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Master of Piece  is a roguelike autobattler by I M GAME where you command pieces on a game board through a series of encounters, aiming to reach the end of the board to defeat a final boss, only to do this all over again. While all of the concepts and mechanics of Master of Piece  will be familiar to anyone who has played Slay the Spire  or its many derivatives, this title sets itself apart enough to remain an engaging experience throughout. In the current version of the game, there are two different playable piece sets, each with its own unique starting individual mercenaries and distinct class abilities. The mercenaries that are available for you to find through each run are also unique to whichever specific starting class you have chosen. While the options certainly aren’t infinite, the variability in starting mercenaries and abilities does lend itself to some sort of open experimentation.   Developer:   I M GAME Publisher:   I M GAME Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Released in Early access on February 4, 2026 for Steam. With that opening selection, you’ll be treading familiar ground if you’ve played the genre. You’ll be presented with branching paths that run through a series of battles, events that may confer positive or negative effects, and shops to upgrade your characters in some way, all of which culminate in a large boss battle. Once this boss battle is complete, you move onto the next zone and repeat the cycle. Once you have fully finished a run by defeating the final boss or dying, you are then sent back to the Departure Ground to start over. The Departure Ground is a pretty barebones home base, but it serves as the implementation vehicle for a few functions. First, this is where you choose your starting loadout after the initial tutorial run. Second, it’s where you can view your archives to read up on events you saw in your previous runs, see your run history, and view any other mechanical or story-related information you have gathered in your playtime. And finally, it’s also where you can construct buildings that empower you, such as one that gives you the ability to change your path during a run, regardless of normal constraints. As there are only two main characters to choose from and only a few buildings to craft, the grounds are quite limited in their offerings — though that may not be a bad thing. The lack of stuff to do at the Departure Ground means more time spent engaging with the battles and roguelike structure proper. It’s a good thing, too, as the battles are where Master of Piece  sets itself apart most. Your objective in each battle is to destroy the enemy’s standard while simultaneously protecting yours. If the enemy team destroys your flag before you can eliminate theirs or you lose all of your pieces, you lose the game and must restart the run. This makes the setup and strategy of play a bit different than many other roguelikes. Rather than protect your individual pieces, it may be best to sacrifice them to a powerful enemy just to ensure the safety of your standard. Boss battles are perhaps the most exciting feature here, because the boss serves as both the enemy standard and as an attacking or board-affecting piece. Each boss has distinct abilities that will shape your strategy and piece placement/movement, so it’s best to be open to adjustments in your plan.  The artstyle is simple, but I really love the look. At the start of each fight, you’ll place pieces down into open field slots, and they’ll move according to their speed. IF two pieces have the same speed, a roll is done to see who goes first. Each piece will then move two spaces forward (if available), perform an attack, and end their turn. Beyond the broader picture, many different enemy and allied abilities can shape how each battle goes. If you have a piece that gets more powerful upon attacking or taking damage, it is best to put them in situations where they engage directly with an enemy. Pieces with high speed and attack but low health are better served by finding open avenues to attack the standards directly. Some pieces are even better for support functions, such as empowering allies or weakening enemies, rather than confronting foes directly. This level of strategy is further compounded by the items, rumours, and relics you can find in a run. Relics are permanent team-wide buffs applied in each battle, which can sometimes be upgraded to provide insanely powerful effects. Rumours are individual passive effects that are granted to a single piece, but massively improve the capabilities of a single unit. Items are single-use effects, and often very situational. Out of these, I find items to be the least interesting or beneficial, but they may come in handy in a pinch. By contrast, rumours and relics are so powerful that they can almost immediately shape your long-term strategy. Out of these, I find items to be the least interesting or beneficial, but they may come in handy in a pinch. For an early access title, I am more than happy with what is available here. There is already a large number of enemies, zones, relics, and items here for your enjoyment. A comparable assortment of rumours and traits exist, as well. While the possibilities are not unlimited, the situations you may find yourself in and the variety of tools at your disposal make this game feel like a complete offering. Visually, Master of Piece  is quite gorgeous. The artsyle is simple, but has a board game-like aesthetic for your mercenaries and the board itself. There’s a highly stylized, animated quality to the objects on the screen that is really eye-catching, and while many of the basic pieces look similar, the unique mercenaries have a more visibly distinct feel. Truthfully, I don't have many complaints about Master of Piece at all. I suppose I don't love the music, but it is inoffensive. While the premise may sound derivative, it is executed well, and the battles are engaging, ever-evolving dances that are accentuated by the appealing visual style. The strategy involved and variety of options available do offer enough runway to stay fun for a decent number of hours, but I’m really excited to see the improvements and additions that come along, as well.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats The Rising Tide is the latest DLC follow-up to Square Enix's acclaimed 2023 release Final Fantasy XVI . In this new addition, we follow Clive, Jill, and Joshua to Mysidia so we may find answers to the mystery of Leviathan the Lost. Final Fantasy XVI was one of the most unique games in the entire franchise, and also one of the best. With its fast-paced combat, darker world, and excellent soundtrack, it released to critical and commercial success last year. I, myself, was so engrossed in the journey of Clive (and by extension Joshua, Jill, and the rest of the cast), that I ran through it multiple times to really soak in the world, themes, and music — something I rarely do with long games these days. As the final DLC for Final Fantasy XVI , The Rising Tide aims to expand upon the worldbuilding introduced in the main story, improve upon some gameplay elements, and let us spend a little more time with the cast we came to love. The story is best left experienced (I won't be spoiling anything here), and I really enjoyed it. We get some nice worldbuilding and lore related to the new region, plus some great new characters, as well. It's shorter than I anticipated — with my story playtime rounding out at about 4 hours — but for a DLC offering at this price, it's a pretty normal length. We get some minor character moments with Jill, but it seems like less than we were promised/lead to believe in the marketing. We get the answers we're looking for with Leviathan, but Jill is left out in the cold again. At least she has something to do this time around. A closer look at the wave we've been wondering about for the last year. Despite my enjoyment, it may come as a surprise to hear me say that the story is a bit of a letdown when compared to the main game. An often overlooked aspect of Final Fantasy games is the length they go to explore the themes presented in them. Final Fantasy XVI itself explores in earnest topics like systems of oppression — how those systems succeed, how they affect people, and what it means to be free of them. Much to my chagrin, The Rising Tide doesn't seem to say much of anything new at all. Its primary focus is to tell you what happened to Leviathan. The sidequests and some plot beats do, in a few ways, speak in concert with the major themes of the main game, but it never feels like the focus in the same ways that it is in the main plot. On top of that, the DLC takes place just before the final battle, so any implications on the world at large can be conveniently ignored. No mention of the events makes its way into the final sequence, either. All of that is to say — I think it's okay that it is the way it is. Final Fantasy XVI was a complete story, and while something more substantive would have been nice, it doesn't drag the DLC down much. The presentation is neat. Great cutscenes and music, but peppered with the same style of NPC stare-down dialogues we got in the main game. If you enjoyed the main story or previous DLC, you're going to get more of the same here in this regard. The final run of the DLC is an especially incredible visual treat. The combat doesn't have any major changes to things like system mechanics when compared to the base game, so if you loved it before, you get more of that. There are some great additions, however, that really improve the experience. New eikonic abilities, accessories, and buffs to some older abilities really open up the variety for playstyles. With the Ramuh and Bahamut reworks/buffs, it is now entirely viable to run a full magic build, if you are so inclined. Clive using one of the newest additions to his arsenal. There are some exceptional fights here. While I'm not a huge fan of how the eikon battles play, it's hard to understate just how cool they are to experience. The major one in The Rising Tide is similar to all the others in the sense that it is shallow mechanically, but visually incredible. We were told that the fights in this DLC would be more difficult than the main game, but I'm actually not sure that there is anything noteworthy on that front. I had not played since the release of the previous DLC, Echoes of the Fallen , but I did not encounter any major difficulty issues, even on Final Fantasy mode (outside of some growing pains trying to remember how to play in the first place). Something is different about the tonberries here... Much of my time with the DLC was spent on the Kairos Gate game mode. It is a sort mash up of arcade mode and an encounter rush type mode. You get a score for your performance in the fight, that score determines your grade, and you get points to spend within the game mode. Those points can be used to buy things like ability upgrades that are temporary or permanent within the mode. You also receive things like accessories and equipment as rewards in this mode. It's a nice addition overall, but I will say the final fight was a big disappointment for me. The Rising Tide dropped right after a major update which saw changes to some content in the main game, as well. You can now pet Torgal faster, fast-travel to quest givers upon completion, and there are new scenes and cutscenes in some of the sidequests. There were also some changes and buffs to the way certain eikonic abilities work, as previously mentioned. While there may be some shortcomings in terms of the depth of the story, there is still so much to love about The Rising Tide. As a companion piece to Final Fantasy XVI , it succeeds in elevating the base game by virtue of its gameplay additions. If nothing else, it reminds us that Final Fantasy XVI is a blast to play. Verdict A great new addition to one of 2023's best games. The exciting, fast-paced fights throughout Mysidia are also a visual treat. And, as always, Soken continues to impress with the new pieces on the soundtrack. Side content is hit-or-miss, and it's only about 5-10 hours long in total. Definitely recommend for anyone itching to spend more time with Final Fantasy XVI , even at this price point. Image Credits: Square Enix

