HIGH The Dark Grip power up is a blast.

LOW It’s a roguelike, so expect some runs to be complete write-offs.

WTF Dashing forwards doubles as a deflecting move?

Absolum takes place in a fantasy world where certain types of magic are militarily suppressed by a tyrant known as the Sun King who enforces his rule by locking up or murdering anyone who gets in the way of his ambition. Our heroes set off on an adventure to fight back and topple this system, only for things to go badly wrong roughly ten minutes into their mission.

Said heroes do have an ace up their sleeve though — while they can technically die, it doesn’t last long until they’re reborn in a sanctuary hidden away from prying eyes. So, after being stabbed, bludgeoned, bitten or burnt to death, they’re able to dust themselves off, power themselves up with various goodies from their previous attempt, and have another crack at taking down the Sun King.

Most of the enemies are a standard fantasy medley of orcs, goblins and humans poking at things with spears for the most part. That description also fits the playable characters who are a decent enough cast of misfits, and personable enough once they get talking. That said, Blaze Fielding levels of character design excellence are not to be seen here.

My main choice was the sword knight Galandra, a strong all-rounder. There’s also a Dwarf with stone-hard fists and a blunderbuss, a frog sorcerer who floats around the battlefield unleashing magical justice and a patchwork rogue type who seems the optimal choice for anyone looking to perform freeform combos. The first two are available from the outset, the latter two must be discovered on the journey.

While Absolum is definitely a roguelike, it offers a mostly-traditional 2D side-scrolling approach. Stroll from the left side of the screen to the right mangling anything that gets in the way, pick up gems and loot to either help in current or future runs, and choose a preferred path through the chaos.

If the setup is standard side scrolling fare, then it’s fair to say that the developers have pretty much nailed the combat. Players can run around, dash towards enemies to deflect their attacks, dash up or down to avoid them as well, and use a large variety of special moves to mince through enemy hordes. There’s even the occasional Golden Axe-style mount for added lethality and protection.

One twist to this formula is the addition of Rituals. After nearly every encounter in a given location, the player is offered various rewards ranging from gold and gems to Rituals that can substantially change their playstyle with tweaks such as punches setting foes aflame or well-timed dodges blasting them with lightning.

There are also character-exclusive perks like the Dark Grip, which I fell completely in love with since it turns out that strangling dudes in Absolum is totally awesome. Stroll up to some dirty-looking malcontent, hoist them up into the air by their throat and wait until they turn blue and die, coughing up large chunks of mana in the process.

It should be mentioned that the benefits of some options aren’t always exactly clear, as Absolum is often missing basic information in info panels such as how much damage being choked actually does (lots) to enemies or how effective a floating spectral sword is at stabbing dudes, but experimenting with new discoveries is all part of the experience.

In fact, ‘discovery’ is a watchword here as Absolum shows strength through the variety of things hurled at players. Especially in the early runs, there’s almost always some twist coming out of nowhere to open up new routes, make new friendships or reveal new enemies and bosses lurking in the shadows. One time I was waiting for a lift to another area, only to have a bunch of grenades hurled at me instead. I’m not sure if this was due to the character I picked or not, but my Dwarf didn’t get a warm welcome in that zone.

Of course, this variety in conjunction with the random nature of roguelikes has a downside. When scavenging for life-replenishing food after rough battles, it’s often (literally) a feast or a famine — pointlessly abundant one run with waste aplenty, then an absolute void of sustenance the next. The same goes for abilities and power-ups — one run offers perfectly synchronized Rituals that complement each other, and the next is nothing but a ramshackle collection of redundant nonsense that doesn’t mesh.

If I had a complaint besides the random awful luck of roguelikes, I’d have to say that I’m getting sick of seeing boss characters that borderline cheat by being slathered in hyperarmor that allows them to ignore player attacks until it shatters. It comes across as a bit lazy, honestly — there’s one Warlord boss in particular that takes nasty advantage of this with huge grab windows that last too long, able to snatch players out of combos, mid-attack. It’s not exactly game breaking, but I’d be happy to see it toned down or binned completely moving forward.

I’d also hoped for something to add replay value after killing the true final boss, but Absolum doesn’t introduce any new features that I’m aware of– no randomizers, no new skill tree unlock, and no surprise bonus characters. Given how generous the devs are with content up to that point, it’s a little strange to see the content feed suddenly stop dead like that. Rolling credits feels almost anticlimactic a result.

Minor quibbles aside, Absolum is an excellent beat-’em-up full of cool combos, neat build variations, random events and enjoyable roguelike power evolution spearheaded by a team that Absolumetely knows what they’re doing when it comes to crafting quality content. For fans of roguelikes or side-scrollers, this is one to check out.  

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Guard Crush/Supamonks and published by DotEmu. It is currently available on XBX/S/PS5/Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 17 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 0 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes due to lack of available players pre release.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, and Use of Tobacco. The official description reads: Absolum is rated E10+ for Everyone 10+ by the ESRB with Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, and Use of Tobacco. This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the roles of rebel heroes battling a fantasy villain. From a 2D side-scrolling perspective, players use swords, spells, and melee-style attacks to defeat creatures and human enemies (e.g., goblins, raptors, captains, ghosts) in “beat-’em-up”-style combat. Battles are highlighted by impact sounds, colorful light effects, and cries of pain. A red puddle of blood is depicted on one ground level. One character is seen smoking a pipe. The words “damn” and “hell” appear in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles that cannot be altered or resized. I don’t recall anything in the game that would require the use of hearing for successful play, so I’d say it’s fully accessible.

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

The post Absolum Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Eugene Sax sits down with Owl Machine to chat about their upcoming pacifist bullet-hell title, Key Fairy.

TRANSCRIPT:
GameCritics.com: Hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining me once again. This is Eugene Sax for GameCritics.com. Today we have something a little different. I initially was looking through a lot of the Summer Game Fest stuff, and one in particular kind of caught my eye when it was initially announced here. This was on the Frosty Game Showcase. And by all means correct me if I’m wrong. I’m pretty sure that’s where you guys were first coming up here. But it was initially with a streamercalled NoHandsNZ and they had praised this game and the developers as far as their accessibility items and their kind of openness for how they were addressing accessibility for this game. So, I wanted to go ahead and give it a look and this really quickly became a game that I am really excited about here as well. So reached out to them and they were both more than happy to sit down here with me a little bit to talk about their game Key Fairy. Tex, Tex Barnes and Niosis, thank you so much for joining me today!

Tex Barnes: Thanks for having us.

Niosis: Yeah, thank you so much for having us.

GC: Yeah, of course. So let’s go ahead and do the kind of easy easy questions here right off the top. We’ll go ahead either one of you who would like to start, can you go ahead and just give me a quick history from you both here? What is your background in games? What got you into gaming as a hobby? And kind of what are your roles here for Key Fairy?

Tex:Yeah. Do you want to start with that, Niosis?

Niosis: Yeah, sure. So I guess my history is that I got into like independent game development pretty early on. I’ve been actually into this since like high school. So like yeah, I got really enchanted with all the beautiful art that was coming out of the independent scene and like all of the kind of stranger approaches to game development. And ended up pursuing it from there. Yeah.

Tex: Yeah. I I didn’t make games until like five years ago and then I got really into the like micro rapid development game jam space.

GC: Mhm.

Tex: And then I really wanted to make tiny little focused experiences and then worked back backwards into making larger things.

Niosis: Yeah, we both kind of just like ended up turning going from like little small things to like slowly spiraling out to this.

GC: Very cool. Very cool. So if memory serves here from kind of what I’m seeing here on the game, Tex, you’re kind of the I guess kind of head for programming and then Niosis, you are kind of more of the art side of this game for Keyfairy. Is that correct?

Niosis: Yeah, that’s right.

GC: Right. Perfect. Excellent.

Tex: But with a studio of this size, we sort of just wiggle around in different roles.

