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An Exercise In Multitasking

Matt Miller — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:06:00 GMT

The temptation with Star Command is to see all the elements that might have been included, and criticize their absence. Star Command does indeed miss some clear opportunities to deliver more meaningful choices in dialogue, upgrades, and ship selection, but the core experience – battling enemy ships and their boarding parties – is enjoyable enough to stand on its own. Star Command may not be as big and flexible as its opening minutes imply, but the challenge of keeping your ship in one piece is more than enough to make for a great time.

You are a loyal captain in the Star Command fleet, but your new ship is running on a skeleton crew and lacking in basic systems. By tapping around the ship layout, you add medical bays, engine rooms, and shield boosters, and bring on new crew to man the added stations. Over time, successful encounters grant tokens that may be used to upgrade ship systems, lending a light RPG feel to the affair.

The galaxy is a hostile place, and nearly every alien you encounter is out to blast you into space dust. Some battles are prefaced by the façade of a choice-driven conversation with the enemy, but you’re inevitably steering toward a life-or-death fight, subtracting from the sense of player agency in the way the story might roll out. Nonetheless, meeting different species and warping off to alien galaxies is a blast.

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Combat is intense, challenging, and built around juggling multiple tasks at once. Fire a weapon, and you need to tap the torpedo room to prepare new ammo. Listen for the alarms of incoming fire, or miss the chance to dodge the blast. Fighting boarders on the starboard side of the ship? Watch out for the second boarding party teleporting aboard portside, or risk your engineering crew facing a grisly demise. Each battle starts out slowly, as weapons, shields, and other systems charge up. Once things get going, keeping track of everything is challenging. Small mistakes leave you floundering, but wise decisions and quick finger tapping keep your crew alive and your ship ready to take on the next fight. The challenge factor is high, and restarts are common, but diligence pays off until the final battles of your new game+ run, at which point an absurd difficulty spike ruins some of the fun.

Managing boarding parties ends up being the most difficult task, since you need to reassign crew members into a balanced mix of engineering, medical, and tactical personnel, and track the health and abilities of each character involved in the fight. The controls aren’t robust enough to handle the task, and don’t offer enough flexibility to move in groups or set crew to patrol automatically. Firing ship weapons has an enjoyable extra component in the form of distinct mini-games for each weapon type. The game fails to adequately explain how to play these quick sequences, but once you figure them out it makes for a rewarding test of reflexes.

Star Command can’t help but draw comparisons to the indie darling FTL: Faster Than Light. The two games share a number of similar conceits, but Star Command’s focus on timing, large-scale shipboard battles, and quick screen tapping help it stand apart. Even with some iffy systems and a railroad approach to story, Star Command is undeniably charming. The homage to Star Trek comes through loud and clear, and the sprite-driven art style is colorful and attractive. While I can’t help but point out some notable missteps, I also can’t deny Star Command’s irresistibility, and I happily recommend it to fellow sci-fi enthusiasts.

Techland Scores With Another Tribute To The West

Dan Ryckert — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:44:00 GMT

Developer Techland took a risk with their last Call of Juarez title, and it didn’t work out. The Cartel abandoned the Wild West setting of previous games, instead offering a ridiculous modern storyline that didn’t resonate with gamers. With the downloadable title Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, the series is back to its western roots and far better for it.

Gunslinger’s story mode is told almost exclusively via flashbacks, putting you in the role of bounty hunter Silas Greaves. As he regales curious bar patrons with tales about his wild past, you play through them. You’re left guessing about whether or not the protagonist is telling the truth, with plenty of gameplay segments being altered as you play them. You might be shooting at Native Americans one moment, only to see them morph into outlaws as Greaves gets his facts straight. This is a cool twist on the standard FPS format, but it sometimes feels like it’s putting the brakes on the action. As Greaves recalls details of the events you’re playing, the game often goes into slow motion as he narrates.

The story chapters are linear affairs, and task players with taking down Wild West legends such as Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Jesse James, and more. You’re rarely given the chance to go off the beaten path, as the developers seem more concerned with tossing you into firefight after firefight rather than letting you explore. Thanks to the fast-paced and responsive gunplay, I didn’t mind the linearity. Fans of western films will see many common locales here, including dusty saloons, trains, and steamboats. You won’t be getting an in-depth plot (it’s no Red Dead Redemption), but Gunslinger makes no attempts to be a serious take on the genre. It’s all about pistol-slinging action, and it does it well.

Two meters fill as you shoot your way through the West. One allows you to enter a bullet-time mode that makes enemy locations more apparent, and another allows you to perform a Matrix-like dodge when a lethal shot is headed your way. Both of these do a good job of mixing up the standard gameplay, and they saved my life dozens of times. Silas earns XP as he takes down enemies, and he can spend skill points on various abilities and stat upgrades. Some of these have a big impact on the gameplay, such as the ability to mash the reload button to load bullets into your revolver quicker.

Greaves’ story wraps up in five or six hours, but Gunslinger’s arcade mode is a perfect way to hop back in for some quick shootouts. This mode takes out the narrative breaks from story mode, allowing you to focus squarely on making short work of dozens of enemies. You’re scored based on your performance, with combos boosting your score if you take foes down in quick succession. Killing enemies with headshots, explosives, and other skilled shots give you bonuses, and arcade mode features a leaderboard that lets you compare your score with friends. I wanted a reason to continue the action after completing Gunslinger’s story, and arcade mode is a good way to shoot up some baddies without any story breaks.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Gunslinger’s shootouts. The game certainly doesn’t turn any FPS conventions on their ears, but it still presents tense and entertaining shootouts frequently. Blasting through the game’s varied environments with a pistol in each hand never got old, and I always looked forward to the end-level duel with a legend of the Wild West. After the dreadful Call of Juarez: The Cartel, I was skeptical going into this downloadable offering. To my surprise, Techland has bounced back with a very enjoyable tribute to the tall tales of the Wild West.

The Right Way To Play This Missing Chapter

Tim Turi — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:01:00 GMT

Early last year, 3DS owners got their hands on an excellent new chapter in the Resident Evil series set between the fourth and fifth games. Not only does Revelations fill in a gap between those titles, its gameplay more closely resembles them compared to the polarizing Resident Evil 6. This new, graphically enhanced console version allows players to move while shooting without a clunky 3DS peripheral. It also implements a rearranged, tougher campaign mode for fans seeking a stiff challenge.

Moving the game over to consoles comes with a suite of graphical improvements. Monsters have a disgusting sheen over their fleshy bodies and characters like Jill and Chris have greater detail. The enhanced lighting makes the infected cruise ship’s corridors even moodier. Some rough environmental textures remind players this used to be a portable game, like two-dimensional fish littered across a dirty beach.

We got our first taste of moving and shooting in Resident Evil with the 3DS’ Circle Pad Pro attachment, but standard console controllers feel even better. Similar to Resident Evil 4, gunplay has a certain weight to it, requiring players to line up deliberate shots instead of relying on twitch reflexes. Weapons can be upgraded with useful parts that can be swapped between firearms. Revelations’ weapon customization is the most satisfying the series has seen since Resident Evil 4.

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Revelations also comes with a punishing new Infernal difficulty mode that tosses obscene numbers of enemies at you and rearranges item locations. Beating the game in normal mode allows you to transfer your upgraded guns over to Infernal mode. Testing your hard-earned arsenal against throngs of enemies is a satisfying challenge. Speaking of enemies, a new foe occasionally pops up in all modes of the game. Don’t get too excited, though, because the wallblister is essentially an inconsequential bullet sponge.

This former 3DS game doesn’t stand toe-to-toe with the best console shooters, but it’s a faithful port. Revelations has a lot to offer fans of the series and players looking for a more evenly paced, thoughtful shooter. The new content, including an entertaining challenge-based two-player co-op mode, along with dual-analog stick control make this the definitive version of Resident Evil: Revelations.

The Edge

The Wii U version cleans up the HUD by putting menu and map information on the GamePad’s screen. I like having constant access to a map without shuffling through menus. Revelations also facilitates off-screen play, freeing up your TV for other stuff. Unfortunately, the actual gameplay doesn’t feel as natural on the GamePad as it does the PS3 and 360.

A More Accessible Banana-Hoarding Challenge

Dan Ryckert — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT

2010’s Donkey Kong Country Returns would have sold well on nostalgia value alone, but Nintendo made the right move by putting the talented Retro Studios on the project. The end result was a challenging and beautiful platformer that managed to eclipse the entries in the Super Nintendo series. Its 3DS version maintains the high quality bar set by the original, and adds some new features that make its daunting challenge more accessible.

Upon starting a new game, you have the option of choosing original mode or new mode. The former is the same as the Wii version, while the latter helps those that aren’t great at platformers. Instead of the two hearts Donkey Kong usually starts with, you begin with three. In addition (and more importantly), new items at Cranky Kong’s shop greatly help the ape on his quest for bananas.

Crash guard allows your cart or rocket to take two free hits, green balloons save you from falling into pits, and DK barrels allow you to summon Diddy Kong and refill your hearts at any point in a level. Once you beat the standard eight worlds, you can even purchase the orbs needed for the Golden Temple if you don’t want to spend the time getting every KONG letter.

While I enjoyed the extreme challenge of collecting all the letters and conquering the Golden Temple in the original game, I feel that these items make the game more enjoyable without taking away too much of the difficulty. None of them beat the levels for you, so you still need to memorize the layouts of mine cart levels and make sure you’re paying attention to boss patterns.