Saying Goodbye (For Now) What FFVII Rebirth can teach us about life...and letting go. My first Christmas memory is unwrapping an NES, meant for the entire family, immediately hooking it up to the TV in the room, and playing Ducktales until my family forced me to stop. Our family Christmases were always held in the metro area of our home state. Both sides of my family lived there, so it was always convenient to have one big trip for the holidays. The trips were always long, and we relied on family to put us up for the nights we were there, but we always visited everyone we could. After all, this might be the only time we saw our family for the year (or even years). I generally hated these trips (or any other trip to the cities), but there was always at least one bright spot — visiting my uncle. I was really too young to understand the particulars, or even to know my uncle well, but every time we visited, it seemed like he had something for me. He was especially supportive of my art, providing me with materials to draw and color as much as I wanted on his table — or his floor, which was my preferred spot. He once gifted us a large box of art supplies that seemed to last forever. A box of crayons, colored pencils, pastels, and paints — it was the go-to whenever I felt like creating something new. It was always there when I needed it. My uncle passed away in 2000, and it was a difficult time for my family. Especially so for my dad. Both my grandfather and grandmother had passed away within the last few years, and he had now lost a brother. To be honest, I don't remember much of the time we spent with family at these funerals or gatherings, but what I do remember was seeing my dad cry for the first time at my grandmother's funeral, and for the second time at my uncle's funeral. I didn't really know how to process anything that was going on. When we arrived back home, a friend lent me Final Fantasy VII for the PSX. We were a few years removed from the massive frenzy surrounding the game, but I had never played it and didn't know much about it at all. I had played Final Fantasy I, IV, and VI, so I was at least somewhat familiar with the series, and since I didn't have to go to school anyway, I figured I'd give it a shot. What I got was a deeply moving and personal experience. An absolutely stunning game, in terms of visuals and scope. Aside from being a fun RPG with cool guys, big swords, and killer music, Final Fantasy VII ( FFVII ) is also a game about life, death, grief, and acceptance. Through Final Fantasy, I was able to gain a better understanding of not only these things and how they affect people, but I was also able to contextualize and process the events that I was going through. The most famous event in gaming history is a powerful moment, to be sure, but even beyond that singular bit, much of FFVII 's mid portion deals with the party's previous losses, their grief, and their acceptance of the events past and present that haunt them. It is my favorite part of the game. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the second of three installments in the Final Fantasy VII remake project, which was announced in 2015. Rebirth , in particular, covers that aforementioned mid portion of the Final Fantasy VII story, and aims to do so in a larger fashion. Much like 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake, Rebirth extends and extrapolates the events to give us a more in-depth look at the world, all with a great new coat of paint. Rebirth has a great balance of new scenes and characters with retelling the old story in both a recognizable and satisfying way...some of the time. In between all of the great character moments and exciting action of the battles, the game manages to muddle the big moments of the original game, more often than not. Major moments from FFVII are often presented in a tonally inconsistent way with the original, or even move from one tone to the next in the same scene, giving major moments no time to breathe. It is an extremely long game with so many things to collect and see, yet it somehow never makes adequate time for the moments that really matter in the narrative — moving at breakneck speed from somber goodbyes to slapping butts all within the same cutscene. I am not particularly averse to change, or having a new spin on old material. Much like with music covers, I don't think it's worth doing unless you've done something new with the material. So, for me, it's not that things are different; it's how they've deviated that confuses me so frequently. Which, in retrospect, is a shame. I do believe there is a great game in here somewhere . For all the narrative faults, there's so much to love. The soundtrack, with over 400 songs, is a phenomenal blend of arrangements of old songs and new material. The combat is fast, fun, and flashy. The characters, voicework, and cutscenes are some of the best I've ever seen in a game. So why, then, does this feel so hollow in the end? Fun and flashy, the combat absolutely delivers. My major grievances are with just a few elements of the game: Overwhelming side content and main story presentation. The side-content, in particular, really wore on me as I played through the game. Mountains of filler collectibles and towers litter each map — all of which distract from the actual good and fun things you can do. Unfortunately, you need to complete everything in order to do all of the sidequests and get many of the good moments and content in the game. You need to pick those leaves, and hit those towers, and collect that trash in order to get your best materia or unlock the character quests. Throughout that, Rebirth throws minigame after minigame at you. There seems to be a bespoke minigame for about 40% of the quests in each area. This sounds like a cool idea in theory, but most are really underdeveloped. Some have bad controls, some are broken mechanically, and most are just plain boring, but you have to do them all. You want to have a moment with Aerith? You'd better play this boring ass mushroom picking thing we threw in here, buddy. For the story, there's a lot more to love. Great action, voices, characters, and emotional moments throughout the game kept me engaged and wanting to see more. Not just the retreads of the original FFVII, either. The original beats of the story end up being some of the best moments. They give us a deeper understanding and appreciation of the characters and world that just wasn't possible back on the Playstation, but they fumbled the major incidents from the original game in ways that had me asking ' why ' more frequently than I would like. The final moments of the game are especially baffling. I feel like I have a good grasp on what happens, what they're going for, and where they're taking it for the next game, but I do wonder how a new player (one who has not played Final Fantasy VII before) takes all of what is happening in. The individual areas in Rebirth are massive. To me, it's not just that the ending is intentionally confusing/misleading — it's that it takes a major bite out of the events, in general. So much of the messaging is lost in these moments, all so they can save them for the next game in the installment. This was frustrating enough that I began to question whether we really needed 3 parts at all. So much of this game was tedious in terms of the actual gameplay experience. Could it have been condensed into a better game? By the end of this project, we will have spent 10 years, and what we get is a retelling that can realistically only land in one of two places: A fundamental change of the events that took place in the original FFVII , or a significantly worse, bloated retelling of the original narrative. To be honest, I'm not really sure where I want them to land here. It might be more exciting to have them do something drastically different in terms of outcomes, but I don't really have faith that this team could pull off anything satisfying. Landing on the original plot, would be nice because it's an all-time classic, but then I wonder what the point of all the plot ghosts and rainbow worlds and other nonsense over the last 10 years was for. So when I sat down to review this game, I had to think about how I could possibly score it. It is often a lot of fun, but is maddening to me in so many ways, as well. As I ruminated on the things I liked and didn't like, I quickly realized I couldn't score it at all. It became impossible for me to really take this work on its own merits. Every scene or mechanic was, in one way or another, chasing the ghost of a game that came out in 1997. The story, in particular, was impossible for me to decouple from the original work and the major impact it had on me at a vulnerable point in my life. Rebirth , then, has once again given me a valuable reminder that the cycle of grief can manifest in so many different ways. Only this time, it's dealing with the death of my time with the Final Fantasy VII universe. I will probably not play the next game. My frustration with the game and its errant retelling has really soured me on the project as a whole. I just have to accept that this game, and this trilogy, was not meant for someone like me. There are so many other people who get the chance to play this game (and the others in the trilogy) without their expectations or experiences colored in the way mine are, and I truly hope they enjoy it. In the end, I can take some comfort in the fact that my memories of my original experience will stick with me forever. Final Fantasy VII is a core part of my gaming identity, and even if I don't necessarily count it among my favorite games, it came at the perfect moment in my life. The original Final Fantasy VII , much like that box of art supplies from my uncle, will always be there for me, just waiting to be picked up whenever I need it. Photo credits: Square Enix

