HIGH Well-crafted homage to a classic murder mystery.

LOW Few locales in the campaign, resulting in visual boredom.

WTF Petting street rats?!

Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile sets out to translate a well-known murder mystery novel onto today’s gaming consoles, putting players in the shoes of famous fictional detective Hercule Poirot as he struggles to untangle a well-thought-out and well-executed homicide case. Set in the ‘70s and unraveling mostly on the S.S. Karnak with the Nile river sparkling in the background, this point-and-click adventure presents a series of meaty logic-based puzzle challenges, forcing the player to don their thinking cap right away.

Unlike other cross-media iterations of this popular novel, Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile spices things up by introducing a second playable character that isn’t part of the source material — namely, a budding detective named Jane Royce, who works alongside Poirot while investigating a different death on her own.

At first, I cringed at this inclusion, given that I saw no need to deviate that much from the established plot. Also, as a character, Royce is the exact opposite of Poirot in several regards — he is male, she is female. He is white, she is black. He is hetero, she is lesbian. He refers to himself in the third person, she speaks normally. This play on stark contrasts didn’t do much to lure me in… at first. 

Yet as the chapters rolled on, I got accustomed to and enjoyed controlling Royce as much as I did Poriot. Her sections take a different, more ‘hands-on’ approach and she even stars in several stealth and action sequences, while Poriot mostly moves around and speaks. However — and most importantly — her arc deftly complements the novel’s highpoints, adding to the narrative in a manner fitting for the medium of videogames. As a result, this character never felt like someone competing for the spotlight, and Nile’s runtime proved sufficient to leave even the most cost-conscious consumer satisfied. 

As for the gameplay, it’s comprised of curated, tough-to-crack logic puzzles while also being rich in varied mini-games.

For instance, when a character refused to share info unless she heard her favorite song, I had to meddle with an old jukebox’s interior electronics, altering pieces to allow for proper electric flow. Later, while inspecting why the smoke coming out of the boat’s chimney suddenly turned black, I had to get familiar with how the Karnak’s furnace worked via an iteration of the classic Pipe Dream path-making formula.

I was pleasantly surprised at how varied and creative these challenges were, and the constant evolution in their difficulty is perhaps the most confident example of Nile’s quality — it simply never dropped the ball with any lackluster obstacles. 

Throughout Nile’s chapters, I also had to diligently inspect 3D pieces of evidence before spending hours within the main characters’ “mind maps” (accessible via menu) where all hard-earned deductions are stored and comprehensively arranged. Then, I had to carefully connect the scattered info into rock-solid conclusions that rose above all of the obfuscating layers smothering the truth.

This process often involved pointing out which character could or couldn’t have taken a particular action due to their physical location at a precise moment in the scenario, as corroborated by other passengers on the Karnak. Oftentimes, Nile supported this by arranging all of the uncovered facts into an easy-to-follow timeline where we get to rearrange NPC positions, tracking each of their movements minute-by-minute until we have logically reverse-engineered the undisputed paths and actions all of them surely followed.

Obviously, the difficulty of these segments depends on the number of suspects present at a given scenario, as well as on which of Nile’s three difficulty levels the player chooses. For me at least, untangling these timeline challenges was a triumph in and of itself, leading to unsuspected revelations and coveted resolutions to tricky mental knots,  an experience not unlike solving challenges in any number of other, more puzzle-focused experiences.

Between deductions I was able to freely inspect locations like a nightclub in London, a fancy hotel in Egypt, and a few other places that I won’t reveal here. Of course, chatting with and interrogating the dozens of primary and secondary characters gives Nile much of its richness, almost making me overlook how little variety in locales there is here – a few more areas wouldn’t have hurt things. Luckily, the craft of outsmarting the myriad of multilayered characters is a triumph on par with the way the same process unfolds in the source material itself. My victory here was delicious.

Anyone willing to get knee-deep into exercises like inspecting a vase until they spot the tiny crack that proves the villain must’ve hastily knocked it over in the middle of the night will surely find much to love in Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile, and in the end it stands as an excellent example of the right way to adapt classic material for the modern age and its new mediums.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

Buy Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile: PC – Switch – Xbox – PS

Disclosures: This game was developed by Microids Studio Lyon and published by Microids. It is currently available on the Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox Series S/X, and PS4/5. This copy was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch Lite. Approximately 30 hours of play were devoted to the game, and it was completed. This is a single-player only title. 

Parents: This game has received a T rating from the ESRB and contains Alcohol and Tobacco Reference, Mild Blood, and Mild Violence. The official ESRB summary reads: “Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile is a seek-and-find mystery game in which players search for specific items/clues on a screen full of objects. Players – as detective Poirot – search through several rooms and interview suspects to find clues to solve a murder. In one room, the partially visible body of the victim is shown as well as a letter “J” written in blood above the victim. Wine is featured in the opening cinematic, while some of the items (selectable and background) include alcohol and tobacco products (e.g., cocktail glass, liquor bottle, cigarettes). Cutscenes depict images of a gun held to a woman’s head as a flash appears when the weapon is fired. Another sequence depicts two characters in silhouette and still frames shooting themselves in an apparent suicide pact.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue is shown via textboxes, and I found the font to be easily readable at all times. While some of the puzzles lead the player to identify sounds as a means to a resolution, there are enough visual indicators to allow any player to figure them out without relying solely on audio. Plus, players can ask for a hint at any moment at the push of a button, which will prompt the game to reveal the solution instantly. I’d say this game is fully accessible. 

Remappable Controls: This game offers a controller diagram, and the controls are not remappable. However, they are intuitive and easy to get used to, with the movement assigned to the sticks and the face buttons used to make choices and interact with the environment.

The post Agatha Christie: Death On The Nile Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Cozy vibe and pixel art style.

LOW Gameplay can get repetitive.

WTF How many eldritch monsters can fit in one lake?

From a background extra to the star of the show, Nice Day for Fishing introduces humble fisherman Baelin who embarks on an adventurous journey to save his town from evil. In developer Jake Mackenzie’s words, this “quadruple A title”, developed by the popular Youtube channel Viva La Dirt League blends fishing, fighting, and fighting while fishing into an entertaining and cozy RPG.

