HIGH Taking a boss out in five seconds with two perfectly aimed headshots.

LOW Having my driver decide to steer the truck off a cliff for no reason.

WTF That… is a really big worm.

The developers at Runner Duck have a pretty amazing gameplay formula on their hands.

Starting with Bomber Crew, they built a title about a group of cartoon cuties flying a WW2 bomber in missions over occupied Europe. Each flyer has skills that improved their ability to shoot down enemy planes, drop bombs accurately, or repair broken parts of the bomber. It worked like a charm, so they did it again with Space Crew, which was almost the exact same game except with in space, and it was every bit the amazing experience its predecessor had been.

Imagine my delight when I discovered that those same developers were about to apply that winning formula to the most criminally underserved setting in gaming — adorable cuties driving a war rig around the wasteland, turning ornate death wagons into scrap… it’s a match made in heaven.

Badlands Crew puts players in the role of a commander in charge of reclaiming the wasteland from insane warlords. This is accomplished by taking on a series of missions — clear enemies out of areas, seize bases, escort trucks to their destination, and raid enemy convoys for their goods. Yes, all of these, to one degree or another, involve using the gun emplacements of a truck to blow up enemies, but there’s enough variety in the missions to keep things from ever getting boring, even after sinking dozens of hours into the experience.

Unlike their previous titles which put the plane or ship at the center of the screen and asked the player to maintain it via navigation and combat minigames on subscreens, Badlands Crew is a realtime experience through and through. Players actively navigate the wasteland, directing their tractor-trailer through the ruins of the old world. One can find the shattered remnants of a ski lift in one area, the bones of long-dead leviathans in another, and in one particularly memorable location, they can get air off of ramps made from of the roofs of houses that were buried by the ash of an exploding volcano centuries earlier.

Micromanaging the truck is the key to success in Badlands Crew. In addition to keeping the gun turrets manned, players need to have a solid driver to keep the thing running, a navigator to use the map and spot resources in the world, and yes, a drummer who constantly jams on their skins to keep everyone’s spirits up. As objectives are completed and the crew levels up, they can specialize in each role, unlocking useful perks. Drivers can sideswipe enemies off the road, Drummers can heal the crew and put out fires by summoning rainstorms, and Gunners can unlock a VATS-style targeting mode that slows time to a crawl so they can pinpoint exactly what part of an enemy vehicle they want to blast. The best-armed rig in the world won’t be much of a threat with its driver blasted out of his seat, after all.

Progressing through missions and destroying enemies rewards the player with the resources they’ll need to build blueprints they find out in the wild. At the start of the campaign, players will literally be using junk cannons lobbing scrap at their opponents. As they take down each enemy faction they’ll unlock different weapon types — flame from Pyros to wreck vehicle parts, toxic from Klowns to attack crews, blades from Vultures shred wheels, and projectiles from Gun Nutz to tear armor to pieces. Badlands Crew offers almost unlimited freedom in allowing the player to build any kind of rolling beast they want, mixing and matching until they find what works best in each situation.

While I couldn’t stop playing Badlands Crew — I put off finishing it for maybe a dozen hours, just doing random missions so I could have more chances to watch my crew tear opponents to pieces — it’s not without flaws. The biggest is the inability to directly steer the truck. I understand what the developers are going for — the player is giving commands, and it’s up to the crew to carry them out to the best of their ability — but the driving AI has enough quirks that offering a direct control option is close to a necessity. I can’t count the number of times I almost lost a mission because, for no clear reason, my driver decided to make a hard turn straight into a wall, damaging the rig and stunning my crew at a pivotal moment.

The other main issue is with the truck-building mechanic. While I certainly enjoyed building my murderwagons, I won’t claim to understand exactly how it works. The tutorial doesn’t do a fantastic job of explaining things — I’ll be given the notification that some piece of equipment is blocking people from being able to move around the truck, but the interface won’t highlight the offender. Likewise, Badlands Crew never clearly explains exactly how players are supposed to put a second story on their trucks, forcing me to muddle through tough skirmishes with a preposterously overloaded flatbed.

A not-insignificant part of this is certainly a me issue — the user-created trucks that show up as random enemy vehicles from time to time were invariably better designed than my jalopies, but I still feel the devs could have done more to make the construction process accessible.

Not since the Yakuza developers decided to make a Fist of the North Star game have I seen a better melding of developer and subject matter. Runner Duck’s penchant for making hectic management sims about intense action-adventure settings have reached a new high with Badlands Crew. This is the best Mad Max game we’ve had in ages, and given the increasing quality of their work, I can’t wait to see what the developers have in store for us next.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Runner Duck and published by Curve Games It is currently available on PC. Copies of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 50 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode. The game was completed. The game contains no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game was not rated by the ESRB, but it’s basically a T and features an absolute ton of Fantasy Violence. There’s no shocking or offensive content in the game, no alcohol or drug use, just a countless examples of cars exploding or getting eaten by sandworms. While I can’t say it’s safe for everyone, it’s the next best thing.

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: Yes, the game’s controls are remappable.

The post Badlands Crew Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Pulling off key battles and weighty decisions.

LOW The spiral of failure.

WTF Everything bad happens to this kingdom.

The sequel to 2020’s Yes, Your Grace, Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall continues the where the first left off. The original was going to be a hard act to follow, but I was pleased to find that while the fundamentals remain largely the same, additions to the gameplay and narrative continue its saga forward in the right way.

As the game begins, Snowfall asks players which choices they made in the first installment. It had been so long since I played the original that I had to just guess at what I had done. For new players, it’s recommended — almost essential — to play the first installment before picking up Snowfall. 

Despite the fact Snowfall clearly wants players to have been through the earlier content, the beginning chapters introduced reintroduced the gameplay mechanics. The player takes up the crown to make decisions that will govern and protect their kingdom and family, and most of these choices come in the form of the petitioners who ask for help.

In this 2D, pixel-art narrative-driven title, the player will be often be seated in their throne room and approached by people who need things.

For most of these requests and tasks, the ruler has agents who can be sent out to help. However, there are a limited number of these agents, and each has limited stamina that can be allocated to act in a week. Also, some agents are better at some tasks than others. For example, if bandits have stolen something, I would assign an agent who has a bonus to combat, and if I had a relevant item on-hand, I could choose it for better results. Giving a sword which gives awards a combat bonus would increase an agent’s success rate, and sometimes additional bonuses. 

