Great game ruined by two problems. 1. Player movement. The Player-character in MIO is not fun to control in the slightest. It is slow and floaty in all of the worst ways, a precision platformer at times with an aesthetic that is beautiful but just doesn't fit that genre, a 2d combat game at other times without the readability or movement ability to act upon what enemies show you. You see a boss channelling an attack? One way of avoiding it: Move away. And it is always that, you either give up on some damage and move back or don't and get hit. There is no risky play, no manoeuvring around enemies, no outsmarting their attacks. You step away, and then you attack. Repeat and repeat. Then there is normal room-to-room exploration, where there is simply not an engaging system for a lack of options on the side of the player-character and thus a lack of complexity in the layout of a level. It is always either a corridor with enemies or a big open room with enemies. Moving around these spaces is trivial, and the only reason why you will be running through them time and time again is: 2. Health. The health system within MIO is one I simply do not understand. You start with three HP, each hit taking one away. There is no way of healing what health you lost, no, you either reach a checkpoint, which you won't cause there are only ten of those in the whole game, or you find a spot where, in exchange for a resource you will most likely always have in abundance, you can watch a short animation and get back your health. With this, health as a gameplay feature is forcefully taken out of the gameplay loop and is instead a thing that actively exists only as a break from it. Sure, low health might still create tension, though this falls rather flat with a movement set this bad, where most deaths are not going to feel like the product of a lack of skill. The game also incentivises, within less experienced players, the behaviour of returning to one of these health shops every time they get hit. Then there is the problem with how this affects boss encounters, as the early attempts, usually called the learning period of the fight, are stretched unnaturally out for how simple these encounters are, simply because you have fewer opportunities to see and thus learn these bosses' abilities. This is artificial difficulty of the worst kind, as it is not actual difficulty but only the illusion of it through creating unnecessary punishment for failure in the form of longer runbacks that are entirely pointless as they do not offer the depth to themselves provide a learning experience, while the boss to which one is returning does not require another attempt due to a lack of skill on the side of the player but solely due to the system's limitations regarding the time a player is given to learn attacks, before they are sent back to the checkpoint. All in all, this leaves an otherwise artistically rich game stale and boring. I am not trying to present these flaws as problems that could easily be fixed; they cannot. This game is broken to the very core, its entire design hinged on bad decisions. The reason why I still call this an otherwise great game is solely down to the phenomenal artistry that has gone into it, artistry that is unfortunately wasted on a mediocre product. Most of the work inside this game is great. If anything, this goes to show how easily an early flaw can trash an entire production and how one should never try to see an aspect of their design in a vacuum to such a degree that they forget how it can harm the rest.
Not a whole lot to say here, great combat, great visuals, great pacing. I'm gonna be the first to say that you should just ignore the character interactions, they are so limited by the format of the game that an actual character based narrative is almost impossible. All in all just phenomenal and a great game to kill time (a lot).
It is rare for a game to so thoroughly engross me in a world this immersive, in characters this fascinating, in a narrative this grand. 1000xRESIST manages to somehow be more honest, heartfelt and important than almost any game out there, while at the same time being a sci-fi thriller about clones, global pandemics, aliens, immigration and the collective human experience. It is hard to know where to even start with this one and, truth be told, I don't know how I can do this game justice. So I say, this is a story that warrants an open mind, that warrants you to experience it first hand. 1000xRESIST is an absolute masterclass in narrative design, it makes you feel so many things, it makes you see so many things, it makes you hear so many things, but through it all, it never overwhelms you, it never turns on you, it never resists you, not if you are open towards the story it tells.
Little Nightmares is a game that doesn't stand out due to its writing, visual quality or gameplay, but entirely because of its implacable atmosphere. Every area of the game furthers your distinct impression of this nightmare of a world, it is a setting as unique as it is immersive. The closest thing I'd have to describe it, and trust me, even this isn't accurate, would be "if spirited away was a horror movie".
Ghost Trick tells a story that is so well interconnected and build up that you naturally begin to analyse it, and this is the game's biggest problem. I love stories that bring me to a point where I start trying to connect everything like a big jigsaw puzzle, but Ghost Trick sadly misses a few pieces. Don't get me wrong, it has a great story to tell, but it does have plot holes, which is detrimental to the kind of mystery narrative this game tries to tell. Apart from that, the gameplay isn't all that engaging, because you don't know what object interactions do before you try them, it is more a question of trying everything out than an actual puzzle. Because of that, I played Ghost Trick pretty exclusively for its narrative and all in all I had a pretty good time with especially the middle of the game, which is amazing. But as soon as I got to the point, where I was forced to question, whether the game really had all the answers I had been seeking, it lost a lot of charm.
All in all, Nine Sols is a phenomenal game that is a victim of how it sets its expectations. The first 2 hours give a very poor impression of the overall quality of the game and it sadly reaches its peak somewhere at the end of its first half, while exploring the areas of the third and fourth big boss of the game. This doesn't mean that what comes after this point is bad, but it just isn't quite as fun and well-made, which kind of ****, because that is literally 1/2 of the game chasing an earlier high, well, at least the final boss delivers.
Journey is a beautiful experience while playing it, my sole problem is simply its length, because 60 minutes of playtime is enough for a tech demo, but I somewhat expected more from a full release. I am not the kind of person to ramble on about video game lengths, I don't like those 200 hour grind fests and have absolutely no problem with something like Little Nightmares and its playtime of around 4 hours, but Journey is just too short. For a game with a title all about, well, journey, this just doesn't feel as grand as it should. There are beautiful moments in here that surpass almost everything other games have to offer, but once you really get into this sense of adventure, It's already over. Journey, while being able to give the player a few untouchable awesome gameplay sequences, is sadly a victim of its own hype, it is grand and awesome but as soon as you are willing to cheer it on and see where it all goes, you are already watching the credits. At a price tag of around $7 I can recommend it as a game worth experiencing, any more than that price would not have been worth it, at least for me.
It doesn't live up to the main game, but really, how should it. I am not going to call this DLC bad, because it isn't, as a standalone product it would probably still be better than 99% of all games, but this is not a standalone release. In the context of Outer Wilds, Echoes of the Eye sadly fails to warrant its existence.
Quite possibly the most unique gaming experience I've had in my entire life. This is not my favourite game, but it is far and beyond the game I would call best critically speaking. On a purely structural level, Outer Wilds is as well-made as it is unique, there really just isn't anything like it. To anyone that hasn't played it yet, do yourself a favour, play this game, do it blind, you won't regret it, waiting for you is far and beyond the best narrative ever told through the medium of video games.
