HIGH Solving the serial killer case.

LOW The gunfights.

WTF I feel like cops shouldn’t be driving off so many ramps?

On paper, The Precinct seems like a great idea. Take the formula of a police simulator and throw in an actual narrative. Instead of patrolling the streets as a generic player-created avatar, the main character will have a name, backstory, and goals they want to achieve. It’s a great idea that’s quickly sabotaged by the way the content thoroughly underdelivers on the very aspect that’s supposed to differentiate it from others in the genre.

In The Precinct the player controls Nick Cordell Jr., a rookie cop determined to rise through the ranks of the police department where his father served as Chief — until he was murdered by persons unknown, a crime that Nick will go to any lengths to solve, if by ‘go to any lengths‘ one means ‘write a LOT of parking tickets‘.

In spite of the intense plot hook at the core of the experience, Nick will not spend much of The Precinct‘s playtime investigating his father’s murder, interacting with other characters, or really doing much to make him feel different from the generic cops that populate other police sims. Nick will be able to have a few conversations that involve a choice of responses, but those responses don’t serve any purpose or affect the plot. No, there’s no significant time spent with him as a character, exploring his feelings about the job he does, the people he works with, or the city his father died protecting. Nick is more of an idea of a character than an actual character, and it’s The Precinct‘s greatest failing that it doesn’t explore the narrative in any real way.

With such a weak script and story elements, it’s good that the police action is competently made, for the most part.

Each new day at the precinct, Nick is allowed to choose from a variety of shifts. Does the player want to write parking tickets, catch speeders, or just amble around, keeping an eye on things? Once they’re out on the streets, the player is free to wander around town, looking for trouble – which never takes long to pop up, of course — if the player goes more than a minute without a crime occurring directly in front of them, they’ll receive a ‘callout’ requesting them to respond to a nearby crime within a certain amount of time. Things are never boring on the streets of Averno City.

Responding to crimes has a solid rhythm to it. A crime occurs and the player runs or drives towards the perpetrator, tapping the ‘yell’ button. Either the crook stops and it’s a quick arrest, or they don’t and the player has to chase them down.

These on-foot chases make good use of The Precinct‘s top-down perspective, letting the player keep track of their quarry as they duck down allies or race through busy intersections. It’s genuinely thrilling stuff, and these pursuits are a pleasure to take part in.

Unfortunately, whenever The Precinct tries to get more complex in gameplay, things take a dive. See, Nick has a partner named Kelly, and he’s… not great. Not only does he insist Nick do all of the driving, he’s pretty dire at chasing suspects, which is a fairly major problem, since more than half of the random crimes that are generated involve multiple perps.

When both crooks run, there’s a pretty good chance that one of them will get away, due to Kelly’s ineptitude. What’s even more frustrating is that one of the criminals frequently surrenders while their partner flees — but there’s no way to tell Kelly to arrest the passive criminal so that I would be freed up to chase the fleeing one. I’d say roughly 60% of the time I’d have to accept that half of a criminal duo was going to get away. The other 40% were times I’d search dumpsters until I found the guy hiding in one — which is another thing Kelly is incapable of doing.

While The Precinct‘s on-foot chases are great, car chases are fairly frustrating, as the backup AI is truly terrible at supporting the player.

It’s a good concept — tail a car to charge up a support bar, then spend that bar on things like spike strips, roadblocks, or cruisers to help run the target vehicle down. In practice, none of these abilities are particularly useful. Even when the spike strips and roadblocks are dropped in a good location — which is not guaranteed — the enemy AI never has any trouble avoiding them, either by driving on a sidewalk to go around the obstacle, or simply by pulling a U-turn. I took part in countless car chases during my time with The Precinct, and the one and only time I saw a spike strip work it was because I rammed the fleeing car into it.

Like the partner AI and car chases, The Precinct‘s combat is also a mess.

From time to time on foot, a crook will take a swing at Nick, and he’ll have to subdue them. Theoretically this should involve the nightstick he carries around, but the attack and block commands are messy to the point of being unusable, especially when every physical altercation can be won by button mashing in a ‘subdue’ minigame.

Gunfighting is equally poor in its implementation. When the shooting starts, the player has to find cover and then hit the aim button. Then, a pointer appears onscreen that they have to awkwardly move around with the right thumbstick. Maybe this works better with a mouse and keyboard, but it’s an absolute disaster with a controller, and should have been swapped out for a standard lock-on system. Also, hitting enemies offers no visible feedback, which ends up making these life-or-death shootouts feel more like tapping a button to make a crook’s health bar shrink.

If it sounds like I hated The Precinct, I can say that simply isn’t the case. The foot chases are a delight, the town of Averno is an interesting location to explore, and there’s a couple of side-cases which actually ask the player to participate in finding evidence and solving a crime. These diversions are wonderful and offer a glimpse of the kind of experience that The Precinct seems to want to be — unfortunately, that potential is let down by too many poor mechanics and a plot that doesn’t do it job.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10

Buy The Precinct – PC – PS – XB

Disclosures: This game is developed by Fallen Tree Games and published by Kwalee It is currently available on PC, XBS/X, and PS5. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 30 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode. The game was completed. The game contains no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game was rated T by the ESRB, and it contains Blood, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence. It’s a police action game, so there’s car chases and shootings a-plenty, but shooting anyone that isn’t actively trying to kill Nick causes an instant checkpoint reload, so what the game lacks in realism it makes up for with kid-friendliness. The drinking and drug use aren’t shown in a particularly positive light, as one would expect. Still, it’s a cop game, so make sure you restrict it to older teens at the youngest.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played almost the entire game without sound and encountered zero difficulties. All information is provided via text, which cannot be resized. The game is fully accessible.

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

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

HIGH The critique of AI domination in society.

LOW The actual use of gen AI.

WTF The auctioning of bodies.