Most of the time I felt like my resources were stretched thin, and trying to help as many petitioners as possible can be quite risky, as it might mean leaving the kingdom without options if something unexpected comes up. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that the Ruler’s influence gauge is high so that it can be used to ask for taxes. This allows the player to receive money or move supplies to other areas of the kingdom.

As Snowfall progressed, the balancing act between influence and resources only got harder, and by chapter three. I was forced to be extremely careful, or else one bad call would lock me into a spiral of failure — being short of money led to an uncompleted request, and that failure meant I didn’t have enough money to pay agents and buy supplies, and falling short with those prevented me from getting enough influence to get resources, and so on.

Although I was glad that my choices had consequences, my initial failures felt like they came from a misunderstanding of the mechanics. For example, I didn’t understand new uses for items and how essential they were to completing quests.

Likewise, the complexities of taxing my citizens, managing my agents, and completing objectives got far more complicated than they did the first Yes, Your Grace. The devs attempted to explain these in tutorial pop-ups as they were presented, but I was caught off-guard by the degree of planning needed. Sometimes the balance of gold needed in reserve for requests while also spending some on completing objectives left me with what felt like a razor-thin margin. Challenge and consequences can be good things, but I would have liked a little more leeway, or at least a bit more warmup before Snowfall‘s difficulty ramped up.

Like the gameplay, Snowfall‘s story does not pull its punches.

The original Yes, Your Grace had players in the role of King Eryk, but Snowfall focuses on his wife, Queen Aurelea. I found this shift to be a refreshing change, and it increased the sense of peril thanks to Eryk being incapacitated and the family in peril and driven out of normal circumstances. It all feels desperate, making the work of managing things quite intense.

Snowfall’s story proceeds at a breakneck pace thanks to constant interactions with characters, petitioners, agents and side quests. With all the twists and choices at play, it’s hard to say much about it without spoilers. I can say that the constant high stakes for both my royal family and the citizens’ wellbeing kept me engaged throughout — I might even invest time into a second run just to maximize my choices and see the best ending.

While the core decision-making content of Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall remains close to the original’s, the mechanics are a bit deeper and the narrative is strong and moves its world compellingly forward. This title is the definition of “worthy successor”, and certainly one of my favorite indies of the year so far.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Buy Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall – PC

Disclosures: This game is developed by Brave at Night and published by No More Robots. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC (with a good portion played on the Steamdeck). Approximately 15.3 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is currently unrated by the ESRB. Please note, there are depictions of poison, drug, and alcohol use, along with depictions of violence, such as slashing with a sword or a character being burned at the stake. Most of these are simply animated pixels (not gratuitous) and some more graphic scenes simply fade to black.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. They cannot be resized or altered. There are no audio cues needed for gameplay, and all dialogue comes via text, there are no voiced lines. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. There is no controller diagram. Controls use the left thumb stick or d-pad to move left and right across environments, and face buttons on a controller to interact with people or objects. Otherwise, it’s navigating menus and dialogue choices with a mixture of the thumb stick or shoulder buttons to select.

The post Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The atmosphere is off the charts.

LOW Having hitchhiker penalties without hitchhiker bonuses.

WTF Chain smoking cigarettes to combat a child peeing.

Hi everyone, Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.

A new ride, a tank of gas, an invite to a music festival, and an entire summer ahead of me. What new adventures await? I have all summer to find out. Keep Driving aims to capture that sense of freedom and adventure by placing players behind the wheel of a new car with endless opportunity ahead of them.

In this resource management RPG, players will travel across procedurally generated roads with the ultimate goal of meeting up with friends at a music festival. Players will collect resources and items, obtain skill cards, pick up hitchhikers and upgrade their car in order to keep driving. As players obtain different items like food, extra gas cans, a spare tire and so on, they have to organize the items inside their trunk to make it all fit — imagine the inventory system of something like Resident Evil 4 and you’re on the right track. If there’s not enough space in the trunk for an item, players will have to either throw something away to make room or put the back seats down to create a bit more space.

Both items and skills come into play in Keep Driving’s version of combat. As players drive around the world, there will be random events that players must deal with — muddy roads, being stuck in a traffic jam, cameras looking for speeding drivers, and more. These events will threaten the player’s four attributes, gas, car durability, money, and energy, so preparing for the unexpected is a key part of play.

If players can’t deal with road events with the items they have on hand, they might incur a more serious situation, like the car running out of gas or breaking down. Things like this will stop the trip and force the player to take more drastic action, like walking to a gas station if they have the money and the energy to do so. If all else fails, players can take a chance and call their parents which may give them the resources they need to keep going, or it will end the game if their parents don’t pick up. 

One other resource, and a unique one, are the hitchhikers.

These passengers to be picked up run a wide gamut — you might find a musician who requires room for his guitar, a convict on the run from the law, a “free spirit” party girl, and more. If you decide to give one a ride, they come with additional skill cards players can use for road events. However, they can also have some drawbacks as well. For example, The Convict makes the player drive faster, which results in fewer road events between destinations and a higher chance to get pulled over by cops. The longer hitchhikers stay in the car with the player, the additional skills will be unlocked for use. 

The hitchhikers aren’t just resources, though — I’d say they’re the soul of the game.

As players drive between destinations, there will occasionally be bits of dialogue that come up between the player and any passengers they’ve picked up. Bit by bit, they start revealing their past and their stories, fleshing things out in simple, but effective ways. They don’t become friends for life, though. Hitchhikers eventually ask the player to help them accomplish their own goals, and completing them may mean they leave the car, and there were many times when I was sad to see one go. 

Another aspect that solidifies the experience of Keep Driving is the goal of getting to the music festival. Actually getting there is just one of a handful of final outcomes, but it doesn’t matter which one the player ultimately wants to pursue on their playthrough. One time in the middle of a run I got a letter from my grandmother asking me to come visit her at the hospital. I detoured, and when I got there, she told me that there was a plot of land she wanted me to have as an inheritance, triggering a new destination to open up on my map. Quests like these are clearly marked to let the player know if following them will end a run, so my choice boiled down to getting my inheritance or continuing to the music festival with friends. That freeform feeling of choosing your own adventure is really the spirit that Keep Driving is trying to capture, I think. 

