Current day Surge here, I’m back from my September break and NOT doing an Inktober this year, feels good man. I’ll play Space Marine 2 eventually, but for now let’s talk about the game I decided to pick instead of turbo fascist bug-killing title that’s NOT locked to PS5 home consoles: Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster! As a near-Day 1 fan of this series, I was ecstatic to see this game’s reveal, even more so after they revealed it was releasing relatively soon after the first trailer. It’s been a long time since a Dead Rising title came out, hard to believe it has been 11 years since Dead Rising 3 released; I thought we’d never get another title in this series!

So how is it?

STORY

The deluxe remaster leaves the core story completely intact; freelance photojournalist Frank West is taken to the town of Willamette via helicopter to investigate strange reports coming from the area. With the National Guard setting up barricades to halt anyone entering or leaving the town, it’s clear that something is afoot there. After a flyover of the town Frank decides to begin his investigation at the Parkview Shopping Mall, after a brief and foreboding chat with a man named Carlito, our protagonist continues his way into the mall. He sees a mysterious woman, an old man hurling accusations of entrapment, and a horde of the undead just outside the mall doors. They don’t remain out there for long.

That’s as much as I’ll talk about the story, it’s meant to be a narrative of crime, conspiracy, and calories. The only changes made to the story are the updated visuals in the cutscenes, but even those use all the original camera work and mo-cap/animation data.

DELUXE GRAFIX

The facial animations have received the most substantial upgrade on the character models, they are very emotive and can accurately convey more subtle expressions. I immediately think of the conversation Frank and Brad have after the first boss fight; Frank, in an attempt to get Brad to fill him in on what’s going on in Willamette, uses the photos on his camera as leverage. He lifts it up and away from Brad when he goes to reach for it, Frank raises his eyebrows as if to say, “Uh-uh-uh, no deal, no pictures.” The scene plays out the same in the original, it’s just that the touch-ups in the remaster add a bit more personality to the character interactions.

The designs of the characters are incredibly loyal to the original, for the most part. Everyone sees a marked improvement in detail, from geometry, to skin texture, to material of their outfit. The second most changed character is Frank himself, he looks a but closer to his Off the Record/Case West design, just a bit more cartoony. Something about his face is a bit off, it doesn’t look bad at all though; whatever it is just makes him look more stylized while everyone else looks a bit more realistic. I do appreciate that Frank looks older now, the times he’s called “old man” don’t feel so out of place anymore. As far as I know he’s not aged up in the remaster, which is fine, the developers don’t need to justify their desire to have his design align more with the Off the Record appearance. 

There seems to be an entirely new cast of voice actors, they all do a pretty great job. Frank may be the most jarring at first, no one will ever replace T.J Rotolo, but I really grew to like the actor; he nails Frank’s original inflections without sounding like he’s trying to be a T.J soundalike. I heard someone say, “All the female VAs killed it, the men are 80% of the way there,” and I agree with that sentiment. This mostly applies to the main cast, there’s too many survivor lines to try and recall for a comparison like this.

The most changed character is Larry, the butcher psychopath that appears at the end of the game. I’m not nostalgic for racist caricatures so the change doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I have more to say about this change a bit later.

The mall has received a visual upgrade as well, nothing that’ll blow your mind, but everything has been touched up and looks as detailed as you thought it did during the game’s original release. The only area that has changed substantially is the Paradise Plaza, it’s now a sort of ocean theme ,rather than just being the neutral-looking section you run through to get to the safe room. A streamer I watched mentioned that the new Paradise Plaza is way too nice looking for such a rural town, which I laughed and agreed with, until I remembered Wonderland Plaza has an entire roller coaster inside. 

Zombie models are markedly improved as well, it’s all the same ol’ faces just given the RE Engine treatment. The zombie from the intro that attacks the driving mother is also in the mall as well now, he used to be only in that one cutscene. There seems to be a bit more variation in their generation now, there’s not as many twins shambling around as the original from what I can recall. Clearly the same variations will be in relatively close proximity, but the crowds just feel less copy-and-paste with the same exact models.

Speaking of the dead, let’s talk about killing them now.

GAMEPLAY

The second to second gameplay, much like the rest of the game, remains faithful to the fantastic bones the original 2006 title had and expands upon them. You pick up whatever you can to defend yourself, eat anything off the ground to heal, and read books that will enhance items to better assist in your struggle to uncover the truth in the mall. You can mix food in blenders to get juices that provide unique buffs, there is also a new magazine that allows you to blend *anything* for items; I have not experimented with this yet. The changes made are small and great quality of life alterations:

• The dodge roll has a short cooldown instead of a long recovery animation.
• Special melee attacks have similar inputs that feel more consistent. 
• Special shake-off moves [kick back, judo throw, etc] are bound to mashing face buttons rather than unreliable thumbstick motions.
• The ability to aim items and move (throwing/shooting weapons stops Frank momentarily).
• Improved Survivor AI
• Speeding up time in the safe room/bathrooms

This isn’t a complete list of improvements and changes, just the ones I really appreciate. A great accessibility option I also use is the Hold Input feature that changes the need to button mash to break out of grapples, I no longer have the desire to do it anymore. 

Photography is expanded on quite a bit in the Deluxe Remaster. Throughout the mall there are several photo shops that hold upgrades for the camera; they give the camera a flash, the ability to manually brighten what’s about to be photographed, and the option to focus on your subject, blurring the background. There is also an autofocus button which quickly does the work for you, if you are so inclined. I don’t believe these affect the points earned from photos, but they are nice additions that let you feel like you’re a real photojournalist.

As you save survivors you start building affinity with them, they will begin chatting, giving hints, and pointing stuff out in the environment. They remind me a lot of the Pawns in Dragon’s Dogma 2 in that way, it’s certainly an unexpected addition, but not one I have any opposition to. It’s cool that they’re all fully voiced as well, a lot more work than what was needed or expected.

The zombie AI hasn’t changed much, but it does feel notably less aggressive, even at night. They get a bit more grabby once you start wading through large hordes, but overall they just feel less threatening after a while. I can’t remember if I was *ever* slapped by a zombie that resulted in Frank staggering and getting grabbed— hell, I can safely say I was I NEVER hit the air while jumping-kicking and left defenseless upon landing. Hilariously, the most consistently combative zombies are the cops, who can now fire their guns if they have one in their hand; this was a scrapped mechanic from the original release, by the way! Visit the STiP0 YouTube channel and watch his recent videos about the game, while we’re on the subject of reintroduced content.

Another disappointment with the AI comes from the raincoat cultists that appear midway through the game, they’re quite literally braindead. It honestly feels like they are broken in terms of their aggro range, spawning, and durability. When the cultists spawn in they’re almost always in a large group together, which in the original game would be an issue. At first you’ll probably use a handgun or the uzi to thin their numbers from a distance, I can safely assure that as long as you’re using a sword or bladed weapon, you’ll cleave through them all in seconds with little risk. They only seem to activate after taking a hit, so as long as you finish them before their stun animation ends you have nothing to worry about. It’s pretty disappointing to see such a troublesome enemy type be completely pacified from what appears to be a substantial bug. 

