One_More_Level

Resident Evil Requiem was an amazing new RE entry, even though it was on the shorter side as I played this through in little under 8 hours. Though, there is very high replay value and I’m gonna play it through again soon. Even if you are not a Resident Evil fan, but as a standalone video game this is a very good, polished and well-thought-out title. I do recommend Resident Evil Requiem everyone who enjoys action or survival-horror games.

Reanimal is an amazing game. It has simple, yet effective, gameplay. Great character and enemy designs that will creep you out. From sneaking to dire situations and not to mention the story that was told beautifully and very mysteriously. What brings it little bit down was the, sometimes, stupid AI. If you did enjoy Little Nightmares 1 and 2, you will love Reanimal. I played it through in about 4 hours. Might sound short, but it is a good length for a game like this, to keep the suspense element on for casual players, and not to wear it out—even though I personally would’ve liked to see more of the weird world. Thankfully, there are some DLCs coming this year.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition was a good experience to be played again. It does show its age very well, but nevertheless I kinda like the campiness and fast-paced gameplay. And do I recommend this? Well… yeah, it was fully playable. But I prefer playing this on other consoles like PS5 as it looks better on those hardware.

Skate Story was interesting and fulfilling experience. Its lore, art style and gameplay mechanics were something new and exciting. Some boss battles felt little bit tricky, but I did enjoy the whole ensemble. Even if you don’t like skating games, this is truly an unique game you should try out.

Yooka-Replaylee was a much better experience than the original version. It runs smoothly, looks gorgeous, sounds beautiful and the overhauled core gameplay makes it easier and more enjoyable to play. I played it through in about 7 hours. But collecting everything will take easily double than that. I do recommend Yooka-Replaylee to everyone who wants a nostalgic hit, or enjoys humouristic old school plaformers.

Silent Hill f is an extraordinary game. I played it through in about 8-10 hours on the easiest difficulty. It was not too difficult on easiest setting and there is surely more challenge in higher difficulty. I liked all the weird and creepy things I encountered. Characters and all the horrifying enemies to the good (but odd) story. But the fighting system felt little bit off, though. It was somewhat clunky.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was a good game, even though the combat felt off. It had beautiful visuals, little handholding, great story and storytelling. But for a 50€ game I played it through just in about 5 hours. Yes, it feels rather short, but there is some replayability value there.

I did like my time with Donkey Kong Bananza and it became my favourite Switch 2 game thusfar. The game is about 15-20 hours long if you just play it through, but collecting everything will take you about 40 hours. The game is well-made and every aspect of it works to perfection. There might some little performation issues, but they are only certain areas/incidents. If you like games like Super Mario Odyssey, you will like Donkey Kong Bananza.

It is obvious that Once Upon a Puppet is a passion project. It had an unique style overall. I did somewhat enjoy my 5-6 hours with the game and it was a perfect length for a game like this. The concept is good, art style amazing, but the janky controls, bugs, game-breaking glitches and one hit death makes it frustrating to play at times. For sure there were some technical issues here and there, but if you can overlook them I think you might enjoy this meticulously crafted world.

The biggest question that everyone would like to know; is Mario Kart World worth of 80 bucks? Well, in my opinion; no. I could this game easily be twenty bucks cheaper—but—if Nintendo is going to do the same thing they did with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and bring new tracks to the game, this time, for free. Well then I believe this game is worth the asking price. But if we forget the price, every other way Mario Kart World is a great game for the launch of Nintendo Switch 2. The game can be fun, relaxing and chaotic at the same time. But it still feels little bit samey—even with the free roam—and same as the other games in the series. With this all said, I still do recommend Mario Kart World to everyone who’ll pick up all new Nintendo Switch 2 console.

The Midnight Walk is a very unique game and it was unputdownable. It looks amazing with all the clay-mation, dark characters and enviroment, and most of all, the brilliant music. But the low image quality is very obvious, so obvious that even some text couldn’t be read as it was too mushy. Every other way I enjoyed my 4-5 hours with the game, which comes to the price of the game that is not equal to the short gameplay. For 40€ I expected much longer game than this. Do I recommend The Midnight Walk? Yes, but with when it’s on sale.

Days Gone Remastered is a great game, but I don’t fully understand why it needed a remastered version? Especially when there still was some issues with graphics. The story was good, the characters fully-fledged, audio design superb, the gameplay smooth and intriguing. Well, if you are fan of the game and want to play this again, or a newbie, I’d say this is a game you should try out.

Playing Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate it became obvious why the developer decided to postpone the launch as this game still needed some time in the oven. It has great puzzles, story and setting, but the combat takes a big hit, literally. The game is also extremely frustration-inducing as it feels very half-baked. The game feels special with all the time-travelling and all the various scenes players are thrown into but still. My honest heart cannot recommend this game that much, until it is fixed.

KARMA: The Dark World was about 5-6 hours long and it was a OK experience. All the weirdness I had to witness, the story that was rather dark and unsettling with dystopian environment and good voice acting. But still I think the game tried to be something extra deep, but ending up being little confusing. In the end it explained lots of things in the story, but still I was like “what the hell I just played?”.

I did enjoy Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition a lot. It has old and new characters and nice stories. The game is about 2-4 hours long, so it isn’t a fully fledged game, but don’t worry, you’ll not be paying a full price either. Like some other games did (looking at you Horizon Call of the Mountain). Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition is a good PSVR2 game. Even though it doesn’t give a long playtime it still is enough to be engaged.

The game is about 85% climbing and that's it. I payed this for full 70€ price and all I got was a climbing simulator. Horizon Call of the Mountain was about 6-8 hours long and I want my money back. It also tests your physical strength a lot. Even though the fighting scenes were good and well made, and the graphics looked nice, it's not worth the full price.

Dead Space was a really well-made Remake of an already great game. It had new additions but they weren’t overpowering the original idea, rather additing more details to the characters and story. I did enjoy this game very much and it also wasn’t overly difficult to play. A game that I like to 100%. Dead Space was not just a new coat of paint, but a perfeclty made Remake. Others should take a note.

Ihad a good time with the game, but the only downfall was the horribly designed boss fights and slow controls. I know they tried to make the game feel more horror that way, but I think they went too far with that idea.

FINALE TO THE TRILOGY Bayonetta 3 takes place in multiple places in Multiverse. It’s little bit difficult to explain, but Bayonetta is bumped into a girl named Viola, whos coming from another dimension to warn Bayonetta and ask for her help. An entity known as Singularity unleashes the Homunculi throughout the multiverse in an attempt to destroy each world without it. In the aim to create an Alphaverse. So, Bayonetta has to go other realms to collect five Chaos Gears. In these other realms, or realities, she comes across other Bayonettas which she also gets a new Demons, that are used in battles. What comes to the gameplay and battle, the game is little bit different. In the past two other Bayonetta games, you can summon Demons to help you in the battle, but in Bayonetta 3, player can now fully control them. The battle system is otherwise pretty much the same than before. You can fight using Bayonetta and her over-the-top fighting system or you can summon Demons. The only thing is that Bayonetta has to dance to keep the summoning up, if she got hit, the summoning stops. There’s also a magic meter that runs out eventually and it need to be charged to summon again. There’s other characters that can be played as, which are Viola and Jeanne. Controlling Viola the fighting is little bit different, because Viola can enter slow-motion called Witch Time only parrying attacks, when Bayonetta can do it only by dodgin attacks. This sudden change middle of gameplay can feel quite jarring and personally I didn’t learn the parrying very well. There’s also other gameplay modes; when playing Jeanne and with the Demons. In Jeanne’s gameplay it is sideway scrolling, which I hated. Jeanne has to do sneaking in a facility and get through the area with time-limit. I hate time-limits!! The huge Demon fights (kaiju) happens couple times in the game. It’s like some slow-motion Street Fighter between two monsters. It was a nice addition to the main gameplay, but it didn’t feel as spectacular as it could’ve. Even though it might sound that Bayonetta 3 has lots of different gameplay modes, but it fells short. I think Bayonetta 1 and 2 has more over-the-top action happening. This didn’t feel as “crazy” as the other games. What I loved in the two other games was the music. Bayonetta never let me down with the music aspect, expect in this one. Bayonetta 3 didn’t have the same kind of impact in music and I was so disappointed about it. I had waited to add new Bayonetta music into my music library, but sadly there’s nothing to add. Graphically the games looks terrible. I think it’s not the developer’s fault, it is Nintendo’s, because Nintendo Switch is over 10 year old mobile technology. This game could easily be on PS3 console, in fact, it doesn’t look much different than the first Bayonetta game, that game out in 2009. The game had some puzzles here and there. The developer didn’t seem to put much of effort to them, since they were kinda easy to solve, except one which I had to seek help online. As you probably know the voice-actor-fiasco that Bayonetta 3 had just before the launch, I must say, I didn’t even notice that the Bayonetta voice actor was different. It was voiced by legendary Jennifer Hale, who has done lots of video game actings. THE FINAL VERDICT Bayonetta 3 kinda let me down. It didn’t feel as over-the-top-insane-action as the other two games did. It had its nice moments with the story and few twists here and there. The final twist the game had in the end I did already saw coming. The gameplay was tried to kept fresh by adding new characters to play, but the gameplay fell short and was uninterested. Even the music was a huge let down. Bayonetta 3 was about 10 hours long and it has lots of collectables and some replay-value.

