It seems almost fitting that my experience with the first part of Dark Souls 2’s Crowns of the Fallen Kings DLC trilogy – Crown of the Sunken King – began with all my equipment broken. I was given control of a standard warrior archetype wielding a Longsword and a shield, only both of those things…
Transistor wastes no time in jumping straight to the action. Rather than a long preamble to set the stage, the first thing you see is the protagonist looming over a dead body impaled by a massive sword. It’s a striking scene – one that raises tons of questions, but provides no answers. Transistor simply trusts…
Few concepts lend themselves to games as well as time travel. Jumping back and forth in time to solve problems makes the simplest of puzzles suddenly seem far more complex. Chronology is no different – to an extent. A breeze of a puzzle-plaformer, its challenges are few but satisfying, using its time travel concepts to…
Within minutes of starting Dark Souls II, I fell to my death due to a poorly planned jump. Seconds later, I received an achievement titled, “This is Dark Souls,” rewarding me for my first death. In any other game, that would be nothing but a cheap gag: a cheeky achievement to laugh at then never…
0RBITALIS seemingly captures both the beauty and dangers of soaring through space. It’s a puzzle game revolving around sending a satellite into orbit, trying to find the right trajectory to keep it floating for as long as possible. A simple premise, but difficult in practice, for it requires a ton of guesswork and patience to…
The term MOBA – or online multiplayer battle arena – is one of the least descriptive genre names in video games. It’s as obtuse as many of the games occupying that space. Awesomenauts, however, is different. Instead of being complex and near indecipherable for the first hundred hours, it’s simple and straightforward. It’s a MOBA…
Developer Stoic’s first entry in its three-part turn-based strategy role-playing game epic The Banner Saga is excellent, both as a standalone game and as an introduction to a greater narrative. It’s expansive world and endearing cast craft a compelling stage, tense battles and difficult decisions giving each exchange weight and uncertainty. It’s beautiful and dark;…
Nidhogg is best described as a game where you fight for the right to be eaten by a giant, hideous worm-like monster. Why anyone would risk their lives for such a fate befuddles me. But the process of getting there is so damn tense and exciting that the conclusion hardly matters. It’s the thrill of…
Games often deal in choice and consequence, though rarely do so grounded in reality or make the options so seemingly small and simple. Usually it’s in some sort of fantastical setting with the choices being some extreme form of “good” and “bad,” nary a grey area in sight. Hardly riveting, let alone something to get…
From the lay of the over-world to the very intro sequence and menu music, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is as much an homage as it is a sequel to A Link to the Past. The entire framework remains unchanged from the 1992 classic, at times stopping just short of outright remaking…
