Dopamine tickler, the video game. Luca Galante puts his past experience as a gambling software programmer to good use here - Vampire Survivors is mesmerizing in its ability to give the player continuous positive feedback and string them along with constant rewards. Vampire Survivors, unlike a casino, does not ask much of your wallet. This game is surely a product of joy and passion. It delivers an insistently fun experience that is an easy recommendation to near anyone. The majority of runs are timed in a way that makes Vampire Survivors a near perfect "pick up and play" title on any platform one might choose to experience it on.

Pentiment is a phenomenal achievement in narrative presentation and depth. Josh Sawyer's passion project is filled with unrivaled respect for the many practices, pitfalls, and perspectives that contribute to historical interpretation.

The title of the game itself invokes its thematic nature. Masterfully, Pentiment peels back the layers of Tassing's complicated past over the course of its expertly paced story, just as one might peel back the superficial layer of a painting only to discover a concealed image beneath it. This fictional town could not be better realized and serves as a perfect backdrop for the disturbing series of events that break its apparent peace. Art, music, costume, dialogue and customs of 16th century Bavaria are lovingly brought to life in Pentiment. The lives of Tassing's townsfolk feels organically contextualized and believable, whether they be clergy, peasants, nobles, hermits or professionals. The attention to detail in this game is frankly staggering. Whether it be the encyclopedia of readily accessible historical information or subtle changes in font Pentiment employs to indicate the perceived intelligence of a speaker, there is an impressive effort to constantly teach the player more about the world they are exploring. Andreas Maler serves as the primary protagonist for this game. Beginning as a journeyman artist, you follow him throughout his lifetime as Tassing progresses through time, hardship, and mystery. His perspective is often purposefully equivocal, allowing room for the player to bring their own interpretations to the narrative that unfolds. Additional player agency is delivered via various "backgrounds" and "studies" we can ascribe to Maler. These provide a surprising variety of interesting tools for navigating conversations throughout Pentiment. However, Maler's core beliefs are realized in such a way where it grows easy to become attached to this complicated, imperfect character.

Pentiment pushes the player forward on a compelling narrative path that gives ample space for personal reflection. Thematically, this game is wonderfully ambiguous. It delves into the nuance of meaningful decision-making and the impossible choices perfectly ordinary humans may be faced with, shattering perspectives of "good vs. bad" that we so often see in video game narratives. Assuredly, players will see the profound downstream effects of their actions and choices. The uncertainty behind every answer the player provides is reflective of the time period it is set, and for the uninitiated Pentiment strives to give context to the great social upheavals seen in 16th century Europe. The intricacies of social class, religion, tradition and other integral aspects of society are not spoken of in concrete terms. Pentiment speaks to the human condition as it relates to the faithful interpretation of the historical setting in which it is set. It explores personal legacy by questioning how we develop, pursue or define our dreams, ambitions and happiness. Most uniquely, Pentiment challenges how we view history… it asks us to think more critically about how the history of a place or a group of people becomes known. It asks us to consider how the interpretation of that history alters over time. Of course, it also inquires about how and to what extent our history should be preserved for future generations.

Although not a historian myself, I hold a Bachelor's of Art in History and have a great deal of love for the frameworks we utilize to study the past. Pentiment, in my opinion, is a near-perfect love letter to the subject's strengths, challenges, and values to society. It won't be a game that appeals to everyone, as is the case with most side-scrolling narrative adventures void of combat encounters or striking 3D visuals. For me, it provided what might just be one of my favorite gaming experiences I've ever had.

Aside from a slew of abysmal bugs at launch, MW II has provided a solid overall multiplayer experience. The early goings were especially frustrating as a result of constant crashes in parties of ≥3 people, as well as inconsistent in-game voice chat. As things have stabilized over the past month it has grown to be a fairly enjoyable, highly customizable multiplayer experience. Gunplay is as good as ever, but I find the current rendition of CoD unplayable in specific game modes where folks seem to prefer camping to actual gameplay (kudos to Infinity Ward for the introduction of the drill charge).

