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

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

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

B: You did?

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

B: Oh, dude. Okay.

C: It’s multiplayer right?

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

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

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

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

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

C: Sobaka Studio and the games Redeemer and Remedium.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

C: I do, I do.

B: Do you! okay.

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

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

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

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

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

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

C: Surprised. Okay, cool.

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

Rating: 8 out of 10

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

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

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

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

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

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When I played Slay the Spire and Into the Breach for the first time, I knew each one would exert major influence, and that many devs to come would offer their own spin on the mechanics canonized in these titles. What I didn’t expect, however, was that developers would take these two very different games and fuse them together. However, the Tactical Roguelite Deckbuilder is here to stay.

Starless Abyss is the first title from Amsterdam-based Konafa Games. It’s an interesting, maximalist, messy take on this young sub-genre, larded with systems and ideas and quirks, all held together by a viscous peritoneum of star-encrusted Lovecraftian cosmic pulp.

The Starless story, so far, has not grabbed me, but for context — players assume the role of a starship pilot who’s been shunted into another dimension, in the hopes that they can save the galaxy from encroaching monstrous cosmic entities. They do this by proceeding through a series of encounters (events, shops, and combat) in the hopes of beating back the Outer Gods and their rogues gallery of degenerate invertebrates.

Combat is the main course here, and while the easy shorthand would be to say “Into the Breach with a deck,” that doesn’t quite encompass the unique flavor imparted by the many concepts and mechanics laid on top, tucked underneath, and squeezed into all the little gaps of that framework. To jump to a more terrestrial metaphor, what we have here in Starless Abyss is some good ol’ fashioned Lasagna Game Design, with many layers to consider during each encounter.

The setup will be familiar to those who know the genre — enemies position themselves and telegraph an attack, then the player takes their turn before the attacks land. Players control a squad of three spaceships which can all move once, but all other actions are dictated by cards drawn from a single shared deck and played from a shared hand. Any ship can use as many cards as desired, as long as the player has energy to use them.

Each ship has multiple stats – health, shield, movement points, a heat gauge, artifact slots for specialized buffs, and sometimes innate special properties, once the player buys or finds better ships than the basic beater. A ship called the Brawler, for instance, gets a bonus to all damage, but reduces the maximum range of all attacks to two hexes.

The field of battle, a hex grid, presents additional considerations, like debris fields that cost extra movement to enter, but provide a damage reduction to any ship within them. When a corporeal (as opposed to a phantasmal) enemy is killed, it leaves a massive smear of starbeast offal where it dies, blocking line of sight.

There’s also a strong board game influence here. Throughout the run, players acquire “D.I.C.E.,” which are dice used during non-combat events. Unlike Spire, where the outcome of an event is simply a matter of clicking on the choice desired, Starless Abyss choices can fail — playing a high enough D.I.C.E. (D.I.E.?) will guarantee success, but lower-value D.I.C.E. will only yield a 50% chance of gaining the desired result.

I’m still wrapping my head around the way Starless Abyss’s multiple systems mesh, but I can detect sweet, nourishing tactical density here. Mechanics aside, this project has obviously been made with love. The visuals are just great, with blocky, saturated, chunky pixels barrel-aged in a very fine bowling alley carpet color palette featuring blossoms of purple, eructations of neon green, and powder-white nebulae foliating against violet-black expanses speckled with stars and tentacles.

There’s too much in Starless Abyss for me to render a verdict at this early stage, but I can safely say that anyone who vibes with this sub-genre should be paying attention to this thing. It’s an Abyss worth gazing into.

Buy Starless Abyss – PC

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HIGH Amazing set pieces and co-op gameplay

LOW Simplistic storytelling, predictable character beats.

WTF Pig body horror. 

Split Fiction is the latest game from Hazelight Studios, the studio behind It Takes Two and A Way Out.

Their most recent offering happily builds on the foundations of its predecessors to create what is possibly one of the best two-person co-op (especially couch co-op) action games around. Similar to It Takes Two, Split Fiction is mainly a split-screen cooperative 3D action-platformer with puzzle-solving mechanics, but it pushes collaboration further than we’ve experienced in virtually any other game. It also looks and feels as though it intends to tell a more mature story than the studio has done in the past, though the script isn’t as successful as the gameplay.  

Split Fiction centers on Zoe and Mio, two aspiring writers of fantasy and science fiction, respectively. They are invited to get their work published by a tech CEO named Rader, but instead of a traditional book deal they’re told they must first relive their stories in his VR bubble machine called, “the Machine”. Such a naming convention is, sadly, indicative of the storytelling complexity here.  

Mio and Zoe become trapped in the same VR bubble and must figure out how to work together to escape. Naturally, the two women are polar opposites, with Mio preferring action and dark sci-fi stories, while Zoe enjoys escapist happy-ending fantasy. Over time, the two learn from each other and find common ground as the experience develops them and reveals their formative traumas.

Having a predictable story structure like this one is not necessarily a problem, but my partner and I felt that the character conflict felt forced, with Mio written to be unrealistically immature considering that both characters seem to be writers in (at least) their 20s. For example, Mio initially claims that she’s never thought about whether she puts a part of herself in her stories, which we found implausible for an adult writer. We also found that the character development of their respective inner conflicts to be fully unsurprising, and that their development never grew past the stereotypes they appeared to be from the start.

Fortunately, outside of the narrative, Split Ficton has much to offer.

In terms of aesthetics, Split Fiction dabbles in existing genres and themes — the worlds and stories aren’t wholly original and often seem referential to other games — but the gameplay and setpieces are exciting, and the co-op integration and variety are extremely well-executed.

Like It Takes Two, Split Fiction excels at pushing players to collaborate to solve puzzles. Typically, the players are given distinct abilities that work together in interesting ways, and both are needed in conjunction to move through an environment or defeat bosses.

In one of the fantasy sections, Mio had the ability to create platforms, while Zoe could rotate them. This division of skills meant that we had to plan when and where we would place them. In one of the sci-fi areas, we were super soldiers infiltrating a high-tech chemical base, and we had color-coded shooting mechanics integrated with puzzle solving. My partner and I often had to talk through overcoming obstacles that were more complicated than simply trying to coordinate pressing a button at the same time.

In addition, I see one of Split Fiction’s strengths being that it breaks up the campaign through the use of shorter “side stories” which give players a temporary detour from whatever’s happening. These allow the introduction of new mechanics and generally don’t outstay their welcome. In one case we spent a short time as (literally) magical pigs which farted rainbows or extended like a slinky.

Overall, while the individual gameplay mechanics in each section are not novel, the way that co-op and the “split” part of Split Fiction is executed is highly original and impressive, and the roles of the characters were often distinct enough that there might be some replayability in swapping characters for a second playthrough. 

