HIGH The Tower of No Interval.

LOW The final encounter.

WTF Not sure a broken sword is the weapon of choice entering a Demon King’s maze.

Presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio with grainy polygonal art, Labyrinth of the Demon King is a near-perfect evocation of dark corners last seen since the mid-90’s.  Played from the first-person perspective, players will hack, slash and puzzle their way through dungeons and towers as a samurai on a quest to avenge their fallen lord by slaying the titular monarch.

Caked in muddy earth tones, monsters shiver through hazy, pixelated halls.  The occasional flash of red viscera gives depth to their dismembered, barely human figures as they limp and stumble after the player.  Their howls cut through fuzzy rain-patter, creating a world that is threatening and immediate despite its ostensible lack of visual fidelity.

A dungeon crawler with a dash of survival horror, the Labyrinth of the Demon King is not a happy place, and respite is all but non-existent.  As I slowly progressed through the foreboding castle, I found my senses more important than a steady sword hand.  A foot peeking out from a corner, or a shuffling in the darkness can tip off observant players to an imminent bushwhack.  While combat is generally fair and balanced, being caught unawares by a group of enemies will quickly exhaust even the most robust health bar.

When it comes to crossing blades with the labyrinth’s demonic denizens, combat is a rhythmic affair.  A slow-motion dance of thrusts and ripostes, even the quickest weapons feel heavy and sluggish.  Frantic, panicked swings, while instinctive given the macabre trappings, will result in rapid defeat as the samurai’s stamina is easily depleted.  Victory, then, becomes a matter of patience rather than reflex. 

Most attacks can be parried, and with long wind ups, enemy blows are effectively telegraphed.  A surprisingly accommodating parry window kept most of my frustration at bay — even when I hit the block button too quickly, I often had time to reset and try again before the monster’s claws made contact.  That’s not to say navigating the Labyrinth of the Demon King is easy, but so long as I didn’t panic, I generally felt well equipped to handle whatever the sinister overlord could dish out. 

For those moments where I overreached my ability, I was pleased to find the Demon King’s rebukes to be lenient.  Falling in battle means resurrecting at the last shrine players rested at.  Enemies respawn, and any resources expended in the fight are forfeit, but beyond that all progress is retained.  That being said, the final battle didn’t feel quite as well tuned as the rest of the fights.  With a more diverse moveset and stronger emphasis on reaction time, the climactic encounter is suitably dramatic. However, with a dozen or so retries, my eventual triumph wasn’t without some exasperation.

Light RPG elements further balance the scales with character progression tied to two primary attributes — strength and stamina.  Weapons can also be improved to stand up to the hardier members of the Demon King’s army, and while the selection of armaments is probably too wide given Labyrinth of the Demon King’s brevity, I’m not one to complain about too many choices.

Martial prowess alone is not sufficient for navigating the Labyrinth of the Demon King, though, and careful exploration plays a large part in the player’s survival. 

As the title implies, each of the main areas is a complex interweaving of rooms, halls and courtyards — losing one’s way is an inevitability.  While maps can be found for each floor, these handy aids are imperfect — passages that appear clear on the map are, in fact, obstructed while hidden paths and outdoor areas go unmarked altogether.  This setup results in a keen straddling of discovery and handholding.  Players are forced to learn levels by landmark, making mental notes of unlocked shortcuts with the map acting as a flawed safety net.

Forgoing punitive mechanics, Labyrinth of the Demon King builds tension through atmosphere and narrative.  While the overarching tale of revenge is standard fare, I found the flavor text throughout the world to be quite affecting.  One highlight is a note describing, in detail, the grisly consequences of defiling a Buddhist altar.  Shortly after finding this note, I encountered a character in possession of a key I needed to progress.  They agreed to help, but only after I desecrated the very altar I had been warned about.  I won’t spoil the outcome, but the author of that note could not be accused of understatement.  This kind of foreshadowing is found throughout Labyrinth of the Demon King and adds dreadful depth to its nasty, grimy styling.