The games industry is in a crisis caused by generative AI, and its hype. The emergence of this tech seems to attract corporate greed, which in turn leads to the loss of jobs and creative work. Perhaps worse, the advent of games that are written, designed, and manifested mostly by AI is a daunting prospect.

Uncover the Smoking Gun piqued my interest with its premise – it uses actual generative AI as a conversational and investigational dynamic.

Speaking of myself personally, I might be gen AI’s harshest critic, but its implementation in game design deserves an honest evaluation. I was also intrigued by the prospect of examining the devs’ stance on gen AI’s and its use, as revealed via their sci-fi world. In both cases, Smoking Gun offers an excess of material for reflection.

In Smoking Gun, we play as a yet-to-be-known male protagonist, living in a classically-styled detective’s office. The area also functions as a hub world to the campaign’s five cases and a tutorial that allows us to uncover clues about the protagonist himself — such as a note from his wife reminding him not to forget his medicine, and a nearby award for excellence in solving criminal matters.

The setting of Gun reveals itself naturally by means of investigation. We live in 2030, and apparently it’s already game-over for most of humanity as robots have taken their place in most everyday jobs, including accounting, cleaning, curating, directing, and thinking. Humanity evolves alongside them, and scientists are working on optimizing the human condition in the context of a strong artificial intelligence presence. On cue, robots now show signs of resistance and evil intent — such as murdering their human ‘owners’ — which then stages the cases to be solved by the mysterious player-character.

In these cases, the player can explore freely, interact with objects point-and-click-style, and examine all sensory data as evidence, and the menu helpfully (or perhaps spoilery?) shows how many clues are left to be obtained. The detective dynamics are basic, but work well. Mainly, the player can interact with objects containing an interface to collect a hint. These hints can be linked manually, and the sense of player freedom in exploration and clue interpretation made most discoveries feel unscripted and hard-earned, which is satisfying in any detective experience.

Most of the encountered suspects are robots, and they can be interacted with and freely questioned using gen AI. Once the player feels as though they know enough, they can ‘solve’ the case, which then triggers a newspaper report that essentially highlights the facts uncovered (and missed) by the player.

The over-arching story is written by human developers (assumedly not AI) and the five main cases have the necessary overlap which ultimately leads to a general conclusion. While none of the writing is particularly brilliant in prose or world-building, the sense of mystery and impending discovery is built effectively, and I was not able to put the game down before finishing whatever case I was working on. (Each typically requires more than an hour to complete.) For example, one case involved a research lab with an assassinated professor, another the death of an artist in his own gallery. Both appeared to be murdered by robots.

The only significant shortcoming in Gun is — predictably — the generative AI.

While the chatbot function worked solidly for trivial matters (I could ask a bot what they thought of a book we had both read or the detective games they liked best) the interrogations went less smoothly. Bots would not interpret my questions correctly, even if specifically framed, and would give me answers which were explicitly underscored for signification at other times. This led me to avoid interrogation entirely for most of each investigation.

The newspaper articles at the end of each case appeared to be AI generated, offering awkwardly-phrased conclusions to my efforts, even when I got all the case’s answers right and there was only one way to interpret what happened. I’d much rather see a handcrafted final message, if only to stress the vital work of human journalists in capturing societal crises.

This leads me to a final reflection on the developer’s stance regarding AI. Going where many sci-fi tales have gone before, human/AI coexistence appears bound for catastrophe, yet, it requires human cooperation to get to this stage. The power vested in the player, and their opposition to the story’s human antagonists, tells us that the threat is looming, but far from out of our control. We have the ability to refrain from surrender to AI if we can resist its temptations of promised ease and luxury, while stressing the value of actual human work.

Thus, as a game, Uncover the Smoking Gun pits the player as a free-roaming individual against those harnessing the power of AI for a distorted idea of humanity’s future. In our role as the detective, we are reminded of the necessarily human skills of connecting dots and interpreting our world, and of protecting what is sacred to humankind. The same should go for the games industry, which demands courage to refrain from the temptations of AI and should double down on the more appreciable fruits of actual human creative labor.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Disclosures: The game is developed and published by ReLU Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: Uncover the Smoking Gun has no ESRB rating, but its PEGI rating on the Steam Store states 12+. I would agree, as the game does not feature explicit gore, but implies some mature truths that can be interpreted as disgusting. Implications of violence, murder, and severe maltreatment are present. The audiovisual style is also catered to more mature players.

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. Audio clues are insignificant to the game’s progression.

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

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HIGH Prosecutor’s Gambit had some great twists and turns…

LOW …but the first entry definitely didn’t have as many.

WTF Wow! The second title’s initial case sure feels timely!

Fans of the Ace Attorney series have been asking for ports of the back catalog, and Capcom has been listening. This time, the Investigations subseries is being given its time in the sun.

While the Ace Attorney titles typically focus on defense attorneys in courtroom-focused legal battles, the Investigations Collection puts players in the shoes — and the cravat — of Miles Edgeworth, one of series protagonist Phoenix Wright’s main prosecutorial rivals. Instead of going in front of a court of law, this 2D adventure title had me investigating crime scenes myself, gathering evidence, cross-examining witnesses, and figuring out how disparate pieces of complex puzzles fit together.

What’s great about this collection is that it has both games in the Investigations subseries — Miles Edgeworth and Prosecutor’s Gambit, the latter of which was never released outside of Japan. This makes this collection a must-have for fans of the Ace Attorney series. It also provides a unique perspective not often seen in the series, that of a prosecutor and a crime scene investigator.

This new formula makes for an interesting break from the rest of the series, which most often focuses on the courtroom. This time around, it was refreshing to be the one bringing a case to the court, rather than simply working with defendants. Each scenario also features new types of areas to explore outside the usual courtrooms, such as the inside of an airplane or even Miles’ office, which was very appreciated.