Niosis: Yeah. Yeah, I mean like yeah, Tex does a whole bunch of the like you know graphics programming stuff and I do every now and then like do a bit of graph programming and other things. Yeah. So it kind of mixes and matches.

GC: Yeah. With a team of two that makes sense. You got to both of you got to wear a lot of hats, right?

Niosis: Yeah.

GC: Sounds good. Well, talk to me about Key Fairy, like what was the initial inspiration for it?

Niosis: Yeah. Oh, I was going to say like I feel like a lot of it came out of specifically the idea of trying to make a game that explores like the theme of non-violence and how you make a game that is like energetic and fun to play in a kind of action oriented way but that isn’t just about like reskinning violence. And like trying to, yeah, communicate pacifism through the response that your character has to violence itself.

GC: Mhm. Okay.

Tex: Yeah. It’s from taking stuff away, right? Like is bullet hells are a very action heavy genre and all about like shooting things. But if you actually play a shoot them up or a bullet hell, you just sort of hold down the attack button and then dodge. And so you can just entirely refocus the game around evasion and then you get all of this different story stuff that can come out of it because you’re now playing this character who’s constantly defensive and never really attacks.

Niosis: Yeah, there are plenty of bullet hells where like shooting is so default that you don’t even need to press a button for it. So if you’re not pressing a button for it, you can just skip it entirely. It was a little bit of it. Yeah.

GC: Gotcha. That kind of went into my immediate next question there as well. So, it sounds as far as like ’cause exactly like you said, bullet hells, I always think of it as, you know, lots of bullets on screen, you’re shooting at everything all the time. And it sounds like, and definitely correct me if I’m wrong, but kind of the idea as far as making it that pacifist style was kind of I guess trying to break that norm of bullet hells, like specifically making it with a pacifist focused. Is that right?

Tex: Yeah. Yeah, it’s I mean I think good games ask questions about genre and about like design and I think ultimately one of the big questions we’re asking is like do you need to be a character who’s constantly attacking? Does that actually add to the experience? And I think that’s what we’re sort of exploring in the in the game. But there is still a lot of like attacks on screen at points. It’s just not your attacks.

GC: Mhm. Yeah. There was a part in the demo where you’re facing a couple of I guess we’ll call them ranged characters ’cause I’m not sure their exact name, but like the witches that kind of shoot out little bullets at you and then one of the one of the giant cubes that just throws itself around in the arena. And that one I got stuck on that for quite a bit of time.

Tex: Yeah, it gets pretty hard. I mean like so a lot of pacifist games, a lot of non-violent games are really really cozy. It’s like you’ll play the Sims or something and it’s like you’re just chilling and that’s great and I like that experience, but I really like really fast play paced frenetic games and I struggle to get that experience without a character who’s just going through the world stabbing everything with their big sword.

GC: Speaking of the big sword, the one that you specifically call out, no, you don’t attack with it, it is a sword.

Niosis: Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we were trying to come up with ideas for the game and early on we were like, “Oh, you know, be hilarious, right? Is you get a sword and then the sword it’s just for dashing.” Like, it’s just like, you know, you become a Dark Souls protagonist, but only the dodge roll part.

GC: It’s so good. I love it. And and it is such a unique way, too, cuz it is this like especially compared to like your main character, it feels like a massive sword and it’s only half a sword cuz it’s broken when you initially get it, right? And the entire point is like, hey, no, this is this is a sword. It gives you the option to move around more, but you don’t attack with it. You specifically do not attack with it.

Tex: Yeah. The whole focus is on movement. Like that’s the the the name of the game is just how can you move in more complicated and interesting ways? Because if you’re taking away the ability to attack, you need to replace it with something because otherwise it just feels like it’s less game. And I think we’ve replaced it with a more complicated movement system where you got a really floaty character and then you’ve got a grappling hook and then you’ve got a dash ability on top of that and it just becomes exponentially a really high skill ceiling for…

GC: Right. Yeah, 100% agreed. Like I know when I was starting it, I was kind of just using the grapple hook and hooking onto the environment as far as like any of the walls and just trying doing like the straight line kind of around, but definitely in some of the like the trailers and that that are on your guys’ Steam page easily like Yeah. hook onto the enemy and just swing around them. You can you can do that. Nothing stopping you except for you know your skill.

Tex: Yeah. I mean that’s why they drop stars. Initially, initially the idea was like maybe you just wait them out and then they calm down. But having them drop stars forces you to get really close to them. And so now you’re constantly trying to not get hit whilst getting as close as physically possible to the monsters so you can collect the stars that they drop before they despawn. Which weirdly makes it like in a lot of ways it makes it play harder than a traditional bullet hell where you’re constantly trying to like back away from everything and get into your little safe space.

GC: Mhm.

Tex: Yeah.

GC: Very nice. Perfect. So let I want to go into the art a little bit there as well because I first off love the art. I love the very like black and whitevery stark colors and then how when you get into combat it does kind of encroach in a little bit. What what was some of the inspiration from you Niosis as far as the art from this game and the world design?

Niosis: Yeah, well the art like I think the big inspirations come from like old tabletop role playing game art. Like if you look at original D&D, it’s all like Zines basically. Mhm. With this really stark kind of sketchy ink style as well as like you know old medieval woodblock paintings and fairy tale books and things like that. But also a little bit because like growing up I’ve been doing a lot of art and it’s all just been like ink traditional traditional ink art. And so when we were starting this game and we had two people we had to make this decision between like art that we could both make or just going really heavily on like a really stylized look. So I ended up becoming the dedicated artist. And yeah, it’s all just like things from my sketchbook that I find and then scan in. Was like the first chunk of the art was like literally just flicking through old sketchbooks and taking photos and editing it all up.

GC: Gotcha. Very cool. Because I know like from the and from the like Steam page and all that like everything is like all about like kind of a folklore and everything like that. Were you drawing inspiration from any type of folklore in particular or just kind of a mismatch or?

Niosis: Yeah, I mean not yet. But it’s basically Yeah, basically just been like the general storytelling style that that Folktale has. As well as like you know there’s a lot of things that that cut very close to real life fairy tales but we’ve also been trying to avoid like overt references as much as possible. Sure. And so like you know there was this moment where I really wanted Sleeping Beauty but then we ended up like reorientating you know so we’re trying to keep it agnostic in a way that feels a bit like timeless but also more rooted in like as well as like yeah rooted in like gothic fantasy and that kind of look of it.

GC: Okay, understood. And yeah, I think the the black and white kind of from starting is definitely a good way to invoke kind of the Gothic style as well, just ’cause that’s, you know, I mean, that is kind of traditional as far as the like color palette, I guess. But definitely like I’m thinking right near the end of your demo with facing off against some of the like the princesses and that definitely I can see how that kind of invokes like the kind of fairy tale aspect to it.

Niosis: Yeah. Yeah. I mean like fairy tales are all like this kind of interesting mix between spooky and whimsical, and I think you know like Tex brings the whimsical and I bring the spooky and it ends up like hitting the right niche.

Tex: I think a lot of people when they’re like oh fairy tales are actually a lot weirder than you think. What they mean is that like they’re a lot darker. But if you actually read a lot of like spoken word folklore it’s just bizarre. It’s so bizarrely written in in both that it’s darker and that just characters act in these strange ways and talk in these strange ways that isn’t really replicated in a lot of modern storytelling, and we’re trying to bring some of that energy.

GC: Gotcha. Yeah, that’s and that’s very cool. It definitely gives Key Fairy a very unique style and definitely its own like unique energy. I mean even just looking at the game, but yeah, actually sitting down and playing with it, I can definitely see that and that’s one of the things that stuck out to me with getting into it and why I really wanted to have this conversation. So, I think you knocked it out of the park with that.

Niosis:Thank you.

GC: But yeah, so I guess the let’s get into the little more of the meat and potatoes as far as kind of the reason why I wanted to have this conversation in the first place. So like I said at the top GameCritics.com we go out of our way to specifically like highlight any of the accessibility functions whether it is like for deaf and hard of hearing as far as like captions are concerned for any type of remappable controls or anything like that and with such a presence there as far as your openness to that accessibility I guess journey going through this game. Like I was reading a lot of your blog posts Tex about the accessibility function you wanted to add it in. But tell me a little more about it. Like what went into the planning for all of these accessibility options and how did you prioritize different ones over the other?