Viva La Dirt League are known for their short comedy skits, which imitate NPCs in games. A while back they released a short film centered around Baelin, who is known for his looped lines like “Morning!”, “Nice day for fishing, ain’t it!”, and the occasional “Uh-huh”. Baelin’s monotonous life is disrupted when a girl named Willow journeys with him across the fictional kingdom of Azerim. Along the way, Baelin becomes self aware and grows like a player.

Nice Day for Fishing is loosely based on Baelin’s adventures, and the player controls him as he goes around completing quests for recurring characters from skits like Greg the Garlic Farmer and Bodger and Blacksmith. These quests are focused on fishing, finding materials, and fighting bosses. The controls are entirely on keyboard, with interactions using the letter and arrow keys. (No mouse).

The highlight of Nice Day for Fishing is the combat/fishing system. When the player hooks a fish, they have a limited amount of time to attack using the letter “E”. After a while, the fish attacks and the player must press the letter “Q” with correct timing to avoid losing health. If the player’s health drops to 0, their line snaps and the fish escapes.

This simple idea is made more engaging thanks to special abilities and unique fish. The bosses in Nice Day for Fishing are amusing to battle, with just enough challenge to stay enjoyable while still making the player work for it. For example, there is a Kraken that can stun and throw projectiles. The player has to use consumables and abilities at the right time to negate these attacks and dish out damage of their own.

There’s also a progression system between fishing trips that keeps the game engaging. As Baelin completes quests, NPCs will reward him with gold which can be used to purchase new items like rods, bait, and cosmetics. In addition to stat upgrades, these unlock new types of fish to catch and new abilities.

Another focal point of Nice Day for Fishing is the story. Without giving too much away, Baelin’s journey captures the adventurous feeling a good RPG should have. From sun-drenched shores to shadowy forests, the map is full of entertaining moments and the player meets many new characters along the way, with most NPCs having backgrounds and questlines that extend the lore even more.

Nice Day for Fishing is designed using simple 2D pixel art, giving it a platformer feel. The graphics are not focused on realism, but are instead used to create charm. The colors are detailed perfectly, and the lighting and background changes depending on the scene. These small details give Nice Day for Fishing a great atmosphere and an appealing visual style. The environmental design is also something that impressed me because the ecosystems and creatures are visually distinct, making it feel like I was entering new landscapes, even when I didn’t move much on the map.

Audio isn’t a major focus, but it’s solid enough. Hearing the Viva La Dirt League members voice their own characters is a pleasant addition for fans of the channel.

Nice Day for Fishing has clear strengths, it’s funny, unique, and charming. However, it can suffer from repetition since the fishing can get tedious. As the player progresses, fish only get harder to reel in, causing button mashing that sometimes lasts minutes. Also, although the environments are great, the map feels a bit limited due to the fact that I ended up visiting the same places over and over again. Lastly, story progression is a bit slow. Some of the quests felt like filler material and didn’t do much to advance the overall plot.

Nice Day for Fishing is a great mixture of humor, adventure, and chill vibes. If the player is a fan of Viva La Dirt League, there’s also many easter eggs and references to enjoy. However, even if they’re not, Nice Day for Fishing is still a lighthearted RPG adventure – just don’t expect anything too deep.

Rating: 7 out of 10

— Eddie Guo

Buy Nice Day For Fishing – PC – PS5 – Switch

Disclosures: This game is developed by FusionPlay and published by Team17. It is currently available on PC, Switch and PS5. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 8 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains fantasy violence, language, mild blood, and suggestive themes. The player kills wildlife, fights monsters, and there is mild blood depicted in some fights.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers:  This game offers subtitles that cannot be altered or resized. Audio is mainly supplementary and does not directly affect gameplay, important dialogue is displayed on screen. I’d call this one fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. This game does not offer a controller map diagram, but the W,A,S,D, and space keys are used to move and the arrow and letter keys interact.

The post Nice Day For Fishing Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The story feels both boundless and handcrafted. 

LOW Some reused art assets here and there.

WTF A girl who wears a tomato mask  

I keep asking myself, have I really beaten The Hundred Line?

Sure I’ve completed the story — I’ve reached the end credits a little under 40 times now, acquiring nearly half of the 100 available endings. But those 60-or-so endings that remain… they vex me, I tell ya. Not only do they make me second-guess whether or not I’ve really completed The Hundred Line in any meaningful sense, but they also make me wonder whether I’ll ever fully conquer something this vast and labyrinthian.

In general, I hate how bloated games have become. I’m just not interested in titles that prioritize endless Content — to me, they feel like a futile and demeaning attempt to numb the player’s brain and senses. The Hundred Line is different, though. Its endless length is filled to the brim with a number of story routes which vary wildly in tone and genre, acting as a veritable index of modern videogame storytelling, and genre storytelling in general. I continue to be entranced by The Hundred Line’s endless possibilities, in awe of its gutsiness and ambition. 

Despite the bizarre turns the story takes over the course of its gargantuan runtime, the setup is (relatively) simple. The protagonist, Takumi Sumino, is living a blissful (yet boring) existence in the Tokyo Residential Complex, a futuristic, sealed-off metropolis. One day, Takumi and his childhood friend Karua are accosted by mysterious, cartoonish alien creatures called ‘Invaders.’ Takumi is then prompted by an equally mysterious robot to use a special power to fight these Invaders.

Afterwards, Takumi is transported to the titular ‘Last Defense Academy,’ a school that seems to stand within the ruins of a devastated Earth. Awaking at the academy with the robot, Sirei, and a group of quirky fellow students, Takumi is told they must defend the school for 100 days, protecting ‘something’ within the complex that is ‘critical to humanity’s survival.’ 

It’s difficult to summarize The Hundred Line without spoiling anything, given the ways in which the setup is expanded and twisted throughout the initial playthrough and all subsequent runs (which then allow the player to make choices that drastically alter the course of the story). However, to put it in a nutshell, it largely summed up as a combination of Visual Novel and Turn-Based Tactics.

As The Hundred Line cannonballs through different genres and tones, even plot elements that were initially relegated to the background take on new dimensions of significance and pathos. The characters, who can initially feel like caricatures (a ditzy samurai, a morbid goth girl obsessed with lurid videogames, etc.) acquire additional texture as the player spends more time with them, many acting as a sort of secondary ‘star’ of their very own route. It all feels like staring at a painting from different angles, a ritual that becomes comfortably familiar while still having the capacity to surprise and delight. 