Each of the two titles in this collection has five scenarios, each consisting of (typically) three acts and an overarching plot that ties each investigation together. What’s nice about this collection is the ability to select not just which episode to start with, but also which chapter. This gives players the ability to jump in during a favorite scene without having to play the entire game or episode. There’s also a generous checkpoint system that allows one to reload without losing too much progress — great if someone bungles a clue or botches an examination.

As the entry that US players haven’t seen before, the second half of the collection expands the narrative of the first by providing additional background to Miles’s motives as a prosecutor, which make him more relatable. Also, since it’s set only a couple of weeks after the first title, it builds to create a bigger story for the attorney.

The gameplay is wonderful, as it allowed me to get into the head of a crime scene investigator. There were lots of things to look at in each area, such as items found in safes, objects hidden under chairs, and the like. Some clues, however, may not be relevant or — worse — red herrings to throw one off. Ace Attorney as a whole is a logic game of putting together individual pieces of a puzzle in order to bring the right people to justice.

For those looking for a more relaxed experience, a “story mode” is available and will automatically progress through each chapter, including answering questions and presenting the evidence for players. This comes with the trade-off that specific achievements are disabled. For newer players, this may be the preferred way to play, as cases can get fairly complex — even the first episodes of each title had some head scratchers.

Longtime fans will notice that the new hand-drawn art looks fantastic. Each character is rendered with an exceptional amount of care, often highly detailed. (There’s also an option for an old-school pixelated look, for anyone nostalgic for the Nintendo DS, where the series debuted.) Thanks to this high-quality work, these versions do look and feel like definitive versions.

I’d be remiss not to provide some objections to this collection, however. I found that Prosecutor’s Gambit was the stronger of the two in this collection because the pace of delivering information to players was much slower — an important aspect that the first didn’t nail. For example, the first case in Miles Edgeworth reveals who the murderer is during the first scene of the first case. It felt like I was reading a book’s last chapter, then going back to read the rest, and it’s not my preferred way to engage with crime content. Other cases which made me work to find out the truth were more enjoyable due to the thrill of the chase, false leads and finally nabbing the culprit. It’s the more exhilarating approach, if you ask me.

Another issue is that there are some confusing leaps in logic at times. During testimony phases, there were often obvious openings to make an accusation or to present a piece of evidence, but the game wanted something else to be said or done first. In one example, I was able to match a specific piece of evidence to an accused person, but the game wanted me to go through a different prescribed step first before it would allow me to move on, even though my hunch was correct.

Despite some small issues, the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection will be a wonderful experience for any Ace Attorney fan. It shines a much-needed light on the prosecutorial side of the courtroom, and leads players through the questions that have to be answered before a case can be brought to trial. Miles Edgeworth is also strong, holding his own as both a protagonist and Phoenix Wright’s rival, and I’d love to see him get a starring role more often!

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Capcom Co., Ltd. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5, XBO/S/X, and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher, and reviewed on PS5. Approximately 7 hours was devoted to the game, and it was not completed. There is no multiplayer mode.

Parents: This game has an ESRB rating of T rating for Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, and Mild Violence. The official rating states: “This is a collection of two mystery-text adventure games in which players help a prosecutor solve a series of murders. As players investigate crime scenes in detail, cutscenes briefly depict characters shot (off-camera) or held at gunpoint. Murder victims are depicted with bloodstained clothing and gunshot/knife wounds; some corpses are sometimes shown lying in pools of blood. One female character is depicted wearing a low-cut top that reveals deep cleavage. The word ‘bastard’ appears in the game.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game offers subtitles. (See examples above.) Subtitles cannot be resized. Since the text cannot be resized, and this title relies so heavily on reading, this may hinder a player who needs bigger text.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. There is no controller diagram. The game uses simplie one-button controls, as most of the experience revolves around dialogue. X is used to progress dialogue, L1 is used in specific sections to access clues and some profiles about the case, R1 is used to access information about evidence and actors in the case, Square is used to review the dialogue history, Triangle is used in some cases to deduce what clues meant, or to pin an accusation on a suspect.

The post Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Finding the last piece of evidence that finally cracks the case.

LOW The myriad technical issues.

WTF With all the passwords left on sticky notes, this city needs better IT Security.

A first-person detective simulator featuring procedurally-generated worlds, characters and objectives, Shadows of Doubt is a dream come true for aspiring gumshoes. 

Upon first stepping into the streets of Casablanca Quarter (one of the pre-built cities a player can choose) I was immediately drawn into the world of Shadows of Doubt.  Owing no small debt to film noir, the architecture feels suitably oppressive.  Residential blocks tower over my character, their tops disappearing into a grainy haze.  It’s always dark in this city, even during the daytime.  I navigate by haloed neon-light, glowing through steam rising from a nearby sewer.  The city shakes and groans around me — an apparent earthquake.  It passes quickly and none of the other citizens seem concerned.  I move on.

Shadows of Doubt is rendered in voxels (three-dimensional pixels) but eschews the cutesy, retro aesthetic typical of the style.  Instead, it lends the world a rag-tag air — buildings, furniture, even people appear rough-hewn and cobbled together.  The city is messy in the best way, where every trash can, safe or person may hold the clue that breaks the case.  It’s good that the world looks so good, as much of my time was spent getting up close and personal with it.

There are a variety of case types — investigating murders, infidelity, corporate espionage — but most revolve around the process of collecting and linking evidence to a person and event. 

In one such case I was hired to investigate a jilted lover’s philandering partner.  Arriving at the accused’s apartment, I knock.  With no answer and a limited number of lockpicks, I sneak into an adjacent air vent, snaking through the ductwork until I reach the living room.  Inside, I waste no time opening drawers, searching for notes, emails, gifts — anything that might prove the infidelity.

Shadows of Doubt demands an engagement with the minutia of its world in such a way that it’s easy to forget its origins as procedurally generated lines of code.  Beyond a brief tutorial case that introduces the basics of evidence collection and demonstrates the title’s internal logic, there is virtually no handholding or guidance.  It’s left entirely to the player to decide which pieces of evidence are relevant, and how best to connect the dots to draw conclusions.

