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  • Infinite Crisis Review
    Reviews
    • PC
    Infinite Crisis Review

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    Comic book stories are a great backdrop for video games. Not only do you have thousands of canonical characters and decades of continuity to play with, but each of those characters and storylines have multiple versions thanks to the many universes of DC and Marvel Comics.Infinite Crisis marked the return of the "multiverse" concept to the world of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman after a long absence. Now, Turbine has made a game by the same name, loosely based on the events of that storyline, and in doing so picked the perfect genre to employ the menagerie of metahumans at their disposal.Turbine is best known for its massively multiplayer games (Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online and Asheron's Call). Infinite Crisis is, however, that newest of multiplayer fads - a MOBA. That's short for "multiplayer online battle arena," and encompasses games like Dota 2 and League of Legends. Those two genre heavy-hitters may be vastly different from one another, but Infinite Crisis definitely mimics the latter.
  • Luftrausers Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    Luftrausers Review

    By

    After several hours with the game, I can't tell you what Luftrausers means. I don't speak German, and the best Google Translate can tell me is that "luft" means "air" and "raus" means "out." I can, however, tell you what it's about.Luftrausers, the latest game from Vlambeer (Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box) is about pushing back against the inevitable. From the moment it introduces you with the message "PRESS UP TO RAUS" you're fighting against gravity, trying to keep your unlikely World War I/II amalgam aircraft out of the water below.Seconds later you're bombarded with all manner of biplane, fighter jet, dirigible and battleship. Suddenly it's about surviving against the overwhelming tide of onscreen projectiles with controls I will generously describe as "loosey goosey." 
  • The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot Review
    Reviews
    • PC
    The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot Review

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    The allure of loot is something that's hard to deny.Some argue the loot-based formula, popularized by action-RPGs like Diablo, aren't actually "fun," and instead wage psychological warfare against players to make them feel like tweaking numbers is actually enjoyable. The same is often said of free-to-play games. When abused, the "pay-if-you-want" model is nothing but a shell to trick you into spending more money on a system that's designed to make you do it all over again, never really letting you play a "game" along the way.The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is a loot-based action-RPG in the style of Diablo. It's also a free-to-play game with not just a few resemblances to EA's much-maligned Dungeon Keeper reboot. Immediately the corporate cards seem stacked against any actual "game" to be found in this blend of genres.It's mental tug-of-war; I want this here, but I don't want to spend money. Is this actually fun, or is it just gratuitously satisfying? The same push-and-pull defines Mighty Quest on a design level.
  • Card City Nights Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    • PC
    Card City Nights Review

    By

    My brother and I were born only about 17 months apart. As such we usually went to the same schools, played with the same friends and watched the same shows.We also look a lot alike. Obviously we're not twins, but those meeting us for the first time often assumed as much. Even today people confuse us, or just refer to us by our collective last name. Our similarities meant we rarely fought, except to distinguish ourselves from one another.We expressed our distinctiveness in the language of GameBoys. Of course we each had to have our own - not just because sharing is definitely not an option, but because they had to be different. They were different colors (mine teal, his purple), we had different carrying cases and, of course, different editions of Pokémon.
  • Banished Review
    Reviews
    • PC
    Banished Review

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    Let's look at a normal citizen in Banished - we'll call her Dorothea. Every morning Dorothea wakes up, puts on her best fugue state and drags gravel out of the Earth for 12 hours. Those rocks are used to build roads, which make it faster for citizens like Dorothea to carry more rocks, to build more homes, to house more citizens to mine more rocks.Dorothea is helping the proud city of Buttsville expand and eventually preserve blissful, self-perpetuated homeostasis.Dorothea's son, Peter the Uncaring Maw, gets up every morning to eat the food harvested by citizens like his mother. Peter the Uncaring Maw doesn't move gravel. He doesn't herd sheep. He just consumes. What's worse, for every two Peters there must be one Dorothea conscripted into life as a fisherman just to maintain the precious balance of life."Then a plague breaks out. Of course, since everyone is at the docks grilling sole we don't have enough stone to build a hospital. Now Peter, Dorothea and the rest of Buttsville share a mass grave in the woods because nobody cut down enough lumber to build a cemetery.Banished is a genius game the way Hannibal Lecter is a brilliant psychiatrist - it's technically true, but it's hardly its most memorable quality once you've learned about it.
  • Tengami Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    Tengami Review