The gripes I have about Keep Driving are minor. There are a few minor bugs here and there, like one time when I tried to change tires on the car and the spare tire was displayed outside of the inventory space. Another glitch was when I got penalties for having hitchhikers, even though they weren’t in the car. Otherwise, the randomness can sometimes make a run last much longer than it needs to. At one point I had to spend nearly an hour driving between two cities in an effort to make the game spawn a car upgrade I needed for a specific ending. Minor issues all, really.

Overall, I was hooked by the atmosphere and easy-to-learn management of this summer road trip. In a time where games can be a wonderful escape from current world events, Keep Driving brought me back to a younger time when a car meant freedom and opportunity, and a reminder of those good times was more than welcome. As such, Keep Driving is an easy recommendation for sure!

For me: Keep Driving gets 8.5 liters of gas out of 10

Buy Keep Driving on Steam

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by YCJY Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 10 hours of play were spent playing the game, and multiple endings were completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is not rated through the ESRB. There are numerous references to drugs and alcohol. There are some sex references in one of the endings, and there is significant cursing in some of the music tracks and some of the character dialogue. Not recommended for young children.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind Modes are not present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles, but subtitles can not be altered and/or resized. There are no relevant audio cues needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable controls: Controls are not remappable, and there is no control scheme. Currently the game only supports keyboard and mouse, with the mouse controlling everything. The developer has said that controller support will be coming in a future update.

The post Keep Driving VIDEO Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Narrowly dodging a budgetary issue that could sink a run.

LOW Why do I need to build more buildings just to talk to people?

WTF Nuanced critiques of morality in civic management… in a videogame?!

When I agreed to look at Technotopia, I’ll admit it had the odds stacked against it. I’m just not huge on card-based games, and it feels like we’re drowning in a sea of roguelites lately. Yet despite those trepidations it just looked so gorgeous and unique, I couldn’t pass up the chance. And you know what? I’m glad I said yes! It’s a legitimately outstanding title, even as it dances with the cliches-of-the-day in today’s indie dev scene.

The central conceit is rather simple — it’s a city management sim handled through random card draws.

Players inhabit the role of Iris, the city’s AI in a near-future society. She works alongside her father, The Architect, to please four corrupt faction leaders currently running the city. Together, Iris and her father strive to make the world a better place while uncovering the corruption that surrounds them. It’s not a story that will shock anyone with its twists, but the fact the writing in a card-based management sim is good enough to be enthralled by is one hell of a trick. 

Honestly, it would’ve been easy to simply not have a story at all, or it could have been something super bland, but instead I was foiling terrorists, trying to un-rig elections, deleting internet reviews for a terrible cabaret singer (yes, really) and meeting up with a hacktivist to screw over her corporate overlords. Every character boasts a distinct voice, and I appreciated how biting the script’s social commentary is. I genuinely wanted to see what happened next, even if, again, it’s nothing too surprising.

Now, the gameplay. Rather than only being able to build based on the current card hand available, Technotopia takes some notes from Tetris — or more accurately, it borrows a few shapes.

In order to get the most out of the city, a player has to arrange buildings into various shapes, which add massive bonuses — the fastest way to build up resources needed for each faction to stay functional, and racing against the clock is key here. While Technotopia can be played at a leisurely pace, every building placed moves an overall countdown one notch forward.

In addition to this clever formula, Technotopia will also throw moral quandaries at the player that can tip the scales between factions. Are the workers demanding riots? Call in the digital Pinkertons, hear them out, or automate the jobs with machines. There’s an athlete struggling in the ring? Maybe give him some dope, or stay out of it. What’s brilliant is that there’s no indication of what the outcome for each choice will be — players have to learn the hard way what the best course of action is, and sometimes there may be more than one worth contemplating.

All of this is bolstered with a wealth of new buildings to place as the campaign progresses and progress with the factions carries over between runs. I’m also grateful that story objectives don’t reset, so it’s feasible for everyone, not just min-maxing civic leaders, to actually see the story’s conclusion. Plus, as I progressed, I’d get access to key structures that made the overhead costs of resources much easier to manage for each faction. The persistent progress in Technotopia is well-done.

Truly, I’m stunned at how little I have to criticize. Probably my biggest issue would be that once I finished the campaign, there weren’t many achievements or bonus objectives to tackle. Some sort of random challenge modifiers or even a sandbox mode where players can tinker with things or design their ideal cities would be a welcome bit of variety, but this is such a minor point that it’s hardly worth mentioning.

As someone who predominantly plays games antithetical to this experience, the fact it blew me away should speak volumes on how confidently it presents itself. It’s by far one of the best things I’ve played this year, and it just works in a way that is almost magical when considering how many bigger titles have fumbled the fundamentals Technotopia handles with ease. Whether one loves or hates card-based games, this is one worth playing, hands down.

Final Score: 10 out of 10 

Disclosures: This game is developed by Yustas and published by Alawar. It is currently available on PC. This copy of Technotopia was provided via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 3 hours were dedicated to the single-player campaign, as well an additional 2 hours in the post-campaign and it was completed.

Parents:  This game is not rated by the ESRB, but contains Mild Violence and Suggestive References. This one is pretty safe when it comes to what’s depicted on-screen. There are references to terrorists, the mob, and at least two instances of murder, but it’s all purely through text, static images that obscure the actual violence, and vague references. It’s an otherwise relaxed, minimalist experience.

Colorblind modes: There are no colorblind modes available. This is accounted for with distinct silhouettes for each building type, varying substantially in height and design.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All in-game dialogue is delivered purely through text. It’s a reasonable experience to play without sound, and I would say that it’s fully accessible.  

Remappable controls: No, the controls are not remappable controls. There are, however, both keyboard and mouse options, allowing it to be played one-handed with minimal movement.

The post Technotopia Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH New gameplay mechanics

LOW Terrible performance issue in final chapters

WTF Why don’t you talk to me!?

Frostpunk was an ambitious post-apocalyptic city builder. 11 Bit Studios not only told a dark and tragic story in a unique “Hardy Victorians Vs. the Ice Age” setting, but they pushed the boundaries of how intricately challenging the genre could be if focus was placed on survival elements such as heat scarcity in a frozen wasteland.