Tex: Yeah, so I think accessibility seems like a big scary thing if you’re developing especially because it’s something that’s not really taught at university or whatever. But it’s not that tricky. There’s the big place is GA game accessibility guidelines. There’s a there’s a website where a bunch of researchers have gathered a a big long list of all of the major things that you should be looking out for. There’s other stuff that’s not on the list and it’s worth asking around and play testing a lot, but those are the big things to keep an eye out on and categorize them based on the level of impact and difficulty to implement. So, a lot of the really hard things to implement also only impact an extremely small percentage of the population. But that doesn’t mean they’re not worth doing. It’s just a thing to think about. You’re… we’re trying to think about what’s going to have the biggest impact for our audience, but also what’s core to the experience that we’re making and what elements are outside of that core experience, but could be a sticking point for some players. That’s a big thing to keep track of. Like if if this game isn’t a puzzle game, if there was a puzzle that some players were getting stuck on, they should be able to skip it because that’s not core to the experience and they shouldn’t be hampered from the main experience by this like random off side thing or like a fishing minigame shouldn’t be preventing you from progression or whatever.

GC: Yeah.

Tex: So in the initial planning phase when we were designing the game, we thought about what the games weaknesses would be in terms of accessibility and what its strengths would be. Because there’s a lot of things that the actual design of it works in its favor. It’s pretty good for color blindness that the game’s all black and white. It’s pretty good for people who are hard of hearing that all of the writing is just written on the screen. But then we added a bunch of random effects to the text. So, we also need to provide the options to simplify the font. And it’s just it’s just making a lot of lists, to be honest. It’s something you should be able to have an eye for if you’ve spent enough time developing games, understanding what’s going to be easy and what’s going to be hard for you, yeah. But then you just compile a list and figure out what’s easy and what’s going to have the most impact.

Niosis: Yeah. I mean one thing like you’re talking about like prioritization a little part of it is yeah just having it in front of people and then every now and then someone will come to us and say like ah you know I want to be into this game but this thing is having I’m having trouble with this thing so like you know the the trees kind of sparkle in the background and that sometimes that’s too noisy for some people and so you know as soon as someone brings that up then that’s a pretty simple fix, and so like a lot of the changes have been like preemptive, but a lot of them have also been reactive to what we’re seeing in front of us. And just being like open to the feedback that like, yeah, there can be simple things that are not core to the experience that are just some side visual thing that we put in there for fun that doesn’t need to be there always or doesn’t need to be there at all and we can work around it, things like that, you know.

GC: Okay, very cool. So I I’m assuming one of those was probably at least as far as the feedback was concerned, one of the big ones from your blog post was the camera and how it initially was sitting to follow the player, but now it’s been switched to in 99% of cases to where it’s just static for the room, right?

Tex: Yeah. So, it we we initially had it be all static in all the rooms and then we wanted to have larger rooms and it made sense to have the follow camera and we sort of got too lost in the sauce. I got too lost in the sauce. Niosis kept being like you don’t need a follow camera in this room. I really like the follow camera ’cause it makes you super It makes it spooky. It gives it a horror game vibe in some of the rooms where you’ll enter a room and then a monster will just appear. But that experience isn’t actually core to the game. And so it’s pretty reasonable to add in an option at least that for almost all of the rooms, especially any room in which you have to do an engagement where a monster’s going to attack you, you should be able to lock that camera. Because it just gave people it gave some people motion sickness. Small percentage of people. And there’s no reason to prevent them from playing the game for their experience.

GC: Yeah. Especially with having the grapple hook and having movement be such a core thing, I can imagine that with a moving camera, you’re moving really fast if you’re like doing chain grapples and all that. Yeah, I could see how that could trigger some motion sickness for people.

Tex: There’s still some long tunnels where at this point it makes sense to keep the follow camera, but those are places where you’re just moving in a straight line and there’s nothing attacking you. And so I feel like that’s probably okay. But I might make it that the camera moves more linearly rather than sort of sliding around.

GC: Okay, understood. Gotcha. So kind of piggybacking off of some of the like accessibility options there, what was the specific idea behind like some of the color palettes? I know you went into a little more in depth on it on the blog post, but I’m thinking like I’ve seen a lot of games where if they do different modes for color blind, like they’ll specifically call out like, “Hey, here is this very specific type of color blindness versus this one versus this one,” ’cause I know there’s a couple of different versions of it, right? Most of the color palette options that you all have starts out black and white, which is probably pretty safe to kind of cover most, vision impairments or anything like that, but then they don’t necessarily have the specific like I guess quote scientific name for the color blind.

Tex: The color palettes aren’t really for color blindness ’cause as far as I’m aware, and we’ve play tested a fair amount, color blindness doesn’t impact your experience of the game. The the big issue with color blindness, this is actually a general design thing, if you’re making a game that isn’t black and white. The big issue with color blindness is if the only thing distinguishing two states or two objects is color. And so what you generally want to do isn’t just provide an option that swaps the colors. It’s put symbols on things, provide audio cues, provide a bunch of additional stuff that makes it clear that these are two separate objects. And so even if they look gray to a player or if they both look the same color to a player, they’ll be like, “Oh, this one’s got a triangle on it and this one’s got a square on it, so these are different.”

Niosis: Yeah, there’s a lot of different parts. Like we’re finding that there’s a lot of different information that you can communicate that isn’t just color, like shape and value and noise versus the opposite of noise, I guess. And then we’re having to like you work around, you know, we’re having to do that anyway. And so that’s becomes just like part of the development is making it visually clear regardless of the colors of it.

Tex: Yeah. The value of the pallets from an accessibility point though is eye strain actually. If you it’s easy to to get worn out essentially from just this really high contrast. And so we the the base pallets that we’ve provided reduce the contrast really heavily. So you can have it be like more gray or more like blues. But then it’s also just like a nice gameplay thing that you can unlock more pallets as you go along. And it makes it easier for me to play to be honest being able to change the palette every now and again ’cause I do get a little I’m going a little bit crazy.

Niosis: Yeah, an entire year worth of only black and white.

GC: Well, especially with how often you’re all looking at it day in day out doing the development for it, too. Like I I can imagine the eye train would be would be pretty intense.

Tex: Yeah. Whenever I look at a game that has like color, it blows my my mind.

GC: Well, very cool. Was there any other big I guess accessibility thing that either made it harder to develop the rest of it for or anything in particular that like oh I like the thing that comes to mind was when you were talking a little more about some of the stuff that you were borrowing from Celeste for instance and the like speed option that you implemented I know initially it’s for you know accessibility is like Hey, people, especially with a game being this fast, they may want to slow it down a little bit so that way they can more easily process and be able to follow along a little more, but then you even made the comment on your blog post as far as like, well, this is actually good for speedrunners as well. They could just boot it up to the max and they can just zip through anything. Was there any other similar stories like that when you’re programming in the accessibility stuff?

Tex: A little bit. So like the Celeste has become the sort of cornerstone for good accessibility design because they make they do a bunch of really smart things. Especially putting a warning before the assist mode being like this is our intentions as designers. These options specifically could break the flow of the game if you don’t need them. But if you do need them, they’re here. And so I think that’s really good. And we have had friends who are like, I had to stop playing the game initially, but now I can continue playing it because I could tweak it ever so slightly so it would just be just be manageable. So that’s great. But the other thing that I think weirdly changed the experience for some people was the the one-handed options. We provided some options so that you can play it with just a mouse or just a keyboard or just like one joystick essentially. So it’ll all be using the buttons on that side, which is really useful if somebody only has one hand that they can use to play it, but also it sort of makes the game a little bit… On mouse and keyboard, the mouse has a lot more fluidity of movement because it can go in any direction whereas the keyboard is pretty four directional. And so it sort of feels more fluid to play just with the mouse for some people, even if they don’t need to, which I thought was funny.