Some tradeoffs have been made in the downsizing. If you’re playing on the standard 3DS, your character and the enemies are a bit too small when they’re shot into the background of stages. If you have a 3DS XL, it certainly helps with this problem. Characters and stages still look great, but the framerate isn’t quite as smooth as the Wii original. Outside of these two slight issues, it’s largely the same game. Co-op play is back as well, allowing you to play with a local 3DS owner.

Fans of the original should find themselves enjoying this 3DS release, as it’s great to perform DK’s various moves without the use of any motion controls. It also features eight solid post-game bonus stages that weren’t in the Wii version. For those that haven’t played the fantastic original, you’ll find one of this generation’s best platformers in Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D.

Om Nom Gorges With Ancestors In This Solid Sequel

Dan Ryckert — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:04:00 GMT

When it released in 2010, mobile gamers quickly fell in love with Cut the Rope. It featured an adorable character, gameplay that was perfectly suited to touchscreens, and brief levels that lent themselves to on-the-go gaming. Cut the Rope: Time Travel takes all of the elements that worked so well for the original title and adds a fun new wrinkle that shakes up the gameplay.

In the original, players were tasked with cutting ropes in an effort to drop a piece of candy into green blob Om Nom’s mouth. Achieving this goal isn’t always a simple affair, since the game encourages you to collect three stars on each level to truly clear it. Time Travel features the same concept, but pairs Om Nom up with an ancestor from various historical periods in each stage.

Cutting ropes is still the name of the game, but you have to feed both Om Noms before you move on to the next stage. It amounts to one more mouth to feed, but it also forces you to approach stages in a different manner than in previous games. In the original (and Cut the Rope: Experiments), each stage’s goal is basically “get these stars and then feed Om Nom.” With the addition of the ancestors, the game forces you to plan ahead so that both characters get their reward.
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New gameplay elements are introduced frequently throughout the six time periods. Portals alter the path of candy, clock hands can be rotated to affect the placement of objects, and flying pieces of candy mimic the path of standard pieces. I enjoyed all of these new elements, and they interact well with each other, as well as with previously introduced objects like rockets and bounce pads. No element is dwelled upon long enough to become tiresome, as each stage offers a novel challenge.

Adding another Om Nom doesn’t drastically alter the feel of Cut the Rope, but it’s enough of a change to make Time Travel feel like a proper sequel. It won’t take you too long to collect three stars in each level, but the developer promises new levels on the way soon. Cut the Rope: Time Travel is a great follow-up to one of the most successful games on iOS, and proves to be well worth the asking price.

An Invigorating Tower Defense/FPS Hybrid

Kimberley Wallace — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:46:00 GMT

Sanctum 2 blends FPS mechanics and tower defense so well that it brings out the best of both worlds. On one hand, you're outwitting enemies by creating mazes with a variety of towers that damage them. On the other hand, the variety of enemy types brings chaos, forcing you react on the fly. Planning gets you ahead, but making choices in the heat of the moment is just as important. This dichotomy makes Sanctum 2 some of the most fun I've had with a tower defense game in a long time.

Sanctum 2 forces tactical thought at every turn. It starts with tower placement, which helps prevent the enemy from breaking through to the core you're defending. With each level and wave, you have a certain amount of towers to place. These tower mazes prolong enemies' trek to your core, while special towers damage the monsters; slow-firing lightning towers, quick Gatling turrets, and mine-producing towers are all part of your arsenal. Each of these is effective against a different type of enemy, so you must choose your loadout wisely.

While you can see the different enemies appearing in each wave, the short time between waves forces you to rapidly execute a plan of action, intensifying the challenge. A big part of Sanctum 2's fun comes from discovering new ways to stall enemies' path to the core with labyrinths, or placing deadly combinations of attacking towers and watching the enemies fall like dominos. I loved crafting paths and the resource management aspect tested my mind constantly, keeping my head in the game.

Once enemies start appearing the field, the towers control themselves and you must use the only other resource at your fingertips: guns. Each of the four selectable characters comes with a unique advantage and gun type. Playing stages - even if they end in failure - levels you up, unlocking more guns, towers, and perks. Character perks provide an edge, like giving you 40 percent more damage to enemy weak spots or healing your core after every round. The gunplay is smooth, and deciding where to focus your firepower becomes just as important as tower placement. For instance, some of the larger enemies have high HP, and draining them before they get to the core is essential because your towers alone just aren't enough for the job.

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The campaign can be conquered in single-player or via online co-op. Both have strengths and weaknesses. I had the most fun playing with a group, especially in the late waves when complete pandemonium hits and the enemy spawning seems endless. The intensity of the fight is so much greater with others by your side. Levels are easier to take down with a group, but coordinating tower placement with others is more difficult. It becomes a free-for-all as to who picks up the resources for towers. If one person in the party isn't on the same page and takes the towers, it can cost the team victory.

Sanctum 2 does a lot right, but it does make small missteps. Sometimes I would get stuck in the environment and struggle to get free. And while it's extremely accessible, sometimes finding the perfect strategy requires too much trial-and-error. Tower placement often dictates success, even if you're an expert gunner. In levels with 10 or more waves, a single mistake with your towers in wave 5 can cost you everything. Sanctum 2 is definitely for those who love experimenting and can handle a loss, as long as it teaches a lesson. I didn't mind learning from my mistakes, but it can be tough when you have to see some of the same levels several times while correcting the error of your ways.

Sanctum 2 shines brightest when it's forcing you to think and consider all the options it places in front of you, from tower choice to which enemies to gun down to what perks are the most advantageous. Being tested on and off the battlefield with my decisions kept me constantly picking my brain. For those who enjoy tapping into new creative ways for victory, Sanctum 2 doesn't disappoint.

The Edge

Unsurprisingly, Sanctum 2 looks and controls best on the PC, plus the requirements are incredibly low. It also supports the Xbox Gamepad if you prefer dual sticks.

This Flyboy Has Mud On His Goggles

Bryan Vore — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:48:00 GMT

When strategy master Sid Meier takes the time to actively design a game, it’s time to sit up and take notice. His latest project is World War I dogfight strategy title Ace Patrol on iOS devices. In theory, the platform allows creative types the freedom to turn around concepts without all the pressure and mega-budgets of a PC or console release. It shouldn’t, however, be an excuse to release a half-finished product.

Ace Patrol is a free universal download for most i-devices (iPad offers the best viewing real estate, but the iPhone version is identical in every other way). You can play a small cluster of British campaign missions without paying a dime. The free section is long enough so that you can get a basic handle on the rules, see a variety of mission types, and get hooked. For $.99 more you can experience the entirety of the British war effort, a total of 24 missions. Even though there are American, French, and German campaigns as well, this is the most I’d advise players to invest at this time.

By the time you finish the first level pack, the same mission types are already being repeated. Attack or defend trucks, trains, bombers, or balloons. Fight two planes with two of your planes. Fight two rookies with one experienced pilot. This is practically all you get, over and over. Every six levels or so you get to take out all four of your pilots on a larger scale mission, but even that’s nearly the same every time.

I was already painfully bored with the missions by the end of British campaign, and the other campaigns are just more of the same with a different coat of paint (don’t expect any kind of story, either). The flags on the buildings change. The same pilots wear a different uniform and gain or lose a moustache. Each nation’s collection of planes differs only minutely in stats.

It’s a shame that Firaxis didn’t bother making a more complete game, because the battle system is excellent. Planes can’t stay in place, so the action is always moving. Each craft has a wide variety of moves it can make at any time. Factors like altitude, unlocked pilot skills, and plane orientation all figure in to what maneuver you can pull off next. Straight flights may allow you to move three hexes forward while banking to the left only hops one hex over. This free-flowing movement system means enemy actions can be much harder to predict than pieces on a chessboard. The fact that there are far fewer pieces on the board than what you’d see in chess balances this out and keeps matches from being overwhelming.

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Cloud coverage offers a place to mask your movements while friendly bases shoot at any enemy that flies over. These areas of the map add elements of excitement and risk to the missions. More types of them might have helped with the lack of variety.

Five difficulty settings ensure you hit the challenge level you’re comfortable with. Don’t get excited by the point multiplier earned at higher difficulties, though. Points contribute nothing to plane upgrades and pilot promotions. For those, you have to shoot down enemies and avoid taking too much damage.

Multiplayer is in rough shape as of version 1.1 of Ace Patrol. Asynchronous multiplayer via Game Center never worked for me, and Firaxis confirmed the widespread problem in its official forums. Battling against real humans instead of the AI sounds promising, but we’ll have to wait until the problem’s sorted out. Local pass play works fine. Unfortunately, volleying your iPad back and forth constantly is tedious. Plus, seeing each other’s secret cloud movements is way too easy. Even if you’re trying to honorably look away, the other player’s turn pops up immediately before you can react.

Ace Patrol shines in its mechanics and may very well become a good game after a steady progression of updates. As it stands now, this one could use some more time in flight school.

This review is based off of Ace Patrol version: 1.1

New Army, Same Problems

Adam Biessener — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:34:00 GMT

Ubisoft’s latest attempt to make something of its Might & Magic Heroes franchise follows in the footsteps of the original Heroes VI release. I still mostly approve of the changes to the core design. Units are grouped together into armies with wonderfully distinct identities and playstyles, especially the fantastic new dark elf faction. The campaigns, however, are badly wounded if not outright killed by the free armies the AI continually spawns in some of the worst cheating the strategy genre has ever seen.