Ultimately, Labyrinth of the Demon King is a canny mixture of aggressive posturing and subtly accessible mechanics.  I was surprised at how tense my experience was, despite the relative ease with which I traversed its halls.  Labyrinth of the Demon King manages to capture the abrasive essence of titles like Shadow Tower and Silent Hill but in a compact, easily digestible package.  The developer’s ability to achieve this balance is commendable and, as the samurai sits drinking matcha tea in the labyrinth’s one refuge, I am filled with a familiar warmth.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Buy Labyrinth of the Demon King – PC – PS – XB – SW

Disclosures: This game is developed by J.R. Hudepohl and published by Top Hat Studios. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5, XBO/X/S, and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 8 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Suggestive Themes, and Violence. This is a horror game and most enemies are monsters or disfigured humans.  The player attacks enemies with weapons such as swords, clubs and guns. Enemies bleed when struck, staining walls and floors and can be dismembered.  Certain enemies require the player to stomp on their head repeatedly to kill them. Disturbing and creepy imagery is found throughout this game. Beyond the violence, there are references to sexual abuse in text notes found in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is no vocalized dialogue in this game, and all character interactions are shown in text boxes. This text cannot be resized. This game makes use of audio to signal enemy presence, often when that enemy is not visible on screen.  One particularly dangerous enemy often spawns behind the player or outside of their field of view and is signaled through a specific auditory jingle.  None of these audio signals have accompanying visual cues, and I found myself taking damage more often when playing without sound. This game is not fully accessible.

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

The post Labyrinth Of The Demon King Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The soundtrack is genuinely excellent.

LOW Poorly designed levels. 

WTF Commiting to the bit makes it a difficult game to review!

One of the strongest (and most surprising) games I’ve reviewed for GameCritics has been Hypnospace Outlaw, which was set in a parody version of 1999’s early internet. It resonated with me in a big way due to its setting, but the developers were also commenting on the toxicity of contemporary social media — which, if anything, has gotten worse since its release. When I saw there was a recent spinoff, I had to see what they’d do with it next.

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer is a ’90s style first-person shooter developed by Tendershoot and published by No More Robots.            

 In Slayers X, Zane, the incredibly obnoxious 15-year-old troll from Hypnospace Outlaw, is now a grown man in his mid-thirties. He’s decided to continue working on a half-done videogame he stopped making in his teen years, and “Slayers X” is that game. This game-within-a-game stars Zane, who is part of a superhero group called the Slayers. His fictional persona is seeking revenge for the murder of his mentor and mother by a rival group headed by Zane’s stepfather. 

This story hints at what one might expect from the mind of an obnoxious teenager, and in this respect, Slayer X commits to the bit. This thin plot is just a setup for a power fantasy that invokes Doom and Duke Nukem. The story is ridiculous and replete with awful one-liners where Zane mocks enemies by saying things like “I slept with your mom!” Complete with poor CG between levels, the overall quality of the experience is surely a series of deliberate choices by the developers to remain consistent with the premise.

Additionally, gameplay has a familiar smoothness and speed typical of shooters from that era, complete with exaggerated head bob. The shooting is exactly what one would expect, offering simple shooting in levels filled with enemies. The guns feel common, though the Glass Blaster shotgun packs a punch and is the exception, due to its ability to use broken windows as ammo refills.

However, Slayers X is also seemingly filtered through the prism of someone lacking in the talent department when it comes to game design. The areas lack flow — I often found myself lost among many seemingly pointless areas and diversions lacking tangible rewards for exploration, aside from some predictably poor and immature visual gags. This resulted in a stop-start feeling not helped by the prevalence of monster closets and waves of spawning enemies.

Speaking of enemies, they lack interesting designs and are repeated ad nauseam. When the difficulty needs to ramp up in the final levels, the classic design mistake is made — the enemy count skyrockets and stronger enemies become too plentiful.

To make matters worse, ammo was inconsistently and haphazardly placed. I sometimes found myself with an overabundance, but at other times — especially when it was needed the most — it was hard to come across.