Niosis: Yeah. I mean, that’s the thing about like all accessibility settings is that, I think a lot of people miss the fact that, like disabilities aren’t something that exist outside of the context of the society that you live in. Like they exist within the world that you’re you’re in. and the the accessibility that exists within that. And as a result of that, accessibility settings and assistance can be useful to anyone like they don’t you don’t need like a special card to find them helpful to find them like enriching and fulfilling. Yeah, yeah. So I think we found that like it’s just useful to everyone this kind of stuff in different ways and for different people.

GC: Yeah. At the end of the day, it’s about just getting your game to as many people who are interested in it and don’t have any type of blockers that would stop them from enjoying the experience, right?

Niosis: Yeah. And like it’s just the case that like you know, every single person has their own needs and that like being able to tweak to those needs regardless of who you are is really valuable.

Tex: Yeah, that’s the big thing is is providing a bunch of sliders and toggles and and options so that it can be tailored to the person because everybody’s different.

GC: Yeah. Very cool. So, one of the last couple ones I have here. So, I know right now Key Fairy is still being developed. The demo is still available. So, everyone like go download it right now and go play it. It’s great. But what else do like what else do players have to look forward to as the game is being developed? Like is there going to be like a demo 2.0 or anything like that or…?

Niosis: We’re currently debating on the 2.0 like we are looking forward to NextFest coming up which will be our next big thing as we get nearer and nearer to a release date announcement. Yeah. So, that’s coming sometime eventually in the future.

Tex: Thich it is the thing that every demo takes time to make that you could otherwise be spending making the full game. And we’re getting quite close to the full game.

GC: Oo, that’s exciting!

Tex: We’ll have to see, keep your eyes peeled.

GC: Excellent. I love a little bit of mystery. Well, perfect. Last thing I have for you all. So with de with all your demo work and all of your game developing, everything, I’m assuming you’ve probably take some time to kind of relax and take a break. Are there any games in particular that you are all enjoying currently? And what stands out to them as far as being kind of your go-to, go-to game?

Tex: What have you been playing, Niosis?

Niosis: Well, I just recently finished all that is currently out for Abiotic Factor, which is a New Zealand game. It’s a lot of fun. It’s like I have never played Half Life, but apparently it’s like Half Life. But like if it was kind of immersive sim cross survival sandbox. And it’s a lot of fun. Good old crunchy gameplay.

GC: Excellent.

Tex: I’ve been playing 100,000 demos from Steam NextFest and the Summer Games Festival. There was so many demos from all of our cool, smart friends.

GC: Boy, ain’t that the truth.

Tex: And they’re very good.

GC: Yeah, very cool. Yeah, I know. Anytime the Steam NextFest comes up, I try to spend a little bit of time and do like try to do some demo recording as well and try to like play a whole bunch of demos and throw it out onto YouTube and tell people like, “Hey, go play these games. They look really good.” Key Fairy is no exception.

Niosis: That’s really nice to hear. Yeah, cuz there’s so much beautiful stuff out there, isn’t there?

Tex: There is.

GC: So much, and not nearly enough time to play and highlight them all. Well, perfect. Anything else either of you two would like to share with our lovely audience before I let you both go?

Niosis: Well, yes, there is actually. So there is this beautiful game that has been receiving absolutely no attention because Tex never mentions it, but Tex just released a game called Pogo Pogo and it’s very cute. And like…

Tex: I cold released a game right after we did the summer games festival with Key Fairy.

Niosis: If you’re looking for a second black and white game to play.

Tex: A much smaller worse game, that’s an option. Also, I’m going to shout out a game so it’s not all on me. I think people should play the demo for Building Relationships because I think it’s amazing. The game where you’re a house going on a date.

GC: Oh, I remember that one. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Tex: It’s really good.

GC: Well, perfect. So again, Niosis, Tex, thank you both so much for taking some time and talking about your game here. I am very look very much looking forward to full release. I’ve been kind of chomping at the bit waiting for some more. I’ve been hanging out in the Discord kind of waiting to see all the news or anything like that from it. So, I’m excited for a possible release date here coming up soon.

Tex: Ooh. Keep your eyes peeled and your ears peeled.

GC: Will do. And for everyone else as well, I will also go ahead and link some of the I’ll link the two blog post that I had mentioned before that Tex had wrote up as far as the accessibility journey and kind of going into more of a deep dive for that as well. A lot of good stuff on there. And again being so open about it like I think it is refreshing kind of seeing that seeing that openness through it as far as like what did that look like going from start to finish ’cause that’s not something that everyone takes the time to do. I think he even mentioned that in the blog post as well. It’s like some people only do it as far as like hey is it worth doing right as far as like a monetary standpoint but it’s not always the point. All righty. Well, we’ll go ahead and call it there. Thank you all so much for joining us here and definitely keep an eye out for any more future interviews, game trailers, and any more game reviews that we’ll have here on GameCritics.com. Tex, Niosis, again, thank you so much for joining me.

Niosis: Thank you so much for having us.

GC: All righty.

The post VIDEO INTERVIEW: Owl Machine On Key Fairy appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The chainsaw leg is as awesome as it sounds.

LOW Awkward control mapping.

WTF Does the tale of Johnny Turbo really need audio logs?

The streets of Turbo Overkill are a juxtaposition of day-glo and detritus as neon signs and hologram palm trees tower over the rainy underbelly of Paradise City — a typical cyberpunk landscape, elevated by a chunky, pixelated aesthetic.

As a first-person shooter with a retro bent, Turbo Overkill puts players in the bladed boots of Johnny Turbo, a cyborg on a quest for revenge. Battling his way through an army of mercs, punks and an evil A.I.,

Loitering is a capital offense in Paradise City, but Johnny isn’t one to dawdle and earns every bit of his surname as he battles through an army of mercs, punks and an evil A.I. Split-second evasion becomes as important as a quick trigger-finger as enemies materialize out of thin air, and players are well equipped with an out-of-the-box double jump and air dash to quickly re-position.

Equally important is the lack of punishment for miscalculated leaps. Plummeting into the abyss during a high-flying fracas results in a quick respawn with zero progress lost — encouragement for increasingly drastic maneuvers.

Most noteworthy however, is Johnny’s chainsaw leg. At any point, players can transition from a sprint into a toothy slide, deploying the chainsaw to quickly carve through weaker opponents. Often enemies will charge in single file, offering perfect opportunities to hurtle through levels in a shower of carnage.

Augments can be purchased to boost firepower, expand player’s movement options, or even gain back health for every enemy mowed down by the chainsaw. Whether in mid-air or zipping up a half-pipe with his chainsaw, Johnny is fully maneuverable and the level design takes full advantage of this. While there’s hardly a bad one in the bunch, the first and third acts hold the most memorable stages.

Of particular note, the hovercar highway in the first act tasks players with navigating airborne traffic. Leaping from car to car, dodging enemy fire and landing headshots where possible is exhilarating and cinematic, all while leaving control firmly in the player’s hands. Another favorite is the late-stage, low gravity battle. With an uncanny contrast of quick dashes and lazy, floating descents, it offers a new spin on Turbo Overkill’s bedrock of movement and speed.

In a larger sense, arenas are open and organic, allowing players to deploy Johnny’s abilities in whichever way they see fit. Jump pads and magnetic walls offer suggestions, but there is no one ‘right’ path through an encounter, and finding my own perfect line through the armada of enemies never ceased to be engaging.

Unfortunately, the joys of traversal are let down somewhat by an inflexible control scheme. There’s only one configuration offered, and it is not remappable.

While I had several problems with the controls, the worst offender is the weapon wheel. Mapped to the left and right D-Pad buttons, switching weapons requires players to take their thumb off the left stick, leaving Johnny motionless on the battlefield. Consequently, I found myself favoring jack-of-all-trades guns such as the SMG and shotgun, rather than exploring more esoteric offerings.

