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.

Disclosure: This is an article written and released by Ubisoft, and sent to GameCritics via Ubisoft PR. While we don’t usually run PR releases, given its focus on accessibility and our lifelong dedication to same, we’re happy to share this information. The article can be seen in its original format here.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches on March 20 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Amazon Luna, Macs with Apple silicon via the Mac App Store, and Windows PC through the Ubisoft Store, Steam, and Epic Games Store. Set during the late Sengoku era in Japan, players will play as both the stealthy shinobi Naoe and the formidable samurai Yasuke. No matter who you’re playing as, the development team wanted to ensure that as many people as possible are able to enjoy everything that Assassin’s Creed Shadows has to offer. To learn more about the team’s approach to accessible design, we spoke with UX Director Jonathan Bedard.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an evolution for the franchise, with many elements being rebuilt from the ground up. In what ways did that allow you to change your approach to accessibility?

Jonathan Bedard: Having changed the way we built the game, we had to redo many things, and it allowed us to revisit some elements that weren’t working as well as we’d hoped. Certain features benefited from this by being retooled or by simply changing the interface itself – or in some cases, the functionalities – to elevate our offer and our experience to higher standards. One example of that is our input remapping. Not only can you adjust the inputs of any of the buttons, but you can adjust the action of that input, whether you want it to be a hold or a press.

What was the collaboration like with the development team at Ubisoft Quebec?

JB: With every project, we have more and more people interested and invested in the different topics related to accessibility. This was especially true for Shadows; for instance, the audio team was really invested and proposed ways to innovate and push the boundaries of what we do in accessibility.

The unflinching involvement of our dedicated accessibility teams in Ukraine, mixed with the enthusiasm in our different studios, made it so we were able to propose new innovative features like audio descriptions for in-game cinematics, which is something not often seen in games.

Are there any new features you’re particularly proud of? Or that the community has been requesting for a while?

JB: Audio descriptions for cinematics is something that really made me happy to see come to the game.

Fun fact, while in a director meeting, reviewing the game, we ended up encountering that feature, in a scene that was used as a benchmark for this. It was not supposed to be enabled for that meeting, but we ended up really impressed by how many emotions and actions were transposed through it. It helped me project how this could change the perception of many motivational levers for many of our players needing this because of how well it came out, and how good of a job it did to express the events in the game in a way that really conveys the emotions and subtleties of our scenes.

It also made me happy to see an initiative coming from the team’s passion and making its way into the game. This shows how far we’ve come along in the last few years, in terms of people being aware of and caring about accessibility at Ubisoft. I am proud to see this evolution, awareness, and care spreading and making our games more accessible every time.

ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES LIST

Visual

• Colorblind options – Ability to change colors for certain gameplay elements from a list of presets
• Screen Narration – Not only most menu items, but also many HUD modules and time-sensitive elements can be narrated
• HUD Customization – Ability to turn all HUD elements on or off either all at once, or individually, either with shortcut or using presets – increase opacity, resize text, resize Icons or add background to increase readability
• Screen shake on/off toggle

Audio

• Subtitles – Better color modifications, speaker directions and speaker emotions
• Gameplay Captions – Surfacing stimuli and points to their origins
• Audio Description for Cinematics – Cinematic will be audio descripted
• Audio Cues/Audio Glossary – New signs and feedback allowing navigation and path finding with non-visual cues
• Separate, isolated audio sliders

Navigation and Guidance

• FTUE – First time user experience flow is back, offering first-access critical options
• Guided Mode – Offer streamlined systems and remove part of the gameplay to alleviate the requirement for player engagement in exploration and finding content
• Tutorials Section – Tutorials can be found in the Codex section at any time
• Menu Tutorials – Always alerts when there are new menu functions
• Conversation Log – Every line can be perused from the start to the end of a dialogue

Controls

• Control Remapping – Remap gameplay inputs, and their action (hold, press, double-press)
• Many inputs devices – Mouse and keyboard, controllers, combinations
• Lock-On Camera – Lock the camera on an enemy
• X and Y axis inversion – Ability to invert the axis for aiming actions
• Stick inversion – Invert the analog-stick behavior

Gameplay

• Stealth and combat each have four separate difficulty settings
• Guided Mode – Offer streamlined systems and remove part of the gameplay to alleviate the requirement for player engagement in exploration and finding content
• Canon Mode – Enable automatic selection of narrative decisions for the “canon” story to unfold
• Melee Attack Mode – Simplifies the combat by using a single input instead of multiple buttons or complex combinations
• Quick Timed Events – Type of input required to complete Quick Time Events can be simplified, or skipped entirely
• Aim Assistance – Four levels of aim assistance are offered (off, light, moderate, full)

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available for preorder now and launches on March 20 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Amazon Luna, Macs with Apple silicon via the Mac App Store, and Windows PC through the Ubisoft Store, Steam, and the Epic Games Store. The game will also come to iPad at a later date.

— Youssef Garcia-Maguid

The post Assassin’s Creed Shadows Accessibility Spotlight appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The first game where checking the chamber of my gun has a skill ceiling.

LOW The “worm worm worm worm worm worm worm” scene.

WTF Five headshots and an enemy still gets back up. Really?!?