Exploring the unfaithful lover’s bedroom, I find a crumpled note stuffed in a drawer.  Unfolding it reveals a poem signed with initials “XY”.  Time to crack open the phone book to track down any citizens with those initials, and hopefully some answers.

Clues like this form a breadcrumb trail from one citizen to the next until the truth is uncovered.  If I hadn’t noticed that note, I may have discovered a stray fingerprint that didn’t match my employer or their spouse, or maybe an email alluding to a workplace tryst.

There were several instances where I struggled to make these connections, and given the free-form, open-world structure of Shadows of Doubt, I found myself overwhelmed by the possibilities.  Unsure of where to head next, and without a solid lead some of my cases just fizzled out.  Is it a realistic depiction of the investigative process?  Certainly.  But is it a satisfying player experience?  Not so much.  It could be that I’m just not cut out for the life of a P.I., but I would have welcomed a hint system to nudge me in the right direction.

Despite these failures, I was still compelled to press on and pick up new cases.  The act of physically exploring these spaces and connecting the smallest details, but still knowing failure was a possibility brought me into the fiction, making me an active participant in its narrative. Unfortunately, this illusion comes crashing down when it comes to executing the necessary interface steps to make these connections.

Cases are tracked on a virtual corkboard where players can pin pieces of evidence in the form of cards (people, items, fingerprints, etc.) and then literally connect them with thread.  This process is menu intensive, and I often found the various pop-up menus failing to register my inputs, or that my cursor would suddenly disappear when trying to select an inventory item.

Most of these issues can be worked around by closing and re-opening the menus, but I often felt as though my mental energy was devoted to outsmarting a stubborn UI, rather than a merciless killer.  While I’m sure many of these problems will be addressed in future patches, as it stands, my experience was significantly compromised by these bugs.  Nothing shatters the climax of a city-wide manhunt like having to reload a save because I got trapped in the security camera interface.

The other elephant in the room is the procedural generation system.  While I generally prefer more intentional authorship, I was genuinely impressed by the level of detail and nuance in each case I undertook.  However, I quickly began to notice repetition in the extraneous material.

Literally every office I explored had an identically written email about a gambling ring.  Each apartment had the same letters to old friends with indistinguishable text.  These elements are incidental and are present to give the space a lived-in feel, but for me they had the opposite effect, taking me out of the experience.

In its current state, Shadows of Doubt is a tricky title to sum up.  In many ways, it’s a remarkable and rewarding experience that demands wholesale buy-in from its players.  On the other hand, it’s immensely frustrating and ultimately disappointing, with repetitive elements and technical foibles destroying its façade. 

While difficult to describe it as a success, Shadows of Doubt is a title I won’t soon forget, and if the itch in the back of my brain is any indication, it won’t be long before I’m back on the streets, chasing down leads and catching killers.

Rating: 7 out of 10

— Ryan nalley

Disclosures: This game is developed by ColePowered Games and published by Fireshine Games.It is currently available on PC, XBS/X, and PS5. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood, Mild Language, Tobacco Reference, Use of Alcohol, and Violence. The ESRB Rating Summary is as follows: This is a simulation game in which players assume the role of a detective solving murder cases. From a first-person perspective, players explore an open-world environment, gather evidence, interact with characters, and obtain gadgets and equipment. Throughout the game, players encounter and investigate cadavers/corpses of murder victims. Players can use various weapons (e.g., knives, boxcutters, batons) and their fists to engage characters in melee-style combat. Combat sometimes results in blood-splatter effects. Players’ character can purchase and consume alcohol (e.g., vodka, bourbon), resulting in a drunk effect (i.e., blurred vision, stumbling). Players’ character can also purchase tobacco products (e.g., cigarettes, cigars, tobacco), which can be held but not used/consumed. The word “bastard” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. While the subtitles generally cannot be altered or re-sized, certain written elements in the game world (letters, notes, etc.) can be toggled between handwriting and typeface for easier legibility. All dialogue is subtitled with the exception of some background dialogue such as a PA system in the city, televisions in the world, and other incidental dialogue of this nature.  I did not find these elements to be necessary for progression, although they do provide background information for the world. All audio cues are represented by on-screen indicators.

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

The post Shadows Of Doubt Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The game’s aesthetics and visual style.

LOW The slow-paced start and abrupt ending!

WTF Why do I need a supercomputer to run this?!?

Alan Wake 2 is Remedy’s next and incredibly ambitious project, and it comes in the form of a third-person survival horror that nails it in some areas and misses in some others.

Alan Wake 2 starts 13 years after the events of the first. While the titular writer has been missing since then, a murderous group calling themselves the Cult of the Tree have killed many people in the Cauldron Lake area where both games were set. FBI agent Saga Anderson and her partner are assigned to the case, hoping to shed some light on these killings.

Just like the first, Alan Wake 2 is a third-person survival horror, with both action and puzzle-solving. In the action segments, the player will use a flashlight to make ‘dark’ enemies vulnerable before engaging in gunfights with them. Due to its narrative-focused nature, the world has a semi-open design. Players are
largely free to explore different regions, but a loading screen awaits them when transitioning between areas. Switching between Alan and Saga is only possible in safe rooms where the game can be saved.

While there are different types of upgradable weapons, the combat is nothing special. Enemies use ranged and melee attacks against the player and attacks can be dodged to stagger foes and earn some breathing room. That said, one twist during Alan’s portions are that not all entities in Dark Place are hostile. Because Alan never knows which of the shadows calling his name is his next adversary, the player will often find themselves on the edge of their seats when roaming.

More innovative than the combat is Wake 2‘s narrative. The script follows two interconnected stories and characters in two distinct worlds. In one we accompany Alan in his attempt to find a way out of the supernatural Dark Place he’s trapped in, and the other is Saga and her detective work in the real world. It seemed to me that it would be tough balancing both fantastical and ‘real’ elements while keeping the two narratives connected throughout, but Remedy nailed it.

