YotamsKale

It’s good and I’d recommend it to someone who plays a lot of games, but not a must-play for 3 reasons: 1. Balance, 2. Repetition, 3. Exploration Balance: I had an engaging 10 hours, followed by 25 hit and miss hours. In act 2 and 3 everything in the main story was too easy after I was “rewarded” for figuring things out in act 1. Yes, you get rewarded by getting stronger but this ruins the challenge of everything to come. Sure make it harder for yourself but I’m always roaming with my best loadout because there is 0 way of knowing how tough an enemy is until the encounter is underway. And in most optional activities you’re severely punished for even trying. Repetition: waves and hordes of the same enemies means you’ll probably use the same sequence of abilities every time. Elemental weaknesses stop matter halfway through the game. At least the parry system keeps things engaging. Exploration: rather don’t. Just follow the objective. I’ve wasted so much time looking for a fight that’s balanced. You better remember in what order you got the overworld traversal abilities because even the first area has some insanely tough enemies if they’re behind the right gate. And when it’s turned-based, too hard just isn’t fun. As an RPG this is probably a 5/10 but totally saved by an exceptional story. I think these brilliant ideas and designs will be better realised as a movie.

The game is so good it made me sad that aren't enough games like it. I gotta be honest Sea of Stars didn't put a foot wrong in the 40 hours I spent beating the campaign. The ideas are just so refined and the story honestly took me by surprise at quite a few turns. Just when I thought the road ahead was straightforward and predictable, things became even more interesting. It does a lot for an indie game, really impressed with it.

Why play Into the Breach? It's a pure and simple turn-based tactics games that's really easy to get into and goes deeper than you expect. The visuals are appropriate with their future-pixel aesthetic and the music is both ominous and heroic, doubling down on the theme of doomed heroes going back in time to save the world. The roguelite loop fits perfectly here and keeps things fresh. Subset games knew how to handle a roguelite on their first effort, FTL, and they've only improved their craft here, with a well-balanced approach to difficulty scaling, choice and run time. But again, why play Into the Breach? It rewards strategic thinking and makes you feel like a hero.

Why play Pentiment? It's one of the greatest works of historical fiction I've ever seen in a video game. Make no mistake, it's a text-based adventure with the lightest of RPG elements. That might put you off but believe me here, you can't judge this book by its cover. And it's not just excellent for it's genre, it's excellent. As as longtime history fanatic ploughing through Assassin's Creed games, Age of Empires and Crusader Kings, I've never seen historical fiction shine this well in a game, and I've certainly never seen it so stylishly. Early modern Bavaria isn't just the backdrop for some 21st century-equivalent sitcom. It's the lens through which every character lives and breaths. Getting to know them doesn't just teach you about their personal story, but also about the time period as a whole. And then you get to the artistic style of each scene, bursting with vibrant expression and beautiful detail. The plot is dense, scandalous and philosophical and simply glides across beautiful lines of dialogue that effortlessly draw you in. I've never found it easier to read in a video game because each text bubble is a work of art – in it's written content and visually stylish fonts true to the early-modern period. It's all brilliant, flipping through menus, codexes, maps and stories never felt this good. But again, why play Pentiment? Because it just might teach you something new and allow you to feel things you haven't felt before.

As far as I'm concerned micro transactions don't exist and roulettes are worthless. With that out the way, this is the most detailed, hand-crafted fun I've ever had with a game. The fact that I can feel the difference between an R32 and an R33 GTR and can the difference of just some new brake pads is evidence of the effort that went into the game. Unnamed arcade racers just can't offer that experience and unnamed sim racers are lacking the 'game' aspect that this offers. GT 7 is weird, challenging, eccentric and unnecessary at times but that in NO way steals from it's experience. It's the ultimate car ownership game. And if Credits bother you just get good and do all circuit experiences to Gold level. Then you'll be good enough to compete online and have enough credits to buy whatever cars you want. 10/10.