Even though it was a bold and unproven project at the time, it was a success that led to the release of Frostpunk 2 – a sequel that follows the people of chilly New London in their quest to survive in a never-ending winter under the leadership of the town’s Steward. However, while some developers might have been content to simply crank out more of the same, Frostpunk 2 has completely overhauled the gameplay mechanics.

Rather than following the blueprint of a classic-style city builder in which players create districts by placing similar building types next to each other, Frostpunk 2 provides districts with clearly specified purposes, such as an industrial district which produces goods to be traded for money, an extraction district which handles materials and fuel, a food district which provides sustenance, and a housing district which provides shelter. Players must gather resources, food, materials, and fuel to manage the needs of the people as well as to support the development of the city.

Dispensing heat throughout the city – a massive mechanic in the original – is now simplified compared to the first installment. Players don’t need to build roads or place heaters across the map to make sure everyone is safe from deadly whiteouts. As long as the generator is getting enough fuel, everyone is safe and warm. By taking this approach, 11 Bit Studios took a big risk with the difficulty curve by putting focus on other, newly-introduced mechanics that have a more political bentwhich those with a more classic taste in city builders might not approve of while those who look for a more unique and different experience in the genre might love.

There are four established factions now, the Frostlanders, Stalwarts, New Londoners and Pilgrims, each with their own agenda and aspirations, and each group’s vision of progress is sometimes in contradiction with the others.

As the Steward, players have to balance the needs and wants of each faction by doing research, constructing specific buildings, and negotiating laws in the Council. Managing the expectations of these groups is perhaps the most difficult part of Frostpunk 2 because failing to do so will result in protests and rallies which not only halt economic activities in the city, but also threaten the life of its people and the integrity of the city’s infrastructure. It can be frustrating for sure, and even more so in higher difficulties.

An issue with this new focus on new political mechanics is how they are introduced. Frostpunk 2’s tutorial mission is too simplistic to effectively teach the deep, interconnected mechanisms. The politics and aspects of the Council aren’t covered well when players are given the helm of New London, and might easily be frustrated and confused.

Though there is a written tutorial section always available, it doesn’t convey the specifics like what steps the player needs to take to be able to use things like negotiation tools in the Council – something I found purely by chance when I accidentally clicked on a group’s picture in the UI. This failure of communication to players is not limited to the early stages, as I had issues completing one of the final missions. A search online revealed that hundreds of other people had the exact same question – the mission details were just not clear enough.

On the technical side, Frostpunk 2 has some rough edges. While things start smoothly, as the city expands and settlements are added, the more the performance drops. There are also occasional lag spikes and stutters when the game is automatically saved, and events such as new mission announcements or requests from citizens is displayed – in fact, the frequency of lag spikes in the final chapters when players need to manage three different settlements at the same time with events happening in each of them is quite frustrating, often making the player wait at too-frequent intervals.

Frostpunk 2 is an ambitious sequel to an innovative title. While breaking new ground is surely appreciated in today’s often-too-static gaming scene, it’s sad to see that its new ideas are not introduced to the players properly, and the current performance issues make playing through once a bit of a chore – a second play would be difficult to sit through. Though the challenges in maintaining peace and order in New London while searching for a safe haven are things that stand out in the genre, I wish it could provide a more polished experience. As it stands, Frostpunk 2 is a good second step that fans of the franchise and the genre will enjoy, but there’s plenty of room for improvement here. 

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by 11 Bit Studios. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via Publisher and 12 hours were dedicated to the single-player campaign. The game was completed. There are no multiplayer options available.

Parents: This game is rated M by the ESRB. It contains Blood, Drug Reference, Mild Sexual Themes, Mild Violence, and Strong Language. The official description reads: This is a strategy simulation game in which players assume the role of a steward in charge of an industrial city in a frozen post-apocalyptic world. From an overhead perspective, players manage the city’s survival and expansion, making decisions on social policies, economic growth, and political standing. Some decisions can reference thematic elements (e.g., suicide, murder) and/or lead to brief depictions of violence and blood: a man stabbed to death; a body lying in a pool of blood. Some still images depict frozen corpses and/or bodies stained with blood. The dialogue/text contains some sexual material (e.g., “I’ve got the clap, but I ain’t spreading that”; “a man convicted of rape and murder”; “creeps and pervs, the whole lot of them”; “Some people are trying to use Pleasure Clubs to climb the social ladder.”). The game also references drugs (e.g., “overdoses with mixing opioids and stimulants”; “people are still overdosing”; “producing both stimulants and opioids”). The word “f**k” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles, the subtitles can be altered or resized and all the info is delivered through text. Important audio cues have visual representations as well. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Controls can be remapped.

The post Frostpunk 2 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Deep simulation has never been more accessible.

LOW The visual presentation occasionally removes users from the experience.

WTF Some of these player faces are rougher than Angel Hernandez’s umpiring.

Before diving into the amazingly deep and engrossing simulator that is Out of the Park Baseball 25 (OOTP 25), I must explain one thing — I am a Linux user, which automatically puts me at a disadvantage for PC gaming. However, the OOTP series has historically been Linux- (or at the very least, Steam-) friendly. Unfortunately, in the interest of full disclosure, it never quite jibed with my computer during this review.

With that said, all of the technical hiccups I endured were absolutely worth the trouble because OOTP 25 is an unbelievable simulation that should be experienced by sports fans, sports gaming fans, strategy gaming fans, RPG fans, and enthusiasts of anything remotely enjoyable. Gamers who have never tried an OOTP title should buy this immediately, and those experienced with OOTP should still consider an upgrade.

For the uninitiated, let me explain. OOTP 25 is the latest installment (the 25th, actually) of this revered baseball team management series. Fans of other series should look to their favorite title’s franchise management mode as an example, but then abandon that connection because OOTP 25 is far deeper and more involved in every aspect.

OOTP 25 is played in an almost turn-based format, with the gameplay centered on situational decision-making, rather than action-based baseball. The default setting is to watch the minimalist on-screen graphics play out the “live” portion of an at-bat, trimming the pitch-by-pitch drudgery that chased many fans away from the diamond.

