HIGH Stellar worldbuilding, story and voice acting.

LOW The gameplay has not aged well.

WTF Why are there so many block pushing puzzles?!?

25 years ago, a game was brought forth that felt so far ahead of its time, it was almost unbelievable. 

Serving as a spinoff and sequel to the incredibly dark isometric RPG Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the aptly named Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver introduced players to a new anti-hero named Raziel, as well as graphics in the third dimension and polygonal art. 

It also featured a deeply intelligent story about the nature of good and evil, personal choice, revenge, and sacrifice while also allowing players to explore an open world to face challenges as they chose. It was amazing. 

For those unfamiliar, Raziel is a vampire in thrall to Kain, the supreme vampire who destroyed the world in Blood Omen. By daring to surpass his lord in terms of vampiric evolution, Raziel raises Kain’s ire and is hurled into a pit to suffer eternal damnation.  Raziel is then saved by a mysterious force and given the ability to subsist on souls rather than blood, and charged with vanquishing Kain and all of his minions –a task he readily accepts. Throughout the journey, Raziel is forced to reckon with his own purpose, weighing what it means to be a reluctant savior. Sharp dialog and clever writing make this tale stand out in the annals of game writing.

For 25 years, Soul Reaver and its sequel Soul Reaver 2 have lain dormant.  Aspyr has now taken up the mantle to bring these classics back from the un-dead with gorgeous new character models, quality-of-life controller improvements, and access to previously-unreleased features.  Unfortunately, 25 years is an eternity in videogame terms, and despite being remastered, these originals have not aged well.

I want to start with the good, because there is a lot of good to be found. 

First, in the name of preservation efforts, it’s wonderful to have access to these titles again on modern systems.  Hearing Michael Bell voice Raziel after so long was a wonderful present to receive in these dark times. 

The new character models — especially for Raziel and his nemesis Kain — instill them with new life thanks to added details like the folds of Raziel’s cloak, or the scars on Kain’s body. It’s great stuff. 

The ability to flip back and forth between new and classic graphics with the press of a button is a nice feature, and I’m glad Aspyr took the time to include it. 

…If only playing the Soul Reaver titles were as mesmerizing as enjoying the upgrades and watching the story unfold. 

Raziel is handled from a third-person perspective as they explore the ruined land of Nosgoth.  Raziel can go back and forth between physical and spirit form at-will, and doing so changes the landscape around him — a trick that aids in navigation and puzzle solving.  For example, an unreachable ledge in the physical realm might warp and shift location to become accessible while Raziel is a spirit, and so forth.

Unfortunately, while this is still a solid idea, it’s quite rough by today’s standards. In one section I spent 30 minutes unsuccessfully trying to climb the same structure, as Raziel needed to be in the exact right spot for the jump. The climb animation wouldn’t register otherwise, causing me to fall from a jump that I should have easily cleared, leading me to start the entire process over again. 

Frustrated, I quit only to find on my next playthrough that saving doesn’t start me exactly where I left off, but back at the beginning of the game.  Granted, I kept all the abilities I’d unlocked, but such design is almost like a bad joke these days. 

During a puzzle sequence I was required to move blocks from one location to another, but the game refused to accept the correct input to properly move the block.  I struggled with it for ages, eventually assumed I wasn’t pursuing wasn’t the correct solution, and then wasted even more time trying various other ways to solve the problem.  I finally gave up and watched a walkthrough only to see that I had the solution correct the first time, I was just slightly out of position and the right animation never triggered.  Feeling vindicated but annoyed, I pressed on and encountered several more finicky block puzzles in a row, followed by a puzzle that gave no clues as to its solution.

At this point, I had reached my limit with Soul Reaver and moved on to Soul Reaver 2.

Soul Reaver 2 is more combat-forward than its predecessor, with a greater number of weapons and animations, but Raziel’s power is so limited that it’s unsatisfying to play — combat lacks any weight as enemies barely react when struck. 

The ‘open’ world also causes irritation by having too many paths constantly gated.  Raziel often needs specific abilities such as phasing through solid objects or survival underwater to progress, so players are forced to progress on a linear path, but that path is presented in a nonlinear manner, leading to backtracking and frustration. 

To its credit, Soul Reaver 2 has a slightly better save system, but the lack of navigational aids still leads to so, so much backtracking and aimless searching for the correct way forward. 

Honestly, I’m glad The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered exists.  I know longtime fans will rejoice at playing on newer hardware and the story is still to be relished. I am truly hopeful that this reappearance will entice a new generation of fans and perhaps inspire the creation of a true finale for the series overall.  As for me, I’ll be content with my memories of playing these games new, as I find them too frustrating on multiple levels to genuinely embrace them today.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Aspyr and Crystal Dynamics and published by Aspyr.It is currently available on XBO/X, PS4/5, Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 9 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Violence. This is a collection of two adventure games in which players follow a banished vampire on a quest for vengeance against his former master. From a third-person perspective, players traverse a fantasy realm to battle vampires, evil spirits, and human vampire hunters. Players use claw strikes, swords, and spears to impale and decapitate enemies in frenetic combat. Enemies emit large splatters of blood when killed. A handful of areas depict impaled bodies and heads on spikes; one cutscene depicts a vampire hunter ripping out a character’s heart.