This dizzyingly panoramic effect is increased by the fact that, in many cases, the individual routes feel so distinct that each is like a self-contained story unto itself. Certainly, some routes and some endings feel more like ‘True’ endings and routes than others, but The Hundred Line seems open to the idea that the player should shape their experience, in a manner that can only be accomplished in the medium of videogames. Even if the player decides to move on before clearing all 100 endings, they will undoubtedly find a route that feels like a cathartic stopping point.

The Hundred Line’s gargantuan visual novel story is frequently broken up by tactical RPG sections. Players have a pre-determined number of moves each turn, called ‘AP’ with which they can move any unit as many times as they like. This shared pool of moves is the key to The Hundred Line’s excellent gameplay, enabling its best feature — a sort of Shin Megami Tensei-esque extra turn system. By killing larger enemies, the player can gain AP. Also, every attack contributes towards building a ‘Voltage’ gauge, which, when full, grants the player’s units the ability to launch powerful Area-of-Effect attacks at no AP cost, among other possible effects. 

It’s easy to see how these pieces fit together. Combat revolves around efficiently targeting sets of elite units, gaining Voltage, and looping powerful attacks. Often, the player can burn down a huge wall of units in a single turn, which feels both joyously appropriate from a narrative perspective (defending a lone human outpost from an endless barrage of Invaders) and continuously novel from a gameplay perspective. Even though there are a limited number of enemies in The Hundred Line, the play continues to engage as the challenge to ‘solve’ enemy setups with greater efficiency ramps up. It’s a freeform and highly encouraging form of player experimentation — more like a puzzler than tactical RPG, almost. 

Both the story and the gameplay, in fact, are united in a sort of easygoing, confident attitude — they both welcome the player into a playful garden of limitless variations, inviting them to take their time and experiment with the systems and narrative possibilities at their own pace. Unlike many modern titles, The Hundred Line is huge content-wise because the developers just felt that it should be, and it’s not attempting to hoodwink the player with hours upon hours of empty, padded content. Each writer for The Hundred Line’s numerous arcs clearly had their own vision, each slice feeling like a necessary part of The Hundred Line’s grand mosaic. 

Even if I never completely beat The Hundred Line, even if I’m never able to see what that entire mosaic is supposed to look like, I’m just glad I got to play around in its world for a while. 

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Too Kyo Games and Media.Vision, and published by Aniplex. It is currently available on PC and Switch. Approximately 115 hours were dedicated 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, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, and Violence. The official description reads: This is a role-playing game in which players follow a man recruited to an academy tasked with protecting humanity from destructive invaders. The game contains visual novel elements largely presented as still-screen images and sound effects. Cutscenes sometimes depict instances of violence and blood: characters stabbing themselves with swords as blood erupts from their wounds; a character decapitated off-camera; a knight figure cutting its own throat, resulting in large spurts of blood. Gameplay combat is turn-based, with players selecting movements and attacks from a menu screen to battle colorful demon enemies; players use swords, axes, bats, and fantastical guns to defeat enemies. Some scenes depict/discuss sexual themes: a woman covered in cake imploring a character to eat it off of her while she moans; a character telling players’ character “let me grab them b*obs!” A handful of scenes depict characters partially nude, with hair/arms/weapons covering their breasts; one character is depicted with partially exposed buttocks. The word “f**k” appears in the game.

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 the dialogue (and other essential information) is delivered via subtitles. In addition, there are no essential sound cues within the combat system. Thus, all elements of the game are fully accessible without sound. 

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

The post The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The distinct 2D art.

LOW The experience often feels like a prototype.

WTF The Man In Yellow.

If there’s one thing about Void Sails that I can say with absolute certainty, it’s that every member of its three-person dev team gave it their absolute all. This is no grift, and no quick asset-flip — the developers are clearly passionate about the world they have created, and the potential to remix established sci-fi and fantasy tropes into truly novel forms. 

In some cases, this passion directly translates into aesthetic success. Overall, however, I ended up feeling that Void Sails’ ambition exceeded its grasp. Most of its elements ultimately felt more like sketches than finished work… but these are intriguing sketches, that stimulate the imagination!

The world of Void Sails could be best described as ‘Treasure Planet meets Lovecraft,’ which is a compelling pitch if I’ve ever heard one. Humanity, still in a sort of primitive Renaissance phase, has spread out across the stars, its various interstellar holdings connected by flying ships. The protagonist is given charge of one of these ships, and tasked with finding their missing father by an enigmatic figure known as ‘The Man in Yellow.’ Their father was a researcher, investigating the mysterious ‘Veil’ between ordinary reality and the incomprehensible dangers of the Void. 

With all the necessary exposition out of the way, Void Sails begins in earnest, with gameplay almost evenly split between 3D space combat and 2D, text-based storytelling sections with RPG skill checks. Both halves of the gameplay have their merits, yet both feel let down by brevity and simplicity. 

First, the space combat. Sure, the ship feels appreciably weighty, with a slow turning radius successfully providing the illusion of controlling a huge, complex machine. By zooming in, the player can take control of their side cannons or their forward laser, which takes time to charge but deals a massive amount of damage. Charging the laser draws energy from the same pool as the ship’s boost power and its shield. Naturally, mastering the careful use of this shared resource is a significant part of Void Sails’ combat. 

Overall, the combat feels satisfyingly finicky at first — maneuvering to hit enemy weak spots with the WSAD keys while aiming with the mouse provides a delightfully odd sensation, like mastering an old flight sim in miniature. Unfortunately, this sensation doesn’t last. After getting over the learning curve of the controls, it’s ultimately simple enough for anyone to master well before the end of Void Sails’ scant runtime. This simplicity is compounded by the fact that Void Sails offers up an extremely small slate of enemies, most of which operate on predictable cycles of behavior that are easy to solve. One of the main baddies, for example, is a robotic thingy that can only be damaged from behind, so it slowly spins at a regular pace, allowing the player to take potshots at their leisure. 

The storybook segments are slightly more successful, I would argue. The 2D art is lovely, and despite some clunky sentences here and there, the prose does a decent job of evoking a larger world on a small budget. The short story encounters the player finds while exploring the cosmos are often effective enough (alien hatcheries, weird cysts, etc.) and the NPCs possess a certain amount of personality and charm, despite being little more than sketches in most cases. 