The difficulty of Split Fiction seems intended to be approachable to the average gamer, and we found the difficulty to be calibrated just high enough to present an enjoyable challenge. That said, people who do not play many modern action games might have more of a learning curve. However, the penalty for dying is minimal, there are generous checkpoints, and as long as one player is alive, the other person can rejoin within seconds. We also appreciated that accessibility settings like reticle on/off or button mashing on/off can be adjusted for each character individually.

Overall, Split Fiction exceeded our expectations when it came to co-op action-puzzling — we just wished the story had more nuance and depth. If Hazelight Studios were to focus the same level of attention to both gameplay and writing, their narratives could serves to be more than vehicles to experience their action through, and that would be something like no other. However, even as it is, Split Fiction remains something special and one of the best cooperative experiences out there. 

Rating: 8 out of 10

Buy Split Fiction: PC – PS – XB

Disclosures: This game is developed by Hazelight Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It is currently available on XBX/S, PS5, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. The game was completed in approximately 15 hours, and the entire game was played in split-screen co-op.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Language, Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, and Violence. There is swearing, shooting guns and welding swords, mild violence, explosions, and scary situations like dental procedures and prison are depicted.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. All audio can be shown in subtitles and closed captions are available. Audio cues have visual indicators as well. The subtitles can only be altered to add a background, but not resized. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: This game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Split Fiction Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog on the So Videogames podcast, Episode 430.

Let’s start it off with Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog. I talked about this last episode and spoiler it’s a banger.

As a quick recap, you can go back to last episode to hear all the details, but basically it is a visual novel done in a old school Japanese PC style, which kind of reminds me a little bit of Snatcher and a little bit like Phoenix Wright in some ways, but mostly like Snatcher, if people are familiar with that. But basically it’s kind of a faux retro throwback visual novel. There’s a couple different presentation types, black and white or monochrome or full color, but basically you play a character who is a officer in a space sci fi navy. You’re getting shipped out to, I don’t know, Jupiter or something like that, in order to go on a test run for something, and you’ve got a little bit of a checkered past.

You got into some combat, but there were problems with your Gundam-style mech, and so your whole crew died while you were forced to sit on the sidelines and watch because you couldn’t fly your mech into battle. That messed you up a little bit. So you’ve got some baggage. Other people remember how that went down and they’ve got some some umbrage to take out against you. But regardless, you go in the ship and you think you’re going to be doing some kind of a military thing in visual novel style.

You meet people on the ship, you talk to them. Everybody’s got a really cute portrait. Music is absolutely on point. Very retro, but very cool. Lots of appropriate themes that really convey the emotion of each scene. The animations are very emotive, and I think they’re very indicative of what kind of person each character is. Just from a couple frames, you can kind of get their vibe. This person is silly. This person is angry. This person is kind of flirty. A lot is being communicated with the visuals, which I think is really great. It’s always good to to show more than you tell.

I will say that although the writing is telling, it’s very economical. It’s to the point, but also descriptive, very personable and funny. It’s really hard to be funny when you’re doing games and games writing, but they nail it here. The writing is just outstanding. Every character has great dialogue, strong personality, very clear storytelling, which I think is also a feat in itself. And just so many little warm human moments that very easily could not have been there. So I really want to give special shout out to the writing. I think it’s just outstanding.

I’m not going to give away the whole thing here, but needless to say, what you think is going to be a generic mission out in the stars to do some military stuff quickly turns into something else. I’m not going to… I’m not going to give away the whole plot, but let me just say it quickly turns into a murder mystery. And so there’s kind of a genre switch. You have to do things that you didn’t think you were going to have to do. The game unfolds in a surprising way, and it all works. It really works so well.

Graphics are on point. There are little mini games to engage in that could only be done in the the realm of video games. I mean, everything about it just really comes together. I think the story choices, the way they’re presented is really good and clear. I think the UI is really excellent. Overall, I think it’s just really outstanding.

I had a couple of problems with the story flow that I was talking to the developers about and I believe they’ve really gone to back to the drawing board and patched some of that stuff. But overall I just had like a marvelous time. I really couldn’t put this game down. I had the just just the most enjoyment with it. It was fun. It was reminiscent of of good stuff from the past, but it also was modernized. It’s not just a nostalgia trip, it’s a really tight piece of work that anybody who likes sci fi stories or visual novels can enjoy. It just really moved along at a good pace, and I appreciate that. It’s very tough to do a good visual novel that really leverages its medium, but this one succeeds in every aspect. I just I just could not get enough of this one, and I am very excited to see what these developers do next.

This one, basically, it’s my strongest recommendation. For fans of visual novels, they just don’t come better than this, so Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog gets top marks from me. And I did finish this by the way. Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog is… it’s just really the shit. I give it a solid 8.5 out of 10 and my highest possible recommendation for visual novel fans. It’s just a blast. And if you like this show, there’s a real good chance that you are going to like this game as well.

So kudos! Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog is an 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Space Colony Studios and published by Astrolabe Games. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5 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/was not) completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Language and Mild Blood. The official description reads: This is a visual novel/adventure game in which players assume the role of an officer engaging in various space missions. Players use point-and-click mechanics to reveal clues, interact with crew members on a ship, and advance the storyline. Some scenes depict brief instances of violence: characters in a fist fight; mech suits shooting, punching, stabbing each other; ship guns firing on enemy craft–sequences are highlighted by screen-shaking effects, impact sounds, and mild explosions. Some characters are depicted with small bloodstains and bullet wounds on their bodies. The game contains several references to alcohol, primarily centered around a recurring character’s alcohol dependency; a whiskey bottle is featured prominently on her desk. The words “bullsh*t” and “a*shole” appear in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There no colorblind modes available in the options, although players have three distinct color schemes to choose from.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue is subtitled (see examples above) but it cannot be resized or altered. There are no audio cues needed for gameplay. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. There is no control diagram. Moving the cursor is done by left stick or d-pad. Confirm/cancel are mapped to the face buttons. There are no realtime elements, so time pressure is not a factor.

The post SVG Review: Stories From Sol: The Gun-Dog appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Simply chilling in high places and taking in the view of the world.

LOW The ending, which is poorly designed and written, and riddled with bugs.

WTF Oh, so that’s not a frog statue.

The planet Cigalo is dying. Its ecosystem has been shattered, its swamps drained, and its surface strip-mined in order to build a spaceborne array of solar panels that will eventually block out its sun. An environmental catastrophe interrupted the project and forced the exploiters to depart, leaving behind abandoned facilities and mountains of scrap.

