work, though it left me with more questions than answers.

The preview starts with the player controlling a teenager named Swann. I was allowed to explore her room while looking at various objects that helped establish the setting as being in the ’90s. I was happy to have a protagonist who wasn’t a ‘traditionally attractive’ skinny girl (Swann is somewhat stocky compared to the average female protagonist) not to mention that Swann is somewhat socially awkward, which helps them feel grounded and real. 

After poking around, changing clothes and interacting with objects, I was introduced to the central mechanic — recording footage on my camcorder. To do this, I simply bring up the camera and wait for a gauge to fill while I targeted things in the environment such as my cat, or other objects in the room. it’s also possible to edit the order in which clips I recorded occurred. It’s simple editing, but it made for an entertaining minigame of sorts.

On the other hand, I had mixed feelings when it seemed as though editing the footage had no impact on gameplay. That might be a good thing for players who might not want to fiddle with the footage. On the other hand, I felt like making this mechanic possibly optional meant that a game about recording and editing would miss an opportunity. Of course, as the content I had was in alpha, it’s entirely possible that the footage element had not yet been fully integrated into what I saw, so the jury is still out.

After the tutorial and setup, I was told (via text stills) of what transpired between segments of Lost Records that were not yet available, after which I found myself in a garage and was introduced to the cast of characters. These included new high school friends Nora, Autumn, and Kat. They were showing Swann their music and I began to record them. 

Shortly after talking about a music video and interacting with them, Lost Records cut to a daytime exploration of the nearby woods where we went to shoot more footage. Here I recorded the characters at their request and occasionally directed them to do things, such as a cartwheel. I also shot  additional footage the game didn’t prompt, as I was curious if it would let me integrate “B-roll” footage  into the shoot.

During this session I got to know the girls more, but some of the interactions were a bit awkward. At one point Swann asks two of the girls to kiss, asking them to act as if they are a boyfriend/girlfriend couple. I wanted an option to stop it, but Lost Records only let me take her aside to talk after it happened. 

While I was progressing the woods segment, Lost Records would sometimes cut to the “present day” 27 years later. In a first person view I was still Swann, but now I was in a bar across the table from an older Autumn talking about the events I was playing through in 1995. However, here the vibe felt more ominous. There was a mysterious package, and hints that the “earlier” events had ended badly, or perhaps hadn’t been talked about for the last 27 years. 

When Lost Records returned to the earlier time period and we ended our shoot in the woods, events jumped ahead to when we were gathering to watch the footage. I hadn’t edited too much before but I had shot some B-roll, and to my surprise, a character emoted when they saw one of the B-roll clips I had filmed of a partial deer skull. It wasn’t much, but I appreciated the unexpected feedback. Towards the end, there were suddenly some strange lights and sounds that foreshadowed a creepy supernatural occurrence, and then the preview content ended, leaving me with more questions than answers — though not all the good kind.

From this preview content, I had hoped for a better idea as to what Lost Records was trying to do with its core mystery and gameplay, but there’s still a lot left to figure out. Will it be an emotional coming-of-age story or perhaps more of a found footage story? Will I revisit horrific events in the past? Will the filming and editing would tie into the gameplay in a more nuanced, relevant way? Does the order in which one edits or films footage matter?

Overall, I’m intrigued and Lost Records has a lot of potential, especially when taking the studio’s previous work into account. However, only time will tell what shape the final experience will take.

*

Disclosures: This game is developed by Don’t Nod. It will be available on PS5, XBO, XBX/S, and PC with a planned release date of February 18, 2025. This content was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC.

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Waking up in a hospital is never a good sign. Even worse when that hospital is on a space station currently under siege by terrorists.

Such is a day in the life of Dawn, a futuristic super-cop and the protagonist of Selaco.

Having recently released its first chapter into Early Access, Selaco is a first-person shooter with a retro bent.  This debut title from developer/publisher Altered Orbit Studios not only pays homage to its forebears with its many references and easter eggs, but literally finds its foundations in the past.  Running on a souped-up version of the same tech that powered the 1993 Doom, the space station Selaco is a beautiful anachronism.

