Recent reviews by LordGandhii

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Death Stranding is one of the most divisive AAA titles of recent memory, and as a longtime Kojima fan, I knew I had to give this game a shot somewhere down the line. Describing its premise is certainly difficult, but I can give a basic synopsis. You play as a delivery man equipped with ladders, climbing anchors, and Monster Energy, who needs to deliver packages to people across the USA (sorry, UCA) by hiking across rough terrain, fighting off bandits who want to take your packages for the "thrill" of delivering them, and navigating past invisible monsters that can only be seen with a baby that's hooked up to your body, all in order to give everyone wi-fi again. Sound ridiculous? Great! Because that's not mentioning the conjoined twin sister who sort of had a baby with her sister, a guy named "Die-Hardman", or the guy who dies every 21 minutes and gets resuscitated again after 3 minutes, that will straight up pause cutscenes in order to just die real quick. This game is Hideo Kojima completely unfiltered, for better or worse. And yet, while it is certainly strange and divisive, I can't argue against this being a genuinely great game.


Like Metal Gear Solid V before it, this game absolutely excels in its visual design. It's already stunning from a technical perspective, but the cinematography here is also quite impressive, and this game did an excellent job of feeling like a well-made movie. Considering that Kojima is a massive movie buff, you can really see how his love for film has bled into this game's visuals. The character designs are top-notch, the environments are gorgeous, and the overall presentation fits the game's tone perfectly without becoming too visually overwhelming. I have no complaints in this regard.


The claims that Death Stranding is the most in-depth walking simulator on the market are completely accurate here. Most of the gameplay does consist of walking from point A to B, but as someone who loved Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I felt right at home with the gameplay loop, as I found an immense amount of satisfaction in improvising different routes to scale a mountain or to cross a lake. I also like the system of having other players' structures and hints be accessible to you, as it significantly helped in keeping the game from feeling tedious, as well as being a perfect tie-in to the game's themes of forming connections. On top of this, there's a level of inventory management required (you can also just press a button to have it optimized for you) in order to not run out of stamina too quickly and have an easier time with maintaining your balance. It seems like a nightmare to play, but I'd only say it is if you weren't already able to tolerate walking around and climbing things or inventory management. Neither of these aspects are poorly done, in fact I'd argue the contrary, but they're still aspects that will only appeal to a certain niche. The combat, however, I was less impressed by. While the gunplay is fine, most situations where I was put into combat just weren't that exciting. This was mainly due to the bosses, as almost every single one was either very repetitive, too much of a bullet sponge, or both. The monster fights were especially boring, because of how massive their health bars were. The only boss fight I liked was Higgs, and even then I wouldn't consider it to be particularly remarkable. Especially considering Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 3 is one of my favorite games of all time and is one of the hallmarks of boss design (in my opinion), it was especially disappointing seeing an absurdly silly Kojima game not lean into that aspect more with the boss fights. It's a bland spot that especially sticks out in a game as unique as this. But, it's also my biggest criticism with the gameplay, and the rest of it is still quite good in my eyes.


Remember, this game is raw, unfiltered Kojima, and Kojima loves exposition about as much as he despises subtlety. Overall, I do like the story. I think the game does a great job of driving home its themes without being obnoxious, and for as confusing and (amusingly) nonsensical the world may seem, it does come together pretty nicely at the end. I also like most of the characters, and all of the weird side characters get a lot of time to be fleshed out. But, as much as I enjoy Kojima's stuff, I do agree with some of the criticisms levied here. While I'm fine with exposition if it ties into the story, this game sometimes feels a little self-indulgent, wanting to explain every little thing in absurd amounts of detail, even if I have zero interest in it. The story is in desperate need of an editor to cut down a good fraction of this game, especially its ending. The ending is also far too long, being ~2 hours in length total, with the first half of that being an exposition dump that I couldn't bring myself to care for because of how spaced out it was. It annoyed me, someone who generally isn't bothered by long cutscenes or exposition dumps, because it felt like it drove the game to a halt. I understand why it was done, but it could've been handled in half of the time with the same effect. The writing was also pretty hit-and-miss (The "Princess Beach" line will forever haunt my dreams), but I think it hovered around the "eh, it's fine" territory for most of the game. The story here is good, but it definitely proved the need for a good editor, because there were some aspects that desperately needed to be cut down in length.


The performances in this game were absolutely stellar (which should be no surprise considering some of the acting talent in this game), and are a massive high point, but what surprised me was how much I liked the soundtrack. It's mostly just licensed music, but the music absolutely nailed the feel of whatever part of the game you were at. The parts of the game where the music played became a major highlight for me, and I have already put multiple tracks in my own Spotify playlists. Outside of that, not much else to say that hasn't already been said. It's great.


If you haven't guessed already, Death Stranding is a very meaty game. Even for someone like me, who finishes games pretty quickly, it still took me over 30 hours to finish. Now granted, there are a lot of cutscenes, but even without them, there's still a lot of content in this game. It's almost completely just taking something from point A to B so how much you get out of the side content depends on how much you enjoy the gameplay loop, but it's still such a unique game that you'll have lasting value in both its length and memorability.


Death Stranding is a love-it-or-hate-it game, and I firmly sit in the former category. The performances, visuals, music, and core gameplay loop were all excellent. However, I do think there are still some flaws with the game, namely with the bosses and story length that really held it back from being 2019's best title. But, I would recommend it just for its originality alone. Will you like it? I genuinely have no idea because it's so different from anything else I've played, but it's still nice to play a game that's not only unique, but really polished in the process. Just remember to keep on keeping on!

Graphics - 10/10
Gameplay - 8.0/10
Story - 7.5/10
Audio - 8.5/10
Content Value - 9.5/10

.:8.6/10:.
"Great"

+ Beautiful visuals
+ Polished gameplay mechanics
+ Great soundtrack
+ Amazing performances
+ Themes seamlessly tie into gameplay

- Bland boss fights
- Obnoxiously long ending
- Story needed to be cut down in length

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For the last year or so, detective games have been my jam. Disco Elysium, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Outer Wilds are all some of my favorite games of recent memory. While I figured nothing would end up coming close to those games, I was hoping Murdered: Soul Suspect would at least somewhat scratch that never-ending itch for me with how interesting its premise is. I did play through the game in one sitting, but it became apparent in the first hour or so of playing that I already had an answer to my hope: it did not.


The game's a little dated visually, though there are still aspects to it I appreciate. Namely, the character designs were pretty good. I liked that you could see the cause of death for each ghost, for example seeing the main protagonist's bullet holes. I do wish they did this more with the other spectral inhabitants of limbo, as most just resemble generic ghosts (though I suppose you can also argue that they could've died of natural causes), but it was still a neat touch regardless. The enemies you encounter, the demons, also look properly terrifying. It would've been cool to see a tiny bit of variety in the demon appearances, but that's a nitpick that wouldn't save that can of worms gameplay-wise. Speaking of which...