As Caravan SandWitch begins, players step into the role of a teenage pilot trainee and Cigalo native named Sauge. She’s just received a distress signal from her sister, who was assumed dead after disappearing on on this half-ruined planet six years ago. Although that premise sounds grim, Caravan SandWitch itself is anything but. The desiccated world of Cigalo is rendered in attractive, saturated, cel-shaded graphics. There’s no combat whatsoever, and most of its play loops are built around exploring, collecting items, and driving folks around in a big, bright yellow van.

Sauge progresses the story mostly by reaching new sites in the world. Initially this is gated by a need to disable “jammers” that block communications and blot out the map, but as the plot unspools, it becomes necessary to reach specific locations to empower transmitters and link disparate decrepit industrial locations through a kind of teleportation network.

As is standard for third-person open-world games, these tasks are presented with a minimum of time pressure. A few character-related quests get locked out when Sauge gets a new tool, but more time is always available to finish these before moving on. The passage of days is noted, but nothing moves forward until Sauge collects enough scrap parts to build the next sensor or grapple gun and the player chooses to advance to the next chunk of the adventure.

Although driving the van is generally smooth, one could complain a bit about the platforming. Sauge will frequently clip through a ledge while mantling, particularly if the shape is odd. On tight ledges, Sauge will sometimes rotate in a random direction while jumping, though they will still grab and mantle to the next ledge correctly. Even when the animations got dodgy, the result was generally what I intended, and the small number of unexpected failures didn’t result in any permanent harm since Caravan SandWitch has no fall damage.

The total harmlessness of falling even from enormous heights might support a chill experience, but it also plays a part in rendering events curiously inert. It’s fine for a story not to have combat, but Caravan SandWitch feels like it goes beyond this to evict any kind of conflict entirely. Despite the desperation of the scenario players are presented with on Cigalo, Sauge gets to drift through it without truly confronting the planet’s exploiters, the elements, or even her parents.

For all her ominous looming, the eponymous Sand Witch does almost nothing directly injurious to any of the characters. The planet’s native sentient species, who suffered cultural and physical genocide, hold no apparent animosity towards the lingering humans on the planet. Only one character evinces even the slightest negativity towards Sauge and he’s quickly won over. Caravan SandWitch even shies away from confronting the damage the loss of Sauge’s sister’s caused the family.

The poorly-translated dialogue contributes to this problem. Almost every line in Caravan SandWitch is intelligible, but they’re often abrupt and unmusical, as if important nuances from the original French were elided by the translation. The conversations are functional, but any emotion comes across as perfunctory and shallow. It’s particularly bad towards the end of the campaign as the subpar dialogue interfered with the intelligibility of the action, sapping what little power there was in SandWitch’s contrived, half-baked endgame choice.

Despite its numerous charms, Caravan SandWitch just didn’t sit right with me. There is perhaps something to be said for a chill attitude in the midst of apocalypse, but this experience gets there by avoiding all of its tragedies, save one. The looming death of this world and seeming indifference from everyone inhabiting it left me too uneasy to fully accept the atmosphere Caravan SandWitch seemed to be after. While Cigalo was beautiful to see and relaxing to visit, even as the planet crept ever closer to collapse, I kept wishing that someone would rage against the dying of its light.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Studio Plane Toast and published by Dear Villagers. It is currently available on PC, PS5 and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via retail purchase and reviewed on a home-built Windows X PC equipped with a AMD Ryzen 2700X processor, an ASRock X470 motherboard, 32 GB RAM, and a single GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. 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 T and contains Language and Violent References. This is a terrible classification. The mentioned violence is no worse than your typical 6PM newscast and I can’t recall Sauge ever going harder than “drat”. My main reservation is that in one of its endings a character commits suicide by choosing to remain behind (offscreen) in an exploding building. Even with that, I would not put this above E10. The world’s most tedious and unlikable people (perhaps the ESRB raters are among them) will also be annoyed that Sauge has two dads and many individuals are referred to with they/them pronouns.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game is fully accessible. All dialogue is in text, but text cannot be resized or modified. There are no essential sound cues in gameplay.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls on PC. MK controls are as shown in the attached images. Controller defaults to X for interaction, Y for exiting / returning to van, A for jumping or acceleration boost (in van), B for exiting dialogues. Left and right sticks default to move and look, respectively, left and right triggers default to decelerate (in the van) and accelerate (on foot and in the van).

The post Caravan SandWitch Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Great premise!

LOW Feels too gamey and artificial — no emotional stakes.

WTF I really can’t get over these low obstacles?

EDITOR’S NOTE: This review originally was originally published on September 2, 2002

*

With the dawning of online play for consoles this year, a big selling point is that players will get the chance to interact with live people for an increased human element in games. The idea has merit, but in my opinion videogames that take place offline haven’t done more than scratch the surface of offering similar experiences through simulation and programming. I don’t have anything against going online, nor am I a huge believer that A.I. can replace real people. That said, I don’t think that implementing a modem feature is the final answer to providing qualities that the vast majority of videogames lack, or even ignore altogether.  

Abstract feelings and concepts like companionship, love and trust are common everyday things that often don’t translate well into the electronic worlds gamers populate. Most RPGs (Role-Playing Games) make attempts with varying degrees of success, but very few games outside this genre even try to make social and emotional content a factor. It may not be an easy thing to convert into program language, but in my view it’s a frontier of videogames that has gone practically unexplored since the medium’s inception. The Thing, from Computer Artworks, makes an attempt at combining the human psyche with the framework of an Action hybrid, and the results are mixed.

With its source material taken from the 1982 John Carpenter film starring Kurt Russell, the videogame adaptation of The Thing takes the form of a third-person adventure that picks up right where the movie left off. Plunging the player into the heart of Antarctica, it’s your job to discover what happened to a missing science crew and take care of any situations that arise along the way.

In most respects, the game handles like a standard Action outing. There are items to pick up, weapons to find and equip and locked doors to get past. In fact, beside the fact that I was mildly disoriented by the world spinning around your character as you re-orient, this could just have easily been any one of a number of similar games. However, The Thing’s unique gameplay hook is the teammate system, which is what I’m going to spend the most time discussing.

In the film, the “Thing” was an alien that was capable of perfectly replicating another living creature. Because of this particular ability, the humans dealing with it were racked with paranoia and distrust for each other because it was almost impossible to tell the difference between real human and gruesome invader. The same elements of trust and fear are featured in the game, but this time in an interactive (and unsatisfying) fashion.

The game’s main character is a standard-issue action hero and must interact with three different classes of people: Engineers who fix electronics and unlock doors, Soldiers that possess good fighting skills and Medics, who are capable of fully healing any character except themselves. Each of these types has skills that are integral to your progress in the game. However, when you initially meet them, many will suspect that you of being alien and require some convincing before helping you.

