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 The wide variety of viable approaches to nearly any situation.

LOW An almost intolerable amount of bugs.

WTF These endings are absurdly inadequate given the emphasis on story and lore.

Deathloop protagonist Colt Vahn is having a very unfortunate day. Many unfortunate days, as a matter of fact, and all the same one. In Arkane Studios’ latest project, their protagonist is stuck in a perpetually-repeating day and he wants out.

As this first-person murderthon begins, Colt is being stabbed to death with a machete by an assailant known as Juliana. That’s okay though — since he and everyone else on Blackreef are continually living through the same day over and over, he’ll simply wake up on a beach after he’s been killed and everything begins again. However, he’s getting sick of this eternal cycle, and it’s not long before he’ll try to break the loop.

Every event in Deathloop plays out in a fixed pattern during this one day — things happen in the same location at the same time, every time. For example, if Colt knows that someone will die by being lowered into a vat of lung-melting toxins, that same unfortunate bugger will suffer the same fate at the same time every single day. However, it’s soon made clear that Colt’s actions can shape and alter events. If a house burns down around noon, for example, getting there in the morning may offer a chance to prevent it from catching fire and have it remain accessible for later in the loop.

However, these changes don’t occur in real time. In Deathloop, the day is divided into four time blocks set in four different areas. Move between areas and the day jumps ahead one time block. Do this four times and the day will restart whether Colt’s alive or dead.

At first, knowledge is the only thing that carries over between loops, such as learning important keycode combinations or gaining an understanding of how various events connect with one another. Before long however, Colt is able to infuse weapons, gadgets and upgrades so that they survive the reset along with him, and he’ll also gain a device that can bring him back to life up to three times in each time block without triggering the entire day to reset.

As these options grow, Deathloop offers more choices in how players can approach each scenario.

While I was happy to go loud and put holes in anyone foolish enough to get in the way, it’s entirely possible to sneak around through vents and flit by without conflict. Common enemies are monumentally stupid and ineffectually weak, so it’s quite easy to take either approach — kill a guard within the vision cone of another and it’s sometimes a coin toss as to whether they’ll even react.

Key to the overall story and breaking the loop are more significant enemies known as Visionaries. These are characters with their own routines and backstories, and they tend to be pretty messed up. They also have unique powers that stem from carrying an item known as a Slab. These allow them to do things like teleport or turn invisible, but they’re still human, though — a stealthily-broken neck will kill them instantly, regardless.

Of course, each Visionary drops their Slab upon death, and these come in handy by allowing Colt to take control of their powers and teleport over short distances, turn invisible, become nigh-invincible for a limited time, spiritually link enemies together so that killing one kills everyone, or psychically throw enemies around like a ragdoll. While only a few of these can be brought at once, Colt is soon able to survive anything Deathloop throws at him.

Beyond the supernatural powers granted by the Slabs, the guns Colt can find tip him into superhero territory. From a vampiric SMG that leeches the health of his victims to an unscoped sniper rifle that explodes anyone even vaguely near the impact point, there’s rarely much need for stealth. It’s not a knock against the game, however, since it allows players to cut loose and do what they want without feeling like they’ve chosen the wrong approach. Reinforcing this freedom is the fact that there’s no morality system in play, unlike Arkane’s earlier title, Dishonored. It’s wonderfully liberating to be able to hurl inconveniently-placed guards from rooftops or just go on a murder spree for the hell of it without being locked into a ‘bad ending’ path.

Beyond these systems, Deathloop offers a multiplayer component. As Colt’s nemesis Juliana, players can hop into someone else’s game and attempt to put an end to their run by murdering them in a variety of ways. Juliana can unlock many of the skills and guns that Colt has access to via a levelling-up system, enemies on the map are not hostile to her, and she can disguise herself as anyone she encounters with her own unique Slab. However, she only gets one life compared to Colt’s eventual three, so a single mistake can send her straight back to the lobby.

While the idea of invading someone else’s run is a cool idea, I found these multiplayer sessions to be disappointing. There’s a certain initial thrill at knowing another live player is skulking around, but the (presumably) peer-to-peer online connections have rarely been acceptable. For instance, there have been times I’ve unloaded a chaingun into an invader’s back and then had them turn around and double tap me in the face thanks to our poor connection. Also, some players hide upon being invaded, leading to boring, protracted sessions with the opponent squatting in a corner somewhere on the map while Juliana walks around pointlessly searching for signs of activity. Finally, the balance is also skewed significantly in Colt’s favor, as far as I can tell. I’ve never lost a single invasion as Colt, and never won a single invasion as Juliana.

Another disappointment is that Deathloop is currently rife with bugs. I’ve had freezes lasting up to half a minute, various upgrade icons not disappearing after leaving the menu, or attempting to resume the game from pause resulting in the UI cursor permanently embedding itself in the screen, requiring a restart and losing up to half an hour of progress as a result.