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. All dialogue is fully subtitled.  All audio cues have a visual marker as well.  The game is fully accessible.

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

The post Legacy Of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Plenty of blood and bullets.

LOW Three thousand years of slumber and apparently, exposition.

WTF They fly now? They fly now.

In the recent trend of vampire-themed games, EvilVEvil is the most recent to try and take a stab at it.

Developed by Toadman Interactive, EvilVEvil is a first-person real-time action shooter to be played with up to three others. The game follows a small group of recently-awakened vampires fighting against a ‘Cult’ led by the mysterious Zagreus. Players will choose one of three awakened vampires to control as they shoot through waves of the cult and the undead.

As of now the story is unfinished, hosting eleven levels with a variety of different maps and objectives slowly revealing information surrounding the cult’s plans.

To start with, making EvilVEvil a turn-your-brain-off style shooter was a great choice. I found myself easily entertained at the most basic level, shooting large waves of enemies and watching my score go up. This is where EvilVEvil excels, offering mindless and satisfying bloodshed.

Each character available has a unique selection of guns and skills to use which adds much-needed variety to the gameplay. For instance, Victoria utilizes smaller firearms such as her pistol or SMG, and her abilities include a dash and a shadow summon that can take out a few enemies for you. On the other hand, the a different character may use a teleport, a slam attack or larger guns to take out waves. The main takeaway is that the three characters have distinct playstyles to offer variety and replayability.

On top of having these abilities to play with, EvilVEvil also introduces a few additional mechanics.

Now a staple of the shooter genre, perks and weapon mods can be unlocked as players progress. As a vampire uses their weapons to shred through waves of enemy cult members, they retain a final score that goes towards unlocking character perks and weapon modifications. Unfortunately, this is where EvilVEvil falters in part, especially when considering the score system.

As I was playing alongside friends, the scores were wildly different and seemingly arbitrary. One person would suddenly receive ten thousand points for opening a door, or on one occasion after I activated an objective, it gave another player points instead of me. This led to situations where after a level we would have a huge disparity between points, meaning one player was randomly behind on leveling perks and mods — it felt strange and broken.

Another of these mechanics which added some variety despite messy execution was the ‘feeding’. For a player to heal in EvilVEvil, players need to find one unsuspecting victim of the cult and feed from their blood — undead enemies won’t do.

At first this was great. As a vampire, I expect to be able to suck the blood from someone to gain some benefit or vitality. In this case, a bonus to shooting speed alongside regenerating some health would be a great incentive… if it wasn’t buggy and inconsistent. There were multiple moments where I would grab onto an enemy and either not receive health, or the animation would just cancel. With this being buggy and the only way to heal, it made playing at higher difficulties frustrating, rather than challenging.

Speaking of EvilVEvil lacking polish, let’s move on to the story and the missions available.

Now I’m not going to lie, the story here is simple with cliches aplenty. This would be fine usually — titles like DOOM and Left 4 Dead 2 thrive on mowing down waves of enemies and only offer story as a background feature, with a few bits here and there pointing to a wider narrative. With EvilVEvil, there’s almost no space to enjoy the carnage before the narrator is in one’s ear revealing the tenth hidden plot point that honestly I didn’t care about. Overall, it’s too much exposition and explaining which just adds to the narrative confusion, rather than offering any clarity on the story at large.

Besides this weak plot, the scope of content also suffers hugely. The maps are unique and well-crafted such as?, but hardly any of them are shown off to the extent they should be. Players are forced from point A to point B with repetitive objectives, and there are few instances where a dramatic ‘stand and fight’ moment happens. With the current story only being eleven levels, easily finished in a few hours with no end boss fight, it doesn’t feel complete or rounded — as if the scope of the game was misjudged entirely during production.

Despite these faults, EvilVEvil shows potential. I found myself going through all of the levels back to back while enjoying the mindless carnage it had to offer. If the devs were to pivot, scrapping the overcomplicated plot and instead focusing on polishing all aspects of the gameplay, the entire experience would be better for it. In its current state, with just a short selection of levels that take a couple of hours to complete while not being fully optimized? EvilVEvil‘s fangs aren’t as sharp as they should be.

Rating: 6 out of 10

— Tom Porter

Disclosures: This game is developed and produced by Toadman Interactive. It is currently available on XBX/S, PS5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 3 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. Four hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB. The game includes extreme violence with the use of guns and bloody violence. There are also monsters including demonic imagery and these may frighten younger audiences.

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. All voice lines in the game are given subtitles at the side of the screen. Without sound there are very few limitations, as objectives are very clearly given visually. There are no issues with fighting or gameplay with a lack of sound here. It’s fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls. This game does not offer a controller map diagram, but movement is on WASD. Left Click to fire, Right Click to aim. Q is a movement ability, E is a damage ability. Interact is F and Jump is on Space.

The post EvilVEvil Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A riveting supernatural story with a legendary legacy.

LOW What do you mean the other half is still in production?!

WTF The tonal shifts when encountering a bad ending and reading the cast commenting on your failures.

Frankly speaking, the mere thought of being able to draft a review of the official English-language international release of Tsukihime feels unreal. For nearly 24 years, it seemed like Type-Moon’s legendary visual novel would forever be Japan-exclusive, never to appear in English without the help of fan translations — but it’s here now, and all is well.