The Metro post-apocalyptic series set in an irradiated, ruined Russia is a perfect fit for a VR experience – its intimate encounters, unwieldy (yet powerful) weapons, and horror-adjacent vibes all suit VR well. Plus, Metro Awakening is by the folks behind classic VR hits like Arizona Sunshine and After The Fall. When it popped up on my radar, it sounded like a dream come true! 

Mechanically, Awakening is a first-person shooter with stealth elements, light survival mechanics, and a emotionally compelling prequel story featuring one of the most beloved characters in the franchise, Khan.

Khan is an influential, mystically-inclined veteran of the titular Metro’s many struggles. After the bombs fell during World War 3, Khan was one of the few doctors still alive. Awakening focuses on showing how he went from a rational medical professional to the spiritualist most players first met in Metro 2033. There’s a lot of potential here that doesn’t get used, but it’s undeniably intriguing as a starting premise.

Sadly, instead of shedding light on events in this seminal series, I found a depressing nightmare worthy of Russian poetry. I wasn’t whisked away into the tunnels of Dmitry Glukhovsky’s beautiful apocalyptic nightmare. No, I was met with an abominable combination of the most underwhelming VR gameplay I’ve experienced in quite some time, combined with the small scope and the limited vision of a lesser spin-off title.

For those who haven’t played the mainline non-VR Metro games, they offer handcrafted worlds that pride themselves on attention to detail — they’re living, breathing worlds, with environments dotted by flourishes placed there simply because the developers thought they’d be cool. Very few assets are repeated in obvious ways, ensuring cohesive verisimilitude in aesthetics, remaining novel in every area.

The main titles also offer clever mechanical nuances like the bullet-based economy system that rewards stealth but grants brief moments of empowerment whenever the player is “rich” with bullets. The morality system is more complex than simply choosing to help an old lady across the street or kicking her into traffic, and there’s an inherent emphasis against violent force unless absolutely necessary. Worlds and systems like these possess the kind of depth that VR games are often still struggling to achieve. With a working blueprint to start from, Metro Awakening should’ve had most of this already solved.

Unfortunately, Metro Awakening has somehow failed to learn from the lessons laid out before it.

Here in VR, every combat encounter is unavoidable, and I’m often locked in claustrophobic spaces that offered, at best, an optional vent to flank enemies.

The levels can be so linear that I almost feel as though I’m on rails.

Combat itself is poorly implemented and enemy AI is absent, with foes often beelining straight towards me the second they were alerted.

Morality? Awakening has never heard of it.

Civilian areas are glorified loading screens between combat encounters.

Environmental assets are clearly copy-pasted, sometimes within minutes of each other.

Throughout Metro Awakening, the campaign kept trying to sell me mundane moments masquerading as intense thrills — things like random horror movie strings playing when there’s nothing to scare me besides another dead body after already seeing hundreds, or a room filled with two armed enemies — not a challenging hazard to get past. In another section, falling just a few feet (something Khan does regularly) causes enough ‘frightening’ damage to require use of a health item because someone scripted it so.

These banalities could possibly be forgiven if Khan’s means of surmounting obstacles were interesting, but they’re not. Too many puzzles grind down to flipping switches in a particular order after using his handcrank flashlight charger, and it takes over two hours before the player is offered anything other than a handgun and AK-47, and the later additions to their arsenal are far from exciting.

Meanwhile, the most reliable stealth option is punching enemies in the back of the head, which works most of the time, unless an enemy somehow becomes punch-proof and immediately starts shooting back with laser precision. Then I found I couldn’t move bodies, further undercutting the stealth. It’s as though years of genre refinements were either cut or went unaccounted for.

Not content to be mechanically disappointing, Awakening‘s script falls equally flat.

For a series known for its poetic, moving storytelling, this narrative is incredibly boring. In a post-Half-Life: Alyx world, how do developers repeat obvious mistakes like forcing players to listen to exposition while locked in a room with nothing to do for several minutes at a time while someone just talks? This is a mistake the mainline Metro games tried to avoid, often by having players travel to a location while talking.

Further, there are unskippable cutscenes where camera control is completely taken away from the player, sometimes going so far as to show the camera drifting out of Khan’s head, as if he’s having an out of body experience. It’s disorienting, to say the least, even for someone with a fair amount of VR experience like me, and anyone with a weak stomach should bear this in mind. There was also a recurring issue with subtitles oddly lagging and resetting my camera’s position, forcing me to shut them off entirely for smoother performance.

There’s simply no heart in Awakening. It’s a sad experience when looking back, and the biggest praise I have is that each gun makes it easy to check if ammo is already chambered, with the risk of popping out a spare round if not handled delicately.

If every element of Metro Awakening were on par with the reloading, it’d be one of the best VR games of the year. Instead, I struggle to imagine who this experience is for. I’m a longtime fan, and after spending time with it, all I have is a list of complaints about how the previous Metro style has been sanded down to nothing. I can only imagine new players being lost on its lore while finding gameplay that comes off like a blander version of every other shooter on the market. It’s not even a technical or graphical showcase. Instead, it feels like a product.

