HIGH The smooth menu simulation UI.

LOW The lack of improvement in realistic representation.

WTF Tadej Pogacar is overpowered.

When I last reviewed (and played) a Pro Cycling Manager title, it was mid-2020, the world was in the grasp of a pandemic, and nobody was sure who would win the Tour de France. PCM, as a point-and-click simulation franchise, modeled the cycling world as accurately as possible in the post-Froome era, and seemed to point to Froome’s relatively young teammate, Egan Bernal (the winner of 2019’s Tour) as his successor.

The fact that 2020 saw the rise of a new era of Grand Tour champions, including Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic, and a year later Jonas Vingegaard, exemplifies the unpredictability of road cycling. In PCM, where the present cycling season and potential sequential seasons get simulated, this unpredictability is definitely an advantage, as every outlined scenario has an inherent degree of possibility.

The PCM formula is simple but fertile — menu simulation in commercial team manager or pro cyclist career modes, where calendars with training schedules are planned for months in advance, to ensure peak performance in the most important races. These races themselves can be quickly simulated or more elaborately played out in a 3D format. In the latter, players can actively control their team’s riders, including how much effort they will put into their pace, when (and if) they attack, or whether they decide to closely observe and follow a competitor.

There are typically two playing positions in such a managerial sim, either start from the top, from the vantage point of a team (close to) competing for wins, or from the bottom while building a team or cyclist from a lower ranking in a process that takes multiple in-game years. The advantage to the former position is the possibility of simulating road cycling season 2024 from within the current peloton, whereas the bottom-up option allows one to imagine what the future of road cycling could look like.

Both positions also speak to the promise of realistic representation customary of annual sports franchises. In my playthrough, I played as a world class team manager for the 2024 season and as a rookie pro cyclist for a career far beyond that.

The menu simulation in both modes feels somewhat slicker than it used to. In the managerial sim, the player manages the riders’ (peak) fitness, schedules races and ideal team selection, and can even manage technical details such as bicycle settings. In the pro cyclist sim, these settings are similar, but catered to the cyclist’s personal development of numerically valued attributes such as climbing or time trial speed and stamina.

While simplistic and only marginally improved, the menu simulation serves as a solid background to the off-road aspects of cycling. Still, I think that the current template could use with an upgrade, mainly in terms of narrative elements. While it’s possible to see updates on injuries across the competition, as well as detailed results, there is no serious news or social feed that could really liven things up and stay true to sport’s increasing media-tization.

The main issue of PCM 2024 is its 3D racing. It’s simply not updated in any way whatsoever, even compared to a title four years its predecessor. This wouldn’t have been a significant issue if the current simulation would work wonders, but it has definitely not aged well.

Typically, road cycling requires patience, picking the right moment to attack, planning a sustained effort that does not have a cyclist overextend their stamina, and taking care of any unforeseen circumstances. Especially on intense mountain stages, gaps between riders can be minutes. For this reason, I prefer simulating stage races such as the Tour de France and playing as climbers with a chance to win it all.

In PCM, certain strategies are favored over others. Attacking is highly inefficient stamina-wise, so winning a mountain stage with an attack is unlikely, unless there are more than the usual fine margins between riders. At the same time, my pro cyclist, developing into a top level climber and stage racer, could not follow any attacks by punchier climbers, nor make up ground by a sustained effort due to the AI suddenly coordinating their efforts perfectly.

It’s understandable that a simulation of road cycling would initially struggle to condense multiple hour-stages into a format that may take as much as 30 minutes, while still remaining faithful to time differences typical in road cycling. The result remains unbalanced, however, with punchers able to take half a minute extra time due to carrying a stronger final sprint, for example, and the quick simulation featuring wholly different results in both bias and form.

Other than the inauthentic feel of the simulation, there’s the audiovisual representation. In the case of PCM, it has never been a highlight — until now, where it’s notably a concern. While I will be the last critic to ever judge a game for limited resources concerning graphics and sound design, PCM’s lack of polish disturbs the experience. The props look ancient, with historically significant stages making use of the exact same backdrops as other stages, with the difference a mere physical road taken or not taken. On the level of the cyclists, faces and motions have the effect of making everyone look identically dull.