That’s the critical flaw of Void Sails, however — the fact that nearly every element feels like a sketch. All of its mechanics, archetypes or aesthetic ideas deserve more attention. Despite their evocative nature, the story sections, for instance, feel barebones from a mechanical perspective. Void Sails only possesses three different stats for skill checks — Perception, Knowledge, and resolve, yet the player can only determine their preferred skill distribution by answering three different background questions at the start, narrowing the potential roleplay possibilities. 

But even if these stats could be freely determined by the player, the skill check system would still feel somewhat unsatisfying as many of the skill check moments don’t have any real mechanical or narrative consequence, and many more only allow the player to test their lowest stat — unfortunately, failing checks sometimes permanently lowers one of the player’s stats! Naturally, I found myself straight up unwilling to risk attempting some skill checks, even if the chance of success was decently high, as I didn’t want to get caught in a miserable spiral of losing points in an already-low stat, leading to worse results in future skill checks, leading to even lower stats, and so on. 

Despite how thinly-sketched I found many of these elements, I have to admit that I was surprised when Void Sails ended as abruptly as it did, with an ending that largely focuses on the protagonist’s relationship with the characters met along the way. However, it wasn’t a well-rounded wrapup, things simply… end. It felt like listening to someone tell an interesting story for a few hours, only for them to suddenly stop mid-sentence and walk away.

Given the clear talent and passion on display here, I firmly believe that Ticking Clock Games are capable of building Void Sails into something a bit meatier, or perhaps crafting a different, more fully fleshed title in the future. They’re a studio to watch.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

Buy Void Sails – PC

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Ticking Clock Games. It is currently available on PC. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed.  There are no multiplayer modes. 

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB. This game contains mild fantasy violence, and references to somewhat frightening sci-fi horror scenarios, but for the most part there isn’t any objectionable content more drastic than that. 

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 the dialogue segments (and the text adventure segments, of course) are delivered with subtitles, and the combat features visual cues alongside sound cues. Thus, the game is fully accessible. 

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

The post Void Sails Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Disclosures: This game is developed by Space Colony Studios and published by Astrolabe Games. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5 and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game (was/was not) completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

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

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

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

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

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

HIGH 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 Giving into Lora’s darker impulses.

LOW Technical issues prevented me from seeing one of the endings.

WTF Did she just bite off what I think she bit off?

Loretta Lou Harris (Lora, to her friends) is not doing well. Trapped in a loveless, adulterous
marriage in rural America during the late 1940’s, our titular protagonist (or is it antagonist?) sees
only one path to freedom — the murder of her husband. But don’t worry, this is just the setup.
In Loretta, player choice, for better or worse, is what molds the proceedings.

Across my three playthroughs, I found an uncommonly flexible narrative with subtle points of
articulation, each feeling genuinely different depending on the choices I made. However, this
same mutability proves to be more of a burden than Loretta can comfortably shoulder, as radical
tonal shifts and inconsistencies left me wondering exactly what I was meant to take away from Lora’s descent into madness.

Loosely structured as a point-and-click adventure with visual novel elements, storytelling is
clearly the developer’s priority in Loretta. As I explored the two-dimensional, pixelated
environments, molding my bespoke tale through environmental interaction and dialogue choices,
I was struck by how significantly the story and characterization of Lora changed across my
playthroughs.

Does she kill that nosy P.I., or does she play it cool? What about the stepdaughter that keeps
asking about her missing daddy? More importantly, does Lora relish the opportunity to
satiate her bloodlust by covering her tracks, or is she racked with guilt, unable to live with
herself as her body count rises? Questions like these make up the backbone of Loretta, and their
answers build a unique path for Lora through each playthrough.

These points of divergence are also surprisingly understated — I could never quite tell if a certain
decision led to a given outcome, or if it was the cumulation of multiple events that created a new
path. Contributing to this, there is an emphasis not only on choosing what actions Lora takes,
but also on how she feels about those actions.

For instance, my first playthrough (as a remorseful Lora) led to a satisfying conclusion — however, after exploring other options, I realized my ending was premature and that I had missed nearly half of the story due to my choices. On a subsequent playthrough, I made many of the same decisions, but one small tweak changed Lora’s outlook on her actions, resulting in a totally different outcome. The complexity of these choices helps to create the illusion of a living narrative and an atmosphere of possibility, where there are no binary choices and slight adjustments can have significant consequences.

Unfortunately, this emphasis on flexibility cuts both ways. There were multiple instances where conversations between characters simply didn’t make sense — they would reference events that hadn’t occurred, mention people they hadn’t met, or react in a way that didn’t make contextual sense. Perhaps these discrepancies could be attributed to Lora being an unreliable narrator (a fact established early on), but more often, they felt like scripting oversights within Loretta’s complex web of possibilities.

Furthermore, some of the dialogue comes across as clunky, with southern accents that felt performative rather than authentic, and some use of profanity that seemed forced. With storytelling being the primary focus of Loretta, any moments of inconsistency stand out. Wwhile these didn’t ruin the experience, they did seem awkward and distracting.

As an extension of these issues, major tonal shifts left me questioning exactly what the developer’s thematic intentions were. Loretta is not shy about broaching difficult and multilayered topics — subjects such as miscarriages and oppression are common throughout. However, on the heels of these intense and delicate moments, the player might be killing an innocent person with a shovel and hiding their body, or fantasizing about jamming a letter opener in someone’s neck, all presented with an edge of dark humor. The juxtaposition of these pulpier moments with more serious discussions led to a feeling of thematic whiplash that permeates the entire experience.

There are also some mechanical and technical oddities that detract from Loretta. Between each
chapter is a puzzle of sorts, with some symbolic link to the narrative — most of these are simple
and straightforward, but others involve timing-based maneuvers with a digital cursor. While I’m
sure these play fine with a mouse, the Switch’s notoriously fiddly analog sticks were not up to
the task, and these sections ended up feeling frustrating and frivolous. Additionally, at the end of my final
playthrough, Loretta would inexplicably crash to the Switch’s home screen every time. I was unable to get around this, and as such, I was unable to see the conclusion of my final run.