To be fair, I was intrigued by weapons such as the telefragger (a sniper rifle that teleports the player) or the ion cannon, which calls down a giant space laser to decimate foes, but never felt as though I could spare a moment to manage the switch amidst the hectic firefights. While this may seem like a nitpick, movement is paramount in Turbo Overkill, and my experience was marred by the nagging sense that I couldn’t fully engage with the “shooter” part of this first-person shooter.

Technical foibles aside, Turbo Overkill more than earns its place in the pantheon, and frankly, the gimmick of a chainsaw leg alone was probably enough to win me over. That said, the thoughtfully crafted encounters coupled with the creative level layouts buoy Turbo Overkill beyond its simple appearance. Ultimately, the peculiar grace of navigating the violent streets of Paradise City just feels good, and every element of its design reinforces that rock solid core.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

— Ryan Nalley

Disclosures: This game is developed by Trigger Happy Interactive and published by Apogee Entertainment. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5, XBO/X/S and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, and Strong Language. The official summary is as follows: This is a first-person shooter in which players assume the role of a futuristic bounty hunter (Johnny Nitro [sic]) trying to prevent a powerful AI from taking over a city. Players infiltrate building/facilities and use a chainsaw-like weapon, pistols, and electric
shotguns to kill enemies (e.g., cyborgs, street punks). The frenetic run-and-gun combat is accompanied by realistic gunfire, large explosions, and frequent blood-splatter effects. Some attacks result in dismemberment/decapitation, causing bloody chunks to stain/litter the environment. Cutscenes depict additional acts of violence and blood/gore: a cyborg thug’s entrails used as a tool; a first-person view of a character’s hands blown off. The word “f**k” is heard in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles however, while character dialogue is subtitled, audio logs are not subtitled during normal gameplay. Audio logs can later be replayed from a menu offering a transcript. Subtitle size is relatively small and cannot be resized. Typically, dialogue does not overlap with action, but when it did I found it difficult to keep up with the small print during fast gameplay. On-screen indicators highlight which direction the player is being hit from, and a large
on-screen message appears when health is low. I did not experience major issues when playing without sound, but the missing subtitles for audio logs and small print mean this game is not fully accessible.

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

The post Turbo Overkill Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Seamlessly interweaving high art with toilet humor.

LOW Unclear point-and-click limitations.

WTF The protagonist’s matchmaking skills should put him in jail.

How far will someone go to receive their inheritance? Can the promise of millions turn someone from a lowlife into a stand-up guy? And would all that effort be worth it? Death of the Reprobate does its best to answer that question, stringing together an adventure full of misfortune and crass humor animated with a virtual flipbook made from thousands of Renaissance-era paintings.

In the latest entry of Joe Richardson’s artsy point-and-click titles, the plot is simple. The story begins with the tyrannical protagonist Malcolm the Shit administering cruel and unusual punishments to his subjects. Suddenly he finds out his father, Immortal John, is on his deathbed — but the player has no interest in him, just his inheritance.

Upon their meeting, John finds his son so ungrateful and miserable that he commands him to do seven good deeds before he can receive his inheritance. From this point, the rest of the experience asks the player to solve puzzles, talk to chatty NPCs, and travel the painted world of Death of the Reprobate.

As one can tell from just a glance, the main selling point in Death is the art style. Quite literally, every single scene is taken from of an existing Renaissance-era painting and animated to fit in with its characters, which move in a vaguely puppet-like manner.

Death’s gameplay consists of solving problems for the residents of the hamlet where the protagonist’s father is living, which usually involved me finding items and giving them to certain NPCs. These “good deeds” ranged from breaking up a couple to match them with other partners, helping a tired maid turn her well into a hot tub, and scouting for a hunter as he killed the entire population of birds in the area. But, while it’s interesting to see how the art interacts with the puzzling in clever ways, some of the solutions won’t be obvious to average players.

In one example, there’s a small house that contains a father with four screaming children. I had to grab a bucket, put it under a cow, give the cow strawberries, then it excreted “strawberry milkshake” from its behind, after which I gave it to the kids. It’s not like I don’t understand the humor here — because it is objectively very funny — but not in a million years would I think up a solution like that on my own.

This frustration goes hand in hand with the limitations of the point-and-click genre. There are tons of items that Malcolm has to pick up and use in unfamiliar ways, such as putting a pumpkin on top of a chimney to smoke out a conclave of wizards. Even when I did solve a puzzle correctly, I never felt smarter for it — it was more like luck. The player is  allowed open access to hints in the form of a Turkish man smoking a hookah next to the tavern, but using hints made me feel guilty for not giving it my all and toughing it out. That said, it was often a struggle between knowing when I had truly exhausted my options and when I had simply given up too early.

Despite being frustrated at times, those issues were minor compared to the art style and Death of the Reprobate’s other selling point — the humor.

The world “reprobate” is defined in the Calvinist religious tradition as “someone destined for damnation,” and Malcolm embodies this in almost all of his interactions. He tries to help the people out of the predicaments that they’re in so he’ll contribute to his good deed count, but he ultimately knows that no amount of goodwill he gives will help. These caricatures are so comically abhorrent and stuck-up it’s hard not to laugh with most dialogue options. For example, Malcolm tries to play matchmaker with the men in the town and his client is so picky that she chooses her ex. Another is when a dad fakes a fishing trip with his kids with Malcolm’s help, only to have his kids call him a deadbeat (among other things.)

Those were just two examples, but every character is just a testament to how strong the writing in Death of the Reprobate is. Richardson somehow interweaves physical comedy, dumb gimmicks, and clever wordplay together to create an intricate (and crass) world full of weirdos. This perspective seems to suggest that while the Renaissance was a time full of artistic revival and scientific ingenuity, people were also really stupid and gross.

Death of the Reprobate offers both artistic complexity and simple humor. It’s a journey full of laughs, jeers, and disgust — and at the end of the day, isn’t that all someone could want from a trip to an art museum?

Rating: 7 out of 10

— Jack Dunn

Disclosures: This game was developed and published by Joe Richardson. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PC. Approximately 3 hours of play was devoted to the game. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game has not been rated by the ESRB, but it contains Nudity, Blood and Gore, Violence, and Strong Language. This is not a game for kids.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available for this game.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are no audio cues that will affect gameplay, as the game is entirely text-based. The subtitles cannot be resized. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The game’s controls are not remappable, as it only uses a mouse in the point-and-click style of play. There is no controller map.

The post Death Of The Reprobate Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

In 2009, my future wife (then girlfriend) got me the best present I had ever received – a PS3. I did not deserve this present. I was a 30-year-old man who was a walking collection of red flags. My shelves were milkcrates. I had recently gotten out of a long-term relationship. My employment history was heavy on “barista” and “dog walker” and light on “jobs that provide health insurance and lead to lucrative careers.”

Dragon Age: Origins had just come out. Having grown up on Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, I was a bit of a lapsed gamer but occasionally checked in on the medium from afar. I lacked a computer or a console at the time but the gift of a PS3 solved the problem, and before I knew it, my girlfriend and I were playing Origins over the holiday break. My idle curiosity transformed into deep obsession.

When Dragon Age II released in 2011, the pivot to more action-focused gameplay irritated me, initially. Despite two years as a console gamer, I had yet to truly embrace twitchy titles, but DAII won me over despite its gameplay, mechanics, and obviously rushed state. In fact, the most compelling things about DAII were its inner contradictions. There was the game it wanted to be, and then there was the game it was. The inspirations of the series were still being worn on its shoulders, even when the work itself seemed to have different goals.

The big epic adventure of Origins had given away to a smaller, personal story about a refugee and his merry little band of bisexual weirdos. I loved it, and these internal tensions made it infinitely more compelling than its predecessor. Despite some egregious plot and story choices (why is every mage a secret blood mage who turns into a demon even though the text clearly wants to recognize mages as normal, decent humans?), Dragon Age II is easily my favorite in the series.

