Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Marvel’s Midnight Suns proves the comic book/superhero formula can be successfully applied to almost any scenario. Who would have expected players to be rubbing elbows with Blade and Spider-Man? Or trying to flirt with an Avenger? Would it have really sounded exciting that saving the planet would be determined with careful card selection while players scratched their heads for the best plan ...[Read More]
The Callisto Protocol
The Callisto Protocol succeeds because it deeply understands players’ expectations of horror. What we expect is Dead Space. Not from Visceral Games but from Striking Distance Studios, the developer behind The Callisto Protocol and comprised of former Dead Space talent. As player deeply fond of Dead Space, I went into The Callisto Protocol with the highest expectations. Striking Distance Stud...[Read More]
God of War Ragnarök
At the age of 6 I lost my father to an incurable illness. This lingered over me in the final hours of God of War Ragnarök. A sentiment echoing in my mind. What would life be like had his tutelage been there? Would he be a good father? Remained with my mother? Taught me to be a better person? Hard to say. One of the few memories I have of him is sitting in a living room, playing Super Mario Bros. w...[Read More]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II shirks revolution for refinement. For a series that has been burning at both ends for nearly two decades, sea change is hard to come by yet entirely expected by a large cadre of players and critics. Where does the franchise go from here? How does a first-class multiplayer prove itself digestible by the masses while striving for something different? The choice by Inf...[Read More]
Gotham Knights
The shadow cast by the Arkham games looms heavily over Gotham Knights‘ opening hours, often bleeding into the entire game. It’s been seven years since Rocksteady released Batman: Arkham Knight, leaving a massive hole for players wishing to take part in the Caped Crusader’s exploits. That shadow extends even further knowing that it has been almost a decade since WB Games Montreal ...[Read More]
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Review
Asymmetric multiplayer games have seen a huge rise in popularity over the years. Friday the 13th: The Game, Dead by Daylight, and to a lesser degree Predator: Hunting Grounds, have all taken the world by storm with their delightfully addicting gameplay. As with those games, the genre seems to be ripe with possibilities when it comes to beloved IP. But one obvious franchise has eluded the adored 4v...[Read More]
Serial Cleaners
After wrapping up Serial Cleaners I decided to dust off my digital copy of Serial Cleaner, a game I had bought years ago on sale and never played. “How does the original compare to the sequel?” I wondered. I considered hopping into the first game before playing Serial Cleaners so I could speak on how the two compared and contrasted. But instead, I decided a completely fresh perspective...[Read More]
No Place for Bravery
“Sing, oh Muse, the folly of Thorn, son of Dewr, who lived by the blade.” No Place for Bravery opens with this line, a throaty chant and booming drums accompany the text crawl. It instills an ancient sense of power into the player’s subconscious. Our main character is named Thorn and this introduction heavily implies that all will not be right, his folly worthwhile enough to be a...[Read More]
The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition
When The Tomorrow Children released sometime in 2016 I never played it. However, before the game’s full release I spent hours with game’s beta. In my vast library of PlayStation avatars, I treasure the one I received for participation in Q-Games’ newest experiment. There was something so oddly inviting about The Tomorrow Children to me. Its Soviet-inspired world and writing added...[Read More]
Metal: Hellsinger Review
Is it the profound hope of most game developers to allow their players to embody a specific avatar? The common “joke” with Marvel’s Spider-Man was that it let players “feel like Spider-Man” in one form or another. And you know what? It’s true. I’m never going to web sling through New York City and Insomniac’s blockbuster allowed me to live out that p...[Read More]
Wayward Strand
During the three in-game days players spend on Wayward Strand‘s airborne nursing home, time does not stop. Much like the characters main character Casey interacts with, time is a valuable commodity. Miss a moment and it is gone forever… at least until you start a new game. Wayward Strand treats the passage of time as an unflinching force that constantly moves forward with no regard for...[Read More]
Broken Pieces
Broken Pieces evokes numerous other games during its opening hours–an often endearing quality when eventually those inspirations manifest into something wholly original. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alan Wake, Control, Gone Home, Alone in the Dark. Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft began to rapidly trickle in as did a number of avant-garde thrillers. If anything, Broken Pieces cements itself in...[Read More]