Again, while this was not a pleasant experience per se, I want to reiterate the admiration I had for the developers’ commitment to their concept. It is through this authenticity that Slayer X shines — it’s not really a ‘bad’ FPS, but instead a character piece reflecting the mind of a juvenile edgelord and his views of the world. This meta-concept is where Slayer X finds its humor, in exposing his illusions of grandeur and not in Zane’s terrible zingers.

While the concept behind Slayers X might spark debate, there’s no argument around the soundtrack, where the parody band “Seepage” returns from Hypnospace Outlaws. Clearly inspired by late ’90s bands like Linkin Park, tastes may vary here (and I’m exposing my own nostalgia) but I genuinely found the songs not just pitch-perfect throwbacks, but enjoyable in their own right.

Considering its premise, it would be betraying the concept to make a ‘good’ game. It’s certainly interesting, but does that lead to an enjoyable experience? Well, it’s worth playing for those who enjoyed Hypnospace Outlaw and are interested in another snapshot from that period, and it’s brief enough so that it doesn’t outstay its welcome. However, people who aren’t Hypnospace fans or those who aren’t interested in the meta-concept would probably do well to look elsewhere if they’re craving a standard FPS fix.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Tendershoot and published by No More Robots. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4/5, Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 3.5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Drug Reference, and Language. Whilst the graphics are deliberately primitive, the game is very violent with exploding limbs and lots of blood, although the prevalence of blood depends on whether the violence level is set to normal or extreme in the settings. There are references to suicide, drugs and crude humour such as sexual innuendo, for example, the player character saying he has slept with someone’s mom.

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.  I found it to be quite playable without sound, however there were a couple of issues. Subtitles did not appear when Zach made comments about why doors were inaccessible (there are color coded locks.) A bigger issue is the lack of visual cues when enemies approach from the back and the sides, and I did not see visual cues detailing where damage was coming from. As a result it is not fully accessible.

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

The post Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath – Vengeance Of The Slayer Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Devastating new weaponry, nightmarish new areas, loathsome new enemies.

LOW Some levels feel like deja vu. Purges are even more tiresome than in the base game.

WTF Navigation mode is nice, but still no map?

Editor’s Note: This review covers only the Forges of Corruption DLC. For a deeper look at the core Boltgun systems and content, please see the original review.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun was released last year and received many accolades for its fresh take on the ’90s-style genre, reflecting the pixelated glory of early FPS games like Doom or Star Wars: Dark Forces while meeting modern standards for things like framerates, sound design and UI.

Last month, Auroch Digital released Forges of Corruption, which includes a new campaign that is equal in length and quality to one of the chapters of the base game. They simultaneously released a patch which included new achievements, a new Horde Mode, a navigation mode and general quality of life improvements.

For those who don’t know, Warhammer 40,000 began as a TTRPG back in the late ’80s, so before playing Boltgun I only knew of the IP from legions of miniature Space Marines on display at various board game retailers. Now, after eight hours of playing as a Space Marine, I’m much more interested in the whole universe.

I started by going through some of Boltgun‘s base game to get a feel for it, and after about an hour and a half it was clear that I didn’t need to understand its backstory to enjoy annihilating every last heretic on the planet Graia. When I then booted up the DLC, I was briefed by Inquisitor Seibel about the overtaking of an Imperial forge on Graia and my mission was to take it back for the Empire.

The cutscene ended with an image worthy of a power metal album cover — Mallum Caedo (the Space Marine embodied by the player) standing on a burning hill, looking determinedly at the horizon — needless to say, it got me hyped to lay waste to the Manufactorum.

I was glad to find that I was in for more stomping around as a Space Marine, taking out hordes of disgusting, slime-spewing demons and all sorts of heretics with a huge arsenal of weapons to choose from. Like the base game, the player gains more weapons as they progress, giving a sense of becoming more powerful even though there are no RPG elements of upgrading weapons or armor. By the time I got the new missile launcher, I felt like I could take anything on, even my first damage-sponge boss known as a Great Unclean One, with relative ease.

Most of my favorite weapons were less conventional, like the Vengeance Launcher (a grenade launcher loaded with tiny grenades that stick to enemies before they explode) and I still preferred anything over the shotgun, as it was weak against the new enemies and took far too long to reload.