The last point I want to make about the gameplay is the level progression: it’s very fast. In the original game it was optimal to get as far as you can before dying, or until you failed a story case, and then restart the game at a slightly higher level to get through the game more smoothly. The Deluxe Remaster is balanced so that you can get through it in your first attempt, the amount of experience you gain from escorts guarantees it. I understand this was done so newcomers can hop in without feeling intimidated by its difficulty, but the result is that the game loses that unforgiving and stressful element that made DR1 so unique. I never felt too underpowered for any obstacle in the game at any point; Psychopath boss fights were your make or breaks in any given run, to test if you had been keeping up with leveling and staying stocked up with weapons and health. The fights just come and go in the Deluxe Remaster, they aren’t nerfed or easier in any way specifically, you’re just constantly at an appropriate level if you have been doing the optional quests.

AUDIO

[I can never remember my own structure for these reviews when it comes to the categories, so I’ll just do ‘audio’ instead of ‘music’ or ‘sound design.’ Just roll them all together because I usually don’t have a whole lot to say about it.]

Remasters come with the responsibility of including all previous content of the original title, which includes the music, that pesky thing with licenses that expire, which can single-handedly render games unavailable if they aren’t renewed. Capcom has decided to renew all of the licensed music to preserve the original experience of Dead Rising boss fights. A new generation can experience the joy of having their legs run over by convicts as “AND THAT’S 3 SQUARE MEALS IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN” bursts their eardrums. I’m not sure if the original soundtrack was rerecorded or anything, but it’s all in the game and sounds great. 

Frank’s new pseudo theme ‘Beyond Heaven’ is fantastic, it doesn’t fit the vibe of Dead Rising at all, but it’s only used in marketing material that often highlights the silly aspects of Dead Rising. For that reason I see no issue with it, I recall several people expressing concern that its existence in the reveal trailer alluded to the story being handled less seriously. This was thankfully not the case.

All the sound design sounds great, most if not all the old sound effects return and sound as crisp as ever. If there are any full-on replacements then I haven’t noticed at all.

CONTROVERSY 

A new category for a Surge review. Exciting, right? 

Let’s start with the first round of pathetic Gamergate 2.0-related discourse: the removal of ’Erotica’. 

The 2006 release of Dead Rising had several photo categories: Normal, Drama, Horror, Outtake, and Erotica. One of these categories was automatically assigned to a photo depending on what was captured in the snapshot. Erotica, obviously, was earned by taking risqué photos of women, and only women, in the game. Some female zombies wore low-cut dresses that exposes their cleavage, which can bank a decent amount of experience points. The most immediate erotica shot you can take is of Jessie’s chest in the safe room, you can also upskirt certain survivors you come across for this category as well. 

The Psychopath, Kent, in the game offers a photo-taking challenge to Frank, it is to take an Erotica photo that’s worth a certain amount of points. This very blatantly incentivizes the player to take these sorts of photos of female survivors and zombies.

In the Deluxe Remaster, the Erotica category is removed, and by extension, Kent’s photo challenge. The rest of it has remained unchanged. You can still creepshot the female survivors and zombies, you just don’t get rewarded for it. Jessie is still stupid hot, and her jugs look even bigger than in the original. Did I need to write that? No. But I sure did.

The latest controversy, and the one these losers swear has genuine legs, has to do with Larry; if you don’t know, Larry is one of the last Psychopaths you encounter in Dead Rising’s story. He is an Asian butcher that means to hack up a survivor because they are the only fresh meat around to sell to customers, it’s safe to say he’s very dedicated to his career. In the remaster his appearance is modified, he wears a stark white butcher’s outfit along with a hat and a pair of glasses.

Larry Chiang is still Asian. It’s no one’s fault but your own if you can’t identify someone as part of that group of people unless they’re depicted as a racist caricature. People who say Larry is white were probably shocked to hear Arabic and Indian populations are also Asian; and if one of them were reading this they’d most likely assume I’m talking about *Native Americans* and not Indian people from India. The Cistopher Cumlumbus mindset.

Anyways, it’s one thing to say, ‘Larry looks different’, it’s an entirely different beast to claim it’s censorship. I’ve seen people argue Larry was changed into a ‘white man’ to not offend the Chinese Communist Party; it’s entirely unhinged and I don’t see how you could ever come to that conclusion without having Super Saiyan 6 level CTE. I suppose I’m not enough of a fucking loser to find drama in fun hobbies that don’t matter. 

This insane CCP censorship theory is also used to explain why Cliff’s voice lines changed. They argue that excluding references to the Viet Cong and Communism were done to capitulate to Chinese censorship to sell the game there, they also put blame on a Hong Hong-based support studio for pushing the ‘censorship’ through. But they don’t blame the co-developer directly, they put the guilt of their actions on the Chinese government. 

Why the fuck would China care about the Viet Cong lines? They’re different countries. I suppose they think China wants to protect Communism at all times, no matter what. You know, I thought they changed it because America made steps in repairing their relationship with Vietnam recently, and the developers thought having a murderous Vietnam veteran displaying horrific war crimes, that he most likely committed on civilians, was pretty tasteless. This is a story critiquing American colonialism and consumerism, the lines ‘about’ communism have nothing to do with the story.

Maybe those who are crying ‘censorship’ are too fucking stupid to understand the obvious themes in the game, or maybe they’re rubes who give money to talentless, fat, moronic Youtubers because they’re susceptible to listening to people who speak confidently about issues they know nothing about. I’d tell them to grow up and that video games aren’t important, but I think gaming would be a better hobby if they just stopped growing permanently. 

CLOSING

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a great way to get into the series thanks to updated mechanics, easier overall difficulty, and accessibility options. Though I really enjoy the game, it isn’t an easy one to recommend to everyone; the original game is still available and cheaper, and though DRDR is probably the game I’ll replay to get my zombie killing fix, it’s missing some of the charm the original title has. If you’re a big fan of Dead Rising and want to play an updated and slightly modified version of the classic, I say go for it. It won’t blow your mind and it certainly isn’t a must-play kind of title, but I didn’t mind dropping $60 for it because I’m happy this dormant IP is finally getting some love by Capcom. 

410,757,864,630 Dead Zombie Cops/10

Surge from the past again, this time I’m well past the launch of Space Marine 2, I didn’t buy it yet because I don’t want to spend a shitload of money on games this month; I am waiting for Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster to come out. Anyways, I’m sort of going through my backlog of purchased games as I wait for DRDR, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to play another Capcom game in the meantime. I recall this game getting absolutely no love when it came out, and the extremely rare times it was referenced, it was not in a flattering way.

So what is Dark Void?

Interestingly, Capcom only published this title, the now-defunct studio called Airtight Games was the developer. The 2010’s were definitely an interesting time for Capcom to say the least, their push to appeal to Western audiences really had the company in a downward spiral that turned into a tailspin as they were dashed against the stones. That Mega Man creator convincing the entire company to adopt this strategy is insane. I’m glad Mighty Number 9 failed; fuck you, Inafune. Go make some more NFTs you dipshit lmao. 

Airtight Games also developed Murdered: Soul Suspect. Is this foreshadowing? Who knows.