That said, all (and I mean all) aspects are customizable. Users can create their own teams, leagues, players, rules, and more. They can also choose to intermix MLB teams with KBO (Korean baseball) rules. If they want to recreate historical seasons, it’s all there with note-perfect statistics, stadiums, and the rest. The experience is left entirely up to the player.

In recent years, OOTP 25 has ramped up the graphical fidelity a bit, so the onscreen action more closely matched what the simulation text was explaining in each play. Still, spending time on OOTP’s graphics is missing the point — the tiny 3D sprites and janky animations are there as an approximation of the gameplay, not a focal point. The development team has done a nice job improving things, but no one will confuse this with a console sports experience.

(I should also mention the “Retro Visual” modes which add a nice throwback flair to the graphics by overlaying a filter that emulates different TV presentations from years past. While this doesn’t fix the limited graphics, it’s a neat throwaway feature that speaks to the devs’ sheer love of the sport.)

Rather than leaning into graphics as most other series have done, OOTP 25 makes visual strides by significantly improving the user interface. The sleeker, more organized management dashboard eliminates the ‘hunting and pecking’ that pervaded previous editions, making navigation between team management, scouting, and organizational budgeting smoother than ever. While that may not seem significant to newcomers, I assure you this streamlined approach reduces the learning curve by a notable margin.

This is relevant because previous editions of OOTP were admittedly a bit cumbersome and menu-driven. However, the simulation aspects were always accurate and true to reality. In short, Barry Bonds didn’t lay down bunts, Cal Ripken didn’t take days off, and Jacob deGrom didn’t pitch full seasons. There’s a reason OOTP is the only game ever to win Metacritic’s PC Game of the Year Award twice… it’s pure realism.

Likewise, the new in-game tutorial system is a welcome addition, not only for series newbies but also for crusty ol’ series vets who didn’t realize certain actions were possible, even after a decade of enjoying OOTP titles.

This is hardly where the upgrades end, though. The game’s new Dynamic Evolution system allows the world to evolve in realistic ways, including changes in league rules, structures, economic factors, and even innovations in player training and health management. Each year, fans witness how our national pastime evolves, and OOTP 25 ensures users will continue to experience it as they simulate well into the future.

Also, teams now each have a player development complex, where they can send players to work on fundamentals in the offseason and spring training. Here, fans can identify weak spots in a player’s approach and work to improve them for the coming season. I wasn’t expecting much year-over-year improvement for some of my younger prospects, but was pleasantly surprised to see marked changes in performance.

OOTP 25 also bridges the gap for more casual gamers with its new Drive for the Pennant mode. Those who want to bypass the day-to-day grind can now take charge of an MLB team in 2024, only facing pivotal moments of the season. This could mean deciding on controversial trade offers, making a tough call on a tiring pitcher throwing a no-hitter, or benching a popular player amid a slump. It’s a perfect halfway point that lets players enjoy making those big decisions without endless micromanagement.

Though I didn’t spend much time with some of the minutiae editors, I should acknowledge that OOTP 25’s level editor is robust, allowing for the finest of details in ballpark creation. Users can now adjust the dimensions of every part of the field, select specific building materials, and even adjust seat colors to their liking.

Multiplayer has been a mixed bag for me thus far, even when I waited a few weeks after the game’s launch in order to give it a fair shake. While servers have been reliable and the online community has been welcoming, I’ve struggled to maintain connections and have been booted back to the lobbies on multiple occasions. Having successfully played OOTP online in the past, I chalk this up to Linux compatibility and nothing more. Gamers should feel confident that any bugs will be worked out in the future by the development team.

There is no point in writing a grand sweeping summary since I opened this review with the key takeaway. OOTP 25 remains atop the sports simulation pack by giving users unprecedented control over their management experiences. While action-oriented users might need a little adjustment time for this type of sports gaming, this series continues to redefine what “immersion” means in digital experiences.

Score: 9 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Out of the Park Developments. It is currently available on PC, MacOS, Linux (via Steam) and iOS (as OOTP Go). This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC (Steam for Linux.) Approximately 40 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. Approximately 4 hours were devoted to multiplayer modes.

Parents: At the time of review, OOTP 25 was not rated by the ESRB, but previous editions in the series have consistently been rated E. This is a detailed baseball management simulator that relies largely on text prompts to advance through a season and contains nothing suggestive or inappropriate for children.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue and game action is presented via onscreen text. There are some atmospheric ballpark sounds and an experimental play-by-play announcer, but they are not required for successful gameplay. OOTP 25 is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The game makes good use of a standard keyboard, but while certain interface buttons are customizable, the controls are not remappable.

The post Out Of The Park Baseball 25 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The story and characters are charmingly endearing.

LOW Visual and technical issues harmed immersion.

WTF One more day, bro. Just one more day…

Once in a while, I like something a little more scaled back and relaxed. Simulation-style games tend to give me what I need for that, but there’s something unique about the setting of My Time At Sandrock.

I arrived by train in the middle of a dusty town, with little vegetation and even less water in the environment. From the get-go, I was told explicitly not to cut down any vegetation within town limits, or I’d become unliked by the community. Animal Crossing, this wasn’t.

330 years ago, an apocalypse left humanity surviving in caves, but after a time, they were able to return to the surface and rebuild. After this reappearance, a woman named Martle set up a town in the midst of an oasis. However, the town grew out of control and people ravaged the flora and fauna so much that it became nearly as barren as the desert it was surrounded by. As a result, water consumption is highly regulated and cutting down trees in town is forbidden. This scarcity and struggle is what makes Sandrock so interesting.

Players take on the role of a Builder in Sandrock‘s community — a person who helps build structures, equipment and items for the townsfolk. Almost everything is built in real time, which meant that I had a lot of free periods to gather materials, get commissions, go into combat arenas, play games, or mingle with the people of Sandrock.

Combat is also in realtime and can be a bit clunky as enemies can move quickly, making it hard to track them with the camera and targeting system. The battle mechanics are also not meaty enough to be engaging, as most weapons don’t have any special abilities and encounters can sharply outpace players’ levels, especially if they stick to the main commissions.

In other sims, I’m usually able to take from the environment with wild abandon, but not here. Upon forgetting about the order and cutting down my first tree, I was given a warning and told that cutting down trees would harm the town, and to my shame, that tree remained a stump at the end of the game — a badge of dishonor since everything in play is centered around helping the town bounce back.