Not Breath of the Wild, but certainly a breath of fresh air for this franchise. This game provided a well-realized, albeit technically limited, hub-based world that gave individual Pokémon personality like they've never had before. It was a fascinating game of 'exploration,' where the pure turn-based combat of the series takes a bit of a backburner. There was a solid sense of danger with exploration, also novel for the series, and the Pokédex challenge never before felt so rewarding for those curious enough to tackle it

Halo Infinite "Winter Update" showcases what a live-service Halo game could be if production came close to firing on all cylinders. The new head of live service, Sean Baron, has given Halo fans the first glimpse at the direction he wishes to steer the ship. Progression in Infinite feels appropriate, and the frustrating challenge system has been overhauled to be less important, less time-consuming, and most importantly less demanding that players alter their playstyles. Playlist agnostic challenges and the reduction of the weekly challenge count make the experience of progressing or earning weekly cosmetics much more enjoyable. The newly implemented "Match XP" system, separate from challenges, already feels well-tuned in its initial form. It is also encouraging to hear from 343i that the overall career system development is progressing well and should debut in 2023.

Satisfied with their ability to get kinks worked out over time, Sean green-lit the launch of the Custom Games Browser >3 months earlier than its initial ETA. This, in tandem with the advent of Halo's most expansive Forge offering ever, has breathed new life into Halo Infinite. The return of classics like Lockout, Blood Gulch, and Guardian ring all the right nostalgic bells. Duck hunt, Castle Wars and obstacle courses make their rightful return to Halo and are accompanied by novel sandbox zaniness that display the player-led innovation paramount to Infinite's longevity (shout-out to "Digletts").

Player feedback appeared tantamount to the marketing of the Winter Update: free Reach-inspired cosmetics including Emile's infamous shoulder pieces, a robust file sharer coinciding with Forge's release, a polished rendition of campaign co-op, 3 new maps for arena (all crafted in Forge), scattered community events (I.e. Winter Contingency vol II), and the previously mentioned alterations to the progression system. The promise to incorporate Forge maps into matchmaking furthers the appeal of the multiplayer going forward. Already, the remake of Halo 3's "The Pit" is a welcome addition to Infinite's growing map sandbox.

There are still more items on the docket for Halo Infinite's multiplayer, which feel more achievable now: ongoing resolution of de-sync issues takes technical-precedent, while on the content side of things new BTB maps and the new equipment/weapons promised for Season 3 are in higher demand. Infinite's most glaring omission at this point are its absent game modes. Even with Forge tools in-hand, players remain without official access to Griffball, Infection, Assault, and others. Lastly, of course, the game will also benefit from the rumored Battle Royale-like mode rumored to be in development with Certain Affinity.

With Halo Infinite's co-op fully functional at this point, although without split screen options, I hope that Joseph Staten's crew at 343i will turn their attention to the continuation of Infinite's campaign. Whether "The Endless," or an equivalent story DLC, comes by way of expansion or a spin-off game in the same engine (like O.D.S.T.)... I am eager to see where Chief goes next. In revisiting the campaign this Winter, I was once again reminded how captivating it was in setting up the future of the franchise: many stories and characters remain in limbo. There are also still plenty of foes present to challenge Chief on the Zeta Halo Ring.

I believe Halo Infinite is on the right track, and I remain keen to see what awaits us in Season 3 (slated for March 7, 2023) and beyond.

Overall, High on Life is a pretty awesome game characterized largely by a constant stream of over-the-top humor that will get plenty of laughs out of most people. If you vibe with Justin Roiland's humor in Rick & Morty, you're probably gonna dig this game as well. It's a serviceable FPS platformer that is set in various, well-realized hub worlds. The bombastic art direction throughout is superb. The little details in High on Life are also fantastic - whether that be NPC dialogue, 4th wall-breaking jeers, or satirical depictions of our own society. It is readily apparent a lot of effort went into designing the bizarre setting for this title.

Performance is fine but I encountered a handful of frustrating bugs that were easily mitigated by checkpoint reloads. However, there is one prominent achievement bug that is much more obnoxious, given the setup for it requires a whole playthrough of the campaign. I am hopeful this will be patched, but I've seen no official word on the matter.