Casting Shadows When Elden Ring first released in 2022, it cast such a large shadow that it basically became an inescapable part of online discourse – whether you played it or not. That shadow didn’t just cover every game that came out around the same time (sorry, Horizon), but it also extended to FromSoftware’s games themselves – past and future. In many ways a departure from their previous games, Elden Ring might raise questions about the direction FromSoftware games might take, and to some, they might wonder if anything else could live up to Elden Ring . With the release of Shadow of the Erdtree , I’d say we end up with more long-term questions than answers (both in-game and in reference to FromSoftware' s direction itself), but it stands as a monumental experience. A massive, winding world, with great fights, music, exploration, and mystique, Shadow of the Erdtree follows what I would consider a general FromSoftware thread - the DLC is high-quality content, it is harder than the base game experience, and it does not answer most of the mysteries of the base game. Instead, Shadow of the Erdtree focuses on one major aspect and creates many new questions in its wake. Publisher: Bandai Namco Developer:  FromSoftware Platform:  Played on PS5 Availability:  Released June 20, 2024 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X Kindly Miquella atop a familiar steed. Where Shadow of the Erdtree differs from other FromSoftware DLC is mainly in two specific ways: extremely long and vast by their DLC standards, and the character progression is not as directly tied to the main game. For the first point, it took me somewhere between 30 and 40 hours. Unfortunately, I did not take down specific times, as I did not initially plan to write a review on the experience. There was talk about the DLC map being about the size of Limgrave (the starting point in base Elden Ring ), but this is clearly larger, more intricate, and frankly, more interesting. So much of the new map feels more intentionally built than the base game. The side areas feel less samey and repetitive, and the bosses are more unique in form and function. Gone are the days of cat statue repeats or Godrick clones. We don’t have to walk down the same copy-pasted mineshafts any longer. Individual areas and dungeons have so many paths into and out of them that it can be easy to miss an area here or there if you aren’t keeping track. The Shadow Keep was especially exciting to me. I came in through a back door and found no less than 4 exits to this legacy dungeon before I spun back around to take down the boss. It seemed as if every time I ran through the area, I found a new item I missed or a room I didn’t see. The excellence of The Shadow Keep, then, makes some of the other aspects of the DLC exploration so disappointing. Too many of the winding paths, or caves, or dungeons end up providing nothing of substance. So many of the cool hideaways give you a low-end smithing stone (which you can just buy) or a weak spirit ash (which you will likely never use). It can feel a bit like entitlement to complain – Shadow of the Erdtree gives many weapons (including new types), spells (also new types), and ashes of war – but having so much space dedicated to literal junk is just plain disappointing. The dark and eerie Land of Shadow offers much to see and experience. The second major departure, character progression, adds a bit of an interesting twist on how you power up in the DLC. While your levels are still very important for things like health, FP, stamina, and equipment/spell requirements, additional levels are noticeably less impactful than the Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes on your Damage, Damage reduction, and spirit ash strength. These new collectibles directly scale your damage and damage reduction – no leveling necessary. For many, these will be integral in beating some of the harder bosses. If you start to struggle, this is a great place to start for a quick boost. It also ties in nicely with the exploration loop. As these items are scattered throughout the Shadow Lands, venturing out and exploring becomes integral to the experience. These upgrades do not transfer to the main game, so there’s a bit of a disconnect there, but you’ll still get a decent number of runes to spend on levels or items. Shadow of the Erdtree excels in every way that Elden Ring proper does; the DLC has great boss fights (especially remembrance bosses), extraordinary freedom in build and weapon variety, and great music. For my money, I’d say the DLC is just flat out a better product than the main game in key areas as well. My previous complaints of ER notwithstanding, Shadow of the Erdtree feels more deliberate in its construction from top to bottom. They used what worked well in the base game to craft something that plays to the game’s strengths and either discards or minimizes its weaknesses. The NPCs, for instance, are more important or interesting than what you’d generally find in the base game, and have branching questlines. A plethora of unique spells, Ashes of War, and weapons await for you to try. Regrettably, some of the faults of ER do still fester. Weapon and spell balance is way out of whack in both PvE and PvP, with many options just being flat out better than other tools in their class by a significant margin. Some of the spells are so weak (or so powerful in a few cases), you must wonder if they’re all just bugged in some way. Major bosses with great lore relevance get no introductory scene or dialogue. And the DLC continues the FromSoftware tradition of barely including a story, and what is there creates more questions than answers. I know that the way FromSoftware presents their stories is already fairly polarizing – I myself am somewhere on the fence with it, in general. For those that don’t know, these games do  have a story, but not really a narrative. At least, not in a traditional sense. You get an opening scene that vaguely states what you are supposed to do, and in some games, they might explicitly tell you why you should be doing these things. Then, for the rest of the game, 98% of relevant world or plot information is tucked away in item descriptions. While a vast majority of the text lends itself to worldbuilding (flavorful descriptions that describe events that happened in the past or the way specific factions or people felt about an event), some of these descriptions are vital to understand the events you are currently going through. For many, the hunt for information is the best part of the ‘Souls” games. People spend weeks, months, and years hunting down every item and secret in the game. Gathering the texts and rearranging them on their corkboard like a detective uncovering a deep-state secret is not only fun, but it is the point  of the experience. Often, the conclusions people reach are not explicitly stated in-game — requiring leaps in logic or guesswork to make the pieces fit. For me, while I do enjoy that part of it quite a bit, I would absolutely appreciate a little more clarity as the game progresses. I should not need to reach an endgame area to learn why Steve, the second boss, is here trying to kill me (he’s recently been divorced by Tim, Final Bossman, and now they’re having a property rights squabble — you just happen to be walking down the wrong side of the street). You'll face foes both fearsome and strange here in the Land of Shadow Shadow of the Erdtree not only follows this, but I feel there is less clarity on why you need to be here at all until you’re reaching the end of the DLC, where, surprisingly, things are neatly laid out for you. And while the why does eventually get some semblance of clarity, the how  is only briefly referenced, and the DLC creates 10 mysteries for every answer it provides for the main game. If you came in here looking for anything other than what one guy, specifically, might have been up to from Elden Ring, you’re kind of out of luck. If that all sounds a bit daunting, the community has a number of YouTubers or redditors who can cleanly lay out what everyone has found thus far. For what it's worth, I played through the DLC with a level 200+ character and used multiple different weapons and styles as part of the experience. Once I finished the DLC, I brought these new toys with me to the base game on NG+2. Some of the new goodies absolutely trivialize the main game, and going back, the enemies might seem almost docile. I fully recommend you play through the DLC for the first time as an endcap to your adventure. Verdict Shadow of the Erdtree serves as a monumental achievement in FromSoftware’s library. I firmly believe that the combination of exploration, music, boss fights, art direction, freedom of exploration, weapon and armor variety, and any number of other successes has coalesced to create FromSoftware’s best DLC to date. A tight, fun, and ultimately moving experience that I would put in the upper echelon of their work, period. While the game might hold on to some controversial aspects of Elden Ring’s initial design, the DLC elevates, improves, or contextualizes so much of what has come before that it’s hard to say this is anything other than a masterwork. For every fault or flaw I might come up with, a million bright spots wash over them like a blinding light. At times serene, and at other moments haunting, Shadow of the Erdtree is here to sweep you off your feet - dead or alive. Marginally harder than the base game, you might run into some hard walls if you are not prepared. However, if you finished the main game and all of the side content there, you shouldn't find yourself struggling too much. Image Credits: Bandai Namco and FromSoftware

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (SoP) offers a heavy action experience. In many ways similar to Team Ninja standouts Nioh and Nioh 2, SoP offers a long and interesting take on the classic Final Fantasy. With hyperactive, punishing bosses and loot galore, you'll never find yourself bored while playing. Pros Fast-Paced, complex, and varied combat Beautiful soundtrack that contains new versions of classic sounds More missions and fights than most people could handle Multiplayer is cooperative and engaging Excellent voice acting Cons Story is very straightforward. Can be corny, but is always earnest. Progression through DLCs or endgame can be annoying Verdict Developer:  Team NINJA, Square Enix Publisher:  Square Enix Platform:  Played on PS4/5 Availability:  Released March 18, 2022 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC Genre:  Action RPG

