Recent reviews by Odysseus

*This is a spoiler free review.

”A thing of beauty will never fade away…”

Introduction

One of the most hyped games of all time. One of the most adored game developers. Eight years of waiting. The result? One of the most chaotic release debacles for a triple-A game ever… And yet, that didn’t stop Cyberpunk 2077 from being one of the best games I’ve ever played. Maybe I was lucky – my game was exceptionally stable compared to the complaints I saw from many people – but once I dug into the actual content of Cyberpunk: its world, gameplay, quests, and story; it was clear that this was a well-designed, innovative, and incredibly detailed game. By now, everyone knows about how poorly optimized and buggy CP2077 is for many people. But not many know just how good the game is in its content. I want to give you the full story, no details obscured by a NPC T-posing on a city street.

Lore

Beginning with the basics, let’s talk plot. Cyberpunk 2077 is set in an alternate timeline version of Earth, in which cybernetic technology that alters the human body was invented in the early 1990’s. Throughout the 90’s and 21st century, several economic collapses hit the global economy, and many natural and man-made disasters also destabilized nations across the globe. Between 1994 and 2020, the U.S. government was embroiled in coup after coup, and the assassinations of many politicians. Much of these 25-odd years were spent in a state of martial law. During this period, roughly one hundred million Americans die to violence, disease, and famine.

By 2020, the power vacuum is finally filled by giant, multi-national corporations; most notably the U.S. based Militech and the Japan based Arasaka. This game is set in Northern California’s “Night City,” the largest in the New United States, which has been thoroughly enculturated into the libertarian-right, corporate run, cyber-infused new world order.

The Presentation Debacle

Let’s get what you already know out of the way. The launch of CP2077 was a mess, and roughly a month later, still is, in many ways. Graphical bugs plague Cyberpunk, whether it’s broken animations, physics, or NPCs. To make matters worse, the game, while not unstable in my experience (I had ONE crash in 95 hours), is poorly optimized, and runs under 60fps on all but the best hardware. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that when the game is running well (which was 90%+ of the time for me), the presentation is PHENOMENAL. Visually, Night City is spectacular. Everything in the game is graphically cutting edge, whether it’s the textures, lighting, surface reflections, or otherwise. Also, Cyberpunk 2077 has, hands down, the best original radio songs of any gave I’ve ever played. The ambiance bleeds the cyberpunk aesthetic too, a perfect fit for the setting. It’s a shame there’s so many issues out of the box, because the presentation is unreal.

Night City is Breathtaking

If there’s one thing that can’t be disputed about CP2077, it’s the intricate, lived-in, believable setting of Night City. Ads play when you ride an elevator. The dense city skyline is legitimately jaw dropping. Markets are filled with city goers. City streets are bustling with vehicles. Gangs have their own turf, and will both rob and murder pedestrians, and engage in gunfights with the NCPD. When you come upon a troubled area, “fixers” will call you with jobs to do in the very location you’re standing in. To have this breathing, over-crowded, visually stunning ecosystem all at your finger-tips is genuinely overwhelming and electrifying. It’s a singular experience, and one I can never forget.

FPS or RPG?

There’s been some puzzlement over whether Cyberpunk 2077 is primarily a FPS or a RPG. It’s a hard question to answer because it’s clearly both, but I’d say the game skews toward being more of a FPS. First person gunplay and melee combat are the central gameplay mechanic, as there are several flashy weapons for every kind of play style, and cyber ware that enhances however you’ve built your character.

This level of variety brings in RPG components. The leveling system is detailed, but a little too focused on number crunching over new abilities. Cosmetically, your character is plenty customizable, with a great character creator and numerous outfits and vehicles to suit up with later. On top of this, you get three story backgrounds to choose from, which changes many dialogue options throughout the entire game. Dialogue within itself is also bent toward roleplaying, but important decisions are clearly telegraphed, and much of it is otherwise expositional. Altogether, in its gameplay, CP2077 is a well-designed FPS with strong RPG mechanics.

The Side Quests are both Cyber and Punk

When talking quests, it should be said that none of them are auto-generated. There are some less interesting quests, like clearing out gangsters from an area for the NCPD, but many of the side quests are complex and intensely entertaining. One of my favorite involves being contracted by a candidate for mayor of Night City to investigate the death of the previous mayor. Another excellent side quest sees you aiding a psychologically fragmented, possibly sentient AI who runs a taxi service all by itself. Another still allows you to accompany an old rock star as he lives out a personal vendetta against a bunch of weeaboo pop-stars – yes, they still exist in 2077.

The writing in these quests, and many more, contain some of the freshest and most original subject matter I’ve come across in an open-world RPG. They utilize the cyberpunk setting flawlessly for narrative purposes, it’s really engrossing stuff; the kind that keeps you up playing until 4ÆM in the morning. Even better, all of these major side quests have multiple story branches and decisions, allowing you to express your character’s personality and affect others. I really couldn’t be more impressed by the side quests.

Main Narrative & Characters

Getting into the nitty gritty of the narrative, you play as V, a cyber-enhanced mercenary in Night City with a past life of your choosing. Your partner in crime, Jackie, has scored “major-league” with a job offer from one of the biggest players in Night City, Dexter DeShawn. Only problem is, it’s a job that requires you to steal from Arasaka, possibly the most powerful corporation in the world. I won’t spoil, but this mission takes a turn for the worst, and you end up slotting the stolen tech from Arasaka into your head to keep it from destabilizing. Inside is the mental construct of Johnny Silverhand – an old rocker boy and terrorist who died in 2020. He now appears to you in your head, but is also slowly restructuring your psyche into his own. Before Johnny takes over your mind and body, you have to find a way to remove the chip, without killing yourself in the process.

On the way you form intimate relationships, friendships, and become nemeses with several characters, which truly turbocharges the writing in Cyberpunk. I’m not exaggerating when I say that many of these fantastic characters made me smile, laugh, and feel pangs of sadness or anger. Cyberpunk’s writing is truly masterful.