To be accurate, the subject of this review is not, strictly speaking, the Tsukihime that I first played a fan translation of in high school. Instead, I’m reviewing Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon-, a remake developed by Type-Moon and released in Japan in 2021. It features a fully rewritten story and new original art from Type-Moon co-founders Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi.

Though the story has been rewritten, the core premise hasn’t changed. As before, the narrative is told almost entirely in the first person, experienced through the very special eyes of Shiki Tohno, a young high school student.

Shiki possesses the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, causing him to see supernatural “lines” drawn all over everything around him. Cutting along those lines instantly kills almost anything… or anyone, unless Shiki wears a pair of special magical glasses that hide the lines from his sight. After years living in exile away from his aristocratic family, Shiki is called back to the massive Tohno mansion following the death of his father. A shockingly violent encounter with a mysterious, beautiful woman named Arcueid kicks off the story proper, drawing Shiki deeper into a mystical world that lies just beneath the surface of the urban ordinary. It’s a world where vampires war in the city streets under cover of night, all the while dodging monster hunters empowered by the church itself, and where seemingly anyone, from the family doctor to one’s own classmates, might be hiding some kind of supernatural secret.

Adventure stories with a horror twist aren’t new, but it’s notable that Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- is also, at its core, a romance.

Alongside the vividly rendered passages describing magical battles and vampire hunts are meet-cutes straight out of a romantic comedy playbook. In these instances, the writing bubbles with a sweet puppy-love vibe, full of dramatic teenage infatuation rendered in flowery, heartfelt passages. Thanks to an top-class English-language localization, the mood of reckless teenage romance is perfectly captured. It’s even thanks to this localization that segments where Shiki essentially ogles his female conversation partners come across as cutely awkward, rather than creepy — immensely helpful considering the large number of pretty girls that interact with Shiki. That said, the story of Tsukihime does focus on two main narrative branches, each centered around a different heroine.

One of the biggest departures A piece of blue glass moon makes from the original Tsukihime is in the writing of the second branch, which focuses on Ciel, Shiki’s mature, reliable, enigmatic upperclassman.

The original game presented Ciel as an alternative romantic “route,” as is the custom for games in the genre, though the bulk of written material and development was clearly concentrated on Arcueid as the “main” heroine. The result was a Ciel route that felt like a variation of Arcueid’s — an alternative path included less as an equally valid option than a value-add for players seeking replayability.

By comparison, Ciel’s route in Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon– truly feels distinct, with its own plotting, cast of characters, and and exploration of a different side of Tsukihime‘s setting and lore. If Arcueid’s story route largely involves vampires and other supernatural kindred, Ciel’s dips heavily into the holy church, a vaguely Christian organization that defends human society against supernatural threats and violently suppresses the ones that come too close to revealing the magical world’s existence to mankind at large. In their way, the two main routes in Tsukihime‘s remake feel like genuinely equal options, fitting well with Type-Moon’s permissive attitude towards what counts as “canon” in its various properties.

With that in mind, players must read through Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- multiple times to get the most out of the story. Thankfully, it includes plenty of tools to ease exploration. Players can save and load anytime, and a handy “flowchart” system not unlike the one seen in Vanillaware’s 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim allows players to jump back and forth in the timeline, checking the results of choices at their leisure. The main routes and their endings are also unlocked sequentially, so there’s no danger of making the “wrong” choice and being forced to reload or wait until the next playthrough.

There are even more than a dozen different “bad endings” to acquire for completionist players. Bad endings are very much the “wrong choices,” usually in the sense that picking them results in Shiki’s death, described in gruesome, embarrassing detail. These are usually played for laughs, though, and invariably conclude with a post-credits classroom sequence where the characters discuss what just happened and advise the player on what choices to pick after they reload.

Outside of the occasional typo and an odd bug where a small amount of voiced Japanese-language lines aren’t properly subtitled in other languages, Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- is larger in scale than the original, polished to a mirror sheen, and convenient almost to a fault. Its writing expands the story in an appealing way that’s conscious of Type-Moon’s status as a company at the top of its field managing its own multiverse of related stories and projects (such as the Fate/Grand Order mobile game and more besides). It doesn’t supplant the scrappy, rough-hewn, original Tsukihime, but rather compliments it, presenting the visual novel equivalent of a breathtakingly costly but inimitably entertaining triple-A blockbuster to contrast with the original’s history as an out-of-nowhere indie hit.

The only wrinkle in this otherwise perfect remake story is that A piece of blue glass moon is just the first entry of the Tsukihime remake project. The two routes contained in this release are just the “Near Side” routes. The original game’s three other “Far Side” routes — routes that were more psychodrama-focused and starred supporting characters like Akiha, Kohaku, and Hisui, are due to be included in another installment, Tsukihime -The other side of red garden-, which is still in production. This isn’t to say that the experience feels incomplete without the additional routes, but it’s an acknowledgement that those who want to know more about certain other characters and see how Type-Moon will address their respective stories may end up waiting a while for the second half of the remake project to release.

Nevertheless, as it is, Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- remains a superlative visual novel, and a must-read for any fan of Type-Moon’s work, as well as a great potential entry point for those looking to get into visual novels as a medium.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed Type-Moon and published by Aniplex. It is currently available for the Switch and PS4. This review is based on a paid download and reviewed on Switch. A PS4 code provided by the publisher was tested. Approximately 47 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode and acquiring all main endings. There is no multiplayer mode. The game was completed.

