If Wadjet Eye Games publishes something, I tend to pay at least some attention. I didn’t like every game they’ve ever published and not every game they’ve ever made, but they do tend to pick the titles that have something interesting about them among many a project made on Adventure Game Studio. When The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow got announced, I was curious as to what it might be. Curiosity only increased during the first hour and I was hoping the game will remain as interesting throughout. It didn’t.
Tag: game review
In love with: Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
The incredible hype for a remake of Final Fantasy VII has always felt odd to me. Partially because I didn’t care that much about the original game, but also because I couldn’t even picture how a classic jRPG could be remade, other than by doing it in the exact same way but with better visuals. Which sounded pointless. But the remake did happen after years of speculation and a surprise announcement. And it went in a rather unexpected direction. For one, “Remake” seems to be the actual name for this game, which is the first of several entries to redo the story of the original Final Fantasy VII. And if that’s not weird enough, the gameplay has been drastically redone too. What is most surprising to me, though, is that for how much respect rather than enjoy the original, I loved playing Remake.
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Happy about: Super Lone Survivor
Ten years ago Lone Survivor got released to the market that was entirely devoid of titles attempting classic survival horror and for this alone received a lot of attention. That wasn’t the only positive feature about the game, of course, but for a lot of people it was somewhat of a symbol of how big budget companies were simply unwilling to make games like this and it was for the independent developers to finally revive the genre. Personally? I didn’t get into the game much for various reasons that I will outline below, but it was a title I remembered and at least respected.
Nowadays, classic survival horror is finally being revived with many titles attempting fresh takes on the genre, some of them even being good. And after many years of being hinted at, and a few years of development, Lone Survivor returns in its updated format as Super Lone Survivor. Is it interesting today?
Thoughts on: Lost Judgment
After loving Judgment so much, I went into Lost Judgment with very high expectations. Yet, despite being, on a technical level, a more or less straight improvement on everything the previous game had, I couldn’t help but feel disinterested in most of its contents. Luckily, it’s still a very solid entry in the Like a Dragon series, at least mechanically. And with some good storytelling.
In love with: Judgment
By this point the Ryū ga Gotoku franchise, formerly known internationally as Yakuza and from now on Like a Dragon, is extremely popular everywhere. We’ve come from having some spin-off titles having no international release and main titles in the franchise having the international release delayed by years, to getting almost day one releases worldwide and future announcements that get so many people excited it would’ve been hard to believe this just a few years ago.
Judgment is the first game that is set in the same shared world as the rest of the Like a Dragon titles that has absolutely no “Like a Dragon” in its title. It was originally released on PS4 in 2018, has gotten an enhanced Remaster on current gen systems juts last year and now is finally available on PC, released the same day as its sequel Lost Judgement. And I have to be honest, even though I like these series in general, I truly loved only 2 Like a Dragon games so far and unfortunately, being extremely long titles, I did get somewhat tired of them last year when I finally wrapped things up with the PC port of Yakuza 6. Even though I’ve heard great things about Judgment, I was still afraid that it will tire me out. Instead, it has become the third game in the franchise that I consider exceptional.
Happy about: Broken Pieces
As more and more classic survival horror adjacent action adventure games arrive lately, I keep being occasionally pleasantly surprised by the inventiveness of some of the projects. Even if the title ultimately disappoints, the creativity behind it can show new ways this genre can be done, as if it’s finally trying to break the mould it has been stuck in for decades. Broken Pieces is not a disappointment, however, even if it is a bit of a mess.
Thoughts on: SIGNALIS
The revival of classic survival horror continues and it’s nice to see more games that call themselves “survival horror” actually be a title that at least somewhat adheres to the main pillars of the genre. SIGNALIS did not catch my eye when I first saw it, but the more I heard of it, the more curious I got. And since after release it has gotten a lot of praise, I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to play it myself. It’s neat to see the genre taken to other camera angles and controls and the top down (and sometimes first person) perspective of SIGNALIS, while not novel for the genre (see Heaven Dust), was seriously underrepresented. Plus, this title most certainly has style. Unfortunately, that’s the best it can do.
Disapprove: Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary
I can’t think of any other example of the series, where each following release is progressively worse and more pointless, but somehow Q.U.B.E. manages to do this over and over again. The original game from 2011 was, and still is, a fantastic in its minimalist simplicity first person physics based puzzle game that takes under 3 hours to complete and looks really cool despite its somewhat outdated visuals. And now, after a pointless Director’s Cut and terribly boring Q.U.B.E. 2 we have Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary which promises to be an improved and definitive remaster of the original game but in reality it’s… Oh boy…
O tempora: Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth has always been janky. Released in 2005 on the original Xbox and half a year later on PC it looked outdated, it had tons of problems and was ridiculously hard at moments. Nonetheless, it was also beloved by many despite its issues, because it created a genuinely fantastic atmosphere and was full of memorable moments and ideas unlike anything else in videogames. I liked the game when it got released, but always dreaded returning to it due to countless frustrating elements it had. But it was the time to finally take the dive and see how the game feels in 2022.
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Thoughts on: No one lives under the lighthouse (Director’s cut)
I’ve seen the entirety of No one lives under the lighthouse played 2 years ago out of curiosity and while it seemed like a cute horror title, it wasn’t my cup of tea and some of the questionable late game moments made it so I wasn’t interested in playing it myself. Recently, however, I was reminded of the title and have discovered that since the release the title was updated to the Director’s cut, which almost entirely remade the second half of the title. It got me intrigued enough to give the title a chance and… well, it’s still kinda neat, but I can’t say that it’s much better than it originally was.
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