Like I said, I had no expectations of this surpassing, or coming even close to the quality of the games I mentioned earlier, especially Obra Dinn since that's arguably as detective game as you can get. And yet, it was still so boring. I think the biggest issue with the game is that it only has any stakes (as in a fail-state) for the feature in this game that shouldn't have been a part of the game in the first place. That feature? The demon encounters. The demons, to be quite frank, were an absolutely awful addition to the game that feel like they existed solely to pad out the game through tedious and basic stealth segments. All they did was drag out the game, and would kill whatever interest I had in the story whenever it piqued my curiosity. They are easily the worst part in a game that I already did not enjoy. On the flip side, the detective mechanics were fine, I guess, but it didn't feel satisfying to actually solve any of them because all it affected was your "score" for that segment, which made them all boil down to trial and error for the most part. Even then, for a game that challenges gamers to "solve the hardest case of all", most of these detective parts were so mind-numbingly easy that adding a fail-state would only somewhat improve the gameplay. The non-detective puzzles were also pretty easy, but the difference with these is that they are significantly less polished. I got softlocked on more than one occasion with the game because of NPC pathing trapping me inside a wall when I possess someone, getting stuck in a wall, or having cutscenes repeat for no reason. Speaking of which, this game really should've leaned more into the "ghost" part of being a ghost detective, because a lot of the mechanics you're introduced to at the beginning of the game are barely utilized. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. It's pretty bad.


Honestly, the story is one of the better parts to this game thankfully. It's not great, but it's certainly a step up from basically every other part of the game. A lot of the story is just okay, and things were looking to be pretty predictable by the time the story ramps up. However, the big reveal was probably my favorite part of the entire game. It took a bit of time to fully realize what was going on, but when it finally clicked, I was genuinely impressed by the reveal. It's very clever and definitely helped elevate the story overall. I also liked how the story involves the Salem Witch Trials, because it reveals just enough about it to get you asking questions without ruining the big reveal. But like I said, it's still not great. The characters weren't all that interesting overall, and the antagonist in particular definitely needed their motives to be fleshed out much more than they were. The rest of the game, barring the climax, wasn't bad, but I finished the game around a week ago at the time of this review and I could recall ~3 things that happen in the story prior to the finale. The writing also isn't too great, and definitely took me out of the experience at a couple of points, which is disappointing because there is a genuinely interesting premise and world here. Overall, the story isn't bad, but that's mainly because of the finale.


The music exists. That's really it. Same with the sound design. The voice acting is the only thing i can really mention here, in which I found it kind of bad. It was a little too corny, although I think that might also have been the fault of the game's writing.


It's a short title, which I personally have no issue with, even for a game like this one. The collectibles also have a small reward, which I find neat. What's rather disappointing, however, is the lack of replay value. It's an interesting and ambitious story that is held back by being a run-of-the-mill adventure game. A game like this could really have benefited from branching routes, sort of. I'd have no issue with them all converging on the same reveal because of how clever I found that part, but I think this game really needed some more flexibility and creativity from the player to make things more interesting. It's too formulaic for the premise it has. Thankfully, this game goes for dirt cheap when it's on sale, and I bought it for $2. I'd still hesitate in recommending the game regardless, but losing $2 won't kill you. Probably. If it does, then it sounds like you'll have your own murder to solve.


Overall, Murdered: Soul Suspect was a disappointing game that I didn't enjoy. There are absolutely some redeeming qualities, enough to say I wouldn't consider this game to be outright bad, but where mediocre games make me feel absolutely nothing, sub-par ones still leave a bad taste in my mouth, and this game definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. If you want good detective games, the three I mentioned at the beginning of the review are your best bet. Her Story is also pretty solid. I sentence this game to be hanged for using witchcraft to bore me to death. At least it wasn't polished enough to successfully kill me with boredom!

Graphics - 7.0/10
Gameplay - 4.5/10
Story - 7.5/10
Audio - 5.0/10
Content Value - 5.0/10

.:4.5/10:.
"Sub-par"

+ Clever plot twist
+ Interesting world
+ Solid character designs

- Tedious demon encounters
- Extremely basic puzzles
- Characters and writing needed improvement
- Corny voice acting
- Very unpolished

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This review is mostly spoiler free. Only one mild spoiler is mentioned, and it is covered by a spoiler tag.

OMORI is a fascinating game. It's one that caught my attention almost immediately, as the reviews are almost unanimously positive and had that quirky Earthbound-esque feel going for it. And yet, none of the reviews actually do anything other than say "Get it now, go in spoiler free. Amazing game." Which, yes, I'd agree that it's an absolutely amazing game that you should experience as blindly as possible, but OMORI is also a game that should warrant a little discussion to make sure it's for you, because it definitely isn't going to click with everyone. This is my attempt at trying to sell you on one of the most creative RPGs in years with actual information about the game, but without spoiling anything.


The key defining feature of OMORI's visuals is in its hand-drawn style, which I loved almost immediately. I was worried that the drawings were going to look a little too crude at times, or perhaps there'd be too much happening on the screen for me to follow it. However, none of these fears ended up being the case, as OMORI used color in a very brilliant manner to help distinguish things from one another, and you aren't often fighting more than one enemy at a time (unless I just got lucky with my enemy encounters), so I ended up growing to really appreciate the art style. I'm not too keen on the UI personally, and got lost in the menus a few more times than I'd like to admit, but that's more of a nitpick than anything and not something that I'd really hold against the game. Otherwise, I enjoyed the game visually. It would've been cool to see it totally lean into the hand-drawn style, but I'm still very pleased with what's here either way.


While not as impressive overall as the visuals, the gameplay still works very well overall. First, and most importantly, while psychological horror is the most popular tag for this game, I'd say that OMORI is still an RPG first and foremost. The RPG and horror segments tend to be pretty separate from one another overall, but do a good job of transitioning between one or the other. The overworld segments are pretty much your standard RPG affair, and the combat mostly is the same way. However, this game has an emotion system they bring to the table, which I quite like overall. This emotion system functions like rock-paper-scissors, but what makes this system interesting is that you're able to control the emotions of both your party and the enemy, while the enemy can do the same thing. It's a pretty fun system overall, but it is a little too shallow. I wish it was expanded upon a little bit, at least with the bosses. There's a lot of potential in a system like that, but I think most of the bosses are too similar mechanically, as they often just boil down to countering whatever emotion they're stuck as since you're unable to change it. The major exception to this, from my one playthrough, was Sweetheart, who ended up being my favorite fight in the game because I felt they had a lot more control in the battle because they would change my party's emotions far more frequently than the others. I would've liked to see more of that, or perhaps more fights that rely on neutral emotions. As far as everything else goes, it's still just your typical RPG stuff. The side quests mostly boil down to fetch quests, but the appeal in those lies more in the writing and charm, which usually made them worthwhile. Overall, OMORI plays more like an RPG than a horror game, but it's still pretty fun either way.