The sound design is minimal, with hardly any classic cheering (nor a visual representation) of fans along the road. Commentary is very limited, unspecific and contains some ill-conceived phrases (e.g. “there are pretty ladies at the top.”) Generally, the sound does not add any value to races. If the game does not play like road cycling, look like road cycling, or sound like road cycling, the question can be posed whether it simulates road cycling at all.

In the last four years, road cycling has changed immensely. Pro Cycling Manager has not.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Cyanide Studio and published by Nacon. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 28 hours of play were devoted to single-player modes, and several seasons of these modes were completed. No time was spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, which most recently rated the 2020 installment of this franchise, this game is rated E with no descriptors. The official summary reads: “This is a pro cycling simulation game in which player assume the role of a professional cyclist or a team manager. Players can select and supervise their teams’ staff, calendar, and equipment as they compete in international training and racing events.”

Colorblind Modes: Color filters are present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The only ‘subtitles’ are the text that can read in the menus, there are no subtitles in the 3D race mode. This game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. The entire game can be played with a computer mouse.

The post Pro Cycling Manager 2024 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Delivers classic wrestling with intriguing updates.

LOW The AI struggles. Special match types are uneven.

WTF Why is there a QTE to complete a ladder match when on top of the ladder?

History has a habit of coming back around in professional wrestling. Whether it’s Ric Flair adopting the mannerisms of “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers or CM Punk unleashing a Hulk Hogan-esque leg drop at an All-Elite Wrestling (AEW) pay-per-view, the history of this dramatized combat sport is what gives flavor to its competitors and events.

As such, it’s only natural that this reverence for the past in pro wrestling would also extend to wrestling videogames — particularly those developed by the AKI Corporation during the early 2000s. There is a persistent segment of fans that absolutely need to know if any upcoming wrestling title is comparable to WWF No Mercy, the Nintendo 64 classic from AKI that features the beloved “Attitude Era” roster of World Wrestling Federation Entertainment superstars.

Thankfully — mercifully — I am happy to report that AEW Fight Forever not only picks up the torch from those classic AKI wrestling games but carries it forward in new and exciting directions.

The time-tested foundation of AEW Fight Forever comes down to a simple and intuitive control scheme of strikes and grapples, each with weak and strong variations as well as corresponding blocks to repel them.

Strikes do immediate damage, but are generally weaker than most holds that are applied out of a grapple. Grapples, on the other hand, have a more pronounced windup animation that makes them easy to be deflected or even countered into a retaliatory attack. As players take damage, recovery time degrades and gives way to longer stun animations that provide more time to execute devastating attacks.

Along with damage to their opponents, successful attacks also build up momentum that a player can use to trigger a timed “SPECIAL” state where they have access to finishing moves. Once time runs out, the player’s momentum drops enough that they must successfully land multiple attacks to reach that threshold again and, naturally, opposing attacks decrease the player’s momentum as well.

This momentum system not only encourages careful timing, but also rewards players that execute a multi-faceted attack plan. Simply trading blows back and forth won’t build momentum effectively, and settling into the same attacks will give opponents multiple opportunities to learn the timing of how to counter a given move — and the ability to counter consistently is what separates the decent players in AEW Fight Forever from world championship material.

All these core mechanics tie back into that AKI lineage of wrestling game design, which is timeless in the same way that a good fighter can live years beyond its release. Luckily, most of the new features in AEW Fight Forever build upon this rock-solid foundation without compromising any fundamental strengths.

The most notable addition to the in-ring action is the new “SIGNATURE” momentum state, which now precedes the “SPECIAL” state and offers an intermediate tier of moves that have a damage bonus over basic moves. Crucially, the “SIGNATURE” state is not time-limited the same way “SPECIAL” is, so multiple signature moves can be executed to ensure that an opponent will be stunned enough to receive a finishing move for the win.

There are also several new context-sensitive button activations that allow the player to execute location-specific attacks, such as a springboard dive from the top rope onto the area outside the ring. This change gives AEW Fight Forever multiple ways to better reflect the more acrobatic tendencies of its performers, and of modern wrestling in general.

