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Baba Is You, with its straightforward way of messaging "the rules" on the game field - but spiraling in complexity as you modify those rules to solve the puzzle - hooked me right away.
That was six months ago.
While Baba does a much better job of constraining state than Recursed did, and that (plus step-by-step rewinding) makes it easy to gradually stumble through its earlier puzzles... it nevertheless reaches a point where rule combinations and intricate solutions require plotting out a brain-breaking number of steps ahead.
And while Baba is kind enough to provide multiple choices of which puzzle to do next, I got stuck in a spot where all of those choices were making me go cross-eyed.
Taking an extended break, and returning to the game with a totally clear perspective, unfortunately didn't help. The rules are clear, but these puzzles still confuse the absolute shit out of me.
I really enjoyed figuring out the less-intricate puzzles, though.
These misfits may not look quite like their big-screen counterparts, and their backstories may diverge from the movies', but make no mistake: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxythrives on the same rogueish quips, silly humor, and 1980s rock music that's made the MCU Guardians so compelling.
The game starts with our lovable mercenaries, somewhat predictably, "going around the law" and getting themselves into trouble; and as their reckless decision-making gradually heightens those stakes, the Milano puts in some serious miles taking them to various familiar (and unfamiliar) places and characters. Their journey is a surprisingly epic one, always managing to pack in some unexpected and wacky detour while still maintaining a coherent overall plot.
Sometimes the story gives you a choice for what Peter Quill says or does, and sometimes an ominous "Rocket will remember that" may appear in the corner, but this is more for comedic value than for role-playing. And there aren't multiple endings or significant narrative branches here: Guardians focuses itself on a linear thrill-ride of a campaign.
It has some combat, too.
It's not that the party-based fighting action is bad, in fact its combination of mechanics works pretty well!, yelling orders at your AI-operated crew like a Secret of Mana or a Tales game while you yourself hover around on Quill's jet boots taking pot-shots.
But aiming and dodging feels a little more clunky than it should, especially in hectic fights with lots of enemies and flashing effects. And of your special abilities, and the debuffs your crew can apply, only a few really seem worth using (those with stun effects and high-damage explosions).
It's fine, though - as are your very limited level-up and crafting options - because combat is simple enough to be fun, and rarely a frustration or annoyance. And more importantly, because your team is yelling at each other the entire time! The voice-acted back-and-forth, like some spacefaring Nate and Sully routine, continuously reinforces the characterizations of the Guardians.
And the "Huddle" mechanic is an utterly transparent way to give you a quick break mid-battle, then replace the soundtrack with a rockin' power ballad. It's awesome.
Guardians' shooting action could have been more fluid or tactical, and its progression could have been more elaborate, but they didn't really need to be -- the "gameplay" is more than adequate in accompanying, puncuating, and spicing up its protagonists' banter on their crazy, dramatic, hilarious adventure.
Just like Stories, this is a hybrid of button-mashy combat and choose-your-own-adventure-style branching paths; here, the trick is that some information you learn - the titular "omen sights" - can be shared with NPCs in the next loop, causing them to make different choices and reveal even more clues.
With well-written hints at every beat, suggesting your next steps without giving them away, and with merciful time skips when you've already seen some events, Omensight's mystery-adventure storytelling is a pretty great iteration on Stories. And the plot that you gradually uncover is ... fine, given that its original ending is unsatisfying as hell and a "good" ending had to be patched in later.
The combat is improved too, though still fairly imperfect. Well-timed dodges slow everything down, helping you set up counterattacks; and diverse enemy tactics keep fights from becoming too repetitive. But shoddy auto-targeting, lengthy recoveries from interrupts, and a few particularly annoying enemies (like dudes with shields who can also teleport away) can make some encounters fairly frustrating.
It's still fun most of the time, though. And even when it isn't, combat is kinda just punctuation between story events.
At the end of the day, Omensight is a better version of Spearhead's previous time-looping adventure, and I don't think I'd be disappointed if they keep on making them.
Better than: Stories: The Path of Destinies Not as good as: The Sexy Brutale It's funny: I hate dying-and-retrying in a game, but these time loop narratives do the same thing and I love it.
Outer Wilds has a strangely bland opening, with lifeless NPCs spewing control tutorials at you and sending you on errands to talk to other lifeless NPCS, but after exhausting those errands (or, when you finally get tired of them) and climbing into a ramshackle spaceship -- you sloppily blast off, gaze in awe at a weird, mystifying solar system, and (if you're as bad a Kerbal as I am) crash into the moon at fatal speed. And then you wake up ready to do it again.
If Deathloop is Groundhog Day with guns, then Outer Wilds is Groundhog Day with a spaceship.
But while Colt's time-loop detective work was tempered with firefights and magic abilities, Outer Wilds is all in on investigation. Each loop gives you an opportunity to explore another location, or try walking another path, to discover something new; to gradually unravel the mysteries of this system's exotic and bizarre planets, and records left by a long-dead spacefaring civilization.