A Naked Dash of Discovery Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the latest installment of the Ace Combat flight simulation games by Bandai Namco, and the first since 2014’s Ace Combat Infinity . It also happens to mark the first time I have ever played a flight simulation game at all (even one as supposedly arcadey as this). As a genre that I had never really had any interest in exploring until another reviewer I trust mentioned how much they loved this game, I was a bit befuddled – but, boy, was I missing out. Ace Combat 7 combines exciting dogfights, stealth flying missions, and base destruction with great music, clean visuals, and some really solid voice work to create an astounding experience, even for newcomers like me. With a multitude of missions, jets, weapon types, arenas, and objectives, the core experience of Ace Combat 7 never gets old, even if I found myself frustrated at times. Luckily, there are multiple difficulty modes, and no penalty for changing from one to the other if you switch. Publisher:  Bandai Namco Developer: Bandai Namco Studios Platform:  Played on PC Availability:  Released January 18, 2019 on PS4 and Xbox One, February 1, 2019 on PC, and July 11, 2024 on Nintendo Switch Before each mission, a briefing screen will explain the scenario. To put this up front, I am not good at this game. After I completed the main story for the first time, I hopped online and got smoked. I can’t aim a damn thing properly and barely get around flying, but I managed to pull myself through the game’s story mode, and eventually finished off the side missions from the DLC as well. My piloting skills were especially suspect in the beginning – trying to figure out how to get around, worrying about roll, pitch, and yaw – all while flying and seeing how those things affect your turning and speed in any direction, etc. Well, it was a bit overwhelming at first for me. However, I decided to stick it out because I got a feeling on that first mission that I couldn’t really shake. It was like I just knew that something great was here, but I just needed to get my feet wet a little more.            Unfortunately, that process took a bit longer than I would have liked it to. One of my biggest complaints is that the game does a poor job of really onboarding you into the Ace Combat experience. Tutorials for basic maneuverability options and controls don’t even show up until several new missions in. Some things are just straight-up not explained at all. I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants for a huge part of the experience. I played on easy for about half of the story and, in that time, I had only died once to anything other than a spectacular crash into a mountainside or lawn. It was definitely a struggle for me, but once it clicked, I found that some of the movements I struggled with became almost second nature. Beautiful vistas await you as you soar through the skies As a child, I always laughed at my dad when we’d play something like Mario Kart or Gran Turismo, and his body would contort for every twist and turn he took on the course. It was as if he believed that tilting himself and the controller in the direction he wished to go would will the car or kart to do the same. Yet, here I was, thirty-three and counting, twisting myself along with the jets as missiles flew by my cockpit, ducking and weaving as I raced through a canyon. I know my wife must have loved seeing me in action. Truth be told, I get motion sick quite easily now – much to my dismay when it comes to VR or other games I’ve wanted to play – but I did not feel anything during this game that I would consider sickness. I like to think that my torturous movements helped with that. The gameplay loop for Ace Combat 7 ’s story mode is simple – a new mission begins with a cutscene, which then leads to a mission briefing where your objectives and map are laid out to you. Usually a good idea to listen well to this, as the briefing will give you a better idea of what types of weapons you might want to bring, or plane types you might want to fly. Then, you’ll head into some menus where you can buy new planes, parts, etc., before moving on to your prep, where you select your plane and weaponry. Missions usually fall into some combination of these 3 types – dogfights (that is, plane-on-plane battles), Stealth flying, and objective destruction. The dogfights are definitely more my speed. Zipping through the thunderous skies, blowing up an enemy jet, and swinging around to take on a new one is exhilarating. Crawling through a chasm at 1/18th my normal speed, hoping not to be seen, is not. I can see a world where speedrunners or great pilots love these missions and work their hardest to fly through in record time and love every second. But that’s not me – I’m built different (worse). Once the mission ends, you might have to land the jet, and then it’s on to the next one. Some scenarios might require a more deft flying touch. There is a story here, and it is fine. The game’s old now, but at the risk of spoilers, I’ll keep it vague. Cutscenes can feel disconnected from what you, the player, are doing in the gameplay, but I think it works. I didn’t find anything too profound – there is a war, and you have to fight it – but the direction things took was enough to keep me invested. I think those moments all pay off in a way at the end, so it’s definitely not something I would skip.             Flight controls are tight, if not a bit obtuse at first, but once you get some of the basics down, you’ll be soaring upside down or sideways with relative ease. Weapons are vast and varied, but all function mostly the same, with a few exceptions. You have your standard missiles, a machine gun, and a special weapon. This special weapon can be anything from more anti-air missiles, bombs, air-to-ground missiles, or even a railgun (my personal favorite for dogfights). Different missions might call for different weapon types to get through effectively. Generally speaking, the dogfights are where the game really shines. It’s so fast and fun, and the music never disappoints – always seeming to pick up and work in sync with the moments in-game. The soundtrack here is truly special. I feel like it's among the very best I’ve ever heard, period. Songs like Daredevil, Charge Assault, 444, and Archange elevate the experience well beyond what I would have envisioned. They manage to create moods both intense and emotionally moving at times, in spaces you didn’t know you’d want them to. Keiki Kobayashi really provides us with something special here, and I hope if you pick the game up, you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did. Multiplayer is an afterthought for me. There are a few differing modes – A free-for-all Battle Royale and Team Deathmatch. They function as you would imagine them to. Dogfights in team or solo settings, with points awarded for kills - top scores win. I did not put much time into it, but it’s basically the same as a dogfight in the story, but the pilots are better. Unfortunately, the multiplayer is not very active on Steam. I was only ever able to see a few lobbies at a time in the searches. You might have better luck on the Switch version. A great atmosphere that is elevated by superb music. Verdict Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is an excellent game. As my first foray into the combat flight simulation genre, I was almost always engaged or enthralled with the hectic experience. Notable standouts in the game here are the music, dogfights, and customization. I am left in awe of some of the moments you get to zip through, and it has created a new fan out of me – not just for Ace Combat games, but flight sims in general.

Re-leash the Beast The day I Am Your Beast released, I was walking the trails of the woods with my dog, when I noticed a nest, filled with baby birds, had fallen off the branch it had been resting on. My dog was the first to notice, sniffing around the poor fledglings, causing those that could to flutter a few feet away. As I collected the birds to place back into their nest, their mother was constantly swooping in and out, trying to stop me from harassing the children. After a few minutes, I managed to place the nest in a safe holding spot nearby and got everyone back inside. Feeling pretty good about what we had done, my dog and I made our way back home. Over the last few days, I've gone and checked on those birds, and they all seem happy and healthy. It is nothing more than coincidence or happenstance that I found those birds, much like it was only by coincidence that I found this game, or by happenstance that the game itself starts off with our character, Harding, stumbling upon some soldiers who had just killed an innocent bird. Sometimes, random events can lead to big changes in our lives. For Harding, it not only created a whirlwind of death and destruction but also a journey of healing and friendship. Publisher:  Strange Scaffold, Frosty Pop Developer:  Strange Scaffold Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released September 10, 2024 on Steam. I Am Your Beast is the latest game from indie developer Strange Scaffold, creators of titles such as Clickholding and El Paso, Elsewhere . This entry, however, might be their most exciting yet. As a high-energy first-person shooter, I Am Your Beast combines brutal action with ruthless efficiency to create a wonderfully frenetic experience. I often found myself on the edge of my seat, trying to scrape time off each bite-sized mission, aiming for my best score yet. The basics are this: each level is a short excursion with an objective (kill guys, reach a destination, etc.), you receive a grade score based on the time it takes to complete a level, and there are bonus objectives in each level. Your "time” can be reduced through killing enemies, with different methods offering different time bonuses. Getting through the story levels the first time is always easy enough — there's very rarely a need to be exacting in your methods in the first go. But the real meat of the game comes from replaying the levels and trying to sand off the edges of your run. Getting that S rank can often be a real test of not only your skill, but your patience as well. Luckily, there's no real randomness to these levels — enemies, equipment, and objectives are always in the same place. So, the onus lies on you to find the best route and rack up your score where you can, using the tools at your disposal. There are also challenge levels that offer some fun scenarios outside of the scope of the story. I did not complete all of the available challenges in my time with the game, but the ones I played were just as fun and exciting as everything we got in the story experience. Strange Scaffold has made some promises to add content to the game, so if you enjoy