Having basically put deckbuilding roguelikes on the map, Slay the Spire is still the king of the genre.

It has the perfect amount of RNG and strategy, where careful decision making is rewarded even if luck isn't on your side. And there are a lot of decisions to make, whether from the cards you put in your deck (or remove), what path you take through the spire or how you play each turn. Taking an extra point of avoidable damage early on can mean death later in the run, or avoiding certain fights can lead to your deck being underpowered. There are bound to be certain things you mess up during a run, so there is always something new to learn from them. This beautiful balance makes for a game that is endlessly enjoyable.

What is possibly the most impressive aspect of the game is the deckbuilding. The synergies between cards and artifacts can lead to so many possibilities that it rarely feels unfair when you lose. As you get better you start to rely less on the powerful legendary cards to carry a run, rather good deckbuilding and flexibility will often get you to the end. Instead of just "deciding" on a type of deck you want to play and praying that the correct cards are offered, it is often times better to adjust your strategy with each run as they progress. This makes the gameplay feel all the more satisfying, as your runs become exercises in good decision making and adaptability rather than just praying the RNG will favor you this run. At this point, I can usually make it to the final boss 99% of the time on a normal run, as I carefully choose which cards to add and remove to boost synergies, fill in gaps or increase consistency. As stated, even deciding which path to take, when to fight, when to rest and when to upgrade all have a significant impact on the success of your run, so those decisions have to be carefully thought out as well. Being a card game there will always be situations where you get extremely unlucky (bad draws with extremely low chances of happening for instance) but that just comes with the territory. Mitigating that RNG with good decision making is the name of the game, and boy is the process fun.

There hasn't been another deckbuilding roguelike quite like it since it was released, and for that reason it deserves recognition.

One of the most witty games I have ever played, both from a writing and gameplay standpoint.

The dialogue delivered by GLaDOS (a robot AI who watches over the player as they complete puzzles) is amazing. Often sharp and comical, there is a certain dry humor that GLaDOS engages in that perfectly fits the character of a cold, calculating AI that is only concerned with carrying out the tests it was programmed to watch over and administer. There isn't a single line that felt out of place or out of character, and the jokes just about always hit there mark. It made for an incredibly fun and memorable experience, and somehow made a robotic AI that you don't really meet until the final act one of the most memorable and enjoyable characters in the medium.

As for the gameplay, the inventive puzzles were incredibly fun to work your way through, each room building on the last until you are dealing with a dozen or so gameplay elements in a single puzzle. At no point do you feel completely lost, like you have no chance of finding the answer (as some puzzle games sometimes do). Often times, simply looking around a puzzle room at the different elements at play in it and mapping it out was enough to come up with a solution easily. Other times, a little experimentation would blow a puzzle wide open leading to an "eureka!" type moment.

If I had any complaints it would be that the game simply ended. Not that it is too short, I just enjoyed my time so much listening to GLaDOS's little quips as I completed puzzles that I was sad when it did finally end. If you have a few spare hours and haven't played Portal yet, you should fix that immediately and experience one of the best games of the 7th generation.

Every now and then a game will come around that completely changes the way you think about a system or genre. Elite Beat Agents is that game for the DS.

For the most part, the DS touchscreen was used for either a unique (but often worse) control scheme (such as using it for movement in Super Mario 64 DS rather than a traditional pad or joystick), cheap gimmicks, or was regulated to being the "menu" screen (or map in some cases). Rarely did it feel like the game "wouldn't be able to exist" without the touchscreen. Elite Beat Agents is not one of those games.

The gameplay involves touching rings in time with the beat of a song, with some twists here and there to keep it from feeling like they just replaced the classic DDR mat with tapping a screen. It is a game that only exists because the DS had a touchscreen, and honestly it alone justifies the system for having it. It's not the only game that utilized the touchscreen in a new and innovative way, but it is one that always sticks out in my mind when I think of "games that defined a console". When it comes to DS, Elite Beat Agents (and its predecessors in Japan) perfectly showcase what the DS is all about.

Full of Nintendo charm, gameplay that will keep you coming back for more and designed to take full advantage of the system's unique capabilities, Elite Beat Agents is a must play for any DS owner.

If you don't mind listening to some Japanese songs, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and its sequel are also 100% worth trying out. You don't need to understand the lyrics to have a great time with these amazing rhythm games.

