Recent reviews by Mia

Dying to the final boss - dozens of times - and not a single time was I remotely angry, because each time was an utter whale of a time. Ugly-crying at the ending - powerful, beautiful, Ghibli-like. The myriad reveals that tighten the intrigue. This is easily my favourite game to have come out in 2024.

The combat system is stellar, with Sekiro-style parries, Hollow Knight-style jade charms, and a fascinating couple of inventions of its own - the satisfying internal damage system and the powerful risk-reward of talismans. That - plus a bow, for when you really need to make space - makes for a simple but really well-put-together experience.

Exploration is pretty fun, with some platforming puzzles; you're rewarded for curiosity with vital upgrades and story elements.

I wouldn't consider myself a particularly... skilled gamer, but this wasn't the worst to 100%, and at no point did I feel like I was grinding.

(Oh, and be nice to the Shanhai 9000s. Trust me.)

If you want to blitz through the game it might take 5 hours - but how could you not get lost in the atmosphere along the way? This game has a serene, spooky atmosphere, every pixel carefully considered - and I mean every pixel, because there are so many rewarding secrets and every item is a quiet revelation that will make you think "that was there the whole time??" again and again. With vanishingly little dialogue, the game teaches you everything by example with brilliant design.
It rewards out of the box thinking and curiosity, actively enjoys when you try to break it, and I can't remember a single frustrating puzzle.
(It downloads and launches like instantly, too!)

This game is up there with Portal or Outer Wilds as a brilliant example of what games can be and I can REALLY see this getting awards in the coming months.

Reasonably simple in concept (when you get over how cool it is!) but dastardly clever in its execution. These head-scratching, think-quite-literally-outside-of-the-box puzzles are elegantly designed, feeling impossible right up until you hit that moment of realisation.
Instantly one of my favourite puzzle games, and paced in such a way that it almost encourages you to do 20 minute sessions of real brainstorming. Also, the box is cute, which is a bonus.

If you've played FTL, imagine it, except instead of managing meagre resources in space, you're managing time, your health, your sanity, wealth, and a lot more and then some. Extremely addictive. While my five hours over the free weekend aren't enough to give a whole review... they were enough to make me want to buy the game, if only to delve at its secrets. This is the sort of game that sticks with you.

You don't really need to know anything about Metal Gear Solid to play - the story is entirely self-contained, and the gameplay is stupendously different, in the best way possible.

Revengeance is supposed to last 7 or so hours, and it will be a zany, off-the-wall, arcade-fuelled 7 hours of utter fun. But why stop there? MGR is just so fun to pick up and play, that between achievement-hunting, secret-collecting, codec-listening, VR-completing and story-quoting, you'll get far more than you thought.