STORY

Dark Void begins with an in medias res that has you flying through the air as an iconic 7th Console Generation white man with a buzzcut. You are given a quick tutorial right before you’re thrusted into a dogfight scenario with alien flying saucers. After splashing several bogies with very loose and less-than-satisfying flying controls, you take a hit that grounds you and massive mech lands to finish you off with a blinding laser beam. 

You are then taken to not to the past, but one week into the future, just before World War 2; you are no longer the buzzcut white man, you are now A dark-haired white man voiced by Nolan North. Who also kind of looks like Nolan North. Man, the 7th Gen fucking sucked when it came to casting. Anyways, the protagonist’s name is Will, he has a full name but I don’t care to look it up. So after Will is contracted to escort a passenger in his plane, it is revealed that the two are former lovers; the woman’s name is Ava. On their way to their destination they fly through the Bermuda Triangle, where they are then transported to another world that is the primary location of the game, simply named the ‘Void.’ 

Skipping ahead— SPOILERS IN THESE NEXT THREE PARAGRAPHS BY THE WAY, Will and Ava soon find themselves entrenched in a war. They fight alongside humans known as “Survivors”, who battle for their survival against an enemy known as the “Watchers.” At first Will wants to leave the Void as soon as possible, his goal in the beginning is to repair an air-worthy plane with Nikola Tesla; he soon becomes a reluctant hero, then a 3rd Person genocidal paragon of humanity. Oh yeah, Nikola Tesla is here for some unexplained reason; he should to be in his late 70’s at this point in history, but he looks more closely designed after his well-known photograph, which was taken in his 30’s. Tesla invented Nolan’s backpack, gave an indigenous civilization electricity, and some other third thing, probably. What a nice, kindhearted colonizer.

Very quickly you learn that all the bipedal robots you’ve been fighting are being piloted by slug-like aliens, it’s an incredibly lackluster reveal pretty early in the narrative. You do a bunch of war stuff and later you are captured by the Watchers and learn of their plan to use the Bermuda Triangle as a portal to invade Earth, also that they’ve been meddling with the Human race ever since it was a mere fledging species. Their reason for only now intervening in the course Humanity is going down, is the eve of harnessing the power of the atom. The Watchers experienced nuclear weaponry and it ended up decimating their civilization; to prevent humans from doing the same, they see it best to subjugate them and force them to labor until they die. What mean, rotten colonizers. 

Your mission changes from beating the Watchers to stopping their invasion of Earth in the ACTUAL LAST MISSION OF THE GAME I SWEAR TO GOD. The siege to close the portal to Earth is already underway as the final chapter’s intro cutscene plays, then they introduce a final boss that was neither established earlier nor has the same design philosophy as the rest of the enemy faction. Why is it just a dragon with robot heads? The other huge mechs don’t look exactly like any singular creature, the final boss does. I guess they ran out time to design something more unique, just like they ran out of time to finish their story. Will and Ava close the portal, because she is mortally wounded, Ava stays behind in the Void to seal the portal from her side. Why does it need two people to close it? I dunno.

There is a limp-wrist cliffhanger implying that Will still has a battle with the Watchers to wage. Who cares.

Going back just a bit, the Watchers’ villainous intentions are revealed via a video playing on an iMax screen while you’re having a shootout with small waves of bipedal mechs, leaving the possibility for the player to just run out of the room where the lore is. The video perfectly loops like a tiktok video so you can actually listen to the speech after killing all the Watchers, but it is a terrible way to deliver incredibly important story information. 

Dark Void’s story is meandering and misses any sort of initial hook to draw the audience in, and fast tracks the ‘true story’ last minute because they wasted so much time lollygagging around a desolate and boring 7th Generation-ass world with equally bland and flat characters. If there was meant to be more story in between the last 2 chapters then I’m glad it was cut, it wouldn’t have done anything but waste more of your time. Stuff happens for sure and I don’t quite know what it is, but it’s not story.

GAMEPLAY

Let’s move on to gameplay now, inarguably the best part of the game.

Dark Void follows early 7th console generation gameplay trends: RE4-style over the shoulder aiming; and a cover system that tries to be different from Gears of War’s by switching ‘A’ button inputs with any other button, but just ends up feeling more unintuitive because of it. The fact this title has a cover system does a great disservice to get entire core of the gameplay; as soon as you begin running around and shooting guns you can feel the speed of the game, it feels like the developers *want* you to play aggressively while strafing, hip-firing and jumping around. Instead, the enemy bots will begin to beam you down if you’re out of cover for too long. It’s a shame really, this could have been a pretty fun experience, if it were only brave enough to forego the cover system. This game does do something unique in terms of a cover system, however. 

Rather than having only waist-high cover and corners to cower behind, Dark Void also gives the player the chance to take cover on the Y-axis. In several instances you will either have to ascend or descend a mountain or alien structure, as you approach the edge of a platform you can use the cover button to snap the camera into position and you can shoot either directly above or below you. By having your reticle hover over cover ahead of you, your character will jump towards it and use it as cover. The system works fine, and simply walking away from the ledge will return the camera to its normal position, I appreciate that the game doesn’t make this mechanic feel overly-committal. My previous criticism still stands, this system slows down a game that would have benefited from being a lot faster.

Dark Void is a hybrid game in a way, one part Gears of War, one part Ace Combat. Not long into the game you get a jetpack, at first it merely lets you high-jump and slowly descend; after a bit more time you are granted an advanced prototype pack that Nikola Tesla has completed, this one allows you to actually fly through the air. 

You have all the traditional movements a flying game like AC would have: pitch, yaw, and roll; with a combination of buttons you can perform evasive maneuvers like barrel rolling. As with the cover mechanics, everything works fine, but is underwhelming and lacks a responsiveness that feels good. 

Being a human with 2 mini jet engines strapped to his back, you’d think Will would have the superior agility in the sky. You’d be fucking wrong. The alien crafts you’ll be dogfighting with are incredibly nimble, far outclassing you. Will has painfully slow turns even while breaking, performing an accurate turn feels impossible and has forced me to course correct by forcing Will back in the other direction, and the evasive tricks the game offers you have incredibly clunky inputs and are completely unreliable in combat. One of the worst things about the aerial combat is controlling the jetpack’s speed, in which I mean you can’t. Upon launching yourself into the air, the engines very quickly reach their max speed and remain there with no way to move faster or slower, like how a throttle controls a plane’s speed. Of course there are buttons mapped to the controller for braking and afterburners for a speed boost, but after using either of them you just return to the standard cruise speed.

This gameplay decision feels like it was done to streamline flying so you can focus on maneuvering and target acquisition in combat, but I argue it makes the gameplay objectively worse and strips out the thrill of aerial combat. It’s like the developers didn’t understand what makes the gameplay in flying games feel so satisfying. It’s the control of your speed and momentum for me, I love braking so hard that my engine nearly stalls as I make a sharp turn to run down a new target. Before I move on to the next portion of gameplay, I want to emphasize that Will only has machine guns as offensive weapons by default while flying; unless you drop a lot of upgrade points to unlock missiles, that’s now it’s going to stay for the entire game.  Does it sound like fun yet?