what is here already, it feels pretty safe to say you're in for even more frenzied fun down the line. Beyond the core gameplay loop itself, there remains a lot to love about this game. Something as simple as the hitstun/ brief stoppage when you land a headshot can really add to the experience. In many ways, the little flourishes in animation and sound that happen as you race through a level elevate the totality of the experience. There's just such a POP to everything going on here that I could help but laugh as I blew up a helicopter, or rocketed a group of agents unaware of my presence, watching them disperse into bits. I Am Your Beast always remains a visceral, merciless barrage of bullets and blood at hyperspeed, and I am enthralled by every moment. Each design choice feels like the right one, every ounce of this game belies a clarity of purpose in form and function. From the placement of items or objectives, to the way the colors blend or contrast, there's a real deliberate effort to make everything you need discernible. The music in I Am Your Beast is probably not its high point, but it is very good, nonetheless. Each track fits the moods that the story or scenarios intend to create. High-energy sounds for those fast-paced levels, somber or tense tones when needed. I would say that it serves its purpose well, but I didn't come away with any particular sounds that stuck with me beyond my time in-game. There is a lot going for the game in other sound design aspects, however. Every shot from my gun, or barrel explosion, or leap from a tree was accentuated by what the sound design team put in place. I Am Your Beast also has a story, but I fear it is pretty barebones. The player character, Harding, is once again called to action by his former boss, but Harding declines. This sets in motion a plot revolving around Harding's former boss trying to rope him back into the fold, and Harding battling his commander's guerrilla army in avoidance of that. While there isn't much going on in terms of storytelling, they really deliver on the other aspects of the scenes. The voice work and writing are exemplary, both in the cutscenes themselves and beyond. In the story scenes, we are given a great range of emotions, all delivered well, and the dialogue just feels so natural. In the missions themselves, we are treated to so many laugh-out-loud one-liners that I found myself smiling even when I was struggling with the mission itself. An assortment of deadly encounters awaits you in the missions and challenges I Am Your Beast provides. And so, I guess that leaves us with another question: If the story of I Am Your Beast is so thin, and the game doesn't seem to be saying much at all, is it still an artistic experience worth having? I'm here to tell you, yes. I Am Your Beast is pure art. This game made me feel joy, anxiety, excitement, and even frustration. Not every game, movie, or song has to have a deeper meaning to be worthwhile. Sometimes, it's good enough to just bust some heads, and, much like my experience with the birds, sometimes you just come away feeling like you were really good today. They lived. Verdict I Am Your Beast is a visceral, exciting, and often silly first-person shooter that is worth every bit of your time and then some. Responsive controls, a unique visual flair, and an enthralling pace create a joyous experience that gives you just as much as you are willing to put into it. The game has a simple design that leaves something to be desired in terms of narrative and music, but make no mistake – these short-form excursions are wildly entertaining. Image Credits: Strange Scaffold and Taylor Rioux

You're not alone I am not, by any reasonable metric, an “Alien” franchise fan. I have only ever seen two of the proper “Alien” movies ( Alien and Prometheus ), and I have never played a single “Alien” game. I don't have any nostalgic attachment to the characters, or really understand what a Xenomorph is (beyond ‘scary alien’). Yet, as I sit under a desk or in a locker, the music kicks in. While I make Ripley hold their breath, a demon made flesh prowls the room in front of me. I begin to understand. Just a total sense of helplessness and fear. No one to help you, nowhere to run, and nothing you can do except pray . Publisher: Sega Developer: Creative Assembly Platform: Played on PC Availability : Oct 17, 2014 for PS3, PS4, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One. December 5, 2019 for Nintendo Switch. Alien: Isolation is a survival horror game set in the “Alien” universe, a universe created (and primarily depicted) in the horror film franchise created by Ridley Scott. It's important to note this, as the protagonist of Alien: Isolation, Amanda Ripley, is the daughter of the main protagonist of the film franchise, Ellen Ripley. That aforementioned sense of helplessness against an unknowable, unkillable enemy makes up the bulk of the experience in Alien: Isolation.  Not just in terms of feeling, but in the gameplay as well. In fact, I would say that most of my time in-game was spent hiding from the Xenomorph. There are various systems at play here — a crafting system that allows you to make tools and weapons in your fight for survival, hacking that opens doors or sets off alarms, and your basic combat mechanics. All of which coalesce to create the core of the game. Noise makers to attract enemies, Molotovs to harm or deter them, med kits to heal, and so on. While there are multiple enemy types (human, android, face-hugger, and Xenomorph), none really matter in the face of your reality — everything is in service of or related to avoiding the Xenomorph. You could  shoot those guys with your revolver, but doing so will bring the Xenomorph to you; sprinting is faster but noisy, and so on. Every part of you is painfully aware that getting caught by these enemies can spell death. Which is why I so often set the Xenomorph on the other enemies themselves. Tripping an alarm or throwing a noisemaker into a group of enemies is a sure way to clear them out, while also giving you a little more breathing room to get your tasks done. It can be risky as the the Xenomorph may spot you and take you, but often worth the effort. It ends up being a much faster and easier task to just avoid the Xenomorph than both groups at once. There are, of course, multiple tense sequences where the Xenomorph is scripted to appear, and these are generally well done. From the way the lights might cut in and out to the clanking of footsteps in the vents, Alien: Isolation  keeps you on your toes. The creature can even wait for you in vents, marked by dripping pools of saliva. Over time, the Xenomorph learns your habits and finds ways to sniff you out, making the experience even more terrifying. All of this is accentuated by the score. Most moments are quiet, with only the sounds of your actions and movement taking place. But when you're being hunted, or something intense is happening, those strings kick in, and man  does it work. In many respects, it works in the same way a movie score does, where everything bolsters what is happening on screen at a given moment. The music is not the only similarity to the films. Thematically, Alien: Isolation fits right in with Ridley Scott's works, exploring the ideas of how corporate greed, malice, and incompetence serve to harm us. The Xenomorph itself serves as this primal force, untouchable in its fury, rendering us at once both insignificant and helpless. The game explores futility and purpose, creation and carelessness. Unfortunately, most of this comes in the form of walls of text and audio files scattered throughout the levels. While the story is mostly fine, I think it's a bit too long, with the back third almost falling apart entirely. So much of the game is sneaking about and avoiding enemies that it becomes fairly monotonous by the end. There's only so much desk crawling I can do before it starts to wear on me. I'm convinced we would not lose anything by cutting out at least a third of the levels. Despite this, I still came away appreciating the text and audio logs, and environmental storytelling on display. I didn't come into the game as an “Alien” franchise fan, but the quality of work here certainly has me leaving as one. I need  more. Thankfully, after I finish all the movies, there is a mountain of additional tie-ins to get through. They even announced a sequel to this game, and much like the Xenomorph hiding in the vents, my mouth is watering at the prospect. Verdict Alien: Isolation succeeds in so many more ways than it fails. Everything in the game serves to make the experience tense and frightening, with the Xenomorph itself being the real star of the show. Level and sound design create a sense of paranoia not commonly felt in games like this. Oftentimes bleak, the story is done well enough and is bolstered by the excellent supplementary material found throughout the game. That said, if you are not a fan of that type of storytelling, it may not work for you. While it sticks around a little too long, it's a strong outing, and I'm looking forward to the sequel. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux

More of a fever dream than a fright-fest When I think about my early childhood, the memories are a bit hazy. I can picture the broad strokes - cattails in the pond, tall figures walking around and talking, shadows and shapes of houses in the distance. But all the details, like faces or words spoken, are lost. Little Nightmares is like those memories translated into video game form. At least aesthetically. The actual events and creatures contained within the game are certainly more unnerving than anything I ever experienced first-hand, but the visuals hold a dream-like quality to them that is really engaging as an art style. Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, Playdigious, Namco Bandai Games America Inc. Developer:   Tarsier Studios Platform:  Played on PC Availability : April 28, 2017 for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows. May 18, 2018 for Nintendo Switch. From the very first moments of play, it is clear there is something more to the game than meets the eye. The camera sways and shifts as you wander through the dark. Giant figures stalk the halls, reaching around corners and under furniture with long, spindly arms. Grotesque people with squished faces look for every opportunity to devour you. So much of the game is dripping with a sinister visual flair, it's impossible not to think something deeper is happening here. Yet, the game doesn't give you any direction in the storytelling department. There are no cutscenes or text boxes, no dialogue or notes to find. Everything is communicated through environmental design and music. That music does a lot of the emotional lifting, too. While it mostly fades into the background, it is a tense and disconcerting score that shows up in all the right moments - keeping you on your toes when there's an enemy nearby, or inducing paranoia through clever sound design in more quiet moments. Hide and Seek is the name of the game. Unfortunately, that wordless, oblique storytelling doesn't really give you much to work with on a surface level. You don't learn much of anything about any of the characters’ (including Six, the protagonist) motivations or ideals, and you'll never hear a thing about how they're all related. While not necessarily a negative, that hyper-focus on visual style over all else means that people not looking to do a deep-dive on the environments might not get much out of the experience. At this point, I'm sure you've noticed we haven't discussed the way the game plays at all. Truthfully, I find the actual action to be the most underwhelming aspect of Little Nightmares. At its core, this is a puzzle platformer with a heavy focus on stealth. I'm using the word “puzzle” a bit loosely here, as the most difficult decisions you’ll have to make are whether you sprint past an enemy or wait them out under a table. There is no combat in this game - you're just a child running for your life. You'll dash, crawl, swing, climb, and jump to safety as you're chased across the few short levels in the game. There's not much mechanical depth to the action - you have a grab button for picking up items and climbing/swinging, a jump button that doubles as a throw button when holding an item, a crouch button to walk silently or slide while running, and a lighter to illuminate the darkness. That mechanical simplicity works in the game's favor, as it never feels like you're searching for the right move. There's a clarity of purpose when you walk into a new room - hard to mess up when you have so few options available. Little Nightmares has great ambience, combining a unique visual flare with a moody soundscape. Disappointingly, that lack of mechanical depth goes hand-in-hand with mostly uninspired level design. Each room usually has a single exit, and it's just a matter of finding the right object to climb up or finding a key for the door. There are a few exceptions to this formula, but they're rare. The chase sequences are great fun (maybe the most interesting part of playing  the game), but suffer from this same problem. There's really no creativity in the way you progress or navigate the world. Luckily, Little Nightmares is an incredibly short game, with my run clocking in at just over three hours. The brevity of the experience keeps the game fresh, even if it is mechanically repetitive. There's always something new and interesting to look at or figure out in the brief runtime. Despite these hiccups, Little Nightmares was still a positive encounter. It is extremely expressive in its visual language, and it kept me on the hook for the whole ride. The music and art direction create a very uneasy atmosphere, which I found more interesting than scary, but your mileage may vary. In the end, Little Nightmares feels just a bit unfocused and comes away seeming more like a fleeting daydream than the nightmares it sought to emulate. Verdict Little Nightmares is a game begging to be examined more closely, but even if you do, I'm not sure you'll ever get a concrete answer. Despite being visually engaging, nothing I was shown motivated me to dig deeper — leaving the experience feeling a bit underwhelming. With such a short runtime, Little Nightmares stays engaging the entire playthrough, but it never quite reaches the heights I had hoped for. The game has a captivating atmosphere (both aesthetically and musically), but it ultimately left me feeling more ambivalent than excited. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux

The wolf has been defanged It has been 10 years since the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition  and a lot has changed since then. BioWare, specifically, has undergone massive changes over that time, with much of the leadership of the company moving on. Included in those departures was David Gaider, the lead writer and creator of the setting of the Dragon Age Franchise. While Dragon Age: Inquisition released to critical acclaim, receiving the first Game Awards’ “Game of the Year” award in 2014, BioWare has had only a few games come out since then – both of which would be classified as ‘disappointing’ at best. 10 years is a long time to wait for a new game, especially one as highly anticipated as Dragon Age: The Veilguard . So that begs the question: was the wait worth it? Well, let’s talk about it. Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer:  BioWare Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on Oct. 31, 2024 for PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series S/X Dragon Age, as a series, has always been inconsistent in terms of its gameplay, tone, and even its art direction, in some respects. Its general need to reinvent the wheel could be likened to another famous RPG series: Final Fantasy. While perhaps not as drastic as the Final Fantasy series, Dragon Age is a property that does not iterate on many of the core concepts in previous games, opting to instead completely modify any aspect they felt was not working for the latest game. Dragon Age: Origins , the first game, was a largely grounded dark fantasy game with a breadth of roleplaying systems and opportunities. Dragon Age 2  kept many of those bones, but made some shifts in tonality and gameplay – opting for a more quippy, or sometimes even silly, tone compared to its predecessor. That isn’t to say Dragon Age 2 did not have serious or dark moments, or that Origins  was humorless, rather that there was a shift in the prevailing tone and tenor of the story and dialogues. This was supplemented by BioWare changing how dialogue works, offering 3 choices at a given time – Diplomatic, Humorous, and Aggressive. Dragon Age 2 also modified the combat to a more action-oriented style, with a faster pace, button mashing, and waves of enemies versus set encounters you could plan for ahead of time. Dragon Age: Inquisition then made another leap – eschewing much of what came before. Continuing the trend of tonal shift, Inquisition was a much more sanitized story, with nothing negative ever happening to you or your party, and no lasting consequences for any of your actions. In almost every instance, the “bad stuff” would happen off-screen, with you only coming in to see the aftereffects and do cleanup. Dragon Age: Inquisition  made additional sweeping changes to the combat, now being almost entirely action-focused (although there is an option for a tactical mode), and relying much less on consumables or traps. Inquisition also removed the existence of healing magic, opting instead for limited-use potions. The largest and most controversial change was the shift to an open-world style, with large explorable zones and an unimaginable number of collectibles and banal side quests. Flashy and fun, the combat is always engaging. Despite all these changes, Dragon Age kept a throughline on a few things – strong character writing, a grounded, semi-realistic art style, and choices carrying over to the following games in the series. BioWare has always excelled at character writing; these games have been no different. Some of the most complex and interesting characters to ever grace the medium have come from BioWare games, and the choices you made regarding those characters always influenced the next game or games, even if in small ways. Codex entries here, dialogue there, or a questline that way – your choices felt meaningful and represented in the world around you. I say all this because Dragon Age: The Veilguard doesn’t really have any of that. Despite being an explicit and direct continuation of the previous entry, it has so thoroughly divorced itself from Inquisition and the continent of Thedas that it barely feels like it belongs in the same world. Some change is to be expected, but I was a little thrown off by just how different it is. How could a direct sequel, in a series known for its choices, only include 3 from the previous entry? I would be selling it short by saying I was incredibly disappointed with this decision from BioWare, and it becomes even more frustrating when characters from those previous games start showing up and just completely gloss over or ignore any consequential happenings from the prior games. I think BioWare underestimated how much people appreciated seeing their world come to life, even in small ways, as the games went on. I do understand the difficulties this presents from a development standpoint. At some point, there must be a crunch in terms of what carries over – I just don’t comprehend why now . This is meant to be the big finale for many major plot threads in the series, and many major players are deeply involved in the prior game. Condensation is fine, but 3 choices total is bizarre. Veilguard goes to great lengths not to step on any toes for world states, but it just seems off to include those cameos in the first place. That lack of reactivity is not limited to imported choices – even self-contained choices are cosmetic or misleading. As you progress, it becomes clearthat you and your team are safe. There are never any real stakes throughout the campaign. There is a single choice in Act 1 that feels consequential and then absolutely nothing until you reach the end of the game. The game plays it so safe that you can’t even be a little mean  most of the time. The dialogue wheel will present you with an option that may look scathing, but if you select it, you just get a lukewarm response that doesn’t even say what you’ve chosen. All outcomes through the bulk of the game are also predestined. So much is happening in this world; how can there be no tension? Something you’ll also notice very early on is that there is almost no intraparty conflict – everyone gets along great. Even at their worst, team members are quick to reconcile after a brief lecture from Rook, and most often the conflict is entirely juvenile. This is not necessarily a bad thing – it’s prudent to put aside your differences to face the greater threat – I just didn’t love the way all of it was handled. With so many disparate personalities and backgrounds, you would think something would pop up here or there. Companions in Dragon Age have always been very vocal about their dislikes and opinions of other members, often sparking some of the most memorable conversations between the cast. Despite this, I do love this cast of characters. It may be my favorite companion class in all of Dragon Age history. Each party member is unique, and the game does a great job of fleshing them out as people. Many of the missions in-game are directly tied to the party members, and those quests are some of the best content in the game. There is a gift-giving system, but it’s underwhelming. You just bring the gift, and you’ll get a short dialogue