This expansion requires the core game to play, and as such, has few surprises. Mines ship their resources to your stores every day, cities produce troops every week, and ever more powerful heroes lead them across fantastical landscapes to conquer rival kingdoms as others defend against enemy incursions. The tactical battles are excellent examples of the concept, pitting standard and unique fantasy troops against one another in a wide variety of conflicts. Avoiding attrition when chewing through the neutral armies that guard the treasure you need to fuel your war machine is one thing. Coming out victorious against a hero-led enemy stack with half again as many troops as you command is quite another. Heroes VI gives you all the tools you need to enjoy heroic victories against brutal odds with its delightful mix of unit special abilities, hero spells, and varied terrain.

Shades of Darkness is worth it for fans just to take the reins of the new dark elf faction, which exemplifies much of the good in Heroes VI’s design. Based on the dungeon army of old, dark elves hit fast and hard while struggling in stand-up fights. The faction’s special stealth ability, combined with two strong core ranged units, allows dark elf players to dish out an absurd amount of damage in devastating alpha strikes. Assassins, the other core unit, start invisible and avoid retaliation while getting large damage bonuses when attacking from the shadows – both enormous advantages well worth putting up with their low defense. Controlling a dark elf army is like being a sniper in a shooter: great when the fights go your way, but painful when caught out of position.

The campaign attempts to tell a story about elven exile and demonic invasions, but the awful voice acting and terrible cinematics are too much for the mediocre boilerplate fantasy script to overcome. More importantly, the strategy of conquering a map – the central joy that the franchise has revolved around since its inception – is twisted into an unrecognizable shadow of its former glory by the massive AI cheating. I’m generally not one to complain when the AI needs a boost to provide a challenge (I’ve been happily taking on uneven playing fields in Civilization since the ‘80s), but the huge obvious piles of free troops in Heroes VI is a bridge too far.

The availability of units to recruit is the primary limiting factor for expansion and eventual victory in Heroes VI, as it always has been. Minimizing the attrition your forces suffer is as important as winning epic sieges. Overextending your main force and seeing it defeated or even badly wounded often spells defeat. The AI doesn’t suffer this limitation in Heroes VI (or Shades of Darkness), since it conjures full armies from nothing at what appears to be scripted intervals. The AI not having to play by the same rules sucks much of the joy out of executing a strategic coup, like baiting an enemy into breaking his massive army against your castle walls in a Pyrrhic victory only to be crushed by your main hero coming back from the frontlines. Instead, each campaign map is a race to find the correct path to your objectives before you’re worn down by the enemy. Some of the maps are entertaining despite this awful tradeoff, and individual battles can still be fantastic and rewarding encounters, but the larger strategic picture is a disaster.

Taking the dark elves for a spin in skirmish mode is a better option, but the AI also fails to put up much of a fight there, and Heroes VI still suffers from a dearth of skirmish maps to conquer. Multiplayer, so often the savior of mechanically well-designed but poorly scripted games, is an afterthought at best in this turn-based strategy.

Shades of Darkness is a fine addition for fans of Heroes VI, but I cannot recommend it without the serious caveat of rampant AI cheating and a sad sigh for a game that I want to love more than I do.

Finding Refuge In The Shadows

Jeff Marchiafava — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Like the ill-fated survivors in Metro 2033's rundown subway system, players had to work to enjoy 4A Games' inaugural shooter. Enjoying the superior story and atmosphere meant overlooking some bad AI and loose gunplay. Metro: Last Light fixes most of its predecessor's flaws while also improving upon its strengths, delivering gameplay that lives up to the exceptional storytelling.

The myriad improvements 4A introduces in Last Light transform the series' punishing survival experience into an engaging – albeit appropriately grim – adventure. The heavy toll of life in post-apocalyptic Russia is still readily apparent in every dreary inhabitant you meet and corpse-ridden tunnel you explore, but the minute-to-minute burdens of replacing mask filters and charging batteries have been toned down, allowing players to soak in the atmosphere and narrative with minimal distractions.

Last Light continues the story of Artyom's attempt to save the few remaining human colonies living in Russia's underground metro system. The narrative revolves around Artyom's quest to find a surviving Dark One – a supernatural species capable of living on Moscow's radioactive surface. The real threat to mankind's survival, however, comes from the various armed factions inhabiting the railway stations, which are poised for all-out war over the Metro. Artyom's skirmishes with these local militias comprise the majority of Last Light, providing a satisfying balance between action and stealth.

Human enemies exhibit improved AI as they patrol areas and investigate noises. They're particularly deadly in groups and are quick to call for reinforcements, providing a formidable threat and incentive to remain unseen. Monsters are much less interesting, as most just charge in and swarm you with cheap melee attacks. A few scripted combat scenarios and boss battles also fall flat. While these moments are frustrating, they are quickly forgotten once you're over the hurdle and back to the meat of the game.

Last Light features tighter controls and improved sound design for its arsenal, which now puts the gunplay on par with most triple-A shooters. However, I was more enthralled by the upgraded stealth mechanics. A light meter on your watch indicates your visibility, while dynamic music cues alert you when enemies are actively searching for you. Despite still being a linear affair, most of the underground environments are designed around light and shadow, a visual feature A4's custom engine excels at. You can stalk and pick off patrolling enemies in the order and style of your choosing. Sneaking my way through storage facilities and engine rooms swarming with Red Line soldiers provided a tense and satisfying game of cat-and-mouse, as I flipped circuit breakers and unscrewed light bulbs to create extra cover. After dispatching all of the patrolling guards with a combination of throwing knives and silent, distant headshots, I sneaked out of the station undetected. Other stations I blasted through with little care for stealth. I even managed to slink my way across a monster-infested bridge without firing a single shot – a testament to Last Light's accommodation of multiple play styles.

Last Light packs a powerful one-two combination of story and atmosphere. A nice visual upgrade is accompanied by a little more color and variety in the subway station communities, and a massive amount of exposition and ambient conversations flesh out the world and Artyom's evolving perspective on mankind's post-apocalyptic existence. Character animations can be a little wooden and the voice-acting crew features more than a few bad Russian accents, but in a genre where most titles don't try half this hard to tell a compelling story, Last Light pulled me into its world and kept me engaged.

This sequel plays more like a shooter than its predecessor, but doesn't sacrifice its intricate narrative or creative vision in the process. Masochistic fans will appreciate the harder difficulties that recreate the grueling experience of the original, but no matter how you approach it, exploring Last Light's absorbing world is wholly entertaining.

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Endless Options, Little Explanation

Matt Miller — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:09:00 GMT

Running a space empire is no easy task. Technology must be researched, ships built, planets colonized, and enemies torpedoed. The list of responsibilities goes on and on, and you’re in this by yourself. StarDrive is filled with innovative ideas and an endless stream of customization options, but players are left to figure out how it all works. No hand-holding or guided tutorials translates to plenty of time looking up in-game manual terms, seeking guidance from the game’s community, and a painful process of trial and error that might see your interstellar civilization fall around you. However, when you finally uncover the secrets to ancient alien technology or build a frigate that wins a deep space battle, StarDrive provides a sense of accomplishment few games can.

StarDrive plays in real time unlike other 4X games such as Civilization or Master of Orion, but it includes a forgiving feature that allows players to pause and set orders or make choices without penalty. Those choices begin right away, as you’re asked to create and customize your own spacefaring society. You choose from a long list of potential options, each with its advantages and disadvantages. You’re then thrown into the deep end, given control of a lonely planet and a few small ships floating in orbit. A smartly written text guide offers you the basics of conducting research, beginning colonization efforts, and confronting foes in space and ground combat, but those essentials barely scratch the surface of what you need to learn.

More than once, my playtime was stalled as I desperately sought answers to what should have been simple procedures. How do I launch my troops into orbit? How do I acquire that alien artifact? Where do I adjust my tax rate? In retrospect, most of the answers I was looking for were a simple mouse click or button press away, but taken together, StarDrive presents an incredible barrier to entry.

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Experimentation leads to great moments of discovery, and I love the slowly unfolding of the galaxy that occurs in each game, charting planets, meeting species, and terraforming colonies. StarDrive lets you automate the more mundane aspects of management. Planetary governors can be established on some or all planets to make smart decisions about growth, and both trade and expansion can be set to continue largely without your involvement. This allows you to focus on research choices, interactions with alien species (including creating your own spy network), and the inevitable interstellar wars that follow.

Battles often involve dozens of tiny ships blasting away at each other in the void, and the spectacle is great fun to watch even if it takes a long time before you develop any sense of ownership or how to contribute to victory. Ground combat is simplistic, but gets across the scope of battles both above and below. StarDrive’s coolest feature comes before the battles, as you slowly unlock new hulls and ship components, and then build each vessel from scratch by placing tiny modules onto a blueprint. Again, a lack of guidance here makes ship building a big challenge to figure out, but the process is rewarding.

AI is a mixed bag of clever automation and inexplicable actions. Enemy and ally ships sometimes perform irrational course changes, but at other times set up complex trade routes far more efficient than anything I could have figured out on my own. Ultimately, I have to give the game an appreciative nod for some of the ways it surprised me – swooping in with an enemy attack when I’m most vulnerable, or overwhelming me with assaults on multiple fronts at the same time. Certainly, it makes the game harder, but I appreciate playing against a canny opponent.