But, make no mistake. OMORI may be an RPG, but there's still a good reason why that psychological horror tag is as popular as it is. This game is incredibly dark. It makes me think of BoJack Horseman in that it's a story that will absolutely wreck you, and even if you think it won't do much, you'll end up thinking about it for days, if not weeks afterwards. The main cast of characters are all extremely well-written, to a point where I liked every single one of them. I also need to commend OMORI for doing a fantastic job of using the game's mechanics to help tell its story, which I think significantly helped drive home its themes. It's a game that really finds its stride at the end, providing such an emotional payoff that it's no wonder that this game has gotten as much praise as it has. However, in backloading most of the story like this, I discovered one of my only major issues with this game: the pacing. Some people will tell you that you need to get through the first few hours of the game. Others will tell you it's the middle part of the game that isn't as interesting. With the way the story is laid out, the story doesn't really make much actual progress (at least overtly) until the end, so the game is banking on you being sold on the quirky world and silly writing more than anything. While things happen, the story doesn't really move forward until that last act, if that makes sense. I understand why that is the case, but I think the game could've benefited from hinting at the revelations of the finale a little earlier and a little more often, in order to give just enough the player enough breadcrumbs to keep them asking questions. I wish I could expand upon this further, but I wouldn't be able to do so without spoiling the story. Overall, though, the story is still amazing barring the odd pacing, and the ending will still make the game worthwhile no matter how you look at it.


The sound design isn't really relevant here, as the voice acting is nonexistent and it's still an RPGMaker game at its core. However, the music in this game is absolutely incredible. It was pretty good from the get-go, but it just gets better, and better, and better. Each area gets its own overworld music, battle music, and most of the bosses have their own themes as well. I love the variety, and it absolutely nailed whatever mood they were trying to establish. It rivals Undertale in terms of quality, and it wouldn't be hyperbole for most to say that Undertale has one of the best video game soundtracks of all time. The music is one of the best things about the game.


While I've only put a little under 17 hours into this game, don't be fooled. You can get significantly more playtime out of this game, and there's a LOT of secrets and side content to experience. There are quite a few major things that I missed in my playthrough, and it's honestly very impressive to see just how much content is hidden in this game. On top of this, the ending will stick with you one way or another, so on top of actually having a lot of bang for your buck, the story is definitely not one you'll be forgetting any time soon.


There's so much more I'd love to talk about, but I know I can't in order to avoid spoilers. But regardless, OMORI is an absolutely amazing RPG that, while not quite a masterpiece, does come fairly close. It's very much worth your time and money, as long as you know what you're getting into. I highly recommend this game, but be sure to keep some tissues nearby to wipe your sorrows away.

Graphics - 8.0/10
Gameplay - 7.5/10
Story - 9.5/10
Audio - 10/10
Content Value - 10/10

.:9.2/10:.
"Amazing"

**PERSONAL PICK**

+ Phenomenal music
+ Great art style
+ Amazing story and ending
+ Well-written, likable characters
+ Lots of secrets and side content
+ Fun combat mechanics...

- ...but didn't feel fully realized
- Odd pacing

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After playing through the absolutely stellar It Takes Two not too long ago, I ended up developing a crave for more short co-op experiences. This brought me to Operation: Tango, an asymmetrical co-op game where one person plays as an agent and the other plays as a hacker. It looked like an expanded version of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, and that's essentially what it is, although it's far from perfect in execution.


I like the style of this game quite a lot. The HUD design in particular is a highlight, as it's slick and it's very easy to keep track of what's going on. I also really like how the story of the game is presented in a comic book style, which really helps maintain the classic spy feel the game is going for. The environments and character designs aren't anything to write home about, but I still liked them well enough. More than anything though, this game succeeded in establishing the feel it was going for, and that was probably the most important part here.


I had a ton of fun with this game. At the time of writing this, I've only played through the game as an agent, but I had a lot of fun with her. My friend, who played the hacker, also really enjoyed the game, so it seems that both characters are very fun to play either way. It's a fairly casual experience, and not one that's taken too seriously. You're given plenty of opportunities to screw your partner over and it made the game significantly funnier as a result. I found the puzzles, which make up the bulk of the game, pretty enjoyable overall, although I do think a couple towards the end were repetitive and presented in an overly-complex fashion despite having a simple solution. I found the game was at its best during the train mission where you had to identify a terrorist among the passengers (if you make an Among Us reference I will gouge my eyes out) and the "heist" mission where you need to identify a suspect by cross-referencing information between you and your partner. There were a few points where I felt the agent was just a hacker-lite, and simply had to "hack" things on the ground, which I found slightly disappointing, but missions like the ones I mentioned were great examples of striking a balance between the two characters and giving each person time to shine through their distinct roles and the other missions were still pretty fun and unique in their own right. I think the big issue, however, are some of the technical issues we experienced in our playthrough. We ended up being softlocked multiple times during the playthrough, and we had to restart the game multiple times in order to fix them, and it was especially frustrating at certain points because we couldn't tell if it was part of the puzzle or an actual glitch. Thankfully, restarting the game didn't mean restarting the mission, and we were brought right back to where we were when reloading our game, which definitely made the issues a little more tolerable. Overall, the game was fun to play and did what it set out to do. It didn't really exceed expectations (outside of the train and heist missions), but it's still a good time either way and I was pretty happy with it.


The story isn't anything to write home about. It's your typical "stop a terrorist and save the world" affair that doesn't really try to do anything unique with it, but I do appreciate that they let the story take a backseat for most of the game (only ever being brought up during brief dialogue bits or cutscenes in between missions), since the appeal of the game was just doing cool spy stuff with your friend. And occasionally deleting them from the system while they're trying to hack something. Sorry not sorry. If nothing else, it has charm, and it works for what it is.


Again, just like the story, it's passable. There's absolutely nothing notable here, from the music, to the voice acting, to the sound design, but it never really got in the way of anything. I have nothing else to say here.