BACK TO THE VILLAGE Shadows Of Rose happens years after the Village. Rose was saved from there as a baby and now she’s a teenager. She has powers, such her dead father, Ethan, had. Rose wants to get rid of her powers and she travels to the consciousness of the Megamycete. It takes Rose to a mysterious place where memories are twisted and warped to a nightamerous form. She is back in the Village where everything started, back to the Dimitrescu Castle. The story was rather interesting and it swallowed me wholy. The beginning was short and the main theme was the horrors of the mind of the Megamycete. The Castle was different. It was ran by the merchant from the Village -game. He wanted to stop Rose’s journey and he could control enemies to go after her. In the Shadows Of Rose there was new type of enemies; the “Face Eaters”. Theres also other enemies, but I’m not gonna spoil it. Rose also was different from Ethan (the gameplay from the Village), she couldn’t use Guard, so there’s no guarding from enemies’ attacks. But Rose had something else, she had powers she can use against the enemies. She could freeze them for a short period of time. She also use her powers to unblock obstacles. All the powers weren’t given her in the beginning of the game, so it was gradually given to her which made the gameplay even better. What was interesting addition to the game was a “ghost” that helped Rose. It gave ammo and health, and told me what to do and sometimes even where to go. Shadows Of Rose also had some typical Resident Evil puzzles. They were easy, but I did like how the developer added something nostalgic to the game. There were also other areas than just the Castle. The gameplay got even better each time I got thrown into a new place. There was even extremely psychological-horror area, which was rather similiar like in the Village -game. That was section where I was freaked out and even screamed a little. Playing this whole DLC with headphones on, I gotta say, it was even more scarier. All the noises enemies made to the ambient sounds, it was all just pure horror. Graphically the game looked next gen and as beautiful as the Village was. Technically there was zero issues; no frame-rate drops or other isssues. I did die a at least five times. There was moments where I was pure in survival mode, no ammo and health low, but I just pushed forward. It also helped that there was checkpoints in addition to the manual saves. Only negative what I did find, was the final boss. It really didn’t took much of effort to beat it. I was readied myself to die a lot and take the battle of my life. So, I think the whole game should be played in harder difficulties to REALLY amp it up. THE FINAL VERDICT The Shadows Of Rose was about 3 hours long. It felt much longer than that, because the game was designed in a way that every new scenario was completely new. I did enjoy this DLC a lot and I’m gonna play it many times over. I really can’t say anything negative. The game played really smoothly and there was no hiccups or anything technical issues. Only negative thing were maybe that the puzzles were too easy and the final boss was also rather dull to beat.

THE INNOCENCE IS GONE A Plague Tale: Requiem takes place six months after the first game, where Amicia and Hugo defeated Grand Inquisitor and foiled the Inquisition’s malicious plans. Hugo still has the sickness, Macula, in him. They thought his powers were under control, but they are awoken yet again. With that comes the rats that literally destroys everything and kill all people in sight. But, there’s a hope; in Hugo’s dreams he sees an island where he thinks lies the cure for his illness. So, that’s pretty much the basic storyline. It surely has twitst and turns, and all kinds of new characters are introduced in the game. The gameplay is pretty much the same, but this time Amicia and Hugo has new moves in they use. The only thing that I must say immediately, that the game introduces new moves throughout the game, but then they aren’t basically used anymore in the game. It introduces lots of other things, but seems like they had too many ideas and the game would’ve benefit for it being more simple. THE SAME GAMEPLAY ISSUES THAN BEFORE Then comes the bugs that might just ruin your gameplay completely. There are scenarios where I had to sneak amongst the enemies and also deal with the rats. Amicia had lots of different items she can use, then there’s the light that have to be used against the rats (because they are afraid of it), then there’s the soldiers that varies, meaning some I can kill and some I cannot because they have armor on them. So it is a lot to think about and to do. In these situations, where even millimeter out of light might get me eaten by rats, and I have a NPC with me that might suddenly run somewhere and die. Or the janky gameplay in general get me killed. So, there’s lots of dying and fustration with this game, in all together. So don’t expect perfect and polished game at all, it still has the same issues like they had with the first game. What comes to the overall length of the game; it is a way too long. This is an issue what I see in lots of games. They don’t know when to just cut things off. Every time when I thought that the game is about to end, a new thing happened and the game went on. It was very much like this: a peaceful moment with Amicia and Hugo and everything is fine, then the rats came and destroyed the whole city and ate all the people, then they have to survive through it and soldiers, then a peaceful moment again… so it was very much rinse and repeat. It only took so much until the effect of it dies. Visually, the game looked a-ma-zing!! I took so many screenshots and used photo mode all the time. The game is gory and dreadful, and it’s not even shy about it. The game is very emotional and the storytelling is good. What makes it even better, is the voice acting, which was great, but might get little used to first. The relationship between Amicia and Hugo feels genuine, and it’s very endearing. The puzzles, the few that were introduced, weren’t that hard to solve. There was only one puzzle that took me a while to solve. THE FINAL VERDICT A Plague Tale: Requiem is a good game. It is longer than the first one. It introduces new characters, huge areas and cities, new gameplay mechanics and graphically it is a very polished game. I liked the story, even though the game was a way too long and streched. Do I recommend it, is it a must play? Yes, it is.

STORY, GAMEPLAY AND CONTROLS New Tales From The Borderlands is not sequel to the first game, it only does belong to the same universe. There are completely new characters; Octavio, Fran and Anu, which are the only three playable characters. In the game, player does control them one at time, making choices based by their point of view. As the previous game, New Tales From The Borderlands is very much alike. It is choice-based and the gameplay has quick-time-events. All the choices player makes in the game will affect all the outcomes and the ending specifically. The game starts with Anu, who is Octavios big sister, and she got fired from her job of being inventive scientist. She had just invented a device (a “gun”) that doesn’t kill, but does heal people. Together with her brother Octavio and his boss Fran (who owns a frogurt shop) they try to make the healing device to the markets, but the corporate overlords comes to their way and try to steal the invention from them. So, their narrative-driven adventure begins. The story was OK and the pacing was fast enough to keep me entertained throughout the whole game. What I didn’t like, was the horrible overacting and over-reacting to, literally, everything that happened. I don’t know was it the base game (Borderlands), which New Tales From The Borderlands belongs to, the reason to this, because I’ve never played those games (except Borderlands 2 VR -game which I have played). I think Borderlands -series is rather over-the-top, but still the acting in New Tales From The Borderlands was more of annoying than funny. Even the jokes didn’t hit me at all. What comes to the gameplay; it was a big improvement from the previous game. New Tales From The Borderlands did run much better than the previous game (and all the other TellTale -games). The previous game was more slower and little bit sluggish, even the QTEs were dull. Moving the characters around was also a much imporved. Basically, everything in New Tales From The Borderlands were much faster and fluent. The game also had mini games, which to my dissapointent, were a fail-proof. Only thing I had to do was to hit X-button. Then there was a Vaultlander fighthing mini game. It also was just hitting the X-button to do damage and QTEs to dodge. There was no difficulty in the game nor in the mini games, which was rather boring to play. New Tales From The Borderlands also had lots of costumes, whici could be bought in-game currency. I did enjoy changing the clothes of my characters every time I came up with the changing booth. FINAL VERDICT Even though the game was badly overacted and all the minigames and QTEs were overly easy, making the game have no difficulty whatsoever, I did enjoy little bit the New Tales From The Borderlands. The game was about 10 hours long, so it does have some playing value. Is it must play? No it isn’t, but for the series’ fans this will be a fun little addition.