While StarDrive can be a lot of fun for patient, detail-minded strategy players, it still feels like a game in process. The focus on conquest or alliance as the primary victory conditions is limited; I’m hopeful that new diplomatic, economic, or other paths to a win are patched in over time, but they’re not present as of this writing. I also long to see more opportunities for cool social and story interactions with the awesome alien species you encounter, if only because I adored the art and culture design that went into each one. Finally, I ran into my fair share of technical problems, including a couple of crashes, sound cut-outs, and slow-down. That latter problem only showed up once hundreds of ships were active across the largest available galaxy size. Even with its foibles, StarDrive is a rare treat for those with the fortitude to marshal past its rough spots; invest the time it takes to understand, and the galaxy has a lot to offer.

Embrace The Heist Fantasy

Matt Miller — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:10:00 GMT

Monaco is not a game that sells itself well upon first glance. Blocky pixel art and the darkened blueprint of a building greet new players as they enter a level, and the seemingly simplistic gameplay begs the question, “What’s all the fuss about?” The more you play, the more Monaco reveals itself as one of the most sophisticated and nuanced stealth games around. As I played, I warmed to the graphical presentation, grasped the strengths of the multiple characters, and reveled in the fantasy of having every heist movie I’ve ever seen pulled together into one place.

Played from a top-down perspective, Monaco starts out with a gameplay style reminiscent of Pac-Man. Shining gold diamonds are scattered around the level, and sending your character scampering about to pick them up is easy. Outrunning the guards, who trundle after you in pursuit, is just as simple. The floors of each building are darkened until you turn to enter them. At that point, a cone of light reveals what your character can see, blocking off views around corners or darkened underground passageways. Levels pass quickly as you clean them out and continue on your merry way. Decrypting the art style can be tricky early on, but the more you play, the more you grasp what individual objects look like on screen.

The complexity is layered on gradually. New security systems block your way. Pick-up items add a strategic advantage, from sleep crossbows to dynamite. Guards carry heavier firepower. Medical kits become rarer. Objectives lay many floors higher in a building. As the levels progress, cleaning out a stage becomes the real challenge. Completing a level is rarely a great feat, but are you really the kind of criminal willing to settle for a smaller score? Moreover, looting everything is the only way to unlock a second, harder series of levels; during these new sections, a different narrator retells the story with some dramatic changes, and we see the events in a new way. By the end, individual levels are devilishly challenging, filled with twitchy trigger-fingered enemies and constant electronic surveillance. Only the canniest burglars will make it out alive.

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Gameplay alternates minute-to-minute between delicate sneaking opportunities and inevitable moments of getting caught. Unlike many stealth games, raised alarms don’t equal a game over. In fact, sometimes it can be the best strategy to cause a loud distraction. While the forgetful AI guards aren’t exactly realistic as they leave off pursuit and return to their posts, players are rewarded by trying multiple strategies to find out what works best.

Success is dependent on knowing the various characters and their unique talents. Do you need the Cleaner to knock out unsuspecting foes? Or does the Hacker manipulate the museum’s laser detection grid? Maybe the Redhead can distract that machine-gun toting embassy soldier? The eight heist artists are each fun in their own right, and since you can only bring in four at once, completing a level with a new mix of characters offers a brand new challenge.

The solo game is enjoyable, but later levels are often exercises in frustration – a lone infiltrator bites the dust too easily, especially once those levels extend to lengthy half-hour affairs. When you die, you re-enter with a different thief, but you can’t take advantage of multiple class abilities simultaneously. That’s why Monaco reaches its zenith only when more players begin to drop in. Up to four companions can tackle a stage together, each bringing unique talents to distract, steal, and escape the scene of the crime. I adore the cooperative vibe as you race and sneak about each floor, occasionally backtracking to revive a fallen comrade. The layering of different character’s abilities adds even more strategic options as you work together to confront ever-more challenging security. For instance, the Mole might dig through the nearby wall so that the Locksmith can open the safe in record time. Developer Pocketwatch Games also deserves praise for catering to its players; online and offline play options are both seamless and fun.

Whether you’re all on the same couch or meeting up online, Monaco offers a multiplayer experience unlike any other game on the market. The text-based story that unfolds between levels is great fun, especially once you begin to see the different perspectives on the tale that unlock as you play. Rule out impatient players and graphics snobs when picking your team, but everyone else should gear up for the big heist.

The Edge

The 360 and PC versions of Monaco play almost identically, and you should be guided by where you can convince the most friends to be your partners in crime. However, the PC version has a planned level editor that will launch just a few days after the game releases. If you’re interested in building your own robberies, or tracking down new stages from friends, the PC version is the clear choice. The editor is smartly designed and highly flexible, but expect to spend a good while learning its many tricks.

Firaxis Haunts Mobile With Turn-Based Strategy

Kyle Hilliard — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:50:00 GMT

Firaxis is best known for its association with Sid Meier and strategy games like XCOM: Enemy Unknown and recent Civilization titles. Haunted Hollow scales back the studio’s tactical inclinations, resulting in a competent – but ultimately shallow – experience.

Haunted Hollow puts you in control of an expandable haunted house and its assorted monsters, and you attempt to conquer villagers by scaring them out of their homes and claiming them as your own. While you are building your house and summoning monsters to do your dirty work, your opponent is on the other side of the symmetrical map doing the same thing. Each player takes a turn moving their monsters around the map space by space, attacking opponent monsters and scaring houses. The number of times you can attack, move, and bring in new monsters is based on your Fear Points. When you use up your Fear Points, your turn is over. The action is easy to understand, but the tactics are shallow. Don’t expect your plans to get too complicated on the road victory.

If you just want to enjoy the free experience, you have to stick to your boring-but-effective Frankenstein’s monsters, ghosts, and werewolves. These default monsters have basic scare, movement, and attack abilities. If you’re willing to pay real money (between $1.99 and $2.99 for assorted bundles), you can unlock special monsters to be included in your deck. You can also buy single-use items that increase attack power and take back claimed homes from your opponents.

Playing the challenges against the computer is essentially an advertisement for Haunted Hollow’s paid content; after you see the cool monsters that AI opponents can use (like a siren who possess opponents), I wanted to use them despite the cost. Considering base game is free, I can’t get too upset about Firaxis gating off this content. Fortunately, paying for the extra monsters and items gives you a leg up in competition. This is curbed somewhat by the random card draw in which monsters can be summoned in a match, but it’s essentially a pay-to-win model.

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As you scare groups of villagers out of their homes, you claim the territory and gain more Fear Points per round. This gives you more freedom of movement, more monsters, and more attack power. Unfortunately, the game only has one map. It’s small, and homes are as easy to conquer as they are to lose. This results in a back-and-forth between who has the upper hand, which can be exciting and tense.

Matches could easily go on forever with this seesaw mechanic, but Firaxis speeds things up through the angry townsfolk. Once you’ve scared enough people out of their homes, a mob forms to attack your monsters and destroy the houses that have been claimed. Adding invincible townsfolk is a smart move in terms of pacing; Haunted Hollow is ideally played in short spurts, and the townsfolk make sure things don’t go on longer than they should.

Haunted Hollow is a functional multiplayer strategy game on mobile devices, and multiplayer’s tug-of-war is well-designed with moments of excitement. The art direction, on the other hand, is bland. The monsters are completely forgettable. If you showed me a collection of animated ghosts from assorted cartoons and games, I don’t think I would be able to distinguish between those from Haunted Hollow and Scooby Doo.

Haunted Hollow’s biggest fault is that you have no incentive to keep playing; the asynchronous multiplayer works well, but all you earn for successful Haunted Hollowing are Game Center achievements. No new worthwhile content is unlockable without spending money. The game doesn’t even include stat-tracking outside of Game Center’s leaderboards. You have nothing encouraging you to play just one more game before closing the app.

Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis On The Move Review

Bryan Vore — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:45:00 GMT

I’ve been a huge fan of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series ever since the first entry back in 1994 on GameBoy (simply titled Donkey Kong). From its first sequel onward, mini Mario wind-up toys have become an increasingly large part of the gameplay. Now, in Minis on the Move, they have completely taken over. The two stars aren’t even fighting anymore (as indicated with “versus” being removed from the title). I’m fine with a series evolving over time, but the new top-down puzzle gameplay loses steam the deeper you get into it.

In all four of the game’s modes, you guide a toy from point A to point B by forming a path with tiles. The core mode, Mario’s Main Event, drops various tiles along the right side of the screen that you can drag over to the playfield. The challenge comes on two fronts: You have to keep a path going in front of the toy or it falls off, and you can’t let the tiles stack up too high. Both result in a game over. Narrowly scraping by (and watching the toys dance around at the finish line) is initially satisfying, and new gadgets like moving walkways and teleportation pipes keep gas in the tank for a bit.

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Once things get more complex, puzzles devolve to a game of trial and error; you can build a path one direction only to be denied a crucial piece. The pain might be lessened by an instant restart, but only one of the modes offers this. The rest force you to tap through a screen or two or watch the toy’s death animation. Even if I made it through with flying colors on the first try with minimal frustration, the levels slide further and further into boring territory. Upon trying different modes that tweak the rules I’d think, “Maybe this is the one I can hang my hat on,” only to have them turn stale just like the rest.

I initially made sure to collect the three special coins in each level to earn the perfect star rating. Once I realized that you are only rewarded with lame minigames and a toy viewing gallery, I skipped all that malarkey and went straight for the exits. As I chipped away at puzzle after puzzle, I couldn’t help but dream what it would have been like if Nintendo had evolved the traditional platforming puzzle mechanics or simply gone in another direction entirely. Rather than the fun and addicting challenge of past Mario vs. Donkey Kong titles, Minis on the Move feels more like homework.