Outside of the ring, many of these new mechanics are tied to active and passive character traits, which comprise the biggest change to the formulawhen it comes to character creation and modification. For the real-life wrestlers that are already on the AEW Fight Forever roster (as well as the custom-created wrestlers that players can create on their own) these traits provide a sorely-needed outlet for characterization beyond a simple list of moves and taunts.

The one new addition that’s more of an odd curiosity than anything else is the chain wrestling mechanic, where two wrestlers start exchanging a series of holds and escapes where players appear to guess opposing button presses. Even though chain wrestling is mentioned in the character traits, there’s no tutorial for it and the couple of times I activated the mechanic in 20+ hours of play came completely by accident. Weird.

There are other aspects of AEW that exhibit a similar lack of polish, though they stand out more as weird quirks than anything that adversely impacts the experience.

For example, players can create their own wrestlers and take these characters through the game’s Road to Elite career mode to level them up, but the improvements don’t consistently reflect across multiple runs. In one instance I couldn’t reassign a different second finishing move on a later playthrough, even though I had unlocked the move slot on an earlier playthrough with that character.

More critically, the AI behavior of computer-controlled opponents seems particularly undercooked. Opponents on Easy difficulty are pushovers that rarely attempt to defend themselves, while wrestlers on harder difficulties are flawless killing machines that counter move after move as though they were in The Matrix. Worst of all, AIs on all difficulties struggle with pathfinding over fallen wrestlers, which can be exploited to get easy pinfalls in multi-man matches. One could make the argument that this is just part of a “faithful” carryover of the old N64 games, but this is one aspect that should have been left to the history books.

It’s the best traits from those classic AKI games that remain at the core of AEW Fight Forever, though, along with some clever and sometimes whimsical additions made along the way. (The Mario Party-esque minigames are, hands down, some of the wackiest additions I’ve seen to any sports game.) Though All Elite Wrestling is still a relatively young wrestling company, it can point to Fight Forever as a great first foray into console gaming and one of the best wrestling games in years.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Yuke’s Co., LTD and published by THQ Nordic and All Elite Wrestling, LLC.It is currently available on XBO/X/S, Switch, PS4/5 and PC.This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. (Once through Women’s Road to Elite on Easy Difficulty, once through Men’s Road to Elite on Easy Difficulty, and once through Women’s Road to Elite on Normal Difficulty). One hour of play was spent in local multiplayer. There are online multiplayer modes available for all match types, but no online matches could be completed for this review.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence. ESRB Description: This is a wrestling game in which players compete in matches with wrestlers from the AEW roster. Players use punches, kicks, and grappling maneuvers to drain their opponents’ health. In some match types (e.g., Barbed Wire, Stadium Stampede, Unsanctioned) players can use barbed wired, baseball bats, metal chairs, and Molotov cocktails against opponents, eventually resulting in submission and/or knock outs. Blood-splatter effects can occur during matches, staining the mats; video footage of real matches also depicts blood on wrestlers’ faces and bodies. The game contains some mildly suggestive material: female wrestlers in revealing outfits (e.g., deep cleavage, bunny outfits, partially exposed buttocks); wrestlers performing taunting gestures (e.g., crotch chop, slapping buttocks). Real footage sometimes depicts wrestlers drinking alcohol and smoking. The word “sh*t” is heard 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 audio-only cues in AEW Fight Forever. Subtitles are available for the Road to Elite career mode, where live video segments are played to depict historic moments in the history of All Elite Wrestling. All other storyline segments are depicted through text prompting without voiceover.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. Movement is restricted to the left analog stick, but all other actions can be remapped to different buttons as follows:

The post AEW: Fight Forever Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Recently, GameCritics was sent a package containing two items for review: the Fixture S1 Switch Pro Controller Clip and the Fixture S1 Carrying Case. The Clip is a plastic frame that fits onto the Switch Pro Controller to support the screen for handheld play, and the carrying case holds the Switch/Clip unit when assembled, with extra room for a few small accessories.

First, the Clip.