LITTLE LINK There’s no doubt that Tunic isn’t inspired by The Legend Of Zelda games. Its aesthetics, cute graphics, gameplay and isometric view are quintessential aspects of older The Legend Of Zelda games. Tunic also has some features of Dark Souls, meaning the game is harder for ordinary gamers. But is it too hard for me? THE ADVENTURE BEGINS Tunic starts very simple way; you wake up in a shore. Soon, I found a stick that I could defend myself from enemies. Very soon after finding the stick I got my sword and shield. Now the real gameplay could begin. Tunic is very simple in many ways. It won’t tell player anything, there’s no subtitles. There is text, but it’s gibberish. Some English words can be found here and there, but mostly it’s just some unknown language. Player can find pieces of manual book that reveals new moves or things to do (that were there already, but I didn’t know about them) and the gameplay gets more depth or new paths can be opened. The gameplay is very simple. I can hit or shoot enemies with weapons, throw bombs, heal myself, dodge, use shield. I had also stamina and magic meter. But I did die a lot. The game is difficult and the boss fights are even more harder. Thankfully the game has “No Fail Mode”, meaning, a mode that I couldn’t die. I also had unlitmited stamina in the settings. Shamelessly, I did use them when the game got too hard for me. In Tunic what I mostly had to do, was to do some missions like ring the bells in various areas and ultimately collect three stones. It was very vage what these tasks did to the world and its habitants, but after opening one area I could continue my journey and so forth. Story-wise I couldn’t tell much about Tunic. Since there wasn’t English language much to be read, but there was a few big twist I liked a lot. All the music in the game was very well made and I could easily hear The Legend Of Zelda inspiration in them. Boss fights were well made and they were difficult for me, so I did beat most of them using “No Fail Mode”. But the game has New Game+ which will let you keep most of the items you collected from the first playthrough. THE LAST WORDS Tunic is one of my favourite games. I never play games like Demons Souls, Bloodborne or Elden Ring because they are too hard for evereyday gamer like me. Tunic offers something that I enjoyed: immortality mode. The gameplay, discovering the world and uncovering its secrets, the graphics and music, all did made me enjoy my playthrough.

First time when I saw Ghostwire: Tokyo gameplay I was intrigued. The game looked fun to play and interesting overall. I finally played the game through and I did like it, although, it was kinda short Tokyo ride. STORY, GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS, GRAPHICS AND DIFFICULTY Ghostwire: Tokyo tells a story of how nearly all of Tokyo’s citizens have vanished mysteriously and Yokai (known as Visitors) have invaded the city. Akito, the game’s protagonist, is possessed and saved by a spirit detective named KK. He encounters a group wearing Hannya masks who may unveil the mystery behind the strange events in Tokyo, one of which is the kidnapping of Akito’s sister. He goes after them to save his sister. The story overall was good and the pacing and storytelling was fast enough to keep me interested all the way. The gameplay was nicely made. Akito uses his weaving powers to shoot the enemies and when their core is visible he can rip it out. Only negative thing I found, was how the aiming was little bit difficult, but I got used to it. I also did lots of side missions, which were different each time and they filled the game nicely. Graphically Ghostwire: Tokyo looked nice, but there was lots of pop-ins, which didn’t bother me much, but it was very noticeable. All the enemies were designed well and so were the enviroment. Only bad thing was how the areas looked very much the same and it was hard to tell where I was. The map was good in this situation. All the areas weren’t available in the beginning, because the city was covered with odd fog that kills if entered. Only thing to clean this was to find Torii gates and clean the area. Mostly the Torii gates were covered with enemies, so opening the areas was sometimes hard to do. The boss battles were one of the best thing of the game. They were different each time and the bosses had to be beaten with certain way. Not shooting them with all your might was the answer. Doing the side missions and main missions didn’t give enough exp. points, but collecting souls was the answer. By collecting them I got enough exp. to upgrade my weapons and skills. The whole skill-tree was rather simple. I liked it that way so making the gameplay was much easier. Ghostwire: Tokyo was sometimes very demanding. The amount of ammunition player has was limited and shooting enemies should me exact. I found myself many times out of ammunition and scarping by I could kill the enemies. Some enemies were very aggressive and fast. I did find this game to be rather demanding at times. FINAL THOUGHTS Ghostwire: Tokyo is very good game with some new twist. It took me about 11 hours to finish this and it was satisfying to play. The game was full of Japanese folklore, which I found to be interesting and instructive.

It’s been at least a decade since I played a Kirby game. The last time I played, it was Kirby’s Epic Yarn on Wii -console. I love a good platformer and Kirby and the Forgotten Land promises to give that to me. Does this seventeenth installment of the series does any good? STORY, GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS, GRAPHICS, DIFFICULTY AND SOUND The story of the game is rather simple and easy; something horrible happens and Kirby got **** into another reality. It is a post-apocalyptic world called the New World. His friends Waddle Dees are being kidnapped and a creature from the New World called, Elfilin, comes to help him. So, that’s the story of the game. The story is good, but I didn’t like how absent the storytelling was. It basically was told in the beginning and in the end-part of the game. The gameplay and controls were good and simple. The game is played by levels that are opened one by one. On every level Kirby must not just fight with the enemies, but also collect coins, collectables and hidden Waddle Dees. Waddle Dees are important because they open the final boss of every area. Player must collect certain amount of Waddle Dees, which was rather easy to do. I didn’t found myself in a situation where I must go back and collect more of them. Every level is well-designed and easy to maneuver in. Kirby can have about ten different weapons (one at time) and all those were good choices from the developers. Kirby can also use Mouthful Mode, which is a mode where he can transform into bigger object that also have moves he can use. Kirby and the Forgotten Land has a hub, called The Waddle Dee Town, area that can be grown and changed by the amount of Waddle Dees plyer collects. Throughout the gameplay I could open a fishing area, Kirby’s own home and shops where I could by items that I can use in the levels. Kirby could hold on to one item at once. I used the extra health, which came useful in the more demanding boss battles. All weapons are also upgradeable. Along the gameplay, player finds blueprints, that can be used to upgrade the weapons. This also helps alot in demanding boss battles. Before player can upgrade the weapons, they must do some extra stuff; player must finish time-limit levels that gives Rare stones that are used to upgrade. Kirby and the Forgottel Land is also co-op, yes it can be played with another player. I didn’t try this since I played this alone. Graphically Kirby and the Forgotten Land looks nice. It has smooth grpahics and beautiful colours. All the character models are well-designed and the level-design is amazing, as well. Every area was different than the previous and they all had certain style they followed. What comes to the difficulty level, I found the game to be rather easy, but some boss battles were crazy and I wouldn’t beaten them without an extra item and upgraded weapons. The sound in the game was amazing. All the soundtracks were quintessential Kirby what we are used to from the 90’s games. There is a band in the hub area, that plays all the music of the game. It was a nice add. FINAL THOUGHTS Kirby and the Forgotten Land is very good new Kirby game. It leans towards the easy-side, but the level design and the variety of the levels and the areas made it nice to play. All the extra things player can do and collect made the game very much worth the price.

FAR FROM HOME FAR: Changing Tides is sequel to the first game FAR: Lone Sails. It was very atmospheric puzzle game, which I reviewed and gave score of 5/5. Is the sequel any better? TO THE SEAS FAR: Changing Tides is very much like the first game; player has to maneuver the ship across the sea and do puzzles to open blocked pathways. The ship gets new upgrades along the way so it can go even underwater this time. I found the gameplay being very simple and after learning how the ship is controlled it became easy to sail. The ship can be powered by the sails or burning materials found in the bottom of the sea. There is a sonar scanner that shows when there’s materials in the bottom, making it easy to collect them. Graphically the game looks almost the same than the first one, its very simple and clean. Overall gameplay and controls are easy, nothing special to mention. THE VERDICT FAR: Changing Tides is nice little puzzle-adventure game, that is about 2-3 hours long. It’s relaxing and easy going, just perfect size to play through one sitting. It implement new things such as the submarine, making the gameplay new and interesting.