The way you do this is based on a number of things, but the easiest and most common is to give them a gun and ammo as a token of goodwill, or to let them see you killing the monsters you encounter. Conversely, if you do things that seem questionable such as taking away their weapon or shooting humans (even on accident) during a firefight, their trust will drop. If they have faith in you, it’s smooth sailing. If they don’t, they won’t help you- and even worse, may even attack you. Fear is also a factor, and if a person in your party becomes overwhelmed with fright, they can go crazy and become ineffective.

This interesting system was the biggest draw for me, and at heart I think it’s great idea. However, the actual execution falls far short of the concept. The problem is that while the basic idea of “trust” is sound, the paper-thin characters are relegated to being little more than another set of implements for you to use. They lack any convincing level of human behavior and are found, killed, disappear and otherwise get replaced so often, it becomes less about maintaining a relationship and more about tool manipulation. The shallowness and obvious lack of any significant emotional content undercuts the game’s defining feature and ends up only hinting at its full potential.

When coming across a locked door, the only thing required to convince an Engineer to open it for you is to give him an item- despite how much he mistrusted you only seconds before. While something along these lines wouldn’t be so hard to swallow if it only happened sporadically, you’ll replay this little game of favorites far more often than is tolerable. Each time you go through this process, it becomes quite clear that it’s more an overused gameplay gimmick rather than being a significant part of the plot or narrative structure. There is simply no lasting or emotional impact.

Besides my disappointment in the handling of the psychological and relationship elements, the game suffers from a number of rough edges that only serve to further tarnish the overall experience.

As I said above, the game picks up right where the movie left off, and I mean this in the most literal sense. The game’s intro and beginning sequences felt like they were specifically made for someone who was already intimately familiar with the source material. In preparation for doing this review I had re-watched the DVD so it was fresh in my mind, but I imagine it would be hard for people to understand what was going on or to feel drawn in if they hadn’t seen it. Similarly, I found the direction, narrative and overall polish of the game to possess an off-putting “no-frills” quality. Things feel jerky with jump cuts and a lack of cohesive flow that are only magnified by the segmented progression through the areas and the large number of interchangeable teammates. It’s especially ironic that the storytelling here is so shaky since the film was a virtual horror masterpiece.

Another barrier to immersion was that the level of realism is inconsistent, and conveniently tossed aside when necessary. While trekking through a blizzard, you’re stopped in your tracks by a waist-high chain link fence that can’t be destroyed or climbed over. You can’t enter buildings except through the designated entrances even though there might be a gaping hole in the wall large enough to drive a snowcat through. At one point, my team was stopped by ankle-high rubble. These annoying choices combined with the shallow nature of the trust system did an effective job of never letting me forget that it was all just a game.

On a technical note, be aware that the game requires a massive amount of space on the PlayStation 2’s memory card. I actually had to delete four other save files before I had enough free space for just one file of The Thing. I’m no programmer, but it reeks of laziness or unfamiliarity with the hardware since there doesn’t seem to be an extraordinarily large amount of information to be saved.

Altogether, The Thing’s trust and interface system is an interesting kernel that I’d like to see plucked out and transplanted into something more fertile. If this core element was reworked into a new game that smoothed the rough edges and added more depth, I think Computer Artworks would probably have something unique enough to stand out from the crowd. As it is the game isn’t all bad, but with the promise of its sole standout feature being left mostly unfulfilled, it ends up being far too ordinary in the face of what looks to be an outstanding (and competitive) holiday season.

Final Score: 6.5

Developer: Computer Artworks
Publisher: Black Label Games
Platform: PlayStation 2

EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was written 22 years ago, we were not tracking accessibility information at that time and we no longer have access to the game in order to check. Apologies!!

The post The Thing (PS2) Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Ryan Nalley

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

REVIEW TRANSCRIPT:

1:32:15

BRAD: Carlos, we have been on this track for a while, you’ve been super excited for Star Ocean. You know, you got the game, you got in early & you’ve been playing? I know it was your jam. I know you were totally in the zone for this. I am very excited to hear your take on Star Ocean especially now that you finished it. So tell us from A to Z. What is Star Ocean?

1:32:46

CARLOS: first off asterisk. I’m going to apologize for asking about this game for like, I don’t know, a month straight. Because I kept going like, are we gonna get a code? Like, yeah, hit me up on this. But I paid my own top dollar for this game you did. I knew that. You know, I don’t want to like have to wait on that rely on that. And he’s played his game. Again, we’ve talked about this before. But when times are tough, you’re going through a lot of difficult things like I am right now. An RPG is something for me. That’s just total pure escapism. So I just wanted it as soon as it came out. So I bought the digital fancy version. And was able to play it early. And got it you know, as soon as it came out 9pm or whatever.

And yeah, so spoiler I love this game. It did what it what I thought it would do, which is super fun, open world third person action RPG JRPG. It’s comfort food. It’s like I think a lot of articles are coming out right now that says like, it’s the perfect JRPG comfort food. I’ll talk a little bit about the systems and some pros and cons. There are a couple of cons. But I would think in general. Yeah, it’s kind of what I wanted. It’s kind of what I told you, it would be kind of what I’ve been alluding to, which is super crazy, huge, you know, pretty long RPG that has fun combat and an interesting story. But nothing like it kind of drops off. Like I said earlier in the podcast, the final act or a third act or whatever. Yeah, there’s a little bit of an issue there. So in general, what is this game? This is the first I believe game where you can pick between two different protagonists. Okay, I might be wrong. I don’t do homework in this series.

So in the beginning, you can pick Raymond, who is the captain of a ship, and the whole idea of starship by the way is an RPG where sci fi meets traditional kind of monsters and you know, fantasy art. He that’s like what their whole thing is. And by the way, this takes place in the timeline of this universe, right after a game where you actually play as the people on the ground. And there’s space space people coming to meet them. And you’re basically like the people that live there already on the planet. Okay.

1:35:20

BRAD: Wait a minute, you lost me. Take it back a couple steps.

1:35:26

CARLOS: Well there’s a lot to I’m not gonna go through the whole Star Ocean series. But I’m overview right. Yeah, well, here’s the thing in the timeline of the games, like canon or whatever, one of the games, I think, I can’t remember which one it is Faithless. Integrity, I think is what it is. In that game, you start as characters, you know, your hero is like from a planet, and spaceships land. Right? And that’s, they cause all the problems. And they’re like, fuck, but you started as your main character as the person who lived there on the planet. Okay. And this game, which is, you know, takes place after that game. You can either be Ramen, who’s in the spaceship, right above this planet, or you can be the princess who is from that planet? Does that make sense?