The Fixture S1 Switch Pro Controller Clip is made of a rugged plastic and is molded to ‘click’ onto a Pro Controller for the purpose of giving the central Switch unit a place to sit for handheld play. I’m guessing most Switch players might agree that playing with the JoyCons attached on either side of the screen are functional enough, but the ergonomics and accuracy of the joysticks leave something to be desired, and the Controller Clip aims to solve that.

It’s a solid idea. The Pro Controller is a great unit that I try to use as often as possible — it feels good in the hands and offers a greater degree of precision and control than the sticks on a JoyCon. However, this particular solution sort of creates a new issue while solving the old one.

First, the weight of it. The Pro isn’t a heavy controller, but with the Switch placed on it (plus the weight of the Clip itself) the whole combination becomes fairly weighty and the center of gravity (depending on how the Clip arm is positioned) feels like it puts excess strain on my wrist in a place that doesn’t usually feel it. It grew fairly uncomfortable after a while — moreso than just having the JoyCons attached — and I needed to find some support for my arms during extended sessions. My guess is that some RSI issues or tendonitis might arise from extended use based on how it felt.

As for the Clip itself, it uses tension in the joints to hold it in position which is fine for now, but I do wonder how long it will be before the joints start to become too loose, especially if I’m adjusting it fairly often while folding it up to fit in the case and then extending it for play. Further, the Clip has a very tight fit on the Pro (there’s no clip, hinge or clamp — it just SNAPS! on) which is fine once or twice, but after just a few removals when I wanted to use the Pro at home, I noticed some scuffing and scratching on the controller.

One other thing to note — the Clip promotes itself as a table stand for the Switch when it’s not attached to the Pro, but the base isn’t stable enough and is easily knocked over. I wouldn’t personally risk using it that way for fear that someone passing by would bump it and send the unit crashing down.

Now, the case.

The Fixture S1 Carrying Case is made to carry the Switch Pro Controller with the Clip and the actual Switch attached as one single unit. The lower interior has a molded base that holds a Pro snugly, and the Clip arm can be folded down to allow the Switch to lay flat on top. A middle divider can then be lowered to help secure it all (it has small pockets to hold Switch games on the back of it) and the space above the divider is storage for a Switch plug or any other small accessories. It’s just a large pocket, though, so anything inside will rattle around, unsecured.

The shell of the case is fairly stiff (not hard plastic) and has a pleasant-feeling grippy fabric covering it. It feels well-made, although it’s about the size of a small lunchbox when zipped closed, so it’s a little bulkier than other Switch cases I’ve used in the past. Overall, it carries a good amount of stuff, I appreciate that the Clip doesn’t need to be removed from the Pro for storage inside the case, and it feels like a quality item.

I recently took these items on a trip and soon stopped using the Clip, but the case is a pretty ace product. The Pro Controller feels well-protected and secure even when not attached to the Clip, and as a bonus, the case can act as a stand for the Switch all by itself when it’s zipped up and on a flat surface. It’s much more stable than using the Clip for the same purpose.

Conclusion?

Overall, I think this two-piece package is a decent idea, but it falls short of being something that I would use regularly, mostly due to the combined weight of the Pro/Clip/Switch and how it stresses the hands with the new center of gravity.

On the other hand, the case is excellent and it’s now a regular part of my loadout when I pack for trips — I’d recommend it all on its own, even for people who don’t have the Clip.

*

The Fixture S1 Switch Pro Controller Clip — 7/10

Fixture S1 Carrying Case — 8/10

The post Fixture S1 Switch Pro Controller Clip & Carrying Case Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The levels look modern without losing the classic vibe.

LOW Timed fetchquests are still annoying.

WTF Some of these guys haven’t aged well.

There have been a lot of skateboarding sims covered here at Gamecritics over the past few months, but Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is a skateboarding game. And it’s a good one, giving longtime fans a true return to thumb-flicking form after a decade’s worth of retreads and misfires.

For those new to the series, Pro Skater 1+2 is a modern remake of the first two entries in this venerable arcade skateboarding series, and it’s a perfect entry point that combines the series’ most beloved entries into one title, while ramping the graphics up to modern expectations and also preserving every last detail of the classic control scheme.