Two-dimensional, sprite-based enemies charge out of dense clouds of smoke.  Colorful, low-res textures paint the lush, polygonal environments just before erupting into storms of dust and debris.  The streets, shopping malls and labs of Selaco render bloody testimony to Dawn’s passage.  What was once a quaint office party is now an inferno.  Dismembered corpses and neon pink viscera litter the halls — shattered glass, stray keyboards and paper are everywhere.  The physicality of Selaco is palpable, and its combat brings this to the fore.

Given Selaco’s pedigree, my first inclination was speed.  As I charged into fracas after fracas, Selaco’s formidable foes repeatedly shut me down.  I was forced to reevaluate.  I’ve never been a quick study, and I guess the early tutorial messages emphasizing the importance of cover weren’t strong enough indicators of the combat’s tactical nature.

Despite my stubbornness, the cadence finally clicked.  I fell into a comfortable rhythm of harrying my opponents from afar and, when the moment was right, slide-dashing across the floor, shotgun in hand, disintegrating anyone unfortunate enough to still be alive.  The developers have cited John Woo’s Hard Boiled as a reference point, and as I dive from cover to cover, desperately fumbling that last shell into the chamber as the world explodes around me, it’s hard not to feel like Chow Yun-fat. 

However, a lack of enemy variety holds Selaco back.  Many of the fights feature the same basic soldiers, palette swapped with slightly different abilities.  There are some notable exceptions in the middle portions, and geographic diversity in the battlefields helps, but a more eclectic group of villains in future updates would be welcome.

Between the intense melees, I found breathing room in the more thoughtful exploration.  A far cry from the wall-bumping, shot in the dark tactics of yesteryear, uncovering Selaco’s secrets requires critical thinking and careful observation.  In one example, I came across a locked room housing a suit of armor.  I could see a vent on the wall, but no clear entrance.  By tracing a line through the walls in my mind, I could intuit where the entrance should be based on the geometry.  Sure enough, I found the shaft’s source tucked away in a high corner of the adjacent room and claimed my prize.  A testament to its design, the station Selaco is built in Euclidian space, and these simple moments establish a sense of logic and reality.

From battles in bookstores and burger joints, to lonely treks across rainy plazas, each space feels distinct and has a sense of purpose beyond the player.  Some areas can become overly complex however, and at times I was left unsure of where to head next.  While I was rarely stuck for long, this particular holdover from the ’90s felt unintentional.

Every corridor is bathed in the neon lights of advertisements and holograms, computer monitors glow in the background, a magazine with Dawn’s face on the cover sits on a coffee table.  The pixelated blend of vivid colors and cartoony characters provides a refreshing counterpoint to the destructive violence. 

More than just a visual treat, each of these elements contributes to Selaco’s history and context.  For instance, several hours in I came across a playable arcade machine that effectively demonstrated the reason behind humanity’s exodus from Earth, a fact only hinted at up to this point.  Elegant storytelling at its best.

On the flip side, there is an over-reliance on emails to disseminate information, and the familiar act of combing through walls of text for a four-digit code distracts from Selaco’s vibrant world.  Furthermore, I never felt like I had a clear sense of what my overall objectives were.  My HUD always spelled out what to do next, but if the why behind these bullet points was ever communicated, I must have missed it.  With the current build only featuring Selaco’s first chapter, I hope to see the developers allow more room for their world to speak for itself.

Worthy of a special callout is Selaco’s emphasis on accessibility.  With difficulty options ranging from so hard you shouldn’t even try, to an exploration mode for those more interested in just absorbing the sights, any interested players should be able to find their Goldilocks moment.  On top of this there is an entire submenu dedicated specifically to accessibility with multiple subtitle options and visual tweaks.  For an independently developed title in Early Access, Selaco is a perfect demonstration that inclusivity is a matter of priorities, not resources.

Neither imitative nor innovative, Selaco is content to simply mix the old with the new.  In so doing, the developers execute their vision with a level of polish that belies its humble origins.  With two thirds of its content yet to be released, Selaco could very well shape up to be a serious contender in the increasingly crowded indie shooter sphere.  The developers proudly wear their inspirations on their sleeves but are not beholden to them.  In an early moment, I came across a wall covered in children’s drawings.  Upon closer inspection, I noticed some familiar faces among the cartoon caricatures — staring back at me were the protagonists of Deus Ex, Doom and Quake.  This gleeful reinterpretation of classic characters serves as a thesis statement for Selaco, and a warm welcome for an old veteran of the genre.