If you ever wanted a version of Metroid Prime with no combat, like, just solving puzzles and scanning for info about the Chozo and Space Pirates, then this is definitely the game for you.
And as difficult as it is to do open-world, non-linear mystery solving, Outer Wilds pretty much pulls it off -- thanks to great hints in the log, to alluring visuals that draw you toward interesting locations, and especially to the ingenious "signalscope" which points you toward tantalizing radio signals. When this formula is firing on all cylinders, it's delightfully empowering, finding clues and connecting leads all at your own pace.
It doesn't always come together, though, and it's really a shame that when your leads aren't quite leading enough - when you've explored an area but missed some key detail, when you're struggling to understand the map, or when you're in the right place but at the wrong time - having to restart the loop and try again can make Outer Wilds feel... samey. (Liability of a time loop, I guess.)
The flaws are easy to criticize in retrospect: it's hard to locate specific milestones in dense locations like The Hanging City and The Sunless City, and it's hard to schedule time-sensitive paths like Ash Twin's partially-sandy hallway to the Sun Station portal. One non-obvious solution in particular, having to move Brittle Hollow's Black Hole Forge and then go to Ash Twin to portal back to Brittle Hollow, is a pretty significant bottleneck in Outer Wilds's trail of investigation.
And after a few instances of "wasting" an entire loop because I couldn't find the right log, or didn't do something in the right order, I started resorting to online guidance. Which dulled the satisfaction of discovery, but at least helped me see the mystery through without losing my mind.
I enjoyed exploring the world of Outer Wilds, and I really enjoyed following its in-game breadcrumbs, feeling like I was uncovering revelatory information every step of the way. I do wish that its in-game hinting was a little bit better at linking everything together; more signalscope targets would've been great!
But its obtuse points are a small part of the overall experience, and that experience, the joy and thrill of discovery in a weird solar system, is absolutely worthwhile.
I didn't play enough of Rebel Galaxy Outlaw to give it a fair shake; just enough to recognize what I miss - or to realize what I don't miss - from space-life simulators like Escape Velocity.
Something I miss: "safe" progression options, or to put it another way, options to create my own stepping-stones toward a fully decked-out warship. Modern games in this vein do consistently include features like asteroid mining, commodity trading, and simple transport missions, but as I lamented in the first Rebel Galaxy, they tend to be very ornamental and not worth the time. (Outlaw has at least some of these, but they're so poorly tutorialized that I don't think the game even wants me to do them.)
Something I don't miss: destinations, like planets and space stations, that are really just text menus. 3030 Deathwar Redux did a great job of building the illusion that you were actually walking around a spaceport using computer terminals and chatting with NPCs; I wish more genre revivals would take that hint instead of copying the same menu UIs from 20+ years ago. (Outlaw has 3D renderings of your character interactions, and even some voice acting, but you still click through menus - and submenus! - to initiate actions, so the facade is entirely transparent.)
Something I miss: a bit of substance to space travel. Pointing at a nav marker and waiting for time to pass is no fun (yo, Starpoint Gemini 2), but neither is fast-traveling straight to your objective. Between sublight piloting inside a system, and hyperspeed navigation across systems, one or the other should have enough mechanical complexity to make star-hopping feel earned. (Outlaw lacks complexity in either, with automatic docking and one-button autopilot jumps.)
Something I don't miss: impenetrable ship combat. As with navigation, "some" complexity in targeting or maneuvering can be thrilling, but if a game can't pull off Strike Suit Zero I'd rather it keep things simple like the original Rebel Galaxy. Clunky aiming and firing (like Space Pirates and Zombies), or a proliferation of fiddly energy options a'la "redirect weapons power to shields" (like Outlaw), can make dogfights feel more like work than a game. (Outlaw does implement a great "follow target" simplification, but throttle-control and evasion are terribly unwieldy.)
And something I kind of miss: compelling storytelling. I know the old games' mission narratives were just walls of text, and that doesn't cut it anymore, but you can't just whip up some 3D character models and lip-synced voice acting and call it a day. Without interesting characters or engaging events, why should I upgrade my ship or explore the galaxy? (Outlaw starts with a wordless animated short that feels like a concept pitch for investors; then the main character's voice-overs sound genuinely uninterested in her own plot.)
I think I'd be kidding myself to believe that substantive, well-written, and well-acted story content could come from anything short of a AAA budget; and even epics like Mass Effect miss those marks pretty regularly. But I do want to believe there's some satisfying compromise, some way for a small, independent production to deliver a good story - and a few fascinating side-stories - in an open galaxy with fun (if simple) mechanics. Like a sane version of Star Citizen.
Dystopian future sci-fi. Neon vaporwave art and music. Sword-slinging bullet-deflection and dismemberment. Tactical slow-mo. What's not to like about Katana Zero?
Well, believe it or not, this time-manipulation action game doesn't let you rewind mid-level -- despite having narrative justification for it. Instead, when you die, the game rewinds all the way back to the start of the level, making you try the whole thing again.
This is a little annoying in early levels, and becomes quite annoying as enemies become stronger and levels become more complex.