Martha Is Dead got some critique before launch on PS4 and PS5 -consoles, because it got a note from the developers that the game going to be cencored on PlayStation platforms. Not sure what and how much is going to be cencored I still wanted to play this game and see myself. I love psychologial horror titles with puzzles and Martha Is Dead promises to just give me that. HORROR SET IN 1944 ITALY Martha Is Dead is set in 1944 wartime Italy. The story tells about twin sisters Martha and Giulia. Martha is found murdered and her sister tries to find out who the killer is. Finding the truth is twisted with mysterious folklore, horrors of war and Giulia’s psyche to survive it all. The story was great and how it was told was the best part of Martha is Dead. It got fair amount of twist and turns, keeping the player on their toes all the time. The gameplay was first-person puzzle-adventure. Martha Is Dead is not difficult game, but it got lost sometimes with difficulties to understand where to go. The game got map that usually told where to go next, but few times I wasn’t sure where to go. The puzzles weren’t difficult, except the secret message that player had to send using Morse code might be hard to do correctly. The game also had and old camera that player had to use to take correct photos and then develope them in the dark room. The development was simplyfied from the original photo development to make it easier and faster. Players can also take free photos and develope them. I found this to be nice little touch. Graphically the game looks amazing and it ran rather smoothly. One issue I got was the game crashing and I had to reset the game. It happened at least 10 times throughout the whole gameplay. It was annoying, but thankfully the last checkpoint was always recent. Martha Is Dead is fully voice acted, the standard setting in voice language is in Italian, which I used. It gave the most authentic gameplay and overall feeling of Italy and the characters. What comes to the cencorship, I do understand it, because the game is gore at times. It balances nicely with horror elements, not leaning too much on the graphic side, but also with psychological horror. PAROLE FINALI Martha Is Dead is good psychological horror game. It doesn’t lean on jump-scares or anything cheap, but authentic horror and how war can traumatize a person. Only negative thing was the crashes the game suffered and few other little bugs.

BE A RACCOON Backbone is a post-noir narrative adventure. It’s released on all major consoles and PC. Backbone is inspired by film noir, weird sci-fi, post-soviet aesthetics, modern political regimes, the works of Lynch and Kaufman, and existential philosophy of Sartre. This is my short review of the game. STORY, GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS AND GRAPHICS Backbone tells a story of a private detective Howard Lotor who explores dystopian Vancouver inhabited by animals. The story is linear and questioning your perception what it is to be a person. The story is deep and has few twist and turns. Backbone’s gameplay is focused on storytelling and rich dialogues inspired by old school CRPGs. The game is full of dialogues and by choosing your answers your shaping what kind of person Howard will be. Graphically Backbone looked extraoriginally good. The pixel-noir art style looked luscious. The game was not voice acted, which was OK. Controls were simple and worked just fine. LAST CASE Backbone was nice game, about 5 hours long. It had deep story and the storytelling was the main point of the whole game. The ending was little bit odd, probably because there might be sequel to this. I do recommend this to anyone who likes storydriven games.

FINALLY ON PS4 AND PS5 Twelve Minutes was originally released on Xbox Series -consoles and it got fairly positive reviews. Finally it saw release on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 -consoles. This is my short review of the game. STORY, GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS AND GRAPHICS Twelve minutes is a story-driven adventure game, set in a charming little two room apartment. The story tells about a husband, who gets stuck in a twelve minute time loop. A murderer is coming their way and he has to stop it happening all over again. The story was good with twist and turns I didn’t saw coming. The gameplay is rather simple, drag and drop -style that works fine with this kind of settings. I did get stuck sometimes as I didn’t find anything new to do so I had to watch some walkthroughs online to get me going. Graphically the Twelve Minutes looks fine, nothing special or spectacular. The main thing is the gameplay itself and not graphics. FINAL WORDS Overall Twelve Minutes was good little game. It was about 2-3 hours long. It had multiple endings and I did saw few of them. The voice actors were James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe, and they did fantastic job to bring the characters alive. Twelve Minutes was nice little game with simple gameplay and amazing storyline. I highly recommend this.

IT ALL BEGAN FROM MAJORA’S MASK Ember Lab is a new indie video game studio which is best known from their 2018 fan-made Majora’s Mask short film. The short film got such huge positive feedback that the studio decided to start make games and so Kena: Bridge Of Spirits was born. STORY, GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS AND GRAPHICS Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a story-driven adventure game, set in a charming world rich with exploration and fast-paced combat. The story tells about a young Spirit Guide Kena, who goes on a guest to safe the forest and its habitant from corruption that has spread all over. The gameplay is rather easy to follow but the combats are sometimes kinda hard, especially towards the end the new enemy types makes killing them rather difficult. Kena uses her staff to do close combat and bow to attack from afar. She also controls tiny Rot characters which can help her in the battle by binding the enemy for short period of time. The gameplay is to defeat the enemies in certain areas and destroy the evil nests that spawns the enemies. Usually at the end of every segment there is a boss battle waiting, which I found to be rather easy to win. The controls are easy and nice to maneuver, there is no lock mechanics in the controls so shooting arrows might be the only aspect of the controls that takes time to master. Graphically Kena: Bridge Of Spirits looks amazing and animation-like. The game has two graphical fidelity mode, which the other has 30fps and other 60fps. Also photo mode is included and I took very nice shots with it. THE FINAL VERDICT In the end I did enjoy playing Kena: Bridge Of Spirits tremendously. Even though the game combat was hard at times, it did offer three difficulty modes in the beginning. Unfortunately I didn’t beat the final boss because of how hard it was. The game is about 9 to 12 hours long and it took me about 10 hours to finish this on normal difficulty. I did had to use online and search for solutions to some puzzles, but mostly it was just something small I did overlook. I do highly recommend this game.

A LONG WAITED GAME I’m a huge fan of Life Is Strange -series. I don’t think they are just video games, but fully realized concepts of humanity and what it means to be a human with superpowers. In the first game the main character had a superpower of rewind time and change happenings, it also changed so many other things and unbalanced the whole balance on nature, bringing chaos. Life Is Strange: True Colors’s main character have also a superpower, this time to feel and affect other people’s emotions. A SUPERWOMAN The main character Alex are old enough to leave the foster care and goes after his brother who lives in peaceful town Haven. They haven’t seen each other for years. Everything goes wrong when Alex’s brother dies in an accident that could’ve been avoided. That’s when her superpower of feeling other’s emotions comes in handy, as she tried to uncover why he was killed. GAMEPLAY, STORY, GRAPHICS The gameplay is rather simple in True Colors and the main thing is to interact with other people and use your power. That’s also when all the most important decisions comes that’ll have long and unchangeable consequences and in the end of the game it all ravels into one. Everything you do and don’t do in Haven have consequences. For example, I didn’t interact with everyone and in the end I had to pay for that. What makes the gameplay easier is the fact that this time the game are released as whole and not episodically in every three (or so) months. It was much easier to play and remember all the interactions and characters this time. That episodically released previous games was my biggest problem with the games, because it was so hard to remember all the decision I’ve made previously. Story-wise the plot was good, even though I could tell many events beforehand. True Colors is very much re-playable, trying to get your best ending. I got my ending as I wanted for the first time around. Graphically the game looks nice. It have much updated look compared to the other games of the saga. THE VERDICT Life Is Strange: True Colors is yet another good Life Is Strange game. What is the best part is the fact the game is released as whole. The game is approx. 8 hours long.

I came upon a year ago released game A Tale Of Paper. It seemed a nice little game that I could play cozily. A Tale Of Paper is made by indie studio Open House Studio and the game can be played on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. I played this on PS5 console. LITTLE NIGHTMARES MEETS INSIDE MEETS LIMBO The plot of A Tale Of Paper is little bit vage as the game just starts as player controlling a paper figure. It quickly becomes clear that the paper can learn new shapes and therefore learning new skills such like jumping higher. The puzzle elements are rather easy and I didn’t get stuck on any of the puzzles. The gameplay and controls worked and there was nothing negative to say about those, other than the controls might feel tiny bit janky. Graphically the game looks OK and the art style and atmosphere reminds me of Little Nightmares meets Inside meets Limbo. There’s nothing much to say about A Tale Of Paper. It is rather short experience (about hour and half). If you are fan of forementioned games I suggest you try this one out.

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS Finally we got a PS5 game that is only made for the next-gen console. I’ve been waiting for this title and finally played it through. I enjoyed it, but yet it got some negative aspect to it. THE GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS AND PLOT First thing I noticed was the graphics. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart looks crisp and clean, like an animation movie. The game also runs nicely, although I ran some major bugs and game-breaking glitches along the way. It annoyed me surely, when I had to start a boss battle all over again or redo some 5 minute gameplaying. The gameplay was OK, but it felt little bit dated. It was very much like the previous title Ratchet & Clank (2016) and I wanted something new. The game had new variations of weapons which felt kind of an overkill. I soon realized all the weapons were made to make the replaying more fun. All the weapons were updgradeable and it takes many replayings to fully upgrade all of them. The controls felt good. I mean felt because of the DualSense controller and its haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. This is thing that is hard to explain, it need to be experienced. The plot was rather simple and straightforward; Doctor Nefarious (an evil enemy from previous games) steals Dimensionator, which breaks and cracks the dimensions. Ratchet and Clank goes after him to get it back. As the other dimensions are now available to travel, another character called Rivet joins to the mission. SOME TRUE PS5 POWERS What makes Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart amazing is the PS5’s super fast SSD, that can load the game in blink of an eye. There’s no loading screens, which feels odd as I’m not used to that. Other amazing feature is the 3D audio which can be enjoyed with any headphones. I played this with heaphones attached to the controller and the audio was cinema-quality. THE LAST WORDS Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is (in my opinion) the first true 100% PS5 game, because it uses all the power of PS5, 3D audio and all aspects of DualSense controller. There’s not much else I can say about this game other than it is must play if you own the PS5 console.