The Metro series is an incredible, harrowing journey with moving ruminations on the human condition. Metro Awakening is… not.

Final Score: 4 out of 10 

Disclosures: This game is developed by Vertigo Games and published by Deep Silver. It is currently available on PC VR, Meta Quest and PSVR 2. This copy of Metro Awakening was provided via publisher and reviewed on Meta Quest 3. Approximately 5 hours were dedicated to the single-player campaign, and it was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents:  This game is Rated M by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, and Use of Drugs and Alcohol. This one is not for the kids — both because of how likely they are to feel their stomachs turn, and because of the dark nature of the Metro universe. Graphic depictions of violence, lots of swearing, horrific monsters, and even a story beat involving human traffickers are all factors to consider. There’s also a substantial amount of leaning on arachnophobia in later sections.

Colorblind modes: There are no colorblind modes available. This could be a problem with the stealth meter displayed on Khan’s watch, which dims in color when he isn’t visible to enemies. There are also very bright splashes and flashes of red when taking damage, and some strobe light effects.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are multiple subtitle configuration options for several languages, including the optional feature to enable an indicator of which character is speaking. Barring the glitches mentioned above with the subtitles, it’s a reasonable experience to play without sound. However, since there are audio cues which do not have visual indicators, I have to say that it’s not fully accessible.

Remappable controls: This game offers partially remappable controls. Players can swap dominant hands and adjust certain movement options, like automating climbing ladders, instant teleport jumping/falling, and select from multiple types of turning. There is no ability to alter the turn rate speed, which is oddly high and may further jar players.

The post Metro Awakening Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Easy-to-learn mechanics.

LOW The voice acting.

WTF They swallowed the sun guys.

Ereban: Shadow Legacy is a third-person action-adventure stealth game where players take control of Ayana, a humanoid alien with shadow-themed powers — as in, she can literally turn into a shadow. Ayana will use every skill she has to combat Helios, a shady corporation obsessed with harvesting energy.

Ereban has a cel-shaded art style that is simple and legible — vital for a stealth title where recognizing patterns (especially in enemy movement) is key for players to avoid them. The devs also do a great job at conveying other relevant information visually via excellent prompts and alerts, relating to hostile NPCs especially.

Looking to the gameplay, Ereban gives players a handful of tools to sneak around its levels. These tools
include things like the most important one — turning into a shadow and traveling through shadows in the environment. She also gets things like ability to hide downed enemy bodies, sonar to reveal hostiles, and binoculars for extended sight, providing the player with enough options to surpass even the most challenging encounters. For example, the sonar allows Ayana to identify her foes so she can adapt to their patrol patterns and use that information to safely move past them, or she can also strike at them from the shadows if she wishes for a more aggressive approach.

Speaking of enemies, while there isn’t any real combat, Ayana can attack from above my landing on top of passing foes or by sneaking behind them. Thankfully the game provides her with tools that can either distract enemies like holograms or mines that can stun them giving her the chance to take down or avoid her foes.

This leads me to the narrative. Ereban: Shadow Legacy‘s plot is about Ayana and her quest to understand the fate of her people, and how it’s tied to megacorp Helios. During this inquiry, she’s dragged into a power struggle between the corporation and a group of freedom fighters called the Forgotten Suns.

Plainly put, the narrative is better in concept than execution. This exploration of the conflict failed to elicit any emotional responses from Ayana, whose voice actress half-heartedly reads through the script. That
apathy dictated how invested I became, and little about the protagonist and the general premise is ever well-realized. It’s a shame, since themes of reclaiming one’s identity and the abuses of foreign corporations are very relevant in the modern era. The failure to capitalize on real-world politics around us was a disappointing missed opportunity.

While the narrative falls utterly flat, Ereban: Shadow Legacy remains a good point of entry into the stealth genre, encouraging players to take things patiently and strategically while also giving them a unique adventure that lets them — quite literally — blend into the shadows. It’s worth a try for this, if nothing else!

Rating: 7 out of 10

— Fumo Chabalala

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Baby Robot Games. It is currently available on XBO/X/S and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 8.5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game has not been rated by the ESRB. However, it does contain mild violence which is mainly directed towards robots, and there is minimal gore. Also, there are a quite a few jokes that contain sexually-suggestive innuendo, but I suspect most of them will fly over the heads of younger players.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles can be altered and resized. I played a portion without sound, and aren’t any audio cues that lack a visual indicator. In short, I believe it is a fully accessible experience.

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

The post Ereban: Shadow Legacy Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Knocking out cops by dismembering corpses in front of them.

LOW Trying to figure out how to disable someone standing on a crane.

WTF That was a pretty deep cut Friends reference!

Picking up after the first game left off, Serial Cleaners finds Bob, mob janitor extraordinaire, fleeing the West Coast. After a brief stint tidying up after drug cartels in Miami, he settles in New York and gets back to work disappearing evidence of gruesome crimes. The stealth-based gameplay of the first title has returned intact, with the only major shift being the jump from pixel-based art to 3D models.