— Ryan Nalley

The post PREVIEW: Selaco appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

After more than two years of development, a demo for the epic new Dark Souls III mod known as Dark Souls: Archthrones has finally been released, causing many Souls fans on PC to rejoice.

The development team is an all-star cast of Souls devotees who had the skills, passion and time needed to essentially make their own entry in the series. They made many modifications including improved graphics, different combat mechanics and more options for players to make adjustments to the UI — but the most exciting part about the mod is the new content. There are five new areas, eighteen new bosses, fully-voiced new NPCs and lore-rich new items.

Having beaten Dark Souls III for the first time just before the Archthrones demo released on March 15th, I downloaded the mod files that night so that I could start playing immediately. Although I’m still only seven hours in, I’m already impressed by what I’ve seen.

As I went through the familiar routine of creating a character, breezing through the tutorial section and facing off with the first big baddie, I appreciated both the faithfulness to the source material and the creativity of the Archthrones development team as they managed to weave together so many different elements not just from Dark Souls III, but from all of the Souls games.

For example, besides Dark Souls III, Archthrones pays homage to other Souls games from the onset by using the font from Demon’s Souls for the title screen.

From that point I nearly killed the new tutorial boss, Demon Vanguard, but ultimately died because I got a little too cocky due to some assumptions I made based on its obvious similarities to Vanguard, the tutorial boss from Demon’s Souls.

Despite my defeat which caused my character to respawn in a new location, I was soon rewarded with an introduction to the Nexus of Embers — a verdant re-imagining of the long-decayed Firelink Shrine from Dark Souls III, with vines growing wildly over everything and many new and familiar faces like Stockpile Thomas from Demon’s Souls and Blacksmith Andre from the original Dark Souls.

As I interacted with NPCs near the bonfire and in the rooms upstairs, one thing I learned was that the events of Archthrones take place long before the end of the Age of Fire, effectively making it an unofficial prequel to Dark Souls III.

In place of the thrones reserved for the Lords of Cinder, the newly dubbed Archthrones serve as access points to distinct areas and, much like the Archstones in Demon’s Souls, they allow for nonlinear progression. Players may now access any area at any time although some areas are much harder than others.

Following a tip from the Archthrones subreddit, I started off by interacting with the coiled sword behind the Archthrone of the Bountiful Queen (the one nearest to the back) which transported me to the first new area: War-Torn Village.

Between the blood red sky, spooky houses and worker hollows skulking about, I could see how the development team had taken many aspects of the area directly from the Undead Settlement and repurposed them to the point that it felt like a completely new area, especially with added touches like floating autumn leaves and eerie choral music to give it a different tone.

As I continued on toward the next bonfire, I encountered new types of enemies such as the Angelic Paladins from whom I looted my go-to armor set, found new items like the Apostle Scythe (associated with the followers of a new NPC named Saint Gertrude) and gained many souls which allowed me to level up and upgrade my weapon several times in anticipation of the first area boss.

In the picture above, I’m flaunting the new Angelic Paladin armor set which is identical to the Lothric Knight armor set in terms of stats, but more aesthetically pleasing. I couldn’t imagine a better fit for my Joan of Arc-inspired strength/faith build.

It wasn’t long until I found the Angelic Siege Golem — a new boss that reminded me slightly of Tower Knight from Demon’s Souls (similarly huge and clad head-to-toe in armor) but it used powerful new Angelic magic attacks that ranged from wide arcs to small homing projectiles which were much harder to evade than Tower Knight’s.

After several failed attempts, I used an ember in the hopes of recruiting a friendly live player online to help me but I couldn’t find any summon signs to do so. That said, while I was not able to invite someone to my world, someone else summoned me to theirs.

My summoner didn’t waste any time going straight to the boss which we were able to beat by focusing on one leg at a time to bring it down. Once lowered, we pummeled its head and repeated the process until we brought it down for good. Having learned the strategy for defeating the Golem, I returned to my world with enough confidence to take it on myself and finally get the special kind of dopamine rush that only defeating a difficult Souls boss can provide.