Squanch Games brought something quite unique to the table with High on Life, and I am quite keen to continue to see them make more titles outside of the VR space.

A Show to Remember:

Persona 5 Royal is simply one of the greatest video games I have ever played. It is stylistic, fun, emotional and supersaturated with an eclectic cast of compelling characters that I grew to love. The environment and art direction proved absolutely stunning. Even the UI oozes style while incorporating a level of practicality that so many JRPGs neglect. As for the OST, words obviously could never do it justice. I adored nearly every single song this game featured, of which there were many. The impressive scope of its original score allowed Atlus to attach even the most mundane of the daily life-sim tasks with a banger track of their own.

Throughout, there is a great attention to detail maintained from beginning to end. In-spite of this being, for some, a 100+ hour video game… it remarkably demands your attention and remains interesting at every turn or twist. The plot near-constantly pivots, to the point where one assumes the next revelation might be the last surprise the game will offer, only to have expectations subverted yet again shortly thereafter. P5R fearlessly tugs at players' heartstrings and cleverly rewards your diligence as you guide Joker's journey. Common writing tropes are addressed head-on, and are often sarcastically rejected in favor of Atlus' own witty dialogue. The narrative pay-outs, both from the major and minor story beats, are sublime. Daily life will change gradually and scripted events are well-placed through the progression of P5R's in-game calendar, granting players familiarity without monotony. I took my time with Persona 5 Royal, putting over 130 hours into the game before completing it. While this sort of commitment is certainly not required for enjoyment, it was additive to my own experience as I built personal rapport with P5R's characters, world, and narrative. The combat felt like a fresh and evolved version of the turn-based combat I first encountered playing Japanese role-playing games in my youth. Fusing, sacrificing, developing and capturing new personas prompted more frequent adoption of novel combat strategies. As a result, combat remained fresh for the duration of my playthrough. The "confidant" system for hanging out with your companions works excellently to give players' stake in the lives of Joker's numerous allies. Joker himself was as phenomenal a RPG protagonist as you could ask for. He was calm, cool, collected and recurrently put everything on the line to uphold his ideals. Every second with this game felt like time well spent. P5R will be a game I feel comfortable recommending to any and all in the years to come.

This was my first Persona game, but I believe it will not be my last. The mask might be thrown away for now, but I plan to engross myself in the worlds of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden... while also earnestly awaiting the global take over that will ensue with the reveal of Persona 6. This game succeeded in stealing my heart, that much is for sure.

Pokémon Violet (and thus, Scarlet as well) was a truly surprising video game. I consider that to be a huge compliment, given how unsurprising Pokémon games have been in recent years. Pokémon Violet might just be my favorite mainline game since Black 2 / White 2. These games shined with gorgeous pixel art, progressive gameplay design, QoL features galore, and a continuation of the most compelling narrative of any mainline Pokémon game. Game Freak's transition away from their pixel art days to the world of 3D animation has been… rough. Since the advent of Pokémon X and Y on the 3DS, the mainline games have consistently looked horrendous and at times suffered in performance as well. While Pokémon and character depictions are charming enough in Scarlet/Violet, make no mistake: this is not a good looking video game. The first true "open world" Pokémon game is impressive in its scope but it is marred by horrendous environmental texturing, stuttering frame rate, and subjugation to tediously long animations. On so many levels, this game would generally thrive under whatever conditions could make it run faster and with more consistency. In all honesty, crummy looking shrubbery doesn't harm my enjoyment of a Pokémon game, but boxes in the Pokémon PC staggering the loading of sprites or prolonged animation times do diminish the experience.

A "two steps forward, one step back" formula has followed the series since X and Y. Some QoL improvements arrive, others go away, and so on. Scarlet and Violet shattered this pattern in fairly splendid fashion. These games feel like a true love letter to the franchise, one that was written with the fans' years of feedback largely in-mind. Yes, the dev cycle for these games remains way too constrained, and there are many technical consequences for that. However, these are unequivocally "fun" video games. An expansive open world with 400ish Pokémon littered throughout, an interesting twist of the traditional Pokémon story with a fantastic conclusion, a stellar OST, and countless improvements made in QoL make these standout titles in the series. VGC (the competitive doubles format for the series) and casual audiences are serviced well by a number of these QoL changes, but Singles competitive players still must contend with an obnoxious in-game timer as seen in Sword/Shield. Overall most improvements to the tried and true battle system are appreciated in this game, with subtle buffs provided to Ice Pokémon being one such example.