To do that, I worked for the Commerce Guild by taking on projects to help the town and its people, from big tasks like installing lifts to a mine tunnel, or things as small as helping to provide them materials. While the core gameplay loop was centered around building, the building aspect itself is a fairly passive activity as most parts of construction center around waiting for materials to process before construction could be completed.

On the plus side, this waiting for construction to finish gave me ample time to meet and engage with the town’s many citizens, and they are what invested me into taking better care of the town, because everything I was doing was making their lives better. I loved talking with and helping them, and they were definitely the stars of the show. The standout, however, was Zeke, the town’s moisture farmer and botanist, who was trying to keep plants alive despite the nearly futile nature of the effort.

Enriching this side of things, characters would have their own schedules and interplay with one another, which helped Sandrock‘s world feel more alive. Cooper and Hugo performed a song for the townsfolk every Wednesday night, Owen would tell fables in his saloon every Saturday, and Rocky read bedtime stories to his son. This oasis felt like it was filled with actual people with their own lives.

There’s also a friendship and romance system that’s simple to grasp. Each gift, commission completion, or even just talking with people made them a little more friendly to me. I could also play games with them or go on dates, platonic or otherwise. Eventually, I was given an opportunity to enter into a romantic relationship with one of them. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be many activities we could do together as a couple, even at a late-game spot that I thought would be an ideal dating location. As such, it felt like a flat mechanic.

Another, more technical problem with My Time At Sandrock is texture and asset pop-in. This can cause objects, and even buildings, to take up to ten seconds to appear.

For example, a lift I needed to leave a mining area would not appear when I loaded into the area, and I was stranded until the lift finally spawned. This would also happen for some buildings I would exit, such as the museum. This soured my experience a bit, as I had to wait for objects to appear correctly before I could continue playing. This was most common in the final act, when a large number of assets are added in.

There were also constant framerate dips when moving around, but most harshly after entering a new area. This problem became compounded as new objects were added to the map, creating additional lag. Other quirks included some objects wobbling erratically, such as tree leaves warping and stretching in the wind, and some NPCs becoming stuck on environmental features or ending up in places they shouldn’t have been. In one comical instance, I tried to turn in a commission to Owen, only to find him stuck in a tree and unable to interact with him. Things like this were constant issues, and it killed my immersion.

Despite those rough edges, My Time At Sandrock is ultimately a wonderful and heartfelt game. There is an incredible story here about human nature, the environment, and the desire to right the wrongs of the past. Sandrock’s residents were charming, and I cared deeply about their lives, joys, and struggles. In that sense, I think my time in the desert was time well spent. With just a little polish, I think this one could become a masterpiece.

Rating: 7 out of 10

— Justin Grandfield

Disclosures: This game is developed by Pathea Games and published by Pathea Games, Focus Entertainment, PM Studios, Inc., and DMM Games. It is currently available on PS4/5, Switch, XBO/X/S, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PS5. Approximately 109 hours were devoted to the game, and it was completed. There is no multiplayer mode at the moment, but the developers have stated that it may be implemented in the future — the early access version of the game did have a multiplayer component, but was shut down.

Parents: This game has an ESRB rating of E10+ for Alcohol Reference, Comic Mischief, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, and Mild Suggestive Themes. The rating summary from the ESRB reads: This is a simulation/role-playing game in which players assume the role of a builder in the desert town of Sandrock. Players explore open-world environments while interacting with townsfolk, performing tasks/quests, and fighting enemy creatures. Players use cartoony weapons (e.g., daggers, rifles) to engage in combat with certain townsfolk (for training purposes) and creatures (e.g., livestock, giant ants, robots). The occasional combat is highlighted by impact sounds and small explosions. The game includes a dating mechanic, in which players can spend time with any adult character; while on dates, players ask for options such as Hug, Kiss, and Observe. A saloon in town contains posters advertising “Lost Mountain Beer.” During the course of the game, monster manure is depicted as “poo coils,” which can be picked up and gifted to characters; the dialogue contains references to flatulence (e.g., “Never trust a fart…”; “Is that…a methane leak?”). The word “damn” appears in dialogue.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game does offers subtitles. The text size cannot be changed. (See examples above.) The game’s dialogue is mostly provided via text boxes. There are some spoken flavor lines that cannot be heard well, but are mostly irrelevant to the current dialogue.

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

The post My Time At Sandrock Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A few really nice quality-of-life features.

LOW Poor performance at launch, even on high-end machines. 

WTF Sometimes a massive tornado will just sorta roll through your city and wreak havoc. 

To me, there’s a certain kind of artistry involved in developing a sequel that’s nearly identical in aesthetics and mechanics to its predecessor. This isn’t to say that every hacky triple-A series with a yearly release schedule is dabbling in high art, of course. Rather, sequels that hew close to the original vision but wish to stand on their own merits require a sort of careful attention on the part of the developer. They must treat the original like a lump of clay, paring down superfluous mechanics and streamlining good ones until untapped potential of the original is fully revealed. 

Cities: Skylines II definitely opts for this sort of careful, iterative approach… though I’m still not sure whether or not that was the right decision. While it does streamline the previous core gameplay loop in a way that makes much of the experience smoother and more satisfying, it also places more emphasis on the ‘human’ aspects of the city, to mixed results — at least for now, prior to any DLC releases. 

The start of a Cities: Skylines II run unfolds much the same as the first one — the player is presented with a mostly-empty map featuring a small handful of connections to the outside world via highways and the like. Immediately, the player can begin building the city of their dreams by setting down roads, zoning for commercial, residential, or industrial buildings, bolstering their citizens’ happiness and productivity with a variety of city services, and so on.

The early game rollout of roads and basic services (such as water and electricity) feels less painful now thanks to a few smart tweaks like the ‘grid’ tool. In a few clicks, they can set the length and width of an entire series of roads, making the creation of suburban housing units or industrial centers feel totally effortless. Essential services now feel far easier to implement, as well. For example, instead of manually placing water pipes, the majority of road types now feature a built in ‘network’ of underground water pipes, sewage pipes, and electrical wires, meaning that buildings are automatically connected to these networks when they are built next to a road. 