Where I think Operation: Tango really falters, however, is in the content value, and that's mainly because this game is way too short. I finished it in a little over 4 hours, and that's considering the time I spent restarting the game and struggling through puzzles because I'm terrible at them. I normally don't mind shorter experiences, but there's so much potential in the gameplay loop they've created that only having six missions that take around 30 minutes (and upwards of 60 minutes for the last few missions) each was definitely a little disappointing. I hope the developers find time to add more levels, because I think there's still plenty of room for more content. It's not all bad, as there's definitely a little replay value in playing as the other character, though I'm unsure of the extent to how randomized puzzle solutions are. For $20, I think the price works if you and your friend split the price and each pay $10, but otherwise it might be safer to wait for a small discount for this one. At least you only need to purchase it once! That's a big plus no matter how you look at it.


Overall, I enjoyed my time with Operation: Tango. It's not an absolutely stellar experience, but I had a lot of fun navigating through different puzzles and timed situations, and it will definitely scratch your co-op game itch. There's a ton of potential in a sequel or DLC, if the folks at Clever Plays decide to go that route, but what's here is still a very fun and charming experience, even if it's a little too short and a little too buggy.

Graphics - 7.5/10
Gameplay - 8.5/10
Story - 7.0/10
Audio - 6.0/10
Content Value - 6.0/10

.:7.3/10:.
"Good"

+ Charming art style
+ HUD design looks great
+ Very fun gameplay loop
+ Only needs to be purchased once to play with a friend

- Game-breaking technical issues
- Extremely short
- Agent feels slightly underutilized

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After playing A Way Out last year, it was very refreshing to play a pure co-op experience since there's not much of that on the market currently, and it left an itch that nothing's come close to scratching. So, I guess it's a good thing that Josef Fares and the talented folks at Hazelight decided to release another pure co-op game that expands upon the foundation laid by A Way Out called It Takes Two. And I'm happy to report that It Takes Two is an incredibly entertaining experience that is a significant improvement over its prison break predecessor that surprised me in more ways than one.


While I think most people are going to compare this game's visual style to something out of a Pixar film, I would say this game feels a lot closer to something like LittleBigPlanet. It's a delight, with so much variety in the environments considering that the story is basically contained to one house. The game also did an excellent job of not being too overwhelming with color, which on top of being paired with great character designs (especially in regards to the playable characters), made everything visually distinct enough that you could tell who was supposed to interact with what without getting in the way of the style that the game was going for. While I did play this game with slightly messy settings because I was streaming it, I could tell that this game is an absolute looker in terms of its style and environments, so the game absolutely succeeded in this regard.


As I said before, It Takes Two expands on basically all of the concepts laid by its predecessor. While it is still largely a puzzle platformer, one of the game's biggest strengths is in its variety, as it would switch up the genre very frequently. The parts of the game where I was witnessing my partner take on a boss structured like Street Fighter, or where we were tearing through a castle using fire and ice powers like a Diablo game were my absolute favorite parts. They didn't overstay their welcome, and were always a great way to change the pace as soon as the platforming/puzzle segments started to feel dull. Both characters had ample opportunities to shine, and I didn't feel like the power-ups were skewed in favor of one character at any point. While the game's on the easier side, I still found it incredibly engaging and didn't mind the difficulty since the game was meant to be accessible to as many people as possible. The boss fights were also very fun, and never felt mindless to beat since they all had different mechanics that felt like a proper assessment of your skills with whatever tool you're using. In terms of a pure co-op experience, this is arguably as good as it gets. It's balanced, engaging, and a constant delight from start to finish. I have nothing to negative to say here.


Where the gameplay was near perfect in execution, this game's biggest weakness is its story. The game tries to foreshadow a few things, (for example: Moon Baboon's parting words set him up to be an interesting recurring antagonist considering the players' intentions at that point in the game) but ultimately get disregarded as soon as they move on to the next setting. I also feel like the game was too lighthearted tonally, and should've leaned more into its Pixar-esque appearance by suddenly changing the tone to something heavier in order to drive home the game's themes and sticking to that tone for more than one scene. While I did like the characters, and the game was genuinely pretty funny, I thought they were the only redeeming qualities in a story that felt like an excuse to throw the players into different situations, when it had plenty of potential to expand upon its themes using player interaction. The story is funny and entertaining, but its unwillingess to take itself seriously makes it disappointingly shallow overall.


Not much to talk about here. The voice acting wasn't particularly remarkable, and there were a handful of moments that took me out of the game, but it wasn't noticeably bad. The music is also serviceable, though I'd say it is of a higher quality than the voice acting overall, outside of the final song which I found rather underwhelming. The sound design also works well enough, though again I'd say it's nothing to write home about. Overall, it's fine, though it's nothing I'll be talking about years from now.


In terms of value, I'd say it's worth it at full price just for the reason that you only need to buy one copy to play with a friend. But even then, I'd still say it's worth it simply because you'll remember your time with it because of how it constantly finds ways to reinvent itself. Sure, the story isn't anything to write home about, but it's still very memorable just for how good the gameplay is. You're not going to play it more than once most likely, but it's definitely fun enough to warrant doing another playthrough with someone else if you wanted to.


It Takes Two is an absolutely amazing co-op experience with a story that holds it back from being an all-time great. But even then, the story isn't going to significantly ruin your experience because the way the gameplay constantly finds ways to keep you engaged definitely makes up for this to a degree. If you have someone to play this with, it is absolutely worth your money just to help these types of short, story-driven co-op games become more commonplace. It's not the "perfect co-op game", but it comes quite close. I loved my time with this game and I cannot wait to see what Hazelight does next.

Graphics - 9.5/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Story - 5.0/10
Audio - 6.0/10
Content Value - 9.0/10

.:9.0/10:.
"Amazing"

**PERSONAL PICK**

+ Incredible gameplay variety
+ Beautiful environments
+ Humorous writing
+ Well-paced
+ Only needs to be purchased once to play with a friend

- Shallow story and themes
- Tonal issues

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While I like to think I do a pretty good job at staying informed with what games are releasing soon, there's pretty much always one indie game every year that eludes my radar right until release that ends up being a very pleasant surprise for me. Some examples from previous years are Hyper Light Drifter, The Sexy Brutale, and Katana ZERO. As you can reasonably guess, Ghostrunner was the game that eluded me this year (though I did know a little about it before launch), and it was also a pleasant surprise, though it isn't without its flaws.


One of Ghostrunner's biggest strengths is undisputedly in its visuals. The thing that came to mind the most was the excellent lighting effects, especially in the city areas, but everything here is very high-quality. It's sort of like Doom Eternal where you don't really notice how good-looking the game actually is on a technical level until you find a moment to stop amidst the lightning-fast gameplay. While the game resembles your average cyberpunk world with its love for nighttime with pinks, blues, and purples, it's executed remarkably well here and is absolutely a highlight. The only thing that would've made it better to me is if there was a bit more variety in the environments. I LOVED the city, but it only took up 1/3 of the game, while the rest mostly took part in confined corridors. And while the game still looks great there, I just wish they took advantage of the cyberpunk city setting a little more. This isn't a big deal for me, though, especially because of how amazing everything else was visually.