Conclusion

The feelings of awe and total absorption I had playing Cyberpunk 2077 were ones I haven’t had since I played The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine in 2016. I know it’s an unpopular opinion at the moment, but Cyberpunk is right up there with the RPG greats. The setting is incredible, the gameplay is fun, the quests are brimming with novelty, and the writing will pull your heartstrings and headstrings like you wouldn’t believe. This is a 10/10 game… when its issues are fixed. For now, I’ll give it a 9.5, to prevent the perception of being a total shill. Play it as soon as there are major patches.

Out of the Metro, into the Aurora.

Note: I played this game offline, which is why my hours-on-record are so low.

Introduction
Metro Exodus is hands down the crowning achievement of the Metro franchise. It brings Artyom and company out of the claustrophobic metro tunnels of 2033 & Last Light, and into the daylight of POST-apocalyptic Russia, in all its glory. Never before has a game so effectively blended the polish of a linear FPS with the freedom of a reactive open world, while capturing a Slavic atmosphere which rivals that of blin-kingpin S.T.A.L.K.E.R. itself. Exodus takes Metro to fantastic new heights while cutting out nearly all the lows, whether that be in gameplay, world-building, or storytelling. As a fan of the series for years, I’m happy to report that this is the sequel we were waiting for.

Plot
Metro Exodus begins with the protagonist, Artyom, plagued by the suspicion that there is still human life left on the surface beyond the Moscow Metro system. You, as Artyom, have been making frequent dangerous excursions to the surface since the end of the previous game in the hopes of finding a radio signal to validate this theory. This causes strife with your wife, Anna, who is fearful that one day you won’t arrive home still breathing. As a consequence, she decides to come with you on one of your trips to the surface to watch your back. On that fateful day, Artyom and Anna discover; not a radio signal, but actual people who claim to hail from outside the city… as well as an operational locomotive train, capable of taking them – and the Spartan Order – across the country.

Presentation
Shifting to the graphics of Exodus, I have to say that they are entirely up to series standards. The art style is identical to that of its redux-ed predecessors, but every visual detail has been tweaked to breathtaking fidelity. Textures are photorealistic, faces are way beyond the uncanny valley in a positive direction, animations are fluid and numerous, the lighting is gorgeous to the point that its beauty exceeds real life, and all other technical components are practically flawless. The soundscape is noticeably (mostly) unchanged from the previous games, however there is a whole new soundtrack which accompanies Exodus’s atmosphere terrifically. As for performance, the game is demanding, but still well optimized. All in all, I’m absolutely taken by Metro Exodus’s presentation.

Exploration
Exodus is divided into roughly three separate maps throughout the course of the game, as well as a few more linear levels. While the settings themselves are gorgeous to the eye, from the swamps of the Volga River to the deserts of the dried up Caspian Sea, there’s also a lot to do. Each region has multiple objectives and locations, with secrets to uncover and loot to seize. There is a disparate theme to the individual provinces too, giving Exodus a real sense of variety. Notes and audio journals dot the world-space as well, revealing the history of a place and its people following the war. The several environmental stories told are enlightening, and sometimes even heart-rending. Altogether, Exodus’s environments are impeccably designed, and reward intense investigation.

Gameplay Mechanics
Metro Exodus, among other secondary features, utilizes an all new crafting and modification system, which I’d say is… a mixed bag. The crafting component of the game feels lazy, as there are only two materials to work with: metals and chemicals, which (annoyingly) functionally constitute 90% of the games lootable items – meaning most valuable consumables must be crafted. On the modification side of things, there’s a lot more to like. There are roughly ten base guns in the game, but each can be radically altered to work more effectively in different scenarios. Gear modification serves as the progression system, so it’s important to stay up-to-date with your weapons and accessories. There are a few more gameplay mechanics such as stealth, radiation, and vehicles, but all can be roughly summarized as ‘well implemented.’

Gunplay Mechanics
The Metro series is known for its atmosphere, and the immersion of its combat is a central element. I truly believe Metro Exodus has perfected the first-person impact of firing a gun; between the recoil and sound design, and even on down to the stopping power of each individual weapon. And good news – from bandits to mutant beasts, and slavers to the eerie humanimals, there’s a whole host of new adversaries to blast away across the scarred face of Russia. The AI of human enemies is quite sophisticated too, being able to call out your position to their allies if they spot you; relative to the objects around you. It’s also worth noting that you can defeat humans non-lethally, and that combatants will surrender if routed. Intricacies like these nested within Exodus’ combat system are what drive the gameplay, and make it uniquely satisfying.

Main Narrative
Refocusing on Exodus’s story, it’s a much better tale than that of the previous titles. For reasons I won’t spoil; you, Anna, Colonel Miller, and the rest of the Spartan Order travel eastward through post-apocalyptic Russia in the train found at the beginning of the game, which is quickly coined the Aurora. As the crew trek across the scorched earth of the motherland, seasons change, and new societies are discovered. The survivors of the nuclear holocaust have become vicious luddites, bandits, cannibals, and slavers – but a rare few have preserved their humanity. Eventually the Order’s goal becomes to find an untainted land to call home; a place where a civilized society can rebuild, and Artyom and Anna can raise a family.

Characters
Whereas in past Metro games the supporting characters were side-pieces or even something of a nuisance, Exodus is much more character-driven in its storytelling. The blank stares of Bourbon and Khan are gone; replaced by the sensitive compassion of Stepan, cockiness of the impressionable Duke, and the believable love of Artyom’s wife, Anna. The Aurora’s crew grows and changes with time, developing through the experiences they endure and the trials they overcome. If you care to bend an ear, your comrades will talk it off, expressing their thoughts, plans, hopes, and fears. While the translation of dialogue to English can be clunky at times, the character writing itself is just magnificent. The inspiring humanity of this small group of characters truly bring your goals as Artyom into perspective. The people of Metro Exodus are what make the whole experience.

Morality & Choice
On a quick narrative note before my final verdict, I’d like to clearly express that Exodus tracks your moral status throughout the course of the 25-odd hour campaign. There are particular actions you can complete that will give you positive karma, and specific crimes you can commit that will accrue negative karma. How you interact with the game world and its characters will have consequences – not only in the form of separate endings, but in a cascade of different narrative outcomes. The Order’s exodus is a treacherous one, but the most perilous war is that of the one which rages right through every human heart, and through all human hearts.