Parents: This game is rated M by the ESRB, with content descriptors for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, and Suggestive Themes. The rating description is as follows: “This is a visual novel in which players follow the story of a high-school student who encounters vampires and ghouls in Japan. As players progress through the narrative, they view stylized story sequences (mostly still images), some depicting violence and blood: blood splatter; pools of blood; characters killed off camera; a character’s hand repeatedly stabbed. The text includes descriptive details of violent acts (e.g., “I stab, I cut, I slice, I carve. Severing piece after piece until nothing is left…”; “After listening to the weakling beg for its life, she begins her meticulous work…Once the other arm is gone too, she swaps her tools and sets work on its inside.”). Some sequences depict severed limbs and dismembered body parts in large pools of blood. A female vampire is depicted partially nude, with exposed pelvic area (no genitalia), and her arm covering her breasts. The words “f**k” and “sh*t” are heard in the game.”

Colorblind Modes: The game has no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The gameplay is not reliant on audio cues. All voiced dialogue is represented by on-screen text. There are no options for text size or readability configuration, but detailed options exist to manage text display speed. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: This game’s button controls are not remappable.

The post Tsukihime -A Piece Of Blue Glass Moon- Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The player’s choices have far-reaching consequences.

LOW Repetitive encounters and samey-looking environments.

WTF No fast travel and constantly respawning enemies?!

Vampyr is a prime example of a double-A title offering a surprisingly strong premise and a decent trifecta of drama, combat and exploration despite a lacking presentation and failing to fully frame the protagonist’s inner turbulence. Though I was initially drawn to it thanks to other reviewers describing it as a “soulslike,” this game goes beyond that label and ends up a triumph, albeit not a flawless one. 

Set in an early 20th century London on its knees due to a raging plague and the looming shadow of WWI, the story opens with would-be prophetic lines spilled out at a cadence trying to mimic Shakespeare. As the echo of these lines swirls over a ditch full of dead bodies, the camera slowly hones in on their focus — middle-aged Jonathan Reid, lying dead atop the pile.

Suddenly opening his eyes as the voice of the narrator climbs to a zenith, Reid finds himself back in the living world, now ridden with the curse of vampirism. However, more than just a member of the undead, he’s still an esteemed surgeon – one who’s performed blood transfusions a plenty, and enjoys an excellent reputation among his peers.

Vampyr spends a lot of time postulating on the routes a scientifically-inclined, logical vampire would follow to ‘solve’ their situation. This may or not equal a cure, since the main story beats sway towards both a head-on resolution and also to what might be the true nature of ‘divine interventions’ in the centuries leading up to this historical setting.

Personally, I didn’t expect to stumble upon something that entertains so many philosophical sides of this premise. In support of this, Vampyr is chock-full of well-written and well-acted dialogue. Midway through the prologue, Dr. Jonathan Reid reveals his determination to fully unmask the façade of something he’s not sure is entirely supernatural, and his resolve grants a fresh status to the horror that someone might experience from a situation like his.

Aside from Reid, the cast has several mainstays whose personas become enriched as the plot progresses, yet, the legions of side characters populating this ultra-bleak version of London are the real stars here. Each of the city’s four districts is home to a group whose inner relations are already established and direct their lives.

Every night, Reid can freely mingle with the cast, interview them on intertwining topics, and possibly uncover a way to fix some of their current predicaments. This is done by selecting an answer from a list or completing a short quest for these troubled individuals. Of course, most of them hide dark secrets that are believable and human, each of them worthy of a character study by Reid. So, one of the tabs in the menu is dedicated to his notes on these characters’ traits, allowing the doctor to make deductions about how to pressure them into getting to the meat of each matter.

…But why bother with niceties when a vampire is surely able to overpower mere humans? For one, we need to level-up our anti-hero (alas, the enemies often come prepared) and completing side quests grants us experience points. It’s true that drinking blood opens up the skill tree and allows us to prepare Dr. Reid for his new way of “life,” but there’s a catch — while we can mesmerize almost any denizen and make them follow us to the nearest gloomy alley for a meal, emptying the streets of London won’t do us much good. The districts have their own ‘health bars,’ and if we are overzealous with feeding, they succumb to chaos. At that point, normal humans will no longer appear in that area, and in their place, we’ll find increasing numbers of infected beings that would otherwise dwell underneath the surface.

So, while we could hunt everyone in sight if we choose to, I opted for the humanitarian approach and cared for the cast, which often meant having to muster remedies for a list of random illnesses (headache, cold, fatigue, etc.) and offering any other sort of help that was needed.

Keeping up with this workload isn’t easy, though. Vampyr is stingy with its color palate, so the districts look similar, and the whole map is tilted somewhat queerly, making it hard to remember the layout of the streets. On top of that, there’s no option for fast traveling, so anytime I needed to help someone on the other side of the map, I had to re-trace the same path, over and over again, every single night. This wouldn’t have been such a drag if it wasn’t for respawning enemy groups.

As mentioned in the opening, Vampyr indeed is a soulslike of sorts, offering an impactful combination of stamina-draining actions (attacks with our main and off-hand weapons), blood-draining superpowers (casting exploding mist, firing a blood lance, etc.), and a cooldown-based ultimate move – but not much more.