Each level starts out with huge splashes of gore spread around, telling the story of the brutal murders which took place there hours earlier. Players will have to cart away bodies, track down evidence and vacuum up most of the blood that’s been left behind. Choosing what order to perform these actions is important, as dragging or dismembering corpses can create new bloodstains that need to be sucked up. The blood vacuum is also extremely loud, so the player must be aware of how close any investigators are, although onscreen noise range markers do a great job of assisting on that front.

It’s a fairly basic loop, but Cleaners manages to keep things interesting by offering enough variety in level design that each new area requires a new approach. Where one scene might have the player zipping through vents to reach locked rooms, another may ask the player to sneak across catwalks high above a TV studio. From a morgue to a prison to a superyacht, the frequent changes of setting ensure that no two levels feel entirely similar.

It’s not just cleaning, though — every one of the crime scenes in Serial Cleaners is crawling with police officers. Fortunately, they’re inattentive and easily distracted.

Whenever the player gets within their line of sight, a helpful meter appears to offer a warning about exactly when they’ll have been officially ‘spotted’ and the chase begins. The game takes distance, lighting, and whether the character is crouching or not into account when calculating how long the player has to get out of view. The system winds up being extremely forgiving. As long as players don’t wander directly into the middle of an open room, they’ll have a good chance of avoiding police attention — and even if they do, levels are rich with with hiding spaces and distractions to help them disappear.

Apart from level variety and dodging the cops, narrative in Serial Cleaners helps keep it interesting.

The game starts on the evening of December 31st, 1999, with Bob and his three protégées cleaning up after a particularly iffy job. The rest of the night has them hanging out and telling stories, taking the player back and forth in time, gradually showing how each of the characters met Bob, and how working for him in the grim world of mafia body disposal has impacted their lives.

Every crew member has specific skills that mix up the gameplay in intriguing ways. The artist can create distractions with spray paint, the hacker can use her tech savvy to trigger objects all over the map, and the psycho has the most troublingly effective ability of all — chopping bodies to pieces so that they’re easier (if messier) to move around the level.

Serial Cleaners‘ structure is built around each of these characters telling their own stories, and while the campaign is broken up into five chapters that have to be played in order, the player can try the missions that make up each chapter in whatever order they choose. This winds up leading to some interesting story twists, as the missions sometimes reference each other, giving the player a chance to uncover the plot’s secrets at their own pace. This isn’t always for the best, however, since this structure prevents the story from developing a strong forward drive.

In the first game, Bob’s jobs kept escalating as the crimes he was erasing grew more theatrical and public. Serial Cleaners, on the other hand, waits so long to introduce the threat at the core of the story that it’s resolved almost as suddenly as it appears. I appreciated getting a chance to check out slices of each character’s life since it lets the player start to understand (if not identify with) the characters they’re controlling, but the overall pacing and lack of a satisfying conclusion kept me from enjoying things on anything but a mechanical level.

Also holding the game back is a notable lack of any bonus content, extra objectives or collectibles. Where the first Serial Cleaner had the player revisiting levels to search out soundtracks, art, and unlocking strange movie-inspired bonus levels, this installment won’t even let the player try a level again without restarting the entire game. There are also no unlockable skills, items or anything that might add new twists to the gameplay to encourage players to come back and replay the game.

Sadly, when everything’s take into account, Serial Cleaners doesn’t live up to its predecessor. The cleaning/stealth gameplay is solid and there are some great level concepts, but the story doesn’t offer much motivation and there’s plenty of potential here that goes untapped.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Draw Distance and published by 505 Games. It is currently available on PC, PS, SW and XB. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 8 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Violence, Blood and Gore, Use of Drugs, and Strong Language. Keep children as far as you can from this one. It’s about cleaning up after mobsters and serial killers. There are brutally murdered corpses everywhere, and a central game mechanic is cutting them up with a chainsaw. Also, plenty of drinking and drug use.

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are no important audio cues that don’t have accompanying visual cues. I played most of the game without audio and encountered no issues. This game is fully accessible.

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

The post Serial Cleaners Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Taking out unsuspecting enemies is as satisfying as ever.

LOW Camera and lighting issues can be deadly.

WTF Unsynchronized voice acting?

From Winter Ember’s opening cutscene, the passion and vision for the game are readily apparent. The expressive anime-style cutscene showcasing a darkly gothic and murderous sequence has wonderful cinematography and style… but something is slightly off. The voice acting. The subtitles and moving mouths are close to a second behind the voices, ruining the drama and making it difficult to decipher which characters are speaking. 

This opening fumble unfortunately foreshadows Winter Ember’s experience as a whole. Though it has clear inspiration and certain mechanics and presentation elements are solid, its underbaked ideas and gameplay issues prevent the game from being a standout stealth title. 

The story follows Arthur, whose family was murdered by a group of assassins at his family estate. Years later, he assumes the methods of his family’s killers and exacts revenge on them by striking from the shadows. From a top-down 2.5-D perspective, Arthur will sneak, steal, and assassinate to avenge his family’s legacy.

Winter Ember is oozing with charm and personality, drawing strong inspiration from the victorian era, and sinister auras reminiscent of an Edgar Alan Poe novel. For the most part it looks solid, with strong environments — especially in outside locales. Winter Ember’s best moments come when Arthur slowly creeps up behind an unsuspecting enemy while snow gently falls, and quickly and quietly ushers them into the next life as their blood splashes upon the white ground. 

