While Conscript has been out for almost two years now, something about it didn’t quite click with me for the longest time. It’s the type of game that is almost hard to believe is what it actually claims to be, because it feels like it shouldn’t work. A classic survival horror game in the setting of the Great War that doesn’t technically have any supernatural elements and works with the top down perspective? How is that going to work, right? But it does. Not without faltering, of course, but Conscript, in its current updated Director’s Cut version, is a genuinely interesting game and fans of the genre shouldn’t ignore it.
Tag: Recommended
Happy about: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Prypiat – Enhanced Edition
Seven years ago I sat down and played through the original three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. titles. Of that playthrough, Call of Prypiat was easily the big highlight. Shadow of Chornobyl was frustrating, if curious. Clear Sky was a slog. But this one? This one was actually cooking. It felt like GSC Game World have finally figured out what the series are supposed to be about, at least as far as my tastes were concerned. So, when I decided to check the Enhanced Edition versions of all games that are part of the Legends of the Zone Trilogy release, I fully expected things to go similarly. I mean, I secretly hoped that the re-releases would fix the first two games as they desperately needed it, but, unfortunately, while the new versions are mostly superior, they didn’t change how messy and frustrating those games are. Call of Prypiat was already good, so is there a point in this re-release? Well, kinda.
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Happy about: Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered
Being the Legacy of Kain fan that I am, as I’ve covered in my review of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered last year, I was extremely excited about Defiance. Ever since Soul Reaver 2 still didn’t finish the story started in Soul Reaver 1, people expected the inevitable Soul Reaver 3 (and Defiance was actually known by that name internally at the start). So when the Blood Omen 2 (which hasn’t been remastered yet) was released first, I was slightly confused, but also intrigued. After all, the events of the game contradicted the known timeline, and even the developers vaguely mentioned that something in Defiance would lead to Blood Omen 2 events existing. Then the early PS2 trailer for Defiance (as it was officially unveiled) hit with some cool nu-metal-ish song playing and I downloaded and rewatched that trailer a lot (the track is called “In the Crossfire”, by the way, as I’ve learnt years ago from the best LoK fan site). Playing as both Kain and Raziel in an epic conclusion to the storyline of Raziel (as it would probably be), was such an exciting prospect.
And then the game came out and… I liked it. But it was also weird. It did conclude Raziel’s story in a mostly satisfying way in broad strokes, it left a lot of questions unanswered. But far more importantly – the game felt even more unfinished than Soul Reaver 1, and that game ended with a “To be continued” screen. This feeling is not something that Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered can fix, but where it could, the remaster made the game a lot better.
Happy about: Pragmata
Capcom used to stick with safe releases. New Monster Hunter or Street Fighter game, remaking a Resident Evil title that was already good and doesn’t need remaking, maybe even making a new Resident Evil game to varying levels of quality. But in the past few years, they’ve started to spice things up with unexpected things. Less than two years ago they released Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess – a fantastic and weird mix of hack and slash action and tower defense. This year, the surprise is Pragmata – a very curious mix of different ideas that starts really well and ends… alright.
Happy about: Avowed
When Avowed was first announced half a decade ago, I was mildly curious, but somewhat concerned about the idea. After all, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire has shown a significant drop in writing quality for Obsidian Entertainment, even if it was ultimately still an alright game. Going full on first person action RPG?.. Not the direction I wanted the series to go in. But then again, The Outer Worlds wasn’t terrible, even if still a clear drop in quality for the team, so maybe they were onto something. And so a year ago Avowed was finally released to somewhat positive reviews and after seeing some people play the game online, I’ve decided to grab it sometime later when it gets patched a bunch. Year later, the game received a massive update that added a few nice elements and quality of life features, so I’ve decided to finally give it a go.
Happy about: Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse
Three years ago I enjoyed playing Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, that came out of nowhere and was made by Square Enix, of all companies. It was a fun and creative adventure game with the presentation that most people associate with Visual Novels and lots of inventive “meta” ideas. Given the modern state of gaming industry, I was afraid that it will stay a cool one-off, but no – we have a sequel now. Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse is exactly what one could want from a sequel – it’s “more but different”.
Happy about: Everspace 2 (with DLCs)
Since I’m not a fan of roguelite or roguelike games, I did miss Everspace when it was originally released. It was a curious combination of action RPG, space sim (or more space shooter) with the FTL: Faster Than Light inspired structure, where you were jumping between different procedurally generated locations, while being chased by a powerful foe. It did have a story, but the main draw of the game was specifically in that die and repeat nature of the genre and the fact that the space dogfights were quite fun. And then in 2023 the developers released the sequel Everspace 2 (although it was in Early Access for a few years), and with this game they’ve changed a lot in the direction that got me interested. Instead of a purely roguelite structure, a proper handmade world with interesting exploration, story, quests and all of the cool stuff I tend to like, while still keeping the fun space battles intact. Knowing that the game will get updates and DLCs, I decided to postpone my own playthrough and now, when the game is, as developers claim, in the more or less completely final state, I’ve decided to finally give it a go. And while it is quite a bit messy, I enjoyed playing it a lot.
Revisiting Assassin’s Creed Mirage with The Valley of Memory update
A year and a half ago I’ve enjoyed playing through Assassin’s Creed Mirage. It was a nice attempt by Ubisoft to remember what made the series what it was in the first place and while flawed, the attempt was a success and the game was easily among the best entries in the franchise. Heck, if you remember that the series are supposed to be a story-driven action stealth game in the urban environment, this might’ve been the best implementation of the idea yet, mechanically anyway.
And then, out of the blue, the studio has announced a free story expansion for the title called The Valley of Memory, that eventually released a few months ago. I wasn’t planning on revisiting the game so soon, if I’m honest, but I was in the middle of trying to force myself play through Assassin’s Creed Shadows, so I wanted to remind myself why do I even like these games. So I quickly played a few minutes of almost each title to remind myself of how they were, which culminated with me completing The Valley of Memory. Which renewed my opinion that Mirage is among the best entries. And that Assassin’s Creed really needs to figure out its own identity.
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Happy about: CULTIC (both chapters)
I am very happy about the rebirth of classic FPS popularity. That said, not many games that attempt to recapture the simplicity and excitement of that pre-Quake/Quake era of titles end up being worth playing. To the point, where I sometimes start to wonder – with how few actual classics there were that passed the test of time and are still beloved, perhaps the “dungeon crawling with guns” approach to FPS is too limiting?.. But then countless imaginative WADs for Doom appear and I come around something like Cultic and my doubts dissipate – no, there’s still a lot of fun and creative stuff that can be done withing the classic limitations. And while I didn’t love Cultic as much as many people seem to, especially the recently released closing Chapter Two, this is a really cool FPS.
Happy about: TR-49
While I didn’t care about most of their projects, inkle have established themselves as a small but inspired team that always tries to find new ways to make narratively driven games mechanically interesting and non-linear. My only proper experience with their titles has previously been Heaven’s Vault, which I found to be highly flawed, but also very cool and definitely unforgettable. With TR-49 the team is doing something that is a bit easier to explain and understand, especially if you have played Her Story and The Roottrees are Dead.