1:36:12

BRAD: okay, so, yes. So let me as someone who is not super familiar with the Star Ocean games, let me just ask you this, then I know that they’re JRPG. So I know that much. And I’ve seen screenshots and so forth and so on. I don’t know that I’ve even ever played one, honestly. So I’m guessing this is a futuristic slanting sci fi theme, or is it more of like, traditional stuff? Like how does it play out in the terms of JRPG? Are we talking sci fi theme all the way through? Or is it like you’re a sci fi person on a fantasy planet? Or like, what is? What is the kind of the vibe are going here? Medieval stuff?

1:36:45

CARLOS: Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to do. And I’m doing it poorly. So it just always mixes the two. Like, that’s what those games do. Right? It the idea is like, there’s a planet. And it’s kind of more traditional. And there’s fantasy, and there’s monsters, right? And then and there’s like gods times, princesses and you know, kings, and then there’s spaceship people. And they’re like, Oh, those simpletons don’t get it, right. And the two meet, right. And in the game right before this, again, on the timeline, you played as the characters who were just on this fantasy planet, and they again met spaceship people, right. And that was where all the trouble happened. Because they came down and there was a girl and as a whole thing. So and this one, you can literally pick between the two, right? But the whole idea of the story, and these, this whole series is that they always mix. But this game basically takes all the Star Ocean ideas of space meets regular people on planet who don’t know about space stuff and technology, and does everything you could think of with that combination. And I’ll get to it, meaning like, you know, if we were here right now, and we got visited by aliens, what would that look like? What would we not understand? Right? Like all the different technology and stuff. And they really go into that kind of juxtaposition. So that’s why I said it’s such a big deal. Like who you pick as the character. Because you’re you’re they’re picking the princess Leticia who was from the, from the planet, or you’re picking Raymond, who has an 80s haircut, by the way, and it’s out of control. It’s like this huge poofy blonde mess, and it looks stupid. Sorry, Raymond. And, and he’s like, on the ship, and you know, he gets shot down. And so he’s he lands on the planet. So that’s how the start the game starts. So when you’re starting the game, you meet this princess right away? Or you are that Princess? Got it? That’s a long, long intro. To the game.

1:38:35

BRAD: Is it important to have played any game before this one?

1:38:38

CARLOS: You don’t need to. But the only reason I bring that up and I think that people who have played these games before would appreciate my long intro is because I think that’s a nice touch. Because the game right before this in that series, or at least on the timeline was about spaceship people coming down. Which by the way, spaceship people is pretty funny. I keep saying, you know, sci fi, you know, future people. And in this one, you could be, you know, the woman or the person from space. I picked Raman from space. Let’s get to the game. So, another huge thing about this game is early on you you find this technology in your spacecraft as Raymond I’m just going to talk about this whole game as Raymond

Okay, the space traveling guy, you find this little technology robot thing that floats kind of orb thing, and its name is Duma. It’s very important for the whole story you’ll learn later. And so Duma allows you to do really, really fun combat. Now, if any of you played the demo. You’ll remember that combat super fun. And the reason why I was so excited about this game, you’re going to be in a huge open world RPG, you want the combat to be good. The report is it’s very, very fucking good. And what makes it great as Duma. So by holding down a trigger button, you can float with Duma and the let go of it and it’ll attack. So basically like pinpoint attacks with flight And it’s hard to explain. I’m not going to try. It’s just something you have to experience. But it feels fucking great. Now you didn’t play the demo. Did you?

1:40:07

BRAD: No by the time I heard about it it already been over because there’s a limited time I didn’t jump in.

1:40:13

CARLOS: it’s just super fun to do that kind of thing. Now, the only Mini Con in combat is that you have action points, they run out a lot. And so when you have no action points, it’s one of those games where you can’t do anything. I don’t know how many can either wait for it and come back. 100% or you did you do things like one of my favorite things in the world to do is you you write trigger with Duma, turn it on, you’re floating, you go to attack an enemy, I’m going to try to explain this because this is really fucking fun. And instead of attacking right away, you push a direction on your controller, and he’ll move to the left or right. And if you’re in the blind side of the enemy, you blindside the enemy, which means you stun them. And what that does, it actually gives you extra action points. So it’s kind of a puzzle game, where if you do all these moves the right way and kind of stun a bunch of people, you can start having a ton of action points.

BRAD: And this is real time, right?

CARLOS: This is all real time. Okay, but by doing that, now you’re not worried about like losing your extra points go to zero but now you have like 20 Instead of like for like you started with so you have more to use basically right? Then you’re not running out as much and that’s a huge part of this game, but they do not tell you about very well. Going back to tutorial, they don’t really do a good job of that but when you learn it it’s really really fun. And then I’ll also say you know you can control all the other people I never do you know, it’s like if you hit a button now you’re the your other party member right? I just don’t do that in these games I just stay is one person unless of course I’d like get killed and I have to switch and then there’s also stopped mode. So you can just stop the game and do things like use items right? You know, use a bomb use special upgrades or whatever. So you got to always do the anytime or you have to anytime separate anytime. Okay, so that’s always there but I’m not calling this a turn based game at all because you do need to use that all the time in a big specially bosses. But in the most time you’re out in the field playing this game you’re just like, do an action combat Gotcha. But you can always stop at anytime you want and do health potions, so okay, I know there’s a long review but I will say that’s still fucking fun. Like really really fun no matter who you pick because I tried all the different characters it’s super fun. But Juma just has a really really like a very unique feel.

1:42:35

And there are alternate endings, by the way. Because I picked Raymond I didn’t pick Leticia. So there’s a slightly different endings. Really quickly jumping to the thing. What’s amazing about this game without going through the whole storyline of it, is they because they guess they were making this, you know, as people make games through a pandemic, a virus shows up in this game. Yeah, straight up, like COVID style virus. And I got to think that that’s from what happened in real worlds to them.

Yeah. And so I hated it at the beginning. But it also was like, this is part of what our life was, you know? So it’s very interesting. And you literally wear a mask for a while. And I was like, nervous because I was like, we should get out of this hospital right now. Cuz yes, there’s a lot of infected people here. But um, there’s a huge section of the game where you’re wearing a mask, and they did the voiceover with mask. It sounds like, yeah, so funny. Yes.

Also, political stuff shows up in this game. Also, power corrupting shows up in this game, they kind of like go through a bunch of real world shit. And then on top of that, I won’t go into it. But just giving you a little bit of what I alluded to. Duma is AI robot. It’s part of a collective of AI. And they actually talk about things like the singularity in this game. Interesting. And they go really far into it. Like, it goes into things where like, you see YouTube videos about this stuff, right? Like, what would happen if we merge with AI? They get into all that stuff. So yeah, it’s just a much bigger than the sum of all of its parts. And you’re like, What is this game? There’s so much they’re like doing and the same time. It’s just a fun ass JRPG right. So okay, that’s the whole game. In a nutshell. Here’s some cons. Because I love this game. Right? And I love it and I completely mean it sounds sounds very positive so far. Positive. And by the way, because I’m fucking crazy. And I needed RPGs like, you know, in an IV just mean to me. I’ve beat this game in eight days.