My new favorite level soon became Escalating Chaos, which featured an eerie purple canyon and included some light platforming challenges. Overall, the color palette was muted, which worked for establishing a dystopian atmosphere but started to become monotonous in more than a few areas. This leads me to one of my main qualms with the DLC — many levels, enemies and mechanics felt as if they had been copied and pasted.

In the sewer sections and some of the arenas, I often asked myself, “Haven’t I been here before?” Also, by the end, I had grown so sick of the “Purge” sections (where players must eliminate big baddies and regular enemies spawn until they’re gone) as they became so challenging even on Medium difficulty that I found myself wishing I could just cheese my way out so that I could get back to making progress.

My last objective in this DLC was to destroy the Daemon Forge, at which point the developers pulled out all the stops with three big baddies and droves of regular enemies teleporting to my location all at the same time, and I was barely able to beat two before I died on my fifth or sixth try. Eventually, I tried to adjust the difficulty and found that there wasn’t an option to do so mid-game, but I was able to turn on invulnerability — I’m not proud to admit it, but I had to just to finish the campaign.

Ultimately though, I encountered many of the same problems in the DLC that were present in the base game — the difficulty spikes are fierce and there’s not much variety here beyond running, gunning and finding keys.

Despite the lack of DLC freshness, Forges of Corruption was engaging enough to hold my attention and enjoyable as hell most of the time, but I think it would be great if Auroch added multiplayer in future Boltgun patches or DLC — I would imagine playing with fellow Space Marines, whether it be deathmatch or co-op mode, would be a blast.

While both the core campaign and this DLC would use a little tweaking, there’s no doubt that they remain exciting, engaging plays that come recommended. As Incommodus the Servo Skull says, PURGE THE HERETICS!

Rating: 7 out of 10

— Thom Stone

Disclosures: This game was developed by Auroch Digital and published by Focus Entertainment. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5 and XBO/S/X. It was obtained via publisher and reviewed for the PC. Approximately 6.5 hours were devoted to the DLC content alone. The DLC was finished. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game was rated M by the ESRB and contains Violence and Blood and Gore. The official description reads as follows: This is a retro first-person shooter in which players assume the role of a space marine investigating a planet invaded by demons. Players use a variety of machine guns and shotguns to kill hordes of stylized, pixelated enemies (e.g., demons, cultists, enemy marines). Combat is fast-paced, highlighted by frequent gunfire, explosions, and blood-splatter effects. Enemies often explode into low-resolution gore/viscera, and one weapon (chainsaw attachment) can result in up-close blood-splatter/chunks of flesh.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. All NPC dialogue is fully subtitled. Enemies will often attack off-screen with only an auditory indication for where the attack came from and some also have the ability to teleport near the player before they attack, which is always accompanied by a sound effect but has no visual cues. The game therefore is not fully accessible.

Remappable controls: The controls can be remapped.

The post Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Forges of Corruption Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Hitting a huge group of goblins with the wand for the first time.

LOW The final third feels like a letdown.

WTF The musical mid-game box battle.

With a return to their mid-’90s roots, first-person shooters have had something of a renaissance in recent years. These retro-styled titles are a welcome shot of adrenaline for a genre that has long become tired and stale. Chop Goblins is the distillation of this genre down to its most potent elements.

With an average playthrough lasting only 30 minutes, there is no room for Chop Goblins to slow down. Upon starting a new game, the first thing I notice is the music. Synth-heavy and bizarrely upbeat, the soundtrack has me bobbing my head as I blow away goblins in time with the tunes. This emphasis on rhythm creates a sense of urgency — in reality, there is no time limit, but I can’t shake the feeling that I need to move as fast as I possibly can.

Theoretically, Chop Goblins is a run-based shooter with an emphasis on achieving the highest score possible — but I’d be lying if I said maximizing my score multiplier is what propels me through each level. That propulsion instead comes from the very intentional design decisions, both in the visuals and gameplay.