In the end, Loretta is a conundrum — its greatest strengths and its most pronounced weaknesses both lie in storytelling. For every moment that worked, I found a moment that didn’t. However, despite its technical issues and occasional lack of coherence, Loretta ends up as a successful experiment in form — even if I’m still unsure of the developer’s ultimate intended message.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

— Ryan Nalley

Disclosures: This game is developed by Yakov Butuzoff and published by DANGEN
Entertainment. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4/PS5, Switch, and PC.
This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 8 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood, Violence,
Strong Language, and Sexual Content. This one is not safe for kids. Violence is a pervasive element throughout, and while the visual depictions of violence are generally not explicit, there are many explicit
descriptions of the violence. Additionally, there is at least one scene of implied sexual violence. Profanity is also a persistent element in the dialogue.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered or resized.
This game was completed in its entirety without sound during one playthrough, and is accessible. There is one scene during a specific ending that involves a puzzle with audio cues. I was able to complete this segment without sound, but it required some trial and error. Outside of this one moment, sound is not a major component in the gameplay.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. This game does not offer a controller map diagram, but most of the controls are contextual. The left stick is used for movement and menu navigation while the face buttons (A,B,X,Y) are used to interact with the environment. Certain scenes use the ZR button for interaction, and the puzzle interludes in between chapters use the left stick to control a digital cursor.

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

HIGH Excellent writing and incredibly creative scenarios!

LOW Some responses are unnecessarily long. 

WTF A “doctor” offering to “thoroughly examine” a 15-year-old girl?!  

The release of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy marks another well-deserved transition of a beloved franchise to newer consoles, delivering a stylishly-packaged love letter to the fans.

As the title states, this compilation serves up three highly-praised Ace Attorney titles (Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Dual Destinies, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Spirit of Justice) all of which were previously available only on the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, iOS, and Android devices. As such, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a full-course meal, satisfying both the initiated and newcomers alike.  

The author of this review falls in the latter category and digging into this compilation was nothing short of a treat. In a nutshell, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a visual novel that knits an intriguing narrative full of colorful characters, captivating murder cases, and staggering conclusions waiting to be puzzled out. It’s a slow-burn play — perhaps too slow if judged solely by today’s standards, but it’s the sheer quality of the writing that sets a high standard from the get-go, before proceeding to meticulously adding fuel. 

Upon launching this title, the first thing to notice is the excellent presentation. All three games are clearly delineated in the starting menu and accompanied by unique icons that communicate each installment’s main characters. Then, we can freely select one to sample, swap to another on a whim, and even opt to start our journey from any single episode within the entire trilogy, no matter its position in the overarching plot. Of course, starting at the beginning and progressing sequentially is the best path here, as these three games tell one single, epic story.

While the anime aesthetics initially fooled me into a false sense of security, I soon realized that progress rests not on simply reading through text boxes and occasionally making a choice, as in most visual novels, but on my analytical skills, above all else.

The plot is thick and heavy, expanding across several years while giving characters ample space to shine through this hyperbolical take on the US judiciary system. The lack of legal realism notwithstanding, the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy succeeds in what it sets out to do — open the player’s eyes to objective, indubitable truth, regardless of how each episode’s villains have obscured it.

If it wasn’t glaringly obvious already, these games are narrative-driven experiences that the player experiences via a team of lawyers. Each title comprises several episodes, each set in motion by a murder that we’re tasked with unraveling — and it’s not just about finding the guilty party. No, the player must demystify each moment that culminated in or even influenced the act in question. I was pleasantly surprised by how in-depth and serious a task this turned out to be!

The episodes consist of two phases — first, collecting evidence where we visit crime scenes, analyze the surroundings, chat with the locals and utilize forensic tools (via mini-games) before the preliminary hearings begin. This is the second phase when we are in the courtroom.

When pursuing evidence, we can easily jump between locations while trying to find something key that unlocks the way forward. To make progress, I often had to ask a forensic scientist to apply fingerprint powder on an item the suspect must’ve handled manually at some point, or press an eyewitness to recall an important detail by drawing parallels with what’s been uncovered thus far. What makes this a drag at times is that most of the characters don’t have anything meaningful to say when presented with evidence that doesn’t concern them, but they’ll still continue to ramble on, wasting the player’s time. So, when trying to get something out of a character who obviously had more info, I often had to listen to the same collection of lines instead of a genuine answer, sometimes a dozen times in a row, depending on how long the list of potential evidence had gotten to that point. 

And, even if that frustration was immediately alleviated once I landed on the correct item that made them spill their guts, sometimes it did feel like a random guess — an outdated point-and-click type of roadblock that I’d almost forgotten still existed in videogames.

When we’re prepared to press our case, we move to the courtroom, and there’s a tasteful gaminess to it. We are always in the shoes of an under-prepared defense attorney struggling to prove the innocence of their (ostensibly guilty) client. To slowly turn the odds towards vindication, we’ll have to pay very close attention to the court record and the evidence list. We can also examine objects in a 3D view (the Switch’s touch controls make that a breeze) to perhaps uncover a potential ace-in-the-hole to be used at opportune moments during the proceedings.

Once a hearing begins, the judge will expect us to prove our claims without any leaps in logic — not a single one! At the same time, a capable prosecutor across the aisle will diligently trace our train of thought and spot every single crack in our attempt. 

From a gameplay perspective, these courtroom challenges are essentially puzzles where we have to spot a contradiction between the witness testimony and evidence pointing to a different fact. For example, when a character claimed they heard two gunshots in the room where a murder took place, I had to comb the court record and select the evidence that decisively contradicted that claim — namely, the pistol in question, which only held a single bullet in the chamber!

I’ll refrain from revealing any more examples of the type of analysis the player will be tasked to perform in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, but rest assured, wiping the smugness off of the faces of both witness and prosecutor is always incredibly satisfying.

From start to finish, The Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is intertwined with memorable characters and thrilling courtroom scenes depicting both the best and worst of humanity, presented triumphantly in a manner I won’t forget anytime soon. Even if the core of the gameplay loop is showing its age a bit, it won’t hinder anyone’s enjoyment by much — a good story is a good story, full stop. 

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 

Disclosures: This game was developed and published by Capcom. 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 Switch Lite. Approximately 45 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and two of the three games were completed.