As we come into the era of The Veilguard, I can’t help but notice the discourse – the myriad of reactions to the trailer and a completely different set of reactions to the gameplay demo. The “Baldur’s Gate 3 is what I wanted from Dragon Age 4” hot takes giving way to the “Hah, you never REALLY liked Dragon Age at all if you wanted Baldur’s Gate 3 to be Dragon Age 4” backlash felt so… scripted. We’ve seen this
before. We see it a lot. This is what fandoms do now.

Ten years of expectations — bottled up and suddenly spilling out. Ten years of nostalgia to file off the sharp edges and smudge Vaseline on our memories. Plus, just for kicks, ten more years of videogames (and entertainment writ large) culture trying desperately to make products out of art.
 
What we expect from our art and entertainment says a lot about us, but how we react to our expectations not being met says even more. I would argue that expecting a toaster to toast bread is reasonable, but expecting a creative work to cater to your every specific desire and preference is not. Getting profoundly mad about either isn’t great behavior, but I have more space for folks who are angry at the toaster not working.

Keep in mind, there’s a lot of potential joy in art and creative works not giving you what you want. Some of my favorite moments as an audience member in a theater or as a videogame player on my couch have come from having to sort through my feelings about what I was experiencing. The toxicity we see in gaming from (ostensible) fans is based in a narcissistic impulse — people getting angry at even the slightest perception that something might, in fact, not just be for them. This is why the Worst People You See Online are yelling about jawlines or whining about Rook’s merry band being composed entirely of pansexuals.

This is why we can’t have nice things!

Of course, I’m not saying all preferences are bad or that all discourse is useless. Preferences are fine and good! Talking about things is healthy.

If you go to a horror movie to be scared and the movie doesn’t scare you, it’s normal to have feelings about that. Talking about it with other folks might help you better understand what the movie was doing and engage your brain in a healthy fashion, even if you end up, ultimately, still not liking that flick. It’s also okay to have a general preference for an idea or mechanic, absent any specific context. I like turn-based combat. Dragon Age has never had that, but I tend to enjoy it! With that said, having preferences and discussing them is a far cry from the kind of toxicity we’ve now grown used to seeing on the reg.

Algorithms have spent years conditioning us by rewarding anger and outrageous behavior, and an abundance of right-wing reactionaries are desperately trying to control art and culture – areas they have historically failed at influencing because they’re more interested in the politics of grievance than noticing and processing things that might be beyond their own personal experience.

Another driver of toxicity is that the horrors of the world are overwhelming right now. It’s almost too big to wrap our feelings around, so, instead, we feel very deeply about things that are easier to hold in our heads — like a videogame franchise. Throw in the collective trauma of a global pandemic and huge problems coming on the horizon, and we’ve got ourselves a nice little despair stew. It makes total sense that, amid all of this, feelings of people losing ‘control’ over their favorite series would be weaponized.

I don’t think any one way to be or any one set of actions can solve the problem of gamer toxicity, because the toxicity of fandoms is a symptom of larger cultural forces that require a myriad of solutions to overcome. But I do know that, as an individual, I can acknowledge my own specific set of expectations and preferences.

I’m going in to Veilguard open and graciously ready to receive whatever the creative team has put together, no matter how I ultimately end up feeling about it. Frankly, if it upends my expectations and challenges my preferences, that’s probably a positive sign. I’ve enjoyed plenty of things that were exactly what I wanted them to be, but I’ve only ever been transformed when I’ve been pushed out of my comfort zone and I let go of my expectations.

This openness is key because art’s ability to make unseen things – new ideas, new perspectives – accessible is one of the greatest things about it, but we aren’t going to see any of it if we’re busy yelling that things are ‘different’ than what we got last time. We need to be strong enough to actually look, which is hard to do since we live in a terminally-online society that rewards being fragile, closing your eyes, and doubling down on rage.

Change is scary, but it’s also inevitable. Maybe that’s the disconnect. This resistance to change – this nostalgia – is a trick we play on ourselves to say, wasn’t there a time when things were fine? And wouldn’t we rather go back to that time instead of wrestling with the horrible things happening right now?

Sometimes I think about what I’ll be nostalgic for from this era. I can easily imagine taking a swig from my last container of water during triple-digit Fahrenheit temperatures and desperately wanting to relive that quaint, cool summer of 2024 when temperatures were mostly 80s and 90s, I played the Elden Ring DLC and got excited about Veilguard.

Hopefully, it will be a pleasant sort of nostalgia, not one that drives me to post rant after rant online, but something to keep in mind is that too many fandoms today are prone to unhealthy engagement, and our society is too broken to fix it easily. All we can do, as individuals, is to love loving things and practice being open to the new. A healthier relationship with art could translate to a healthier society because it means understanding who we are and what we want, and also being ready for the inevitable change that’s coming next, whatever it is.

The Veilguard could be a return to form for BioWare. It could be the elegant swan song of the creative team that made it and then got unceremoniously laid off. It could be the best Dragon Age game yet. It could also be a total mess that doesn’t work. Critically, it could be all of those things at once.

…And who knows? Maybe engaging with it will be good practice for approaching the things that actually impact the material conditions of people in our society. Here’s to hoping.

— Rich Lovejoy

The post The Toxicity Of Modern Fandoms: The Veilguard appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Great plot, excellent pace, strong ambiance.

LOW Too short and lacks depth in exploring its themes and artwork.

WTF The crawling painting ladies.

Ib (2023) is a remake of the original made with RPG Maker in 2012.

Those who were into indies at that time know that RPG Maker was the preferred tool for amateurs creators, and it’s an incredible tool for that purpose. It’s simple to learn and use, has a wide variety of objects to build a game with, and the results are easy to publish.

However, despite its capabilities, the tool tended to make homogeneous-seeming products due to the lack of graphic and formula options. After all, it wasn’t a suite for professionals, and with the relatively limited content within, it’s not easy to make a unique experience. However, if we looked hard enough, we could find some special gems – things like Yume Nikki, Omori, or… Ib.

Ib is a young girl that visits an art gallery with her parents. No further explanation is given to us at the beginning, nor it is needed. The scene is established, and we start by quickly exploring the gallery, talking with other visitors and observing the artwork.

The exhibition is about an artist called Guertena. We know virtually nothing about him, but judging by the work, we quickly realize he’s an artist with somewhat whimsical tastes. As we explore further, we reach the top floor, which contains a giant painting. At this point, the lights go dim and weird things start to happen, including the disappearance of all visitors.

In classic Alice in Wonderland style, Ib is teleported into a kind of parallel universe – it’s a dark version of the gallery, and the adventure unfolds as we delve deeper and unveil the mysteries of Guertena’s art.

The world takes the form of a spooky labyrinth decorated with paintings and sculptures. However, the game is linear, so we hardly ever get lost – which is a pity! We interact with the art, and some of it activates scary moments and leads us to solve puzzles. At this point it’s a straightforward progression of completing a puzzle to go on to the next one, which will then take us to another one, and so on.

The puzzles aren’t very complicated. Basically, we need to look for things that stand out in the environment and pay attention to the labels on art. It’s easy but not boring – simple, but with a good pace of exploration. In fact, its simplicity keeps us interested and moving forward while learning more about what’s going on.

Another aspect that keeps us moving forward is the plot. Although not original, it was well-matched to Ib‘s concept. I won’t reveal too much because the plot is the most important element of this experience, but I must congratulate the creator of Ib for not reducing the game to being another cliché horror story. In an implicit way, Ib touches on sensitive topics, and through puzzle after puzzle we are confronted with themes that, in one way or another, are related to our protagonist’s journey and the anxieties of being a teenager.

While themes like childhood innocence, loneliness, fear, jealousy, family, and sanity are explored, I think Ib missed an opportunity to go deeper to better convey what was going on in the plot. For a game whose setting is an art gallery, it’s surprising that the paintings and sculptures are often out of step with what’s going on – in a way, it feels that the art isn’t the point, despite being so core to the concept. Plus, I do think an opportunity was missed by not using real works of art as inspiration. Throughout the entire game, I could only identify two or three paintings inspired by, maybe, Van Gogh and Dalí.