During Alan’s portions in a nightmarish New York-like setting, everything relies on environmental storytelling. Billboards warn about the inevitable failure of Alan’s mission. Neon lights of the shops on corners act as waypoints, glowing in the darkness of the rainy night. Graffiti on the walls points towards hidden stashes or skill points. On Saga’s side, her detective’s intuition is used to guide the player. She can go through the pieces of evidence found throughout the world in her virtual “Mind Place” to reach a conclusion and plan the next place to go or the next person to find.

Saga’s Mind Place can be accessed at any time via the push of a button, and presents like a small hut in which she walks around and interacts with casefiles and pieces of evidence. For example, if she puts the right real-world evidence next to the right mental question she has about the case, the question is answered.

Though the idea of the Mind Place is great, it’s not well-rooted, as players can go through most of the story without consulting the pieces of evidence Saga finds, and as the story unfolds over time, Saga will automatically file them into correct cases and come to a conclusion saying “I already know how this ends”.

While Alan doesn’t use a Mind Place, he can change the world around him by writing about it in his “Writer’s Room”. He can turn a lively ballroom into a scene of grisly murder by adding cultists to the story and then following their bloody trail of blood to the next key object needed in his quest. The general mechanics of Alan’s Writer’s Room is like Saga’s Mind Place, with the only difference being that when Alan puts a theme (murder, for example) next to a place (let’s say “ballrom”) then the world around Alan changes and new paths or items are revealed.

In terms of pacing, Alan Wake 2 suffers from opening hours that are almost completely devoid of any action. Things starts with Saga examining a crime scene in Cauldron Lake, introducing the detective work mechanics and how the Mind Place works. By the time her introduction is finished, the story switches to Alan and his intro, which includes solving puzzles by changing the environment with the Writer’s Room. The need for two intros is inevitable based on Remedy’s basic structure and the differences between the two leads, yet, the way they’re set one right after another with a heavy focus on puzzles in both is questionable.

Unfortunately, without spoiling anything, I can say that the ending of the adventure is underwhelming. Though the plot is full of surprises, the last hour boils down to being a fetch quest, and most of the anticipated action is done via cutscenes which rob the player of feeling like they’ve gotten the job done themselves. 

Artistically, I have no doubt that Alan Wake 2 will frequently in any conversation about pushing boundaries. The game not only uses live-action cinematics in conjunction with CGI, but there are parts of gameplay when the Dark Place and the real world overlap. This is achieved by using a live-action sequence and overlaying it like a photo filter on the environment — not only a great idea to show how the two words (and narratives) affect each other, but it’s a truly unique visual experience. Character facial animations are also perfect, and it’s a rare treat to see a studio so committed to motion capture rather than auto-generating animations, as I found the performances far more realistic and emotionally engaging.

Combat also has some issues — things feel clunky in part due to the inventory management system. 

Weapons and usable items like med packs can be assigned to eight ‘quick select’ menu slots assigned to four physical buttons on the keyboard and controllers. In order to select an item, the player should push the corresponding button either once for the primary item or twice for the secondary. This single or double-clicking method of switching is a frustrating pain during combat that made me choose the
wrong weapon or item in the heat of the fight many times. It’s strange why the devs chose to not go with something more standard like a radial ‘weapon wheel’ or even an older-school solution such as a “next/previous weapon” button.

One final thing to discuss are the technical aspects of running Alan Wake 2 on PC, where I reviewed it. The game truly takes ray tracing to the next level with various notable effects like reflections within reflections. The benefit is hugely atmospheric, but these great visuals come with great costs.

It’s impossible to get a solid 60FPS with Ray Tracing (even on 1080p resolution) without using DLSS and frame generation on an RTX 4080. For people who don’t know what this means, take it as Alan Wake 2 certainly being the next Crysis when it comes to testing and benchmarking PC hardware in upcoming years. However, the sad truth is that other current games use the same top-notch Ray Tracing technologies while offering much better performance and demanding less investment on the hardware side.

Alan Wake 2 is a unique experience thanks to the innovative blending of photorealism and traditional visual design, as well as a narrative deeply entwined to gameplay mechanics to an extent rarely seen before. It is not a perfect experience, but it is innovative enough to inspire gamers and devs alike for years to come.

Score: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Epic Games. 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 18 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, and Strong Language. The official rating summary reads: Combat is highlighted by realistic gunfire, explosions, and blood-splatter effects; shooting enemies sometimes results in exposed entrails and large wounds. Cutscenes also depict instances of violence/blood… a character is depicted nude, with exposed genitalia and buttocks.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles can be altered and/or resized. There are some necessary audio cues in puzzle solving sections. There are some audio cues used in puzzle solving sections that are not accompanied by visual cues. This game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Controls can be remapped.

The post Alan Wake 2 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The sheer amount of detail and care put into each map. 

LOW Way too much filler. 

WTF The AI’s passionate hatred of goats. 

The format of Crime o’ Clock lends itself perfectly to a monotonous, repetitive experience — the player is thrust into the role of a detective in the far future, working alongside a sophisticated AI named Eve. The detective is tasked with solving crimes in the past that never should have occurred and are now disrupting the normal flow of time. They solve these crimes through interacting with a diegetic, computer workstation-esque interface. 

There’s really nothing wrong with a game about a fictional ‘office job’ leaning into a certain kind of monotony as the player repeats the same simulated tasks over and over — this monotony can, in fact, serve to highlight moments of beauty and grace. In the Case of Crime o’ Clock, unfortunately, the repetition of both gameplay and plot elements is so acute, so overwhelmingly hard to ignore, that most of its positive qualities quickly become buried in a sea of mind-numbing busywork. 