The remaining area bosses were similarly challenging and full of surprises — Pus-Ridden Beast looked and moved a bit like Cleric Beast from Bloodborne until he went prone and started dealing curse damage during the second phase. The Angel of Gertrude also started simply enough, but turned into a duo boss fight halfway through. Finally, the Omen of the Eclipse had not only two phases, but two full health bars — one for a tank phase and the other for a kaiju phase. However, this just made winning twice as satisfying.

However, I was disappointed to find that once the fog gates cleared, there was often nowhere else to go. For me, gaining access to new places is more of a reward for killing a boss than souls or items, so discovering that many boss encounters result in dead ends was a minor bummer. That said, they’re usually stunning lookout points where I was able to interact with a new NPC.

In terms of performance, I ran into some technical issues that took me out of the experience — in a few instances, literally.

The main tech problems I had were with other players timing out when summoning me, the server going down and the entire program crashing. Thankfully, the development team has been keeping a pulse on what’s happening, as there have already been patches to improve performance, rebalance enemy stats, and more. I trust that most (if not all) of the issues I was having will be worked out before long.

So far, I’ve only logged seven hours in this massive demo so I’ve barely scratched the surface, but I’m excited to check out the other areas, especially Carthus of the Sands (once the domain of High Lord Wolnir) with its sandworms rivaling the fearful size and power of those in Dune.

It’s still unclear what the development team’s timeline is for releasing the full mod or what exactly will be in it (PVP please!) but in the meantime, there are plenty of places to explore, things to discover and challenges to overcome in the demo alone. It’s clear that this ambitious new Dark Souls III mod has the makings of being a stellar unofficial prequel.

*

Dark Souls III was developed by From Software and originally published by Bandai Namco for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The demo for Dark Souls: Archthrones, was made by a host of multi-talented people within the Dark Souls community who are all listed in these credits. Dark Souls: Archthrones is exclusive to PC and requires Dark Souls III, and both DLCs. The release date for the full mod is still unknown.

Find out more info about Archthrones here.

— Thom Stone

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GameCritics was recently invited to a preview event in LA to sit down with both the singleplayer and multiplayer content of Granblue Fantasy: Relink (GBF:R). I was not disappointed.

Disclosure: Accommodations for the trip were paid for by Granblue PR.

A new action-RPG from Cygames, GBF:R feels like a mix between a story-rich JRPG and Platinum action
titles — which isn’t surprising since the director, Tetsuya Fukuhara, has worked on
several other Platinum games. The fast-paced (yet tactical) combat kept me on the edge of my seat and was perfectly intermixed with a story that I was sad to put down when we ran out of the time allotted for singleplayer story content.

GBF:R is divided into two parts.

The first is the singleplayer story content. The demo slice picked up in the middle of what felt like a new adventure with the main character and their airship crew. I was happy that I could choose between a male and female protagonist who I was able to rename.

Incidentally, these choices are from the original mobile game Granblue Fantasy — GBF:R is a continuation of its story. While the mobile game isn’t available in the US, there is an anime adaptation. Those looking to jump in may want to track it down to become familiar with the characters and their motivations.

Things picked up quickly, and I was able to get a grasp of what was going on without too much effort, thanks in part due to the handy glossary that was available with a button press. After a short tutorial in the form of a monster attack on the airship, GBF:R pivoted into a grand summoning of Bahamut, which then went awry and damaged our airship.

After this prologue I was introduced to new characters, a primary town, and what seems to be the initial plot of the game, as “Primals” (creatures of power similar to the summons in Final Fantasy) are going berserk. Before the preview was over, I was able to defeat one of these in a boss battle which left
me wishing I could see what happened next.

Gameplay itself consisted of linear stages, like many RPGs and action games. That doesn’t
mean the game itself is linear, however. Just in the first town alone, there were a good deal of
side missions and quests which were reminiscent of multiplayer content like online hunts in Capcom’s Monster Hunter, or raids in Final Fantasy XIV. Up to four players can engage in a boss
fight taking place in an arena-like area that seemed to be a location taken from the singleplayer campaign. The game’s AI can take control of up to three supporting characters to help keep
them balanced, though for an extra challenge it is possible to play with less than four. (The devs said there are no bonus rewards for doing so, however.)