But while this game's quite the looker for those of you who take screenshots, the main focus of the game is in the high-intensity, high-difficulty, and frantic gameplay. And I'm happy to say that Ghostrunner mostly delivers on that. It's a tough game, and probably one of the hardest games I've finished this year so far. That being said, the quick respawn times (which is surprising considering how visually demanding this game is) stopped the game from ever feeling truly frustrating. The combat segments are also incredibly satisfying to pull off with a fair amount of enemy variety, without ever feeling too overwhelming. I also enjoyed the boss fights, which definitely varied in terms of difficulty, but never felt boring or poorly designed. Everything here pretty much works and you're given plenty of different tools and mechanics to keep things interesting. What didn't work for me was more in the platforming department. Ghostunner is a VERY fast-paced game, and throws you to adapt to its speed right away. This works for the combat because the game follows the "you die in one hit but you kill enemies with one hit" rule, so the mechanics don't get much deeper than swinging your sword. However, the platforming expects a lot more from you and requires perfect timing at very high speeds, and the movement controls lack just enough polish to where this was noticeable. Going back to Doom Eternal for a moment, I realized after playing this that Doom slows the game down at the platforming segments likely to avoid having the same issue. Sometimes you'd be at the mercy of the game's momentum and where you're positioned on the wall when you're running across it, or other times the game wouldn't register you trying to jump to another wall or use a boost pad to get across, and the game's final level being one giant platforming challenge made these issues even more noticeable. I wouldn't have as much of an issue with this if the platforming wasn't so prevalent within the game. I easily would've traded some playtime of me running around on walls and dying for no reason just for some more combat scenarios. The game's controls generally work, don't get the wrong idea, but at this game's pacing, it's extremely difficult to get that level of precision in the controls and Ghostunner didn't quite do it. That being said, everything else was great and I had a blast playing the game.


Honestly, there's not much of a story here. It's a pretty basic and predictable plot, and I felt that all of the characters were just there to unload exposition while I decapitate a bunch of people. There's some worldbuilding through collectibles, but it wasn't interesting enough to warrant going out of my way to find them. The story's just here to give you an excuse to chop people up, and it never got annoying, so I don't mind it too much. It's fine, but not really worth discussing further.


This was another big strength Ghostrunner. The voice acting, despite my ambivalence towards the characters, was surprisingly great. The sound design was pretty good, too, although I would've liked for some better audio cues during the second boss fight (that's the Sekiro player in me talking though). But what really worked here was the music. The boss theme was probably my favorite track, but I found myself bobbing along to pretty much every one of the heavy synthwave pieces. It fit the game's mood perfectly and did an amazing job at keeping me hyped up while I was slaughtering people. Everything here is great overall, but the music was top-notch.


Ghostrunner is a rather short game, which isn't a bad thing, but there isn't much outside of the core game. There's s some collectibles that reward you with lore tidbits or a cool new sword, but I had no inclination to try and find anything. The replay value of the game is entirely reliant on you going back to go for the best time, which is really only going to appeal to a small niche of people. I do wish this game had more to it because I loved it from start to finish, but I can also respect not bloating the game with random one-time mechanics.


Wrapping things up, Ghostrunner was an excellent surprise that I greatly enjoyed. The game could've used some refinement with the platforming because of how fast-paced it is, as well as some extra content of some form, but otherwise this was a great experience and I'd absolutely recommend it if you have the willpower for it. You're not ready for Tom, though. Trust me.

Graphics - 9.5/10
Gameplay - 8.5/10
Story - 6.0/10
Audio - 9.0/10
Content Value - 6.0/10

.:8.4/10:.
"Great"

+ Beautiful visuals
+ Amazing soundtrack
+ Great voice acting
+ Satisfying combat
+ Nigh-instant respawn times prevents frustration
+ Fun boss fights

- Too much platforming
- Platforming controls can be inconsistent
- Needs more content

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Horror games have never been my forte. I play games to ease my anxiety, not worsen it. There's a couple that I like, such as Alien: Isolation and Resident Evil 2, but I avoid the horror genre more often than not. However, Carrion prides itself in being a reverse horror game, and based off of what gameplay I'd seen prior to release, this seemed to be a perfect option to get into the Halloween spirit without destroying my confidence in the process. And did I enjoy it? Yes, though it was pretty much what I expected it to be.


This is an interesting one. When it comes to the animation and spritework, Carrion is undoubtedly one of the best looking pixel art games I've ever seen. Everything is so incredibly fluid and it was always a delight on the eyes. Your meat monster is properly terrifying, and watching the thing expand as you eat more people unsettled me in all the right ways. Where the game falls short, however, is in its environments. They look great, but the problem is that there's a lack of visual variety in the locations, and everything is so dark and industrial (which fits because it's a lab) that there were multiple points where I couldn't tell if something was part of the background or if it was something I was supposed to interact with. This, along with other design choices in this game, led to me getting lost very easily and not having any indication as to where I was supposed to go. As you will soon see, this is an issue that bleeds into more than just the graphics.


The gameplay, despite being the focus here, is kind of a mixed bag to be honest. Getting straight to the point, this game doesn't control very well. I'm not expecting a game where you play as an endlessly hungry meat monster sliding across corridors to have the tightness of Super Mario Odyssey, and I initially looked past this issue. But then, there's the human segments. For some reason, the game felt even more unresponsive with the controls as a human being. It took numerous attempts for me to interact with stuff when my controller has worked with other games like Sekiro with no issue. And I think that's the issue here. I understand that you're a meat monster and that a meat monster plays a little differently than Mario, but when I'm having a hard time doing basic tasks as a human as well as trying to move the meat monster around, I think it's fair to say that the controls needed some polish. The other part of the gameplay that I didn't like was the lack of cohesiveness between the different levels. You have to hop through different holes to get to certain points and while you can discover some checkpoints, a lot of the time you're going to be reliant on those holes. Because of that, it's incredibly easy to get lost, and to make matters worse, there's no map to even give you the faintest idea of where you are. All you get is the ability to locate checkpoints, but even then it's not very reliable. The lack of indication of where I was and where I was supposed to go is Carrion's greatest weakness. But, it's not all bad. The game is definitely at its best when you're in crowded labs with tons of people to slaughter. I really liked the different upgrades you found throughout the game, and how you had to adapt your playstyle to the size of the monster. It made for some pretty clever puzzles that didn't feel tedious (which surprised me because I was expecting worse). The game was also paced pretty well. Outside of the time I spent trying to figure out where I was supposed to go next, I found that it was consistently entertaining from start to finish. There's definitely more to praise than to criticize, but the criticisms are pretty major.