about it and then it’s done. Even beyond that, many of the companion scenes suffer from the same writing issues that permeate the entire game – everything comes off a bit like it has been crafted for a children’s movie, rather than dark fantasy. The game also suffers from the exclusion of the opportunity to speak to your party members outside of their specific missions. There’s no way to ask them about themselves, their people, or anything they care about. Every interaction with your party is on-rails. And while all the scenes are so well animated, I think it may come off to some as over-animated . Everyone is so expressive physically that it creates a juxtaposition with the underwhelming facial animations. We may owe some of this to the shift in art style, which has been met with mixed reception, but I love the way this game looks. I don’t really mind the changes in proportions of the characters versus prior entries, and the high saturation and color palette give the game a clean look. The effects and environments are often flat-out stunning. The environments are especially gorgeous, with beautiful vistas, grimy keeps, and everything in between. The layout of the areas being more self-contained seemed to help BioWare focus more on the visuals. Where Inquisition  had giant, muddy, open areas, Veilguard  makes everything worth looking at. However, I do feel like changes to some of the more iconic designs (i.e. Darkspawn) do a disservice to the franchise by further distancing Veilguard  from Dragon Age’s overall visual identity. The character models look incredible, and the hair is gorgeous! The new visual flair works wonderfully with the combat as well. Splashes of color and nice particle effects keep the battles engaging - not that it really needed the help. I played a custom difficulty with enemy aggression and damage turned all the way up, and the fast pace and high damage kept me on my toes the entire time. It’s going to draw a lot of long-term comparisons to Mass Effect 2  – you map only a few abilities to your loadout at a time and give commands to your companions rather than fully control them. Also, much like Mass Effect 2 and 3 , there is a primer and detonation system that makes up the real meat of the battles. There’s not much to it: some abilities set the weakened, sundered, or overwhelmed status, and other abilities detonate it – causing a high-damage burst. The systems have been shaved down to make room for the fast pace, much like the transition from Mass Effect 1 and 2 . The mechanical complexity has taken those same hits, with there being very few auxiliary systems to worry about, outside of finding gear sets and equipping them. There’s no more crafting, traps, supplementary potions, or anything of the like. Repeating the same missteps they did with the Mass Effect franchise, BioWare has distilled Veilguard  down to only combat and conversations with more restricted input. For some, this might be a welcome change, as fights in the previous entries could feel a bit bogged down by all the options, and gathering and crafting were just so time-consuming in Inquisition. There has also been a change in the composer for this title, with Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe taking over for Trevor Morris. It’s a pretty drastic change in style. I am generally a fan of Zimmer when he’s on , but it’s just another miss for me. I can barely remember much of the music from my time playing, but there are a few standouts. It’s not that I feel like the music is bad , per se. It’s just not particularly memorable, and occasionally doesn’t fit the mood of the scene or fight quite right. One major strength of Veilguard  is in its story. Seeing some of these plot threads come to a definitive end after so long was really satisfying. They really nailed it for me, especially in the back third of the game. Act 3 is just so moving as a long-time player. That said, I couldn’t help but wish for more. In my mind, there’s so much missing from the game because of those excluded choices from the previous games. As events were unfolding, I often thought back to some of the people who never made it into Veilguard. What would THEY be doing right now?  There’s a lot of room for head-canon and fanfiction, but I prefer stuff like that is codified. Overall, the game seems to have positioned itself as both an ending for what has come before, and a new beginning for what the Dragon Age franchise could be moving forward – within the narrative and without. There is a notable exception for the post-credits scene. It is, quite possibly, the worst storytelling decision BioWare has ever made, and I really hope they take that one back. That strong story is elevated even further by wonderful performances from the cast. In particular, Solas (Gareth David-Lloyd), Neve (Jessica Clark), Bellara (Jee Young Han), and Davrin (Ike Amadi) are standouts to me. But from top to bottom, this cast does an exceptional job of making every line count. Each member nails the emotions of the moment in every scene, and I don’t really want to single anyone out for best or worst. I would find myself running back and forth from area to area just to hear them talk a little more, which makes it even more disappointing that you don’t have the option to ever just sit down and chat with the party. All that running back and forth also let me enjoy the level design. The levels are self-contained areas with a great mix of winding paths, semi-open fields, and shortcuts that help you loop back around. Navigating any level can be engaging, as you’re always looking for those secret rooms for treasure chests, or hidden ladders to take you back to another room you’ve already been to. I was honestly a bit surprised by the verticality of the levels, as well. Generally speaking, BioWare games have a very flat structure – single-level rooms or fields, with maybe the occasional stairway to a second floor. But here, it’s built into every structure, and those structures fit into the world around you in interesting ways (sometimes). If I must nitpick, I would have liked to see more variety in the biomes or zones we went to. Obviously, this story is mostly self-contained to a specific geographical location, so I understand why we didn’t get to see more. I just think the game is beautiful, and I would have loved to explore more of the world. The environments are breathtaking and absolutely worth exploring. I fear I’m at risk of sounding too negative as this review goes on, but I really liked this game! When all the gears are turning, and things click into place, it’s some of the best work BioWare has ever done. There are just a lot of little bumps in the road for me. Ten years is too long to wait for any game, and even if the wait was shorter, I am not sure this is where I would have wanted this series to go after Inquisition . Dragon Age’s struggles with identity are longstanding, but I think it’s time for BioWare to lay down roots and start watering. If they are certain the old Dragon Age is dead and gone, it’s time to focus on what works here and grow from it. I do wonder how those 10 years were spent. We know it used to be a multiplayer game, and now it isn’t. We know that other characters were supposed to appear, but they didn’t. After so many delays, so much turnover, and untold amounts of corporate meddling, it is a wonder that this game arrived at all. I wonder if this is the game the team set out to make, or if there just came a point where you have to get it out the door. There are a lot of head-scratching decisions in the way this game works, but it does  work. It runs well, is fun to play, and has so, so much heart. I have gripes, but I did love my time with the game. Every time I felt like I was losing interest in the game, a new main mission would rope me back in. There is a lot to love about Dragon Age: The Veilguard , but if you’re a long-time fan of the series, your enjoyment of the game may be affected by how you weigh the changes that were implemented. For me, I can’t really look at this game in terms of what it could have been, or what we should have gotten – all I can do is play the game in front of me. In that respect alone, I think it’s a damn fine game. Verdict Dragon Age: The Veilguard  is an exciting, beautiful, and engaging game that I really enjoyed. Stunning environments, character models, and effects give the game a unique visual flair, but the lack of variety in enemy types and places to go hampers it. Great combat, fun characters, and an engaging story keep things afloat - even with a laundry list of faults. Veilguard  suffers from juvenile writing for most of its runtime, with many of the interactions coming off as candy-coated or softer versions of what one would expect from this long-running series. Despite those faults, the game has so much heart that it feels impossible not to like it. Image Credits: Taylor Rioux and BioWare

Kaya’s Prophecy  does not shy away from its influences, positioning itself as a mash-up of Slay the Spire  and Stacklands . However, by explicitly naming them, it does open itself up to direct comparisons. While it may not reach the highs of Slay the Spire , the comparisons are not at all disastrous for Kaya’s Prophecy , which manages to blend the village management mechanics quite well with the card-based battles.  