HIGH The buildup to the second boss fight.

LOW The actual second boss fight.

WTF “Little guys for big jobs” is a profoundly weird way to describe bullets.

There’s nothing slick about Blood West.  It’s a slow, lumbering thing – an exercise in patience, demanding to be taken on its own terms. 

My first forays into this stealth focused, first-person shooter were mired in frustration, while my seemingly interminable failures put the main character’s immortality to the test.  However, once I was willing to abandon my preconceived heuristics and fully lean into Blood West’s loop, I loved every second of it.

Recently resurrected by a talking cow skull of dubious origins, the player takes control of an unnamed, undead gunslinger tasked with defeating a great evil corrupting the land.  Structured as small open-worlds, players will explore haunted canyons, swamps, and mountain ranges across the American old west.  Light RPG elements allow for some character customization, but make no mistake, spirits, mutants, and gaggles of gun-toting birdmen offer stiff resistance to incautious players, and maintaining a low profile is crucial.

Impulse and quick reflexes find no purchase in Blood West – every action must be carefully considered, with a solid contingency plan in place should things go awry.  Stand-up fights netted poor results for this spooky cowpoke, and each encounter turned into a tactical calculus.

Take the simple act of equipping weapons – players are only able to swap between two at a time, one large and one small.  Is it more prudent to take the bow, able to stealthily dispatch weaker enemies from afar?  Or is it better to knife them in the back, relying on the close quarters fury of a double-barreled shotgun should that colossal wendigo stomping in the background take notice?  These questions become existential as health is fleeting, and death is severely punished on the plains of Blood West.

Each defeat (and subsequent resurrection) results in a “soul flaw” — a semi-permanent status effect that negatively impacts a core stat such as health, stamina, or sneaking ability.  These compound with each death, worsening up to three times. While they can eventually be remedied, these flaws do nothing to make the hostile world of Blood West any easier.

While Blood West is punishing when approached as a typical first-person shooter, it is immensely rewarding as a tactical stealth experience.  Its open-ended structure offers players abundant freedom in tackling objectives, and most areas can be approached from any direction.  I came to organize my play into discreet sorties, probing further into the wilderness and systematically clearing areas of enemies before returning to base camp to trade treasure with the merchant and heal up.  Defeated enemies stay dead until the player rests or resurrects, and I began to feel a measure of control over my environment when I realized I could stay alive much longer with the most important tactic of all – knowing when to cut bait. 

Eventually, I came to realize the majority of my deaths in Blood West were a result of my own hubris – deciding to take a snap headshot without properly scouting the area, accidentally alerting a horde of monsters in the process, or pressing into uncharted territory despite a depleted health bar.  Individual enemies are generally not difficult on their own, and most can be outrun should they become overwhelming.  That’s not to say that every death is the player’s fault, but I rarely felt Blood West was unfair and often found my own stubbornness and inattention to be the source of any frustration.

Careful attention is not only important for combat but also exploration.  Whether it’s a moored steamboat off the beaten track or a lonely cabin on a hilltop, there is sure to be loot worth finding.  As I began to explore the more far-flung corners of the map, I found powerful, unique items that literally changed the way I approached Blood West – a rifle that heals forty health with every headshot, or a trinket that offered a twenty percent boost to health, stamina, and experience points.  Some of these items shaped my play for hours to come, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that I might not have rolled credits in Blood West without them.

There is one area where Blood West falls short, however – the boss fights.  Each act is structured around tracking and exterminating an evil entity, and the narrative revolves around the buildup to these encounters.  Unfortunately, these battles are uniformly disappointing and rely on mechanics that stray from Blood West’s strengths.  Whether it’s dexterity-based dodging or battles of attrition, gone is the emphasis on thoughtful, strategic play that forms Blood West’s foundation.  While certainly a letdown, these criticisms amount to little more than quibbles in the wake of all that Blood West does right.