(Played fully on PS5 console) WELCOME TO MY PERSONAL HELL: Little Nightmares 2 isn’t just a video game, but a deeply realized concept of escapism and existense. Experienced through the lens of children, making the whole gameplay dark and unsettling. Much like childrens’ distorted nightmares of the reality. Little Nightmares (2017) was a disturbing game, in a good way — can the sequel top that? I played the first game through before starting Little Nightmares 2, because I wanted to be reminded of the atmosphere the developer Tarsier Studios wanted to portrait in these games. EXPERIENCING THE PLOT: It’s nearly impossible to explain the story in Little Nightmares 2. The whole ensemble is more of a statement, that has to be played to be fully understood. The concept lies on the strong opinions of our everyday lifes being covered in escapism. How people try to escape the grim truth of their lifes, by distracting themselves with any TV-channel available. The other side is the story of these two characters, Mono and Six, and their survival adventure through this environment. Six was the character we played as in the first game Little Nightmares, making this sequel more of the “origin” story for the characters. It’s difficult to explain the story, as I said it’s like an interactive dark Grimm’s story, that must be played to be fully realized — and still it would leave questions hanging in the air. I was such curious about the story itself, that I went on Youtube and watched some fan-made videos of their deep-dived-thoughts into the story and all the juicy details they found. Honestly, it has been one of the most interesting thing and I suggest you do that after playing this title. THE GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS, GRAPHICS AND AUDIO: Players had issues with some of the gameplay mechanics and controls in the first game and the developer wanted to fix those criticisms. I think the controls were much more accurate and better in Little Nightmares 2. I still think they feel a tiny bit janky and slow, but the magic lies just behind that. It’s like those nightmares everyone has, where it’s such a pain trying to move or run away from the monsters chasing you. I love the feeling of the controls and how it affects the mood of the gameplay, and I wouldn’t change a thing with them any further. The other character, Six, is controlled by AI and I didn’t have any issues with that. Six always helped me and did things needed to do. She also seemed to have her own odd personality and sometimes played with objects or copied things I did. The gameplay is very much like in the first game, but with new interesting twists and puzzles. I had to sneak around, run away from monsters (personally I think the doctor was the most creepy one), pick up objects and carry them around and solve various puzzles. Graphically this game looks amazing and polished. It has the same art style than before, but much more detailed, added realism, effects and wider areas. Everything still looks so creepy and odd, just the way I love it. I took countless of screenshots, just the sheer beauty of the areas and surroundings. I used headphones, another must thing to do when playing games like this. It truly did immerse me into the world. WAKE UP, IT WAS JUST A NIGHTMARE: There is so much I wanted to say about Little Nightmares 2 and dig deep into the concept and execution of, basically, everything. For me, this wasn’t just a game. TMI: I sleep restlessly; I suffer bad PTSD-nightmares every single night, I sleepwalk, wake up screaming and my nightmares are horrible. That’s why this nightmare-like world, which they created in Little Nightmares -universe, is so important to me, because it gives me a way to handle my own issues. Not just with sleeping, but with life. OK, with all this said, Little Nightmares 2 is another absolute masterpiece, but it has some flaws. It got little issues with the controls and some bugs here and there. I didn’t care those at all, as everything else was such exceptional. What I loved the most, was the fact how ‘player can interpret events their own way, as they unfold in the game.’ Little Nightmare 2 is, yet again, “something new” as I like to say. It follows little footsteps of the first game, but adds new perspectives, storylines, puzzles, characters, monsters and areas. I cannot recommend you enough to play this one :]

A LEGENDARY HARPOON: Olija seemed to be very ominous game at first. It got minimal pixelated visuals, but rich gameplay and movie-like sound design. Its melancholic vibe reminded me of a recent game I played Inmost. I love Japan and its mythological history and folktales, and Olija seems to dive into that realm. I knew where I was getting myself into, when I saw some early gameplay footage of it; fast-paced action, lots of gore, lore and the odd, gloomy atmosphere. I played this fully on PS5 console. GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS, GRAPHICS, WEAPONS AND SOUND: The game starts strongly; with a shipwreck and a man Lord Faraday, who gets stuck into a mysterious place called Terraphage. I found other castaways, a legendary harpoon and an actual place, that I could build up as I went on a journey. Everytime I got back from caves and dungeons, the place was more full of survivors I rescued along the way. Olija is almost linear, mixed with some RPG elements, as I could buy health upgrades and craft various hats from materials, that gave extra protection or extra moves. I like the options and, obviously, I used all the help I could get. The game hides lots of secrets out of the boundary and I liked the satisfaction after trusting my guts and finding secret areas and items. With my main weapon, a legendary harpoon, I also got new alternative weapons, as I progressed in the game. Unfortunately, I found it tedious and slow to change the alt-weapons. The gameplay is fast-paced and my inputs always felt too slow. Also the controls could need some tweaking, for example, adding secondary button for the alt-weapon, to scroll them to opposite direction. Definitely these little details were the biggest problem in Olija, everything else was just so enjoyable. The detailed sound effects of enemies getting cut in pieces to enviromental audio was well-thought-out. What comes to the visuals and pixelated graphics. At times, I had to stand up and back away from my TV screen, to really see the whole picture clearly. It was rather diffcult to play on TV screen (55″), when so much was happening and all the pixels were so big. THE LAST WORDS: Olija is beautiful, enjoyable and rare game, but the controls might need some fine-tuning. I enjoyed those insane fight scenes, puzzles I had to solve, the storytelling and dungeon bosses. I’m sure every hack&slash gamers will enjoy this. I did too, and I don’t usually play this type of games. Olija is a great game, not too long, not too short, about 4 hours. I do recommend this, but if you still hesitate to buy it, there’s a free demo on Steam.

DOES IT LOOK GOOD?: Alright. The graphical quality of this game is clearly a mid-range PS4. I don’t use my PS4 consoles anymore, so I played this fully on PS5 (I believe due the backward compatibility and not with any PS5 patches.) Still, the game seemed dated, but it ran smoothly. I didn’t get any major frame rate drops, bugs, glitches or anything like that. I have to add, that sometimes, the scenery looked nice, such like dark corridors with creepy lighting. Adding that neverending thunder outside with sudden flash of lightning gave me that eerie and horror atmosphere I was asking for. Actually, reminding me of those Resident Evil mansions. SOUND DESIGN AND THE STORY: I played Silver Chains using headphones and I suggest you do that too, if you want the ultimate creeps. The sound design was OK, giving all kinds of scary noises, what a typical haunted manor would. The game was voice acted, even though it was minimal, it was better than nothing. I think the best part is the story, honestly. Because the gameplay and controls weren’t that good. The story begans of a man (Peter) waking up after crashing his car to a tree. He doesn’t know where he is and runs into the mansion afar. After fainting at the front door he wakes up inside the manor, lying on a bed. Then the gameplay actually starts and what I needed to do is to find out why I’m there, how to get out of these locked rooms, find the keys and secrets and with that the story unfolds little by little. Even though, I could predict many things with the plot and it wasn’t overly surprising, I think it was decent enough to hold up the concept. THE GAMEPLAY AND TECHNICAL ISSUES: What comes to the gameplay and controls. Well, the controls needs some adjustments, for sure. I can only speak this PS4/PS5 version I played, but it was frustrating trying to interact with anything. I had to be a precise position to interact with object in front of me, open doors or do basically anything. In a sense, it gave even more terrors to me, because I could imagine a person acting like this when they’re in panic. I mean, who wouldn’t find a simple task to be hard, when trapped inside a haunted horror manor? But, I do believe, all this is NOT intentional by the developer—that’s why I have issue with that. What I really liked about the gameplay, was how I never was stuck at any puzzle or where I should go. Yes, I did have few moments I was confused what to do/where to go, but then comes the inventory-menu system, that always showed all the items, the latest writings I found or Peter’s thoughts. I found it hard to tell some things about Silver Chains without spoiling or giving away good moments. The gameplay is also avoiding this monstorsity, The Mother, that will instakill you. Thankfully, she doesn’t roam free in the manor, she only comes at certain situations and only way to get her to go away, was to run and hide into a wardrobe. Then there were these creepy ghost children that helped me, in their own odd way, but just seeing a ghost child standing the other end of the corridor was just creepy. DID YOU EVEN BEAT THE GAME, BRO?: [Contains spoilers] As I write this, I did not finish the game. The reason was the very last “boss”, which was difficult to beat. The reason to this, was not that it was something I couldn’t figure out, but the technical issues. One was the fact how hard it is to interact with anything and the second was the the technical aspects of the “boss” itself. I had to avoid it and get distance between each other to be able to do things, but the “boss” had zero AI and could see me regardless if I was hiding behind walls and objects. In other words, the “boss” had a clear line if he could see me or not. It was ridiculous, like a magnet that pulls you towards no matter what. I tried my all to finish the game, but I only got 99% of it. As this game was provided to me by the publisher, I also got a walkthrough for it, and regarding to that, the game ends after this segment. (I went online and watched a Youtube video of PC gameplay of the ending.) [Spoilers ends here] FINAL WORDS: I did enjoy Silver Chains, but it seemed outdated and unpolished. I was scared of The Mother creature and the enviroment was creepy, but I didn’t find anything special about this experience. It’s a decent game, but be prepared it might have technical issues. It’s sometimes hard to judge games, because review copies usually aren’t even the same ones others can buy from the PS Store. So, I can only speak of my experience and the version of the product I was provided. Silver Chains seems still be the medicore game after all these few crazy years (regarding to the PC reviews). The game is about 3 hours long and I like the fact it doesn’t start and leave you hanging. It’s a decent supernatural horror experience and if you’re fan of the genre, then I can suggest you to try this out.