In order to carry out their aforementioned detective work, the player is mainly tasked with finding different objects within large, extremely detailed isometric images, representing different frozen moments in time that occurred during the event in question — it’s a bit like the saved web pages in the Wayback Machine. For example, the player might be asked to identify an initial crime scene, with the computer telling them the approximate area it’s located in. Once they’ve identified the crime scene, the view might shift to a different moment in time, and they’ll be asked to find additional clues near the crime scene, and so on. 

At its core, it’s simply a fancy version of Where’s Waldo, but the unique twists it brings to that tried-and-true formula serve to sustain the player’s curiosity — at least, for a time. 

Crime o’ Clock  is rendered in a simplistic, cartoony style, with many of the humans represented by cute anthropomorphic characters that carry on their own lives parallel to the stories the player investigates. I won’t lie, I let out a bit of a groan when I saw the pair of Rick and Morty lookalikes in the first level, but I was tickled to see them teleporting around the map every time I shifted through time, being chased through a replica castle before making their narrow escape through a portal.

Given that the player will return to the same ‘maps’ (corresponding to different time periods) many times over the course of the campaign, it’s inevitable that they will spot people that were involved in cases they have already solved, going about their newly-peaceful lives as the world continues to advance. These small moments of recognition, along with the playful way in which Crime o’ Clock lays out its alternate vision of history — Atlantis existed, there was a ‘Great Goat Guerilla’ at some point, etc. — thoroughly enchanted me for the first few hours. 

…And then I realized how many hours were left. 

Even before I clued in to how long Crime o’ Clock was probably going to be, I was beginning to tire of the repetitive minigames it kept throwing at me. Between selecting spots on the map Where’s Waldo-style, the player’s AI partner will often ask them to solve small puzzles to progress the investigation that are meant to correspond to, say, hacking a computer interface, or checking a glass for poison. The problem is, Crime o’ Clock has very few minigames on offer. Multiple minigames are variations on the same simple matching game, and while they slowly ramp up in difficulty, their repetitive nature along with the sheer length of Crime o’ Clock relative to its simplistic mechanics (and the fact that there is zero penalty for failure) means that the player will master them all long before they’ve reached the end credits. 

At first, I appreciated these minigames for their slight tonal contrast with the Crime o’ Clock’s regular rhythm, but as the hours wore on, their appeal fell away completely, and I could only see them as padding. Really, Crime o’ Clock’s entire structure began to feel like padding, the repetition serving to elaborate on mechanics that warrant a one or two-hour experience at the absolute most. In the end, I began to feel a hopeless sense of dread pass over me, always shocked to find out just how much I had left to do. 

Thankfully, Crime o’ Clock’s final level returns to its strengths somewhat, using the Where’s Waldo format to drive home its ideas in a way that felt satisfying — but the level, too, felt just a little bit too padded, circling around its central point one (or two, or three) too many times.

At the very least, I appreciated the creativity on display — the final level really hammered home the fact that the devs had a vision for the story of Crime o’ Clock that directly incorporated the unique format they chose to use, rather than offering a haphazard story applied to the gameplay after the fact. The whole thing feels a bit messy, but there’s a unique vision within it that might be brought to light with a bit of careful pruning… but I suppose we’ll never know. 

Rating: 4 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Bad Seed and published by Just for Games and Merge Games. It is currently available on PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 16 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 E10+ and contains Mild Violence. The ‘mild violence’ mentioned by the ESRB is rendered in an extremely stylized cartoon style, and only the aftermath of said violence is ever really shown. 

Coloblind Modes: there are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered or resized. All the dialogue from the AI or other characters is fully text-based, and every game element is easily findable through the game’s interface. There is a sound-based minigame, but it is accompanied by a visual component that makes it quite simple to complete without sound. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the game’s controls are not remappable. Every interaction in the game is completed using the left mouse button. 

The post Crime O’ Clock Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

I’m a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. I’ve read the classic stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle countless of times, and I’m generally interested in anything Holmesian, regardless of the form in which it’s presented.

My issue with videogame adaptations of beloved works of literature — like Sherlock Holmes, for example — is that the writing is usually nowhere near as sophisticated as the source material, sometimes to the point of doing a disservice to the original author and familiar readers.

That’s why I’m generally happy with developer Frogwares’ third-person adventure game iteration of the world’s most famous detective — these people can write exceptionally well and they have a good formula. Their take on the material offers point-and-click evidence collecting at crime scenes with a clue interpretation system via the ‘Mind Palace’ which allows for deductions, conclusions, and eventually, verdicts. These verdicts include moral choices, usually between condemning and absolving a criminal which allow the player to link the logical to the ethical.

I’m glad to see both the writing and the formula return for their latest crack at Holmes. This time around, we are in Cordona (possibly a pun meant for players in lockdown), a fictional island in the Mediterranean where Sherlock spent a part of his childhood. Chapter One features a 21-year-old, before-he-was-famous Holmes returning to visit his mother’s grave, and in the process a mystery is revealed.

Besides the age of Sherlock, there’s another new twist — Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is an open-world game, and features interactive NPCs providing sidequests, shops where clothes can be purchased to aid with blending in with Cordona’s populace, landmarks and frequent fast travel stations. There is also a feature — if one looks for them — where Sherlock can eavesdrop and learn about secret meetings and unlocking more tasks. The world is clearly still in an early stage of development, but I’m looking forward to when it’s more densely populated with these things.

In terms of design, I struggled with the gameplay — instead of having general objectives, the player has to manually select items from the casebook which indicate follow-up. I found this confusing, especially because the descriptions of cases are not clear in regards to what action to take. In the final mission of the preview, for example, I was left with not knowing what to do next, to the point that I wasn’t even sure if I’d arrived at the end of the preview or not. Just a bit more of a nudge here without direct handholding would go a long way.

A more significant issue is that I am passionately opposed to the combat sections in Chapter One. Just as in their previous game, The Sinking City, combat is not needed to make a detective title work, but here it is.