Even better is how Activision and Vicarious Visions preserved the responsive feel of the original Tony Hawk titles. Grinding, pumping for acceleration, connecting moves with manuals and reverts — it all feels natural from the moment users drop into the legendary Warehouse.

Fan-favorite levels like the wide-open Hangar and hilly San Francisco are lovingly recreated in high resolution, with all of their secrets and features exactly where gamers remember. Even a certain belligerent security officer makes a triumphant return in the expansive School levels … though he’s now played by a slightly more — ahem — tenacious actor.

Interestingly, all levels are available from the outset for free skating, but Pro Skater 1+2 is best experienced as a progression, and I recommend gamers work their way through each level’s challenges while aiming for new gaps to traverse and new secrets to find.

There are also a slew of subtle new additions that add some complexity to the gameplay, such as additional ramps and new grinding surfaces that don’t change the way classic combos are performed, but do add new opportunities to extend and enhance them.

As enjoyable as it is to revisit new versions of these classic skating environments, Pro Skater 1+2’s finest modern upgrade is the level creator, which lets users build their own over-the-top maps and share them with others. In this sense, Pro Skater 1+2 is more of an ever-growing platform than a game. In the month since release, thousands of new levels have been uploaded, giving users a tremendous amount of value for one title.

Visually, the developers did a solid job bringing Pro Skater to modern consoles, with suitably sharp textures and animations. And, in a nice touch, they also “aged” the classic lineup of skaters to their current, middle-aged looks. Though wrinkled faces don’t mean much when the user is positioned behind their avatar, these details continue the series’ strong focus on humor.

As nice as the visual upgrades are, Tony Hawk always featured amazing audio, and Pro Skater 1+2 is no exception. The expansive soundtrack seamlessly blends the best punk and hip-hop from its era with tracks that are more familiar to today’s kids, while the unmistakable sound of urethane hitting plywood or boards grinding ledges is as thrilling as ever, especially with the volume cranked.

The only negative to be found in Pro Skater 1+2 is the relatively limited online play. While a handful of competitive events is a nice add, there’s not much motivation to fight laggy controls and questionable servers when there’s already so much to do in the singleplayer modes. Activision will likely expand the online offerings over time, but fans of the series probably won’t spend much time there.

The Tony Hawk series was never about realism, and whether they’re old enough to have nostalgia for it or not, Pro Skater 1+2 is a fantastic remake offering intuitive and massively enjoyable gameplay that deserves any skate fan’s attention.

Disclosures: This game is published by Activision and developed by Vicarious Visions. It is currently available on PC, PS4 and XBO. This copy of the game was obtained via purchase and reviewed on the XBO. Approximately 26 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to online multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T for Lyrics and Users Interact. The official description reads as follows: This is a collection of two skateboarding simulation games in which players can compete against others to complete goals/earn points. Players can create custom skate parks, perform tricks, collect hidden items, and skate around a variety of locations. Accompanying song lyrics reference alcohol, suggestive material, drugs, and language (e.g., “I’ll bring the beer”; “where the good whores meet”; “I was selling weed to all the kids out of my backpack”; “d*ck”; “b*tch”).

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the Game Settings menu.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 features subtitles and numerous tactile feedback features within the controller, in all modes. The game is fully playable without sound.  This is fully accessible.

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

The post Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Increasingly-tense 3D racing.

LOW The code is poorly built and prone to crashing.

WTF Egan Bernal is way too overpowered.

I consider reviewing an annual sports franchise to be a fairly difficult task. More often than not, I find myself scrounging for new things to say about games which usually conceal novelty with shinier visual spectacle. The Pro Cycling Manager series is different, however, as it’s not created by a big budget team. The result is a yearly release with subtler changes, although still definitely improved.

PCM is the simulation of a road cycling career, either as a manager or a cyclist. As manager, the player spends their time handling a commercial team in a menu-based sim. Cyclists have to be selected for participation in races, sponsors request particular results, and this year’s addition features morale that impacts a cyclist’s performance. Overall, it’s a laid-back, stats-focused approach to cycling.