Though this may sound exciting on paper, there aren’t many combos that one can use to maintain the combat’s freshness, and the severely limited enemy variety exacerbates it. This becomes more prevalent as the adventure nears its conclusion – I expected some late-game discovery that would allow me to fire on all cylinders at once and steamroll my opposition, but alas, no spectacular evolutions happen combat-wise, ever.

The underdeveloped combat is far from a deal breaker, though. Vampyr successfully sinks its fangs into most of its topics, not only catching me off-guard in its profound exploration of the vampire mythos, but also enthralling me with Jonathan Reid’s razor-sharp focus on getting to the bottom of it all. Anyone hungry for a vampire-themed adventure with both blood and brains would do well to join this one in the shadows of the night.

— Konstantin Koteski

Disclosures: This game is developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Focus Home Interactive. It is currently available on PS4, XBO, Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download and reviewed on the PS4 Pro. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the game and the game was completed. This is a single-player only experience.

Parents: This game has received an “M” rating by the ESRB, and contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, and Use of Drugs. The official rating summary reads: “This is a third-person action game in which players assume the role of a surgeon (Jonathan Reid) roaming through London as a vampire. Players learn vampire skills/abilities; track citizens as potential prey; and battle other vampires, ghouls, and vampire hunters in frenetic combat. Characters mostly use swords or guns to attack enemies; Jonathan can also rip out the throats of human enemies by stalking and biting them. Some sequences depict executions of characters on and off-screen–a man’s decapitated head appears on the ground in one off-screen killing. Blood-splatter effects occur frequently, and some environments depict mutilated corpses covered in blood. The game includes some sexual material: references to a priest molesting a child; a prostitute soliciting a character on the street (e.g., “Pay me a glass and I’ll be gentle…Pay me a bottle, and I’ll be nasty…I promise I’m cheap and clean.”). During the course of the game, a character is depicted slapping his arm for a vein, then injecting himself with a drug off-screen (“that is better…I will make it through one more night.”). The words “f**k” and “sh*t” appear in the dialogue.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I’ve played around two hours with the sound turned off and didn’t have much trouble. Granted, some enemies signal their follow-up ranged attack (i.e. a pistol shot) via a sound cue, but the rhythm of their repeating attack patterns is not hard to identify with sound muted. On the other hand, reading the texts of the collectible items was a bit of a hassle since the font was smaller than I’d like. However, Jonathan will comment on any important find, making it easy to keep track without trying to make out every single line. Also, there are three options for the size of the subtitles. I’d say this game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: This game offers a controller diagram, but the control scheme is not remappable. The sticks move the character and the camera, the directional buttons are for switching weapons and using healing items, the face buttons are for attacking and dodging and the bumpers are for special attacks.

The post Vampyr Second Opinion appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Metal Gear Garbage.

LOW An inexcusable plot contrivance.

WTF So… does everyone know about the boulder punching?

There is some debate as to which Resident Evil is the best since its developers gave up on static-angle cameras. Resident Evil 4 (action) and Resident Evil 7 (horror) both make compelling arguments for themselves, and since they’re so profoundly different in presentation and tone, it’s almost like comparing apples and oranges. However, Resident Evil Village exists to settle this dispute once and for all — it essentially splits the difference by taking RE4‘s mechanics and marries them to RE7‘s aesthetics. Offering elaborate plotting and over-the-top action with brutal intensity and strong character work leads to what just might be the ultimate Resident Evil to date.

As a direct sequel to RE7, Village picks up three and a half years after Ethan Winters’ escape from Louisiana. He and Mia now live in Eastern Europe with their newborn baby, with longtime series star Chris Redfield keeping an eye on them. After an unexpected attack, Ethan’s world is turned upside-down and he finds himself on the side of a snowy road with no options but to once again pick up a gun and face a series of increasingly-hideous monsters.

Ethan has received military training since RE7 and that’s reflected in the plentiful First-Person Shooter combat — it’s more polished and there are many intense battles against multiple foes at once, which was a thing RE7 almost never offered. Leaving the claustrophobic hallways and cluttered rooms of the Baker mansion, Village takes place in huge, sprawling areas such as the titular village, fields, swamps, ruins, and a castle. These places are so open, in fact, that it often makes sense to pack a sniper rifle.

Speaking of firearms, the inventory and crafting systems have been completely redesigned to mirror RE4‘s break away from item boxes. Ethan trudges around with a briefcase full of guns strapped to his back, and has to make hard choices about which guns to keep and which to sell to Duke, the inexplicably-omnipresent weapons dealer. This limitation lends a smart strategic element to resource management — the player can’t simply load up on every weapon they want, so they have to re-evaluate their tactical approach combat every time they find a new weapon. There’s a wide variety of handguns, shotguns, and rifles that can be modded and upgraded until they’re impressively deadly. Anyone should be able to find a loadout that satisfies their playstyle.

Village also impresses in how well it’s able to function as a loving homage to Resident Evil 4 without getting bogged down in fanservice for its own sake. Apart from the inventory and weapon management systems, a key thing it cribs is the story structure. Just like in Leon’s adventure, Ethan is introduced to the macro threat early on, and then travels to a series of different locations, each one dominated by a boss that becomes the focus of the game for the next hour (or more) as the player has to figure out how to navigate mazelike areas and defeat their current foe. The adventure goes from a village to a castle, then to ruins and an industrial setting. Village isn’t enormous the way RE4, 5, and 6 were, but it’s around twice the size of 7 and none of it feels like padding.