To call the aesthetics utilitarian may be something of an overstatement — textures are basic to the point of being boring, barely registering as I dart through. Rather, the developer has focused on lighting to
differentiate each stage. While the details blur together, a castle corridor bathed in blue or hard white sun on marble columns stand out clearly in my mind. This offers a sense of visual identity for each section without the cost of high-res textures or assets — I’m moving too quickly to notice the details anyway.

The enemy design, on the other hand, is more noteworthy. While still decidedly lo-fi, careful attention has been paid to ensuring each enemy type has an immediately recognizable silhouette and easily-readable move-set. With flailing arms, big bulbous heads full of teeth and pitch-shifted voices, the titular goblins provide ripe targets as I blast my way through their lilting cries of “Chop! Chop! Chop!” Each level offers a new enemy type, steadily increasing in difficulty and capability.

Forgoing the randomized procedural generation typical of run-based games, Chop Goblins instead relies on carefully-crafted enemy encounters, hidden rooms, and alternate routes to keep subsequent playthroughs interesting. As I fly forward, there are multiple paths, and I choose without thinking as I make steady progress, rarely feeling lost or having to double back. Suddenly the walls around me are gone. I see a gaggle of goblins in the clearing ahead and a carefully-aimed shot hits a gas can. There’s an explosion, and for a moment, I can breathe as the world slows down for the first time since hitting ‘New Game’ and bloody chunks float suspended in the air.

Set pieces such as this emerge organically from the violence around me, providing strategic opportunity, shock and humor. However, some incongruous design decisions in later levels slow my progress.

For example, there are nominal attempts at puzzles that feel out of place — these rarely require more than simple environmental observation, but with a runtime of 30 minutes, they prove an unnecessary distraction from the otherwise insistent speed. Additionally, Chop Goblins crescendos early with the final stage feeling redundant and anti-climactic. However, the overall experience is so brief that I barely have
time to register the complaint.

Scope is a critical part of any project, and Chop Goblins understands this perfectly. By setting their sights modestly and emphasizing speed and tone, the developer manages an almost perfect execution of their vision — there is no waste, and every element keeps me engaged in its mad rush.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

— Ryan Nalley

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by David Szymanski. It is currently
available on PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 2 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 Blood and Violence. The enemies are all fantasy based (monsters and goblins) and while there is plenty of blood, it’s low fidelity and non-realistic. When killed with an explosive enemies will explode into chunks of blood, but it’s all presented in a light-hearted cartoony fashion. There is a ‘Kids Mode’ setting which cuts down on the blood and changes the color to green — this also removes the chunks of blood when a goblin is blown up.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles. The only spoken dialogue in the game is in the form of random phrases from the enemies and is not represented visually. The enemies are constantly making noise, and while playing without sound I did notice the enemies to be more difficult to locate, particularly in more complex levels. All other sound effects have an accompanying visual cue. All narrative information is conveyed through text boxes preceding each level and is not spoken aloud. The in-game text cannot be altered and/or resized. This game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls. Additionally, all analog inputs (left and right sticks and triggers) can be calibrated individually to account for sensitivity and
deadzones.

The post Chop Goblins Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH It’s somewhat nice to see Zool back in his original form…

LOW …which reminds me it wasn’t that great to start with.

WTF The bleeding banana will haunt my dreams for years to come.

Back in 1992, the release of the original Sonic The Hedegehog drastically changed the gaming landscape. Suddenly, every software house wanted to work on a fast-paced 2D platformer and create its own mascot — an issue that especially preoccupied developers for home computers like the Commodore Amiga. Following this trend, Gremlin Graphics released the original version of Zool in 1992.

The titular ninja from the Nth Dimension crash-lands on an unfamiliar planet and will have to get through various obstacles to escape. While it may be a title that some gamers of a certain age may feel a bit of nostalgia for, the original Zool (along with a conversion for every console imaginable at the time) reveals just how important the level design was in making the Sonic games so memorable and appreciated. Unfortunately, Zool just doesn’t stack up.

As it’s now 2021, Zool has received a facelift. This version is the original platformer with a difficulty rebalance, a CRT graphics filter for added fidelity to the original and a zoomed-out view to allow the player see more of the screen. Overall, these changes make Zool a more approachable experience than it used to be, but they do not improve it on a fundamental level.