As a cyclist – my preferred way to play – one can enter global competition starting as a 19-year-old semi-pro. Contracts have to be managed, specialized training like sprinting or climbing is simulated, and races can optionally be run as 3D third-person events that deal with positioning and stamina. My simulated manager would sometimes give me a particular role to fill in a race (e.g. stabilize the peloton’s pace for a bit) but the mode is at its best when the player is free to shoot for victory.

As a character’s attributes improve, the player can take part in some of the world’s most competitive events like the Tour de France, build a top-quality team, and race against the best. This year’s edition really captured this spirit by offering AI that has more aggressive driving, leading to some exceptionally tense mountaintop finishes and unanticipated attacks that demanded an answer.

However, apart from this small (but impactful) addition, many of the issues I’ve had with PCM in the past are still present. The loading screens for 3D races still take several minutes and are prone to crashing, any alt-tabbing can cause a crash, and the in-race visuals are in need of work.

Luckily, the 3D race option is never required and results from uninteresting stages that I didn’t want to play can be simulated in a menu. On the other hand, I found that letting the game simulate a race rather than running it myself would sometimes corrupt my character’s standings and cause harm to my progress.

Another issue is that while it’s exciting to take a newcomer and turn them into a star, the skill point system for building up attributes allows for the creation of an invincible champion who hardly ever gets fatigued. By the end of my fifth in-game season, I had won all grand tours and both world championships at a simulated age of 23 – suffice it to say that such a feat in real life doesn’t even seem plausible, and no one has ever come close to achieving it. Once my character reached this superhero status, the value of playing PCM 2020 felt lost to me.

At the end of the day, it’s true that PCM 2020 delivers the series’ most realistic version of either managing or being a professional cyclist, but issues of technical quality and system design mean that it’s far from the experience it could be. Rating: 6.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Cyanide Studio and published by Nacon. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 75 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and several seasons of the pro cyclist mode were completed. 0 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E for Everyone, with no descriptors. The official description reads as follows: This is a pro cycling simulation game in which player assume the role of a professional cyclist or a team manager. Players can select and supervise their teams’ staff, calendar, and equipment as they compete in international training and racing events.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options, but colors can be customized to some extent.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I kept the volume at minimum when playing and have not noted any vital audio cues during 3D races. Audio is absent in the simulation modes. This title is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. The entirety of the game is played with a computer mouse.

The post Pro Cycling Manager 2020 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The outdoor weather effects are a sight to behold, especially in VR.

LOW A whole lot of time-consuming fetchquests.

WTF The ending is straight out of a bad Twilight Zone episode.

After crash-landing on an alien world, The Solus Project starts off slow and uneventfully. A player’s first act is to craft a sharp rock to cut away netting from their ruined escape pod and emerge onto the planet. Don’t be lulled into complacency though — a few minutes later, the game throws a literal tornado at the player as if to say yes, you will die here.

As a first-person survival title, Solus rewards those who settle into experiences rather than those who expect the best sequences right at the start. Apart from that opening tornado, the moments of awe and intrigue come as the player engages in an exploratory survival adventure on a strange world full of ancient ruins and machines. Unfortunately, the mechanics and design don’t match the thick, successful atmosphere.

After the crash, players awaken to find themselves the only survivor of a mission to save humanity. This setup launches a quest that tasks players with determining whether or not the mysterious planet might be a potential new home for humanity. In order to accomplish this, players must gather local resources, craft useful items, scavenge the wreckage of their spacecraft, and discover the secrets of an ancient alien civilization before it’s too late.

Solus excels at creating a genuine atmosphere of isolation and distress. In order to survive, players must monitor their heat levels, hydration, nourishment, and other biological factors using a small computer they permanently carry in their left hand. This computer also tracks progress on quests and translates an alien language found around the world. Meanwhile, the player’s right hand is free to wield useful items such as a torch, food and drink to be consumed, or a device that fires teleportation disks to make traversal somewhat easier in difficult terrain.

Desperation sets in as players realize that they are susceptible to dangerous weather events while above ground, and equally threatened by cold and fatigue exploring the many subterranean environments.