Conclusion
I feel my opinion on this game has been made fairly obvious by this point, but that doesn’t mean I won’t praise it further. Metro Exodus is one of the best games, period, that I have ever played. Its the culmination of what already was a phenomenal series, and Exodus pulls no punches in giving the trilogy a stupendously vast, enjoyable, meticulous, touching, and downright impressive send-off. I couldn’t have imagined a better way to conclude Artyom’s journey.

Dostoevsky, Stalin, The Fourth Wall, and a jackhammer walk into a bar...

Introduction
As someone who has never played Pathologic until 2020, I was absolutely shell-shocked by this experience. It is so foreign, so original, so unintuitive, so inaccessible, and so engrossing that I was legitimately unnerved, and entirely entranced during much of my playtime. Writing about it now, I’m not sure I am adequate to the task of describing Pathologic accurately. So, I’ll start simple by stating that Pathologic Classic HD is a remaster of Pathologic (2005), a first-person, survival horror, choice-based RPG, and a genuine cultural export of early industrial, pagan, Eastern Europe.

Plot
The game begins with a cut scene of three people in conversation on a theatre stage, the content of which will be incomprehensible for a first-time player. Following this conversation, you will select one of these three to play as, their titles being “The Bachelor,” “The Haruspex,” and “The Changeling,” however The Changeling is not selectable on a first playthrough. Regardless of who you play as, Pathologic takes place in the Town-on-Gorkhon, an isolated settlement in Eastern Russia. The campaign of each character takes place over the course of 12 days, during which the main objective is to find a cure for a mysterious disease called the Sand Plague, whose first victim dies the day before your arrival in town…

Presentation & Atmosphere
Pathologic’s art style is outdated realism, with a macabre twist. Buildings are either industrial or gothic in design, and the weather is almost always grim and raining. These factors congeal into a dismally oppressive and brooding aesthetic, which permeates your playtime. Something about it runs deeper than graphics though; exploring the Town-on-Gorkhon will put you on-edge. As for the sound design and voice acting, there’s little to speak of, but much is admittedly low quality, however the music is bizarre and creepy in a way I found immersive and appealing. With regards to the performance, the game stutters frequently, which is annoying, but you learn to live with it. All in all, the presentation of Pathologic isn’t high-quality, but it constructs a remarkably tangible atmosphere and mood.

Survival & Exploration
Throughout your playtime you must constantly balance your health, hunger, exhaustion, and immunity meters. You need to keep health and immunity high, and hunger and exhaustion low. Unfortunately, hunger and exhaustion constantly rise, and any action you take to improve one meter often adversely affects another. The system is legitimately difficult to manage given how scarce resources are, so maintaining balance will be a constant challenge. Supplies are extremely expensive when bought from shopkeepers, so most food, medicine, weapons, and ammo will be acquired by searching trash bins, trading desirable items with street people, and stealing from people’s townhomes. This describes the core of the gameplay loop, and comes together in a manner that thoroughly expresses the terrible impoverishment of the town, which I appreciated as a piece of powerful world-building.

Combat & Travel
In the Town-on-Gorkhon, plenty of people will want you dead at various times. While combat is often avoidable, it’s useful to carry around a sharp knife or a sawed off shotgun. In terms of the actual combat experience, there’s really nothing to do but point and click to trigger some clunky animations, so it gets repetitive fast. Beyond survival, exploration, looting, trading, and combat, all that’s really left in terms of gameplay is... walking. And f*cking Christ if there isn’t a lot of it. My 33 hour playthrough consisted of AT LEAST 15 hours of walking around. Backtracking through the same areas DOZENS of times is by far the worst aspect of this game. Pathologic sorely needed a fast travel system.

Main & Side Quests
Returning to the narrative, it’s an incredibly unique one. The main quest centers around daily tasks linked with curing the Sand Plague, which must be completed before midnight, otherwise the game triggers a fail-state and you must reload a previous save with enough time to complete the daily quest. This results in a race against time each day, made more stressful by the survival mechanics, creating an overwhelming, but welcome sense of pressure on the player. The first half of the dozen days are well written and full of intrigue, however the main story hits a slump and begins to overstay its welcome nearing its end. As far as the side-quests go, there are two or three to complete each day, and most are worth completing to either learn about characters, explore the story of the town, or earn rewards. I should also state that the main narrative is… deceptive. I really can’t say more without spoiling though.

The Plague
As the days roll on, the townspeople in Gorkhon are consumed further by disease, hunger, thieving, and riots. As early as day three, sick individuals will roam the streets, wailing in misery until their inevitable deaths, often by law enforcement, to prevent the spread. Whole portions of the town become covered in a thick, sickly green smog, out of which roving clouds of the Sand Plague will materialize and chase you for a few seconds, infecting you if you’re caught. While the plague makes the game brutal at times, in more ways than one, it’s handled quite well.

Characters & Dialogue
Refocusing, the characters in Pathologic are all excellently written. The central characters of the story vary depending on who you choose to play as, but everyone has distinctive personal goals, faction affiliations, social circles, and personalities. This goes a long way toward making the player feel like an outsider in a town with an already highly established political and social order. On the other hand, the dialogue system is extremely archaic. At least in English, all of the important dialogue is not voice acted. Main characters do still speak, but only in cryptic greeting phrases when you initiate dialogue. While the voice acting is poorly done, it’s weirdly quite charming and immersive. Not everyone will agree, but I was highly impressed by Pathologic’s characters and dialogue.

Eastern European Paganism & Suffering
I’ve saved the best for last in this review. The most convincing reason to play Pathologic, and to adore it, is its totally distinctive Eastern-European flavor. I’m talking overt, hardcore Slavic paganism and material desperation. Threads of similar cosmology, iconography, and spiritual figures run between Slavic folklore and Pathologic’s town, and the call-backs to the plague and famine experienced during Stalin’s Holodomor are omnipresent. The foreignness of the folklore and the absurd levels of human suffering amalgamate into a game so thoroughly Eastern-European that it’s incredible this game could have achieved such a cult following. This is why I called Pathologic a cultural export from the start, and it’s a damn incredible one.