Parents: This game has received a T rating from the ESRB and contains Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, and Violence. The official summary reads: “This is a collection of three adventure games in which players assume the roles of attorneys in various murder cases. Players can study crime scenes, analyze evidence, and present clues and arguments in court cases. Crime scenes sometimes depict corpses, with bloodstained clothing and/or weapons protruding from torsos. Cutscenes and still-images depict further instances of violence/blood: a tape outline of a body with a large bloodstain; characters getting shot, sometimes with blood-splatter effects; a character strangled with a cord; characters stabbed and/or slashed, also with blood-splatter effects. One female character is depicted with breasts that jiggle during dialogue; one case revolves around players searching for missing panties. The game includes use of controlled substances: drunk characters slurring their words, swaying, hiccupping; an opposing lawyer holding a cigar; a witness blowing smoke rings in the air. The word “p*ss” appears in the game.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is no recorded audio dialogue in the game, and every line uttered by the characters is presented solely via written text. The font size is easily readable, as every text box takes almost one-third of the screen. (See examples above.) I opted for semi-transparent text boxes, which seemed to work best for me, though several other options are available too. Certain parts of the game task the player with deciphering clues audio samples, meaning players will have to compare similar recordings and point out the inconsistencies. At those points, players who have trouble hearing can turn on “Story Mode” under the “Reader” section of the Options menu, and the game will present the correct course of action automatically. ”Story Mode” can be turned off and on at will, but be aware that it does impact which trophies players get for their performance.

Remappable Controls: This game doesn’t offer a controller diagram and the controls are not remappable. The controls are displayed at all times during gameplay at the bottom of the screen (i.e., on the Switch, the “X” button is for presenting evidence, the “A” button confirms a selected action, etc.). The player is given an infinite amount of time to make a choice.

The post Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy (Switch) Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to Goodbye, Volcano High on the So Videogames podcast, episode 353: Wendy’s Chicken Sandwich 8.5/10

BRAD: The only thing I really have for housekeeping is I want to do a circle back. I’m trying to get into this habit of bringing something to the show, talking about it, but then I haven’t finished it. Right. But if I feel like it’s good enough to finish, I want to come back and do a score and I’m going to do that today. I did it. I think I’ve been doing it on the shows that you’re not here, but this is you’re finally here back so you can hear me doing it. Now I want to circle back to Goodbye Volcano High, which I played last episode and talked about that in depth. You can go back and hear the details there, but just for a brief recap, in case you didn’t hear that episode or for Carlos who wasn’t here, uh, goodbye. Volcano High is a visual novel slash animated film. It’s basically like this really high quality, super slick cartoon that you watch, but you also make choices, narrative choices. And you also do like some music, minigames and a few other minigames. [00:25:00] But large part, it’s, you know, I feel like it’s kind of fair to say it’s visual novel. But like it’s so slick. The graphics are fucking amazing. The animation is really amazing. The voice work is fantastic. Every voice in this game is just like tops. And I found out after the fact that it was Sarah Elmaleh who did the voice direction and she did a spectacular job. She understands voice directing 100%, and I couldn’t have been happier with the voices. Basically, the story is that you play a well, you play Fang, who I believe is an Archaeopteryx. I think every character in this game is a anthropomorphic dinosaur.

CARLOS: Oh, that’s what it is. Because I knew there was some sort of animal person.

BRAD: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody is an anthropomorphic dinosaur, and this takes place back in prehistoric times, although it’s kind of a weird mix because they got shoes and there’s like iPods and, you know, like, they’re like kind of like human society ish, but they’re still dinosaur people. Anyway, they fang is in high school and the rest of her friends are in high school. It’s a fantastic coming-of-age story about where you are now, what your next phase of life is going to be, and when you sometimes grow apart from friends. Maybe you’ve been really close all through junior high or high school or whatever, but as you get close to that cusp of going out in the real world, you see that maybe not everybody is on the same track. Maybe some things that you’ve shared in the past, maybe you still share them, still friends. But like, you know, one person’s path is not the path for everyone. I mean, I don’t know about you, Carlos, but I remember going through that exact same thing when I was in high school where my best friend at the time started getting into some stuff that I wasn’t really too into. But, you know, we were still friends and everything. But then when we started talking about what we were going to do after high school, I mean, his ideas were very different from my ideas. I mean, I think he was going to enlist in the Navy, and I was like, I’m super not doing that. And so that may have been the right choice for him. It wasn’t the right choice for me, but we were still friends, but we just ended up being on different paths, right? Did you ever have that experience yourself?

CARLOS: I’m trying to think about that. Um, and by the way, this kind of brings up a note and it’s interesting. It’s kind of my first question before you even go into your final review of it. But like we have talked about games like this before and how it’s hard for us to connect to them. Yeah, because those moments are so far removed from our lives. Totally. Totally. Yeah. And so I’m just wondering how you found the connection there, because for me, it’s really hard to get into a game where I’m thinking about those choices that I made so long ago.

BRAD: Well, you know, that’s a good point because we have said that many times, and I don’t generally like teenage protagonists because I feel like they keep hitting the same tropes over and over and they don’t really do like much of an examination. Like, for example, like, you know, whenever you get like a teen protag and a jRPG or something, I’m just like, Oh, like, okay, whatever. Like it’s like the same, the same notes over and over. And it’s funny because speaking of openings and starfield and how, you know, people say it’s starfield, like it’s got you got to put 12 hours in before it gets good. Like in this game. Goodbye Volcano High. I think I played like the first opening scene, which is maybe like three minutes, four minutes I was in, dude. I’m like, Oh yes, I’m in. Like, this is. This has got me. So you don’t need 12 fucking hours to get somebody into your fucking game. You just need a good start to your game.

CARLOS:And another game I’ll talk about today also has that same kind of thing. So yeah, you can just get, you can get hooked right away.

BRAD: Yeah, you can. And so and I will be perfectly honest, dude, when I started this, I was like, okay, teenagers. I don’t know. I’m like this old crusty ass senior citizen. I don’t know if I can reconnect, but man, they totally got me, dude. I think the voices are great and that helps. The performances are very strong. I think also we don’t normally spend a lot of time on this particular aspect, right? Like when you’re on the cusp of breaking away. And I think that’s kind of what got me.

CARLOS: That’s the difference. Okay.

