Alice Bell
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Rock Paper Shotgun
Videogamer
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Afterparty
This serves as a good contrast to the actual denouement of the game, which involved a twist I didn't see coming, and I doubt many will. It's a fitting finale, in a world where you can be sentenced to eternal torture for "repeatedly misusing the express lane in grocery stores."...
Disco Elysium
But those are the complaints of a pedant next to my larger criticisms, and those larger criticisms don't take away the good things Disco Elysium has achieved. It does deserve to be compared to yer Planescapes, yer Fallouts, even if it hasn't stepped totally out from their long shadows. It's...
Neo Cab
In one ride I watched a drunk Capra executive be duped into donating for a fake charitable foundation. I asked how much he was donating, and he said "Why? You going to match it?" I'd given the same guy a ride a few nights before, and he'd thrown up in...
Mutazione
The Dots and the business sausages are essentially opposites, a group of market-researching meaty tubes at one end and a tree dwelling tribe of blueberries at the other. They're very funny in different ways, but also represent a central theme in Mutazione, which is: balance. Sadness and happiness can both...
Telling Lies
Barlow told Brendy he doesn't think the game is voyeuristic, and is instead intimate and personal, but I don't buy that. It doesn't feel literally voyeuristic, because the plot ends up being so John le Carré by way of Tom Clancy that you never get tricked into thinking you're watching...
Night Call
So, it's a game with two key strands that feel forced together when they don't really work in tandem. I like both ingredients in theory, but they don't coalesce successfully, like how a vinaigrette salad dressing will separate into oil and vinegar until you shake it up again. Except balsamic...
Sea of Solitude
At the heart of Sea Of Solitude is the idea that all emotions can have a positive or negative form -- love can be twisted to be something unhealthy or saddening, for example, just as being alone can be quiet solitude or debilitating loneliness. I’ve no doubt that Sea Of...
The Sinking City
Without the weird Lovecraftian bits, this is a slightly janky, slightly grindy detective game that does some interesting things in a very atmospheric depiction of a profoundly depressed town. Taking them into account, I don’t know! I was confused and uncharmed by the whole thing, but I still haven’t untangled...
Draugen
Teddy and Lissie are still very inviting characters, who obviously have a backstory that is distinct and known to their writers, and are the best reason to play this game. The credits tell me they will return, so that's something to look forward to. Graavik, meanwhile, remains a nice place...
I can’t really explain why without massive spoilers, but I do wish that A Plague Tale had found other methods of communicating these moments to players. Would a nice cutscene or ending sequence, in a game that has good voice acting and strong story sensibilities, have done just as well?...
The Occupation
The best bit of The Occupation is creeping around and scrabbling through paperwork, and that bit is bloody brilliant. Can someone make a game that’s just that conducted in different shady corporate offices, and without the bugs or a tired political story? The nicest layer of the flawed lasagne: being...
Ape Out
Despite the repetition, after many deaths, it does not feel repetitive, because other variation is added. Some of the levels take place in darkness, and you must avoid the swinging torch beams of the guards. Others have explosive barrels of oil, or bombs falling from the sky, a last ditch...