Combat in both the main story and multiplayer is real-time, with a focus on dodging, combos, and high mobility. As characters level up, they gain additional skills, up to four equipped at a time, and each are on
cooldowns. Party members also have a kind of ultimate ability that builds as they attack and is the unleashed to deal even more damage via exciting and flashy animations.

In addition to the player’s character, at least 20 recruitable characters have been announced so far, with more on the way, each with their own style and flavor.

Finally, I have to respect to the visual style in Granblue Fantasy: Relink. A beautiful feast for the eyes, the
game uses a cell-shaded, watercolor-esque palette that stands out for the franchise in both character and world design terms — from the kinetic combat animation to the gorgeous clouds and islands in the sky, every frame was interesting and engaging.

While every moment I spent with GBF:R had me wanting more, I did create a short mental wishlist before my time with it was up — things like the ability to play in split-screen co-op, and possibly a full recap of the story for those of us who haven’t been able to play the prior game or see the anime.

That said, I look forward to exploring the full game in more detail once I get my hands on it early next
year. Until then, I stand poised to start my journey!

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is developed by Cygames, PlatinumGames Inc., and published by Cygames and XSEED Games. It will be available on PS4/5 and PC on January 29th, 2024.

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The stone tower is so tall that, standing at the bottom, a human can’t see the top of it.

A figure treks across a boundless desert. At first she seems alone, but we soon discover that she’s carrying a passenger — a glowing blue creature so adorable that its inclusion may qualify as emotional manipulation. No context for this journey is offered, but I can’t imagine needing any. There is a tower, the game offers mechanics that allow me to climb it, and so it will be climbed.

Jusant, a title which refers to a receding tide, is a powerfully spare experience. There are no characters to interact with, no villains to fight. The only antagonist is the tower itself, and it’s a memorable one at that. This spire is an incredible piece of level design, telling its story not just through the occasional diary that the player can find lying around, but via the spaces the player traverses.

Starting out at the lowest levels of the tower, they’ll see hovels hewed roughly into the tower, surrounded by the small boats and fishing nets that let the player know that there was once an ocean here, and at the foot of the tower lived the workers who fed the civilization above. The higher the player climbs, the more intricate and finished the stonework becomes. Simple tool benches where items were cobbled together are replaced with intricate machinery, telling the story of class separation through the items the long-departed denizens employed.

Jusant‘s tower certainly tells a story, but who would ever learn it if the climbing mechanics weren’t magnificent?

Using the standard ‘one trigger for each hand’ system that many climbing games employ, Jusant makes it simple for players to clamber rapidly to impressive heights. A stickler for safety, the climber is careful to hook a safety line into the anchor point that marks the start of each climbing route. Then it’s just a matter of angling the controller towards a likely handhold, releasing one hand from the wall and letting the climber stretch for it. In addition to the anchor point, the player can use pinions to set what are effectively ‘continue points’ along their route in case they want a little insurance before attempting a particularly harrowing jump.

While it’s true Jusant is built around proscribed ‘climbing routes’, rather than letting the player simply clamber up whatever they want in modern Zelda-style, it feel less like a restriction, and more like the developers are curating the most breathtaking experiences.

Leaping from one handhold to another, gripping desperately to a beetle’s shell, using my last bit of stamina to grab hold of a waypoint anchor — I know the developers built the levels around these specific moments, but that doesn’t strip them of their thrill. I was especially impressed by the learning curve.

At the start I was struggling to make even the most basic leaps, and after an hour in I was sprinting in a pendulum arc along a flat wall to build enough momentum to propel myself onto a platform a dozen yards away.

With its enormous, intricate layout, constantly increasing challenge, and stunningly beautiful vistas, Jusant makes a strong case that it might well be the best third-person climbing game ever made. (Need more proof? There’s a button mapped solely for cuddling the cute monster sidekick.)

So long as the rest of the experience lives up to this amazing slice, we’re in for an unbelievable journey this October.

The post PREVIEW Jusant appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

We’ve recently seen a sharp increase in requests to preview games, and one that caught my eye was the puzzle platformer, Ugly. While the name didn’t pique interest, the cartoon style and its mechanics intrigued me. The demo is short and sweet, but shows promise.