These handy tools, combined with a more robust set of tutorial popups, make the early game absolutely fly by. Clearly Cities II wants to empower the player to create as soon as possible, allowing novice players (and experienced pros alike) to focus on the more detailed and human-focused simulation elements of the sequel. 

On the right side of the screen, the player is delivered a constant stream of social media posts from citizens and businesses in their city. Clicking on the names of the uploaders warps the camera to their location, allowing the player to see them going about their day. From an isometric view, the player can see these mini-Sims walk down the sidewalk, park their cars, wait outside their burnt-down house as the firefighters deal with the wreckage, and more. Every single member of the city can be ‘followed’ by the player as well, keeping their profile within a handy tab and adding their significant life events to the constant stream of social media posts.

However, all of these systems still feel a little barebones — characters seem largely defined by employment and familial status. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, especially when it comes to a series like Cities: Skylines which seems to be reliant on its post-release DLC if the pattern of the previous installment is anything to go by. Nevertheless, I think it’d be nice if the constant social media feed and notifications on the map (indicating problems or areas of interest) were more varied and personable.

As it stands now, the player is mainly treated to a constant flow of repetitive and often unhelpful complaints from citizens, as shrill as an alarm clock. If an extremely small section of city has less-than-favorable hospital access, for example, the player will receive constant social media notifications complaining about the city’s bad healthcare. The same scenario applies to every other city service — police, electricity, sewage, and internet.

Oftentimes, these issues won’t be a pressing concern, or they won’t be fixable given the player’s current plans/financial situation. As such, the ways in which the game ‘talks back’ to the player often seem more obnoxious than helpful, and more confusing than inspiring. CSII contains a nifty skill tree allowing the player to unlock and focus on services they’re particularly interested in, a nice component the adds to Cities: Skylines II’s sense of personalization and expression. However, for the majority of my playthrough I felt that I spent a great deal of time putting out fires (real or imaginary) brought up by the busy UI, rather than expressing my own desires. 

As I alluded to at the beginning of this review, I’m sure CSII‘s idiosyncratic and compelling elements, such as the ability to follow individual characters, will be expanded on in future DLCs. But if that’s the case then — well, I hate to be That Guy, but is there any reason to upgrade from the original Cities: Skylines at the moment?  

If you’re a die-hard city fan of city builders, and the idea of a new Cities: Skylines that’s 10 percent prettier and 5 percent more interesting has you salivating, you might wanna hop on this one right away. But for the rest of us, we can probably just keep chipping away at some other 2000-hour video gaming time sink. It’s not like this franchise is going away any time soon, after all.

Final Score: 6/10 

Disclosures: This game is developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 12 hours were dedicated to the single-player campaign and the game was not completed (it does not seem to have a definite end-state). There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E, with no additional descriptors. This is a city-management simulation game in which players can build and manage their ideal city. From a top-down perspective, players monitor various statistics while using planning skills to attract businesses, residents, and tourists.

Colorblind modes: there are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles, but all information is relayed via a text and image user interface. The user interface can be altered and resized. Every relevant piece of information is transmitted visually as well as aurally. It is very easy to play the game without sound, and I would say that it’s fully accessible.  

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

The post Cities: Skylines II Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The high-speed tunnel chase!

LOW Trying to pour a beer.

WTF Wow, the developers really hate Greenpeace, huh?

Dave the Diver has enough good ideas for a half-dozen games, and its greatest feat is that it manages to meld them all together into a genuinely satisfying experience. The developers could have simply asked the player to put on a scuba suit and explore a lost underground civilization while fighting off sharks, eels, and some fantastical foes, and they would have had a great title on their hands. That wasn’t enough for them, though, so they added fishing.

And restaurant management.

And cooking minigames.

And fish breeding.

And photography, fish racing, and more. The result is an experience that would feel chaotic and overstuffed if it weren’t all balanced so perfectly.

Starting out is simple enough in this 2D pixel-based game. Slide Dave into a wetsuit and send him into the Blue Hole, a unique biome full of fish from all over the world. Then, harpoon some fish so that the nearby sushi restaurant has something to sell that night.

The mechanics work fairly well — oxygen serves as both health and a time limit, with the player losing a chunk of their remaining O2 every time they take a hit or run into a hazard. Having just 90 seconds underwater can seem unfair at the start, but there are consumable items to use and sources of fresh oxygen in the depths. Most of the time I ended my day because my fish bag was full, not because my tanks were empty.

Dave‘s combat is fairly solid, with one notable issue — while Dave can swim in whatever direction he wants, he can only aim his ranged weapons within a 90 degree arc to his left and right. This doesn’t provide too much of a problem — most of the areas are set up as (mostly) horizontal caverns where the fish swim left and right, but there are a few more vertical areas where the player is put at a huge disadvantage. Enemies only have to touch Dave to do damage, so it’s easy to be hit from above and below.

On the other hand, Dave the Diver shines in its boss fights, which — rather than simply asking the player to trade blows with more powerful versions of the sea creatures they’ve already been fighting — are built around giant setpiece encounters, each one offering a unique mechanic. For example, at one point players will find themselves using a turret to vaporize hordes of deadly fish, then later they’ll be ducking behind a wrecking ball to trick an opponent into damaging itself.

In a nice touch from the developers, about half of the boss fights — and almost all of the difficult ones — are fully optional encounters that the player can choose to pursue or not. That’s not to say that the core story boss fights aren’t taxing (I died more than a few times) but the design is incredibly cognizant of itself when it comes to skill level. While running out of air during a dive ends the day and forces the player to abandon everything they found underwater, dying during a boss fight comes with no penalty whatsoever. The player is free to immediately restart the fight, or jump to the last checkpoint during multi-stage boss battles.

So the diving gameplay is excellent — what about the rest? It’s all extremely solid as well.

Managing a sushi restaurant is simple, while offering enough detail work to ensure that it’s satisfying. The player has to choose the menu each night, hire staff, serve drinks, and even clean up after messy customers. Add in farming ingredients and running a fish hatchery on the side, and the restaurant aspect feels like an entire second game that’s been grafted onto a quality roguelite scuba adventure. From dealing with staff training to performing cooking minigames to unlocking recipes, I’m not exaggerating when I say that, with just a little fleshing out, these chunks could have been sold as their own separate game.

