Recent reviews by Lainey

This game has a laundry list of triggers, so if those are an issue, stay safe and look up whatever you need to know if this is a game you can play. If it is, or you're fortunate not to have to worry about that kind of thing, this is an experience worth letting run over you with as little context as possible going in.

It's about 2 hours long and will probably sit with me as something to unpack and think over for a long, long time.

I'm going to steal this big central theme-spoiling quote from a person very near and dear to me, because they summed this experience up way more succinctly than I could have:
"you're in the worst place in the universe, not in the ass end of the galaxy with worthless cargo so no one will bother sending rescue, but in the mind of a narcissist"

Stunning craftsmanship - but all in service of a story that pretends to ask big questions about morality but ends on a two-hour finish sprint through the mud to ask "Do you sympathize with the fascist, or do you want to not kill thousands of living, thinking creatures" as equivalent options, with no nuance or philosophical buildup for that to make sense. A bore of a story that's not worth the charming moments sprinkled throughout.

Bought it based on the premise, reminiscent of the phenomenal DS game Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Sadly, this one is something of a step back from 2010.

Most of the game is fine. The puzzles are well-designed, and hints of a bigger picture are dropped naturally through dialogue and discovery. Some decent comedy thrown in here and there. Every major character was a bit one-note but varied enough from each other to set up some interesting situations that you'd end up saving them from.

Last hour and a half drops all of this to spend most of the time expositing a rather underwhelming plot, with themes I've seen explored way better elsewhere and melodrama that hits like a wet paper towel. This eventually killed my enthusiasm and made finishing the game a frustrating chore, so I can't in good consience give a thumbs up. But if none of this seems like it would bother you and "murder-prevention puzzle game on a groundhog day loop" sounds like a cool concept, you could do a lot worse. For a better execution of that concept, get a DS or iOS device and play Ghost Trick instead.

Nominated this for "Best use of a farm animal", and I'd like to see anyone argue otherwise.

This multiplayer deathmatch fun-box knows exactly what it wants to accomplish, and does it well. You can pick it up and learn the ropes in one 5-minute round, and still master new tricks many hours down the line. The humor and presentation is on point, and a high pace keeps the focus on moment-to-moment gameplay instead of getting bogged down in setting details. This is framed as an 80s TV bloodsport for bipedal sentient ducks, and a lesser game would have gone all out on "lol-so-random" humor with that premise to the point of being obnoxious. Here the joke never gets old, because it doesn't have time to do that between all the pure unadulterated fun.

Oh, and everyone mentions the quack button, but I don't see anyone pointing out that there's also an analog pitch trigger. With enough practice you'll soon be stunt-jumping around with a hamburger for a face, mowing down your friends while quacking the Full House theme song. If that doesn't sound appealing, I don't know what else to say.

Amazing.