Catching Pokémon and interacting with them continues to receive streamlining improvements, and the "Let's Go" feature for auto-battles is certainly a nice addition to the franchise. Creature design for the new Pokémon is fantastic, and once again it was wonderful to see old Pokémon revisited through changes to their move- sets, as well as the addition of new forms or evolutions. They are well animated and bustling with personality in and out of the open world. The transition to having all the catchable Pokémon appear in the overworld, as seen with Legends: Arceus earlier this year, is one we can never turn back on. It further adds to the liveliness of Paldea (the fictional region based largely off Spain), and I never grew bored of uncovering new creatures gallivanting about their respective ecosystems. The initial fantasy of these games, sparked for many of us back in the 90s and into the early 2000s, has never felt closer to becoming realized than it does with Scarlet/Violet.

This was a game I truly treasured, although I would never dispute its glaring technical flaws in presentation and performance. I eagerly anticipate DLC, which might give me another chance to spend some time exploring and catching away in the adjunct regions of Paldea.

Modern Warfare II pulls on nostalgic strings while bringing the franchise to new, exceedingly bombastic heights in terms of spectacle. Its campaign is filled with the action set-pieces we've grown to expect of the franchise, while also bringing back iconic cast members such as General Shepherd, John "Soap" MacTavish, and Simon "Ghost" Riley. At its best, MWII slows things down and invites a playstyle more akin to a tactical shooter. Smart stealth sequences, including a lovely callback to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's "All Ghillied Up." Perhaps to its fault, MWII does take great inspiration from the original Modern Warfare Trilogy (which featured games releasing in 2007, 2009, 2011) and hardcore fans of all the 'Modern Warfare' games will appreciate the subtle and obvious callbacks that litter this entry.

The story if for the most part an enjoyable, well-paced romp. The campaign is not quite as intriguing as the one we saw in its 2019 predecessor. This campaign outing does not speak to the gravity of war and conflict to the same extent we saw in CoD: Modern Warfare (2019). It also struggles to develop its protagonists in a meaningful capacity, despite them being interesting characters at baseline. However, Modern Warfare II excels in other departments. The setting is dynamic and provides unprecedented environmental diversity with breathtaking visual fidelity and care. Even the shortest of mission sequences have a blockbuster levels of tenacious detail. Multifarious mission design invites players to explore and traverse this campaign utilizing many different mechanics. This does result in some peaks and valleys in the overall experience, in my opinion. Not all facets of MW II's game design are equal in fun factor or quality. For example, I found some of the water traversal sequences to be excellent, but my experience was contrastingly marred by questionable vehicular encounters. Sound design feels incredibly high budget, further serving to sell the immersion already offered by the game's stunning visuals. The gunplay and performance has never been better. Modern console hardware runs this game at a smooth, responsive 120fps and offers a much appreciated FoV slider.

This franchise is nearly two decades old, but MW II has managed to deliver a truly contemporary first-person shooter that's core gameplay that outclasses all of its predecessors in its core gameplay and technical performance. Prior to 2019, it felt as though Call of Duty was on the downtrend, but MW II serves as a zestful reminder that this franchise is bigger and more relevant than ever. I fully expect MW II to captivate the masses and dominate the FPS space for the next couple years. Spec Ops, core multiplayer, and Warzone 2.0 should only further solidify MW II as the most definitive Call of Duty experience to date.

Campaign Review: 8.0 / 10.0 ★★★★ - Great
Multiplayer / Spec Ops Review: TBD

A Plague Tale: Requiem is a proud, bold and powerful sequel to 2019's beloved title, "A Plague Tale: Innocence." In just three short years, Asobo managed with Requiem to improve upon nearly every facet of its predecessor. Requiem picks up nearly immediately after the events of Innocence, and once again places the player in the shoes of Amicia de Rune.

