How much interactivity is needed in a game? I've always been a big proponent of narrative adventure games or walking sims as they are sometimes called in a derogatory manner. I strongly believe just watching a stream of these games is not enough as the interactivity adds something extra, usually immersion and an ownership of the characters and thus their choices: Role-playing without the stats.
I sadly find it hard to make those arguments for Last Stop.

The characters are the main attraction of this game, as the story follows the lives of 3 characters with a supernatural twist. They are decently written and the animation while looking rather low budget, are expressive enough to get the emotion across. But the main problem is despite the supernatural element, it's just all too familiar. If you've consumed enough stories in your life, you'll most likely be able to identify the characters arcs in all 3 stories within the 1st 2 "chapters." That robbed me of any investment I could have had in the charm of this short game.
As for being a game, I feel the gameplay hinders the story more than it enhances, specially the walking sections. You could argue there are some choices that slightly alter how a scene plays out but it's never enough to put you in the shoes of the characters and more often than not it commits the cardinal sin of each dialogue choice giving roughly the same response despite hinting at otherwise.

All in all, it's a decent game that I'd rather be a tv mini series. If you're really into narrative adventure games and got 5-6 hours to kill, no harm in giving this a shot.

It takes a bit of everything from some of the most well known sci-fi and somehow makes something incredible.

This could have been a monumental fuckup, but every hour or so I was shouting "OH WHAT?!" at the TV in the best possible way. Synapses goin' off rapid-fire with each new revelation. A battle system that initially had me very cold, quickly became something I looked forward to. Those wee blue lights hopping about eventually became the attack preview animations in my mind. God! They've just made a brilliant game filled with well realised characters and crackin' story.

Vanillaware must survive.

For a spiritual successor of the OG Fallout, I have to admit it's not so bad for modern standards from a gameplay standpoint. Everything is competent from the incentivizing grinding to the gorgeous and unique environments you get to explore to the kind of missions you get, albeit generic and errand-filled, and unique and charming characters you get to interact. However, that's really all this game has going for it. The story and "moral" choices you have available to you are honestly VERY weak and disappointing. In fact, that's my biggest gripe with the game (aside from some atrocious character customization that I'll get into later) that quite honestly brings the game's quality down a few notches.

Before its release, The Outer Worlds was supposed to be a so-called challenge to Bethesda's Fallout as its new successor. While definitely a more traditional RPG compared to Neo-Fallout, it really falls flat with its message and story compared to the early days of Fallout that this very developer created??? I played both an evil and a good playthrough, and they both share a similar impact that I found to be very Neo-liberal. Essentially, the game LOVES to have a "both sides" argument with you.

For an example of "bad", I freed a colony enslaved by hyper-capitalists by destroying their entire warehouse/production facility that so happened to "function" as a colony for those looking for work, and despite destroying the colony being morally GOOD (don't bs me with the objectiveness, capitalism blows) the game still treats you as if you committed a moral sin because you ruined a business and put the colonists at risk despite the fact that the enslaved people are now free and can seek refuge in a refugee town that is a literal safe haven.

Of course the big reveal of that refugee town is that the town happens to look like a haven because the leader uses dead people as fertilizer which the game treats as gross and weird. Sure, those dead people were taken from their graves outside the colony, but if you know anything about most western death care industries (which this game uses as reference for its death care) our methods of burying the dead are so environmentally detrimental as it deprives the land of additional nutrients that it could benefit from and those cremated ashes are filled with so much toxins. Those dead colonists would have been better off as fertilizer than taking up space that could be used for literally anything useful, but instead the game treats this as a bad thing which is such bs.

inhales deeply

For an example of "good" I destroyed the refugee town because it was stealing energy from the colony and the colony and refugee town cannot co-exist without one or the other shutting down. I decided to shut down the refugee town, of course at the expense of some refugees and their leader (unless you have enough charisma/speech which you can talk them out of fighting). If successful, you can have both the refugees and the colony find a common ground and work together, and supposedly the hyper-capitalist leader and their minions will support them which is a bunch of crock in my opinion because this outcome has the least amount of conflict and consequences compared to freeing the workers and destroying the colony.

It's weird, biased things like that where superficially yes destroying property is bad and killing people is bad, but its reductive to pretend that the property wasn't tied to the exploitation of people and that those people we killed weren't either in charge of exploiting their workers and/or supporting the system that allows workers to be exploited. Sure, we have the freedom of destroying a safe haven for refugees who have had enough of hyper-capitalism and want to be free AND killing them for revolting against you, but its message and impact feels very unbalanced and biased for a game whose message is "Capitalism is bad" is as clear as day.