BRAD: Yeah. Like the difference of like I we are still friends, but we are no longer so close or we are making different choices and our choices, the thing that is right for me that is not right for you is what’s kind of driving us apart. And do you bridge that or do you not bridge that? So I think that was something that really resonated with me because you don’t even have to be a high schooler to have that. I mean, I can think of many friends, Um, you know, after I got out of high school in my adult life where it’s like, you know, we were friends and then all of a sudden they make a choice that I feel like I can’t get on board with or vice versa. And then maybe we’re still friends, but like, we’re not the same because of something that happened or, you know, they chose a different path or a different job or they moved or whatever, something like that. So, so that I think was kind of a really key part. But I think the other part was that and I don’t think this is a spoiler, I think they they think they talk about this in the trailer. It’s even in the opening logo. So I don’t feel like this is a spoiler.

BRAD: But, you know, the current theory about what happened to the dinosaurs is giant meteor. Right? Like wiped them out because of like, I don’t know, big, big meteor hit the earth dust cloud killed all life, etcetera, etcetera. So that’s in this game. Like as after the first couple moments, you realize there’s a giant fucking meteor heading for Earth and all these dinosaur people, they know about it and they’re like, It’s coming. And then to see how they deal with that really [00:30:00] connected me really strongly. I mean, in large part because of. Right. I mean, it’s funny because my I let my son play this, my 14 year old son, I’m like, I think you’d really like this because you’re like in the age bracket. Plus you’re going through some of this stuff, play this, let me know what you think. And he, like, he plays the game. Right after this first session, he comes up to me. He’s like, Dad, what the fuck? I’m like, What? He’s like, There’s a giant fucking meteor coming to hit Earth and like, this is not even believable. People aren’t even doing anything. I’m like, Oh, really? You think that’s not believable? What are people doing about Covid? And he’s like, uh.

CARLOS: All right. Yeah.

BRAD: So not only Covid, but also the ecological thing that we’re going through now, where Earth is literally boiling us to death and we’re fucking around. We’re just fucking around. We’re still boiling, we’re digging for oil and we’re burning gas and we’re not changing. We’re doing the wrong things.

CARLOS: But I was just going to say just not to tangent, but like in Seattle today, it’s going to be 80 and it’s like, no, no, no, no, no. And then like, oh, tomorrow I bring this up because again, people aren’t talking about it like, What the hell? It’s right in front of our faces. Tomorrow it’s going to go down to 71 or something and be like, Oh, kind of like fall weather again then. Then literally two days later, 80 again, and then like three days later, 88. Are you fucking kidding me? What is wrong? That’s like, what?

BRAD: What evidence do we need? Dude, what were We are. We are. Yes, we are living. It’s. We’re. We are neck deep in all these signs, all these scientists that are like, screaming at us, being like, oh, my God, the polar ice caps are melting. The the the global temperatures are rising. We’re seeing green. I fucking I just watched the news report yesterday. So Greece, they got three years worth of rain in two days. And now the government agrees to saying, well, you know, I think that maybe we’re going to have permanent lakes where we used to have dry land. That’s fucked up, dude. Like. So anyway, not that we need. I mean, this is all very serious.

CARLOS: It is very serious. Let me just finish that that tangent by saying, everybody go check out the movie. Don’t look up.

BRAD: Please go check out that movie. Yes.

CARLOS: Because that is exactly what we’re talking.

BRAD: Exactly. So so that’s I think what kind of got me right is because not only is it the divergence of path, not only is it the outstanding performances, the script, super organic, it feels like everybody in this is just like a person. I mean, they’re dinosaurs. Yeah, whatever. But put that aside. It just feels like people talking in a very realistic way. And I was I was easily getting sucked into it because I was like, Oh, those are the jokes I would kind of make. Or like I had a friend who talked like that or yeah, you know, like you can it feels real, right? But also the sense of impending fucking global disaster. And what does that mean for you on a day to day basis? Because these characters often say, Hey man, there’s like a big meteor coming. What am I supposed to do? And they’re like, Well, what can we do? Yeah. You know, in our particular case, there is stuff we can do. So that’s a whole different question. But the idea of like one individual person stopping one individual person stopping global warming or stopping fascism, right? One individual person feels kind of helpless. But if you get together with people, you’ve got some power. You get together with your local government or something, you’ve got more power. So that concept of like, how do you live your life on a day to day basis, minute to minute, hour to hour when you know, this giant fucking mack truck is going to come and smack the shit out of you? Yeah. And there’s nothing you can do to stop it, right? So that was very fascinating to me and I just really loved how they handled that. So even though on the surface, this doesn’t seem like something that either you or I would connect with, I was in from from the get go and it held my attention like all the way through, dude. Like, I was just I was I was glued to it.

CARLOS: You said enough things that that differentiate it from the kind of things that we can’t connect to. You know what I mean? Yeah, there’s like a multiple things going on there. So. Yeah, so it’s.

BRAD: It’s really good. Really good.

CARLOS: What’s this? You’re going to score this one? Yeah, I got to.

BRAD: Score this one. I feel like I just. I had a wonderful time all the way through. I really appreciated, I mean, number one, like the production quality, I can’t even describe to you how good it is. This could be easily like a TV show that you would watch, like some high quality cartoon that you’d watch on TV. Like it looks great, it moves great, sound is great. Everything is great. The art direction is great and the musical numbers are wonderful. I’m not usually a guy that gets swept away in the moment, but I was really feeling this. and music and I felt like it went really well with the game and the moments and everything. And when it got to the end, I feel like they. I feel like they fucking pulled it off. I feel like they got to the end. And I was like, okay. I feel like that was a good ending, you know? And that’s, I mean, real talk, dude. I was like, How the fuck are they going to end this? Like, is the meteor going to crash? Are they going to have happy ever after? Like, what’s going to happen? And I’m not going to spoil it, but like whatever ending they got to, I was like, Yeah, man, I felt that.

CARLOS: So, all right, what are you what are we giving it?

BRAD: All in all, this is pretty spectacular shit. Oh, one more thing. Also, I got to just say, this is an example of what video games can do, because I’m sure some people are going to be like, Well, you couldn’t this there was no platforming, there was no attack combo. There was, Oh, it’s not a game. It’s just a thing. Yeah. Okay, fine. Whatever. It’s an experience that you could only have in the video game medium, right? Like you got experience. Be there, be alongside these characters. You make your choices, you’re in it in a way that you wouldn’t be in, in a TV show or [00:35:00] a book or an audiobook or whatever This is. This is something video games can do, and I think this is a wonderful example of it. So I just really want to highlight that it doesn’t matter that, you know, you didn’t have an inventory or that there were no guns or anything. Like it’s just it is what it is. It’s just a video game experience. And I give this this experience altogether. Goodbye Volcano High. I give it a solid nine.