Making these stealth kills is heartily satisfying, and traversing the multi-leveled areas provide many opportunities for sleuthing while unseen by enemies. Each level’s objective is linear, usually going from point A to point B, but players will have multiple options on how to get there. From stealing keys from guards to open doors, to taking a longer but more heavily guarded route, or even the ill-advised option of charging headfirst into combat, there is a sense of freedom in how to attack obstacles. 

Speaking of charging headfirst into combat, taking part in melee is ill-advised, both strategically and mechanically. Equipped with a sword and bow, Arthur can block, dodge or parry, but with little enemy variety, combat quickly grows stale. Worse, while single enemies are easily dealt with, Arthur doesn’t stand much of a chance against groups of two or three.

When skulking around, Arthur can strike enemies from the shadows with a bow, which is fulfilling on the rare occasion of a one-shot kill. However, it they’re left standing, foes will quickly begin pursuit, leading Arthur into an underwhelming multi-enemy combat encounter.

Another concern when killing enemies is that it’s a gamble due to the trail of blood fallen foes leave, which leads other baddies to pursue. On the other hand, players also have the option of knocking enemies out and hiding their bodies from view. This adds great variety and freedom in tackling almost every area in Winter Ember, and there’s rarely an incorrect way of doing things — Arthur just has to adapt to the situation accordingly.

Since Winter Ember is based around stealth, it’s understandable that encounters against enemies are discouraged, but I still feel as though there could have been more done to make combat feel less stale and to make Arthur just a bit more of a badass. 

Sadly, on top of combat that already fails to excite, entering new areas is an extra challenge due to occasionally-questionable lighting and camera work. Environments have a difficult time transitioning from indoors to outdoors, and there will be a few seconds upon opening doors when it’s difficult to see what new place Arthur is entering into, and this delay in orientation can be fatal. 

When not in combat, Winter Ember players can engage with a skill tree which can be activated at shrines where players also save the game. I’m usually a fan of skill trees and gradually upgrading characters, but I found the majority of skills here, aside from basic ones such as increased inventory or quieter footsteps, to either be unnoticeable or so situationally-specific that they were rarely useful. Coupled with a clunky arrow crafting menu, the game overcomplicates what should be more satisfying systems. 

There are a lot of good things going on in Winter Ember. Its ambiance is strong, the freedom to move through levels in multiple ways keeps progression interesting, and the stealth mechanics are solid. However, these positives are consistently overshadowed by performance issues, clarity issues, or weak combat. I enjoyed sneaking around with Arthur, but unfortunately, Winter Ember still has a way to go before it can be considered an easy recommendation to stealth fans. 

Disclosures: This game is developed by Sky Machine Studios and published by Blowfish Studios and Camera Games. It is currently available on PC, PS, XB and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 7 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 T and contains Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, and Violence. From the ESRB: “This is a stealth-action game in which players assume the role of a noble on a quest for revenge. From a 3/4-overhead perspective, players infiltrate enemy strongholds/bases, complete mission objectives, and kill enemy targets. Players use knives, swords, and cross bows to kill enemies discreetly or in open combat. Small blood-splatter effects sometimes occur during combat; blood stains can also appear on the ground. Cutscenes depict additional instances of violence and/or blood: a man lying in a pool of blood; a man impaled in his forehead; a woman hanging from a tree; prisoners killed by an executioner. One sequence, viewed from a distant perspective, depicts human limbs inside a cart. The game contains some suggestive material: players infiltrating a brothel and a gentleman’s club, with women dancing for customers; dialogue such as “You looking for a private dance or something more” and “If you’re lookin’ for a good time, it’ll cost ya.” The word “sh*t” appears in the game.”

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Dialogue is subtitled, but text cannot be resized or altered, and the default size is rather small. Sound cues are not required for progression, making the game fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game’s controls are fully remappable.

The post Winter Ember Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Gorgeous vistas. Great storytelling without words.

LOW Repetitive backtracking. Finicky movement.

WTF Why do priests and bandits hate windup toys so much?

I’m generally not a fan of stealth games.  I’m just not that patient, and endlessly waiting for a brain-dead guard to slowly mosey past my position so I can move a few inches and then repeat the process ad-nauseum doesn’t generally do it for me.  That said, El Hijo managed to charm me with vibrant landscapes, an adorable protagonist, and (mostly) non-violent nature.  It wasn’t a flawless experience, but I enjoyed seeing the journey through to its end.

When bandits ransack his home, six-year-old El Hijo’s mother sends him to the local monastery to keep him safe while she seeks justice.  Little does she know that the monastery isn’t all that it seems, and that her precocious child is far more capable than she realizes.  With his quick mind and some improvised weaponry, he’s ready for his own adventure.

I can’t give the developers enough credit for telling an incredibly satisfying story without a moment of spoken or written dialogue.  Character motivations are always apparent, and story beats are obvious through impressive animation and facial expressions.  While I didn’t always understand the full depth of every motivation (some folks are evil just ‘cause, I guess) I enjoyed the narrative and wanted to see the villains get their comeuppance. 