Throw This One Back

Joe Juba — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:32:00 GMT

Many mobile games take a simple concept and build it into an obsession. Previous games from Halfbrick demonstrate how this approach can turn a game into a sensation; Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride are easy to play, but difficult to put down. The studio’s latest title, Fish Out Of Water, doesn’t have the same success. Wading into this experience is certainly easy, but the shallow waters didn’t reel me in.

Your goal is to throw a collection of unique fish over the ocean, making them travel as far and skip as much as possible along the way. This is where I’d normally say something like “The concept sounds basic, but…” except there is no “but” this time. That’s pretty much the entirety of the game.

You get assigned a score from a panel of judges after three throws, and then you start a new round. Appealing to certain judges is the only layer of strategy; one scores higher for distance, but another prefers more skips. Each of the six fish has different properties, leaning toward distance, skips, or a balance. This means you can tailor your selection to make up for lost ground in one area, but luck is ultimately more important than skill.

Once you launch your fish by swiping the screen, events are largely out of your hands. A boost meter (which carries over between throws in each round) gives you a little bit of control over how each fish performs, but the crucial factor is the weather. Depending on what time of day you play the game, the waters can vary from calm to turbulent. High scores are easier to get during fair weather, since an errant wave or obstacle can throw off a fish’s trajectory. Leaving this important aspect of the game to chance is frustrating, though you can see what the weather looks like for the coming hours if you want to plan ahead for clear skies.

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Like Jetpack Joyride, Fish Out Of Water has secondary goals to accomplish, but you only get one at a time. If you don’t like one (or it’s too difficult), you’re stuck with it, which is annoying. Completing these goals leads to leveling up, which in turn leads to you earning crystals. Along with boost, crystals are the other way you can influence your score. They might add some points to your final score, or automatically increase the distance of the next fish you throw. However, gems are also scarce, which is how Fish Out Of Water makes its money. If you don’t want to complete the one secondary goal on the table to level up, you can pay real money for packs of crystals to augment your game.

Making players pay for crystals might have worked, but the game doesn’t do anything to get them invested. You don’t get different stages with varying objectives; you’re always throwing the same six fish on the same beach and trying to maximize distance and skips. You don’t earn new abilities, you can’t customize anything (unless you want to pay $1 to change the color of your name), and you don’t make any tangible progress. You can shoot for achievements or join a league to compete with other players, but with no real advantage or reward beyond bragging rights, it feels pointless.

I respect Halfbrick as one of the developers responsible for shaping the current state of mobile gaming, but Fish Out Of Water is a barebones offering that sinks rather than swims.

New Features, But The Experience Is The Same

Matt Helgeson — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:42:00 GMT

For a game that's so simple, Draw Something 2 has been hard to review. The game's core concept - sending pictures back and forth between your friends and guessing what they represent - is so simple that it's really hard to change it in any meaningful way. To boot, it's not even a new concept; all the original Draw Something did was create a mobile and social implementation of the classic board game Pictionary. That's not to denigrate OMGPOP's work on the original game. It was a clever interface that took great advantage of Facebook, the iPhone's touchscreen, and asynchronous multiplayer gameplay. Like millions of people, I was pretty addicted to Draw Something when it first released. Then, like many, I grew tired of the experience and drifted off to other mobile games.

With the release of the sequel, the question is: "Can Draw Something 2 bring back lapsed players?" Despite the many new features, the answer to that question is "No." However, avid players will find that OMGPOP and Zynga have added some intelligently designed interface options as well as some interesting social functions.

The drawing interface has been improved with some nice new tweaks (like a slider than scales your pen or brush size) and is generally cleaner and more useful than the first game's. The developers have also targeted more advanced artists with a host of new stamps, brushes, and pens to unlock. Pattern pens lay down stripes or checkerboard patterns, and you can even buy a pixel pen with in-game currency to create your own 8-bit style art. Users with the requisite art skills and the will to either grind or pay for these new tools will be able to create some impressive art. Unfortunately, people like me, whose art skills peaked in 6th grade, won't be able to take advantage of much of the new functionality. Also, both the paid and free version of the game nickel-and-dimes players by putting many of the cooler tools behind a paywall. Obviously, you could spend the time to grind for the in-game coins, but it's going to take a long time to get everything this game offers.

The new social functions are interesting. Your home page is now an Instagram-style feed which shows off artwork done by your friends, other players, and celebrities like Carly Rae Jepsen. Seeing the high-quality and elaborate artwork that skilled players can accomplish with all of the tools unlocked in the game is great. You can also easily share your pictures to your own "My Drawing" gallery, or quickly post them to Facebook or Twitter.

One of the big problems with Draw Something was the annoyance of friends who didn't do their part to keep the match going. Now, there are community-wide daily drawing and guessing challenges, which provide another way to earn coins when the people you are engaged in matches with aren't being responsive. I also like the addition of a random match function, which pairs you up with another active mystery player from the game's servers.

In many ways, this is a quality sequel. Despite that much of the new functionality must be unlocked through grinding or paying for coins, there is a lot to chew on for dedicated players. The new matchmaking and social functions also add a new level of engagement to the experience. However, for those who quickly burned out on the first game, I'm not sure this is enough to get them to pick up their virtual art pad again.

Sharp Shooting Through A Complex Tale

Kimberley Wallace — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:46:00 GMT

Black Rock Shooter's release sneaked up on me. The project was originally announced by NIS America back in 2011, but the company hasn't said much about it since then. As time went on, a western launch looked bleak, but NIS America announced a release date at the beginning of April, and by the end of the month, Black Rock Shooter was out on the Playstation Store. Was the under-the-radar title worth the wait? Black Rock Shooter does exactly what a handheld title should with its short missions and accessible-yet-deep gameplay, while still surprising me with an intriguing and touching narrative. Imageepoch's latest provided me more than I expected in terms of entertainment, but it's not without flaws.

The narrative starts off slow and dull, throwing you in battle and hoping the firearms are engaging enough. The titular character (yes, she's named "Black Rock Shooter") has piercing eyes, wears all black, carries a gigantic gun, and rides a motorcycle. While she has a tough exterior, there's not much going on in the personality department, since she's suffering from amnesia. Black Rock Shooter was created as a weapon, but whether or not she is human is a question the game explores.

Though the plot is initially disappointing, I was hooked once the twists started appearing. The tale takes some tragic turns, and makes you empathize with Black Rock Shooter. Harsh and heartwarming at the same time, the narrative depth is impressive for its short duration (I beat the game in a little under 10 hours).

Combat consists of Black Rock Shooter engaging enemies on the battlefield that charge straight at her. The action-oriented battles revolve around attacking, dodging, and guarding, forcing you to properly manage all three of these abilities. Spamming attack and dodge causes you to overheat, which prevents any actions from being taken, meaning you have to approach combat judiciously.

This balancing act makes combat tense, forcing you to adjust strategies on the fly. On the other hand, being punished for using defensive abilities effectively is frustrating, especially considering that some enemies strike with multiple attacks that require repeated dodging. Thankfully, the other skills you unlock don't contribute to overheating, but they do operate on cooldown timers. These useful powers prevent battles from becoming drawn-out by letting you do things like negating attacks for a time or hitting multiple enemies with a powerful strike.

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Black Rock Shooter features six stages, each consisting of about six missions. As a bonus, stages have side missions - mostly killing a certain enemy a set amount of times - which unlock better skills. Some of these can be cleared during regular play, though others require backtracking through the same dreary stages.

The experience gets repetitive fast. Enemies lack variety, and missions revolve around the same objectives - either chasing a character, destroying generators, or blasting through minibosses. You don't even have much incentive to explore outside of a few stray chests, making the gameplay structure predictable and tiresome. Even levels where you get to drive a motorcycle lose their allure.

I found regular battles fairly easy, but boss battles gave me the challenge I was looking for, forcing me to stay a step ahead of my enemy and anticipate their attacks. Dodging at just the right moment before a massive attack hit and escaping death by milliseconds is thrilling. The frenzied battles held my attention and I learned quickly that a lack of focus could cost you a victory. Alongside the late character interactions, boss battles are where the game shines. Too bad the same creativity and unpredictability doesn't extend to the regular battles.

Black Rock Shooter is competent at what it does and, for the most part, entertaining to play. However, it could use a bit more polish and imagination in its design. It doesn't turn the genre on its head, but with my guns blazing through the chaos, I found a more meaningful story than I expected.

Trading Your Time For Tedium

Jason Oestreicher — Thu, 02 May 2013 00:30:00 GMT

Soul Sacrifice seems designed to fill the void for Vita owners who want a Monster Hunter-style experience. The two games undoubtedly share some similarities, and Soul Sacrifice even attempts to streamline the experience by minimizing busywork. It steps out of Monster Hunter’s shadow with fast-paced combat, but technical issues and repetitive missions keep it from taking the crown.

Soul Sacrifice’s setting is steeped in macabre fantasy. Sorcerers hunt ghastly creatures and sacrifice them to increase their own power. You play as an imprisoned slave of one such sorcerer. Soon to be sacrificed yourself, you come across a journal that allows you to relive the previous owner’s story, thus unlocking secrets, knowledge, and power. The chronicle of this sorcerer’s tale depicts his rise in power, but also his descent into madness. As his sanity degrades, so does the cohesion of the story; after the fifth or sixth chapter of the game reiterating his uncontrollable bloodlust, my desire to skip dialogue became uncontrollable as well.

