Darkstation

While frustrating at times, Signs of the Sojourner does a fantastic job of nailing the actual flow of communication in the form of a card game. It also provides an excellent sense of freedom. By the time I got to one of the game’s multiple endings, I really felt like my actions and choices had earned it.

If you go into this game expecting horror and mind-blowing puzzles, you’ll be disappointed. However, the storyline and the artwork justifies the purpose of the game, especially if you actually understand the story *cough* unlike me *cough*. If anything, I’ll at least be picking up a Lovecraft book from my local library so I can fake it better next time.

The writing has its fair share of material that’s worth a few sharp exhales through the nose and sensible chuckling but the committed delivery of the cast is a nice surprise and adds value. If you’re a fan of the Explosm! webcomic series and shorts, then Freakpocalypse is bound to hold a measure of interest. Just don’t go in expecting too much.

If you love the series and games such as Stardew Valley, I think you might love Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town. While it is enjoyable and a fantastic alternative, it may not be your “next big hit” in the genre, as I still personally think that Stardew Valley holds a higher quality, while previous Story of Seasons are more visually appealing and come with fewer issues.

What you don’t expect is for the game to feel like it’s just going through the motions with its story, for the central class system to not feel worthwhile, and for the battle system’s main claim to fame being you get to skip your turn to go later. Turns out Defaulting on this one is the right move.

The answer to my question at the beginning of the review is that I appreciate what the developers have done, but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy the game deeper than its pretty surface. Star Renegades is fine enough a game in its genre but it hangs too tightly onto its rigorous gameplay loop, exhausting fun out of repeated attempts.

Cathedral lacks vision where it counts. The title is focused on appealing to the hardcore with its retro presentation and difficulty that borders on irritating. The visuals and audio are certainly reminiscent of titles from the past, however, they lack that special polish that would elevate them beyond the superficial way they ape how games looked and sounded back then.

Blue Fire is like eating a delicious burger at a dive bar. The atmosphere might not be ideal, and the patrons might not be the best dining company, but the reason you're there more than makes up for the shortcomings. The difficulty is expertly tuned as I always felt challenged, but never overwhelmed.

By blending social deduction with survival mechanics Other Ocean has successfully avoided any Among Us clone accusations. Regardless of my tempered enthusiasm from Day One DLC and some polish concerns, Project Winter is a well-devised game that can lead to moments of intense distrust and cooperation few online games can equal.

Choosing different difficulties is a nice touch but after beating the game on Page, which was insane even with no-cost respawning, what incentive did I have to go back and do it all again while adding even more painful roadblocks? Yeah, no thanks. I’m too old to put up for this sort of thing now.