The core concept in Ugly involves a mirror ability. Players control a nobleman dealing with some past trauma and he has gained the power to create a lightning bolt-shaped “mirror” — a line of white light that splits an area in two. No changes are made to the landscape, but a ghost-like doppelganger appears on the other half.

This spirit-clone performs the same actions as the ‘real’ character, but in reverse, but the mirrored twin is not confined to the same limitations as the fleshy version — the spirit can walk through walls, climb without a ladder, and even walk upside down if the mirror is placed below the player. This aids in solving puzzles such as reaching higher platforms, blocked-off rooms, and entering cellars without a door.

Players can swap locations with the mirrored version at anytime, thus gaining access to the closed off areas. This is essential, as the ghost version is unable to open doors or pick up objects, such as keys.

The puzzles in the demo for Ugly are mostly straightforward, but a couple did make me think outside the box, leading me to believe that the mirror offers much promise for interesting puzzle-solving. There is mention of boss battles, but the demo unfortunately ends right as players encounter the first massive, screen-filling villain. I would have liked to get a taste for boss fights, as the demo was all puzzle-solving.

Another positive sign is that the developers have a message on the start-up screen about wanting the game to be accessible. It’s fantastic that they’re thinking about accessibility so early in development, but as of now the options are bare-bones. Hopefully more will be included as Ugly draws closer to release.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Ugly — although it was just a short, 20 minute slice, it shows much potential. Fans of puzzle-platformers will want to keep on eye on this one.

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Ugly is being developed by Team Ugly and published by Graffiti Games. A demo is currently available on Steam and the full game is set to be released later in 2023.

The post PREVIEW: Ugly appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Earlier this May, GameCritics was invited to play a hands-on preview of Final Fantasy XVI.

For more than five hours I had a controller in hand and got a feel for combat, I took in story beats, and I got a peek at surprises in store for the journey ahead. As someone who’s familiar with — but not the world’s leading expert on — this long-running landmark series, I was unsure of what to expect. However, while there’s still plenty of game left to see, I walked away pleasantly surprised and ready for more.

Disclosure: This hands-on preview event was arranged by Square Enix PR and all expenses were paid.

Throughout my time with this demo I controlled the protagonist, Clive Rosfield. We started with an introduction in his childhood and play progressed all the way up to an early stage where he appeared to be in his 20s.

My first impressions of gameplay are incredibly positive. Ditching the mix of menu-based combat/real-time action featured in something like the Final Fantasy VII Remake, Clive moves incredibly fast and combat overall feels good, offering the best elements of character-based third-person combo-heavy combat games, which makes sense given that combat director Ryota Suzuki’s (Devil May Cry 5) has a background in titles of that sort. 

During the short tutorial on combat contextualized by a young Clive learning the ropes of attacking, defending, and using spells with one of his father’s soldiers, the standard fare of chaining together attacks, dodge-rolling to avoid incoming hits and throwing a fireball from far away is a satisfying loop.

One of the earliest enemy types I encountered was a group of swamp-dwelling goblins that attacked in small clusters, and Clive had no problem landing hits on foes, even when there were multiple enemies coming from different angles. Also, one of my favorite discoveries in combat was a ‘perfect dodge’ maneuver that allowed time to slow down if I rolled at exactly the right moment — very similar to “Witch Time” in Bayonetta, another leader in the character-action genre. Later on in the demo, I also encountered human knights and even series staples like Morbols, as well as a few major bosses I can’t reveal.

Frankly, the combat is much more accessible than I was expecting. Rather than being bogged down by complicated systems, I enjoyed how seamless and smooth the action flowed, and there’s even a combo meter that awards players with more XP as they perform different kinds of attacks, encouraging players to change things up and keep it fresh — the devs again taking notes from the biggest entries in the character combat genre.  

Another major addition came in the form of Eikons. Playing off of classic summons from earlier Final Fantasies, Clive transforms into giant variations of well-known creatures such as the dragon Bahamut, as he encounters a fiery Phoenix early in the demo. There’s an immense sense of scale that comes across when playing as one hulking titan fighting another, and the gameplay even had a bit of a shoot-’em-up flavor as Phoenix and Bahamut clashed mid-air. It’s impressive and absolutely gorgeous too, with plenty of complex effects lighting up the screen.