As Amicia, you traverse the countryside of France and the Mediterranean Sea in a frankly epic journey alongside her brother Hugo. Throughout, Charlotte McBurney delivers a truly phenomenal performance as the voice actor for Amicia (English/French). It is readily apparent that the events of Innocence have hardened Amicia, but also have left her with deep internal turmoil. McBurney does an exemplary job manifesting Amicia's conflict through convincing and emotional voice acting. I would be shocked to not see her nominated for the "Best Performance" accolade at The Game Awards in December 2022. As Amicia contends with her own deeds, Hugo too has developed as a character. He still holds the intrigues of a child throughout Requiem, however at times his maturity and personal understanding of his disease exceeds that of his older companions. Other supporting cast members, both novel and returning, are also well realized and interesting in their own rights. Voice acting throughout Requiem is generally charming, but it should be noted facial capture was done with actors speaking French (thus, it will look 'off' when playing with English-dub).

Sound and presentation are absolute hallmarks of Requiem. On a Xbox Series X with a LG C1 OLED display I was consistently shocked with the visual fidelity and environments of Requiem. The visual spectacle is not just superficial either. Not only are there stunning vistas and environmental marvels, the lived spaces in Requiem are dense. For a game so much about death, it is utterly impressive how much life was infused into the gameworld through the meticulous detail appreciated in campgrounds, city markets, abandoned homes and so on. If Asobo sought out to make Requiem a visual showpiece for current-generation hardware in 2022, I definitely think they have succeeded. Light rendering and shadows were equally excellent. Throughout, Requiem is as gorgeous as it is gruesome. The OST is haunting, iconic and fantastic throughout. The music in Requiem has extensive range, delivering uplifting instrumentals and at-times brooding in a foreboding manner. Audio queues, such as footsteps or the cracking of a pot, are appropriate and useful to the player.

The game feels wonderful to play, with Amicia being granted a good deal of tools to dispose her foes or quietly traverse environments. Unlike many modern big budget games, you can utilize stealth effectively throughout much of Requiem. It remains a legitimate option for most, albeit not all, of the main encounters in the game. Combat feels much improved over Innocence, with appreciable new additions such as the crossbow and some alchemical concoctions. The game remains curated, well-paced, and largely linear like its predecessor. Unlike Innocence, players will be given some more expansive sections littered with alternative paths and secrets. These sections reward players who chooses to meticulously explore their options, but these encounters are brief and intuitive enough to not bog down the game from a pacing perspective.

Requiem is a technically demanding game, but for me the game ran fairly smoothly on XSX with VRR support. The promised 40fps definitely did dip in a few robust action sequences, but generally cooperated throughout my 1.5 playthroughs. Significant performance woes have been noted by others on PS5 and varying PC gaming rigs. While the game is stable and had little in the way of frustrating glitches, I would wager its lack of a performance mode with stable 60fps on console will signal its greatest tarnish. Visual fidelity, as I previously commented on, remained striking throughout.

In the spirit of avoiding spoilers, I will refrain from commenting too much more on the core plot or the overall driving point for Amicia and Hugo's journey. What I will say is that the storytelling here is generally excellent. The themes and overall narrative threads are much darker in Requiem, as compared to Innocence. The raging plague places a heavy toll on the protagonists and the world they reside in. Death in Requiem's world is inveterate. It is recurrently augmented by acts of militaristic, economic, and religious exploitation. Still, the journey is a compelling one, and I found Requiem to be a very difficult video game to put down once I started playing. I wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone, but do implore folks first play its brief predecessor. Requiem does not do too much to recap the events of Innocence, but I would argue knowledge of that journey makes Requiem infinitely more rewarding.

Scorn is an unsettling outing into a dystopian alien society where the player is tasked with navigating various puzzles. Although no clear goal is spelled-out for the player, your task seemingly demands you escape the ancient structures from which you awaken.