MOVIE-LIKE POINT&CLICK GAME: As soon as I started the game, it became clear how outdated the graphics were. I played this fully on PS5 console, so I can’t say how it runs in PS4 consoles. The overall visual quality and realism was not there. The characters facial impressions, moves and overall character designs were painfully outdated. Even the lipsyncing was off and nothing like it should be. So yes, visually the game was stuck in 2009 development. Then there were all the bugs and game-breaking glitches. I had to do couple of investigations twice, because the game glitched so badly. This happened after coming back from console being in sleep mode. THE AWFUL VISUAL UNCANNY VALLEY: The graphics everywhere were absolutely horrible. Even the way things was applied to the environment felt haphazard. Looking very much like those early PS4 games, that tried to look nice, but were just OK. I do claim, Twin Mirror did look good at times. I did take many nice screenshots and checking them afterwards, they look nice. The camera and controls was as hopeless as the visuals; awkward and slow. Many times I had to find just correct position right in front of an object to ineract with it. The camera didn’t help at all, because it was mostly stuck right side of the character I played as. It was difficult to look around as nicely as I wanted. It was weird, how they didn’t pay more attention to this, because the game was about investigation and looking around. THE STORY: The story was OK at the first and then I realized it isn’t as huge and plot-twisty as I thought, and the ending was barely just OK, as well. I liked the various ends and choices player can make to alter the storyline. I didn’t like my first ending I got, so I went back to the final chapter and played it again to see a better solution. I actually got attached to the characters a little bit, to care to see other endings, but still they were kinda bland. TRYING BADLY TO BE TWIN PEAKS: Twin Mirror needed much more time get polished and maybe coded much better. Everything was just stiff, awkward, painful and mostly ugly. It was like those uncomfortably dreams, where you try to move or run, but it’s pointlessly difficult. I don’t know is reason the past year of 2020 or should this game genre have a complete overhaul, or is it time to dump it and move on? Whatever it is, developer should patch this game up, to fix the bigger issues to make the gameplay more pleasant. Honestly, I cannot recommend this game that much. Maybe the ultimate genre lovers will like this. “The character models and details weren’t quite there, leaving everyone in the Uncanny Valley”

BEAUTIFUL COLOURS OF DARKNESS: It was clear, how the main theme of Inmost is dark and depressive. Even though, the colour palette is absolutely beautiful, having huge variation of shades, it was still sad-esque to look at without other primary colours. I personally love these colours, they’re my favourite, and it’s always diffcult try to explain them to others, because this theme doesn’t have name. I played Inmost with conneced to TV and Handheld mode. The positive side with the colours was how gentle it was to eyes, when playing in dark. The overall art style was basic pixelated 2D with twist of effects. Lighting, glowing and shining -effects were used brilliantly. Deep dark shadows hid everything else. I mostly used headphones (when on Handheld mode), because the sound design was as amazing as the visuals. Seriously, this is meant to be played with headphones, because the sound desing was realistic and scary. There was something uneasy about this mixture of gloomy pixelated graphics and movie-like sound effects. THE STORY AND GAMEPLAY: The story is told very metaphorically. Inmost is played with three different characters (one of them was a little girl and one was assassin-like ninja, but mostly played with a middle-aged man between all of this maddenss) and piece by piece it becomes clear what have happened and what these characters are all about. It’s deeply sad story about loss and hope, the game even having a warning of its possible effect on player. The game is about 3-5 hours long and it should be played in a one sitting, but I played this with two or three. Inmost is played using three characters, one at a time, and each of them having skill or move the other character didn’t have. Puzzles weren’t overly complex or anything I couldn’t solve. The platforming part got me sometimes, meaning, I mostly died on enemies and traps. THE END: I don’t have much else to tell about Inmost. It’s well-thought out game, idea and story. The theme is sinister and dark. It did feel odd game at the beginning, because the way all was told and shown in this hauntingly colourless world. I do urge you to play this, if you’re mentally fine with it. This is one-of-a-kind indie title, giving players something unique for once. “There was something uneasy about this mixture of gloomy pixelated graphics and movie-like sound effects”

DON’T EVEN START THIS GAME WITH ME: The game starts rather simple way, making me to use in-game computer to start the game. The game has no name, not much of instruction are given, a voice is speaking; it’s the machine itself. He seems sad and try to tell me “there is no game“, pleading me just turn off the computer and stop even trying — and I did. I got an achievement for doing that! I launch the game again and I was ready to do anything to get the game going. So, I had to break the immersion and began to smash the UI (user interface) itself. After a while, I was fighting against the machine throwing traps and all kinds of shenanigns to my way, the machine gave up and started a game! There is no game: Wrong dimension is pretty much like that the whole gameplay; making me to fight my way through no matter what. I had to try to use everything I saw on my screen. The gameplay isn’t hard or complex, but trying to think and solve a situation by thinking it through from every percpective. Not just literally percpective, but also trying to break the dimension and think various ways like “if I would be in the game, what would I do”, “if I would be the computer where I’d hide this and that”. This jumping from a immersion to another is (probably) the hardest part of the game and I still wouldn’t say There is no game: Wrong dimension is a difficult game in any way. VOICE ACTED: The game is well voice acted and the sad machine talks a lot. It gives many useful hints, but I think it gives them a way too quickly. I always want to think the solution myself, before asking for help. The game includes HELP button and I only used it once. Only little **** with the gameplay is the way usable items are collected. There is no item slots, all are simply drop to the bottom of the screen and used by dragging them, which isn’t bad at all. ****: There is no game: Wrong dimension was SUCH FUN to play. For a long time I did like the humour written in the script of a video game. Even if the gameplay happened ONLY by using a mouse and left click, it changed such ways that I didn’t get bored. I played this one sitting about 8 hours (8.7h), which is very rare nowadays with me. To sit and play 8 hours straight, which tells a lot about the game’s entertainment level. I don’t believe There is no game: Wrong dimension is only for point&click lovers, because this is what I like to call something new. It includes different genres played with various ways. Great story and storytelling. You absolutely must check this one out :] “pleading me just turn off the computer and stop even trying — and I did”