While the combat was great, the story was just as good, though I was surprised by how dark the tone of the narrative was — intense family drama set during a brooding medieval backdrop is the order of the day. I won’t spoil major plot points so I can’t say much here, but everything felt dangerous. Similar to manga like Berserk, there was a sense of hopelessness that inhabits a world like this, where characters can seemingly be killed by both horrifying monsters in a desolate swamp, or by the ruthless politics in control of everything. 

Even with all the dark atmosphere, it was nice seeing references and elements from past Final Fantasy games make the jump to this generation. The large bipedal Chocobos were ridden during cutscenes and a few of the adorable Moogles were present at shops. That said, my absolute favorite thing from the FF vault had to be the epic new rendition of the iconic victory theme. Nothing makes winning an especially tough battle better than hearing a powerful chorus sing the most recognizable RPG composition.

After my time with the main portion of content concluded, I was given a chance to explore a separate demo in which the available area was significantly larger.

The save provided by PR was clearly set much later in the adventure, as Clive was at a high level and had two party members with him. Spread across this open map were a few, higher level enemies which I won’t spoil. While I wasn’t allowed to activate any major quests in the area, my guess is that it will be filled with sidequests and probably some good spots to grind for XP. I was impressed by the landscape’s lush beauty, and I’m looking forward to the other environments that await me.

Overall, I was quite impressed with what I played of Final Fantasy XVI. Its combat and story were a treat, but knowing that there’s much more coming on the horizon has me eager to play the full release.

Final Fantasy XVI releases on June 22 for PlayStation 5. 

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Preview Disclaimer: These impressions were based on a special version made for media to experience, and contents may differ from the final version.

FINAL FANTASY XVI © 2023 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.

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The first Coffee Talk was a game with a laid back, character-focused approach to visual novel storytelling. It reminded me of Persona’s Le Blanc or Lo Fi Beats, only instead it simulated running a niche coffee shop in a fantasy version of modern-day Seattle complete with orcs, elves, succubi, cat people, and more. When I discovered that a sequel was being produced, I was eager to pick it up — and from the 90-minute preview build this article is based on, I was not disappointed.

So far, Coffee Talk 2 Hibiscus & Butterfly serves up more of what I loved in the original, now offering not only two new “base tea” options to serve up in bespoke drink requests for customers, but new characters, customers drawn to the shop.

In the original there was a focus on being able to experiment with drink combinations and nailing these request rewarded me with more of each character’s story. Coffee Talk 2 offers similar mechanics, only it also throws in an item system of sorts where customers gave me items (or left an item) and I needed to give it to the appropriate person later.

I forgot this mechanic the first time it came up because it was so easy to slip back into the normal flow of making drinks and talking to folks — without a reminder, it was easy to forget about the items. Thankfully, it’s a simple matter to reload the day and fast-forward to where the action needs to happen. My forgetting aside, the item system is a welcome addition that spices up the formula without changing too much of the core gameplay loop.

The new characters introduced in Hibiscus & Butterfly were intriguing, and I was pleased to see the devs add some neat special effects with the introduction of a banshee who was an aspiring opera singer, and again with a satyr influencer. More aliens and an evolution of the alien character from the first game were other faces I was able to see a little of before my preview ended. Since further developments in prior narratives interested me, I was glad to see that Coffee Talk 2 has found natural continuations of some of these plotlines, especially since they were often struggling with social issues that mirrored what we face in our world, only shown through a fantasy-themed lens of racism and prejudice.

So far, their struggles continue to feel like relatable, down to earth anxieties and tribulations.

This preview is promising, but only the full version will reveal whether Hibiscus & Butterfly lives up to the original. It may not deliver tons of new gameplay mechanics, but the addition of the item system, new tea combinations, and new characters is all I need, and I’m looking forward to another piping hot cup of cozy character stories that Coffee Talk 2 will surely deliver.

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Coffee talk 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is developed by Toge Productions and published by Chorus Worldwide. The full game is expected to be released in XXXXX.

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