CARLOS: Whoa! Nine.

BRAD: Very good. Nine, solid nine.

CARLOS: And we don’t do scores much, so. That’s a pretty big deal. I was going to say also when you mentioned that conversation stuff, which I love in games like this, when they get it organically, like you said, super organically, it’s Night in the Woods, one of my favorite games.

BRAD: If you like Night in the Woods, you would like this game.

CARLOS: Yeah, because I’m going to. I’m going to download it because yeah, I just love that kind of like quiet little simple throwaway conversations that feel real, you know?

BRAD: That’s exactly that’s what this game is. From front to back, dude.

CARLOS: Oh, there you go. Okay, I’ll download it.

BRAD: All right. I had a wonderful time with Goodbye, Volcano High. It’s an amazing experience that could only be had in the medium of videogames. Absolutely Solid nine. There you go.

So Videogames Official Score: 9 out of 10

Developer: KO-OP

Publisher: KO-OP

Code Source: Publisher

Platform Reviewed: PS5

ESRB Rating: T – Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Subtitles: There are subtitles for most of the conversations in the game, although there are no lyrics onscreen when Fang is performing songs. There are options to change colors and other aspects of the subtitles in the menu, but I was not able to get the options to work during my playthrough. In its current state, this game is not fully accessible.

Controls: The controls cannot be remapped. There is no control diagram. The player selects choices with the analog stick and confirms/cancels with the face buttons. During music segments, the player will be holding the analog stick in a direction to ‘capture’ nodes, they will press face buttons in time to a beat, and they will flick both analog sticks in a particular direction to match some notes.

The post SVG REVIEW Goodbye, Volcano High appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH An wonderfully atmospheric game with an incredible soundtrack.

LOW Issues with the cursor. The late game plot slowdown.

WTF The distillery section is extremely jarring.

Kentucky Route Zero (KRZ) was always something of an enigma to me ever since I first saw it. It seemed like it had Twin Peaks vibes, and I expected it to be silly and whimsical, much like Disco Elysium. However, what I discovered was a mesmerizing, haunting, and bizarre adventure centered around the theme of abandonment. It was like exploring an old, decrepit building in search of the stories it can still tell.

KRZ is an abstract point-and-click adventure, with some choices that can alter the conversations, but never derail the central plot. Throughout the course of his work as a deliveryman, main character Conway picks up several new companions who will each step into the narrative spotlight from time to time. Conway himself is world-weary, Shannon approaches worried and pragmatic, Ezra is a curious and precocious child, and Junebug is caring, but with an artist’s rebellious streak. Each character that travels with Conway adds a unique and personal voice to each part of the story.

The plot starts off with Conway carrying out his final delivery before retirement. Before long, the mundane task turns into a full-blown mission that blends sci-fi with the supernatural. The campaign is split into five acts, with narrative segments in between, and each part of the tale deals with some aspect of abandonment. One might assume this theme would create a dreary atmosphere, but the mysteries and turns it took kept me curious for more.

While on the topic of mysteries, KRZ does have plot elements that are never fully resolved, but that ties well with the overarching theme — life doesn’t always offer closure, and people have to either reflect on what could’ve been, do what they can with the pieces left behind, or simply move on. The cast of KRZ all try to make sense of the events they go through, what their futures are, and what they leave behind. There is hope, but also a great deal of grief, despair, and an underlying sense of aimlessness.

The story is also filled with many striking visuals and wonderful musical numbers. The aesthetic style is fairly simple, but with a pleasing, almost papercraft, feeling to it, along with some vector-style graphics throughout the travel segments. It almost felt as though I was playing a long-forgotten game from the ’70s.

One particular point where the visuals come together with the audio was during the middle of Act III. At one point, Junebug sings with lyrics that the player chooses. Her generally plain outfit changes into a majestic dress, and the ceiling peeled itself away to reveal a sky with shooting stars. This created a beautiful scene where I was briefly taken away from KRZ‘s hopelessness, if just for a moment. I had to take a moment to sit back and simply take it in.

While the visuals and music contribute to KRZ‘s strongest suit, the atmosphere, that isn’t to say that there aren’t some issues.

KRZ’s biggest problem is that the cursor sometimes doesn’t highlight what it should, and that’s key in a point-and-click like this. For example, an object close to the player would not be highlighted, and instead an exit or another object on the other side of the screen would be highlighted. One wrong click, and that would waste time as my character would move to that part, or even sometimes exit back to the previous screen.

There are also parts where the story does meander a bit, and the action slows a bit too much. In the last act, and in some of the post-act vignettes, the narrative comes to a near-crawl — the ‘epilogue’ is a lengthy ten minute unskippable text segment. Act V also has some issues with helping players understand what is moving the plot forward. In one instance, I was not aware that I was supposed to be letting some conversations play out while I was exploring.

All of this said, however, Kentucky Route Zero is an absolutely amazing adventure that is packed with personality, and bolstered by stunning visuals and music. Some long-in-the-tooth plot segments slightly diminished my enjoyment, but the story always remained moving and intriguing.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

— Justin Grandfield

Disclosures: This game is developed by Cardboard Computer and published by Annapurna Interactive. It is currently available on Switch, PS4/5, mobile, XBO/S/X and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher, and reviewed on PS5. Approximately 11 hours were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There is a “multiplayer” mode, but the option is listed as just passing the controller to someone else.

Parents: This game has an ESRB rating of T for Language and Use of Drugs. The ESRB rating summary contains the following information: “This an adventure game in which players follow a story about a secret highway running through underground caves in Kentucky. Players explore a variety of environments while engaging in dialogue with other characters. One scene depicts a doctor administering an anesthetic drug (Neurypnol) on player’s character; the screen/text blurs and distorts from the effects of the fictional drug. The dialogue references painkillers and pills (e.g., “…unless you’re planning to sell painkillers on the side…”; “She offered to share the pills…I didn’t want to stop taking them.”). The word “sh*t” appears in dialogue.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game offers subtitles and closed captioning. (See examples above.) The text size can be changed significantly, but will affect all text on screen. It is strongly recommended to put on captions, as some of the musical numbers’ lyrics are only visible when this option is selected. This game is fully accessible.

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

The post Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.