Conclusion
Pathologic is a game full of contradictions, just as a pathological person is. So much of it, from the combat, to the lack of a fast-travel system, and to the voice acting, is low-quality jank, yet so much love and care obviously went in to creating an immaculately realized world with strong characters, a great story, and an unparalleled cultural experience. There are small children who will sell you prescription-grade opiates in exchange for razor blades and needles in this game, for Christ’s sake! Playing Pathologic was like stepping through a portal into a fictional story my own western mind could barely even fathom. If that’s not reason enough to play Pathologic, I’m not sure what is.


PLEASE READ MY FOOTNOTE IN THE COMMENTS.

The human element is… unpredictable.

Introduction
The Turing test is a short, double-A 3D puzzle game. TTT is most at home among titles like Portal or The Talos Principle. I’d even say it’s a happy median between these two games, as it borrows much of Portal’s game design and a few philosophical ideas from Talos. That said, The Turing Test does not compare to these giants of the puzzle genre on account of its lack of originality, and TTT’s failure to use its subject matter to produce a satisfying conclusion. The Turing Test is enjoyable, polished, and thought provoking while it lasts, but I couldn’t help but despair of the unused potential by its end.

Premise
In The Turing Test you play as Ava Turing, an International Space Agency (ISA) astronaut in orbit around Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. You are awakened in the mid-2200’s slightly ahead of schedule by the missions’ AI monitor, T.O.M. He informs you that the other members of the ISA research team who had already begun their excavation of Europa have gone silent, and that he needs you to investigate what’s happened to them. As you enter the research facility on the surface of Europa, you find that every room has been reorganized into a puzzle requiring human hands to be solved. It would seem the ISA crew do not wish to be found, for reasons unknown…

Presentation
Taking a quick detour into the presentation of TTT – all seems to be in perfect order. The art-style is the classical austere lack of complexity seen in many futuristic space settings, i.e. lots of flat white and gray, with the occasional neon blue. The game subsequently has little visual detail, but I can say that the images on your screen will look nice and that the game performs as smooth as butter. In my experience there are no bugs or instabilities to be found in The Turing Test. Finally, for the sound design, everything is great here too. The quality is good, and while the ambient tracks can get a little repetitive, the stellar voice acting more than makes up for it. TTT’s presentation is best described by the word “inoffensive,” there’s nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t do anything too special either.

Puzzle Design
As explained in the “premise” section, the puzzles of The Turing Test are divided into different rooms, just like Portal. This time, however, your gadget to solve puzzles with is called the E.M.T., the Energy Manipulation Tool, a gun which can absorb and then shoot energy balls into different outlets to power up doors, bridges, and other devices. As much as this gameplay structure is inspired by Portal, TTT does actually do an excellent job of crafting elegant and intuitive puzzles that get harder as you progress in a manner that is still a lot of fun. I found myself impressed and satisfied by nearly every puzzle the game offered. I would contend that many of the puzzles in the first half of the game are too easy, but this is very subjective. Despite its conventionality, the puzzling in The Turing Test is great and quite clever.

Story & Purpose
The game’s narrative centers around what happened to the Europa research team, but I won’t spoil any of that here. Instead, I’ll simply lay out the best part of The Turing Test; its exploration of exactly what consciousness is. As you progress through each puzzle room, T.O.M. (the AI regulating the station) will converse with Ava (the player character). A good chunk of this dialogue has to do with an artificial mind’s capacity for creativity, and its ability to simulate the perception of consciousness. T.O.M. argues passionately that a simulated mind is just as conscious as a biological mind, and perhaps more moral, as an electronic mind will always operate rationally, and not out of self-interest or survival. Ava pushes back on this, insisting that there is a difference between biological consciousness and the perceived consciousness of an AI. This is all pretty intriguing stuff, and by far my favorite part of the game. However, due to the game’s short length, this debate feels as though it was cut short, and that more could have been done with this concept. I was on the edge of my seat while it lasted, but I just wish The Turing Test had gone further with its ideas.

Conclusion
Considering the experience as a whole, I must say that The Turing Test skates a razor thin-edge between greatness and total mediocrity. On the one hand, it’s a natural successor to some of the best puzzle games ever made. On the other hand, it has few ideas of its own and doesn’t do much to surprise the player. It toys around with incredibly interesting philosophical and psychological subject matter and even provides some noteworthy commentary about it, but also refuses to allow itself or the player to pick a side through in-game decisions. The Turing Test is like an immaculately set dinner table with all your favorite foods. But instead of allowing you to dig in, the chef chooses for you what to eat and what not to eat – then kicks you out when you’re only half full. Did I enjoy what I ate? Absolutely. Am I resentful I didn’t get more? You’re damn right I am.

Any game that gets me to ask myself rhetorical questions about whether or not I had enough to eat is probably doing something right. Bon appétit.

Go tell Aunt Rhody…

Introduction
Resident Evil 7 is a slow-paced, story-driven, survival-horror FPS game released in early 2017. Heralded as a soft-reboot for the franchise, RE7 appears a perfect starting point to jump into the series. I’ve never personally played a game in the Resident Evil franchise before, so RE7 was a pleasant surprise for me. The game is about as elegant and well designed as a horror title can get, with only a few missteps. I’ll say now that if you’re a fan of the genre, Resident Evil 7 is a must play.

Plot
In Resident Evil 7 you enter the life of Ethan Winters, an undeveloped protagonist outside of the fact that his wife, Mia, has been missing for three years. She disappeared on a mysterious job she was working, but then at the start of RE7 contacts Ethan, telling him to come to Dulvey, Louisiana to find her at the Baker Family Ranch. Suspicious but overjoyed to discover that his wife is alive, Ethan makes for Louisiana and enters the swamplands of the Baker estate. What he finds there beggars belief.

Presentation
One of the most important elements of any horror experience is the presentation. Luckily, Resident Evil 7 delivers beautifully on this front. The art style is uncut realism, featuring extremely lifelike environments, models, and effects. Textures, atmosphere, and post processing are all of A-grade quality for 2017, and hold up perfectly well three years on. The lighting and faces are particularly impressive though. RE7’s lighting is dynamic, moody, and claustrophobically dark, while the realism of the faces can produce grotesque spectacles. The only visual defect can be found in the somewhat janky movement animations. As for the sound, I have no complaints. Audio is consistently good, with terrifying ambiance and a fitting OST. Performance is also damn-near perfection, with hardly any bugs and comprehensive PC optimization. When it comes to presentation, RE7 has no true shortcomings.

