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I mean... it's fine? I'm not going to say that Lucius II is an underappreciated gem or the worst game ever. It was certainly made on a budget and it shows. From the janky animations all the way up to the strangely limited and linear-feeling sandbox of each level, it's not hard to tell what kind of game this is. I can at least give it this: it delivers on you being the antichrist. When it works as intended, which is not often, this is the game is **** nasty. Blood sprays everywhere and the gore feels appropriately exaggerated. That said, when it's not working as intended, it's funny for reasons. Let me put it this way: Shiver Games struck gold with the first Lucius by releasing it in the early parts of the decade's first half when Let's Players were just starting to boom in popularity. The discourse around that game, other than the gore and shock value, was how little it did effectively with the way it presented its premise. When this thing released, the only videos I saw about it were about how hilariously broken it was at release. Even PewDiePie--who, by 2015, was still doing his 'appeal-to-the-lowest-common-denominator' style of screech humor--made the game look weak. He spammed three kills over and over again, didn't do much with the powers, and highlighted just how borked some of the game's core systems (such as Ai) were. The AI is probably the worst part of this game. It ticks all of the boxes: can I get out of being chased by leaving this person's line of sight for two seconds? Check. Can I manipulate it into doing things that the developer may not have intended? Oh boy, that's a big check. Do I struggle to manipulate it into doing the things the developer intended? Check, check, aaaand CHECK. Is it more impressive how broken it is than how technically solid it is? Don't think I need to explain this one, but check. If I am to be totally fair to what the developers did right, the more linear parts of this game are rock-solid. There were a couple of kills that the developer set-up that got a good chuckle out of me. Best of all, none of this game is horribly offense and has to rely on being overly edgy to entertain. The entire Lucius trilogy is uneven on a scale of 'shocking, but entertaining' to 'owch, I hope you don't cut yourself on that edge'. Lucius II is, thankfully, on the left side of the scale. When the best part of your non-linear sandbox game are the bits where you're encouraged to do what the developers want you to do, there's an issue. If there's one thing to be said about the entire Lucius trilogy, it's that it suffers from a massive identity crisis. The best way to explain it is that it's the natural cause of trying to stuff too much into your game without knowing how to design around everything you've implemented. To put it even more bluntly, all three games lack focus. The best game in the entire trilogy is the Demake of the first game. All of the presentation-quirks of the original game were wiped clean. It felt like the straightforward adventure game the developers wanted to make. Going forward, if Shiver has any more games left in them, what I'd like to see from them is more scaled-back experiences like that. They have a talent for making immersive, if limited, worlds and put to better use, there's the potential for a truly amazing title in there. Sadly, Lucius II isn't that.

Despite some flaws, Anna: Extended Edition is a pretty good game that I recommend with the reservation that you're willing to put up with either the horrendous DRM of the PC version or the console ports' awful controls. Anna is a classic horror tale about a very dark and twisted version of self-discovery mixed with some truly fascinating real-world mythology. Although it occasionally stumbles in the story-telling department and not all of its game mechanics are introduced to the player -- like, at all -- each of the eight endings are amusing and rewarding to get. It also helps that, while Anna is never a truly terrifying game, it's plenty unsettling. It sets itself apart from being just another Amnesia clone. The absence of a stalker relentlessly pursuing you might seem boring, but the replacement more than excuses its absence. There are some jump scares here, but there are also scares that are subtle and get under your skin in just the right ways. Anna relies on its atmosphere to sell on why things are twisted and off-putting. Part of what sells that atmosphere so effectively is its soundtrack, which stands alongside Lone Survivor as one of the best for an Indie Horror game. It's orchestral, melancholic, and sometimes rocks. Like the rest of the game, it feels very Italian in a good way. Really, that's what makes Anna so good. It feels like it's come from another culture, and it uses the influences of that culture to give you something you haven't tried before. Again, well worth checking out if you can deal with the caveats of either the PC or console versions.

After having played this on PC, I get why the initial batch of reviews for this game were mixed. With a mouse and keyboard, the controls feel natural. With a gamepad, aim assist is turned off by default and if you do choose to turn it on, it practically nerfs the most powerful weapon in the game. It's a shame because nobody plays co-op online -- and even if you do get a round going, I've heard the netcode isn't particularly good. Local play isn't bad, but it'd fare far better if aiming on a gamepad felt less awkward than it does. Regardless of how you play it, the co-op is absolutely the highlight of this game. In terms of the overall package, it's pretty good for ten bucks. I don't think it holds up quite as well as its predecessor, but that's because Rocketbirds 2 isn't aiming to be another Hardboiled Chicken. Hardboiled Chicken was an exercise in style over substance. It harkened back to a time when platformers had substance but they were all about their style. Rocketbirds 2 has some style, but I think it'd be an overstatement to say that that's why you should play it. Taking cues from what most players didn't like about the original, Ratloop Asia has put a lot more emphasis on substance here. Platforming no longer feels clunky, each jump feeling just light enough to be forgiving but having enough weight to it as to not feel floaty. Shooting has a lot more impact, and while enemies still feel like bullet sponges from time-to-time, the large variety of weapons means that the weapons sandbox is ten times more fleshed out than it was in the first game. Aside from gameplay, Rocketbirds 2 maintains the camp that defined the first game. The voice actor for Hardboiled has changed and, while that seems jarring at first, the guy who voiced him does an admirable job here. Where Rocketbirds 2 really differs from the original game is that it takes itself far less seriously. Where the original had cutscenes revealing how our main character had a very serious character arc, this game has a mech with a rocket launcher coming out of its crotch in the very first level. This may turn off those wanting a more in-depth look at the universe, but come on, how serious can you get with chickens fighting birds with guns? Another area of major change is the way maps are laid out. While levels are still somewhat linear, they're now bigger and have more ground to explore. The easiest way to put it is 'light Metroidvania'. There's less backtracking that you'd expect from a Metroidvania, but exploration is still key here. I like Rocketbirds 2. At first, I was indifferent about it, but having played more of it, I'd go as far as to say it's even more overlooked than its predecessor and deserves just as much attention.

One of my favorite games of all time, and I'm not even that big on horror! Lone Survivor is a quintessential 2010s' classic. Sure, it's not going to be to everyone's taste, but if you love horror or just want something to make you feel uncomfortable for a few hours, this is THE game. Although I own a digital copy of this, I also bought the Limited Run Games version, and I totally unashamed of that fact.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]