However, Village isn’t just action. Its running time is filled with a cast of fascinating characters. Much has already been written about Lady Dimitrescu, the tall vampire all over the game’s advertising. Her section of the campaign in which players sneak around a castle while being hunted by bloodsuckers is quite compelling. There are a number of other bosses skulking around, however, and each one is noteworthy in their own right. I won’t spoil any details, but they all find their hopes and fears brought to life with solid writing and great voice acting, with the exception of one weirdly off-putting performance.

Mercenaries mode is a great addition to the contents of the package, melding the combo-chasing of RE4, 5 and 6 with the ‘travel from point A-B’ goal of the original version from RE3. Players start each stage with a lump of cash and a handgun, and they’re free to spend the money upgrading their existing weapon or buy new ones before going out to battle a horde of foes. Each mission is broken up into 2-5 stages built around a themed location. Players can harvest money from fallen enemies and find ammo around the levels before doing more shopping between stages to prepare for the challenges to come.

I find precious little to complain about in Resident Evil Village. The visuals are great, the mechanics are polished, the map is loaded with secrets to be explored and there’s a huge amount of content that only unlocks after credits roll, making this one of the most replayable entries in the entire series. In fact, my only major annoyance is with a bit of a writing at the start which doesn’t seem problematic until the end — it’s one of those bad writing situations where the entire game wouldn’t have taken place if a certain character had said a single line of dialogue. It’s still a wonderful story, I just wish the writers had put a little more thought into how it should begin — having characters withhold information from each other solely to preserve a twist is a frustrating conceit.

Resident Evil Village proves that the developers at Capcom knows exactly what series fans want, and they’re happy to offer it, along with a lot more than anyone was expecting. Resident Evil 7 was a revolution for the series by framing the action in personal, intimate terms that intensified the scares and violence via the first-person perspective. Resident Evil Village proves that the same approach works just as well when removed from the small-scale, southern gothic setting and the action ramps up. Village really is the best of both worlds, and an amazing accomplishment for the series.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by CAPCOM. It is currently available on PC,XBO/S/X, and PS4/5. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 11 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed.

Parents: This game was rated M by the ESRB and features Blood and Gore and Intense Violence. They are not kidding about the intense violence. Horrific injuries are shown in closeup, there’s also blood drinking and exploding heads. This is as violent as games get without being banned from sale in stores. There’s also some alcohol consumption and some topless female statues.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played some of the game without audio and encountered some difficulties. It has the normal issue found in most First-Person Shooters in that being surprised by an attack from behind can be crippling at anything but the lowest difficulty levels. There’s also a strange issue where no onscreen confirmation is given when the player picks an item up — just a sound effect — so it’s very easy to miss grabbing an item while moving. there are also audio events during the game which have no visual cues. All dialogue is subtitled and all vital info is provided via text. Text cannot be resized.

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

The post Resident Evil Village Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Great malleability in approaches to play.

LOW That tutorial.

WTF It has been tracking my progress since early access.

I took a look at Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars while it was still in the Game Preview program on Xbox. My feelings at the time were basically that it was very solid, but I had a few quibbles about performance, UI, and map variety. I’m happy to report that these things have now been (mostly) addressed in the full release.

IR:VW is a turn-based-strategy with grand-strategy elements, a levelling system for its leader characters (Lords), and some card collection, all successfully combined into a cohesive and enjoyable experience.

The main objective of play is similar to a grand-strategy title – expand and claim land, manage the economy (blood), fight and then expand again.

An overview map is where expansion takes place, with the player moving their troops around from area to area. When enemies are encountered, IR:VW shifts into a grid-based battlefield that has obstacles and random buffs that can be collected. Turn-based tactics are in play for these skirmishes.

While the player controls groups of soldiers, the main damage dealer in any fight is the Lord – a general who has magic spells and higher damage. These bruisers can single-handedly turn the tide of battles, and not only is their skill tree is deep and diverse, the buffs apply to all heroes. This is useful because it means players don’t need to grind EXP with a newly-added Lord before they’re meaningful in combat. 

The campaign serves as a good intro to the mechanics and successfully tells a story while adding spice to the formula by setting limits on what the player can do. For example, it requires the player to go through an early map without hiring armies in the (later) conventional fashion and makes them rely on cards to bolster troop numbers instead.  

The Skirmish mode is more of a sandbox, and where I spent a lot of my time messing around with different tactics like turtling up in a Keep and attempting to dominate from there, or going on rampant expansionism and seeing if I was able to defend my wide borders from all comers. (Answer: not always).

While many of the UI issues I had have been fixed, the combat maps that load up whenever an encounter with an enemy army occurs still feel terribly similar. This is a problem since it’s boring to actually go through these fights manually, but if I chose to auto-resolve a battle, the results were often incredibly punishing even when I had superior numbers. The result is that I either had to play the same maps over and over again or suffer casualties.