In game terms, each journal entry is an instanced mission with varying goals such as killing a certain amount of monsters or taking down an archfiend, the main bosses of the game. Doing well on a mission rewards you with new spells, which you can combine and upgrade into more powerful attacks. Dozens of different spell types allow for an overwhelming amount of character customization. Many types carry elemental iterations, which seem insignificant at first, but using the right tools for each fight proves to be an integral part of combat once enemies start posing a challenge. Soul Sacrifice’s focus on flexibility is one of the best things it offers; you might be a ranged spellcaster for a while, then get up close and personal later in the fight.

Keeping with the theme of sacrifice, a soul emerges from each creature you slay. Sacrificing or saving souls builds your magic power or defense, respectively. You have a similar choice with the souls of fallen allies; saving them costs you half of your HP but gets them back up on their feet, while sacrificing them rains down a spectacular and damaging spell. Their martyrdom additionally grants special rewards at the end of the quest.

Soul Sacrifice never misses an opportunity to smugly dangle the theme of sacrifice over your head. The constant threat of consequence, while intriguing, isn’t necessarily all that fun. Conversely, most of the “tough decisions” you make can be reversed by spending Lacrima, a resource found in abundant amounts. Did one of your holier-than-thou allies get fed up with your evildoing and leave? Flash some Lacrima and he comes crawling back. Without lasting impact, sacrifice instead translates to a gimmicky term for resource management.

Also at your disposal are Black Rites: hail-mary, highly destructive spells with a consequence to match. For example, one such rite pops out your own eyeballs; they multiply and shoot out lasers, rotating like a Gatling gun. Once they’re out of juice, your vision of the battlefield is obscured considerably until you spend Lacrima to reverse the effects. These abilities are cool, and grant bonus points and rewards at the end of the fight – but you should refrain from firing them off too liberally.

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Early on in your quest for knowledge and power, combat amounts to mindless battles of attrition. Just keep mashing buttons until the baddie is dead. Those early quests are as easy as they are repetitive, but you need to learn the intricacies of combat eventually. The archfiend Cerberus stopped my progression dead in its tracks; unlike the monsters before him, Cerberus is fast on his feet and does massive amounts of damage. After several attempts, I begrudgingly went back to the drawing board and went for a new tactical approach. This setback forced me to explore my large collection of weapons types, shields, and elemental options. When you take the time to explore the depth of combat, it pays dividends later when you encounter even more demanding foes.

As a fan of Monster Hunter style games, I’m not a stranger to repetition or grinding, but Soul Sacrifice doesn’t provide a clear roadmap of how or where to obtain new costumes or specific spells. Mission objectives and environments are unashamedly recycled, and even rewards are often iterative making for a repetitive experience with little promise of payoff.

The controls and camera are implemented well, and the lock-on function helps keep you on target during all of the chaos (even if it’s not always the target you wanted it to lock on to). Other variables – like additional players and AI companions – inevitably cause havoc. Friendly fire, though it does no damage, can knock you down, interrupt spells, and open you up to an attack. Some of the best spells and attacks have an area of effect, increasing your chances of getting hit by allies. The lack of an on-screen timer also leads to you missing opportunities (or eating damage) since you can’t tell when certain effects are about to expire.

Shoddy companions aside, the truly aggravating situations are unintentional. Archfiends are massive creatures and are a grand sight to behold, but are also prone to clipping issues. It’s not uncommon to get pinned up against a wall and trapped inside their model as they pummel you to death. I can get accustomed to clunky mechanics, but I can’t forgive deaths that result from the game rendering me helpless.

For many, multiplayer is a boon, and Soul Sacrifice gives you the ability to play co-op with up to four players either online or ad-hoc. While you cannot progress through the main storyline, you can embark on side missions that expand the content of Soul Sacrifice considerably. Several powerful creature and spell variants are tucked away here. These missions are also available offline with AI partners, but playing with real people increases the difficulty and rewards earned.

Soul Sacrifice has some shining components, and should hold its head high. The depth of weapon customization, strategic layer of combat, and robust multiplayer offerings kept me invested and having fun – even in the face of frustration.

Elegance Through Simplicity

Matt Miller — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:55:00 GMT

Badland is controlled by only pressing a single finger against the screen, but it defies easy classification as yet another simplistic mobile title. Developed by two of the minds behind Trials Evolution, Badland shares many traits with the obstacle-course mentality of that excellent game, but transposes the experience from a dirt bike track to a weird alien world. Your motorcycle is replaced by a bulbous floating bat creature. Players navigate this oddly cute animal through one full day in the jungle, slowly unraveling its mysteries, and marveling at the intricate physics simulation.

Things start off in a straightforward manner. Hold a finger to the screen, and your fat bat flaps its wings and moves forward. The screen immediately scrolls to the right, and the race is on; get left behind, and you’re back to a checkpoint restart. Jutting spikes, spinning blades, falling rocks, and other obstacles are the primary challenge. Sometimes those objects kill you outright, or other times they just halt your progress until the screen catches up with you. Each stage ends as your bat is sucked up through a tube and sent on to the next area. The backdrop changes over time, since the levels are each split into different times of the day, eventually taking you from a lambent dawn all the way through a twilit night. Each level is designed to test new abilities, and a seamless difficulty curve constantly ups the challenge. Even after finishing a stage, you get three special goals to go back and shoot for on replays, adding a new layer of difficulty once you complete the whole game.

Pressing the screen and flapping your wings might grow tiresome as a mechanic if it weren’t for the myriad ways that Badland changes up the experience through power-ups found in each stage. One pick-up makes you grow larger, and the physics of your flight change in response; you feel heavier and more unwieldy, but you’re more able to push heavy objects. Another object changes your speed, letting you zip past a crushing rock before it falls. Most importantly, many pick-ups create one or more clones of your creature, all of which take on the properties of any pick-up that just one of them acquires. Can’t squeeze your flock of gargantuan bats through a tight space? Maybe you can allow a few of them to drop down and pick up that shrinking power-up near the spinning blade – sure, those few won’t make it back, but the rest of the team bustles forward.

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By combining smart level design and careful power-up placement, Badland is about path planning and quick reflexes. Players can’t relax into familiar methods, since the physics of movement and navigation are constantly in flux. Generous checkpoint placement rarely sends you too far back, but plenty of trial and error is required to overcome an obstacle. In fact, one of the only things I don’t like about Badland is that some deaths really come out of nowhere, making it almost impossible to succeed on some levels through the skills you bring to that stage. I wish that careful observation always offered a clear clue about what to avoid in the coming landscape.

While Badland’s gameplay arc is great fun, it’s made better through evocative art and sound. The shadowy outlines of objects in the foreground are juxtaposed against vivid forest backdrops, where skittish animals occasionally peek out from their holes. The naturalistic soundtrack is mesmerizing, but things never sound or look so strange that you don’t understand them – they’re always just bizarre enough to reinforce an otherworldly quality.

If you’re looking for a more casual experience with Badland, the shared-screen multiplayer mode makes for a great party game. Four players can huddle around the screen to tap a quadrant, each struggling to surge ahead of the other players’ creatures and leave them behind. All the mechanics and power-ups in this game mode remain the same as in single-player, but the tone of play is far more frantic and less focused on observation. Because of the simple controls, anyone can hop in and give it a try.

As you flip through the menus of Badland, it’s hard to miss that the entire game campaign is labeled as Day I, while a tantalizing Day II option is listed with a “Coming Soon” banner. No matter what Frogmind’s plans are for subsequent downloadable add-ons, the existing game is one of the most refreshing and robust adventures on iOS. Without any of the microtransaction complications that so characterize the mobile scene right now, Badland stands apart as a world that draws you in completely and immerses you in its charms free of distractions.

Solid Gravitational Gameplay Lacking Fun Levels

Tim Turi — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:45:00 GMT

I remember the first time I took a running leap off a tiny planet in Super Mario Galaxy. I loved seeing Mario jump into space and gradually float back to the planet’s surface or veer into the orbit of another floating rock. They Need To Be Fed 2 explores a similar idea, but in the 2D realm. Players leap and run across a series of objects, using momentum and gravity to collect diamonds and eventually reach a carnivorous plant that needs to feed (on you). The premise doesn’t evolve much past the introductory levels, but the gameplay is engaging enough to keep players tuned in.

Platforming on touchscreens can be a spotty affair. Thankfully, this sequel nails it. Unlike the original game (which requires players to thumb two distinct touch buttons for movement), you can simply slide left and right to run accordingly. The only other touch control in the game is for jumping, which is just as reliable. Navigating the topsy-turvy environments feels good despite the inherent floatiness of gravity-based platforming.

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I enjoyed the variety of obstacles and platforms in They Need To Be Fed 2, but they tend to feel disconnected. Rotating objects spin when you land on or jump from them, spiked platforms require precise timing, and shielded planets provide respite from enemy lasers. The variety creates and enjoyable unpredictability, but the game feels like a series of simple, isolated tasks rather than a thoughtfully designed whole. The liberal checkpoints and quick respawns following death mitigate frustration, but the game lacks true challenge. After collecting all the diamonds in the initial 56 levels you unlock slightly more difficult levels, but they're nothing to write home about.

Similar to the level structure, the presentation is initially endearing but falls flat after a while. The pleasant silhouetted graphics effectively convey the on-screen action, but the only real environmental design variety comes from color swaps in the backgrounds.

They Need To Be Fed 2 controls well and I enjoy its gravitational gameplay, but the uninspired level design and neutered challenge hold the overall experience back. The short, easy levels are perfect for that brief moment in line at the store, but the simple-yet-fun premise doesn’t evolve much beyond the first few introductory levels.