    By

    I am excited about Tengami. Not because it's a particularly great game, but because it's a remarkable multimedia experience. At its core, it's a point-and-click adventure set in ancient Japan. But it's the rendering of the game world as a gloriously detailed virtual pop-up book, with scene transitions presented as turning pages that reveal a delicate, brilliantly beautiful two-dimensional realm, which makes it both unique and memorable.Everything in Tengami is rendered in 2D, even your avatar - a characteristic that becomes evident when he moves and reveals that he has no physical depth. There's no inventory, no attributes or skills, and no equipment or upgrades to make him more powerful; he simply walks and sails from place to place at your direction, and occasionally picks up a single item or interacts with a puzzle. It's a slow-paced journey through changing seasons, designed to give you time to really take in and appreciate the artistry of the environments. The music is every bit as good, and while the sound effects are relatively sparse, the first time I heard a wolf howling in the twilight my skin positively tingled.The controls are simple and intuitive, requiring only that you double-tap to walk to a spot on the screen and drag left or right to turn a page or pull a tab. Hotspots and area exits are well-marked, so there's never any question of where you need to go or what you can interact with.There are sometimes questions about what exactly you need to do, however. Tengami has relatively few puzzle areas, but when you encounter one it gives no indication of how to proceed. Midway through the game I spent a considerable amount of time struggling with a group of bells on a pagoda, only to discover that I was stuck because I hadn't gone to another area first and collected a particular item. The puzzle itself was actually quite simple, but it was a frustrating moment because I had no idea why I was unable to make progress. (In fact, it was only with the aid of another reviewer that I figured out where I'd gone wrong.)
  • The Last Door: Chapter 4 – Ancient Shadows Review
    Reviews
    • PC
    The Last Door: Chapter 4 – Ancient Shadows Review

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    Jeremiah Devitt has been through a lot in the short time we've known him.  He discovered the dead body of his childhood friend, Anthony Beechworth, in Chapter 1 - The Letter.  He was buried alive in Chapter 2 - Memories.  He was abandoned and stranded in a fog-encased slum in Chapter 3 - The Four Witnesses.  While all of these events were the result of his own deliberate search for answers, they happened without his consent or desire.  In The Last Door: Chapter 4 - Ancient Shadows, Devitt chooses to inflict what might be the final act of horror upon himself—or it could be the beginning of an entirely new struggle.The Four Witnesses was an excursion for The Last Door; it deviated from the previous two chapters' focus on Devitt and the enclosed, claustrophobic spaces related directly to him.  In this, Ancient Shadows feels like coming home.  Devitt begins this chapter travelling to the house of Alexandre, another friend from the boarding school he and Anthony attended, and a member of their occult group bound by forces we have been slowly uncovering for three episodes. "Alexandre's home is the focus of Ancient Shadows, but everything about it is eerily reminiscent of Beechworth Manor in The Letter.  The house staff have fled, scared off by events alluded to in diary notes left behind.  A madness similar to Anthony's has overtaken Alexandre, who has demanded all statues be turned towards the wall or beheaded to end their relentless staring.  Even the house itself has a familiar setup, with a grandfather clock ticking away in the foyer and a cluttered cellar that hides a secret.But there are plenty of differences, as well.  Although the house is devoid of staff, Alexandre remains in his upstairs bedroom, unresponsive to Devitt but alive and "well."  Having been called to the manor by Alexandre but unable to learn anything from him directly, Devitt is forced to search the house for some clue as to why Alexandre beckoned and what is happening to him.  Alexandre's presence is used to solve some puzzles but also as an unsettling constant, providing further incentive for Devitt to unravel the mystery before they are both lost to madness.
  • Undefeated Review
    Reviews
    • PC
    Undefeated Review

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    Few game genres have undergone as much change and experimentation as the Japanese RPG (JRPG). Sometimes, those inflicted changes turn out to be popular. Other times, you get Final Fantasy XIII. As a result, these past couple of decades have been lonely ones for those of us who grew up with (and still love) the likes of Dragon Warrior, old-school Final Fantasy, and Suikoden. Thankfully, there are still plenty of independent game studios willing to give us our fix of tile-based movement and magic-slinging heroes with crazy hair. Undefeated by Aldorlea Games is a particularly solid and enjoyable effort, though it has a bug or two that might throw a wrench into your plans to save the world."The three main heroes of Undefeated, Marcus, Bastien, and Fela, are new conscripts in a world that's troubled by an ever-expanding Wasteland. While the authorities have always managed to keep the Wasteland under control, lately its monstrous plants and animals have been creeping down from the poisoned lands. After a chance encounter with a mutant wolf, the three friends are swept into a plan to figure out why the Wasteland is creeping over healthy territory - and stop the takeover, if possible.Undefeated is a traditional JRPG through and through. You travel across an overworld map that occasionally gives way to sub-maps of forests and dungeons. You visit towns. You take on side quests for folks. You meet enemies (which can be rendered visible on the sub-maps, giving you a chance to avoid random encounters) and take turns beating the snot out of them by issuing commands via menus. Depending on what you like from your RPGs, Undefeated may be exactly what you want.