Putting the issue of tedious battles aside, Immortal Realms is still an enticing product, especially on consoles where there’s not much else like it. For console fans waiting for something substantial, yet less labyrinthian than some of Kalypso’s other offerings, spending time draining blood from the countryside is a great way to go.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Palindrome Interactive and published by Kalypso Media. It is currently available on PS4, Switch, XBO, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBO-X. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood, Violence and In-Game Purchases. The game is all brooding gothic, murder aplenty and dark themes of innocent peasant slaughter. Definitely earns its M rating.

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game is fully playable without sound. Text cannot be resized, nor can the color be changed.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. The Y axis cannot be remapped. There is no screenshot of the game’s controls. The A button confirms actions/selects items, B button cancels actions. The D-Pad is used for navigating sub menus, X button triggers specific character menus, Y button triggers others, the Left Stick scrolls the map/moves the cursor, the Right Stick controls camera. The Right Trigger ends a turn.

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HIGH Strong character writing. A great taster for the Vampire setting.

LOW Bare-bones features discourage repeat play.

WTF How’d it take this long to get some good Malkavians in a game?!

Though vampires long predate the invention of computers and software, the legendary bloodsuckers seem like the perfect videogame characters. Their existence would set them above and apart from the gathered masses of humanity, exceptional by nature, and governed by a number of obscure and seemingly arbitrary rules — a bit like the restrictions of game worlds. With this in mind, one can’t help wonder why there are relatively few vampire-themed videogames out there, and even fewer good ones.

Among the exceptions is the Vampire: The Masquerade franchise. Based on the tabletop RPG setting of the same name created by White Wolf, titles like V:tM Bloodlines and Redemption brought dense lore and a nuanced portrayal of hidden vampire society to players, though their reach often exceeded their grasp. Draw Distance is attempting to contribute to that well-remembered legacy with Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, but they’ve wisely chosen to temper their ambition.

Unlike previous V:tM titles, Coteries of New York is not a full RPG. Instead, the devs emphasize narrative and character over mechanical depth by making what is essentially a visual novel. Coteries of New York has more in common with story-based titles like Telltale’s The Walking Dead than Bloodlines, although this is a good thing as the simpler, choice-based structure allows players to focus on the excellent character writing.

Coteries of New York casts players as a newly-converted vampire, just recently “embraced” by a sire for reasons unknown, and ready to make their way in the Camarilla, the vampiric society they’ve just joined. The Camarilla all participate in the titular “Masquerade” — it’s an overarching policy keeping the existence of vampires a secret from humans and pesky hunters. This is especially important since the hunters of modern society are empowered by the internet and government surveillance.

However, the danger mortals pose to vampires pales in comparison to the threat they face from their own, be it a rival scheming for advantage, competing vampiric factions, or even vampires too hungry to tell if the person they’re biting is human or kin.

Players are charged with securing their own position in New York’s underworld by building their own “coterie” — a network of allies and supporters. Accomplishing the task is fairly simple, mechanically speaking. Players merely have to decide who spend time with each night. These decisions drive most of the narrative, as each encounter with a chosen vampire advances their respective subplot, and there’s not enough time in the story to recruit everyone on offer.

Coterie‘s characters are the highlight of the experience, and each functions as a pitch-perfect example of an idealized Masquerade archetype. The Tremere is a self-serious, dutiful member of a clan capable of harnessing the power of their blood to cast magic. Another character is a Gangrel whose animalistic, almost beastlike instinct war with her sense of familial affection. Another, and my personal favorite, might be the best portrayal of the long-problematic Malkavian subtype. In Vampire: The Masquerade, Malkavians are a vampire clan forever afflicted with various dramatic forms of mental illness.

This thorny fact has led to less-than-sensitive and even downright offensive characterizations over the years, and not even legendary games like Bloodlines quite managed to avoid the minefield. However, the Malkavian in Coteries of New York is a nuanced character clearly affected by her nature, but still given agency in her own story and able to live un-life on her own terms. It also helps that she’s hilarious, and her dialogue contains excellent uses of real-world and current-day references.

These strong characters would make Vampire: The Masquerade: Coteries of New York an easy recommendation to anyone interested in learning more about the franchise, but I must throw in a few notes of caution for those not immediately attracted to the premise due to Coteries of New York‘s relatively spartan feature set, and the way it can actively work against exploring the writing.

The game includes a convenient dictionary and a log that shows recently-seen text, but for some reason it lacks the ability to bookmark specific points in the story, or any options to shift from chapter to chapter. This may be due to the choices shaping the story, but it’s sorely inconvenient to players that want to see everything it has to offer.

Worse still, there’s no option to skip text that’s already been seen, and no way to automatically scroll text. These omissions are the kind of rookie mistakes a novice visual novel developer makes, and they damage the overall experience. Exploring and appreciating a visual novel with writing as good as this one shouldn’t be tiresome.

With luck, future patches and updates will address these minor concerns because Coteries of New York is something well worth sinking one’s fangs into.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Draw Distance. It is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. This copy of the game is based on retail build provided by the publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode over two completions. There is no multiplayer mode. The game was completed.

Parents: At the time of writing, this game was unrated by the ESRB. However, it would likely be rated M with descriptors for Strong Language, Sexual Content, Violence, Drug and Alcohol Use, and Mature Humor. This is a fantasy game involving the lives and adventures of vampires in present-day New York City. Players control a character recently turned into a vampire. Most visuals in the game are conveyed via static character portraits over background art, with the narrative shown in text. Though no explicit depictions of violence or sex are shown through the art, the text contains many references to sex acts, drugs, alcohol, and descriptions of violent scenes, involving the player and others. Swearing is frequent and strong.