One of the main objectives of play in Ib is to collect works of art. There are 150 pieces to collect, and to see all of them it’s probably necessary to play the game more than once. As such, replayability is not a problem, because the story is short (each playthrough is about an hour) and has multiple endings. I’d say that it’s worth seeing each one.

It’s true that Ib lacks depth when exploring its themes and I did think that a longer campaign might afford it that opportunity. Perhaps this Switch remake will galvanize its popularity and create an opportunity for the developer to create a more expansive and ambitious iteration. However, as it stands I’d still recommend Ib to anyone interested in the concept, or to those looking for a short, but still meaningful game to decompress with.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by kouri and published by PLAYISM. It is currently available on Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on Switch. Approximately 6 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 Fantasy Violence, Use of Tobacco, and Mild Blood. There are scenes of stabbings, murders, and blood. In addition, there are themes that can be difficult for children to understand, probably leaving them disturbed. keep this one to teens and up.

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. The game can be played without audio. The only audio this game makes is the soundtrack and the environment sounds. Although the game is based on puzzles, there are no sound cues needed to solve them. In my view, the game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. This game doesn’t have a controller map diagram but offers a display with control icons in the upper left corner. The controls are very simple. Movement is on the left stick. Interact with the objects in the map is A. Access the menu and inventory is B. Talk to your companions is X. Zoom in is Y.

The post Ib (Switch) Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

About the Project

The Yusephinum Project is a multimedia installation project that tells the origin story of a protagonist named Nym, who awakens to find himself within a bizarre new dimension.

This project is the first installation of a larger collection of projects that are slated to be released in sequence. Future installations will tell the story of Nym meeting various iterations of himself, who are scattered throughout a multitude of dimensions. These iterations span the spectrum of race, gender and sexual orientation. They are a metaphor for the multiplicity of the self, and explore the complexity of identity and self expression. The story culminates in the genesis of an eclectic troupe. In a broad sense, this project aims to provide representation for queer/AAPI/POC people in fantasy.

This event is a gallery exhibit that will take place at Cornish College of the Arts’ 9th Avenue Gallery, and use multimedia illustration, original music, and lighting to bring the world of Yusephinum into our dimension. This installation is meant to be a full sensory experience with ten large illustrations set on lightboxes throughout the gallery space. These illustrations will depict Nym’s first steps into the world of Yusephinum. Lighting will be used to emulate the environment,  and music will provide atmosphere. We want the people attending this event to feel as though they were walking through the level of a video game. The hallmark feature of our installation is the marriage of photography and illustration to create a sense of heightened reality that is so common in video games. This, paired with a cohesive ambience provided by intricate lighting and music, makes our exhibit unique and innovative both artistically and technically. This first installation also serves as the launch of our collective, Yusephinum LLC.

About Us

Founded by Richard Peacock and CK Ong, Yusephinum LLC is a Queer/POC/AAPI artist collective with a proclivity for video and music production, video game scenario writing, and photography. We are dedicated to the representation of marginalized communities in the realms of fantasy and video game media. Our mission is to breathe life into evocative characters who are nuanced, dimensional, and so much more than any single aspect of their identity. We want to inspire folks within Queer/POC/AAPI spaces to use their own artistic and creative voices, and to act as a beacon for other marginalized artists who’s intentions align with ours. Collaboration is the cornerstone of our collective. By building a dynamic team with a diverse skill set we are able to produce interdisciplinary projects that are visually captivating and narratively compelling. Each artist who has joined our collective feels like a new party member joining our quest to shift the paradigm of representation in video game media by creating new and diverse archetypes.

Our intention is to create worlds and stories that feature characters who have historically remained underrepresented, or grossly stereotyped both in role playing video games and in the genre of fantasy as a whole. Queer and color representation lie at the forefront of our collective’s work. Our mission is to breathe life into evocative characters who are nuanced and dimensional, and are much more than any single aspect of their identity. We want to inspire folks within queer/POC/AAPI spaces to use their own artistic and creative voices, and to act as a beacon for other marginalized artists who’s intentions align with ours. A dynamic team with a diverse skill set enables our collective to produce interdisciplinary projects that are visually captivating and narratively compelling. Each artist who joins our collective feels like a new party member joining our quest to shift the paradigm of representation in video game media.

We firmly believe in our mission to produce work that celebrates and features characters that challenge the current norm of what sort of character gets to be at the helm of a video game narrative.

— The Yusephinum Project

The post Press Release: The Yusephinum Project appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

The subject of this installment: CLT, developed and published by notagamestudio.

CLT is a game about the experience of sex and masturbation from a female perspective.

The art style features images clearly reminiscent of female genitalia, but in an expressive, ‘abstract art’ vein, similar to in resemblance to a Rorschach test’s famous inkblots.

The gameplay mostly consists of clicking on tarot cards, choosing between two at a time, and trying to select cards that haven’t been clicked yet. That is how we… reach “a climax”.

Each new card contains a very small piece of narrative. They’re usually based on masturbation or a sexual encounter of some kind, featuring enough details to paint the picture while keeping it all very vague and not explicit. In one situation the woman searches for a safe place to masturbate, while in another she takes part in an orgy.

While the experience can be interesting, the cards all come “censored”, with letters removed. It’s a choice that left me scratching my head — I suspect it will only cause confusion in players and also might exacerbate difficulty with dyslexia. It was troublesome and I sometimes had to pause to understand what each word meant. For example, a phrase might read “I’m sore byt I can’t step. I need another yrgesm“.

According to the devs, this text choice was done to avoid being censored as “a protest against the idea that games are meant to be nothing more than infantilized escapism”, but will probably end up hurting the users who might have difficulty with decoding the message, rather sending any kind of statement to the storefronts that might sell it.

While CLT isn’t pornographic or explicit, the aesthetics are vaguely discomforting — I don’t know if it’s meant to be taken as a statement against the act of masturbation or what this style might be trying to say otherwise, but everything is painted in abstract shades of red. It reminds me of blood? In terms of audio, music pulses and drones in the background, other sounds are distorted. The developers want us to know this is not an erotic game and I agree with that — it comes off like something closer to horror, really.

CLT is a very strange, minimally-interactive experience that might be best recommended to those interested in the weirder, more experimental side of gaming. As non-erotic game about sexuality I think it misses the mark, since I feel aspects of the interface will end up frustrating some, and it also might be too detached for others — and neither of these feelings are what I would associate with sexuality.

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HIGH Fascinating concept. Making progress is rewarding.

LOW Basic functions aren’t explained. 

WTF The mushroom dreams…

In The Longing, the king of the underworld is exhausted, and must slumber for 400 days to gather his strength.

As there are no alarm clocks below ground, the king creates a shade for the sole purpose of waking him up at the end of his extended nap. What this slight, beaky goblin with spindly limbs and a few crooked teeth does between the time of its creation and the time of its appointed duty is entirely up to the player, but mostly? They’re just killing time.

The Longing’s concept of ‘waiting’ as a primary play mechanic is an interesting prospect, and it’s made even more interesting by the fact that those 400 days are measured in real time — actual, real-world days.

Also unusual? The shade’s snail-like walking speed can only be described as ‘torturous’ and it has no map to consult if it loses its way in the mazelike halls of the underground. It also has no way of interacting with its 2D world other than the most basic actions, like picking things up off the ground or opening doors. There are no physics, no real inventory, no combat or crafting… The king didn’t create a world full of distraction and whimsy to keep the shade occupied, and first impressions are that these 400 days are going to be impossibly boring.  

On every level and in every aspect, The Longing is a challenging experience. It’s glacial, frustrating, and oblique. It’s not clear what there is to do or where to go, and the narrative is as hesitant to accommodate players as the rest.

While this might sound like a miserable experience, I found The Longing to be something that I couldn’t stay away from. While I only played it for a few minutes each day, I always came back to see what more I could unravel.