Blood West won’t be for everyone, but those willing to go along with its demanding play and deliberate pacing will find an engaging experience that celebrates the player’s wits as much as reflexes.  I won’t soon forget the feeling of being low on ammo, even lower on health and deep behind enemy lines, knowing I should turn back, but forging ahead anyway, intoxicated by what treasure could be around the next corner – because more than likely, it’s worth it.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Buy Blood West: PS5 – Xbox – PC

Disclosures: This game is developed by Hyperstrange and published by New Blood Interactive LLC. It is currently available on PC, PS5, and XBX/S.  This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 30 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the primary campaign was completed, but the DLC campaign was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence. This game is definitely not aimed at children.  While the visuals are generally low fidelity and rendered in a cartoony, non-realistic fashion, there is plenty of blood and gore.  Enemies can be killed with various firearms, knives, and swords.  When killed, enemies will spray blood out and can be partially dismembered with certain weapons.  Alcohol and tobacco can be consumed as power-ups.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game only offers subtitles in certain instances.  Primary dialogue between characters is fully subtitled, but the player’s character makes many comments throughout gameplay that are not subtitled at all. While this game offers two options for text size, this only applies to certain menus and did not impact the text in subtitled dialogue. This game relies heavily on stealth, and when playing without sound I found it more difficult to remain unseen and, consequently, died more frequently due to enemy noises that are not represented visually. The missing in-game subtitles combined with the lack of visual indicators for key contextual noises means this game is not fully accessible.

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

The post Blood West Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Beautiful aesthetics and world design.

LOW The rest of the game, mechanically.

WTF The underwater base world.

TRANSCRIPT:

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

Long ago, Chaos created the universe and populated it with two powerful rulers. These rulers eventually sought to control the universe itself, and turned against Chaos. For their sins, Chaos granted both these rulers immortality, and cursed them to fight for eternity — when one falls, they would be reborn to fight the other again. Within this framework, players take on the role of the ruler of Darkness and try to regain the throne in Aeterna Noctis.

In this action platformer, players will explore the world of Aeterna while trying to find a way to defeat the Queen of Light. The game has players going through decaying crypts, scaling towers of light and energy, descending into a fiery volcano forge, and even into a forgotten underwater base. All the while, players will be defeating enemies for experience, leveling up skills, collecting currency to buy items and abilities, and harnessing mystic weaponry in order to achieve their goals.

The hand-drawn art style really sells this game all on its own. Every inch of the world is breathtaking to look at, and all of the details put into the world are enjoyable to stumble upon. The crypts are littered with grimy slate and inert corpses of the fallen, and the walls are adorned with stained glass showing stories of fallen heroes long past. The pathway to the Oracle’s Palace is a fantasy dreamscape of flying whales and sunset skyscapes, and the palace itself is smoky and built on optical illusions. Everything is bright and colorful, inviting and terrifying, and it all helped pull me into the world.

Also enjoyable is the development of characters throughout the campaign. The player’s character comes off as “just a little bit better than everyone”, but the story soon unveils the truth behind this façade. There are also other interesting characters to meet, such as an eccentric Collector, a cursed forge master, and scores of robots.

However, while the art and the characters were great, I couldn’t get past the mechanics and level design.

A lot of the difficulty I had came from the platforming, which requires a high degree of skill. Players will often have to dance between instant-death walls and pull off tricky moves like shooting an arrow to hit switches at precise angles to progress. I can understand wanting players to master the abilities and techniques that Aeterna Noctis has on offer, but the level of precision it demands is brutal, and not easily achieved. Worse, I encountered a few areas where invisible walls stopped me mid-air and caused me to fall to my doom.

Difficulty aside, the level design is also less than desirable. Many times, the devs will put a key that unlocks a new ability about two-thirds of the way through a dungeon. Once found, players have to walk all the way back through the dungeon to use the key and then re-complete the dungeon just to get back to where they originally were. There is a teleporting item that can players can buy, but it only offers a quick trip out. Players will still have to re-fight their way back to where they were when they found the key.