The weather effects are perhaps the most graphically impressive element in Solus, although it generally displays the sort of moderate graphical prowess befitting its indie origins. Thick swirling, ominous clouds accompany the formation of deadly twisters, sheets of rain dampen the earth as lightning crackles in the fogged distance, and meteor showers set the sky afire, all in a glorious spectacle that help sell the idea of the world’s inhospitable nature.

These dangers are especially believable and salient while playing the game in VR, which I did for the majority of my playthrough. While Solus handles fine in normal mode using a controller, its weaknesses are more apparent and it lacks the sense of presence that VR provides. In addition to witnessing the gorgeous weather effects, one of my favorite VR moments was simply wading through underground pools of water while holding my Move controller high in the air to keep my in-game torch dry while it illuminated my way.

Standard first-person controls in normal mode become quite different when playing in VR, which requires the use of two Move controllers. Although Solus‘ controls suffered on launch day, the latest patches have produced one of the finest first-person VR control schemes. Players can choose between standard teleportation movement or use the left Move controller to point in the direction they want to go and the right Move controller’s central button to move in that direction. It’s an intuitive setup that quickly becomes second-nature, and a great workaround considering the Move’s lack of analog sticks.

While The Solus Project achieves a great sense of place, it’s ultimately a title plagued by poor design decisions. The more I played, the more I had to weigh my appreciation for the atmosphere against a growing mountain of small complaints.

To begin with, a lot of the environments look the same — especially the underground ruins. The caves and decayed pyramids repeat textures and assets, creating deja vu rather than the joy of continual discovery. Furthermore, some of the wide-open areas require a lot of trudging through difficult terrain to pick up quest items, and most of the campaign’s ‘progress blockers’ are just fetchquests for items like keys, ship parts, or alien dolls. The only other puzzles involve an underdeveloped mechanic about placing objects on weighted floor platforms. Solus Project is at its best when it produces a feeling of momentum coupled with the awe of discovering new and exotic spaces, yet its desire to challenge or impede players flies in the face of its strongest elements.

Similarly, the save system feels arbitrarily limited, allowing saves only at special pillars. While the game is generous about how many of these pillars it includes, I experienced moments where a quicksave would have been a godsend, particularly after random crashes — a problem between early patches — or after unexpectedly dying. Any sense of discovery quickly fades after being forced to repeat sections.

For being a survival and crafting experience, the inventory system in Solus Project isn’t especially intuitive. The interface is clunky (particularly in VR) and players can only carry a small number of items. There are some pickups that expand backpack capacity, but these are easy to miss and the scant few slots they unlock never truly solve the problem. Like other survival games, Solus Project forces players to weigh edibles against other useful items like glow sticks or flashlights. This creates a sense of consequence for player decisions, yet I didn’t feel that it made the game better, or more pleasurable.

Despite its limited crafting system (mostly used to make sharp rocks or torches) players will spend the majority of their time walking from one cave to another while trying to maintain their health. For players who prefer a less strenuous journey, The Solus Project offers a sliding difficulty scale from 0 to 100. At zero, players no longer have to worry about food, water, or temperature, and the limited save system almost ceases to matter. This means players can freely enjoy exploring the alien world and unraveling its mysteries. This also eliminates what some might consider the essential tension of the survival mechanics and drastically changes the experience, but it’s to the game’s credit that it offers this option.

While the story about the fate of humanity and the mystery surrounding the unseen alien race was ultimately a disappointment, I still find myself thinking about the most memorable moments from The Solus Project, such as encountering my first raging storm or wading waist-deep through that subterranean pool. At its best (and in VR) it evokes the strange and wonderful sensation of exploring a truly unknown environment. At its worst, it’s a slog that undercuts its unique qualities with finicky survival elements and an inconsistent, sometimes-buggy experience. Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Teotl Studios and Grip Digital and published by Teotl Studios and Grip Digital. It is currently available on Windows, Xbox One, and PS4. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4 Pro. Approximately 14 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Violence and Blood. Players will encounter things like alien skeletons and crucified people in space suits. These images may be disturbing for younger players.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game features subtitles for all dialogue and does not require sound to play. it’s fully accessible.

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

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

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