These kind of issues run rampant throughout the game where there are "moral dilemmas" but all your options are either
A) be a fascist
B) sympathize with fascism
C) ignore the fascism
D) how dare you go against fascism!
The game is just basically 50 Shades of Fascism rather than a freedom of choice type of game. At least games like Fable and Mass Effect are accepting of your decisions and rewards them equally. Its just very lazy Neo-liberal writing that pretends its ahead of the game, the game indirectly being Fallout.

Also, the character creation for this game is whack. It's not the worst I've come across, but for it being a 2019 game, it is VERY lack luster in options. The hair options probably being some of the worst. Keep in mind, I'm talking about the cosmetic creations and not the stat stuff. Those are fine.

Overall, this game functions well and is fun to play. It's a pretty short RPG which I appreciate and has very unique world designs that I think are this game's best feature. I just think the story and the "moral" decisions you get to make are a joke. I'd expect better from the same people who created Fallout!

Nonetheless, I'd recommend this game to the following:
-Fans of Fallout. It plays very similar to Bethesda's Fallout, but with some tweaks here and there. Safe to say its is a Bethesda Fallout clone through and through.
-Fans of games with "moral decisions." while I did criticize this game for being lazy with its moral options, it still has some stuff worth experiencing as some scenarios are satisfying to witness.
-Fans of RPG. This game is very much a number's games. You don't have to rely on guns to beat the game, so there's a variety of gameplay styles you can try out just like in Fallout.
-Fans of FPS. It's not as bombastic and dynamic as your typical competitive shooter, its more slow paced and methodical, but I think it will definitely scratch an itch for you if you're looking for more FPS' to play.

One of the great myths of gaming is that going back and replaying titles from the past exposes you to the faults that were previously unable to be recognized due to the standards of the time period, preventing you from being able to enjoy them to the same degree you once did. This is something I've personally never experienced, knock on wood. So upon revisiting and finally completing this childhood favorite after years away (admittedly with some help from the Switch's exclusive save and rewind features), I was only able to see it more clearly as the borderline masterpiece I've always thought it was.

I think it's no secret this was a technical marvel back when it first released with its pre-rendered graphics that turned 3D models into sprites, making it one of, if not THE, best looking things on the Super Nintendo. I was amazed at how well the style holds up as charming, even if some of the backgrounds get a touch overused. Same goes for the level design which may just be timeless. I still had a blast going through stages and finding secrets I had already experienced probably thousands of times prior.

The stuff I played for the first time was just as meticulously and enjoyably designed, although the platforming challenges can get quite demanding the deeper you go. Not necessarily a bad thing, but as the obstacles get tougher you'll begin to notice some flaws that show not everything is perfect in Country. It, and therefore YOU, often falls prey to what I like to call "beginner's traps" where something unexpectedly jumps in from just offscreen catching you completely off guard, leading to cheap feeling deaths and an element of trial-and-error. Plus, and it could simply be an issue with the Switch's emulator/controls, but at moments the characters inexplicably won't jump the way you expect them to, causing you to miss essential platforms. The frustrations are only amplified by the fact that save points will preserve all of your progress EXCEPT for your life count, which always resets when you step away.

Still, the fact that such faults which would have doomed a lesser game felt like minor quibbles at most here is a testament to it's quality. Rich in the kind of personality and creativity that has defined Rare's career, as well as impeccably crafted with an incredible soundtrack, this is easily one of the best 2D platformers ever made. For some, myself included, putting even the likes of a certain Italian plumber to shame. Thus despite having moved on to the joys and conveniences of modern hardware I was still able to find the same amount of enthusiasm for this that I had back in the days when my dad's old SNES was the only console I knew.

9.9/10

I'm a sucker for a flawed RPG and Vampyr has all the makings of a pre-GreedFall Spiders game, many of which have stolen my heart. Like most double-A productions you'll notice things like dated graphics and some technical issues that stem from having been made on a middling budget. However, developer DONTNOD Entertainment shows once again that they are one of the most creative names working in the industry today, and the unique ideas and compelling world they've crafted here make this title worth playing in spite of its faults.

Set in a plague-ridden London during the 1900s, this is a vampiric power fantasy mixed with a detective simulator (quests are even called "investigations") that lets you play doctor on the side. As you search for a cure for the epidemic that's sweeping the continent you'll be faced with a lot of morally gray decisions that will have serious impacts on the world around you. For example, a choice I made relatively early on in the story that seemed solid inadvertently led to an entire district descending into chaos, with a portion of its inhabitants either going missing, joining a gang, or turning into hideous monsters.