Each level in Zool lasts no more than a couple of minutes, and it’s time usually spent jumping from platform to platform or finding one’s way through the lower sections that require defeating enemies by shooting or jumping/gliding into them. This is a simple flavor of 2D platforming that feels inherently ’90s, and no filter can change that. Also, the end-of-stage bosses are pretty forgettable, some of which I defeated on my first try.

Redimensioned comes in two flavors which mainly act as difficulty — the original experience and the Ultimate Ninja mode. I would recommend most ’90s players to try the latter, as I finished the original with 15 lives to spare and never had a problem in most levels.

After completing seven stages and thirty-something levels, the Zool Redimensioned experience is basically over and done with. The changes made to ths version were well thought-out, but they do little to hide the fact that the original material was just an okay-at-best ’90s platformer and the intervening years haven’t done it any favors in terms of game design or graphics. Those who have nostalgia for it should check it out — all others should give it a pass.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Sumo Digital Academy and published by Secret Mode. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately three hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: The game is not rated by the ESRB but it contains Mild Fantasy Violence. Considering the overall kid-friendly content, I would definitely recommend it to all audiences, but I would guess kids would need a bit of help since the game has that old-school ’90s difficulty.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The few story bits in the game are subtitled, while no audio cues are needed for gameplay, but subtitles cannot be resized or altered. In my view, the game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: the game controls fine with a controller, using the d-pad to move around, X to shoot, A to jump and B to use the glide attack. Controls can be remapped.

The post Zool Redimensioned Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A ’90s throwback with fast and smooth gameplay.

LOW The uninspiring and repetitive levels.

WTF Great (but minimal) music on a constant loop.

As a gamer in my mid 30s, I have a soft spot for ’90s era of first-person shooters. I loved the quick, smooth and simplistic gameplay that sometimes gets lost in modern titles (I’m looking at you Doom Eternal!) and I’m clearly not the only one who feels nostalgic for this style since as there are now similar throwback shooters flooding the market, Exodemon being one.

Developed by Kuupa, players control a scientist in a laboratory at the edge of the universe who has been infected by a symbiotic entity. She has been able to control this entity, and as a result now sports alien claws used for melee attacks and for shooting. Players then use these claws to fight their way through 18 levels filled with enemies. 

Exodemon makes a good first impression. The play is fast and smooth, and has a slightly different feel compared to other first-person shooters due to the claws. These each have their own corresponding shoulder button and it felt intuitive to to slash with one claw and shoot with the other. Exodemon also incorporates its UI diegetically by placing the health and ammo bars on the claws themselves. I always like it when developers are creative with UI implementation, and it helps ensure that there’s a nice, uncluttered look to the proceedings.

The graphics are simple but colorful, featuring blue security bots as enemies. The laboratory setting initially looks drab as it largely consists of grey corridors. However, I was sure that as the game went on I would find more interesting enemies and levels, but sadly, that never happened. 

With a few exceptions, the entirety of Exodemon is set in the same drab and grey laboratory levels. The enemies do change, but these continue to have designs that are lacking in creativity and simple to a fault.

I did not expect Exodemon to live up to the visual fidelity of contemporary games, and it shouldn’t, but the best shooters from the ’90s used interesting designs whilst working within the limits of the era’s hardware. I had high hopes for a visually appealing experience, but instead Exodemon ended up being an ugly game, and it’s hard to feel any kind of tension from visually boring enemies.

Like the graphics, the gameplay also fails to develop over time.

Exodemon is fast and smooth, and using the claws adds an interesting wrinkle. However, the player simply doesn’t feel powerful. Rather than offering a power fantasy, the slash attack doesn’t do enough damage and actually leaves the player prone to taking damage. As such, Exodemon encourages the player to keep their distance and play it safe. Sadly, the shooting lacks impact thanks to tinny sound effects and an absence of discernible feedback when the enemies take damage.

Surprisingly, what Exodemon does well are the platforming elements. I have never been a fan of platforming in first-person shooters, but here it feels fine. The jumping isn’t too floaty, and whenever I misjudged a jump it felt like a mistake that was my fault, and not the game’s.  