In my view, developers generally throw combat in where it doesn’t naturally fit because they (unjustifiably) equate it with ‘fun’, but I cannot believe that developers with such a thorough grasp on Doyle’s work would see it the same way. Sherlock is a detective, not a soldier. A thinker, not a brute. The mere idea of bandit camps which can be cleared through combat is an utter joke in this context, and I found the combat I saw in the preview to be cringe-inducing.

As is stands, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One offers great promise and I look forward to Frogwares’ second attempt at open-world design, but I do hope that they use the time before release to polish up the UI and give the combat a second thought. If they focus on their strengths, spending time with young Holmes should prove to be a very interesting adventure.

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One will release for PC, XBOX Series X and Playstation 5 November 16, 2021.

The post Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One Preview appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The air of hopelessness.

LOW Some technically-poor transitions between scenes.

WTF Pretty much everything, but that would be spoiling it…

Backbone is one of the most fascinating videogames I’ve played in a long time, and it’s not even because I was in the shoes of an anthropomorphic raccoon in a dystopian 20th-century Vancouver. In fact, while praise for the distinct art style, smooth animation and gorgeous pixel art is well-deserved, it all takes a backseat to the game’s fascinating ideas.

Backbone is described as a “post-noir detective-adventure RPG” in which this take on the classical point-and-click genre is enhanced with stealth sections, exploration and long dialogue sequences that include choices. Aside from the forgettable stealth, all of these elements offer significant contributions and support its cornerstone — a phenomenal narrative.

We play as Howard Lotor. He’s a private investigator, but not in the Sherlock Holmes sense — he’s actually quite mediocre and confined to investigating wife beaters, cheaters, and criminal kids. He often fails at his job and later, we learn that his failings are associated with his status as a raccoon — this is emblematic of the central theme of the game, social Darwinism.

All the citizens of Backbone‘s Vancouver are anthropomorphic animals like Howard, but some are more equal than others. The city is confined within a great wall which is constructed with neighborhoods that represent levels of hierarchy. At the bottom are hardworking raccoons, foxes, dogs, cats, rabbits and the like, while on top of the system are heavier and stronger animals such as bears, lions, and most particularly, apes. It is obvious what the hierarchy of apes resembles in the real world.

Howard’s weakness as a detective and his social inferiority intelligently intertwine when he stumbles upon a shady conspiracy network between the city’s ape rulers, drug manufacturers and leading scientists. Shocked and disgusted by their malevolence towards the lower classes/species of society, Howard dedicates himself to investigating further with the help of a clever fox who’s a political writer.

Like many dystopian narratives, Backbone is not ultimately a success story. Howard is not the hero of the oppressed, and his struggles and general powerlessness invite an existentialist layer to the narrative where he constantly wonders whether his life has any purpose at all. It is, in a sense, the polar opposite of the traditional videogame narrative. Rather than gradual empowerment, Backbone shows Howard’s increasing decay as a person, both mentally and physically.

Yet, within the heaviness of themes and events presented in the plot, there resides sparkles of goodness in Howard’s few exchanges with nature. We can see Howard become one with the trees surrounding him or see him feeding pigeons in the streets. When his mind temporarily escapes from his societal constrains, we come closest to viewing Howard at peace with himself.

Backbone’s narrative and character work are thrilling, complex, and thought-provoking, and the writing deserves all the praise it can get. That said, there is some feeling of the pacing being slightly off, since the final acts feel like they follow too quickly after the introductory ones. Whether it’s due to a lack of time or inspiration, the story could’ve done with at least two more chapters of narrative substance during the middle stretch.

Any other issues I might raise with Backbone are mostly trivial. With its inspired script that accentuates themes of dystopia and desperation, this detective story delivers one of the most inspiring narrative-driven titles I’ve played in some time.

Disclosures: This game is developed by EggNut and published by Raw Fury. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: Backbone currently has no ESRB rating. According to PEGI, this game is rated 16+ and contains Strong Language and Use of Alcohol/Tobacco/Drugs. I would add that violence and bloody murder are also implied, and the dialogue contains references to cutting people into pieces.

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. This game can be fully experienced without sound, without any hindrance. In my view, it’s fully accessible.

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

The post Backbone Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A brilliant concept and exceptional writing.

LOW I really wish there were touch controls.

WTF A game with leftist politics? 

If there’s one thing I’ve come to expect from videogames — at least those in the triple-A sphere — it’s that their politics are usually awful. We even wrote a piece here at GameCritics highlighting that very fact. Whether it’s a slight skewing towards the right or aggressive centrism, too many titles never say the right thing at the right time. It’s concerning, but not surprising since most big-budget games can’t afford to ‘alienate’ their playerbases. Thankfully, many indies don’t suffer from the same fear. 

The Flower Collectors is an adventure set in Barcelona during 1977. Players control Jorge, a retired cop confined to a wheelchair. Jorge is something of a curmudgeon, and confused by a world that’s constantly changing. He spends most of his time sketching the people in his part of town, trying to capture every detail he can. 

The game is played from a first-person perspective from within Jorge’s apartment and balcony, using his vantage point to solve puzzles and mysteries. The opening moments have players using a pair of binoculars to watch people on the street while capturing specific moments for Jorge to draw in his sketchbook.

For example, I was instructed to find a “scene with contrasting characters.” I saw a priest speaking to a homeless man and Jorge began drawing. It’s not incredibly dynamic, but I loved how players are acclimated to the play mechanics in this context by getting them used to scoping the area out and finding specific things. After the sketches are done, Jorge consults a board and places each picture with its corresponding label.

Things changed once I heard a gunshot outside my apartment, and I was introduced to Melinda, a young journalist trying to get to the bottom of a series of conspiracies. Jorge and Melinda clash as they reflect different attitudes and react differently to the climate of Barcelona in the ’70s.