Early on, I came to a cliff that had a valuable item at the bottom. I knew I couldn’t survive the drop, but I noticed there was a small patch of moss growing beneath. “That moss might be big enough to cushion my fall in two weeks” is what the shade said when I spotted it, and when I came back in fourteen real-time days, I landed softly.

Other areas demanded a similar level of patience — a pool that’s too shallow to swim across will eventually be filled by a slow trickle coming from above, one drop at a time. A stalactite will fall and the crumbled stone will create a chasm-spanning bridge at some point in the future, once gravity wins that struggle.

The waiting required to get anything done in The Longing almost sounds like a sick joke, but the knowledge that things will happen over time — and time is the only thing the shade has — gives an inevitable sort of reassurance that feels unlike any other game I can think of. However, it’s important to call out the fact that there are some allowances that make playing The Longing possible without incurring insanity.  

The most relevant is that the game can be closed at any time and the shade will either wait in place or continue any simple task that the player assigns it. For example, at one point I wanted to use a pickax to dig a tunnel that might lead to a new area, but the shade warned me that it would take a long time.

Instead of staring at the screen and watching its toil, I started the digging, closed the game, and came back the next day to find a completed passage. In this way the player can sustain incremental progress without actually being present, and it’s a smart addition since The Longing would be unbearable without it.  

At this point, readers might be wondering what the use of all this is, since waiting isn’t a high-value selling point. To this I’ll say that when the shade finally finds a special item or discovers a new area after a long span of tedium, it feels amazing.

For example, I had a few sheets of paper but nothing to do with them. After a week or two of exploration, I came across a piece of colored chalk that the shade could use to scribble, and it was like a gift from the heavens. In this underground world, it is absolutely the little things that matter, and even tiny wins feel huge.

After time spent poking in dark corners, finding items and discovering new things, unexpected layers of The Longing are revealed. Some were quite satisfying, and others, not so much.

I won’t spoil anything here, but The Longing hints at things which are possible if players are diligent enough (or if they do a quick google search…) but I found that the deepest secrets were disappointing — not only were they extremely unintuitive, they didn’t feel organically integrated into the shade’s story. Rather, they felt like they were added simply so the game could say that it had secrets.

It’s also disappointing to find that even when striving for every possible objective, there’s just not enough to do — by the time I had done nearly everything, I still had more than 300 days left to wait. At this point I simply put the game aside and checked on it periodically, but it would have been great to have more things to work towards that took the extremely long-term nature of the experience into account. The Longing ran out of content way, way too soon and there’s a huge difference between the sweet anticipation of waiting for a special thing to happen and simply waiting for the clock to run out.

I’ll also say that The Longing isn’t clear about basic functions like how the right stick works, or how the shade can ‘remember’ specific locations that it might want to return to later. There’s also an in-game ‘quest log’ of sorts that players might not realize is there, and it can be tough remembering what to do without it, since it’s common to forget what’s going on after spending some time away. And, even when a clue is remembered, the shade moves so slowly that it’s nearly impossible to check something or try something iteratively without huge spans of wait time between attempts.

At this point it probably sounds like playing The Longing was torture, but that’s really not the case. Being forced to exercise patience was enigmatically compelling, and I was determined to endure and see the shade through to the end. The lonely, meditative mood of the underworld is excellent, the sense of accomplishment when something is achieved is immense, and the very concept is unlike anything else that comes to mind.

For these reasons alone, this title is recommended to players looking for extreme experiences on the edge of game design, but they should leave expectations at the door and be ready to let the shade complete its work, all in its own sweet time.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Studio Seufz and published by Ashgames. It is currently available on PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 3.5 months 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 E10+ and contains Alcohol and Tobacco Reference, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, and Violent References. These descriptors may seem shocking for an E-rated title, but the game itself is utterly harmless (and honestly, no child is going to have the wherewithal to get through it anyway!) The rel reason for the warnings is that the game includes several public domain books (yes, COMPLETE books) such as Moby Dick, The Secret Garden, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and more.

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played the entire game on mute and thought I was doing fine until I looked at a walkthrough and discovered that some secrets are based solely on audio with no visual cue. It’s possible to finish the game normally with no sound, but players who can’t hear will miss out on some hidden things. Text is not resizable or able to be altered in any way — see examples above. Not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. There is no control diagram.

The post The Longing Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Fantastic visuals, great sense of humor.

LOW The puzzles near the end are too difficult compared to the rest.

WTF Wall safes aren’t generally unlocked with keys.

Humor in games is a delicate, difficult thing. Very few titles manage to pull it off successfully, and too many to count have tried and failed. Going for laughs in the interactive space is risky not only because the jokes may bomb for any number of reasons — timing, localization, wrong audience — but because poor humor can actually ruin the entire project. Regardless of how clever the puzzles are or how tight the platforming is, the irritation that comes from bad comedy sours the rest. But when it succeeds? It’s fantastic.

One key to successful humor in games is doing the unexpected. Avoiding low-hanging fruit, not going for the most obvious gags and offering something other than well-worn material that dozens of other games have attempted in the past are all key. The Procession to Calvary from solo developer Joe Richardson checks all of these boxes, and succeeds because of it.

The Procession to Calvary is a point-and-click adventure at its core, but the presentation is what makes it immediately noteworthy. Rather than traditional graphics, Richardson takes images from classic Renaissance art and repurposes them in strange, new tableau that approximates the sort of chaotic, madcap visual style popularized by Monty Python. Characters are posed (mostly) appropriately, but their relative sizes vary, their faces were originally looking at things that have now been cropped out, and there are many situations staged for the sheer absurdity of it. One of my favorites was a person being tortured on top of a wheel, and then that wheel later being used to repair a wagon with the prisoner still on it! Completely ludicrous, and absolutely hilarious.

The writing is also as sharp as the visuals. The basic premise is that the subject of Rembrandt’s Bellona is after the head of an enemy ruler, and she’ll do whatever it takes to get it. The script goes back and forth between quick jabs and long-winded treatises on what can easily be seen as the modern state of affairs, and both hit their marks. The lament of a sad songwriter was perhaps a bit too real and the joke that comes of bribing a church official is incredibly dark, but both of these (and others) skirt their lines perfectly.

In terms of mechanics, Calvary was clearly designed with a mouse in mind, but it functions smoothly with the Xbox control pad and the quality of the puzzles are quite good for almost the entire game. They are certainly of the ‘find item and use item on problem’ variety, but the number of areas to scour for interactive hot spots is mostly manageable and solutions are ‘humorously logical’. However, things fell apart near at the end when the puzzles suddenly became multi-step, multi-location affairs that had to be done in a specific order while relying on knowledge of Renaissance paintings for clues. It was disappointing to get stuck after the ride had been so agreeable up to that point, especially since the ostensible point of playing Calvary is to laugh, not chew on difficult brain-teasers.

The one saving grace to this misstep (not counting online walkthroughs) is that Calvary allows the player to draw their sword at any time and kill anyone standing in their way. This ‘direct’ path through the adventure might not lead our heroine to the ending she wants, but I absolutely adore that the option exists. Whether the player chooses the sword or their words, the adventure never overstays its welcome thanks to a short (but appropriate) running time that rolls credits before the jokes stop being funny.

The Procession to Calvary is a gem. It’s wild, smart, incredibly unconventional romp, and it’s new experiences like this that give me life as a reviewer. I’m very glad to have played it.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Joe Richardson and published by Digerati. It is currently available on PC, XBO/X/S and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately three 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 Intense Violence, Blood, Sexual Themes, and Language. The game can be surprisingly gory, though it’s done in a tongue-in-cheek way and not for horror or shock value. Pedophilia comes up a number of times, and there is some classically-themed nudity in parts. The dialogue is obviously aimed at adults, as well. The rating here is definitely appropriate.

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue comes via text and the font is not able to be resized or altered in any way. (See examples above.) There are no audio cues needed for gameplay. This title is fully accessible.

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

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