Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye

How do you improve upon perfection? Well, you can’t, really. Echoes of the Eye is the DLC for Outer Wilds – and since I never mentioned my final thoughts on Outer Wilds as a complete experience, I figured the DLC was the perfect time to do just that. The above screenshot has the fewest spoilers possible while technically showing some things from the DLC; this really is a game you should play blind, and the same is equally true for the DLC.

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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.

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Gorogoa

On the one hand, Gorogoa is a pretty great lateral thinking game all taking place in four squares. On the other, I’ve actually already played it on my mobile device where it worked a little better, interface-wise. Tier One on a touchscreen, low Tier One from Steam.

Steam link

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

Mini Motorways

Mini Motorways is a quasi-sequel to Mini Metro. If you’ve played Mini Metro, you know about what to expect in Mini Motorways – only instead of managing an ever-growing metro line with limited special components, you’re managing an ever-growing road system with limited special components (and on a grid this time).

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The Fermi Paradox

The Fermi Paradox asks the question: if the universe is as large and old as it appears to be, why is it that Earth harbors the only life we can see? The more amusing version of this is: why can we see any stars at all? Why haven’t they all been converted into Dyson Spheres in service to a previous civilization that arose a mere million years earlier than our own? Given our own rate of development, it seems likely that any civilization serious about survival would have already captured any suns it could. This article is about the game with the same name, though.

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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.

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NUTS

I was definitely ready to make a list of squirrel puns while writing this review. Completing the game, however, drained me of all desire to make that effort. This is the first game I’m putting into Tier Four without hating it.

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