Category: Tier Three

Once again, and for reasons I still can’t figure out (microstuttering, maybe?), a game causes me incredible nausea after playing for about 45 minutes. Though in this case, I’m not sure it would be worth my time even if it didn’t.

Paradise Killer is a game of three parts: an island exploration, a crime investigation visual novel, and a trial. There are serious flaws with all three of these parts, but it might be worth 5 hours anyway. Unfortunately, it’s a 10 hour game (from my 99% run through). This should be spoiler free, just in case!

Journey is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful, best sounding, and emotionally moving video games of recent memory. I am clearly in the minority, then, when I say that I found it lacking.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is pitched as a low fantasy RPG where you play as just “a guy” in medieval times. I’m not usually one to play such games, but Bannerlord (which I still think back to, despite the faults I pointed out) made me reconsider – after all, clawing your way up from serfdom sounded vaguely interesting. Sadly, what I got was yet another “cinematic” experience with frustrating gameplay – and I didn’t even get to the combat. I suppose my run of luck with good games had to end sometime.

Creating a believable and realistic speculative fiction world is a tough challenge. One false step and the whole facade falls apart.