BY TRIAL AND 3RЯÖR: The visual look is rather simple and sometimes minimalistic, but all the motion and the movements of the characters were detailed and realistic. I could feel a slight lag with the inputs and moving to the another scenery/screen, the transition was a little too slow. I could expect this from 1987 Mac/PC, but modern consoles should run this kind of video game smoothly. I got used to the controls and the lag fairly quickly and the right-timing-requiring jumps. The melee fighting and gun shooting also demanded timing management. I always remembered the little lag, so in the end I couldn’t be bothered about it. Along the game I got new stuff, like better shoes to run faster and other gimmicks to help my journey. In the beginning I died a lot! It was very much learning how to kill and use the environment, there seemed to be more than one way to solve things. The enemies had well-made AI and they did react differently, depending situations. That was something I took seriously, before approaching enemies. THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE: I have very little to say about the plot, other than it becomes more clear in the end. In the beginning I could read a long summary about the plot, but the text was mostly unreadable, due the pixel mush font. The main character crash-lands his spaceship in a mysterious planet and needs to collect parts, so he can fix the ship and leave. He goes into a “castle” and immediately runs to enemies. Some of them could kill him with one hit. Yes, then I realized how ruthless this game is gonna be! The story was interesting and I was always happy of all given little hints and writings of the happenings of that place. A VISUAL SHOWSTOPPER: I was fascinated how the game looked visually. Graphics done by 2-bit CGA -style, still managing to show depth and feeling of 3D world. The Eternal Castle is, as they claim, very action-movie-like. All the visual effects were stunning to watch and managed to create the suspence and wonderment. It’s odd to think how using only 2-bits can create so much. I always searched the most odd and difficult route, since as a gamer, I know there are usually something hidden in those places. Keeping player intrigued, the surroundings hid lots of secrets behind the dark shadows and backgrounds to be find. The graphics had a slight downfall, them being messy at times and hard to look at. I missed some items only due to the fact I didn’t see them soon enough. But, I can easily forgive that, because the replaybility value is very high (The Eternal Castle is meant to be replayed many times). It also includes 2-player co-op mode. The remastered audio and background music were nice to listen — and not some annoying peeping, like one could expect from a 80’s video game. The Eternal Castle had lots of checkpoints, there was few areas where I needed them badly, because after death player can continue from the latest checkpoint, which sometimes was far away. I was pleased how some of the progress was saved after dying. It truly made the gameplay little easier this way. REPEATING THE HISTORY: I don’t know the full origin story of The Eternal Castle, but according to the internet, it seems to be a big deal in video game history. It definitely rised the bar amongst the video game developers back in 1987, surely leaving everyone gaggin’ for more — probably now repeating the history. The Eternal Castle being now available on Nintendo Switch; I truly recommend everyone to try out this amazing remastered piece of history.

UPS AND DOWNS OF THE JOURNEY: Journey of the Broken Circle, got great narrative from start to finish. The game begans with little recap of a Circle and its missing part and feeling of not belonging. At this point it was easy to understand the feelings of this character, who without its piece looked like a Pac-Man. Circle goes through areas/levels that varies greatly. Along the way it will meet other shapes and characters, who will give him insights about life, love, togetherness and existentialism (I personally wasn’t sure what existentialism meant until now). Circle tries to be in a relationship with other shapes, who could fill its empty space, and with that new piece, it always gain a new way to move and reach things. Along the gameplay I got to try new moves, that were needed to move in certain areas. The controls themselves were simple, nothing difficult to learn. Only difficulty comes in few areas and with some enemies, that are tricky to pass. The skills lies learning correct timing and how physics works in the game. I didn’t get any dull moments, but sometimes the game crashed completely and towards the end I felt it should end already. This is one critic I always give to video games, especially certain type of games. I just can’t help, but got the feeling, that the game is streched unnecessarily for some reason. [Note: I tested publisher provided copy before launch, game might’ve been patched after this]. SOMETIMES THE JOURNEY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE DESTINATION: The whole story of Circle, what he goes through and what he learns, was interesting and touching — specially when I compared some situations to my personal life and experiences. Like the gameplay itself, it was also ups and downs of emotions throughout the whole 2-3 hour rollercoaster. It was clear how Journey of the Broken Circle was representation of ordinary people’s lifes and struggles they go through, just put in a form of a video game. I think Journey of the Broken Circle really did its job of bringing good narrative platform in a beautiful universe with fun gameplay. Again, this is one of those indie games, that I recommend everyone to play. Since it can be found on many platforms, just grab what works for you and enjoy this thoughtful journey and find out does the Circle find its missing piece. “Circle tries to be in a relationship with other shapes, who could fill its empty space”

THE GAY COUPLE: Starting the game, the first thing I had to do, was to choose the two lovers for this story. They could be straight or gay couple — me choosing the gay couple. Two men this time, because the gay-love is mostly represented in any entertainment as between two women, than two men. So, my boys started with having a good relationship, but then something happens. The other dude took his dream job from another city and he wants to go there to fulfill his dream. They decide having a long-distance relationship for the time being, until he comes back from the temporary job. Well, things doesn’t go as planned. There will be jealousy, misunderstandings, arguments, ups and downs — but it all happens via phone, using a chat app. Yes, very mature. I’M JUST FOLDED, FLIPPED AND UPSIDE-DOWN: Player uses both characters, one at time, to solve puzzles that are based on a piece of a paper. It is like a level, that player has to solve by folding and turning the paper. In every level, player has to find the way to reach the star, which is placed strategically somewhere, that takes planning to get to. By turning and folding the paper, player can create new paths, which feels like a metaphor for finding a new way of thinking, as the character is trying overcome a problem. Turning the paper upside-down the gravity can drop the character to another platform. Player have to utilize all the moves and it might get tricky to fully picture the puzzle’s solution in mind. The gameplay stays pretty much the same throughout, but the game introduces new moves and techniques and I think at least one of them comes a way too late. It creates unnecessary distress to solve the rest of the puzzles. PLEASE TALK TO ME: A Fold Apart isn’t voice acted, so the game is filled with captions, some of them appearing artistically to the background, using horrendous font. The story is very basic love story and what they have to do, to get their relationship work. What annoyed me personally, was the whining, crying, moaning, attention-seeking tantrums, childish arguments… ugh. It gets old and tiresome, and makes them look like teenagers, rather than an adult couple with serious marital problems. LOVE WILL FIND THE WAY: A Fold Apart isn’t bad game, but it isn’t marvelous either. The puzzle mechanics are cool, but personally for me, it was hard to solve them at times. It was difficult to see in my mind how folding a paper affects the other side of the paper, so it was lots of trial-and-errors. Dropping new moves towards the end, didn’t help at all. It became frustrating sometimes, but thankfully the game offers hints, that will show you the right steps. A Fold Apart is a OK puzzle game, but I wouldn’t say it’s a Must-Play title. Only if you are interested of the puzzle mechanics, which are well-thought out.

FUTURE DYSTOPIAN CITY: Cloudpunk is story-driven with good voice acting, which I liked a lot. It **** you in to this mysterious vertical world, where poor and outcasts lives at the bottom of the pit, in the Marrows. As going up, the scenery becomes more wealthy and society-like, with shops, nightclubs, neon signs. The cream of the crop lives beyond the rain clouds, in the even more mysterious place. RANIA AND THE ORDER OF A SUSPICIOUSLY TICKING BOX: Rania is thrilled of this new city and all the places, and she won’t stop asking “What’s in the packet?”, “What’s in the box?”, “What’s this? What’s that?” Yeah, it’s not a good start in a job where she deliveres all kinds of suspicious orders. In Cloudpunk, player also have to make choices, sometimes between life and death, not just shaping Rania’s path, but the outcomes of the situations. Few times I had to make decision, which were really hard to make, but I always went with my gut feeling. Driving and parking the flying car felt awkward at first, but it didn’t took long to master the whole system. The car can be used everywhere, only the blue roadways gave the car more speed like a highway. I like how it’s possible to leave the roadway any given moment and roam the “streets”. Landing only happens in certain areas, that are marked in the map as a parking lot. This might sound restricting, but believe me it is very good restriction. It makes the gameplay so much easier, because then I knew where I can — and had to go. Making it possible to land the flying car anywhere, would make the whole game such a mess! The map and minimap is filled with everything you need to know. Of course flying around opens up new areas. Even the collectables are marked to the map. The vertical movement is limited on every section, meaning, player have to use exits in the edge of the city to go another area/vertical level. All of these developer decisions benefit the player. I mean, even the vertical moving between areas are much better done with the exits, than giving player the full freedom to fly up and down, left and right as they want. Putting these places in sections doesn’t give any clear picture of the city, though, but it makes things just easier to handle in larger scale. AIN’T NO SUNSHINE IN CLOUDPUNK: Visually I liked Cloudpunk. With some minuses, though. The game was so dark. I had to change my OLED TV setting drastically to make the game look more brighter. It was either completely dark or semi bright. I rarely saw any persons face, or anything other that was standing in the shadows. I still don’t know, was this my TV’s issue, or with the console, or with the game, or all them put together. I did my best to make the game look decent, but it was a stretch. Another little minus is the controls. The cars can be upgarded to move faster and turn better, but moving Rania was very harsh. Thankfully, it didn’t matter, since there was no skills needed with her, other than just walking around, talk to people, deliver orders, buying/selling, collecting objects… very basic. The camera options are amazing, though. Rania can be controlled from first person or two different third person modes, which actually makes the gameplay and experience so much different. I changed the perspective depending the place I was at. BEYOND THE CLOUDS In the end, the story, all the findable secrets, characters, gameplay, settings and visuals were interesting. There was something exceptional about Cloudpunk and it surely isn’t “just another punk game”. It had this overall mystery around it, not just the twisted corporational world, but the whole place itself and all the secrets lying underneath it all. Cloudpunk is amazing game, very hooking and full of things you want to uncover. Definitely not just a delivery driving, but much, much more than that. Delivering to all sorts of shady people puts Rania in tough situations, either gaining friends or foes. Not forgetting all the desicions player makes throughout, makes a difference.

