Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is polished enough to function, familiar enough to feel safe, and dull enough to be skippable. There are a few nice surprises in here with fan-favourite returning maps and an interesting direction the co-op campaign goes into if you’re already invested, but little reason for anyone else to jump in.
Octopath Traveler 0 is a fascinatingly unique RPG, taking the skeleton of a free-to-play mobile RPG and adding enough substance through a detailed town-building feature and deep party and skill customisation to make it the most mechanically engaging Octopath Traveler game yet. While the plot isn’t the most compelling, it was good enough for me to want to see where each arc was leading. Whether you’re an Octopath Traveler fan or a series newbie, Octopath Traveler 0 manages the balancing act of being a great jumping-on point while also providing enough fan service that just about any RPG fan will have a great time with it.
It’s so good to know that the long wait for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was worth it. Retro Studios knows what’s important to their flagship series and sticks to it, bringing us a classic Metroid adventure featuring fantastical alien worlds full of creatures to fight and upgrades to find. The combat is tight, the bosses are epic, and the Galactic Federation characters are only mildly annoying. It’s been a long time coming, but our favourite bounty hunter is back just how we remember her, and better than ever.
ROUTINE is a frightful time on the lunar surface. While the narrative doesn’t entirely hit due to a lack of memorable characters, the sense of immersion and beautiful visuals carry the scares. ROUTINE is a game for horror aficionados who don’t mind basic gameplay and the occasional puzzle, even if some clues might be hidden slightly too well.
Tingus Goose is an unforgettable psychological horror that succeeds because it is bizarre without being too gory. You can’t help but wonder what’s coming next as you progress through each level. There is a slight learning curve, and the bizarre imagery can make you feel nauseous at times. However, Tingus Goose succeeds because it’s a game that you can’t forget after seeing it once and is worth playing to the end.
SLEEP AWAKE is an experience that doesn’t allow itself enough time to become the piece of art it desperately wants to be. It features all the elements of a beautifully intense and unique audio and visual experience, and has a decent story it’s trying to tell, but feels diluted overall by its short runtime. It almost feels like a game that was playing it a bit too safe, even in its experimental style, and it would have benefited from heavier auditory exploration and more content to properly develop its intriguing narrative.
If you want to go on a magical misadventure in a charming, hand-drawn world about a wizard, then this is the game for you. Scrabdackle somehow pulls off having such an unserious and fun aesthetic while also having challenging boss fights that are tough but fair once you take the time to learn the mechanics. With simple controls and flexible difficulty, anyone can learn to become the master wizard Blue aspires to be in future acts to come.
Overall, Project Motor Racing feels like it lends more toward an arcade-style experience than the initial hype suggested. Whilst it does feature an impressive curated library of vehicles to drive (and they all sound fantastic by the way) and a decent enough career mode, it lets itself down in several ways. The AI drives on rails and is not friendly; they do not like being put two wide through a corner and will defend their line at all costs. There is also no radar or effective spotter, which makes driving in cockpit or hood view pretty dangerous when things are getting tight on track. Whilst it is a playable game on a controller, it just is not the benchmark simulation racer that it was touted to be.
Sadly, She’s Leaving‘s trite plot, absence of compelling characters, and lacklustre gameplay elements mar it, leaving very little to actually recommend. It is a short, play-it-and-forget kind of game, so much so that by the end of my playthrough, I felt nothing towards it but the indifference of knowing I could have spent my time doing anything else. It is a completely mediocre experience, but one that Blue Hat Studio can, and should, learn from.
As an interactive archive of gaming experiences, Simogo Legacy Collection sets a new bar for quality. Presenting a variety of fun, cleverly designed games in a gorgeously polished package, it’s a delightful way to enjoy the development team’s earliest works and piece together the DNA of their more recent masterpieces. Year Walk and Device 6 alone are well worth the price of admission – a must-play for indie game lovers.