After a brief tutorial providing the basics of running, sneaking and hiding, our pint-sized hero attempts to escape the monastery.  Players control El Hijo from a third-person isometric perspective as he makes his way across an expansive map without being detected by enemies to escape to the next area. There’s usually natural cover or darkness that helps to remain unseen, and being spotted is an automatic failure. 

In general, being detected is non-violent in nature — a bandit fires a revolver into the air to signal the game is up, or a monk grabs El Hijo by the scruff.  However, packs of wolves encountered later will begin to savage (and presumably eat) the boy — extremely disturbing, although no gore is shown. 

Controls are fairly responsive, but I noticed El Hijo often had difficulty crouching against objects — an action that should be automatic.  This wasn’t a huge problem, but it did make a few moments more tense than they needed to be, and I was captured a few times I shouldn’t have been.

Besides hiding and using shadows, El Hijo can use several items such as a slingshot, fireworks, and wind-up soldiers to create distractions that allow him to pass by guards unhindered.  These items display their radius of effect, allowing the player to determine the best place to deploy them.  Unfortunately, the game sometimes requires El Hijo to stand in incredibly specific spots to avoid detection while launching these counter-measures. 

Another sticking point is that as the game progresses, the player will be required to create combos of these items in order to pass deviously-arranged enemies. This strategy is not immediately obvious, and players may try (and fail) numerous times before figuring out a path forward.  Checkpoints are fairly generous, but the ability to save at any time would have made things more palatable.

El Hijo‘s spacious levels are a treat to look at thanks to a vibrant color palette and incredible use of light and shadow, but they require far too much backtracking, and it’s too easy to pick an incorrect path, making players repeat entire sections in reverse as they make their way back to a point from which they can make progress. 

On the other hand, finding off-the-beaten path routes rewards the players handsomely.  El Hijo can find other children to have brief interactions with, and not only are these moments adorable, but finding them often leads to areas with fewer guards and an easier journey.  Unfortunately, it takes too much trial and error to locate these other children and as I said, I’m not that patient. 

El Hijo is a tough sell for me.  I appreciate the aesthetics and was charmed by the hero, but the campaign was simply too long due to excessive backtracking, unclear level design and some rough edges that often made sneaking and hiding frustrating. A tighter, more streamlined campaign would have made for a more enjoyable experience overall.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Hoing Studios and Quantumfrog and published by HandyGames. It is currently available on PC and Stadia. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E – EVERYONE and contains Mild Violence. The official description reads as follows: This is a stealth strategy game in which players assume the role of a boy and his mother on mission to foil bandits’ plans. From a 3/4-overhead perspective, players solve puzzles, avoid detection, and use stealth tactics (e.g., hiding in shadows, ducking into objects) and a slingshot to distract/hit characters. In one sequence, players can prep dynamite and trigger an explosion.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. There is no spoken dialogue in this game. Occasionally characters make guttural utterances similar to “Simlish,” which are not subtitled. These utterances do not affect gameplay, as all audio contextual clues are accompanied by a visual cue.

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

The post El Hijo: A Wild West Tale appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A dedicated honk button.

LOW An occasionally-nauseating camera.

WTF The logic behind the trick for getting into the pub.

No one in Untitled Goose Game has any dialogue, including the goose. It expresses no human emotion, has no backstory, and possesses no extraordinary capabilities. There is nothing to differentiate this goose from any other, and therefore it has no discernable reason to engage in a targeted campaign of vandalism, pranks, and general hooliganism. So when it does — aggressively and without bias — it’s hilarious.

The project was willed into existence when one of the developers presented his colleagues with a picture of a goose and said, “Let’s make a game about this.” The resulting product is predicated on the idea that geese are inherently funny — the beady eyes, the wiggly neck, the obnoxious honk, and the fact that (as one dev noted) “the whole animal is just two colours, it’s crazy.” Everything that the lead character does is funnier because it’s a goose. If Untitled Goose Game had been exactly the same but with, say, a fox or a badger as the protagonist, it’d be nowhere near as good.

In each of Untitled Goose Game‘s micro-levels we’re given a checklist of tasks, and most of them involve casually annoying the inhabitants. Throw the gardener’s belongings in the water. Trap the shopkeeper in the garage. Make the neighbor spit out his tea. Is there a point? Well, our actions set off a Rube Goldberg-esque chain of events to open new areas and eventually bring us to our end goal, but anyone holding out for the goose to display more nuance than simply being a spiteful dick is not on the same wavelength as developer House House.

Even though Untitled Goose Game seemingly started out as a joke, credit goes to House House for actually wringing a damn solid stealth romp out of the premise. The goose is defenseless against any human who so much as shoos it away, so we achieve our goals by taking on the role of a calculating manipulator.

(Again, the idea of a goose being a “calculating manipulator” is just extremely funny.)

Each level is a sort of mini-sandbox weirdly reminiscent of Hitman. We study our human targets as they go about their daily routines, looking for openings in which to cause mayhem. Often it’s just a simple matter of outmaneuvering patrol routes and stealing items, either to destroy them, repurpose them, or to assemble arbitrary collections (because seeing a goose set a table is just funny). In other cases, it’s a matter of startling NPCs at the right moments, such as when we make the groundskeeper hammer his thumb by honking while he’s planting a sign.

