A Robot Named Fight is a self-described “Metroguelite” — a Metroid-inspired roguelike with some light elements of persistent progression. It’s run-based, meaning the lay of the level changes every playthrough. On paper, that sounds like a solid idea. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work. Mechanically, it’s good. The game wears its Metroid inspiration on its sleeve,…
Time travel can either be a very easy or very difficult thing to pull off well in videogames. For puzzle games, it’s simply a matter of using time manipulation in clever ways. For games that use it as a narrative device more than a mechanical one, it’s a little trickier. Reliving past events and retreading…
The sequel to Pillars of Eternity starts out as about as epic as a sequel can: it’s the aftermath of the events of the previous game, and the player character is on the brink of death after their ship got attacked at sea by the demonic god who you supposedly offed. Having had a little…
I don’t quite recall when I first started dealing with depression. I’ve lived with it so long it feels like it’s been there from day one. Having dealt with it for so long means I’ve mostly got things under control now, but there are times when it’s really overbearing, when it feels like everything is…
There are few games out there that manage to pay homage to classic retro titles without going out of their way to be too much like their inspiration. The Swords of Ditto is quite the opposite. It lovingly pays respect to Zelda, most especially A Link to the Past, but it manages to do so while…
It’s not easy being a god, and apparently making a game about being one isn’t either. Over the years, the God of War franchise, which started out as one of the landmark franchises for Sony’s consoles and portables, eventually turned stale. After its last entry, 2012’s God of War: Ascension, the franchise went into slumber,…
Extinction is one of those games that should, on paper, work. All the elements are there, and, for a while, it’s great. A bit rough around the edges, but hey — nothing’s perfect, right? Extinction, unfortunately, is ultimately undone by those rough edges. What begins as a solid action game with a good premise soon…
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a game that showed lots of promise right from the very first time I checked it out at E3 2016. Even at that point in time, where developer Warhorse Studios was only had a few concept renders to visually show it off, it was clear that Deliverance was a deeply ambitious…
… and no, there’s nothing wrong with the Earth’s gravitational pull. Nostalgia has been “in” for a long while now, and it’s no news that games, especially the indie kind, have been shamelessly dipping their toes into it. Be it old movies, books, or even games themselves, the subject of recalling the rose-colored memories of…
Iconoclasts sure lives up to its name. As a Metroid/Castlevania Symphony of the Night-inspired game, it’s totally serviceable: you explore a large grid-based map and use new equipment to help unlock new paths that take you further into the world. But it’s the way that it approaches your development that really sets it apart from…