Level Design
The level design in RE7 is an aspect that is part presentation, part gameplay. The decrepit Baker Family Ranch is eerie and hideous, contributing to the atmospheric unease. Various environmental details tell the story of what has occurred there, but I’ll leave that for you to discover. From a gameplay perspective, the level design is broadly “linear,” but this is not entirely the case. You can return to almost all of the areas you’ve been to previously, however as you make progress throughout the campaign there is usually only one way of doing things. Due to the linearity and this being a game that thrives on the player’s fear, some moments are distressing when the single path forward is unclear and you become trapped by enemies. Whether this is a failing or an intentional feature of the design, I’ll leave up to you.

Gameplay Mechanics
Looking at what you actually do in the game, it’s a mix of classical survival-horror and FPS mechanics. Your movement speed is painfully slow, so running away from danger is usually a poor option – you’re meant to sneak around or stand your ground. When it comes to standing your ground, there are various weapons and tools you’ll collect throughout the game. The guns vary wildly in effectiveness; for instance, the pistol is basically a water gun, and the shotgun functions like you’re shooting a damn freight train. RE7 also has the same obligatory loot and crafting system of all survival-horror games these days, enabling you to create first aid meds, pistol bullets, etc. The fun side of this crafting system is that resources are actually extremely limited. Every encounter with an enemy will cost you, making the non-boss fights feel like mini wars of attrition. And when it comes to the bosses, each battle is simultaneously frightening and challenging, keeping you engaged in frantic attempts to destroy your adversary as you pour more and more resources into combat. This core gameplay loop is so surprisingly good, but what’s better is that it’s only the second best item on the menu of what RE7 is serving.

Scare Factor
At Resident Evil 7’s opening, the game is absolutely terrorizing. Like, muscles-tensed-up-and-fight-or-flight-reflexes-engaged-in-real-life kind of terrorizing. This level of intensity fades after about 2 hours, but the sensation of angst and anxiety as you approach every corner never fades entirely during the 8-10 hour campaign. I believe the sickening setting of the Baker estate, the possessed inhabitants themselves, the resiliency of the enemies, the graphics, the audio, and the uncertainty of what the hell is going on in the narrative all have a hand in producing the most palpably “horror-ific” atmosphere of any game I’ve ever played. RE7 has the classical horror theme down to an absolute science.

Narrative
Ending on a bit of an anticlimax, the story itself is a bit of an anticlimax. This isn’t to say the writing is particularly bad, but for a game that spends a decent amount of time emphasizing its story, there really should have been more here. The main narrative beat is about what has possessed the Baker Family that is holding your wife Mia captive, and figuring out why they are functionally immortal. You accomplish this through encounters with each family member individually, as each member of the Baker Family has a stage of the game where they are the primary antagonist. This is an interesting enough mystery to solve, but the reasons behind their possession are never explained too well, and none of the characters in RE7 are compelling or relatable. In essence, the writing is very bare bones. The splendid gameplay and great atmosphere certainly make up for this one deficiency, but it holds Resident Evil 7 back from the dizzying heights it was so close to.

Conclusion
Resident Evil 7 is a refreshingly clear cut, good game in a genre full of mediocrity. It executes on its core design principles flawlessly, resulting in an experience that should be regarded as a shining example of how to do horror right. Its level of polish is something I’ve only hinted at so far, but I believe it’s what makes RE7 as outstanding as it is. Other than the underdeveloped story, there is absolutely nothing about the game that I can point to as a big shortcoming. Add in the high points of its frenetic boss battles and the crippling anxiety its scary side produces, and you have an instant classic on your hands. If you have any level of interest in playing Resident Evil 7, do not hesitate.


*Note: RE7 has one short free DLC, “Not a Hero,” which I have played. It introduces a few new gameplay mechanics and expands upon the story in the aftermath of the main game. It’s a solid addition if you enjoyed RE7, however it’s less survival-horror and a lot more FPS-horror.

RIP AND TEAR!

*This is solely a review of the campaign.

Introduction
DOOM (2016) is, perhaps, the best traditional FPS of all time. I realize this is absurdly high praise, but I don’t think it’s unwarranted. DOOM is the resurrection of a truly all-out, balls-to-the-wall, gore-filled shooter that focuses entirely on just that – the shooting. Every design detail, every choice ID software made in the development of this game, was chosen expressly for the purpose of making the act of ripping and tearing apart Demons from Hell more entertaining and bas-a$s. There’s something about the purity of that that’s impossible not to love. In DOOM, you are an unrestricted cavalcade of death and destruction. If you like the sound of that, read on: it only gets better.

”Plot”
I want us to tear into the meaty bits of DOOM ASAP, so I’ll set the stage in four more sentences. You are the Doom Slayer. You are driven by an insatiable rage to eviscerate, shoot, explode, pulverize, and generally rip every last demonic entity limb from limb. You are currently on a Mars space station where hubristic men have opened a portal to Hell, and demon spawn is spewing forth. Time to f*cking rip and tear, Doom Slayer.

Presentation & Aesthetic
Of all the AAA games released on PC in the second half of the 2010’s, DOOM may hold the title for the best graphical-fidelity-to-performance-ratio. Every aspect of the visuals are stellar, from the textures to the lighting; and the animations to the special effects. All of DOOM’s environments are immaculately rendered, their realism only making the grotesque hellscapes of the levels that much more disturbing. Compound this striking visual quality with the even more impressive stability of its performance, and you have a real winner. But, if the god-tier graphics, aesthetic, and performance aren’t enough for you, there’s still the soundtrack – which is an absolute masterpiece. It’s not that any one track is extremely memorable (though some are), it’s that the score is almost entirely heavy metal, which is gloriously apt ambiance as you cut a demon in half with a chainsaw. Nuff’ said. DOOM’s presentation is near unparalleled by any game this generation.