1:44:56

BRAD: Wow. You know, many hours?

1:44:59

CARLOS: It looked at it I think 32.

1:45:07
I played it a lot. I could, obviously nonstop. But I think, you know, other people will probably take their time with a game like this, but I was just so compelled. Yeah, I just loved it. So I beat it in eight days. So here’s the cons. One. How do you want to call the third act? I would say when you think it’s the third act, you think it’s almost the end of the game? It’s like, oh, no, bitch. We just getting started. Oh, no. Okay, and that felt bad. Like, it felt bad. Yeah, cuz you go, it’s gonna wrap up. Now we get it, you know, we know what’s happening. And they go, No, we’re gonna do this. We’re gonna do this without spoiling anything. And you’re gonna go to this whole new area, and new map. And you’re like, oh, I don’t want to do more map. You know?

1:45:57

Not halfway, maybe. Three quarters way. Okay. Good chunk. Yeah, that’s like a whole other quarter. I would say like, six more hours or something. Jesus, okay. Yeah. And I was like, Whoa, I didn’t want six more hours. So every time I thought it was over, I was just here by myself and I kept laughing to myself, I’m like, and now we’re done. And then it was like, I guess I’m saving it and going to bed and saving it and going to bed so so that is a con i feel like they fucked up the momentum. Because this game had such a fun relaxing momentum and you’re learning more you’re learning more and about three quarters of the game you’re like it should be done now so I would have loved this game at 25 hours really?

1:46:38

BRAD: Yeah more more is not always better.

1:46:40

CARLOS: Not really. I know what that why they did part of it because again, they would they really go into AI and stuff and it’s really interesting. But yeah, so then the last part of that con is that near the ending might no spoiler but minor spoiler they do a bad job of telling you what to do. Well, here’s the minor spoiler is that you have to just randomly beat bosses, and they don’t tell you which is fucked. And that you just have to go in new areas new dungeon areas and get to the end of it. And it’s one of these fucking terrible mazes and stuff. And then those bosses are fucking hard like insane bullets bunch of bosses

1:47:22

And before they even show you the story to get to the last boss and that felt bad that felt really good to know to do that you just trial and error you go like I got to go down this area. Really? Yeah, you’re in like an area where like all these doors and you go in the doors and so every time you go into doors a dungeon and you get to the end of it and you and they don’t mark where you’ve been either so you’re like, it just felt like a fail like a real bad fail. So that’s the main only main fail because I was like this is just confusing as fuck. Beat all those bosses and by the way, played the whole game on normal until those bosses put it down to easy it was still difficult. Really still difficult and easy. And I was like holy shit what would have been like hard been that’d been like sadistic so and last boss last last boss, which of course I won’t tell you put on an easy again, because I was like no, fuck you. I’m done with this game. Like this game is over, you know? And I’m easy. It was still hard. So I just think they fucked the ending because super fun the whole way through. I never wanted it to end. And then I just wanted to add you know, like I was like, You fucked it up. You made me be confused. You put all these bullet spongy bosses that don’t make sense. And also boats, but new bosses didn’t fit the storyline either. You know, it’s like, we should we should be done. So. That was my main con, the other con, you meet a lot of okay, as a straight guy. There’s a lot of attractive ladies in this game to me, okay. And I like romancing ladies,

1:48:54

BRAD: I’m very curious where this is going. Go ahead.

1:48:56

CARLOS: I’m like, you know, I don’t know who you are listening. But for me, I found a lot of the women attractive. That’s what I’m trying to say. Okay. And yeah, you’re in a game for this long. It’d be fun to romance somebody look at Dragon ages of the world, etc. Sure. And so even though I found a lot of these ladies, you can kind of compelling to hang out with maybe do some side missions. No romance at all. Oh, not at all. Not even not even an inkling like no one even flirts. It’s really weird. I guess you don’t do that when you’re in space, I suppose. Okay, I’ll get to the one I’m trying to say is there’s a lot of cleavage. All right. And I’m not saying cleavage equals romance. Not whatsoever, but pretty good. That is a pretty good title for the show there.

1:49:48

BRAD: Wait. cleavages equals romance, yes. Okay, maybe that’s pretty good.

CARLOS: But what I’m saying is, is that in you know, in the JRPG settings, we played all these games, right? And there’s like attractive men or women, even you know, in these romancing options, the guy’s got his shirt off. He’s all muscle rippling, or whatever you want to be. Like, it’s just there’s not even flirting. And I was like, this seems weird. So it seems like with a game that big and with all that stuff to do and all that content, all the different issues that it brings up, you you would maybe have optional, I mean, maybe at the very least optional side quests, romance or something, right.

1:50:25

And there’s there’s these things called Private actions, which is basically the side quests with like different characters, and all those you like, you bond together, you know, it’s nice with friendship and stuff. But that’s it like that’s, again, this is such a small caveat, not a big deal. But it seemed weird being like, almost 35 hours and no one, no one’s even flirting with each other, this opportunity. And lastly, because it’s gone long, I will say there’s no post game and the fact that this game is such a massive world, and there was so much I didn’t do still, because I was just like, excited for it to be over at that point. I wanted to go back into the planet and like fuck around. But it’s that bullshit thing where you have to do old save.

1:51:07

BRAD: Okay, so there’s no postgame. It’s just like you just reload. Right before you beat the last boss and go back into it.

1:51:12

Yeah, which by the way, there’s there is other stuff to do. Like I’ve been watching, like YouTube videos, or like, oh, secret dungeon you don’t know about, but I’m not doing it. Dude. You know me? Yeah, it’s not canon. Yeah, no, no, no, it’s not canon. So overall, I really, really liked it. I think I liked it a little less because of the ending. Although I like the story a lot. And I think they did a lot of things that no RPG is doing, which is, you know, talk about real world shit. Talk about AI talk about computer talk about what it means to be have a soul and like, you know, you know, the whole what’s it called agency or my thinking of when it comes to AI, autonomy, autonomy and stuff like that. So really, really enjoyed my time, a little let down in the ending.

1:51:58

BRAD: Well, overall, you finish the game, it sounds like you’re probably not going to go back and play it again. Because you’ve got your canon ending and you’re done. Done. So I mean, it’s it’s fairly good time to give it an official score, perhaps.