Melinda’s a staunch leftist and progressive, hungry for the truth. Jorge is set in his ways, seemingly bitter in an evolving world. The two bicker about small things, like Jorge insisting on calling women “girls”, or his critiques of socialism. Melinda is uneasy trusting a cop to help in her crusade, but the two learn to work together as Jorge uses his vantage point to guide her while communicating via radio.

The same ‘spotting things’ gameplay elements return, but now modified slightly. Jorge has a camera at this point, and must piece together crime scenes on his board. Playing detective is great and figuring things out never feels frustrating. It’s a smooth ride and cracking each case throughout ten chapters is exciting.

The writing in The Flower Collectors is exceptional and deals with themes like politics, grief, depression, homelessness, and police corruption. Seeing a game not only acknowledge socialist and leftist themes but embracing them feels like a revelation in the current real-world climate where the hard-right claims so much ground.

Politics aside, the dialogue feels ripped from the best political thrillers of the ’60s and ’70s, with the main point of influence (obviously) being Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, while also taking cues from films like The Conformist. 

The visuals are incredibly stylish, with every character portrayed as an anthropomorphized animal (Jorge is a bear and Melinda is a cat) reminding me of comics like the landmark Maus, in which different ethnicities and religions were portrayed by different animals. Barcelona itself is gorgeous as well, with bold lines and a wonderful color palette that looks great in both day and night. 

The Flower Collectors is a short but sweet experience that succeeds based on the merits of its writing and storytelling. It’s a game that successfully tackles political corruption and champions the left, yet still manages to be an engaging addition to the Adventure genre — something I wish more of its peers would do. While we probably won’t see a major studio adopt these politics anytime soon, I’ll always know that there’s at least one out there that does it well.

Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Mi’pu’mi Games. It is currently available on Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There is no multiplayer. 

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated T for Blood, Violence, Language and Use of Tobacco. Violence plays a large part of the game’s narrative but it’s not gratuitous or gory. Still, I feel like the game is better suited for adults, as its themes are a bit dark for young children.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers:  All the dialogue here is subtitled, with various visual cues used to solve puzzles. While none of these things can be resized, the game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the controls are not remappable.

The post The Flower Collectors Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The first time connecting to a victim.

LOW The ‘dedicated to Rutger Hauer’ message on boot-up.

WTF Those Fire Sword minigames could be their own release.

I missed out on the full >Observer_ experience the first time around — I played it on Game Pass but found that the dingy, slow pace put me off. Fortunately, after going through Layers of Fear and The Blair Witch recently, I was motivated to revisit Bloober Team’s least horror-based title to date and revise my opinions on it.

The player takes the role of Dan Lazarski, an “Observer” in the city of Krakow voiced by Rutger Hauer. Observers are detectives augmented by cybernetics, able to jack into the chips inside (almost) every citizen and relive their memories to solve crimes.

Lazarski gets a call from his lost son, and the opening starts by pulling up outside the his last known residence while a weathered Hauer growls and sighs through his opening lines and sets the scene. Of course, things don’t stay straightforward and soon Lazarski is embroiled in a murder investigation and the possible outbreak of a deadly virus while still trying to find his elusive son.

>Observer_ is essentially a walking simulator with elements of procedural detective work. While searching the building, the player is required to switch between normal, Electromagnetic and Bio visual filters to discern clues in electronic devices, or to scan items such as blood.

What immediately hit me about >Observer_ is the incredibly strong environmental storytelling, and by this I don’t mean anything as simple as some writing on the wall in blood. The apartment building Lazarski navigates has holographic displays flickering in and out, barely covering over festering wooden frames, and decaying concrete. Water appears to drip everywhere under the grim neon lights.

There is a feeling of age and neglect to the edifice, and of constructs being papered on top of themselves — some comm systems on the doors look up to date, while others are barely functional. The hallways and stairwells are asymmetrical, walls have been knocked down to make new pathways, aging gates have rusted shut to block others. This is a developer that understands the power of the environment they have constructed and it reminds me of my own experiences in the rundown areas of Poland I am familiar with like the ghettos of Wroclaw, or the dead factory in Ursus.

The direct storytelling is a little shakier than the environmental due to the fact that there is plenty that >Observer_ wants to explore. Many conversations with the building’s tenants feel a little too much like talking heads for specific political outlooks, or they offer philosophical perspectives on a society whose members willingly have their body mechanically modified. However, this is a minor gripe since the events >Observer_ wants to explore are fascinating and elevated by excellent writing — the further I went into the story, the more I was compelled to continue.

It may not be different enough to justify a replay for those who’ve already experienced the original version, but for those wanting something crisp and clean on new consoles, or for those intrigued by Bloober Team’s work but put off by tense horror, >Observer_ is a great choice.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Bloober Team/Anshar Studios and published by Bloober Team S.A. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS5, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via  publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, and Use of Drugs. The official description reads as follows: This is a first-person adventure game in which players assume the role of Daniel Lazarski, a detective who can enter the minds of victims and suspects. As players explore a futuristic Polish nation-state, they experience the nightmares, murders, and assaults of characters in vivid detail. Some sequences depict dramatic instances of violence: a monstrous figure slamming an impaled woman against a window; a man being beaten by the player’s character; a man getting shot in the stomach. Blood-splatter effects and screams of pain accompany several scenes of violence. A handful of scenes depict headless corpses, flayed human skin, and wounded figures with exposed entrails. The game contains some sexual material and nudity: a holographic dancer (resembling a mannequin) gyrating in a strip club–her chest and groin are covered by neon lights; robots behind a glass partition, with undulating body parts and flesh; a “sexbot” that players can speak with through an intercom (the robot is not shown); poster drawings of topless women. During a prison sequence, player’s character mentions needing “a fix” before ingesting a substance that causes the screen to distort; during the course of the game, there are also references to “stoners,” “crackheads,” and “junkies” in the dialogue. The words “f**k” and “sh*t” appear 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. There are no relevant audio cues needed to play, so the game should be fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. The X and Y axis can be inverted.

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