Once you obtain the jetpack you are free to activate whenever you wish, so long as the game doesn’t rip it off your back for some story reason.  This means you can take off in a flash if the enemy pins you down and has you on the brink of death, or disengage from an aerial pursuit to lay down fire from the weapons you carry. This marriage between two different gameplay styles would be great and offer plenty of replayability if levels are designed to encourage experimentation.

They’re not. 

There’s boring 3rd person shooting arenas/hallways, and wide open canyons to fly in. If you try to perform aerial strafing runs during a Gears of War section you’ll just be dragging out the combat encounter without killing anything. Were you to try and hover and attempt to shoot an enemy ship during an Ace Combat you’ll also be wasting your time because the ship will already be out of the weapon’s effective range. Very cool. To be fair, it is really funny to accidentally activate the jetpack inside a building and see Will crush his skull into dust and die immediately.

MUSIC

During these reviews I write I’m usually listening to the game’s soundtrack to better focus on writing and stay somewhat immersed in the game even if it’s been a few days since i finished it. And to also write this portion more objectively. Imagine the music in an action/adventure movie, like Indiana Jones or Star Wars. Now think of that same music again, this time without the recognizable leitmotif that it most likely has. That’s the best way I can describe the soundtrack of Dark Void; it sounds good for what it’s trying to be, but it lacks something that gives it an identity. 

SOUND

The sound design is terribly unremarkable. The weapons are loud and repetitive, the jetpack hums as you fly, the enemy mechs blow up and that definitely has a sound effect, I’m sure. 

ART

The art direction could have aged worse, the game doesn’t quite go for realism across the board. The human characters are slightly exaggerated with idealized features; Tesla looks like his human counterpart, Ava is very conventionally attractive, and Will looks like Nolan North. The vast amount of locations you’ll be visiting are very basic and forgettable, there are mountains and trees with not much else. The alien interiors are by-the-numbers sci-fi, plenty of shiny metals and bright LEDs. Weapon designs are not noteworthy, which I suppose goes for all of the art, if I’m going to be honest. There’s no visual flare in anything, there is absolutely nothing cool enough to make fanart of. 

Will’s design only looks cool in the official promotional art, which is something I wasn’t expecting. I think his outfit looks sharp and has a great contrast between the leather jacket and the high-tech helmet he dons, with the jetpack standing as a nice blend between the two; it’s has some design cues from Atomic Age art, so it has a futuristic look from the past. All this only applies to the art outside of the game. In action the design falls apart; the jacket is faded, distressed, and unappealing to look at; the helmet only looks good from the front, which you rarely see while playing; and the jetpack design is too futuristic to offer a genuine ‘old meets new’ aesthetic. Also, Will’s pants and boots are 1000% drab and only contribute to making the outfit worse; just redo the design and make it good next time.

CLOSING

My previous review covered Hydrophobia, an incomplete indie game that had a singular gameplay feature that was done well; for those who didn’t read the review, it was the water. Dark Void tries to do a lot and isn’t able to pull of a single compelling feature; the cover shooter aspect clashes heavily with the concept of being a guy with jetpack on his back, the story meanders with hardly any consequential character development/interaction unfolding, and the ‘1940s meets futuristic alien tech’ is utilized so poorly that Will may as well have been a modern day character because it matters that little. The decision to include Nikola Tesla still baffles me, why is he there? He does things, but he’s just a vessel for the plot to advance so those actions are predominantly offscreen, if not entirely.

Dark Void is a title that Capcom published and Airtight Games developed, it came at a time when Capcom was inarguably losing their mojo and influence in the gaming space. The company develops great games and have awesome IPs, they’re absolutely one of favorite companies in gaming; it is unfortunate that this praise can’t be extended to their publishing, specifically when the titles are developed by teams outside the company. Dark Void lacks any characteristics that Capcom games have, the primary one being fun. Good job on that one, Keiji Inafune.

Reptilian Space Illuminati/10 

Surge here, on the morning of Space Marine 2’s official release. With a lot of games to play and 2 titles coming up that I *really* want to dive into, I decided to play a shorter game to fill the time. Hydrophobia definitely filled that empty space quite well, as to be expected from a Xbox Live Arcade title. So how was it?

The game follows Kate Wilson, a systems engineer that is also quite athletic and proficient with weaponry. In the opening cutscene Kate has a nightmare of a wailing girl drowning in a illy-lit and creepy mire. After a jumpscare she awakes and begins the day aboard a colossal luxury ship called the “Queen of the World”. To steal a excerpt from the Wikipedia page directly: 

“The game is set in the mid 21st century when the world has fallen into the chaos of the "Great Population Flood", and takes place aboard the Queen of the World, a city-sized luxury ocean vessel built by a group of corporate giants known as the Five Founding Fathers who, due to the QOTW, have prospered while the rest of the world suffered. At the beginning of the game, the craft is bombed by a group of fanatical terrorists known as the Malthusians, named after political economist Thomas Malthus who predicted that population growth would one day outpace agricultural production, returning society to a subsistent level of existence. The Malthusians have a plan to murder the majority of humans on the planet, so that the survivors wouldn't suffer from the effects of the population explosion.”

It sounds interesting as you read it, but I promise you that it’s not integrated into the main narrative at all, I hardly knew what was going on in the story. Full disclosure: I didn’t even know we were on a ship at first, I don’t pay attention too much while playing games sometimes, but *holy fuck* is this game’s story and lore told poorly. It probably all lives in the notes strewn around the levels, those silly things I’m never going to read. Seriously, stop putting them in, I don’t care.

Kate also has a companion she talks to over a radio, his name is Scoot. I hate the way she says his name, which makes me hate Scoot out of principle.

Gameplay is where this game shines. The developers spent 5 years working on a development platform dubbed InfiniteWorlds, as well as the HydroEngine; as the latter’s name insists, it is an engine that’s main focus is water physics. As you trudge through same-y corridors and into bland rooms, water from the ocean will come in and fill the areas you traverse through. Not every room will fill completely, in fact most of them will only reach just above Kate’s head, which will force her to begin swimming instead of walking. Some rooms that have glass windows will be flooded with water, while certain walls are heavily damaged and slowly giving way to the pressure of the ocean just outside the ship’s walls. Shooting either of these allows for water to flow into the area, which can wash over and carry away debris on the ground, any foe you may encounter, or yourself if you’re not careful. I’ve definitely been swept away and thrown into a wall once or twice.

The physics of water is still impressive and fun to see in action, rooms fill up in a way that feels realistic and made me think, “Oh this feels actually scary and dangerous,” as I witnessed the distance from the water and ceiling very quickly shrink. There are sections that allow for underwater combat, which is cool but nothing innovative or done with a fresh twist in this title.

Aside from the unique gameplay hook of the water, Hydrophobia is a painfully generic 3rd Person Action Adventure game that follows the trend Uncharted 2 started and ruined gaming with. You climb and swing from pipes, swim, take cover and shoot at guys, collect journal entries you won’t read, and use a device to solve easy ‘match the frequency wave’ puzzles. Everything works fine, besides the sometimes unreliable jumping on the ground, but it’s funny to see another 3rd person game implement a cover system that’s less satisfying than any Gears of War title.

The music is fine but unremarkable.

The sound design is good but a bit overpowering.