The story is good, though nothing revolutionary. It's pretty straightforward, you can reasonably assume your goal from the start and probably predict what happens in the first third of the game, but it's still pretty entertaining and worked within the context of the game. I wish there was a little more worldbuilding (especially regarding the meat monster) but that's more of a nitpick than anything. Not much else to say here.


This is something Carrion actually does quite well. I thought the sound design was pretty good and definitely nailed the scary, oppressive atmosphere of the game. Especially when it came to the monster, as that low growl it makes was consistently spooky, and the sound effect of it moving sounded like arrows flying past, which I found corny and made the game a little more charming. The music, while not remarkable, also helped establish the atmosphere and tone of the game. Overall, this was a strong point for the game.


The game is pretty short. I got through it in 3 and a half hours, and that's also counting the amount of time I spent figuring out where I was supposed to go. I wish there was a little more, to be honest, as I love the premise, but I can at least appreciate it for not overstaying its welcome. There's not a lot of replay value unless you really want to speedrun the game, but there's a few hidden upgrades if you're looking for some side content.


Overall, I liked Carrion. I had fun crawling/sliding around and murdering everything I see. The pixel visuals worked well, the sound design and music were great, and I liked the general gameplay loop. The controls are a little rough, the environments were a little samey, and a mix of lack of level cohesion and a map or (reliable) indicator to help you figure out where you are made getting lost frequent and frustrating, but the game is pretty much what you'd expect it to be, and I'm okay with that because of the unique premise. You're better off waiting for a sale, but it's disgusting and horrific in all the right ways. You'll likely enjoy your time with the game if you don't expect it to be anything more than a meat monster simulator, so I'd certainly recommend it.

Graphics - 8.5/10
Gameplay - 7.0/10
Story - 7.0/10
Audio - 8.5/10
Content Value - 6.5/10

.:7.0/10:.
"Good"

+ Fun premise and gameplay loop
+ Consistently entertaining from start to finish
+ Solid sound design + music
+ Excellent visuals...

- ...but environments feel too samey
- Unpolished controls
- Getting lost is a common annoyance

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I'm a sucker for a game with a unique premise, and with Halloween being just around the corner while we're living through a pandemic, I knew that there was no better time to sink my teeth into this unique RPG set in the Spanish flu-ridden London. After all the criticisms I had heard about the game being flawed and fairly mediocre, I kept my expectations low and was actually a little surprised. The criticisms are justified, but the game was still far more enjoyable than I thought.


One area that Vampyr did not disappoint in was the visuals. While the game pretty much always takes place at night and in the darkness for pretty obvious reasons, I felt the game never got obnoxiously dark to a point where I just couldn't process any of my surroundings. The game's atmosphere consistently felt unnerving, which I find especially important to nail because of the game's setting. I also thought the character designs, which are also important because every NPC is supposed to matter in this game, were all visually distinct from one another and I did not have any issues with trying to figure out who's who. It was also pretty solid on a technical level, and I did not encounter any major visual bugs. Overall, this was one of the better points of Vampyr in my opinion.


I don't think it's fair to compare the game to something like Bloodborne simply because they share similarities in their dark, unnerving atmosphere and the structure of their combat, but what's here is unfortunately just passable. There's definitely a couple of good things, for example I liked how the game was tough without being cheap and unfair, even if you did a no-feeding run like I did. I also liked that you could still use your vampire powers, even when you couldn't level up as much from not being able to feed on people, so it fortunately doesn't suffer from Dishonored syndrome. The last thing I liked was how the world actually did change based off of who you killed and kept alive. Your choices are pretty much always morally grey, with their own sets of pros and cons. I was sitting there for ~20 minutes with two of the big decisions because of how complex they were, and I love that the game isn't afraid of making you experience the consequences of your actions, even if it was the most morally right option. However, there's also some things that didn't work. For one, the whole "resisting the temptation to feed" thing gets diminished when you're able to feed on basic enemies in combat with no consequences whatsoever. I also thought that the bosses, while not unfair to fight, had pretty dumb ways of inflating the difficulty. Of the three most difficult fights in the game, two of them had the same gimmick: AOE-damaging attacks randomly popping up with little warning and covering a large amount of the arena. The 3rd fight was only difficult because they summoned additional enemies to fight, and Vampyr can get tough when you're fighting more than 3 enemies at a time. I have no qualms with a challenging boss, I just wish there was a little more creativity put into making them hard. The combat, while it worked well enough, was a little unresponsive at times and the camera had a tendency to work against me. That unresponsiveness hurts, too, because games like this are pretty punishing if you aren't at the top of your game. While the gameplay isn't bad by any means, I wish it got a little more polish and creativity put into it.


Certain things here work, and other things don't. The worldbuilding is one of Vampyr's biggest strengths, as its success with the atmosphere really helped me feel immersed in this unsettling setting. I enjoyed how interconnected everything was, both with the world itself and how the characters all interact with one another. It makes picking your feeding targets especially important, since you have to consider how they're connected to other characters and what kind of effects that could have on them. As I said, there are consequences to your actions and I love it. It's not as simple as sparing or killing, since sparing them could still have a negative impact on the area, and there's usually a 3rd option to consider as well that isn't necessarily the "best" choice. I also thought the characters were pretty solid, in particular protagonist Dr. Reid was an interesting character, as well as vampire hunter Geoffrey McCullum, and the writing was also very good. So, what didn't work, then? While the writing itself was great, it had a tendency to feel disjointed, with side dialogue not really flowing with the main parts by assuming that Reid never goes out of his way to ask any of these extra questions about the world. The main story also needed some more time time in the sun (or moon). While the mystery about the city's supernatural underbelly was interesting, that plotline was basically thrown to the wayside after the big reveal and none of the members of this mysterious society were given any time to leave an impression on me. To make matters worse, the game tries to force a romance between Dr. Reid and another main character with little buildup, and didn't really develop in any way throughout the game. By the end, I just didn't care about the mystery anymore and I couldn't figure out why I was supposed to care about the reveals. In general, I think the game could've benefited from an extra chapter or two to help flesh out these things since a lot of story aspects felt undercooked. It's a shame, because the fascinating world was there, but the story didn't quite hit the peaks it should've outside of the difficult major decisions.