The sushi restaurant is also effective in acting as the setting for the most interesting parts of the story.

Getting to the bottom of why earthquakes are plaguing the area is a fine way to structure the main plot. It gives a reason to buy deep-dive upgrades in order to solve a mystery, and along the way, I discovered that Bancho, the sushi chef, is by far the most compelling and well-developed character in the story.

Despite the fact that he never gets involved in the mysteries of the blue hole, the story of how he wound up working in a beachside sushi joint and his road to redemption is, by far, the most satisfying plot Dave the Diver offers. That’s not to say the world-threatening force hidden in the depths doesn’t make for a good yarn — it’s enough of a way to justify some great boss fights, at the very least — but Dave‘s heart is in the restaurant, and the people (and cat) who work there.

There’s basically nothing to find fault with in Dave the Diver. Did I have trouble mastering a few of the cooking minigames, and an easy mode for the rhythm games would have been appreciated — but that’s a drop in the ocean compared to what it does right. Filling out the fish index, sneaking through a secret base, gambling in a merfolk casino — everywhere I turned there was something new to try, and all of it was built with care and wit.

There’s a shocking amount to do here, all of it is worth sinking time into.

9/10

Disclosures: This game is published and developed by MINTROCKET. It is available on PC. This copy was obtained via publisher for review and was reviewed on PC. Approximately 40 hours were spent in single-player and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game was not rated by the ESRB, but it does contain alcohol use, blood and cartoon violence. It’s a game about killing and eating fish, there’s no way around that. Beyond the fish, though, there’s nothing particularly objectionable here. No swearing, no nudity, just fish getting cut up and prepared to eat. Even that is depicted with such cartoonish graphics that I can’t see it as provoking many negative responses.

Colorblind Modes: The game has no colorblind modes.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are subtitles that cannot be resized. The game has only one audio cue of note, in a sidequest, and it’s accompanied by controller vibration, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. In my view this game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls cannot be remapped. Players move Dave and navigate menus with the left thumbstick. They interact with the world and menus using the face buttons and triggers.

The post Dave The Diver Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Amazing writing.

LOW Short Campaign.

WTF Bread that can make you see the future!

For any Game Of Thrones fans that have ever wanted to be Tyrion Lannister or Ned Stark without the excessive drinking, walks around lavish parks and firebreathing dragons, The King’s Dilemma is a can’t-miss game. Top-tier writing provides opportunities and lays traps in convoluted situations, and it leads to a political game of poker that is sure to get the heart pumping with every decision made.

The King’s Dilemma is a videogame port of a legacy board game published in 2019 . In it, I was bestowed the honor and heavy responsibility of being the head of an advisory council for the king in the fictional kingdom of Ankist.

Essentially, I get to decide what does or does not get done in the kingdom, including things like who gets food or what route the army uses, and then dealing with the ramifications of said decisions. The other members of the council have their own political, ideological, and religious outlooks, with their goal being to influence the king’s decisions so that they can get outcomes favorable to their houses.

The system is simple.

Rather than relying on dice rolls as a boardgame might, The King’s Dilemma mainly functions on an “action/reaction” style table of resources. There are decisions to be made and the councils convenes to make said decisions. There is always a majority view but the resources table informs the stability of the kingdom, and if the kingdom is either too low or too high in any of its five resources ,then the King is dethroned/killed!

As the head of the council, I have the option to either follow the advice of the majority of the council, (which costs no ‘power’ points) or, I could force my will upon the rest of the members and override them, which does cost a certain amount of points.

Players start with a set number of points at the beginning of each reign. The exact amount is awarded at the start, or it depends on my performance in a previous reign and a few other factors. There is a risk to using these points, though — if I overspend my power and end up with no points remaining, then the king is dethroned or killed, and I have to restart with a new king. This soft reboot does not restart time or reset previous issues with the kingdom, which is fine, but a small gripe I have about it is how unscathed the council is until the final chapter. Regardless of how many kings are dethroned, this gaggle of incompetents maintain their lofty positions throughout.

Unfortunately, resource management is not well handled in The King’s Dilemma as it relates to individual houses. Whether you pick House Tork who are mainly focused on soldiering and raiding, or House Dualak who focus on farming and timber extraction, the resource management remains the same. Why would a nation that focuses on war and raiding care about the farming resource? Why would a House that focuses on farming care about military might? And even if we forgive this disconnect, why is it that the King is killed when any of the resources reaches max level? Is there really such a thing as too much money, too many soldiers, or too much food?! 

That issue with balance aside, the writing in The King’s Dilemma is superb, and one good example is the Ash Bread storyline.

Ash Bread is a contaminated form of bread that becomes the only option for food after a few poor harvests in the kingdom. Initially, only poor people consume it, but after a few weeks of use, the skin of those who eat it turns pale and a large black mark appears on them. Another side effect is that people who eat it can then predict the future!

After its effects are known to the council, my choices on whether to let my citizens consume it or not had widespread ramifications. Should I increase the number of soothsayers even if it creates more individuals to be discriminated against? On the other hand, banning the consumption of Ash Bread risks starvation or revolution. And there are even further choices connected to this storyline —  the price of bread, the morale of soldiers who do or don’t eat it, how my kingdom sees the bread based on my decisions regarding its consumption, and more.

The King’s Dilemma is the closest I’ve come to a regal advisor simulator, a position that has always fascinated me… although to be honest, this is one of the most underserved niche genres out there. While I appreciate that players’ lives are never at risk as they might be if they were manipulating things in the Game of Thrones world, it’s not perfect — but it is a good start. One can only hope that it leads to even greater attempts in the future.

Rating: 8 out of 10

— Patricio do Rosario

Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Big Trouble. It is available on PC. This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single- player mode, and the game was completed. There is no multiplayer.

Parents: The ESRB has not rated this title. There are depictions of disturbing images and scenes of implied violence. There are references to slavery, abuse, racism, physical violence, domestic abuse, suicide, substance abuse, sexual violence and limited gory imagery(human sacrifices, blood).

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The King’s Dilemma offers no options for audio accessibility. The text is not able to be altered or resized. (See examples above.) However, the game is playable without sound because it is 100% text based. As such, it is fully accessible.

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

The post The King’s Dilemma: Chronicles Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.