Interesting fact, the developer of Hydrophobia, Dark Energy Digital, mainly developed Snooker and Pool/Billiards games before this title. Two years after its release, the studio was shuttered, apparently citing Hydrophobia’s terrible sales. As a result, the story for the game is incomplete; they had plans to release the game in 3 parts, but as stated before, it never came to fruition. 

There’s also a score attack game mode, where you play as Kate and attempt to rack up the highest score possible in a few short enemy waves. The training section for this extra mode gives you the power to control the water, allowing you to manipulate the waves with the ability to launch objects across the room or into the air. It’s actually a really interesting mechanic that looks like it could have had a lot of utility in the game, but as far as I know it isn’t useable in the story mode. It definitely shows that they had a lot more in store for this game.

Hydrophobia is an incomplete, middling game that has one unique feature that it pulls off incredibly well. Though it may not be remembered in gaming lore, it at least is a fun trek back to 2010; a time where the 3rd Person action genre was really booming and everyone was trying to find a hook that really made them stand out from the others, while slowly conforming to the formulas that massive successes like Gears and Uncharted had benefited from starting. The technology behind making the game and the lore of its world are interesting, unfortunately the actual narrative and other gameplay elements are not.

Save the World, Kill Yourself/10

Fresh off of playing Gears of War Ultimate Edition’s campaign with a very good pal of mine, I decided to keep the Gears train rolling by playing through the sequel to one of the most pivotal games in the Third Person Shooter genre. No pretty remaster for this title unfortunately, but thanks to Backwards Compatibility on Xbox, the game gets a nice FPS boost on the Series consoles. So, does the Bigger, Better, and more Badass follow-up still hold up after nearly 16 years? Is it truly the best title in the series, as people imply?

Will my answers to these questions be solely my opinion and not meant to be taken as gospel? Yes, someone who touts themself as being ‘objective’ about entertainment is a cornball and probably whines too much about ‘social issues ruining my hobbies.’

STORY

Gears of War 2 picks up shortly after the finale of the first installment, six months post the Lightmass bombing. The Locust have been put on the back foot, their brutal 14-year assault on humanity has crashed against the rocks of the coast and settled; the COG has finally earned a moment to regroup and strategize while the Locust seem to get increasingly bolder out of desperation. Despite the perceived turning tide, there are cities sinking at an alarming rate. Entire strongholds of civilization are collapsing into the Earth, once again skyrocketing humanity’s death toll.

Our protagonist is once again Marcus Fenix, a celebrated war hero, turned disgraced traitor, turned war hero once again. On the COG’s mission to launch their offensive against the Locust, Marcus fights alongside new and returning faces. His oldest comrade, Dominic Santiago, is in lockstep with him for the entire campaign; his search for his wife continues and is given more time in the narrative to unfold and reach a conclusion, rather than just exist as fleeting remarks like in the first title. Their journey is once again drenched in chainsaw bayonets, angry subterranean albinos, glowing ground juice, and plenty of juicy headshots.

Cliff Bleszinski remarked on the writing process of Gears of War in an interview, the philosophy behind it was, “We’ll figure it out later.” It makes sense when you play through the original game, you’re thrusted from a maximum-security cell to the front lines with absolutely no briefing; all you really know is, “The pasty monster guys are bad, shoot them.” The first game didn’t truly have a plan for the overall narrative it seems, it was more interested in being a commentary on the Bay of Pigs Invasion, as well as a far less clever representation on military fascism when compared to Starship Troopers. Not to imply the 1997 film was actually an inspiration for the story, but when two pieces of media share a similar motif, you can’t help but equate them to each other. This time around Epic decided to bring Joshua Ortega on board to assist in writing the script, a great choice, as he worked on the Gears of War comics that helped expand the lore.

Gears of War 2 certainly goes all in on the military propaganda early on, but shortly after Chairman Prescott’s rousing speech the inspirational and gung-ho atmosphere crashes and burns like a mortared King Raven. You quickly remember that everyone in and escorting the Derricks to Landown are all expendable to the COG, and this ‘heroic counteroffensive’ is a suicide march into the jaws of an enemy that isn’t as weakened as you were led to believe. As you fight through the acts you realize that those with boots on the ground only have each other to depend on, and that only through their dedication to each other does anything consequential happen in this war.

All this to say, Gears of War 2’s main theme is brotherhood, and it does a great job at depicting the numerous ways it takes shape amongst the cast. Crass banter between combat scenarios, teasing each other after heart-stopping and perilous rash decisions, rallying bickering comrades so they don’t lose focus and turn on each other, trusting them with your life knowing they won’t abandon you, charging into combat at a breakneck speed to save the last man standing, mourning the horrific and sudden death of a friend with the little time war allows, and being there for your brother during the most heartbreaking moment they will ever experience. The game may not always make you, the player, feel a direct sadness for seeing the tragic events, but I believe it's successful in always making you feel a great sympathy for the characters they affect.

GAMEPLAY

That’s quite a bit of reading about the story of a game about chainsawing Hollow Earth albinos, so let’s get into the gameplay. After pioneering the use of meaningful cover systems in the Third Person Shooter genre, Epic solidified the importance their new IP had in gaming. The core gameplay remains much the same in the sequel, iteration rather than innovation, but there is enough to keep the experience fresh. Getting in and out of cover has been tuned and tweaked a bit, you can now slide into cover from a greater distance and rolling out of cover feels far more reliable. The entire system feels less committal and sticky, any added flexibility in a gunfight can only be a plus. The protection cover provides is no longer infallible, if you can see the enemy’s back hunched over the top of their cover you can pull off a headshot with precise aiming.

The previous arsenal returns, most of the weapons are mostly unchanged besides a few minor tweaks. The Hammerburst receives the most significant rework; the first thing you notice is its appearance, the oval profile has been altered to look less like a Halo Covenant weapon and more of a conventional firearm. The burst fire the original Hammerburst had has been replaced with a slow and chugging automatic fire rate; to offset the sluggish RPM you can feather the trigger and send more bullets down range, at the cost of recoil that climbs faster than a Wretch jumping onto a ceiling.

There are several new toys to play with: the Gorgon Pistol that shoots huge bursts of ammunition at once; the Scorcher flamethrower which provides a decent way to crowd control; ink grenades that do damage over time if you stand in their area of effect; Boom Shields that protect the user from oncoming damage and allows for immediate returning fire with pistols, which can also be planted for solid conventional cover; and of course, the new heavy weapon class.

Taking a page out of General Raam’s book, the COG now lug around heavy instruments of bloody and hilarious death. The first is the aptly named Mulcher, a mini gun that requires a short spool up before unleashing a hail of bullets that shreds any poor soul standing in front of it. The second is the Mortar, though lacking a cool name like the first heavy weapon, it is equally as destructive. After aiming the weapon, you hold the shooting trigger down to send the warhead farther down range; as it approaches the impact zone the shell unleashes a hail of smaller explosives that pepper the area below, throwing blood and limbs everywhere. The two weapons are balanced by having a limited amount of ammo that cannot be replenished by ammo boxes, more so they slow the player down to only a walking speed and leave them completely stationary while aiming the heavy guns. Swapping weapons immediately makes the player character throw the heavy weapons to the ground, ditching them in a stressful situation is the only thing fast about them.