It’s a shame that Aeterna Noctis stumbles in both difficulty and design because it feels like it comes so close to greatness. Unfortunately, the demanding challenge and an obnoxious amount of backtracking overshadow what it gets right.

For me, Aeterna Noctis gets a 6 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Aeternum Game Studios S.L.  It is currently available on PC, PS5 and Xbox. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 25 hours of play was spent playing the game, but the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood, Partial Nudity and Violence. Players will be attacking enemies with multiple weapons, and they will attack back in kind. Players will get bloody, and some characters are dressed in suggestive attire.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in game, but text is not resizable. Audio mostly serves aesthetic purposes and is not needed for gameplay. The game is completely accessible.

Remappable controls: This game has no remappable controls, and there is no controller diagram. Left stick controls movement; Right stick controls the camera, X is Jump, Square is attack, Triangle is shooting an arrow, Circle is heavy attack; Up on D-pad is using a potion, Down on D-pad is magic health recovery, Left on D-pad is teleporting to a save portal, L3 is to shield, and R2 is to Dash.

The post Aeterna Noctis Video Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Fantastic art design.

LOW The grinding sequence before the final boss.

WTF Is it ever explained why crows can’t fly?

Death’s Door is a new title from developer Acid Nerve. Their previous game, Titan Souls, was an interesting top-down boss rush, but I could never get around the high difficulty needed to progress. Apparently the devs learned some lessons from that effort since they’ve reimagined their overall gameplay style for this new adventure.

Starring as unnamed, immortal crow assigned to reap the souls of the living, their latest target soul has been stolen. The player must find out who is responsible, and why.

Despite the grim subject matter, Death’s Door is somber (yet still comic) in tone, with many quirky NPCs to meet. The realtime gameplay is seen from an isometric angle that cannot be altered, and the adventure will take the crow through various locales like mountains and swamps as it disposes of enemies and solves simple puzzles while finding keys and gaining new powers.

The art design is absolutely stunning, from the dreary and grim black-and-white crows’ offices, to the lush jungles filled with dangerous plants and gothic castles. The visuals are uniformly strong from beginning to end, and each biome fits perfectly into the overall world. I also appreciated some incredibly realistic animations on the crow, which turns its lovely little head like a real one would.

The meat of play is combat — it’s all about finding the right openings to attack while staying back. Our crow will start out in a basic, mostly powerless state with only a sword and the ability to dodge, but will get stronger as we progress by collecting magical attacks and using souls from defeated enemies to improve its stats. There are four special attacks in Death’s Door — the starting bow and arrow, a bomb, fire, and a grappling hook. This last one is mostly used to traverse precipices, but can also be used to get closer to the enemy and strike them.

Despite their work on Titan Souls, I wouldn’t call Death’s Door unfairly difficult. I found it to be rightfully challenging for its (roughly) ten hour campaign as long as one improves the crow’s stats enough to keep pace. The puzzles mostly involve using the various special attacks to unlock doors or gain keys, which in turn will unlock places in the overworld that the player previously couldn’t access. Along these same lines, there’s definitely a lot of post-game content to be enjoyed, should one want to.

For me, Death’s Door was at its best in the second biome, the domain of a pots-and-pans obsessed witch. Her area is a solid split between the two flavors of gameplay, in equal amounts — rooms which have only puzzles, and others with enemies to dispatch. This chunk was definitely the most enjoyable and I was looking forward to more of the same in the next zones. Unfortunately, combat became the main dish for the rest of the campaign and the puzzles that broke up the repetition took a backseat, leading to some combat fatigue later on.