Colorblind Modes: The game has no colorblind modes selectable.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue and narrative is presented using onscreen text. There are no audio cues needed for gameplay.

Remappable Controls: This game’s button controls are not remappable.

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HIGH Yakumo. Or maybe Eva? Nah, it’s gotta be Yakumo.

LOW The combat’s just average, and there’s a ton of it.

WTF Who thought walking through dozens of memories at a snail’s pace was a good idea?

Code Vein‘s been a long time coming. Originally planned for release in 2018, this anime take on the Souls formula has built anticipation during its numerous delays, and it’s finally here. I can say that it was worth the wait, but it’s not a runaway triumph either.

The storyline revolves around a bunch of vampires — sorry, ‘Revenants’ — who are trapped inside a hostile part of their world cordoned off by an impenetrable barrier known as the Misama. They’re also slowly going insane due to a lack of available blood sources.

After creating a custom protagonist from the exceptional character creation tool, players are thrown into Code Vein in the least auspicious manner possible — starving, barely able to walk and on the edge of permanently slipping into a murderous frenzy. Fortunately, there’s an anime girl with a large chest and inappropriate clothing at hand to prevent this, but we’re soon forced into an eternity of thralldom instead.

However, in an entirely expected twist, the main character has… the power to save the world! Yes, the protagonist can clear away concentrations of miasma at select points dotted around the map, allowing the embattled Revenants to venture out of their prison. They’ll fight ferocious enemies, and along the way they’ll also absorb the memories of fallen Revenants. It’s a decent narrative conceit which allows them to learn skills and information from their fallen owners — one which also has a notable effect on the story for players who like to explore thoroughly.

While recovering these memories is a neat twist, Code Vein‘s overall storyline suffers from common anime tropes — things like extolling the power of friendship, delivering inspirational speeches and delving into the pasts of characters in intensely sappy, melodramatic fashion. Honestly, it’s so sappy that it makes it hard to care about much of what happens (except when it comes to Best Boy and ultimate bro Yakumo.)

Mechanically, Code Vein is a third-person stamina based brawler which anyone familiar with Dark Souls or Bloodborne will be right at home with. Players can choose from an assortment of weapons, ranging from oversized two-handed warhammers to dinky little bayonets, and then they’ll engage whatever shrieking horrors the world throws at them — and carefully, if they wish to survive.

There’s also an assortment of classes, known as Blood Codes, which allow the player to swap their playstyle at will. Even better, skills from one Blood Code can be mastered and utilized with any other, so flexibility in character build is actually extensive here — from slinging spells at distant enemies to bulking up on HP or two-handed attack power, there’s a suitable approach for every type of gamer.

It’s dangerous to go alone, however, so helpful AI companions are always available to lend a hand — and lend a hand they do, given that they’re incredibly reliable. They’ll heal the player when downed, engage enemies in an intelligent fashion, take a hell of a pounding before dropping out of the fight, and generally prove their worth in a multitude of different ways. Human players can also be invited for online co-op, though the effectiveness of these companions isn’t as guaranteed.

While the vampiric, dark art style of Code Vein is kinda awesome, it does fail to sell its world in one crucial way — I simply never came across any ‘Oh Shit’ moments while playing.

Despite attempting to portray its world as a merciless, terrifying nightmare, it often comes across as a lighthearted knockabout, even when taking on the deadliest enemies or gazing upon the most hellish vistas it has to offer. This lack of gravity isn’t helped by the lightweight combat, which suffers from a lack of heft — smashing someone with a warhammer should have skull-crushing impact, but it often feels like whacking them with a stick. More work on enemy hit reactions would have done wonders.

The environmental design averages out to being decent, with dull sewer style areas butting heads against gorgeously-rendered snow-capped mountain hideaways. While some of the map layouts feel a little too much like sequences of long corridors populated by enemies, they all feature an abundance of secrets to discover, as well as a number of sidequests that pop up in previously-completed areas.

In the end, Code Vein may not be all that we might have hoped for, but I enjoyed my playthrough and didn’t want to stop before credits rolled. In fact, I was so invested that I actually restarted my game twenty five hours in after realizing that I could influence the storyline through my actions, and had no regrets in doing so. Despite the fact that it doesn’t reach the top of the Soulslike genre, it’s a worthwhile entry that lays very fertile ground for a sequel that goes further.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Shift and Bandai Namco Games and published by Bandai Namco Games. It is currently available on PS4, XBO and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 55 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed with the best ending. One hour of play was spent in co-op multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood, Partial Nudity and Violence. It’s not particularly extreme overall — the rating basically boils down to the characters looking good and enemies getting stabbed.

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are audio cues for nearby enemies that do not have a visual cue. Subtitles are available and can be customized to show up only during gameplay, only during cutscenes, during both, or they can be turned off completely. They are a little on the small side during gameplay, however and there’s no way to resize them. Also, FYI that turning off cutscene subtitles also cuts off subtitles during memory walks. This is weird because it’s technically more of a gameplay sequence than a cutscene, and also inconvenient as the dialogue volume during these moments tends to be lower and more easily drowned out than elsewhere in the game.

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

The post Code Vein Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.