Publisher: Yogscast Games Developer:   Jérémie & Thibaut Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability: Released on April 10, 2025 on Steam. Developed by Jérémie & Thibaut, Kaya’s Prophecy  starts off with the destruction of a nearby village by a malevolent god. As the sole survivor of the event, you must rebuild the village and repopulate, all while checking off the boxes the game gives you in your checklist. There is a story here, but it’s not particularly substantial — you just get snippets here and there after major checkpoints, as well as dialogue between the villagers and whichever boss you encounter at the end of the area. Once that basic plot groundwork is laid down, the game hits the ground running, putting you into the village management portion of the game. Building up your village requires you collect and stack cards to craft recipes you either buy or find, which in turn allows you to check off the list of objectives to progress further. Items you don’t need or have too many of can be turned into Evil Blood, which can then be turned into booster packs to provide you with another set of resources or locations that you can use to craft what you need. The RNG nature of these booster packs adds a bit of tension, as each day in the village is on a timer and you need a specific number of food items in a day to appease the god who torments you. This may lead to frustration early in the game, but by the later stages of a run, you’ll have more resources and food than you know what to do with. Explorable locations can be purchased from an in-game shop once it is crafted, and this is where the game brings in the Slay the Spire  aspects all the marketing alludes to. Starting on a map with multiple pathways, you work your way through card battles and randomized events to collect resources which can be brought back to the village to help in advancement. Some resources are only available through the exploration and card battling portion of the game, so venturing out is necessary — it is also the most fun aspect of the experience. I love these card battler games, so there’s just going to be some bias there, but Kaya’s Prophecy  nails the battles, even if they’re on the easier end. The attractive art and clear visual indicators make Kaya's Prophecy easy on the eyes. Each battle consists of your exploring villager taking on 1-3 enemies using hands of cards dealt to you 5 at a time. Your villager has 3 energy, which can then be spent to use those cards, with each card having a specific cost tied to it. Card types are split between armor cards, utility cards, and attack cards. Attack cards do damage to enemies, armor cards give your villager armor to resist attacks, and utility cards do things like draw additional cards, heal, or give your villager additional energy to use on a given turn. While this is extremely similar to Slay the Spire , this game differs in the fact that armor is carried over between rounds and it is not as difficult. Building your deck in Kaya’s Prophecy  is extremely easy and I would say a mostly passive endeavor. You gain powerful cards through equipment you craft within the village sections of the gameplay and you can occasionally swap out abilities here and there when you traverse through locations. Not a ton of customization, but you do get noticeably more powerful as you advance — to the point where later stages of combat feel mostly inconsequential. The art style is simple-but-effective, with easy to read icons and text, and pleasant backgrounds and UI elements. It clearly draws major inspiration from aboriginal cultures, using similar body paints and even leaning into the Australia/Oceania connection by using cassowaries as recurring entities on the currency and other iconography. Whether those cultures are well represented is not really something I can speak on, but I do not feel like there’s any hint of negativity in the portrayal. However, the stylings being so obviously drawn from traditional aboriginal imagery was immediately obvious to me, a random American across the planet, so I do wonder how this lands with people within those cultures or spaces. I’m not sure that I would consider Kaya’s Prophecy the most original game — it is blatantly and intentionally not so. However, the concepts and ideas it draws from Slay the Spire  and Stacklands  are well executed, with great balance between the two disparate gameplay sections. While the two elements themselves are quite different from one another, they are married beautifully together, with each feeding into the other to create a fun, varied experience. Verdict Despite not being wholly original by design, Kaya’s Prophecy succeeds in marrying the two disparate ideas of card battler and village management. A simple, yet distinct art style, combined with timeless deck-building mechanics, makes for an endearing and addictive experience. Image Credits: Yogscast Games Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Onto the Next One. * Editor's note: A segment of this review has been modified to exclude criticism that the reviewer has since deemed "wrongheaded". Next of Kin: Fidelity  is the second of three Next of Kin titles by Spelkväll Games — the follow-up to 2024’s Next of Kin.  Marketed as an emotional journey of a man haunted by his past, it’s the type of game that I love to cover most — a short indie experience with a heavy narrative focus. Loss, trauma, and grief are not uncommon subjects for games to touch upon, and while exploration of these subject matters is certainly welcome in games, I always find it a bit more interesting to look for what’s revealed between the margins. What does a game say about the other stuff it touches upon, even accidentally? What can we find beyond the grief, beyond the trauma, and beyond the text? How does the way we play, and what we can (or cannot) do affect the experience? There’s always something a little nerve-wracking about taking a game like Next of Kin: Fidelity  at face value. People pour their hearts into the work — what if I just don’t understand it? What if I just don’t like it? Unfortunately, at least one of those is true. Publisher: Spelkväll Games Developer:   Spelkväll Games Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Released on September 18, 2025 for Windows PC (Steam, Epic Games, GOG), PS4/5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, and Nintendo Switch. But maybe I’ve gotten ahead of myself there. Let’s talk about the game as it is, not as it is intended to be. Next of Kin: Fidelity  is an pixel-art adventure game set across two distinct eras, following the lead character Bjorn throughout both. We get to explore both how he lives now and how he got there, reliving his childhood memories and exploring his dreams all while Bjorn the adult tries to go on dates and navigate daily life.  Starting off in an intense space sequence, we quickly learn this is a dream — one that Bjorn has had before. As Bjorn wakes up to his blaring alarm, he realizes he’s late for a date and rushes to meet a woman he doesn’t even know. From here, the game darts back and forth between a series of dream sequences, memories, and contemporary scenes in order to give you a clearer picture into Bjorn’s mentality.   There are a large number of very basic grievances I have with playing this title in any capacity, especially when we eliminate the story from consideration. I think much of it boils down to the fact that not only do you not really do anything engaging, but also that the imagery on-screen does not convey anything interesting. There are a large number of very basic grievances I have with playing this title in any capacity, especially when we eliminate the story from consideration. The first hour or so is especially rough, in this regard. There are no immediate narrative hooks, and it is further distracted by multiple asides in the forms of dream or memories. The dialogue and overarching text is quite bland, as well. You can interact with many objects and NPCs throughout the game, but much of what we get is just the main character, Bjorn, telling you that he doesn’t care about the thing you’re looking at, or doesn’t have pressing action to take. The interactability is wasted. The text for these situations is also repeated — no unique identifiers or wording regarding that examination per object. Additionally, the art is disjointed, with objects and figures seeming to have distractingly variable levels of quality. At one point there is a toy ship model on the screen that just looks like it was ripped out of an entirely different game. Objects have varying levels of “pixelation” to them, with some objects appearing low poly and others smoothed out. Asset reuse is rampant, with trees and boulders haphazardly and frequently copy-pasted next to one another. The buildings are all plain, and much of the scenery is repetitive. Assets frequently clip through one another as well, such as when a character is walking through a small passage or between objects. If that weren't enough, the environs and area layouts themselves are quite dull. There’s no real sense that anything here was placed deliberately, with those cloned objects seeming to fill space rather than tell a story. Embarrassingly, there was a cave early on that actually put me to sleep, as every inch looks exactly the same, with a single set of rock tiles replicated over and over. The cave is not even that long — it’s just a stretch of time where nothing is happening visually with no music. The lack of sound effects is also quite glaring, save Bjorn’s footsteps.  Most of the game is structured this way — uninspired areas with no sense of purpose or identity. Next of Kin: Fidelity  is marred by technical inadequacies, as well. I’ve been met with overlapping text and clipping multiple times. Navigating menus is a huge pain because there is a significant delay, and you can't cycle through options quickly as the game simply will not register your inputs if you put them in too fast.  Of course, Next of Kin: Fidelity  is built around its story, so how much can any of these matter? Quite a lot, actually. Especially when you combine all of it together. As a single entity, maybe the lack of cohesion in art style would be more forgivable, but if every part of the game is lacking except for the story, I inevitably circle back to my initial question: why is this an adventure game ? The rampant asset reuse combined with frequent visual glitches makes for a bad experience. Frankly, the story is effective. It offers an exploration of Bjorn’s grief that is interesting enough to keep you going, taking a look at what that grief does to a person, how we live with it, and so on. It also takes a smaller look at subjects like abuse and sexism, and how those things might affect the lives of people around us. However, the scenery and gameplay take away from what is being presented. There’s a real lack of humanity and cohesiveness to the presentation element of the game. I understand that it has been developed with combined sets of free assets, and that it is building on a prior title, but everything in this world that isn’t the text feels like an afterthought. On the page, there’s an opportunity to offload some of that visual work to the reader, to let the mind take the reader to places the art team cannot, but in a video game like this the details matter for expressing intent. Video games are such a unique medium for many reasons. Interactivity may be the single most important, but it is a mistake to dismiss the value of other elements when creating a game world. The way your trees look or even how they are placed can shape a player’s perception of the setting, the music you play at integral scenes can set or enhance the mood of any given moment, and even the color palette or lighting used can dramatically alter meaning. There’s no limit to the stories you can shape with the tools at your disposal, so for a game to be so bereft of it all is disheartening. Games excel at telling stories in-between the lines, but for Next of Kin: Fidelity , the margins are blank. Verdict Next of Kin: Fidelity  has a story to tell, but holds no mechanism for delivering it in an interesting way. It’s a shame that the environments and assets used are not up to the task of creating something that serves the game better, as the story can hold up as something worthwhile on its own. Image Credits: Spelkväll Games Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product.