Hi-Fi Rush

I very much wanted to like this game. And I may go back eventually to try it out (I did – and added my thoughts at the end), but the aggressive tutorialization and cutscenes every ten seconds really got to me in my first half hour – to the point that I’m writing this instead of playing the game, which is never a good sign.

Continue reading “Hi-Fi Rush”
What Remains of Edith Finch

I waffled quite a bit on where I was going to place this game. Though bits of the storytelling were fantastic, so many of the things that bother me about walking simulators were on full display. Then the game ended and I realized that What Remains of Edith Finch falls squarely into the “pretentious hints at something actually interesting, then an ending that resolves nothing” – similar to Old Gods Rising – but less insulting and with some interesting ideas – or NUTS, but with fewer mechanics.

Continue reading “What Remains of Edith Finch”
Donut County

Donut County is Katamari Damacy meets…I’m not sure, actually. Anyway, instead of a growing ball of “stuff,” Donut County puts you in charge of an ever-growing hole (usually controlled by a capitalist raccoon) – the more stuff that falls in, the larger the hole. It’s a neat idea, but sadly there just isn’t much more than that. You eventually control a catapult to interact with mild puzzle elements, but it just doesn’t have the scale of Katamari to really feel worthwhile. Tier Three, but a high Tier Three.

Steam link

Subnautica: Below Zero

Some sequels take everything from the first game and are able to not only expand on the mechanics, but recontextualize what you learned in the first one. Some sequels aren’t so ambitious, but still provide an interesting continuation to a story couched in familiar mechanics. Then there are some sequels that add practically nothing new to the series and can, in fact, lower your opinion of the original entry.

Continue reading “Subnautica: Below Zero”