1:52:09

CARLOS: I think so. And we talked about it before this show. I’m just thinking about as I talked about that ending, how it frustrated me so much. I’m going to use this Okay, I will do a score. Let me talk it out. Tales of arise. I liked better. And why is because one I just felt like I think I liked the combat better, weirdly enough entails a variety even though I love doom. Yeah, I love Doom and I love that mechanic. It’s super fun. But I think I did enjoy tells the rise better. And then also tells the rise ending I loved it. It came at the right time. And it was a very long ending, you know, with a lot of character development. I just loved it. And this one I didn’t like when it finally did get to the ending after all that like really extended ending. It was short.

1:52:59

BRAD: You know, I mean, that’s a bummer. RPGs they almost by definition need to have a pretty extended ending. You really want to see what happened everybody Yeah, what happened? All the different options you really want to like you wouldn’t want to get an exhaustive kind of wrap up that’s that’s pretty normal to expect.

1:53:11

CARLOS: Well, I’m what you do is you get that throughout the the ending you know, I mean, like you’re getting a ton of story. Like, this isn’t light on story. This thing has a lot of fucking cutscenes it’s just that it’s part of the game. You didn’t mean? Yeah, so I think Focht we know I didn’t give a score for tales of rise, I think I’m gonna give it… son of a bitch. I can’t believe I’m gonna do this.

BRAD: Carlos gives it son of a bitch?

CARLOS: No, no, I’m just saying some of it because I feel like it’s gonna be lower than I thought it was gonna give it because I loved it so much. I’m gonna give it an EIGHT.

1:53:46

BRAD: An eight. I mean, it sounds to me like you were shooting the seven you think eight?

1:53:49

CARLOS: No, it’s eight. It’s I just I feel bad eating an eight because like, there’s things in here that I like that are nine. Does that make sense? Oh, that makes sense. Like I like Duma, and that I’ve never experienced that kind of game play ever. And I really like it. And I like a lot of the story what they’re doing and that fact they did the virus and they they handled it well, I think responsible and stuff like that. I love the AI stuff. It’s gotta be eight because the ending fucked me man. It’s a six hour ending of bosses.

1:54:21

BRAD: I hate when they do that little stumble around to the very end but I mean eight out of 10 That’s a very respectable number. That’s nothing to be embarrassed about. So that sounds to me like it’s an overall win. Would you agree?

1:54:30

CARLOS: it’s an overall win and I’ll say this is my last statement. If you’re looking for a good JRPG comfort food, it’s definitely that and I think a lot of people play games and don’t finish them right so like if you want to just jump in and like level up and have a bunch of cool story. You could do that and play like 20 hours of it. You know. there you go. As people have said many times most people do not finish most games. So right if all you want is a good 10 hours it sounds like it delivers that good 10 hours you can bounce into something else.

1:54:56

CARLOS: Star Ocean: The Divine Force is a delicious JRPG comfort food.

So Videogames Official Score: 8/10

Developer: Tri-Ace

Publisher: Square-Enix

Platform Reviewed: PS5

ESRB Rating: T. Official description: This is a role-playing game in which players control fighters trying to prevent war between interplanetary factions. From a third-person perspective, players explore various worlds while performing quests and battling enemies. Players use swords, guns, explosives, and magic spells to kill enemies (e.g., thieves, knights, robots, giant animals). Combat can be frenetic, highlighted by dwindling health bars/hit points, gunfire, and occasional explosions. Cutscenes sometimes depict further instances of violence, such as a man shot at close range. Some female characters are designed with revealing outfits (e.g., deep cleavage, outline of buttocks). The words “sht” and “ashole” appear in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Subtitles: Subtitles are not able to be resized or altered.

Controls: yes, the controls are remappable.

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It’s a difficult time to be an optimist about space colonization. Even as the possibility of human civilization living beyond Earth’s gravity comes closer, the reality is weighed down by the bleak situation at home. In the end, even optimists must concede that the prospects of living under a distant sun are likely impossible if we can’t solve the problems we have here on Earth — And from the look of things so far, that’s the premise of Iron Tower Studios’ in-development RPG, Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role-Playing Game.

Though it’s still in Early Access at the time of writing, Colony Ship immediately stands out, both from other classic-style RPGs and even from Iron Tower’s debut, The Age of Decadence. That said, it carries itself with the same air of weary, decayed cynicism. I say that like it’s a bad thing, but in a medium so drunk on heroism, it’s actually refreshing.

The setting of Colony Ship is inspired by the Robert A. Heinlein story Orphans of the Stars. Published in 1941, it gave one of the first fictional depictions of the “generation ship” concept — a spacecraft constructed to take living humans through interstellar space at sublight speeds. To that end, generation ships house their population for that long, with entire generations living and dying within its hull, in the hopes that their distant descendants will arrive at their destination, hundreds or even thousands of years later.

One can already see the potential for a story in Orphans of the Stars, and by extension, Colony Ship. With so much in a human society capable of changing in the span of a single generation, the chances that a generation ship could even remember its original mission seem laughably slim. What group of people, faced with the prospect of living out their entire lives, and the lives of their children and grandchildren aboard an enclosed capsule forever on its way to somewhere else wouldn’t succumb to despair or recklessness?

That’s exactly what happened in Colony Ship. The player’s massive craft has been on its way to distant Proxima Centauri, and things have been off the rails for a long time. The society on board has mutated in ways that nobody could’ve anticipated, and after a violent mutiny, onboard life is riven by factions in an enclosed mimicry of what might happen after an Earthbound apocalypse.

Colony Ship‘s enclosed world is run by three main factions. The Protectors of the Mission are an arch-conservative organization fixated on turning back the clock to before the mutiny broke the former hierarchy. The Brotherhood of Liberty is a fractious democracy descended from the original mutineers, but cracking under the weight of democracy’s impracticalities. The Church of the Elect is a militant religious movement that sees the very journey of the ship to distant Proxima Centauri as a holy ordeal, one that only the chosen will survive.

The three factions (and several more minor ones) drive events as players begin the game in the Pit, an anarchic town belonging to no specific group. It’s here that Iron Tower’s clear love of older, more hardcore RPGs from the days of Fallout comes to the fore. Players are tasked with creating their own character, assigning detailed attributes and skills in a classical “point-buy” system. Like the games of yesteryear, it’s entirely possible to royally mess up a build and render a character unable to accomplish anything, only to then die an embarrassing death from a failed skill check.

Speaking of skill checks, they make up the majority of interesting play in Colony Ship. Old-school challenges like picking locks and dialog challenges are par for the course, and plenty of options are provided for players to work their way through. As a bit of advice for players thinking of jumping in, try not to spec too much for fighting. Perhaps it’s a matter of taste, but I found the turn-based combat system too fiddly and antiquated to hold my interest. Driven by action points and aim checks, I found little joy in trying to empty crude pistols at point-blank range, only to miss and eat a leaded pipe to the face.

