Diablo IV—with its excellent voice performances and stellar art direction—absolutely nails the dark fantasy vibe and aesthetic in ways that only Castlevania and Fromsoft titles exceed.

At times, the narrative is really interesting. At others, plot contrivances and coincidences are nearly distracting.

The gameplay loop is simple and satisfying, but it isn't nearly thrilling enough to encourage me to engage with side content.

Overall: a fun (if flawed) experience that's more than worth checking out on Game Pass.

Yet another game that is just so mid. It's fine. Except for one major flaw that took a game from what could have been a 4 to a 2.5.

First off, it's pretty. Very cute. I love the cat. I love exploring the the world. The puzzles are fun. Being a cat is neat.

Now what could ruin this experience. Controls? Nope. Too long? Nope. Obscure puzzles? Nope. Enemies, bad light combat, failstates? YES!

WHY DEVS? Did someone big wig say, "This game won't do well without combat?" For the life of me I do not know why we had to have bad combat and these stupid little robots that pretty much murder you within seconds. It's not fun. Why?

It would have been a better game if it was a cat just trying to get home after falling. But no, we have to have these annoying little robots and sequences where you have to decipher the matrix before they murder you. If you wanted things to be like you missed the jump and die, fine. Reasonable. It just felt forced. Felt like someone high up forced this on what was a chill vibe of a game.

It's a short mid game. Cute cat. Cute story. Neat world. Ruined by it being gamified. No one will ever convince me that a cute cat game would not have sold well without combat and enemies.

Too short of a game for such a cute cat.

Meowed 100 times before I made it out of the starting area.

Meow.

Extremely gamefied Simulator game. The feedback is there but I feel like they thought it was boring so they added ways to just almost instantly do some repetitive tasks. In the end however, you are still not doing any planning, any ordering.. You order all the stuff, jump off the building, grab 100 planks, lay them down in 15 secs and then grab more. Construction Simulator was more fun to me. You have to plan materials and learn the diverse vehicles to do a job.

The game is still early access, who knows that they working on. It must be somewhat enjoying since I actually finished it but I was more nauseated from jumping and running around than pleased and relaxed. House Flipper is more relaxing and Construction Simulator do construction work better. Hell, even Lumberjack Dynasty has construction more fun than this.

This knows what it is. No pretense, little gamification other than just whittling down time and crashes. It all ties into understanding the environment and its unique sense of control. I was worried going in about the terrain and the camera, how the two might interact, but it's a beautifully contoured design with the slopes emerging naturally and the obstacles never meaningfully obscuring the camera. It's a reminder that games of movement rely heavily on camera work, and here it's more thoughtfully considered than usual. There's a natural tension living in the off-screen space, but the camera is dynamic in revealing at the right time, pushing in for slower passages, pulling back for steeper ones. There's something deliberate and dance-like about it, and it's central to why I enjoyed the game so much.

And the hills themselves are great. No music. They have their own dramatic pace and identity. Flatter areas interspersed with steeper ones, rocky terrain to be progressed over slowly interspersed with speedy ramp-like cliff faces. Most of these are presented as different options through the same area, and are better conquered by different bikes which have their own identities and handle in their own ways. It's all there to bring you into the actual experience of playing, to engage in a game of constant control, and it makes the optional resting spots feel like a reprieve and discovery.

The minimalism, the instant readability of the terrain and player character is great, but I don't care for the bloomy visuals and tilt-shift focus. It combines into a sometimes bleary and approximate aesthetic, and it keeps the look of the game from feeling as immediate and concrete as the control and mechanics. It's a very present, confident game otherwise. Refreshing in the sea of games that are always trying to be more, to be something they're not, and it deserves all the praise it's received for being more than just a curiosity.