Another disappointment was that the end section of Death’s Door is basically an endurance run of obstacles and repeated boss fights, with no way to replenish health nor any checkpoints to aid in progress. It felt a bit unbalanced, and out of my 10 hour playtime, at least 30 minutes were dedicated to that section alone. It’s not impossible to get through, but some players may be tempted to throw their controllers at the TV. A related side note — there are crystal shards to be found that will unlock extra health and magic that might help with this run, but they’re too well-hidden and I couldn’t manage to earn enough for a single upgrade.

Death’s Door is a strong offering featuring challenging combat and amazing art design. The amount of love and care Acid Nerve put into this quirky afterlife can easily be seen in every little animation or dialogue. Granted, the combat may be a bit overwhelming at times (especially when the puzzles become infrequent) but for lovers of the genre and those who won’t mind a bit of swordfighting and dodging, Death’s Door might be one of the best titles to come out in 2021.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Acid Nerve and published by Devolver Digital. It is currently available on Xbox and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: this game is rated T for Teen by the ESRB, it contains Blood, Use of Tobacco and Violence. While there is nothing particularly violent or bloody, given the overall themes of death and the challenging gameplay I would recommend it to a teen audience as well.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game does not feature spoken dialogue, everything is subtitled. Text is not resizeable. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The game’s controls are remappable.

The post Death’s Door Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Finally defeating the dragon boss after twenty tries.

LOW Lowering the difficulty only to find it never really gets easier.

WTF Sir Arthur’s boxers had strawberries and not hearts?

Nostalgia is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it’s always nice to reminisce about the classics played at a young age. On the other, the experience of picking up those titles years later is often not as good as they’re remembered, or perhaps they show that one’s reflexes have slowed with age. This is all further complicated when the title one is nostalgic about is renowned for its difficulty.

When I think about my younger days with Ghosts ‘n Goblins, I recall time spent dying again and again, whether in the arcades or at home playing both the the 8- and 16-bit versions. Resurrection is the first brand-new title in the series since the days of the Sony PSP and, well, not much has changed. As Sir Arthur Pendragon, the player will fight through hordes of enemies, jump through obstacles, and defeat bosses to eventually rescue the princess at the end in 2D platformer style.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins is infamously one of the hardest titles in the history of videogames, so it is then a deliberate choice that Resurrection defaults to the highest level of difficulty at the game’s start, almost inviting players to be masochists. Sticking to the lower rungs of the difficulty scale allows Sir Arthur to withstand a couple more hits before dying, but make no mistake here — this campaign is no picnic.

On any difficulty, Resurrection stays challenging, and trying to complete a level without dying forty or fifty times over the course of an hour (or more) feels almost impossible. It makes sense, then, that there are only five proper levels, with branching paths taking the total count up to seven.

To offset the difficulty, Resurrection offers a generous checkpoint system divided between ordinary flags and temporary banners of resurrection which — thanks to the menu system trying to trick the player — can easily be inadvertently reset. Thankfully, there are also unlimited lives, so the game manages to strike a balance between concessions for new players and the extreme difficulty that nostalgic players may crave.

Capcom has also added a progression system where the player can unlock new abilities and magic attacks. For example, the player can earn and carry up to three weapons to be switched on the fly — useful during bosses. Investing in these new abilities is recommended since Resurrection never really plays fair.

So the question I’ve been asking myself since starting Resurrection is whether it’s worth it to suffer through arduous levels, infinitely-spawning enemies and near-insurmountable odds?

First, let’s give Capcom credit where it’s due — as a reboot of the series, Resurrection works nicely, all the upgrades are well thought-out, and I liked the subtle changes in the level design compared to games past.

Graphically, I love how Capcom has gone for a ‘children’s book’ style — it resembles something from the early 1900s with a hand-drawn watercolor aesthetic that fits the strange tale of Sir Arthur perfectly. However, the details of the visuals are most prevalent in the cutscenes, and this painterly look is barely noticeable during gameplay, and even less so in screenshots.

Unfortunately, despite the concessions and visuals, it does feel as though Resurrection is actively mocking me with enemies that spawn right in front of Sir Arthur, or sometimes even right on top of him for almost unavoidable hits. While I’m perfectly okay with the idea of ‘gitting gud’, this comes off more like struggling to overcome a match that’s rigged from the start.

