After watching both Marvel's Avengers and Kill the Justice League fall flat on their faces within years of each other trying to monetize superhero characters and microtransaction costumes, I think they had the winning formula here in 2012. If this game came out today as a cheap or free to play game I think it'd do insanely well.

A great CoD knock off with some really fun gadgets. Now that I think about it shares a lot of gameplay with The Finals which got a lot of praise when it released last year. I don't think it's possible to play this online anymore which is a shame.

Fun little chess clone with a decent hook. Graphics were charming, concept was interesting and quick to learn and it was priced well for a short little experience.

You play chess against a demon/troll thing. But your opponent sometimes cheats, giving you the opportunity to call them out as a cheater. The trick is there are some unique rules to this game conveyed to you through a rule book. Rules are obscured until they happen on the field meaning you'll probably fail a few times as you learn the rules. I legitimately became consumed with beating the troll after he cheated against me so many times, or did things that were 'legal' but I wrongfully called him out which results in an instant game over. Really started throwing myself against the wall once I became engrossed.

I spent a little over an hour beating it my first time, then tinkered around a few more times for another hour. Definitely worth the price of entry. I saw this is a solo indie devs first release and I hope it does well for them since it's such a solid first game.

Cocoon is a game I really looked forward to playing, but fell a bit short of my expectations. On one hand it is very clearly a graphically and artistically beautiful game. The environments are gorgeous and extremely varied. I particularly liked the almost H.R. Giger-esque blends of biology and technology. The worlds felt like they had an extremely long history and the technology you interact with reminded me of Arthur C. Clarke’s adage “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Early in the game you reach a point where you can enter and exit a little pocket dimension and the visual and audible transition between dimensions is extremely satisfying. You see it a lot since it’s a core gameplay mechanic so I’m glad they got it right. The sound design was very subtle, but very effective. The pitter patter of your little bug feat through rough sand, across metal platforms, and puddles behind an ominous otherworldly melodic hum made the world feel very dreamlike. The buttons, platforms and other pieces of technology through the game all sounded very advanced and alien.

The game is very deep on a conceptual level and you can tell that through the puzzles it throws at you. I was convinced a handful of times that I’d broken the game and didn’t have all the pieces I needed to progress only for that “aha!” moment to strike and humble me. The game is extremely fair and thoughtful of your time. You are given the puzzle pieces you need in front of you and the rest of the environment is locked off to prevent backtracking too far and becoming overwhelmed by a large explorable space. One of the most amazing parts is it gives you these puzzle pieces and new gameplay elements without any text or dialogue through the entirety of the game. The visual language of the world is so strong and easy to read and it was never a question of what I could interact with, but more what order I needed to interact with it in order to progress.

There are no traditional enemies throughout the environment, nor is there any type of ‘fail state’. You can’t fall off platforms to your death or be killed by the environment in any way. This is where one of my primary complaints comes from. I never felt a sense of urgency or pressure from the game to do anything. I knew I was safe at all times which seems counterintuitive to finding yourself in such an alien world. There are a handful of boss battles which have “death states”, but even then there’s little consequence to “dying.” I use quotations because even in these scenarios you aren’t killed in battle, the boss generally boots you out of the arena to right outside the entrance where you can just try again. Though the boss battles were each extremely unique and all introduced interesting gameplay mechanics. I liken them to 2D Zelda bosses in difficulty and gameplay.

Where I think the game falters primarily is the emotional impact it has. For me, I felt basically nothing while playing it. I enjoyed the puzzles and boss battles as a game, but seeing as this game has absolutely zero dialogue, story set up, or indication of what your end goal actually is, I just could not get emotionally invested. There is obviously some deep history and lore in this world, but you don’t interact with any living creature that tells tales of what used to be or remembers “a time before.” There are no stakes in saving anyone or anything because you are the only living thing that isn’t a god like creature. There is only you, the lowly worker and the bosses, particularly the final boss, who are clearly higher beings than you. I don’t make this comparison just because both games feature bug-like creatures, but there are a lot of similarities to Hollow Knight. You are mysteriously thrust into a decaying foreign world with a clear long lost history. In Hollow Knight you come across small pockets of society, or lone survivors who remember the kingdom before it fell which really feeds you empathetic drive to fix that world.

All in all, I think the art, sound and gameplay are top notch, possibly among my favorite indie games. However, I wish there was more meat on the bone lore wise to dig into and to get me more emotionally involved in the what or why I was navigating this world. I spent maybe 5-6 hours and managed to unlock all achievements using the level select to pick up missed collectables after completing the story. If you have access to this game on Xbox Gamepass, it's a no brainer. Though replayability is probably pretty limited since the pathway is so linear and puzzles only have one solution.

This game is beautiful visually, musically and thematically from beginning to end. The opening and ending cinematic are extremely powerful and you will feel them at a core level. There's no dialogue or text through the entirety of the game, it's story and meanings are all conveyed abstractly primarily through color and the state of decay of the world around you. The games audio profile consists of the pitter patter of lightly played piano in quiet moments to orchestral swells when the playable character is in the grips of strong emotional transitions. Everything just works really well to pull similar emotions out from within you.

I won't say much about it, but the story is about young woman and her journey through the five stages of grief as outlined by the Kubler-Ross model.

The gameplay works but is the weakest element of the game. You navigate the world primarily linearly, though there are some points where you have a branching path to individual collectibles you need to progress. Most of your interaction will be light platforming with some minor navigation based power-up puzzles. I don't see anyone having too much trouble getting through this game no matter their skill level.

I started this game one evening and really wished I could have completed it in one sitting. I feel it's emotional journey would have been more impactful from start to end without a break. It's definitely doable seeing the game is about 4 hours long, I just couldn't get it done. I ended up finishing the game on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee. The kids woke up just as I was completing the last few segments. I then was bombarded with kid questions about what was happening on screen as I was going through all the accompanying emotions with welled up eyes. I then had to attempt to distill the meaning of grief and it's five stages in a kid friendly way as my 3 and 5 year old jumped up and down all over the couch.

I highly recommend this game to just about anyone who is looking to go on an abstract artsy emotional journey.

The definition of "oozes style". The art is vibrant but simple, easy to read, and at specific level transitions really impressed me with visual flair. The star of the show is obviously the jazz drum. It beautifully and organically adapts to the actions happening on screen. The gameplay is pretty simple, the first few moments of that ultra violent blood splatter as you hurl enemies at the enviroment (and each other) felt great, but that's basically it. You don't get any new abilities or learn new tricks. The enemy variety and numbers are what the gameplay revolves around. Length of the game is roughly 3 hours to see credits, so there really isn't a lot of meat on the bone, but what's here is really good.

My main complaint is the game feels a bit unfairly punishing towards the end. Sometimes I couldn't quite tell if I was rushing or dragging. The mix of enemies and the later levels kind of funneling you down to choke points lead to many frustrating deaths that I felt I had little to no way to avoid. I wonder if at some point the game had static levels with set enemy pathing before changing to the randomized levels the game has now. I feel like I would've encountered less frustration if I could find my own static path like an action stealth puzzle to solve rather than the frantic race to randomly Plinko yourself to the end it is now.

I don't think I'll ever return to this one, but if it's a game you can get for $5 or less it's worth picking up.

Sorry Spec Ops: The Line, you're no Metal Gear Solid.

Bog standard average cover shooter released in the sea of mediocre dull grey shooters of the seventh generation of consoles. It slaps you in the face with anti-war messaging so on the nose that it actively made the game worse for me.

When much better shooters exist and way more games convey the same anti-war messaging in a more profound way, there's really little reason to play this game for the first time in 2023.