Weapons & Combat
You can’t have a good FPS without a top-notch arsenal, and DOOM’s got you covered. There are eight base weapons in the game, nearly all of which have two earnable weapon modifications to further their utility and enjoyment. There are also two more special weapons, the chainsaw and BFG (Big F*cking Gun). Each have their own unique way of vaporizing, detonating, or mincing Satan-spawn; which is excellent, as gunplay variety is one of DOOM’s greatest achievements. If this vast ordinance isn’t doing it for you, don’t worry, there’s more! Every enemy in the game, after being weakened enough, can be finished off with a glory kill, a sort of crème de la crème butchering animation. Glory kills include, but are not limited to: ripping a demon’s jaw off, snapping their neck, exploding their skull, and ripping their arm off to bludgeon their face with. Don’t ask, it just works.

Demons & Locations
Moving on to where the Doom Slayer applies his veritable armory of weapons, there are roughly a dozen normal enemy types; but very few are describable as cannon fodder. On proper difficulty, every demon represents a terrible beast to overpower, and that’s exactly what fighting a resident of Hell should be. Making matters better, each type will challenge you in a different way, forcing the player to think quickly on their feet; culminating in transforming them into a multitasking symphony of carnage once they get the hang of things. There’s no greater show of your accumulated skills than through any of the boss battles though, which test your mastery of the weaponry; and your ability to strafe, respond to new attacks, and land precise strikes. All these battles occur in the set dressing of either industrial Mars or the depths of Hell – fitting locations for a warm bloodbath.

Upgrades & Power-Ups
Now that I’ve paid my dues to the visceral sides of combat, I should give a rundown of the more technical component. There are several upgrades and power-ups to attain throughout the campaign to make the Doom Slayer just that much more effective in slaughter. These entail weapon tokens earned through various methods which allow you to super-charge the power of your weapon modifications, praetor tokens which upscale your armor to be more effective in several ways, and a few rare argent cells which will increase either your max health, max armor, or max ammo carrying capacity. On top of this there are also rune challenges which, when completed, give the player a unique passive ability if equipped. Finally, there are also pickups which give you a timed power-up, such as quadrupled damage, or invulnerability. These gameplay elements marginally detract from the simplicity of the carnage, but do add welcome gameplay variation.

Breakneck Pace
Before I finish talking about the magnificent gameplay, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention possibly its most vital element: the speed. As you engage with each successive demon horde, you’ll very quickly learn that to stop moving is equivalent to death. The game forces you to move nonstop in every combat sequence – navigating hallways, jumping across platforms, and crisscrossing the entire given arena. DOOM supports this gameplay technique doubly by making the Doom Slayer extremely fast on his feet, his weapons self-reloading, and his glory kills as quick as they are brutal. The hastened pace of DOOM’s gameplay magnifies the game’s difficulty and excitement. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

”Story”
As the past four paragraphs on detailed gameplay design can attest, DOOM is much more focused on blood-pumping gameplay than any sort of frilly narrative. There is, nevertheless, a barebones storyline occurring parallel to the Doom Slayer’s massacres. I can’t really say I understood it in its entirety (I was a bit too carried away in the bloodlust), but the jist is that men were harnessing energy from Hell through shoddy methods, when finally someone snapped and released the demons into our dimension. You go through the game killing Hell spawn and closing portals, often at the behest of Samuel Hayden; the nine-foot tall robot running the Mars facility. The story is nothing special and is easily ignored, which is entirely fine – even desirable – for a DOOM game.

Legacy
As a final note, I should mention just how significant DOOM (2016) is for the gaming industry. DOOM (1993) was the game that popularized the FPS genre. However, following the release of DOOM 3 and its lack of success, the death of the traditional FPS was all but cemented. What followed was a procession of cover-shooters, looter-shooters, modern warfare games, and otherwise gimmicky titles. That DOOM (2016) re-emerged to reclaim its throne as a trend-setting FPS, to wide commercial acclaim, is a miraculous turn of events for everyone that likes fast-paced fun and challenge in their FPS games. Daddy DOOM spawned a lot of offspring, but when he saw them to be inadequate for his mantle, he picked up his super-shotgun and showed them what’s what.

Conclusion
For all my descriptions and characterizations, you really have to experience DOOM for yourself to understand its unrivaled allure. There’s nothing more blood-rushing, masculine, and awe-inspiring than disemboweling a fifteen-foot Demon with your bare hands. That’s just not something you get to do every day, and it’s not something any video game has ever let you do in such a well realized way. There is no FPS better than DOOM (2016) for pure, visceral butchery. Well, except maybe soon, DOOM Eternal…

Just my kind of clusterf*ck!

The Bumpersticker
Clustertruck is a high-octane, frenetic, responsive, and chaotically enjoyable first-person platformer. The game, oversimplified, is about running and jumping across levels filled with obstacles, on which only large semi-trucks are safe to come in contact with. Its single-minded tactile fun, and it’s unapologetic about it, much in the vein of games like DOOM (2016) or SUPERHOT. Clustertruck takes speed, skill, polished level design – and big explosions – and wraps them all together into one hell of a ride.

The Trailer
Clustertruck’s campaign is short and sweet, yet packed full of quality. Each progressing level introduces nuances that keeps the game difficult, but never infuriating. In this sense, every stage is a puzzle, and it’s the player’s objective to solve it in the fastest, most wicked way possible. As you jump from truck to truck you build momentum, which, when combo’d correctly, can send you hurtling at ridiculous speeds past several obstacles. This speed, however, will only make it harder to land on the next truck with precision. There are abilities to earn with style-points as well, such as the power to slow down time, or use a grapple hook to catch yourself from a level-restarting fall. This spattering of mechanics allows you to be creative in your approach, and are what fundamentally drives the gameplay.

The Cabin
Though not the most fun or inventive game ever made, Clustertruck certainly holds its own as a one-of-a-kind gameplay experience. There are other elements I could have mentioned, such as the graphics, the soundtrack, or even the competitive element of the game. But none of those are the reason you should play Clustertruck. The reason to play Clustertruck is that it’s good old-fashioned video game badassery, and that’s getting pretty rare these days.

A coming of age tale… for a droid.