Sadly, decent platforming is not enough to save Exodemon. I was looking forward to a dose of ’90s era nostalgia offering visceral shooting at high speed, but what I got was a drab-looking project which is far too simple and greatly lacking creativity in art design. It may seem competent at first, but Exodemon lacks anything to keep it interesting past the first few levels.

Disclosures: This game is developed by and published by Kuupa. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4, PS5, Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single player mode and the game was completed.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E and contains Fantasy Violence. Whilst Exodemon is a shooter, it lacks any overly violent or explicit imagery. Overall, I’d say Exodemon is safe for kids.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Exodemon has no dialogue. Its minimal story is told between levels in text. This cannot be resized and features white letters on a black background. There is an audio advantage from being able to hear enemy fire from outside the player’s line of sight, and this fire has no visual cue.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. There is no control diagram. Players can invert Y and can adjust sensitivity. This game does not offer a controller map diagram, but movement is on the left stick. Camera is the right stick. Jumping is X. Slashing with the left claw is R2 and shooting with the right is L2.

The post Exodemon appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Going back to that comforting oldschool level design…

LOW …Until I found myself lost every five minutes.

WTF Cutscenes and enemies disappearing, for that full ’90s experience.

As part of a ’90s movement to adapt comic books into movies — a movement that came too soon, as we now know — Shadow Man was apparently one of the properties being considered, and it was said that Ice Cube was meant to be the star. That film never materialized, but a videogame did. The voodoo-themed book from Valiant Comics was optioned and developed by Acclaim in 1999, and it turned out to be a competent third-person action-adventure met with mostly favorable reviews. Now, 22 years later, Shadow Man is being remastered with 4K graphics, improved effects like anti-aliasing, shadow mapping and HDR rendering, and restored content that was previously cut.

In Shadow Man, Michael LeRoi is someone who can switch between the worlds of the living and the dead at will. His abilities change depending on which dimension he’s in, and his goal is to retrieve the souls of five serial killers (some of them will have to be defeated) before ultimately confronting a demon named Legion. Overall, it’s the usual save-the-world-from-evil plot, with brief cutscenes that do little to enrich the narrative.

In the adventure, LeRoi will explore several levels while having to solve environmental puzzles — pushing switches, opening up doors — and, above all, fighting hordes of enemies. Everything in the design tends to be a bit on the cryptic side, at times making the player guess where they need to go in order to proceed, but it’s all a bit obtuse and thorough exploration is required avoid hours of backtracking. As far as combat, in the dark world our hero is more powerful and capable of handling special voodoo-enhanced weapons, along with being able to withstand more hits. In the real world, he’s weaker and can only fire a gun.

Unfortunately, Shadow Man fails to offer the expected ‘dual world’ level design where a player might have to switch back and forth between worlds to solve puzzles and such. No, this ability to change dimensions is only used to offer different environments to explore but doesn’t offer much in the way of varied gameplay mechanics.

I played Shadow Man when it was originally released, and coming to it again after all this time later evokes certain mixed feelings. On one hand, it feels slightly comforting to revisit simpler levels where the small-scale flow of each room is easily predictable. On the other, everything does tend to feel kind of samey and losing my way in a larger sense ended up being a too-common occurrence. Adding a map or hint system would have been a welcome addition for newcomers who don’t have a soft spot for the period Shadow Man is from, but Nightdive Studios goes the conservative route with this remaster — great graphical improvements, bunch of new levels and weapons, but not much else. Also unfortunate is that the newly-restored voiceovers only feature the original dubbing. In the other language versions, they default to English when translated lines are missing.

Of course, even with all the improvements there’s no mistaking Acclaim’s title for anything made recently thanks to polygonal models that remain simple and straightforward. Still, Shadow Man looks good enough to be played in widescreen and I would assume that anyone coming to the game would be prepared with the proper ‘retro appreciation’ frame of mind.