In the end, Resurrection works well as a reboot of the original IP, but nostalgia can only carry it so far. If the overall difficulty felt a little more fair and a lot less mean-spirited, I would recommended it to anyone looking for a challenging platformer. However, the contract Resurrection wants the player to sign on to is a Faustian one, demanding patience, and perhaps a small bit of one’s sanity.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Capcom. It is currently available on XBO/X, PS4/5 and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 5 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, Mild Blood and Mild Language. While graphically the game might easily appeal to a younger crowd, the high level of difficulty makes this easier to recommend to a teen audience. There is no sexual content or salty language.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not feature spoken dialogue nor are audio cues used to communicate enemies’ attacks. text cannot be resized or altered. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The game’s controls are not remappable but do offer preset configurations. Basically, Sir Arthur moves with the analog stick, fires a weapon with either the A or the Y button, and jumps with the B button.

The post Ghosts ‘N Goblins Resurrection Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Stunning visual presentation

LOW Many, many resets

WTF Trying to thread the needle at supersonic speed

The player controls a small black ball with tiny eyes. The goal is to move through each level collecting three other balls and then getting to the exit as fast as possible to earn a rating out of three stars–or in this case, moons and suns. This, in turn, opens more levels with new environmental challenges and tweaks to the art style.

Movement is given to the left analog stick (or D-Pad) and only two buttons are used–one for jumping and one for phasing. All the platforms within a level are solid and can be walked on. However, when the phase button is pressed, the player will abandon gravity and begin to move upward through the platforms at speed. By doing this, momentum can be built which allows for dynamic movement. Precise management of this movement is crucially important, especially in later levels.

In the beginning, the balls that must be collected will be strewn within easy reach. A jump and a phase can see all three balls collected in good time. However, much later the button presses become almost manic–I had to move through several platforms, slingshot my ball across vast gaps, and avoid hazards, all by the smallest of margins.

The Sun And Moon is centrally about chaining jumps and phasing perfectly. Consider it the Dark Souls of the puzzle genre because death is inevitable and encouraged–without it, the player would never learn what works and what doesn’t. And when it works, it’s a wonderful feeling. When it doesn’t, which so often happens, it becomes a bit crushing. Several levels saw me reset hundreds of times. I would often capture the first ball with ease, then die eighty times on the second, followed by even more deaths on the third and final ball, all before counting the deaths needed to make it to the exit!

There are 100 levels to unlock, and the difficulty curve varies wildly. I found that I was flying through levels in the 40s, while still stuck on one back in the teens. In fact, I’m still stuck on that particular level. I’ve watched videos of others ace it, but I cannot perfect the minutiae required. Whether it’s a lack of skill on my part or whether my reaction times aren’t as good as I age, I found the game needed movements so precise that I just couldn’t enjoy the game for what it is.

I’d like to describe firsthand what happens if a perfect rating is achieved on each level. I’d like to say that I finished the game completely. However, I can’t do these things because I’m just not that good at The Sun And Moon. This is no failing on the part of the developer, though –they’ve made a smart puzzle-driven title, but one that might only appreciated by those with infinite patience and fingers fast enough to endure falling to their death for the 463rd time on the second ball of level 78. Rating: 6 out of 10

Disclosures: This game was developed by Daniel Linssen and published by Digerati. It is available on PS4, PC and PlayStation Vita. The code for this review was obtained via the publisher and was played on PlayStation 4. Approximately 10 hours were spent with it, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: There is nothing in this game to trouble children. It’s entirely safe for young people to play.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing: No audio cues are needed to play this game and there is no dialogue.

Controls: The controls cannot be remapped, however there are many different preset layouts available to suit the player.

Colorblind modes: There are no colorblind modes included.

The post The Sun And Moon Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.