So when I reached the halfway point of the game's final "bunker" area, and needed a break from the die-and-retry stress, I checked a look at what lies ahead of me and decided ... nah.
Katana Zero's storytelling and aesthetics are really compelling; and when the action is flowing, it's a thrill. I enjoyed those parts of the game in spite of its frustrating retry loops. And I'm acutely aware that, if I kept going, the frustrations would overtake the fun.
With a grid-based map, save-point safe rooms, hidden treasure chests, button-mashy combat, level-ups... I really thought that Batbarian's demo was teasing a full-blown Bloodstained-style Igavania. But after soaking in the full game - now en-subtitled Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials - for a couple hours, I've come to realize that it's really more of a platforming beat-em-up adventure that's borrowed a 'vania framework.
That is, instead of rapidly accruing new equipment and upgrades that unlock new map areas or overpower enemies, I'm really just solving mildly-puzzling navigation and combat challenges by feeding specialized berries to a magic bat.
That it's more of an action and platforming game than I expected isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I still appreciate the game's humorous dialog...
... but without an abundance of Metroid-ey upgrades, or the mechanical complexity that can make a puzzle-vania, I'm just not that interested.
Untitled Goose Game has more of a QWOP-like, hard-to-control angle than I expected. Not that it's an outright gamepad stress-test, but, moving around and picking things up is just difficult enough (and slow enough) to discourage me from experimenting in the game's sandbox.
Which makes "playing" the game, as in figuring out how to fulfill its puzzle-y objectives, basically moot: I'm not having fun discovering how the level's elements work, let alone putting those elements together for a solution.
Being a jerk goose sounds a lot more fun than it is in practice.
In a way, Deathloop feels like a retort to my FOMO on Prey's story choices: if you "miss" something, you can try it again tomorrow! It's a great wrapper around Arkane's dense and intricate levels, even though some flawed progression and poor storytelling keep it from reaching "masterpiece" status.
The game unfortunately puts its worst foot forward, its intro forcing you through a linear series of narrative-setup and tutorial sequences; you can't choose your own objectives or destinations, you can't even use "Residuum" to save equipment for the next loop. And while the sci-fi mystery plot itself is intriguing, main characters Colt and Julianna distract from that plot with their aggressively one-dimensional personalities.
"Angry" and "violent" are character traits. Not full characters. Colt and Julianna deliver some fun one-liners, but their dialogue lacks any of the curiosity or introspection that'd help players connect to their crazy situations.
... anyway, once it's done with the tutorials and unlocks your Residuum, Deathloop opens up to reveal its real strength: self-directed investigation. Colt's objectives of finding the Visionary targets, figuring out how to manipulate their schedules, and snatching their Dishonored-like magic powers ("blink" is called "shift," now) make for a deeply-satisfying time-detective adventure like Majora's Mask or The Sexy Brutale.
Deathloop is at its best when it combines this murder map mechanic with the sneaking, shooting, and trap-exploiting principles of Arkane's previous games. Now, finally, when you see a locked safe or an unpowered gadget on your way to something else -- the game will remember that "discovery" for you, to make it easy for you to revisit in another loop!
So that's the good news. Here's the bad news: character progression kinda sucks. And not for the reasons you might think.
That is, you might assume that it's hard to collect enough Residuum to persist upgrades (it isn't), or that it's easy to die unexpectedly and lose everything (it ... usually isn't). The game is actually quite generous with the "Reprise" ability to respawn and recover your body, bar a few intensely-frustrating exceptions ("nullifiers" and a couple of body-snatching death-traps).
No, what limits you in growing Colt's power are a very small loadout and random item drops. You'll find and accumulate dozens of Character Trinkets, but can only equip four; piles of pistols, shotguns, SMGs and sniper rifles, but can only carry three guns; even the five "Slab" magic abilities are hamstrung by a loadout limit of two. And except for the Slabs and a handful of unique weapons, none of the upgrade pickups are scripted -- you're likely to see a lot of duplicate, garbage drops.
Since you can't change your loadout mid-level (except by picking up new guns), these limits discourage experimenting with situational or risky options. And you can't exactly go looking for a specific Trinket upgrade, since again, the drops are random and often garbage.
I really hope the next game gives you more real-time inventory flexibility, and uses scripted sidequests to reward you with high-value upgrades, instead of asking you to pull the lever on a random-drop slot machine over and over.
And I do want a "next game," another Arkane take on time-loop mystery solving, because adding that element to their intensely-immersive world-building is an absolute win. It's just a shame that Deathloop has so little room for upgrading yourself to fully conquer that world.
Except... it doesn't. In truth, Clockwork God is still an adventure game with counterintuitive puzzles and laborious traversal -- it just also has pressure-plates and block-pushing as part of those puzzles. (And physics bugs, naturally.)
It's a shame, because the writing is still, just, incredibly charming; especially when it's mocking the games that inspired it, which is often. But if I need to look up puzzle solutions every 30 seconds - like Use Battery Acid to Melt Vines, or Push Airplane Propeller to Cut Down Tree - I'd rather not play it at all.