By far the most intriguing decisions you'll grapple with though are directly tied to the game's main hook. Every non-hostile NPC you come across can be fed on for a massive boost in experience points at the cost of their lives. While uncovering their secrets, healing them when they're sick, and completing side-quests for them offers a meager amount of EXP on its own, it also serves the purpose of enriching their blood and making it more profitable for you turn them into your next meal later on down the line. This mechanic creates an interesting dynamic where you can either help people out of the goodness of your own heart or raise them like cattle for the slaughter in order to get more powerful.

This is a significant feature because it essentially allows you to pick your own difficulty level. Choosing not to feed on people will ensure the world remains stable, but will make the overall game harder as enemies will always be at higher levels than you. Meanwhile, taking the alternative path and killing the locals for their blood will cause the city's status to deteriorate, but will allow you to unlock the most powerful abilities and can make combat a breeze. You can also strike a balance between the two options and only devour a portion of the population you deem unworthy of life.

In an impressive move DONTNOD put a lot of work into ensuring each character you encounter has a fully fleshed out backstory and set of motives. I met everyone from heartless serial killers to selfless hospital workers and plenty of types in-between. You can decide if the city would be better off without someone or not if you want to and that's a really cool feature. My one issue with it is that I never found talking to any of them to be all that interesting as your relationships with them never really go anywhere unless they are significant to the main story. So the only reason I ever bothered interacting with and learning about anyone was to get stronger, and even then I found myself skipping through most of the dialogue.

As far as issues go, this is far from the prettiest title on the market, but even the plastic looking character models can't rob this moody, gothic version of London of its personality and atmosphere. Load screens are long and you can even run into some random ones while exploring. I also experienced a few crashes. The biggest problems though are the lack of a fast travel system which leads to a lot of backtracking to and fro across the city and some trouble with the balancing at the very beginning and tail end of the game that are the result of enemies being too highly scaled above you. Part of this is intentional though to goad you into draining the NPCs of life as a means of somewhat simulating for you the protagonist's struggle with his constant thirst for blood. Which is creative, but frustrating nonetheless. There is a "story mode" where you won't have to worry about difficulty at all and can solely focus on the narrative, but playing that way locks you out of being able to get a certain trophy.

While known more today for their episodic, Telltale style adventure games, Vampyr like Remember Me before it makes a strong case for why DONTNOD should break out of their comfort zone more often. While they still weren't able to find the same level of critical acclaim here as they were with their Life is Strange series, they still created an exciting RPG based on original concepts that's worth looking at. Especially since its faults this time are more technical in nature rather than inherent to the actual design itself.

8/10

This game is a surprisingly good AA RPG and had me hooked all the way to the end.

After hearing that Vampyr got a next-gen patch that solved many of the technical issues that people had complained about in the past, I gave it a try on my PS5. Movement felt great with the 60fps patch, and combat was smooth, if a little generic. The game isn't much of a looker, but it's to be expected with a game like this from a smaller studio. Load times were pretty good overall, even though there would be occasions where you'd get a long one.

As for the game itself, I really enjoyed the story, the voice acting, the NPCs (each one felt really fleshed out), and the music. The way the music changed depending on how you were deciding to play your character was a really great touch.

Now, as a completionist, this game is a bit of a nightmare. There is no manual saving, and the game autosaves immediately after any big decision - usually the kind that make you question whether you really just did what you wanted. I understand why the developers went with that design - they want every action to count, and they want you to really role play here - but I have to admit I found myself backing up my save file nonetheless every few hours just in case I wanted to change my mind about anything.

It was also difficult coming to terms with the fact that it was impossible to get everything in this game - you can't get all the hints for everyone and get all the collectibles in the same playthrough, and you can't get all the weapons without playing completely evil. It's actually a really great game design choice, but it was killing me as a completionist.

The only thing that really didn't work for me was the romantic relationship - it felt out of place and never felt earned. It seemed like much more of a plot device, and the characters didn't seem to have much chemistry. I was actually shocked when the relationship started and wondered if I'd missed something.

All in all, though, this is a really underrated gem that's definitely worth playing on next-gen systems. I think a lot of the lower ratings were based on technical issues from last gen hardware.

What a lovely thing this is. A gorgeous world to explore. Got that throwback adventure game feel, but looks incredible.

The environments are so lush and everything feels real. Like naturally occurring, if that makes sense. You're not spotting assets copy and pasted all over. It truly comes across like villages built through a gigantic forest. The land itself dictating where you can and can't have houses and roads. Beautiful.