The Need To Be Fed 2 is available on iOS and Android devices.

Gameloft Takes Flight, But Fails To Soar

Ben Reeves — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Three years ago, I reviewed the official Iron Man 2 game for consoles. It let players wear the Iron Man suit in an adventure that simulated other big-budget action titles. Comic-book scribe Matt Fraction even helped pen the script. Even so, it was mediocre – a standard official movie game. With Iron Man 3 comes another official movie game, but it’s a mobile title this time. Gameloft made a better Iron Man game on iOS than Sega made on consoles, but the company’s freemium practices make me want to stop playing its otherwise entertaining product.

Similar to other endless runners (like Temple Run), Iron Man flies through the air dodging blimps, billboards, and missiles as he collects tokens. Tilting your device to guide Iron Man through these obstacles feels smooth and responsive. However, you also have the added challenge of shooting down enemy drones by tapping or swiping your touchscreen. The controls are simple, but that makes the game incredibly easy to pick up and play for a few minutes. Challenges like “reach 10,000 meters in a single run” or “collect 200 credits” give you plenty of carrots to chase. Daily challenges function like boss battles, where players have to reach a certain distance and then battle a powerful enemy before being rewarded with a pile of credits.

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When you head back to Stark’s headquarters between runs, you have the option to spend your experience and credits to upgrade your tech and build entirely new sets of armor. Unlocking a new suit that offers better armor or more powerful blasters is rewarding, but you need to amass a warehouse of different outfits, because your suit requires repair after each run. This can range from a few seconds to a few minutes in real time. You have to use another suit while you wait, or you can speed up the repairs by spending the game’s secondary currency, called ISO-8. Of course, ISO-8 is in rare supply, and the easiest way to amass more is to virtually slide your credit card and buy more ($1.99 for 150 ISO-8, $4.99 for 500, etc.).

I appreciate how the random levels make each playthough feel different, and Tony’s banter with his companions Jarvis and Pepper is occasionally amusing, but I would have enjoyed Iron Man 3 more if it didn’t artificially limit my access to Iron Man’s best gear in a cheap attempt to reach into my piggybank. If you’re a fan of endless runners and can put up with the game constantly asking you to post to Facebook or purchase more ISO-8, then you might find this a fun diversion while you wait in line to see Iron Man 3 in theaters.

Ubisoft Loves The '80s

Matt Bertz — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Creating compelling single-player downloadable content has proven to be a tricky endeavor for game publishers. Most seem content to re-use convenient crutches like pushing half-baked side stories that offer no new narrative insight or simple aesthetic enhancements like costumes. Recently, Ubisoft has instead offered splinter content that leverages the resources of the original game to create a unique experience that has no integral ties to the base game. One Assassin's Creed III standalone DLC tells the story of an alternate history where George Washington turns into a tyrannical ruler. For Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Ubisoft Montreal leverages the high technology of its forefather to channel the spirit of the era when Arnold Schwarzenegger dominated box offices.

Blood Dragon pays homage to the action films, cartoons, and games of the '80s and '90s with its paper-thin plot, explosive action, and unapologetically sophomoric humor. Weapons are named after action icons like RoboCop. The 8-bit inspired cutscenes conjure memories of the NES era. Even the Drew Struzan-style box art would be right at home on a VHS tape. Each subtle flourish demonstrates an admiration for a time when entertainment products weren't overly concerned with political correctness or insightful thematic messages. This game starts and ends with cyborg armies, cheesy dialogue, and lasers.

In this alternate reality 2007, the Cold War is still raging, Canada and Australia have been nuked, and women still style their hair like Rocky IV actress Brigitte Nielsen. When his former Omega Force commanding officer goes rogue to raise an army of android killing machines, cocky cyber commando Sergeant Rex Power Colt (voiced by Terminator actor Michael Biehn) sets his blasters to "annihilate." Clearly inspired by Duke Nukem and the action heroes who came before him, this half man, half machine spits out one liners like a gatling gun spits bullets and celebrates high body counts by throwing up the devil's horns with his cybernetic fingers. Andriods aren't the only threat facing Rex; mutant animals and dinosaur looking menaces known as blood dragons also roam this isolated island.

Blood Dragon's neon veneer and synth-heavy soundtrack may call to mind B action movies, but this retro aesthetic is slapped on top of the state-of-the-art Far Cry 3 engine. The tight gunplay, open-world exploration, animal hunting, and wealth of side activities all return with slight modifications to fit the totally radical motif. Only a handful of story missions chronicle Sgt. Rex Power Colt's revenge tale (including a hilarious and explosive finale), so players spend the majority of the time capturing garrisons, completing rote side missions, and finding the collectables scattered across the island.

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The island houses 13 garrisons, each with slight architectural variations. Nearly all of them have high walls, so picking off enemies from afar isn't always an option. Your best bet is often infiltrating the base, deactivating the alarms, and stealthily picking guys off one by one. If a blood dragon is nearby, I recommend turning off the base shields and chucking a cyborg heart toward one of the doors to lure it in. These beasts are more than capable of doing the dirty work for you.

Once liberated, the garrisons open up a few different side mission types (rescuing hostage scientists, hunting rare animals, or assassinating elite cyborgs). A couple of these side missions break from the pack (including one inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), but the repetitiveness of most is disappointing. The tedious collect-a-thons are also deflating to the point where Rex himself utters, "Yep, another one. What the f--- am I doing?" Unfortunately, scouring the wilderness for TV sets and VHS tapes is a necessary evil if you want to unleash the fury of the amazing end-game weapons.

As you check these tiresome tasks off your list, you get closer to attaining a few weapons destined for the first-person shooter hall of fame. Explosive sniper rifle rounds can take out a jeep and all nearby soldiers in one shot. The quadruple-barrel shotgun makes short work of the extremely dangerous blood dragons. The best weapon of all, however, is the Killstar, a Krull-like glaive that allows Rex to shoot a devastating laser beam from his hand. As much as I grew bored with freeing nerds from captivity, earning weapons capable of eviscerating entire legions in a matter of seconds is highly recommended.

Like many of the '80s action flicks it mimics, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon has the potential to alienate people with its crass sense of humor and repetitive one-liners. But if you long for an era when smart-mouthed badasses were more concerned with making things go boom than catering to social sensitivities, Rex Power Colt is your man, and Blood Dragon is your game.

Reopening A Closed Case

Joe Juba — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:01:00 GMT

According to many of the conventional criteria – like graphics, controls, and animation – Deadly Premonition is a bad game. However, when it originally released on Xbox 360 in 2010, the cult hit from the mind of Hidetaka Suehiro (aka Swery) demonstrated that those things aren’t all that matter. Gamers able to see past its technical shortcomings were treated to a rare and quirky murder mystery set in a haunting town full of strange characters. Deadly Premonition is more about the larger experience than the individual elements, and the director’s cut faithfully translates the whole mesmerizing affair to the PS3 – with a few improvements.

Everything that fans love about the original is intact. Agent York is delightfully odd, the residents of Greenvale are endearing, and a Twin Peaks vibe runs through everything. The only new piece of story content is a series of cutscenes framing the narrative, in which an old man is telling his granddaughter the events of the game. Even though these scenes don’t alter the core plot, the last one adds a new angle to the tale’s conclusion that fans will appreciate. I can't say any more without spoiling the biggest reason fans have to return to Greenvale; it's a nice reward if you’ve been wanting to replay Deadly Premonition anyway, but it doesn’t justify buying the game a second time.

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Beyond the extra scenes, you won’t find any new quests or major gameplay features. The controls are the biggest improvement; they are intuitive instead of clunky in this version, falling in line with traditional third-person controls that gamers expect. Possible additions discussed prior to the game’s release – like York buying a house, and extra quests – did not make the final cut. However, other changes make Greenvale a more hospitable place for newcomers. The graphics have improved slightly, and a minimap reduces the amount of time you need to spend pausing the game to reorient yourself. These tweaks don’t magically make Deadly Premonition a different game; the visuals are still conspicuously outdated, and navigation remains problematic since you can’t place waypoints or even zoom out to see the whole map. I also noticed some audio glitches and graphical hiccups that seem unique to this version, but they aren't severe enough to poison the experience.

Deadly Premonition has its faults, but the quirky dialogue, self-directed exploration, and perfect pacing form an addictive and fascinating mystery unlike anything else in gaming. If you’re a newcomer to Agent York’s adventures in Greenvale (or found the controls too awful to tolerate on Xbox 360), you should definitely try Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut. It asks players to overlook a lot of problems, but if you can do that, it pays even greater rewards.

That Made The Cut?

The addition of 3D support and Move controls are exactly the stupid bullet points they appear to be and don’t add anything noteworthy to the experience. Thankfully, they are both optional, so they don’t do any damage, either.

A Beautiful Strategic Design Viewed Through A Flawed Lens

Adam Biessener — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:41:00 GMT

This indie strategy title exemplifies both why I love strategy games so much and why many of my favorite titles will never gain mainstream acceptance. Eador: Masters of the Broken World has an adamantium skeleton of a gorgeous design buried under the pasty, unappealing flesh of poor technical execution.

As an immortal Master, your goal is to conquer the shards of land that float in the chaotic void until you control enough to piece together a world of your own. This metagame forms a fine narrative framework for assaulting a series of randomly generated 4X maps. On each, you hire heroes and armies for them to lead, build up your stronghold and outlying provinces, and dominate the shard through magical and martial force.