Untitled Goose Game is at its best, however, when solutions are intuited through experimentation. In one level, we’re instructed to “make someone break the fancy vase.” While there’s no apparent way of doing that, a bit of toying around reveals that whenever a certain resident finds one of his neighbor’s belongings in his own yard, he carelessly throws it back over the fence. Hmm.

Spanning no more than two hours — but with plenty of postgame objectives — Untitled Goose Game gets in and out before its joke stops being funny. The controls are simple, the story is essentially nonexistent, and it’s one of the most readable 3D games in some time thanks to simple colors and untextured models, though the automatic camera goes on the occasional swerving frenzy. It’s so easy to play that it’s no wonder the game has emerged as a universal favorite in such a stacked release season.

Given its unintimidating nature, the only question that should hang over any prospective buyer’s head is whether the idea of watching a sneaky goose make everyone’s day worse is amusing. If the answer is yes — and it damn well ought to be — Untitled Goose Game stands as evidence that even the silliest idea can birth a surprise hit when applied with conviction. I doubt anyone will make a better misanthropic goose game anytime soon.

Disclosures: This game is developed by House House and published by Panic. It is currently available on PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately two hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated Everyone and has no descriptors. It’s full of what the ESRB used to call “comic mischief,” but it’s an extremely lighthearted affair with no actual violence or anything inappropriate. 

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There’s no dialogue, and audio cues played no important role in the game from what I could tell. It’s fully accessible.

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

The post Untitled Goose Game Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Being inspired to research Jonestown.

LOW Killing sixty people.

WTF Recording a different song for each ending.

Pour a drink out for the tutorial guard in every stealth game, for theirs is a thankless task – they spend their brief time on earth with their back turned to the protagonist, blindly idling in a way that makes little real-world sense in order to teach the player how to execute people from behind. These expendable guards are the unsung heroes who sacrifice their lives in the pursuit of player education.

The Church in the Darkness is a top-down, open-ended exploration and stealth roguelike game set in a South American cult’s compound in the late ’70s. The stealth is fairly simplistic, with every NPC having a sight cone, and as long as the player keeps their character outside of these cones, they remain undetected.

While sneaking, the player will come across a collection of different items like guns, chloroform, disguises, and alarm clocks that can be used as a distraction in order to escape capture, foil patrols, or get into a house to steal its contents.

Church is far from complicated, but its simple framework is consistent and clear, and it allows for players to run through the game quicker each time. My first attempt took me just over an hour, but subsequent runs were as short as 15 minutes.

The main character, Vic, is tasked with finding their nephew Alex. It isn’t initially clear where Alex is, as most of the map is not filled in when a run starts. But, as Vic finds helpful cult members and does tasks for them (find a picture of a loved one, track down the location of deported children, etc.) they provide clues that help narrow down where Vic must search. As a roguelike, Alex will be in a different place for each run.

As the player sneaks through the compound, they will be constantly filled in on the demeanor of Isaac and Rebecca Walker (the cult leaders) via announcements from loudspeakers, and the dynamic between Vic, Alex, Isaac and Rebecca is foundation for the story. Will the player rescue their nephew, or leave him? Will Vic attempt to interact with the leaders, kill them, or just ignore them?

The permutations here allow for 19 different outcomes depending on the player’s decisions and the randomly-assigned personalities of the other characters. Depending on the run, Rebecca and Isaac might be predisposed towards being isolationists, or maybe they’ll be end-of-times types. Alex might want to leave, or be determined to stay.

As the player talks to people, events in a run will play out differently. If Vic loses all their health, they can be captured by the cult leaders instead of dying outright, and will be spoken to in different ways depending on whether they killed cult members or set off alarms. Likewise, friendly cult members will change their perspective on Vic depending on their activities before the two talk.

With these splintering narratives I wanted to come back to Church several times to to see what the varying outcomes would be. However, I started to see behind the curtain, and apart from the central four characters, the other NPCs have little impact.

After doing several runs where I kept conflict to a bare minimum (tranquilizer darts instead of bullets, distracting guards instead of gunning my way through) I decided to see what would happen if I tried to murder everyone. I gunned down passersby, held up unarmed cultists and executed them, and even snuck into the main church and killed the Walkers. By the time I got to Alex, he was horrified with the atrocities I had committed… and then said ‘Well, I wanted to get out of here anyway, I’ll go with you’. The ending listed my kill count (60) but otherwise seemed interested only in what happened to my nephew and the Walkers.

Another thing that grated was that Church presents its world as open, but until the location of the leaders and the nephew have been pinpointed by info from doing quests or by finding documents, the targets don’t exist on the map. This artificial absence feels like a cheat and a way to make each campaign more linear by preventing the player from guessing a location and shortcutting the story.