Shadow Man: Remastered is an interesting choice for today’s market, because it’s not afraid to show the passage of time — it proudly displays the trappings of its era with untouched (and cryptic) level design, clunky combat and alight narrative. It will provide a particular sort of nostalgia for those who remember the period it’s from, but players coming to it for the first time should scale back any expectations.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Nightdive Studios. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the 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 not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: The game is not rated by the ESRB, but it contains moderate violence and mild horror with enemies like vampires and spiders. Even though I wouldn’t consider it more violent or scarier than an average RPG, I still would recommend it to a teen audience.

Colorblind Modes: there are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Several of the enemies feature attacks that are telegraphed only by sound. As such, this game is not easily playable to those who can’t hear the cues. The text cannot be altered or resized. In my view, the game is not accessible.

Remappable Controls: There is no control diagram. The game is controlled via the mouse to rotate the camera and perform attacks, along with keyboard to control the Shadow Man. It is also possible to use a gamepad, but — weirdly enough — it didn’t feel as precise as with the keyboard and mouse.

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HIGH The darkly humorous writing really spoke to me. 

LOW Difficulty spikes that come out of nowhere. 

WTF I really need a job, again.

Anyone in a creative field goes through the same thing every now and then. Me? I’m writing this review after a long period of questioning what the hell I’m doing in this industry. The bad thing is that I don’t know when these bouts of negativity will end, but thankfully most of the art I consume now is about the feelings that arise when trying to work on something creative. This game is a perfect example.

Don’t Give Up: A Cynical Tale is a 2D indie RPG that stars Tris, a 27-year old indie developer who is making a go of it in a new city. As someone who had a mental breakdown four years prior, Tris struggles to make a name for himself or to put himself out there. His friends want to see him succeed but his self-deprecation and sardonic humor hold him back as he retreats to an inner dialogue that is personified by a portrait of a physical brain talking back to him. 

The writing is sharp and packed full of dark humor that I appreciated, though it does tend to get a bit too real at times. In the early moments, Tris starts drinking aggressively on his bathroom floor while pondering if life is even worth living. Seeing this portrait of failure and self-hate was jarring, but also refreshing. Few games tackle the way some people cope with self-worth, especially in a society where its often tied to financial gain. As someone who constantly tries to figure out how to monetize his hobbies, the feeling of hopelessness that comes with not landing a job or failing to move forward hurts like nothing else. 

Don’t Give Up isn’t just narrative, though — there is combat, which happens in real-time. When battles start, players move around four squares that correspond with the directions on the D-pad. If the space they’re on is red, they need to either dodge or parry the upcoming attack. At the same time, they’re able to land a few hits if they can follow where their foe is moving.

This “foursquare” Combat is deceptively simple and can change up depending on the story beats or the enemy types available. One of my favorite aspects is “Smack Talk,” in which Tris is given dialogue choices directed towards an opponent. Different choices have different effects, and the main goal is to lower an enemy’s guard with cutting words. However, pick the wrong choice and an enemy will get so mad, they might actually get more fired up to fight. This system not only adds variety to each battle, it’s also funny as well and I appreciated the banter. 

While the combat is fine and even novel, Don’t Give Up succeeds with its writing. Interacting with NPCs often results in hilarious exchanges, including one very dark Rugrats reference or some awful puns. Without spoiling much, later parts of the story delve into more fantastical and existential themes along with new characters bringing their own humor into the mix. 

Don’t Give Up: A Cynical Tale is perfect for anyone in a creative field or for those who feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. With its sardonic sense of humor and very real writing, it reminds us that we all need a pick-me-up every now and then. 

Disclosures: This game is published by Nuchallenger and developed by Taco Pizza Cats. It is currently available on Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch.  Approximately 10 hours were played in single-player and the game was completed. There is no multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated T for Language, Crude Humor, Use of Alcohol, Suggestive Themes, Drug References, and Fantasy Violence. While the violence is never overtly gratuitous, a lot of the content is definitely not suitable for younger children. Themes of depression, suicide, alcoholism, social anxiety, mental health and more are present.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are visual cues for everything that happens onscreen as well as subtitles, though text cannot be adjusted. (See examples above.) This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, the controls are remappable.

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