The story is nothing incredible and combat is serviceable, but for some reason this just got its hooks into me. Kickin' about with yer wee pals The Rot. Clearing corruption and freeing trapped spirits. It's feelgood stuff. Nae cynicism, and not overly boohoo manipulative shit. Just a properly nice time.

I'm eager to see what Ember Lab comes out with next. This as their first game is very promising.

Played through it again because I never got round to the DLC and had sold my PS4 copy. Grabbed the Ultimate Edition off PS+.

I enjoyed it before, and it's still decent, but this time I was hit much harder with how the game's biggest letdown is it being a shooter.

You read notes about stuff like employees boringly cataloguing 100 boxes of individual human teeth, or consulting incantations to calm a stapler that's tearing up the staff room, but all you get to do is shoot red dudes and float around. Pressing square to cleanse things, without even an appropriate mini game or something to jazz it up. The game borrows heavily from SCP shit, but fails to get that a lot of the draw with that stuff is the weird containment procedures and rituals in dealing with them. Control is every SCP story ending with "Agents drew their guns and put the subject down".

I genuinely wish the gameplay was about dealing with anomalies by using a big tome you had to lug about to consult what procedures to use. Discovering new ones from hands on experience and adding to the data. Unique interactions instead of just walking into rooms and enemies spawn in so you start firing. It's a shame because the environmental design is immaculate in places, and as such feels wasted on mindless floating and dashing.

Also every object that isn't concrete sounds like milk bottles clinking together when you bump into them. It's daft. Maybe that's an AWE or something too.

It's wild going back to this when you're no longer 8 years old with cheats on simply blowing shit to pieces and running people over, and trying to just play it properly.

You're expected to traverse the city pretty quickly most of the time, but the roads and traffic combined with the camera are so dogshit that it feels impossible to drive at decent speed for more than five seconds before slamming into other cars or near invisible geometry. There's so much less here than I seem to remember.

I'm a bit angry at how much time young me put into this. You could've been playing Klonoa, idiot.

The 4th game in the Yakzua series sets up high expectations and anticipation for the stories of its 4 protagonists, but delivers on nothing but empty twists and rehashed plot points, that reminds me of the far stronger entries.

Our main characters are mostly fun to follow. Akiyama's carefree and outgoing nature is a nice refreshing break from the more quiet and angsty kiryu, Saejima being the one to take that crown from the Dragon himself, with a heartwarming story of a man escaping his cage yet suffering with his past. Tanimura I don't really know what is going on with his character, the idea is there with the hunt for his father's killer but its hard to understand what his character is past that.

Series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu disappoints with feeling forced in at the last minute just so he can steal the space on the front cover without doing too much to the story.... and maybe it'd be better if he did.

The plot is shallow, and the constant twists and betrayals make you lose interest on the characters it wants you to care for, resulting in the story falling apart the more it progresses. I don't think I've ever seen a plot stumble this hard, and I wouldnt be surprised if someone didnt understand what was going on at the end.

The Gameplay of Y4 is much more bearable than 3 was, however characters like tanimura and saejima can suffer because of their kits, which dont always fit the way enemies have been programmed to fight, feeling like they were still designed for kiryu in 3, and the same annoying mechanics of mashing out of grabs and constant knockdowns still apply, but due to the characters movesets being broken into 4 pieces, some get the short end of the stick and have no way to deal with combat effectively.

Kena is as charming as it is beautiful.

This little game from Ember labs is the first release for the studio and they did a shockingly great job.

Some might consider Kena a relic of the past, no crafting materials, side quests from NPCs, just a fun journey through a semi linear environment progressing through a story.

Kena is one of the most beautiful games available, from the bright colours to the animated quality of the characters, to the animations themselves, everything is lush and cohesive. It proves you don't need a massive budget to make a beautiful game that rivals AAA productions you just need to work within your means.

The combat is fun and challenging but it is fairly basic. You earn additional moves and attacks as you earn experience through various ways. Eventually when you unlock all the moves the combat opens up and creates a nice flow.

The normal difficulty will provide a nice challenge while hard difficulty is fairly punishing. I played on hard for a single boss and it was very satisfying when I eventually beat him but I lowered the difficulty to medium so I didn't run into long periods of repeating a fight.

The boss fights in this game are the highlight and I was extremely impressed with the amount of them and the variety of the fights themselves. They aren't just about bashing the enemy to death but oftentimes require a gimmick or learning their patterns. By the end when you have your full moveset they really shine as you mix in your defensive abilities with your offensive moves.
The story is light and brisk but it keeps you involved in the narrative and makes you want to continue as the cinematics are a nice payoff that rival big budget animated films.

There are also some hidden secrets to find that are fun and rewarding but I didn't complete them all.

9.0