In the end, Deathloop is a pretty decent ride with a fantastic sense of style and a lot of freedom for players to experience Colt’s story as they see fit. However, the overall experience is shaken by a surprising amount of bugs, braindead enemy artificial intelligence, lackluster PVP and by-design repetition as Colt works to piece together the mystery of Blackreef. I largely enjoyed my time, though I was very ready for Colt’s day to end as I neared the campaign’s finale, and it’s unlikely I’ll be looping back into the game for more any time soon.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is currently available on PS5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 2 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes as Juliana.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes and Strong Language. The official ESRB description reads as follows: This is a first-person shooter in which players follow the story of two assassins trapped in a mysterious time loop on a fictional island. Both characters must assassinate key figures in order to break or protect the loop. Players use machetes, pistols, and sniper rifles to kill human enemies by means of stealth, melee, and ranged combat. Fighting is often frenetic, with frequent gunfire, screams of pain, explosions, and large blood-splatter effects. Some weapons/attacks can decapitate or dismember enemies. Cutscenes depict further instances of intense violence: players’ character stabbed repeatedly in first-person; characters shot in the head at close range. During one sequence, a character is seen in a room while sexual moaning sounds are heard. Characters sometimes reference drugs (e.g., uppers, downers) and getting/being high on fictional drugs (e.g., “Looks like an over-engineered auto-erotic asphyxiator…Also, it’s going to smoke us up. Get us high.”). The words “f**k,” “c*nt,” and “sh*t” appear in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles can be altered and/ or resized. Deathloop seems perfectly playable without sound. While various ambient cues will be missing, there are still plenty of indicators and subtitles to keep things playable. For instance, certain actions by an invading player will cause subtitles such as ‘Juliana: Grunting’ to indicate proximity.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable.

The post Deathloop Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

The subject of this installment: Underworld Ascendant, developed by Otherside Entertainment and published by 505 Games.

By now, everyone with any attachment to the Ultima Underworld series has likely heard about the disastrous Ascendant, which accomplished the staggering feat of being the worst-reviewed mainstream game in the week that also saw the release of Fallout 76. I welcomed the review opportunity with open arms before I had heard how bad it was, and the feeling of disappointment rushing over me as I played was a surreal experience.

I was unaware of Ascendant’s existence until roughly a week before its release, and what a pleasant surprise it was. The original Ultima Underworld titles are a bit before my time, but as the godfathers of the “immersive sim” genre, they’ve inspired some of my favorite titles. A modern incarnation should have finally given me the opportunity to fully appreciate this series, and given that the project was headed by Paul Neurath — the founder of Looking Glass Studios — there was no reason to suspect that things would go amok, yet here we are.

What a sharp reversal of fortune this is. Ascendant is ugly, unwieldy and poorly-programmed, but beyond that, it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what gamers even want. It’s hard to believe that the people behind this project have even done something like this before, but that they’re responsible for some of the most influential games of all time is beyond belief. Are we sure that the real Paul Neurath isn’t tied up in a basement below Otherside’s offices?

The “immersive sim” label refers to games like Deus Ex or the recent Prey that emphasize multiple solutions to a given problem. In Ascendant, or at least what little I played of it, the focus is on moveable objects and fire physics. If I want to reach a high ledge, I stack a few crates and create stairs. If I need to flip a distant lever, I throw something at it. If I want to get through a wooden door and I don’t have the key, I burn it down. Pretty simple stuff, but there’s always potential in allowing players to formulate unorthodox solutions with the array of tools and systems they’re given.

Ascendant, however, feels about fifteen years old. The physics are stuttery and unreliable. The hit detection is wanting. The enemy AI consistently makes a zombie-like beeline for the player, and the combat is so lacking in feedback that I was often unsure whether or not I was even dealing damage. Ascendant’s environments are ugly even by the standards of nondescript caves and they’re also unforgivably dark, even with the brightness cranked all the way up.

The game even has the obnoxious Doom 3 problem where it doesn’t let players wield the glowing stone that functions as a flashlight simultaneously with another item. My character has two hands, Otherside. I can clearly see both of them. (And Doom 3 eventually corrected the design in a later version, so why even copy it?)

I got close to the end of the first level before getting swarmed by a bunch of skeletons I could barely see. I stepped away from the game for a bit to cool down, then reloaded my save file. This was when I discovered Ascendant’s most notorious flaw — it lacks a traditional save system.

Progress is only actually saved between levels, each of which can supposedly run upwards of an hour. Although players have the option to save mid-level, all this does is preserve the player’s inventory. Upon rebooting, I was back at the start of the stage, with all puzzles reset. With Ascendant’s programming being as dodgy as it is, I thought for sure that this was a bug, but no — the developers were quick to clarify that this is actually how the save system was designed.

How is it possible that seasoned industry veterans need to be told, in 2018, that people like having the option to save their progress? Why should I trust a team like that to pull Ascendant out of the mess that it’s in? What reason do I have to keep playing what’s already in front of me if they’re making decisions as amateurish as that?

To the team’s credit, they’ve been working hard to un-sink this ship in the weeks since release, putting out multiple hotfixes and providing a roadmap for their long-term goals. A traditional save system will supposedly be patched in by the end of the year.

I’ll be honest — a big part of the reason I’m not formally reviewing Ascendant is because I just don’t want to play any more of it. But the fact that it’s so blatantly unfinished — and that Otherside is so rapidly working to get it in decent shape — means anything that I say about it could be outdated within a week. Between the time I finish writing this article and the time it’s published, Ascendant could be a completely different game*. Granted, that’s always true in an era where games are getting more post-release support than ever, but it’s especially evident when a team tries to pass off a wrongheaded alpha as a completed project.

*This literally wound up happening. Shortly after I wrote this article, an overhauled save system was patched in. So while Ascendant is probably better now, this underlines my point that there’s no sense in reviewing a game that could undergo radical changes at any moment.

The post This Is Not A Review: Underworld Ascendant appeared first on Gamecritics.com.