Make no mistake, the chief appeal and greatest accomplishments of this title are found in its unique art direction. Scorn's grotesque presentation serves as an explicit ode to the works of H.R. Giger and surrealist artist Zdzisław Beksiński. The humanoid alien society in which Scorn takes place clearly draws from both their works. The parasitic plant depicted in Beksiński's 1978 "AA78" is personified by the eerie overgrowth the player must navigate as they physically descend Scorn's world. Further still, desolate landscapes and gothic cathedral-like edifices serve to evoke his many apocalyptic oil paintings. Society in Scorn appears revolved around the cyclical production and conclusion of life. Players will note the architecture they manipulate to progress will symbolically nod to the mechanical way by which society reproduced in the world of Scorn. Its biophysical and highly sexual undertones assuredly pull from H.R. Giger's various works. I imagine most players will at least have some familiarity with the original "Alien" films, and their influence on Scorn is readily observable. The macabre environmental design in Scorn serves it well in depicting its staggering, intriguingly vague story. Scorn has many touchstones: the cycle of life, maternalism, the burdens an individual bears for their society or the means by which a civilization might fight its own extinction.

While art direction is certainly the star here, justifying Scorn's existence in its own right, the rest of the experience garners more mixed feelings for me. The audio design was good and helped to promote a foreboding atmosphere. Of-course there are moments of gore with some particularly uncomfortable sounds and images for those who are even remotely squeamish. Puzzle design is overall pretty fine, with most individual puzzles demand some thought without being particularly obtuse. Homogenous, albeit engrossing, environmental design will be disorienting for most players when solving puzzles that demand them to cover some distance. This is made worse in Acts III-IV, where players must first engage with Scorn's combat in a meaningful way.

Initially, combat in Scorn is pretty dreadful. The limited types of enemies all encourage some "gamey" or "cheesy" actions of the player if they wish to avoid an exceedingly punishing death. In the earlier goings most enemies in Scorn are felled primarily by utilizing corners or structures as 'cover' while zig-zagging towards them to deploy an underpowered melee attack. Eventually, the player earns two more weapons that are more efficacious, but with severely limited ammunition. These weapons, as well as one endgame weapon, actually boast pretty rad designs (I'll also add that reloading is slow... but cool to look at). I actually found it somewhat rewarding and tense to manage the ammo for these weapons. You have an additional puzzle of making strategical decisions to skip combat encounters or engage, as one might do in a survival-horror game. However, this is ultimately a slight on the game, not a strength. The uncertainty governing combat management is made tedious by an unforgiving checkpoint system (and nonexistent save system). I only died twice in my Scorn play-through (once in Act III, once in Act V), but this was through excessively cautious, lucky play and not because of any particular 'skill.' I have heard of others losing an hour+ of progress, but in my experience the checkpoints I reached (although not manually loadable) generally only set me back 30s-5min prior to my deaths. I respect Scorn's unapologetic commitment to itself as a first-person, disturbing puzzle game in 3/5ths of its "Acts." However, I do think the game loses its identity a bit in acts III-IV, where the game becomes burdened with poorly implemented combat.

It is worth noting that Scorn was initially reported to have quite a few bugs, however I experienced none during my play-through on the Xbox Series X (~6 hours of gametime). Sometimes enemies clipped through the environment, but I did not encounter any progress-halting bugs nor other glitches. I am unsure if the day one console patch (~3gb) resolved many of the issues media outlets experienced, or if I just got lucky. Although I did not experience any bugs or crashes, this does not undermine the experiences others had. The topic of these bugs/glitches is just one I cannot comment on further, based off my personal time with the game.

Overall, I am inclined to recommend Scorn to those who understand just what this game is and accept the caveat that the compelling journey it takes you on is not one that will intermix much in the way of traditional action-focused gameplay. It could do with a few QoL adjustments, particularly in melee damage and a save feature. Scorn is not a survival-horror game, nor is it a pure walking simulator or no-combat puzzle game. Its agglomerative nature is probably to its detriment, but within its flaws exists a wholly unique experience. Scorn's artists/designers made good use of Unreal Engine 5, it would seem, as the visual impact this game has is profound. It is easy to recommend this game on those grounds alone. This is Ebb Software's debut title, and I am excited to see what they will produce in the future! Not many developers can produce such a fascinating, unique and well-realized world in their first outing. This team operates out of Serbia, and represent part of the explosion of GameDev talent we are seeing in Eastern Europe at the time of my writing... Teams like Ebb Software, SadCat, 4A Games (who have relocated to Malta, but originated in Kiev), GSC Game World, and Mundfish are all worth keeping an eye on in the years to come.