Executions were in the first game but hardly implemented, there was a singular curb stomp and the chances to use it in the campaign were incredibly rare. This time around the Locust are a lot more likely to fall and crawl on the ground from leg and body shots, which provides plenty of chances to see all the new executions. Most of the weapons have executions, the new guns do not have unique animations; the HOD, Boomshot and Hammerburst are the odd ones out from the original arsenal. The Lancer doesn’t exactly have a unique one either, but chainsawing people apart while they’re on their knees is pretty gnarly already, so I suppose it gets a pass. Rather than killing a downed enemy, you can alternatively pick them up and use them as a ‘meat shield’, forcing your enemies to shoot through a dead partner’s body in order to damage you. You can potentially break the neck of your shield before throwing them to the ground as a sort of execution, given they’re not shot into a bloody stew before then.

MUSIC

Gears of War 2’s soundtrack was done by Steve Jablonsky, a change from the original composer, Kevin Riepl. Though Mr. Riepl set an amazing groundwork for the series’ distinctive music, Mr. Jablonsky elevates the previous work done and truly makes it Bigger, Better, and more Badass. The music this time doesn’t sound like only utilizes conventional instrumentation, there are echoey drones, fading stingers and pensive loudening notes, elements that underline the boastful drums and strings which give every situation an aura of unease. A choir is implemented throughout a large portion of the soundtrack as well, giving choice tracks an overwhelming sense of grandiose. It’s hard for me to describe why the choir, personally, makes or a breaks a Gears soundtrack, but since this title, an OST in this series that doesn’t opt to use one just feels incomplete.

VISUALS

The visuals still hold up pretty well, close-ups on the models show the age of a lot of the textures; they can look blurry and almost pixelated at times, it’s not an issue with texture loading either, a common issue with the Unreal Engine back in the day. Characters’ skin textures are improved and look a bit more realistic; it accents the stylized features of the Gears well and steers well away from the uncanny valley.

Though the environments are well crafted and detailed, the sequel exacerbates a criticism the debut title received: the drab, brown and grey color palette. To be fair, plenty of games aiming for realism during the early years of the 7th generation were blasted with this critique. Gears of War 2’s decision to spend most of the campaign underground isn’t a ridiculous progression for the story, it’s just funny in retrospect to see the decision as a someone saying, “They’re saying our game is brown and gray? Well, we’re going to put Marcus underground now, guess it’s going to stay that way lmao.” There are a few examples of color entering the art direction, like the blues and greens at the beginning of the Derrick ride and the bioluminescent vegetation underground, but the for the most part the only vibrancy most areas get are from the LEDs on Marcus and Dom’s equipment.

WHOLE PACKAGE GLAZING



Gears of War 2 really set the stage for what a feature-complete title should have: An engaging and compelling story mode that has the option for co-op, a competitive multiplayer with various game modes that are both familiar to PvP games and yet unique to the series, and a PvE mode that can be played solo but is best when played with friends. I will not be talking about the Versus or Horde in this review/retrospection/whatever because I only really care to play the campaigns, but I will say that I never got into Versus until 3’s Beta, and that I sunk dozens of hours into Horde with my pals.

CLIFFY B AND STOLEN DEVELOPER VALOR

In a recent interview pertaining to Gears of War: E-Day's reveal, Cliff Bleszinski had two words for those who sing the praises of the Zombies game mode in Call of Duty: “You’re welcome.” As a diehard fan of Gears of War, I sing the praises of this series as if every entry is an industry-disrupting juggernaut that flips our preconceived notions about game design on its head. Though I love Horde-style PvE game modes, I absolutely despise arrogant people taking credit for things they don’t have a claim to. CoD World at War, which came out only 4 days after Gears of War 2, had Zombies in it already; doesn’t exactly seem like a lot of time to bite an entire game mode to me.

It may be fair to give GoW 2’s Horde Mode the credit for spawning the popularity of the game mode in the industry, but it certainly wasn’t a deciding factor in the popularity of the little passion project game mode that could. Treyarch earned their success by building on their solid foundation, adding new mechanics, easter eggs, a narrative, and probably a lot more that I don’t know of because I’m not a massive fan of the game mode. Zombies didn’t become a runaway smash hit because Gears 2 introduced Horde Mode and made that style of PvE successful, it’s not even fair to compare Gears 2 Horde mode to WaW Zombies once you account for their offerings by the end of their respective title’s DLC cycles. The only thing that changes in Horde is the map, that’s it. It’s not even in the same ballpark as Zombies, let’s please be for real here.

I still prefer Horde mode; I just want to shoot stuff and chill.

CONCLUSION

Anyways that’s Gears of War 2, an incredible sequel that vastly improves every aspect of the original game and solidifies the identity of the series. Does it hold up? I’d say ‘yes’, so long as you’re not comparing it to the later games that improve its mechanics. To this day, I don’t think any other title has surpassed or even matched the aesthetics of this title.

Is it the best in the series? Arguably, it’s certainly better than 1, I get the feeling that people are more lukewarm on 3, and that those same folk see everything after 3 only as “How Gears of War Died” type of games. I’ll have to replay them and see for myself I suppose.

Gears of War 2 gets an Alaskan Bull Worm/10

Gears of War: E-Day was revealed recently, and like a lot of Gears fans, it has ignited a burning passion and giddy excitement inside my soul. I’m just so happy one of my favorite series is returning. As any fan would do, I decided to dust off my copies of the Gears games and begin my tour around Sera once more. 

A good pal of mine mentioned that we should play through the series together, but with Gears of War 1 having a remaster available, I wondered which version I should suggest them to start with. Having played the original 2006 release again a year and a half ago, I decided to boot up Ultimate Edition this time so I could choose between the two.

My conclusion: the original 2006 release.

Ultimate Edition is a great remaster that provides the Gears 1 PC campaign experience with, at the time, cutting edge visuals powered by Unreal Engine 3. For the uninitiated, Gears 1’s PC release had an additional 5 chapters added to Act 5, they were cut from the 360 release due to technical limitations. As is with most remasters, the original game’s framework has been left unaltered, for better and worse; the exception is the pre-rendered cutscenes, they have all been re-animated but still achieve the narrative purpose they originally had. 

Gameplay is still the classic and ground-breaking formula it always was: Walk, take cover, shoot, reposition, and ACTIVE RELOAD. I’ve played many faster, more mechanically complex 3rd Person Shooters since 2006, none of them have ever felt as good as a Gears title. Along with the still-engaging gameplay comes with the incredibly busted AI for both your allies and the Locust. They all tend to stand around during combat and get chewed up by gunfire; Delta Squad will take 3 melees to the jaw and ask to be revived; the Locust have very simple methods of attack, they never intentionally synergize, and are easily handled as long as you shoot the Drones out of cover first. 

The music is the same classic score by Kevin Riepl, incredibly nostalgic and an awesome bar to set for the rest of the series. Though Steve Jablonsky’s work on the scores for 2&3 arguably perfected Gears’ music, Riepl’s work fits the original release’s vibe perfectly; it is brooding, intense, and faux triumphant with a slight twinge of horror laced throughout. The soundtrack perfectly embodies all the elements of Gears of War, it compliments the tone without being overbearing or too subdued. Tone, which brings me to the reasoning for recommending the original release over the remaster.