Each hero has the potential to wield godlike power, but achieving that status requires extensive adventuring. The provinces that make up a shard are full of ancient ruins, dank crypts, and other locations filled with hostile monsters. Clearing these lairs is often more important than conquering new lands, as the treasures they hold fuel your war machine with powerful items and large influxes of cash and experience.

These dens of evil play a role in the extensive random event system as well. Text-narrated events pop up regularly, often taking players on a choose-your-own-adventure vignette with randomized outcomes that can help or harm their empires. Giant slugs could start breeding ferociously, causing havoc and terrifying your populace until you can clear the lair (or shell out the cash to hire a team of adventurers). Corrupt officials can get you a nice influx of bribe money if you’re willing to take the karmic hit, which has a subtle influence on many game systems. The Inquisition could land on your shores, liberating your provinces and uniting them under its watchful gaze. These events can be a royal pain in the neck, but they also add a delightful narrative element and shake up the flow with much-needed randomness.

Battles take place on the tactical map, where the immaculately balanced combat requires serious thought to prevail. Every seemingly tiny detail matters, from the terrain to units’ special abilities and the individual promotions of each troop or monster. Simply charging into melee is usually a quick death; using magic to drain enemies’ stamina before you pick off their tired fighters with numerically inferior forces is what passes for baseline strategy, and it only gets more intricate from there.

Eventually your armies will clash with rival lords and Masters, and the AI does not disappoint. Computer-controlled opponents make few missteps in combat, expand aggressively, and develop their holdings nearly as well as a human player. If the AI cheats (outside of the economic bonuses at higher difficulty levels), it’s hidden well.

Unfortunately, the AI regularly ends up winning by default simply by lasting long enough to make the human player quit in frustration at the technical problems. I’ve had enemy heroes show up with insane, obviously bugged stats that render them nearly invincible. I’ve had heroes die for no reason between turns. Turns on larger shards can take upwards of a minute to process, more than doubling the already-serious time investment Eador requires.

The interface itself is a mess. No consistent paradigm for right- and left-clicking exists. Critical menus that you interact with hundreds of times per shard disappear if your mouse pointer leaves their borders, which happens constantly because the controls you need to click on are right up against their edges. The stronghold building interface – which you likely look at every single turn – is wholly unusable in its default state and only workable at all once you click into the hideous “advanced” mode, which you must do every time you enter it. Hours of practice with its foibles can make the interface navigable, but no amount of time and effort can keep it from being frustrating.

Multiplayer unsurprisingly has its share of bugs as well, but Eador is such a slow game to begin with that I can’t imagine the levels of patience required to play much multiplayer in the first place. The barebones implementation here does nothing to address the issue of pacing or downtime, and so I can’t recommend it.

Eador’s problems are disappointing. This is a remake of Eador: Genesis, which is basically a one-man project from 2009 with primitive graphics and a simple-but-functional interface. The design is largely unchanged, but the small tweaks like faster progression through the campaign and unique rules for each shard are welcome. The improved presentation and small improvements to the gameplay are nearly overshadowed by technical problems, though. As encouraged as I am by the patches Snowbird has already released for Masters of the Broken World (it was much worse when it first launched), and as much as I adore the ideas it is built on, my recommendation has to come with serious caveats. Despite its often-disastrous implementation, Eador’s design is worth your time – a testament to its strength.

A Life-And-Death Struggle In Need Of A Point

Jeff Marchiafava — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:22:00 GMT

Using a mix of random world generation, permadeath, and robust crafting options, Don't Starve offers players the thrill of open-world exploration with a grim, survival-oriented twist. While the first few hours of every game are filled with exciting opportunity, the resource-heavy maintenance of your character and deadly threats inhabiting the world make Don't Starve a long, slow grind to nowhere.

Don't Starve makes a great first impression. You get virtually no story setup – survival is the name of the game. The cartoony art style makes exploring your massive, randomized world a joy, and happening upon new animals like the mighty beefalo and creepy tallbirds provides a steady stream of surprises. The beginning is relatively carefree; because you haven't invested any time in the world, you don't have anything to lose from diving in and poking around.

Things gradually become more serious as certain realities set in. Survival requires constant resource gathering, as you collect food, build tools, and slowly cobble together the semblance of a camp out of the items you can create from the extensive crafting system. The gameplay is difficult but rewarding, and offers a variety of avenues to explore for staving off death.

Unfortunately, it feels like Klei spent more time dreaming up ways to make the game hard than ways to make it fun. Just finding the resources to create basic tools can be a challenge depending on the random layout of your continent, and heading down the crafting chains required for valuable items conflicts with the day-to-day grind for survival. At night, you huddle around a campfire hoping the myriad dangerous creatures in the world don't find you. Daytime isn't much better, as most animals can kill you in a few hits if you're not wearing armor. A large part of your day is spent gathering the resources needed to keep your hunger, health, and sanity in check, and ensuring you have enough fuel for when nighttime rolls around again.

I'm a fan of permadeath in games, but Don't Starve pushes my appreciation for the concept beyond its limits. XCOM alleviates the sting of losing beloved soldiers because their deaths are part of a larger, persistent war. Games like Spelunky and The Binding of Isaac are designed to be short experiences – dying is easier to swallow when a game only lasts a few minutes. Don't Starve fits neither template; most of my games lasted hours before coming to grim ends that I had little control over. Just when I had built myself a few farm plots for growing food, a birdcage for holding and producing seeds, and a crockpot for cooking better food in one game, I was mercilessly slaughtered by a roaming pack of hounds. While harvesting wood to build some makeshift walls in another game, a monstrous treeguard came to life and exacted revenge for me chopping down his coniferous brethren.

Once you're dead, the world is lost forever, along with everything you created in it. A few one-time use methods exist to resurrect your character, but enabling them takes as much effort as every other demand vying for your attention. It also leaves your reanimated body in an even more perilous situation, as you respawn without any items or equipment.

Don't Starve's saving grace is that it allows you to customize your world before starting. After being slaughtered by a pack of hounds in one game, I immediately turned down their frequency for the next match. Boosting objects like trees, rocks, and berry bushes makes it easier to survive and speeds up the crafting significantly.

Tweaking the world's variables made my subsequent playthroughs easier and more entertaining, but even when death was less of an immediate (yet still omnipresent) threat, I found myself wondering what it was all for. Minecraft is popular because it allows you to build virtually whatever you can imagine. Don't Starve has no such creative options. Your goal is simply to survive for as long as possible. Adventure mode (accessed by a door in hidden somewhere on your island) simply tasks you with surviving and piecing together teleporters in six increasingly difficult worlds, with very little in the way of a narrative or payoff. Each game earns you XP that unlocks new characters to play as in subsequent playthroughs, but the differences between them are minor. All of this means that while there is plenty of content to explore, surviving for the sake of surviving is the only reason to continue playing.

A small group of hardcore gamers will revel in Don't Starve's punishing difficulty, but without a better sense of overarching progression or purpose, there are more entertaining and rewarding gaming experiences to spend your time on. I'm interested to see what Klei introduces in promised future updates of the game, but even when playing in a world that's customized to your liking, the thrill of Don't Starve is fleeting.

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The Story Of The Sympathetic Quadrilaterals

Kyle Hilliard — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:54:00 GMT

The PlayStation 3 and the Vita are increasingly becoming the home of choice for fascinating independent video game experiences. Thomas Was Alone is one these titles.

Explaining what makes Thomas and his geometric friends so interesting is difficult. The hyper-simplified art direction means every element of the game is built with simple geometric shapes. The most complicated it ever gets is animated water that sometimes impedes your progress. The simple design, however, is all in service to precise platforming. Everything about controlling Thomas and his assorted quadrilateral friends (and frenemies) is sanded down to perfection. Everything runs smoothly, and all the right angles mean you never have any doubt in regard to when you may fall off a ledge, or where you need to land.

Thomas is a suddenly self-aware artificial intelligence who is trying to escape a game-like mainframe. Along the way, you meet and control other self-aware AIs that all have assorted abilities and limitations. One character floats in water providing a makeshift boat, another double jumps, and another serves as a sort of trampoline. The goal is to get each character to their designated level exits simultaneously. Players switch between each of the available characters and use teamwork to make it through. Controlling the characters feels perfect, and the difficultly curve eases you into each new puzzle without the need for tutorials.

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No cutscenes or character dialogue directs the story. Instead, a narrator with a delightful British accent provides insight into the characters’ personal motivations and insecurities. The narration adds humor, but also makes the unassuming shapes feel real and sympathetic. Even with common forgettable names like Thomas or Chris, I can tell you the general personality of each character and their relationships to one another based entirely on the three or four sentences of narration that plays during each level. Their designs may just be variations of colors and four-sided shapes, but I quickly grew to like every member of Thomas Was Alone’s cast.

Though entertaining, the experience struggles with tedium. Switching between characters means that often you must repeat patterns and cover familiar ground to retrieve them at the end. You also use characters to create stairways for the weakest jumpers, which involves repeated repositioning of up to five characters over and over again. The puzzles and stages are never overly difficult, but moving through the motions character by character can feel like work instead of play.

Thomas Was Alone is an abstract experience, but it’s a rewarding one that encourages continued exploration. Simple shapes and environments make it seem limited at first, but it crafts new puzzle solutions in its geometric world with each new level. Developer Mike Bithell clearly has a strong passion and understanding for what makes the medium of video games interesting and worth exploring.