With the combat carrying little dramatic weight, I found it more satisfying to play the opening hours as a silver-tongued rogue of sorts. I was capable of talking my way into and out of most situations, and equipped to unlock most doors I came across.

Of course, I folded like origami at the prospect of violence, but that made trying to find alternate routes more satisfying. It also exposed me to more of Colony Ship‘s well-written dialogue and descriptive text. Iron Tower was clearly trying to make an experience in the mold of older RPGs, but perhaps a few hints from newer games like Disco Elysium would help drive home the notion that such combat systems aren’t quite the draw they used to be — at least not playing the way they do in this version of the game.

At the moment Colony Ship isn’t fully complete, but what’s there is well-realized and surprisingly light on technical issues. My one major complaint was a constant skipping I noticed in the background music, which forced me to silence it. Losing the music meant that I could hear every instance where a sound effect was missing or held by some placeholder file, and much of my run felt like I was playing on mute. This is obviously a temporary Early Access issue, and I expect it to be ironed out well before full release.

Colony Ship could be a delightfully gritty RPG experience when it’s complete. Players looking for an old-school, skill-check experience should keep an eye out for its eventual launch.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Iron Tower Studios and published by Nacon. It is currently available for PC. This copy of the game is based on an Early Access preview build provided by the publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode. There is no multiplayer mode.

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HIGH Integrating shooting mechanics into the gameplay is interesting.

LOW It gets the basics wrong, and its few fresh ideas are flawed. 

WTF Releasing this game so close to the defining example of the genre!

I’ve sunk countless hours into From Software’s Souls games over the years. Dark Souls and Bloodborne are ranked at the very top of my favorite games, and I enjoy the style so much that I replayed Dark Souls 3 after sinking 90 hours into Elden Ring just to keep getting that fix.

Unfortunately, From Software only makes a new game every few years, so I try other entries in the Soulslike genre, but I find these often fall short. The same holds true for Dolmen.

Developed by Brazilian developer Massive Work Studios, Dolmen is a Soulslike with a sci-fi twist. The player explores a planet filled with what is described by the gaming blurb as “Lovecraftian horror”, on a mission to find and bring back samples of diamonds called Dolmen.

Upon starting Dolmen, it quickly becomes clear that like so many FromSoft imitators, Dolmen misses what makes the formula so compelling.

For example, Dolmen leans hard on the ‘difficulty’ angle, and I found myself constantly dying and making very slow progress from the start. Despite being so prominent in the marketing, From Software games are generally not difficult for the sake of being difficult — in these games difficulty reflects a theme of hopelessness, death and triumph, and this in turn is woven into meticulously-crafted gameplay and environmental storytelling. Dolmen lacks this sophistication, and is instead just a difficult game, exacerbated by a poor combat system that leads to needless deaths.

For example, in combat there’s a general lack of weight to the weapons and poor strike feedback, and this continues to be the case even after having access to larger weapons.

Dodging is unreliable due to questionable hitboxes and hard-to-ascertain enemy wind-up animations.

The stamina bar drains quickly and takes an age to refill, and the parry system is unreliable. It’s far too risky to use.

With all of these issues in mind and a character that continued to feel weak as the game progressed, I found myself trying to grind for EXP in order to get past some tricky bosses, but the levelling system rewards players with pathetically meager stat improvements. Toss in cheap enemy ambushes, and I found the combat — a key aspect of any Soulslike — to be incredibly frustrating and dull.

As Dolmen is Sci-Fi oriented, there is also ranged combat in addition to melee. It’s an interesting addition that works fairly well. The aiming system is decent and using firearms causes damage that also fills up an enemy’s stagger bar, allowing extra damage when filled.

Sadly, it’s a case of one step forward and two steps back with these guns thanks to how Dolmen uses its energy system.

Besides the genre-standard health bar and stamina bar, Dolmen has a third energy bar. This temporarily drains through weapon use, but will slowly refill. Healing is also tied to this same bar, but when used for healing, the energy spent will not refill. Instead, it must be refilled by consumable batteries. While healing is instantaneous, using a battery is time consuming and leaves the player open to enemy attacks.

I can see how tying both gun use and healing to one bar may seem like an interesting idea — on paper it will provide a mechanic that forces the player to think strategically, I’d assume. In reality, it leads to a war of attrition against bosses consisting of quick bursts of shooting followed by a period of inaction and keeping one’s distance to allow the bar to refill, ensuring that there is always enough left to heal if needed. With melee combat being unreliable and having to manage the energy bar, boss battles are long, slow and frustrating. 

Aside from these gameplay issues, Dolmen is a bland-looking run with environments that are basic and lack imagination. Character animations range from stiff to glitchy, and enemy design ranges from dull to laughable — to describe the aliens here as Lovecraftian is ludicrous.

Despite the lack of graphical complexity there is a noticeable anti-aliasing effect in certain areas, with jaggies most noticeable in the hub area. Improvements are found when turning on the optional “quality” mode, but then the framerate slows to a crawl and the minor visual improvements are rendered pointless. 

The loading times are so horrendously slow that on the rare occasion the player finds a shortcut, any potential time saving is canceled by the interminable loading screens. 

Dolmen also includes a weapon and suit construction mechanic with customizable options which would be an entertaining diversion if it wasn’t for the unworkable menus in which it is hard to tell what is highlighted. Also, some weapons and armor are gated behind grind that requires bosses to be beaten three times before the player can get the parts needed for successful crafting.

To be brutally honest, Dolmen seldom has anything to add to the Soulslike genre, and when it does, it shoots itself in the foot with how poorly the ideas are implemented. In a post-Elden Ring reality, I felt like my time was being wasted constantly — after 23 hours and repeated deaths against the penultimate boss I checked out. The Soulslike genre is a tough one to crack and offering mediocrity is simply not enough. Without nailing the basics and successfully bringing something new to the table, there’s little reason to play.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Massive Work Studio and published by Massive Work Studio, Prime Matter, Koch Media. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4/5, PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher download and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 23 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. 0 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T for Teen and contains Blood and Gore, Violence. It reads on the website:

This is an action role-playing game in which players search an alien world for samples of a unique crystal. From a third-person perspective, players search various facilities while looking for clues and battling hostile aliens in frenetic combat. Players use swords, axes, and pistols to kill insect-like enemies. Combat is highlighted by gunfire, impact sounds, and blood-splatter effects. Cutscenes occasionally depict characters stabbed through the chest, and some environments depict mutilated/disemboweled alien corpses. Alien limbs can also be seen on the floors of some environments.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

 Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. Subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Dolmen is full of unfair enemy ambushes – without audio cues these are even more unfair. Additionally, those with eyesight problems will really struggle with the poorly implemented menus and unclear highlighting. As a result I would say that it is not fully accessible. 

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

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