Though the game has higher fidelity with superior visuals, the remaster fails to capture the grungy and drab aesthetic of the 2006 release. Gears of War’s entire environmental design philosophy is ‘Destroyed Beauty’; for a very surface-level example, the inspiration from Greek architecture is apparent, these sorts of structures are almost always war-torn and bloody. The buildings that have somehow weathered the war are testaments to a beauty the world Sera once had 14 years ago. This design philosophy is clearly respected by The Coalition and is unchanged in any significant way. The issue is the lighting, it’s not blue enough, not flat enough to really drive home the exhausted and depressing state areas like Embry Square now exist in. 

Another visual aspect I feel falls short is the work done on the characters. Though I appreciate the faces being redone to be more in line with their later iterations, there is a new level softness and warmth in their skin. Delta squad looks almost airbrushed when they used to look more grimy and in desperate need of a shower; this could potentially be a side effect from my previous complaint.

I remember seeing comparison videos for the cutscenes between the two releases. Though the changes aren’t massive or even substantial to altering the plot, they do exist. The 2006 cutscenes were directed as if they were being filmed on a hand-cam; to make the player feel like they’re right in the fight with Delta Squad they used tight angles, messy zoom-ins and outs, and off-center framing. There are probably more proper/accurate terms for these filming techniques, but I do not know them. In Ultimate, they use ‘two cameras’, as described by the devs; the result is cinematic and showcases the new art assets and animations fantastically. Though I feel the new camera work doesn’t capture the desperate and unpredictable nature of the war the COG is arguably losing, I cannot honestly commit to saying it is worse. It is simply a stylistic choice I do not entirely prefer over the original. 

Gears of War Ultimate Edition is a great remaster that delivers the entire Gears 1 narrative to consoles; again, remember that most of Act 5 was cut from the original 360 release because of technical limitations. It’s an updated version of a classic and influential game, and though it may not entirely capture the original’s atmosphere, it is a visually beautiful jog down memory lane that showed The Coalition’s vision for the series. A bit of a wobbly first few steps with Ultimate and Gears 4, in my opinion, but I believe they carry Epic’s former mantle well.

Gears of War Ultimate Edition is currently on sale for a mere $5 USD on PC and Xbox, and is included with GamePass, if you are so inclined.

I give Ultimate Edition a Swarm of nibbling Kryll/10

Finished Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.

After beating the first game I was incredibly satisfied with the conclusion, it was left open for a sequel but didn’t feel like it necessarily needed one. 7 years later and now the sequel has arrived, seemingly dividing gaymurs who dove in. Is it 10/10? Is it a disappointment how youtube videos imply?

No to both.

In Senua’s Sacrifice, our heroine is on a journey to save her partner’s soul from Hel. In the sequel she is on a quest to stop slavers from taking people from her lands. The girl has grand ambitions, what can I say? As with the original title, Senua’s newest adventure is twisted by the various tales and folklore of the lands; more than ever, it’s harder to discern what is a symptom of her psychosis and what is truly tangible in the world she inhabits with the other people she encounters. The voices Senua hears are more chatty, opinionated, and contradictory with one another as Senua has to work with others to achieve her goal. They doubt Senua’s choices, are convinced her allies don’t trust her, they truly cloud your ability get a proper read on an encounter with someone.

The gameplay is similar to the original game; you walk down a predetermined path, maybe find a hidden collectable, fight a couple of freaky monster men, solve psychosis environmental puzzles, and then continue walking. The combat is mostly the same with 2 changes: all combat encounters are 1v1, and there is no longer a kick ability. These changes are done to make combat more intense and visceral, the kick would immediately stun any enemy and leave them exposed to a killing combo. Though satisfying, it does not evolve as the game progresses.

The visuals are impressive, there were instances where I had to remind myself *this is a realtime cutscene*, especially when regular human characters are the sole focus in them. I wanted to stop and take so many screenshots shots, its robust photo mode is a great tool for it. 

Music is lowkey and accents the setting well as you walk and solve puzzles, it slowly builds and you can hear powerful chants while in combat at certain junctions. From what I recall, Ninja Theory worked with Heilung for the music in this game, a great choice.

If you want a linear, narrative-driven game that pushes for ultra-realistic fidelity and has satisfying but very simple combat, I recommend Hellblade 2. Play the first one if you haven’t already, if you like it then the sequel is definitely worth it.

It gets a mountain of wet rocks/10

Finished Dragon’s Dogma II.

It’s been 12 years since the first game, I was still in high school at the time. DD was a game I really enjoyed despite it feeling unfinished and empty, the most polished aspect of the game was the gameplay; It was fun to just run around, climb on monsters, and pierce their skulls with blades of various sizes. Over a decade later, my opinion about it is, “That was a really awesome first draft.”

DD II takes everything the first game had and elevates far beyond anything I could have anticipated. At first I was hesitant on the title, something about seeing old areas made me worry this game was going to be a remake of the original but slightly bigger with prettier grafix. It is certainly prettier, and though I’m not sure on how much larger the new map actually is in comparison to the original, it is absolutely brimming with paths, caves, forests, and mountains to explore. Nearly all of it is optional as well, you can miss most of this game’s content if you beeline the main story. Without exploring you’ll be tight on cash and gear, it’s worth throwing on your hiking boots regularly to get new armor and weapons without spending all your gold.

Most of the vocations are returning but with new tricks and skills to use, the brand new ones are fun and offer new ways to affect the battlefield. There’s a play style for everyone, unlock them all and experiment to find something that’s perfect for you. My personal favorite is the Magick Archer, nothing like a swarm of magick arrows pin cushioning an Ogre from 20 meters away.

Your traveling companions are entities called Pawns. You hire these player-created characters to fill out your party so they may assist you on your quests by means of fighting, healing, gathering, and information. Their AI feels vastly more competent this time around, they actually lead you to quests they have done, utilize their skills more effectively, and even chat with each other to make your walking less quiet. They repeat lines after a while as expected, but even by the end of the game I would be new voice lines every so often. They really make your party feel more alive, they are comforting as you trek through the darkness on your way to a mission. 

The music is fantastic. Lowkey as you’re exploring, tense and heroic as you fight, and epic as you come out victorious. 

The story feels a lot more cohesive this time around, meaning I can actually tell you what it’s about. You have been usurped of your throne and you’re out to reclaim it, but you must figure out how an imposter can so easily pose as an Arisen and why, all while the responsibility of your title condemns you to eventually fight a Dragon to save the world. You’re quite the busy fella, I know. The characters you meet through the story aren’t the most complex or interesting folks, but they get the job done.

Dragon’s Dogma II, like the original, reveals its deeper narrative by the end of the story. 

There are three ending in this game: Good, Bad, and True. After the True ending, you are forced into NG+, consider this a warning to not start NG+ yourself, and to be prepared for the inevitable story reset at the end.