On the bright side, Vampyr does do pretty well in the audio department. I thought the voice acting was pretty solid overall. I liked the voice of Dr. Reid, and he especially fit considering that he starred in NBC's Dracula and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, though I will say there were times where he was a little too over-the-top with his lines. The music was great, and really fit the tone of the game. Video games about pandemics seem to LOVE string instruments (i.e. A Plague Tale: Innocence), but it works, so I'm not complaining. The sound design's a little iffy, as the sound effects for the blood-based attacks sounded very off for some reason, but it wasn't grating to the ears at least. Overall, I thought the game did pretty well in the audio department, though I think the music was the main reason for that.


I think the game is just a little too short, as my playthrough took me around 16 hours. However, there are multiple endings and different ways the world changes with your actions, so at the very least there is some replay value if the game hooks you. There's also plenty of powers and difficulty settings to give you variety in other playthroughs, and it seems like it was designed with that intention in mind. If nothing else, at least you've got plenty of options.


While I have criticized Vampyr plenty in this review, I should emphasize that I did enjoy the game. It's deeply flawed, yes, but I had more fun with it than I thought I would. Had the game been given more time in the oven, this absolutely could've shot up to be one of my favorite AA games. It's a 6/10 game, but in comparison to other stuff I've given a 6, this is a very good 6/10 game. It's worth a try on a deep sale.

Graphics - 9.0/10
Gameplay - 6.5/10
Story - 7.0/10
Audio - 8.0/10
Content Value - 8.0/10

.:6.9/10:.
"Satisfactory"

+ Interesting world
+ Great music
+ Fairly balanced gameplay
+ Choices have consequences

- Generally unpolished
- Bosses lack creativity
- Underdeveloped story
- Core "feeding" mechanic is downplayed by combat

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Something funny I realized when I was playing Hades was that this game is exactly what middle school me would've loved. A roguelite (the genre I spent the most time playing at the time) made by the people behind Bastion (one of my favorite indie games at the time) about Greek mythology (which has always been a fascination of mine). Middle school me would've been awestruck, and it likely would've been one of my favorite games ever. Well, middle school me, I'm sure you'd be pleased to hear that all these years later, it IS one of my favorite games ever!


Supergiant games are always visual spectacles, and coming off of the incredibly beautiful Pyre, I didn't think they'd surpass their peak so soon, but they absolutely did. The different environments of the underworld look amazing and live up to the Supergiant standard, but the big strength here lies in the character designs. Considering the main characters consist of Greek gods, goddesses, and other figures, I feel that Hades did an excellent job portraying these characters, giving them subtle visual details to help portray the character. For example, Zagreus's heterochromia gives you a small look at the game's central conflict. I also really like the design of Chaos, who is basically the void before things came into being, and someone that the artists had to be especially creative with as they don't really have a defined "image" in the same way that a god like Zeus does, and I loved this game's interpretation of them, especially the little touch of them holding Earth by their fingers. While I thought the character designs were excellent in Pyre, this is pretty much a straight upgrade. So overall, the visuals are top-notch as usual for these developers.


Because Hades is a roguelite, nailing the gameplay was the most important aspect in this game's success, so I'm pleased to report that the game nailed it! The controls are tight, you're given a wide variety of weapons and builds to play around with, and the mechanics are pretty balanced overall. But a major strength of Hades to me isn't the combat specifically (which is still excellent), but rather the overall progression. There's numerous different currencies to upgrade various aspects, whether it's upgrades for Zagreus, lavish decorations the House of Hades, or upgrades to your weapons that can drastically alter their playstyle. While the game never lets you reach Risk of Rain levels of OP, there is a clear progression in your character's abilities and your understanding that make your runs feel less repetitive. Another thing that helps kill the tedium that comes from a rogue's natural repetition is the remarkable level of balance in this game. Sure, it isn't completely perfect and there's definitely a few upgrades that are more ideal to have, but everything is playable at worst. I also love that you're not completely at the mercy of RNG like most rogue games. In something like Binding of Isaac or FTL (the latter of which was my favorite roguelite until now), while there definitely is some level of skill involved, part of the game is just hoping that RNGesus is kind enough to give you a few good items. In the case of Hades, you have more control over your builds, as you can equip an item before or during your runs that allow you to determine what kind of upgrade you find next. You're also able to reroll options with upgrades later in the game. As far as difficulty goes, you're also given a lot of flexibility there. You can increase the game's difficulty after your first successful run by increasing specific aspects, for example the number of enemies you find in a room or the amount of health they have, which will reward you with more of the rare currencies. Or, you can lower the difficulty by turning on God Mode, which gives you a damage reduction that increases with each death, which is just enough to make things easier without making them brainless. The sheer amount of customization offered here is glorious. While there's definitely some smaller issues I have (like having bosses become invincible at certain points to cap your damage which is REALLY annoying in a roguelite), everything works so well here that I can easily look past those minor issues. Definitely one of the best rogue games from a pure gameplay perspective.


But wait, that's not all Hades does extremely well. Anything from Supergiant has an excellent story, and Hades is no exception. I still think Pyre has it beat in terms of the main story, but this game still does some excellent things. For one, the main story is still really good. It's surprisingly grounded for a game featuring the Greek pantheon, and it was interesting enough to keep me going for 10+ victories. The characters are amazing, my favorite being Zagreus for being sassy and charming without being too "edgy", but I think all of the characters were great in their own right. Also, whoever's idea was for a severed gorgon head that talks like a generic teenage girl to be a maid in the House of Hades deserves a raise. The game also does a great job of interpreting the Greek gods and goddesses, and how they're portrayed here is pretty much how I envisioned them in my mind. But the big talk of the town with this game is the writing, and for good reason. There's so much dialogue, and in my ~40 runs, I don't think there was a single time where I saw repeating dialogue when I was sent back to the House of Hades. It's a remarkably well-written game that covers every little detail, which makes the world feel more organic as a result. I'm also a sucker for any game that ties in-game mechanics to the story, and Hades does that in spades. While the story did start to wear off a bit towards the end, I didn't mind too much because at that point I could clear runs pretty consistently. Overall, the story is very high quality, especially for a roguelite.


It's another Darren Korb soundtrack. Of course it's amazing! I loved the combination of metal and brass, plus other "spooky" themed instruments. The ending sequence music was a favorite for me. The voice acting is also top-notch. The various remarks of Zagreus never got old, and considering how much dialogue there is in this game, is very helpful in ensuring you don't get sick of the game before seeing the end. That's all there is to say, really. Stellar as always!


This is a roguelite, with various different options to change how you play the game. You'll need 10 victories to see game's ending, which took me around 25 hours. If you want to play through the post-game content, that'll put you around 80-100 hours total from what I've seen online. You'll absolutely be getting a ton of value out of this at full price.