It is hard for me to put a number score on Scorn, and truth-be-told it personally lands for me somewhere between the ★★★½ " Good" and ★★★★ "Great" marks.

"Chicory: A Colorful Tale" is an exceedingly cute, unique game. The central narrative is appropriately brief and charming. Painting mechanics, core to this title, give way to a fairly unique gameplay experience. The general art-direction is delightful and the game is littered with quirky characters. Puzzles are fair and the "combat" is not particularly challenging, with plenty of accessibility options to boot. Chicory is an easy recommend for folks seeking out a neat indie title, but it is a harder recommendation for folks who like combat-focused games or trophy hunting. Some of the collectathon aspects of Chicory can be frustrating, given how some items are counterintuitively hidden-in-plain-sight and others are reliant on NPCs with some RNG'd locations. Overall, Chicory is a chill, heartwarming game that is worth checking out!

"DEATHLOOP" is a unique experience built on a wonderfully weird sandbox crafted by Arkane Lyon. The game is linear in nature, but encourages player exploration and exploitation of the many sandbox goodies provided to accomplish an established set of goals. The progression of one's personal familiarity as well as their loot or abilities is satisfying throughout. The "loop" does struggle with some repetitiveness, especially compounded by at-times confusing puzzles or the lack of enemy variety. The repetitive levels are a double-edged sword, in that my familiarity with them actually did lead to genuine enjoyment as I began to master and optimize my routes.

The game is aesthetically top-notch. Quintessential Arkane art direction was on full-display on the island of Blackreef, forgoing AAA hyper-realism in favor of depicting a flamboyant and variegated dystopia. Music and sound both worked to further sell Blackreef's 1960s setting. The OST for the game was solid, with the few songs featuring lyrics also being enjoyable when they appeared in game. Audio queues were often incredibly helpful when engaging with the game's stealth mechanics, but the footstep audio was all over the place in its consistency. One item that was improved in comparison to previous Arkane games was technical performance - the game felt smooth in performance mode and I did not appreciate any notable hiccups. My bugs were minimal, and mostly were associated with the already obtuse UI between missions. I did have one crash in my 33.5 hours with DEATHLOOP (played entirely on my Xbox Series X).

Ultimately, I really enjoyed my time with DEATHLOOP. I continue to believe the folks at both the main Arkane Studios are wicked talented. I loved seeing them adapt some of their unique gameplay mechanics from the Dishonored series into a completely different setting. The abilities in this game are fun and satisfying to wreak havoc (pun-intended) with on the undying Eternalists of Blackreef. The world is weird, wacky, and inundated with many secrets that serve both player intrigue as well as provide practical tools to "end the loop." The game is fairly forgiving, with abundant access to permanent loot preservation early on, so I always felt encouraged go thoroughly explore the many corners of Blackreef. Juliana and Colt's bickering dialogue can be at times exhausting, but I overall enjoyed the zaniness of the game's cast. The game could do with a little more consolidation in its mission structure, as I imagine certain threads in the narrative might be perceived as repetitive or unnecessarily fragmented. Both the menus’ busy UI and the title's aggressive explanation of gameplay mechanics (essentially a prolonged tutorial) will also be to the distaste of some players. Lastly, the scope of this game might feel limited to folks who were big fans of some of Arkane's previous works. DEATHLOOP felt less concerned with providing consistent choice/consequence or branching narratives that evolved based off player behavior (as compared to 2017's "Prey" or the Dishonored series). DEATHLOOP is probably not the game for people looking for an experience that provides player agency to influence the bulk of its narrative.

I will also add that this is a great game for achievement and trophy hunters, with an interesting list that encourages player engagement with the game's many sandbox and narrative offerings. Nothing is missable, and I experienced only one glitched achievement in my play-through that resolved with a replay of the short 5-10min level.