Tag: game review

Disapprove: Q.U.B.E. 2

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The original Q.U.B.E. was one of the still quite few examples of well made First Person Physics-based Puzzle games, when it launched over 7 years ago. While never fantastic, it was a solid and stylish simple puzzle game with no story, atmospheric tunes and really cool visual design, combined with some fun puzzles all based around manipulating parts of the environment. It was then followed by Director’s Cut, a misguided re-release of the game that did remove a rather annoying puzzle, but also added a completely unnecessary, badly written and pace breaking narration and, to fit the new narrated mood, a more ambient score instead of a more pronounced music of the original.

And now, a couple more years later, Q.U.B.E. 2 was released. And I cannot figure out why.

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Happy about: The Mooseman and It’s Spring Again

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It’s always a joy to see games tackling on some themes or ideas that haven’t really been explored much, and especially unexpected when teams making said games are based in Russia. But that’s the case with the two little but very intriguing titles The Mooseman and It’s Spring Again.

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In love with: Unavowed

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Dave Gilbert’s Wadjet Eye Games have come a very long way. Despite sticking to the Adventure Game Studio and its aged and hard to work with tools, they’ve managed to both create and help create some of the most refreshing and innovative point and click adventures over the past 12 years. And while they have published some good games, I always preferred Dave’s own approach to designing adventures, which often favored dialogue and good storytelling over puzzles. And Unavowed may be the most interesting take at adventure games I’ve seen since the “golden age”. Or ever.

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Thoughts on: Primordia and A Golden Wake

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Before fully diving into the latest (and most impressive) title published by the Wadjet Eye Games, I wanted to finally catch up with the two games they’ve published that I’ve never checked. The main reason to ignore them was the reviews I’ve read – both Primordia and especially A Golden Wake seemed to be met with less praise than other Adventure Game Studio made point and click adventures Wadjet Eye helped see the light of day. Let’s see, if playing these games was worth the detour.

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Happy about: Gorogoa and Donut County

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There’s something special about the little short games that manage to cram a lot of awesome into just an hour or two. It’s not a common thing to happen, I’d say, as most titles tend to either aim at a longer gameplay time, or are very short experiments, that don’t feel like a complete experience. Even The Room series started as feeling like a really cool first part of something bigger and not as a complete package, even if the game was fun. But that’s what’s cool about two very different games, Gorogoa and Donut County, that will take you less than 2 hours to complete on the first try, yet still feel like a complete and fun experience.

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Disappointed thoughts on: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (4.x with DLCs)

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I remember being surprised at the announcement of Project Eternity Kickstarter campaign, the working title for the original Pillars of Eternity. A surprise that quickly turned to throwing money into the monitor. Obsidian Entertainment have rarely disappointed before and they most certainly didn’t with PoE, when I eventually got around to play it. In fact, I’d say that it remains one of my absolute favorite story driven RPGs, just based on the fact how it managed to perfectly merge the simple sword and sorcery of the classic Baldur’s Gate (and older fantasy RPG titles), with a genuinely interesting and nuanced world. It was a game full of memorable ideas, characters and lots of choices that made me think hard, carefully weighting the options and bringing myself and my own morality into the game world.

So of course I backed the Pillars of Eternity II campaign as soon as it started. Obsidian Entertainment have rarely disappointed…

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Disapprove: RiME

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Ever since Ico became popular I’ve seen a lot of games attempt doing something similar – a puzzle and platforming 3D game with no spoken narration, simple but beautiful artstyle, moving music and some central concept/idea to it all. And as more and more indie developers became enabled to use powerful engines that allow creating something mechanically simple, but beautiful and, hopefully, evocative, the amount of games of this type went up dramatically. RiME is just another example of this type of game. Made with lots of care, genuinely good looking, with a good story concept behind it and yet all too familiar, not particularly fun and ultimately forgettable.

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O tempora: Scratches: Director’s Cut

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O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Scratches was originally released in 2006 (with updated Director’s Cut being available since 2007) at just the right time. By that point both adventure games and horror titles not focusing on action became somewhat rare, and a change was yet to come. It was far from being the first attempt at a screen-by-screen transition first person view game (like Myst) that focused on horror, but unlike a lot of its competition it was really well made and told a simple, yet genuinely engaging story. Returning to this game 12 years later certainly feels interesting.

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