When I give a game a 10/10, it does not mean a game is perfect. There's tons of minor things that I can criticize Hades for. However, those flaws are easily ignored when the core package is so unbelievably well-made. The brilliant writing tying into the tight gameplay mechanics, backed with excellent voice performances, beautiful visuals, and a Darren Korb soundtrack is pretty much everything middle school me could've wanted. Thank you, Supergiant Games, for continuing to surpass my high expectations with each passing game, and I am so excited to see where you go from here.

Graphics - 10/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Story - 9.5/10
Audio - 9.5/10
Content Value - 10/10

.:10/10:.
"Masterpiece"

**PERSONAL PICK**

+ Stellar writing
+ Satisfying progression
+ Lots of customization
+ Amazing soundtrack
+ Beautiful visuals
+ Tight gameplay mechanics
+ Great characters
+ Strong voice acting

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While I would not consider myself a connoisseur of the horror genre, I've always been fascinated by some of the stories the internet produces. I recall spending hours and hours reading Creepypastas back in the day. However, the stuff I found the most interesting of all were the stories about SCPs- various entities, living or inanimate, that violate natural law. There have been a few smaller projects in the past, but part of the appeal of Control was that it was essentially a high-budget SCP game, and I was all on board for that. But there was one small caveat: it's a game by Remedy Studios, and my experience with Alan Wake was one of the most boring I've ever had in a video game. So did Control change my opinion of the company by appealing to my love for the SCP stories? Sort of.


I did not get the opportunity to try this game with RTX on unfortunately, however I've heard that it works quite well here. That doesn't bother me though, because I still thought the game was quite a looker considering the intentionally drab setting they went with. Not so much on a technical level, as it's pretty much what you'd expect from a game released in 2019, but what really stuck out to me was the game's use of color. For the most part, the game was pretty muted with its color choice due to the office setting, but it juxtaposes that with a crimson red hue that permeates throughout the entire game, which I think helps the game maintain its uncomfortable tension (since red is associated with the game's enemies) even as you start to piece together what's going on. In fact, the use of color was one of my personal favorite parts about the game, and if you're the kind of person that loves taking screenshots, you'd have a field day with this.


But, this being a Remedy game, my biggest concerns were in the gameplay. Alan Wake lost me because I found the combat unbelievably tedious as it took ages to kill enemies and the gameplay loop got repetitive very quickly. Unfortunately, I can't say that Control completely alleviated this issue, although I will say that it improved over time. It's a third person action-adventure game, and it plays fine on a fundamental level. Like Alan Wake, the enemies are basically bullet sponges, and I found it just as annoying here as it made the combat feel unnecessarily tedious in a game that never really slows down with the plot. However, I think the game does start to flow better as you progress and gain more abilities. The telekinesis ability in particular was really fun to use, and upgrading it made encounters more enjoyable as I loved throwing enemies around. It's satisfying stringing together different combos with your abilities, and helps break some of the tedium of the bullet sponge enemies. The bosses were also pretty fun to fight, although I do wish that there were more in the main storyline, which brings me to my next issue. The side content is very enjoyable, and there's some hidden things that made me appreciate the game a little more. I didn't finish any of the DLC, but I did some of the side missions and had a lot of fun with them. However, the main campaign, outside of one phenomenal sequence (everyone who's played knows EXACTLY what I'm referring to), honestly wasn't that interesting to play. I felt like the game didn't take advantage of all the weird stuff they could've done with the setting. It's a weird game, sure, but I feel that there could've been so much more creativity into creating weird scenarios instead of putting a symbol onto 5 different computers to find a thing for some person who doesn't really add much to the main plot. So while I thought the game had awesome abilities and side content, the game's premise had every reason to throw standard game conventions out the window, and it chose to be a slightly different third person action-adventure game instead, and that was pretty disappointing to me. But at least it didn't bore me like Alan Wake did. That's a pro in itself.


Like the gameplay, the story can be all over the place in quality, though I'd still say it's great overall. The main plot was interesting and had some really great moments, but it never really got the resolution it should've had and I wasn't fond of the ending. The characters, outside of Dr. Darling, were pretty wooden and one-dimensional, unfortunately including the main character Jesse as well. I didn't really mind her being a Mary Sue necessarily (since it gets explained somewhat), but I didn't feel "sold" on her story so to speak. The bland characters made me speed through the main game because of how uninterested I was, honestly. However, the game's biggest strength is the worldbuilding. There's tons and tons of documents to collect that give you a ton of insight into the Oldest House and the various beings that inhabit it, and that side of the game definitely appealed to the SCP fan in me as I spent quite a while reading about the game's world. I also liked how the game handled the atmosphere. It was always tense and unnerving, but never outright terrifying and actually quite humorous at some points, and I love how the characters treated their present situation, as well as pretty much everything that happens inside that building, as just another day in the office. Overall, the story wasn't bad. The worldbuilding and atmosphere are excellent, and the main story had some great moments. But, the main plot didn't really hook me, and the boring characters are probably to fault for that.


Pretty much everything in the audio department is "serviceable". I wasn't blown away by any specific aspect of this, although I never felt that it was offensively bad either. The voice acting was whatever, the soundtrack was whatever (except for that song, which was amazing), and everything else worked technically. There isn't much else to say, really.


This is a weird one. The main plot was short and unremarkable so there isn't a lot of lasting value in that regard, but I did enjoy the side content a lot more and there's some great stuff in there. The part that makes this difficult is finding the motivation to do the other content when you're like me and couldn't care less about the story. I'd probably say that it isn't entirely worth it at full price though you could certainly do so if you'd like, but I think it'd be worth it if you found it discounted at any level. It really depends on how much the story hooks you, I think.


Overall, Control was a very fun, but not mind-blowing experience. Some moments in this game were absolutely stellar and worked incredibly well, but other parts were still pretty bland for a game that is trying to be unique. The best way to describe it is that it's conventionally unconventional. Some parts that were genuinely creative, but it still felt like your run-of-the-mill AAA action-adventure game at the end of the day. Regardless, I definitely enjoyed my time with this game and it appealed to the SCP fan in me, so it's at least worth a look if you enjoyed that sort of thing. This didn't make me a fan of Remedy Entertainment, but at the very least I'm optimistic about the improvements they're making and I look forward to seeing what they try next.

Graphics - 9.5/10
Gameplay - 7.5/10
Story - 7.5/10
Audio - 6.5/10
Content Value - 7.5/10

.:7.5/10:.
"Good"

+ Excellent worldbuilding
+ Great use of color in visuals
+ Combat flows nicely with more upgrades
+ Lots of fun side content
+ Consistently tense atmosphere

- Bullet sponge enemies made combat tedious in the beginning
- Boring characters
- Main story lacks creativity