I fucking love this game, I spent nearly 100 hours on my first playthrough and missed plenty of stuff still. I now see the appeal of Fromsoft games, I want to jump right back in and discover more of the stuff I missed. There are so many small stories I missed by not exploring far enough before the time to do them came and went, it really compels me to start again. I would say, “Maybe I should probably give DS3 another chance potentially.” Too bad Z-targeting is boring as shit. 

Dragon’s Dogma II gets a Bring Me The Horizon song/10

[You know which one]

Finished Jusant.

I remember watching the gameplay trailer for this title on the Xbox channel on YT dot com [It’s how I make sure games coming out will be on my plastic box]. The music was powerful and the scale of the areas the player character was traversing were staggering, coupled with it being on Gamepass I knew it was the next thing I’d play after Alan Wake II.

You play as a nameless character, they are equipped with climbing gear and a squishy blue creature. Together, they scale a mountain that seems to stretch into space, from the ground you cannot see the apex. The duo is mostly silent throughout the game besides the blue creature’s squeals and the player character’s efforts while climbing. On your journey there are optional notes that tell the story of a girl named Bianca; as for yourself your only motive is: Imma scale this wall.

The gameplay is as you expect from a climbing game, you tether to fixed points on a wall and go hand-over-hand to reach new heights. At any point during your traversal you can place pitons in the cliff face, they act as temporary checkpoints that’ll catch you if you fall; additionally you can place them to initiate wall-runs or dangle yourself in the air and begin swinging to and fro. There seems to be a bit of leeway on the placement of the footholds in the walls to allow a bit more player expression, but climbing hand-only satisfies most situations. 

Though there is a limit on how much rope you have, it never proved to be an issue until the very end of the game. You do have finite stamina that drains as you climb, it can be replenished by resting for a moment but is shortened during a climb if you jump to your footholds. This hardly proved to be an issue as well, just try to plan your routes as you go.

The visuals are very stylized and familiar to many an indie game, but the work put into the environments is amazing. The small settlements tucked on, and inside, this monolithic stone are quaint and cozy; if you turn your gaze just slightly to any direction you’re greeted by either the cliff face stretching well beyond your sight, or the vast and desolate plains of sand and stone that you once stood on. 

The music is fantastic but sparse, seemingly by choice. When it arrives it is triumphant and fills you with the zeal needed to push forward and upwards, all while leaving you with a looming inquisitiveness. In its absence, what remains is the chilling quietness of a colossal, uninhabited rock formation. Only the sound of your pattering footsteps, grasping hands, and jangling equipment will accompany for most of your climb.

Jusant is $25 on Series X|S, PS5 and Steam. It took me around 10 1/2 hours to complete, I got most of the collectibles in that time. If you really like the gameplay of climbing, you may get a bit of replay value out of it by experimenting and trying to speed climb. I highly recommend if you want a more relaxing adventure that offers just a little bit of challenge to make you feel accomplished in your ascent.

It gets a 

Swing these nuts in your face Spooder Mane/10

Finished Bramble: The Mountain King.

I think I saw this game during a Vid Gaems 4 Gaymurs stream and thought, “Oh that’s a game, I guess. The kid design is kind of uggo, but sure. Oh, on GamePass? I’ll play anything for free!”

And then I did.

This game is fucking awesome.

It’s a cross between whimsical fantasy tales and Little Nightmares; you’re a tiny set of siblings, Olle and Lillemor, going through large environments and seeing huge fellas. I do not know how it stacks to its contemporaries in the ‘tiny fella’ genre, for I have not played any of the others, but it’s a fun ride all the way though. I don’t want to say much more than that because I believe it’s worth going into as blind as possible; that’s my recommendation, anyway.

The gameplay is solid, I did have some issues while moving around. Once Olle wouldn’t climb onto a ledge after scaling a vine wall, another time an invisible wall completely halted my progress (definitely a loading issue). Other than that, the controls are simple and responsive, all my other mistakes were from me being bad at games. Most importantly, puzzles weren’t annoying complex and long, you can conquer everything if pay just a little bit of attention and don’t get annoyed after the first restart.

The art style is incredible, the weakest points are Olle and Lillemor, if their eyes weren’t huge and moe then they would be completely fine. I see the art style they’re going for with their designs but they’re a little too cartoony compared to the other creatures, if their texture rendering was a bit more realistic/detailed than I couldn’t complain.

The music accents the environments well, it’s whimsical when it calls for and dreadfully tense as the mood shifts. The song for the final encounter is a cheeky spin on a classical song that took me a second to recognize, you can guess the song by the name of the game, I hope.

It’s a $30 game and available on Game Pass, my favorite subscription. It has some replay value, with a small set of collectibles and silly extra achievements you’ll probably miss, one is for beating the game without dying. I will not be getting it because I am bad.

My new favorite story trope is “Young brother and older sister go on an adventure and nothing bad happens [REAL] <:]”

Bramble: The Mountain get a Mmmm Skogsra 🥴/10

With SF6 just days away (I just preordered this morning) I didn’t really want to start Lost Odyssey, a big ol JRPG from 2008. I listened to a gaming podcast that was talking about Planet of Lana, they mainly said it was a nice looking game and not terribly long, “like Limbo and Inside”. It was also on Game Pass, so I didn’t have to worry about buying the game.

Planet of Lana has you play a young girl named Lana, after a seemingly normal say in her village there is a robotic invasion that snatches up her entire community, including her sister, Elo. With no one else left she pursues the flying cage that has captured her sister. She saves a cat-like creature that quickly becomes her companion, it is named Mui. Together they venture the desolate planet, having to deal with aggressive robots, ravenous creatures, and environmental puzzles.

The gameplay isn’t anything revolutionary, it’s a 2.5D adventure platformer. Mui helps you solve puzzles by taking commands to push buttons, knock down ropes that Lana can climb, and distract enemies. Eventually Lana gets a few power-ups to aide in solving the latter puzzles, though this doesn’t necessarily allow puzzles to be solved in multiple ways. Lana and Mui are not combat experts, so sneaking around enemies is a must; the beasts and bots you encounter will return to their patrol routes after they lose sight of you, so it’s not quite a failure if you can escape.

The music is lovely as well. None of the limited dialogue spoken is from a real language from what I can tell, so the music is relied on to tell you what Lana is feeling and experiencing. It is tense and foreboding when you’re sneaking or when the robots are around, inquisitive as you discover more of the game’s lore, and adventurous with a tinge of melancholy when Lana and Mui are traversing the various locations they arrive at. All the tracks lend themselves greatly to a coming of age story. ‘Horizons’ is definitely the stand out track.

The art direction is fantastic, the entire game is filled with beautiful locations that would make for a killer wallpaper. The sleek and angular metal designs of the robots greatly juxtaposes the natural environments they patrol. One monster in particular has a silhouette so grotesque that I’m glad this game isn’t photorealistic, just looking at it as a black mass is enough for me.

Planet of Lana is priced at $20 and available on Game Pass. I beat the game in just over 4.5 hours, other than a short list of 10 collectables, there isn’t a whole lot that’ll incentivize multiple replays. I believe if an indie game can deliver a compelling experience once, it justifies its price. I always buy Game Pass games I enjoyed playing when I have the funds to do so, I’ll definitely be buying this title to own.

Planet of Lana gets 30ft vertical leap/10