Introduction
Grow Up is the sequel to Ubisoft’s original indie-budgeted darling, Grow Home. It once again follows the intergalactic adventures of BUD and MOM, but with the addition of a new supporting character; POD. GU does a great job of expanding upon the mechanics of its predecessor, but, unfortunately, loses some of the magical simplicity unique to Grow Home. That said, Grow Up remains a relaxing and entertaining experience.

Plot
Right from the start, Grow Up has a much more defined and structured storyline that its forerunner. The game begins as MOM accidentally flies your spacecraft directly into a meteor storm, destroying ‘her’-self, as well as your ship in the process. You, as BUD (Botanical Utility Droid), then crash-land onto a foreign planet – which also functions as the open world game-space. With the help of POD (Planetary Observation Droid), you must find the scattered remains of your spacecraft in order to assemble it once again and save MOM from a permanent shutdown. In this way, the child-like BUD must truly “Grow Up” by overcoming obstacles without MOM’s guidance. GU’s quirky twist on the normative ‘coming of age’ story is clever, and adds a narrative purpose to your actions as you play.

Presentation
I’m assuming anyone interested in playing Grow Up has already played Grow Home, so the most informative thing I can report about the presentation is that it’s almost entirely the same as before. There are certainly new plants, animals, biomes, and soundtracks to experience; but the art style and tone is a one-to-one transfer of what it was in Grow Home. This isn’t bad though; the ‘Grow’ series’ aesthetic is beautiful in its austerity, and didn’t need a graphical update for any conceivable reason. Everything looks and feels just as childish and calming as it was before. The real presentational changes come in the form of a gameplay element; making Grow Up an open world game.

Open World
Whereas Grow Home’s game-world was a linear upward-spiral, Grow Up’s is a spherical open world with a deep commitment to verticality. There must be at least 50x more physical space to traverse in GU than its predecessor, giving the game a colossal sense of scale. POD’s drone camera helps you navigate the world though, so you never truly feel lost. Teleporters are scattered across the planet to ease travel distances too. All this excess space lends to more content in Grow Up, as well as more varied environments. I’d say it would take an efficient completionist about 8 hours to beat the game, but normal players will find about 4-6 hours of worthwhile content. As for the biomes on offer, all are artistically and conceptually captivating – especially at night, when the game’s color palette becomes several dark shades of beautiful. Overall, the open world presents several pros, and few cons.

Platforming & Progression
Grow Up’s platforming/hand-over-hand climbing system is identical in structure to Grow Home’s, but a series of innovations makes GU’s platforming more multi-faceted. For example, the gravitational pull of the planet allows you to use centrifugal force to travel laterally when jumping from great heights. You can also now carry seeds from various plants in your backpack, and instantly grow them to create new platforms to climb up or spring off of. There are very powerful upgrades in Grow Up as well, such as a glider with a thruster, which allows for infinite flight if used correctly. All of these new elements increase the gameplay variety, but also make GU more conventional and less unique. Though I enjoyed all of the extra mechanics, I miss the charming simplicity of Grow Home which ignored gaming trends, rather than implementing them.

Exploration
If there’s one portion of Grow Up that gains most by going open world, it has to be the exploration. There’s so much to see on GU’s alien planet, and a good chunk to do too. There are biomes to observe, animals to examine, plants to gather, power-crystals to collect, challenges to complete, and multiple star-plants to grow. All of these activities give Grow Up a theme-park vibe, with various attractions to be experienced at your leisure. The game is still easy by nature, so none of the tasks offer difficult obstacles; just momentary problems to solve. Grow Up’s exploration always left me excited for what was next, so I’d have to call it a significant success in this regard.

Conclusion
All said, Grow Up is a worthy successor to Grow Home. It has over double the content, and differentiates itself well enough that fans of the franchise won’t feel like they’re playing the same game over again. However, the introduction of gaming convention to expand GU’s length does diminish its novelty, making it a somewhat less-special experience than the first entry to the franchise. I think GU is a fantastic game for every kind of gamer, but I prefer the original whimsy of Grow Home to the larger content volume of Grow Up.

Flying too close to the sun.

Introduction
The King's Bird is a gorgeously stylized 2D platformer; crafted around a single, wildly enjoyable gameplay mechanic. The game is innovative, fun, and challenging to its core, making TKB appear a shoe-in for fans of its genre. However, a litany of small snags and perplexing design errors keep it from hitting the high-point it otherwise could have. Whether it's floaty controls or stifling level structure, The King's Bird's faults come in spades. But enough chirping on from me, let's get into the meat of this review.

Presentation
First thing's first: The King's Bird is aesthetically stunning. Every color in the rainbow is used to accent its backgrounds; including lush greens, royal purples, and deep reds that make the environments pop onto screen, no matter what's going on in the moment. Animations, sprites, and set pieces are expressive too, breathing life into the world around you. In fact, with its clear focus on art-style, you'd be forgiven for thinking TKB was attempting to follow in the footsteps of games like Journey or ABZU. By contrast, the OST isn't up to the same standard as the graphics. The music itself is pretty good, but there's so few tracks that it gets repetitive fast. As for bugs, there are some, but they're so minor they're not worth mentioning. All considered, The King's Bird represents itself perfectly well.

Gameplay
Turning an eye to the gameplay, it's where the game's biggest success can be found. TKB's main selling point is its momentum-movement mechanic, which uses the physics and velocity of your character to fly through levels and solve challenging platform-puzzles at a fast pace. This uncommon idea makes The King's Bird a unique experience, and is applied in a variety of ways to complete difficult jumps. Speaking of difficulty - TKB is rewarding, but also unfair at times. Collision detection isn't the best, so movement can feel imprecise on occasion. Also, keyboard controls are quite weak, so a controller is near-essential. Predictably, the floaty-ness of a joystick compounds the issue of finicky platforming. In short, the gameplay can be fluid and fun in some places, but mildly infuriating in others.

Level Design
Great level structure is essential to any platformer, so I'm reluctant and disappointed to say that The King's Bird is actually pretty bad in this regard. I've already described the collision issue, but there's also a problem in how claustrophobic and linear the stages are. The momentum gimmick would obviously be best served in wide-open spaces to glide around in, but shockingly, stiff corridors make up the majority of the game world. This cheapens TKB's largest strength to an extent, as it limits the enjoyability of its premier feature. However, to be fair, the level design is decent from a progression perspective, and is diverse in how it makes you think of new ways to utilize your surroundings to overcome obstacles. I just wish there'd generally been more freedom of movement on each level.