The gameplay, controls and options had received some updates, requested by the gaming community themselves. I first played the game through and then I checked the list of improvements, because I wanted to have a true experience and discover everything on my own, which I did! For example, playing the neural interrogation segments (when Dan hacks into suspect’s mind) were different. I noticed they were much shorter than the originals. It was great decision to cut them shorter, because I remember how awfully dragging they could be. Particularly one of them, where I had to sneak past an instantly killing enemy. Playing System Redux I wasn’t excited for that specific part and I was positively surprised how much, not easier, but shorter it was. Stealth and enemy AI was clearly better. User interface and dialogue were also better, because of the new settings and new accessibility options. Multiple save slots is great, but I have to say something negative about the autosaving system. I mean, there was such big gaps between checkpoints and I had to do few semi long parts again, because once the game crashed and one time I accidentally turned the console off. There is no way player can save game themselves, which is odd. With controls System Redux was pretty much the same with the original game, except the added haptic feedback, which was great add-on to the whole experience. Adaptive triggers were used on some places, such like opening doors; some doors opened easily and some of them needed more force. A new minigame was added to the doors, that were locked by four digit codes. I didn’t find all the codes and failed to hack all of them. So opening them was left for another playthrough (the minigame hacking can be turned off). There were some secrets to be found and I said to myself: ‘Imma d0 4ll the sidE stuff afTer da mAin gaem’. Yeah, that was a mistake, because Observer: System Redux does not include New Game+. Another oddity. Observer: System Redux looked even more stunning than ever. I honestly thought the game couldn’t look any better, but all the refined textures, animations, effects and whatnots in crystal clear 4k and 60fps, with raytracing, and HDR. I mean, this being my very first experience with next generation games on PS5, I feel blessed. This is absolutely beautiful game, but what I have to say about the 60fps, well, I did experience lots of lagging and sudden dips with it. It wasn’t smooth sail, but I also have to be clear that I played this with RTC on, 4K on, HDR on, Everything on. I’m still not completely familiar with the PS5 settings, since there seems to be various system settings, that affects games. If you wanna full technical report, I suggest googling it. Fire and Sword minigame got new levels, that can be found in computers throughout the whole game. Every new terminal seemed to add more levels to the puzzle minigame. I realized how much time I could spend on this game, that it should see its own release on indie genre! I truly enjoyed it and it was hard to quit playing, even when it was 4am. The game was scary, but not any jump-scare scary. The plot, voice acting, sound design, art style… all that created this finely emerging terror, that lasted the whole game. It was proposed for reviewers to play this with headphones and alone in dark. I did just that and it was spectacular experience. I live for the story and concept. There was few little hiccups, like the lack of autosaving points, option to save game by yourself and New Game+.

[I played the first half on PS4 Pro and the rest on PS5] THE STORY AND PREVIOUS GAMES: Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is direct sequel to the previous trilogy and a new release to the series in over 10-whole-years! Previous original release (not counting remakes) was Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, which It’s About Time continues directly from. I know, all the names and releases might get little bit confusing, because the series started all the way from 1996 on PS1 through PS4, and some releases in U.S. and EU got different names on them — AND! — there’s also other Crash -games that are out of the main series. Sigh. But, that doesn’t mean, you can’t play this newest game! Not at all! Crash Bandicoot games used to have rather simple storylines and they can be read online quickly, if you wanna catch up. If you really wanna jump-in, then you should play Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, the remade first three games. One huge difference It’s About Time has to the previous titles; the story got much more content this time around. I mean, there’s even some plot twists and all!! The amount of cutscenes also seems more than tripled with new characters included. I love the whole plot and storytelling, specially those overlapping plots (i.e. what happens elsewhere at the same time and how it affects your current gameplay). The gameplay and story got more longetivity by throwing twists and turns in it, which did felt as they belong than forcefully trying to make the game longer. GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS, GRAPHICS AND SOUND: Comparing to the previous release (N. Sane Trilogy), It’s About Time is pretty much the same with the gameplay. I did feel this being more easy title, than the N. Sane Trilogy, becauase I couldn’t completely finish that title, but this one was much more ease to play through. The game also does include lots of new stuff like those masks that grants superpowers, N. Verted mode (that changes the levels to create more challenge), new character Tawna, Timelines (playing levels with other character’s perspective), Flashback tapes (to play levels that tell stories Crash and Coco’s past) and many other new and old things were added to keep the gameplay interesting. I must say, I was first time ever interested to collect everything and try to beat the game 100%! Everything felt balanced and the levels got harder peacefully. Controls were almost the same, but of course including the new moves that comes with each mask and character. I have to mention something about the characters, though. All of them moves differently and it was painful trying to quickly be comfortable with them. It took time to memorize their moves and what they can do and what they cannot. Graphically this is like playing an animation movie. Everything’s such lush, colourful and rich. Level design stays true to the Crash Bandicoot series and I don’t think it needed any major changes. The levels and areas varies greatly from theme to theme, sometimes I just stopped playing and gazed the scenery. The sound desing was interesting, all sounded familiar, but new. All the new music and sound effects did remain the signature Crash Bandicoot style. In video games, the music or certain sound effects might get repeatedly annoying, but I didn’t feel any of that, because it varied greatly and didn’t felt copy-pasted. COMPILING IT ALL TOGETHER: Crash Bandicoot 4 has lots of characters (new and old) and fresh exciting story. I did find the story and the countless cutscene animations overly intriguing for the first time. The cutscenes didn’t always feel ultra short, like they previously used to be, but were long enough to grant a little break and gaze the beautiful and sharp animation. I think the new character Tawna should’ve had more exposure and levels to play, because her skill and moves were cool. For the first time I think there’s so much content in a Crash Bandicoot game, that I’m not gonna explain them all here, but let players discover them by themselves. I did play this long hours (almost 20h) and for a long period of time, because I did wanted to collect things and find secrets. Don’t be afraid to jump off the screen or try some odd stunt moves, to check does it hide a secret, because I did just that all the time, and was surprised to find hidden things. Crash Bandicoot 4 has a long lifespan and great replayability value. Yes, I did lost my nerve sometimes, but it wasn’t like it made me rage quit and throw the controller out of the window, because the game is developed to help if you fail too many times. It’ll add checkpoint boxes or grants you Aku-Aku mask for make it little easier to reach the next checkpoint. This is excellent sequel to the main series and I (who’ve been playing Crash games since 1998) truly recommend this to your platforming collection. “Graphically this is like playing an animation movie. Everything’s such lush, colourful and rich”

My initial impression was very positive. The story tells about a person called Hope, who is in Infinity, an abstractly odd universe where everything seems to be in endless loops. He wants to find the way out of Infinity and seeks help from his friends Time, Poetry, Technology, but also has to encounter War and Fatality. For me this all is more like a human mind as a whole, put in visual form, meeting with external feelings like reality, time and space. Gameplay is mind-bending and it takes a while getting used to the very unique style of… basically everything player has to do—or look at. The weirdness is endless, but yet it all makes so much sense. The world of Infini reminds me of our dreams, where we think all makes sense and nothing is weird, even when we dream the most impossible things at the most odd surroundings. The puzzles sometimes got me, though. I got stuck few of them and towards end they becomes even more crazier and ingenious. Making sure players will have to bend their minds every 4 dimensions and think outside of the box. This is also the reason why diffculty sometimes gets out of hand and a way too out there. Some puzzles were such a pain to solve. Infini is one of my favourite indie games of the crazy year of 2020. I really liked the story and the main character Hope. Even if the gameplay and art style looks like it was made under the influence of heavy hallucinogens, the game overall is very understandable and relatable. It dives into the world of complex human emotions and thoughts—which likely we all have struggled in life—realizing it fully visually and with unique puzzles. I truly recommend Infini for all of you puzzle gamers.