Walking through an empty compound with an ominous plea from Rebecca echoing out for all members to “come to the church” was haunting, and incapacitating my unwilling Nephew and kidnapping them from the commune was a moment worth seeing. The problem is that my time between those moments made me realize that in many ways, the NPCs are all just expendable tutorial guards, and that made it harder to enjoy the package as a whole.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Paranoid Productions and published by Fellow Traveller. It is currently available on PC, PS4, Switch, Mac, and XBO. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher code and reviewed on the XBO-X. Approximately 9 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed 7 times. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M. The game earns its M rating with dark themes of abuse, violence, drug use, murder and ultimately, mass suicide.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options. Also, as a player that struggles with red and green colors, it was hard for me to distinguish between friendly and enemy NPCs.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: On easier difficulties where visual displays are displayed, the game is fully playable. However, on harder difficulties where those visual cues are gone, it it’s very difficult to understand what state of alert NPCs are in. Text is not adjustable.

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

The post The Church In The Darkness Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Fast paced combat, humorous situations.

LOW Crummy camera, odd difficulty spikes.

WTF Why is Amelia wearing a domino mask?

In a past life, I occasionally described certain games as being the “right kind of stupid.” Assault Spy most definitely falls into that category. I’ll admit that I didn’t dig this one when I started playing the Early Access version a few months ago, but something clicked after the 1.0 release. Assault Spy suffers from bland level design, an awful camera, and poorly documented special moves. However, its goofy humor and fast, hard-hitting action kept my interest.

The story of “corporate spy” Asaru and CIA Agent Amelia makes almost no sense, but the narrative mainly serves and an excuse for either of these playable characters to punch a ridiculous number of robots until they explode. Essentially, there’s a lot of humorous dialogue, ineffectual spying techniques, prolific profanity, and the occasional joke about breasts. Mileage will definitely vary, but I found myself chuckling fairly regularly, and often shaking my head in either wonder (or befuddlement). I liked the way the two protagonists’ stories intertwined, and I enjoyed the fact that the two separate storylines weren’t simply rehashes of one another, even if the locations and enemies were almost exactly the same. Amelia’s stronger, more direct attacks and invulnerability powers make her the better choice for beginning players, but there’s no way to know that going in. I struggled with Asaru’s timing-based combat, hough I appreciate having two such distinctly different playstyles.

I was especially taken with just how hapless all of the protagonists seemed to be — while effective at briefcase and umbrella-based combat, Asaru is a terrible spy, and his handler Kanoko causes havoc during missions for the lulz. Meanwhile, Asaru’s CIA counterpart Amelia is a gung-ho sociopath who thinks violence is the solution to every situation. Both main characters barrel their way through the halls of the Negabot corporation, destroying everything they come in contact with while trying to determine the reason for the sudden android uprising that threatens the company.

My best advice is don’t think about it too hard, embrace the camp, the strangely likable characters, and just keep breaking robots

Technically, Assault Spy is played from a third-person perspective and features fast character-based action in the same vein as something like Devil May Cry or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance — simple button-press inputs are strung into devastating combos capable of decimating enemies.

The combat is hard-hitting with moves that look and sound powerful, and beating up robots never gets old. Unfortunately, the camera is pulled back just far enough away from the action to make it difficult to properly get a bead on the next enemy, making it sometimes feel more about fighting the controls than the enemies. This also makes the occasional platofrming challenge harder than it needs to be.

While the combos are easy to input, the explanation of their execution can be poor with instructions like the word “Just” and a button prompt. (It means the button needs to be pressed “just” as the character flashes onscreen.) The timing needs to be fairly precise, and the flash can be missed with multicolored enemies swirling around. Flying enemies make things even harder, as there are few air-based attacks and jumping is a bit floaty.

Boss battles attempt to add some strategy into the mix, but wind up as extended sessions of closing in on an enemy hell-bent on keeping its distance while it spams area attacks. Fortunately, both Asaru and Amelia can queue up specials that nullify a boss’ advantages — Asaru can slow time in short bursts, and Amelia becomes invulnerable and deals double damage. These special attacks take a long time to recharge, but are invaluable.

During breaks in the action, Asaru and/or Amelia perform some extremely light exploration, mainly in the form of finding stranded employees desperately attempting to escape the robotic revolution. (Note: I’m not a huge fan of the fact that female employees are portrayed as simpering figures on their knees while the men all stand confidently.)

The gameplay loop is extremely simple — walk around, fight a bunch of baddies, rescue an employee or two, move down the hall, purchase move and weapon upgrades from kiosks, rinse, and repeat. There’s also an extended stealth section about three-quarters of the way through each story which seems out of place, even accounting for the fact that this project is titled Assault Spy. They’re not tremendously difficult, though they do overstay their welcome.

Assault Spy is entertaining, but it’s highly flawed. I’d be hard-pressed to pay full price for it, but the laughs alone make it worth tracking down once it goes on sale. Rating: 6.5 out of 10

— Jeff Ortloff

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

Parents: This game is awaiting a rating from the ESRB, but it says that the game May contain content inappropriate for children. The game features animated violence against human and robotic enemies. There is brief sexual innuendo and comments of a sexual nature. There is frequent use of profanity, including s*it, and b*stard (f*ck is implied and abbreviated).

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Most audio cues have a corresponding visual component, although if the player character is not facing an enemy, they will not be detected, making combat more difficult. All dialogue is subtitled, including during combat, although the white subtitles are difficult to read against a grey screen during a battle. Subtitles cannot be resized, nor are there font color choices.

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

The post Assault Spy Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.