Plot & Story
Flipping topics, the plot is extremely basic. You play as a small, presumably female humanoid silhouette, who lives in a caged society. She dreams of flight often, and wants nothing more but to cast off the shackles of her kingdom and explore the unknown realms of her world. Within the first ten minutes of the game, you find a way to break free of your city's bounds and fulfill that dream. Throughout the course of the game you rediscover lost places with little to no story content attached to them. TKB is all about the gameplay: the entirety of the narrative substance is relegated to the first and last ten minutes. Evidently, the story is meager, but it wasn't the point to begin with.

Double Vision
As a final note, I have one last criticism of the King's Bird. You may have noticed how I compared this game to Journey and ABZU, but then said the gameplay was difficult, and even infuriating at times. Here's why these two things are misfortunate: they result in a jarring contradiction. TKB's bright, relaxing, and sublime art design; coupled with its happy soundtrack, makes the game seem like a laid-back experience. In spite of this, a painfully obvious amount of effort went into making the game as challenging as possible (especially in the late game). The devs should have picked one design philosophy and stuck with it - either a dream-like, artsy platformer; or a puzzle-like, demanding platformer. The two ideas simply don't gel together optimally.

Conclusion
While I've been heavily mixed in opinion, I ultimately enjoyed my time with The King's Bird. It's a bit overlong, at 8-12 hours, but the incredible visuals and momentum-based gameplay are two features that never got old. Platformers are one of the most OG genre's in gaming, so it's impressive to see new, captivating concepts still being produced. TKB's many shortcomings are disappointing, but also understandable from such a small studio. Most flaws are superficial, and can be overcome with a bit of time, effort, and patience. In the end I'd recommend The King's Bird to anyone looking for a rare gaming experience - with the warning that it's slightly too ambitious and unwieldly for its own good.

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Excellence stripped down to the bone - and without the charm.

Introduction
Death of the Outsider is what you get when you craft a delicious sandwich; but then remove the meat and condiments. Sure, the bread, cheese, and lettuce that are left may be quality ingredients, but without the sauce and meat you're not getting all that much flavor or sustenance. And while you're eating that sandwich, all you can think about is how much better it would be with a bit of ham and mustard. This analogy isn't all-encompassing; but hopefully you're not a vegetarian and you understand what I'm getting at.

Plot
Initially, DotO seems to have a solid premise. You play as Meagan Foster, otherwise known as Billie Lurk. She was Daud's protégée in Dishonored 1's 'The Knife of Dunwall' DLC, and the owner of the Dreadful Whale in Dishonored 2. Billie's on a quest to find Daud, her old mentor, as she has regrets and unfinished business with him that she'd like to set straight. Daud was one of the most complex characters in the original Dishonored, so continuing his story is a good choice. Or at least it would have been, had they not completely butchered it in Death of the Outsider.

Gameplay Additions
Pumping the breaks on my ire for a moment, I'll first talk about some of the fun new gameplay elements - of which there's actually only one. In DotO Billie never truly receives the mark of the Outsider, so you're not as overpowered as in other entries to the franchise. You do still have a few Void-derived powers however, such as a substitute for 'Blink' or 'Far Reach', called 'Displace', and more unique abilities like stealing an unconscious person's face to hide in plain sight. This new set of magical powers has less utility than every other in the series, but is still enjoyable to play around with. Sadly, that's where the gameplay innovation ends though.

Rehashed Content
The second most egregious flaw in DotO (we'll get to the first later) lies in how much gameplay content is rehashed. Portions of this aren't bad - the stealth and combat are ripped straight out of Dishonored 2 - but are as magnificent as ever, so I won't fault that. My biggest problem is with the level design. Every location in Death of the Outsider is either startlingly linear, used more than once, or is swiped from DH2. Arkane Studios is known for stellar world building, so I was shocked that the whole experience felt like I was backtracking through Dishonored 2. I'm not sure what the dev's were thinking, but a spin-off game shouldn't have its most noticeable design feature be that it's "the same as before, but moderately worse."

Nostalgia & Lore
Getting back to the story, DotO does have two tricks up its sleeve: narrative nostalgia and valuable lore. Daud and Billie Lurk’s return flows in tandem with the first Dishonored's DLC's, so it's pleasing to see these supporting characters get another self-contained expansion, regardless of how misused they were. The one truly impeccable piece of the narrative puzzle is the writing of the Outsider's backstory. This being is as compelling a character as he was in the main series, and is more developed than ever in Death of the Outsider. But, he keeps his mysterious allure: they don't overplay him. A desire to learn more about who the Outsider is and how he came to be is the best reason to play DotO.

Boring Characters & Storyline
I've filibustered for long enough, let's get to my biggest problem with Death of the Outsider: Billie and Daud are horribly written in this expansion. Whereas Billie was a guarded but seemingly layered character in DH2, peeling back the veil in DotO shows that she's really no more relatable than a brick-wall. Her voice actor's performances are stoic, and nothing ever drives the player to identify with her motivations. It wasn't even adequately explained why Daud means so much to her; in their last interaction 15 years prior she literally tried to kill him. As for Daud himself, he was once the most bad-@ss assassin in Dunwall next to Corvo - now he's a dying old man with no depth whatsoever. His redemption is non-existent; he's instead reduced to a regretful senior citizen. No one wants to see that version of Daud. All in all, the writing and characterization in this spin-off is just absolutely shameful.

Conclusion
If you've read this far you're probably wondering why I recommend DotO. It comes down to a catch-22 situation: the base stealth-action gameplay is still incredible, and the Outsider's personal story is worth experiencing for yourself. The rest of the content is near-abysmal by series standards, but I have to recognize the high-points for what they are - reason enough to play DotO if you're a fan of the franchise. Its value is decent as well, 8-10 hours in length makes this expansion a bargain, especially on sale. I wouldn’t recommend this to someone who is only a passing admirer of Dishonored though, as nothing in Death of the Outsider impresses more than what's found in the mainline games. I'm happy to have learned more about the series lore, but this sandwich needed some damn roast beef and au jus.