See review of Elite Beat Agents for further thoughts

If you liked Elite Beat Agents (and let's be honest, if you found yourself here you probably did) Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan is more of the unbelievably good gameplay with a Japanese twist. Even if you aren't that into Japanese culture or music and that aspect of the game is not of interest to you, just tapping along to the beats is enough reason to play in my opinion. Even in a foreign language, you can enjoy the rhythm of the tracks as you tap the screen to the beats.

To be fair, Elite Beat Agents is technically Osu with an American twist, but that's besides the point. Play this game!

The soul of Firewatch lies in its characters. You play as a middle-aged man whose marriage is on the brink of collapse. Either as a way to cope with his feelings or to just avoid the problems at home, he takes up the job as a fire lookout, essentially isolating himself from all of his problems as he spends his time alone in the middle of the woods.

The story is heartfelt and compelling, and I found myself emotionally engaged with Henry's story. It isn't half-baked or forced, as the emotionally beats it hits are naturally developed through getting to know the characters during the course of the game. I can't think of a single point where the game was trying to trigger some emotional response that wasn't earned, as I really did start to understand Henry the more I played.

Unfortunately the gameplay falls flat, often leading me to wish I could skip ahead of the tedious tasks in order to get the next bit of dialogue or story beat. The gameplay can basically be boiled down to hiking from point to point to reach an objective (colloquially known as a walking simulator). I wouldn't have a problem with just walking from objective to objective if there was something engaging with the process, such as having to use the map and compass to find your way through the walking trails and thick forest. Unfortunately the game keeps you on rather narrow paths you can't stray from, and often completely locks you out of certain areas by requiring certain equipment to reach. It made for a very linear experience, like an RPG that only gives you fetch quests. You can only walk a path so many times before it all kind of feels mundane, and since it all takes place in the same forest even new areas can feel very similar to areas already explored.

Near the end, when you are putting together a mystery that has been playing out since the beginning of the game, the walking becomes less tedious as you explore secret hideouts and piece together the story of what happened, but there is a significant section in the middle that just feels like a slog.

This is a hard game to rate because of how much I disliked playing it at times. It really is a chore, but it's a chore worth doing to experience the excellent writing.

When I played this around 2009, I immediately fell in love with the world of Cyrodiil. The many towns I could visit and characters to meet, along with the deep lore you could explore all drew me into it. Unfortunately, as time has passed, I've gained a more critical eye towards the games I play and Oblivion has more than a few flaws in its design. The game that I once sank hundreds of hours into is so hard to go back to now that I really can't recommend it.

The biggest problems I have with Oblivion are it's lack of depth. It lacks depth in its characters, story and combat, three areas that I now see as pivotal in a good RPG. Characters lack interesting backstories and personalities, leaving a vast majority of the characters you meet feeling like cardboard cutouts that you have already met at some point in your quest. It's worsened by the fact that almost the entirety of the games characters are voiced by 13 people, worsening the feeling of déjà vu when meeting characters.

The storylines also lack depth, with the main questline involving a generic invasion plot that doesn't feel very satisfying to conclude. There are some interesting storylines to be found in side quests and the various factions, but even then things feel cheapened when you become the leader of every guild at the same time, and nothing really changes.

Lastly, the combat feels like it lack any kind of strategy or skill leaving it feeling like a slog the longer you play. Melee characters essentially just stand in front of enemies and spam their weapon swings until things die. If at any point your health dips dangerously low, you can just pause combat and guzzle a half dozen potions to bring yourself up to full in an instant. Potions are so plentiful too that you probably will never feel like you are running low, especially if you are using healing magic to supplement your healing abilities. Mages and Archers can feel even more dull, despite at least requiring you to aim your attacks during combat. The AI often gets stuck on objects trying to reach you, so many fights will feature you sitting in a safe place while whittling the enemies health down from a few feet away. The fact that all enemies are scaled to your level starts to drag the experience down as well as random bandits you might encounter questing will take up a few minutes of your time as they soak up all the damage you throw at them.

Overall, you will spend hundreds of hours to see all the content Oblivion has to offer and come away with a handful of memorable experiences in a game that should leave you with dozens. The characters all start to blur together, the combat quickly becomes mundane and the stories are completely hit or miss. It's a shame, because the world of Cyrodiil is so interesting from an outside looking in that you really want to explore and learn more about it. In the end though, you are better off exploring one of the other countless worlds to discover. Not only will it probably eat up less of your time, you will almost assuredly come away with a better experience. Unfortunately, I think the wonderful world and lore Oblivion has to offer is best experienced through the wiki for those truly interested in learning about what it has to offer to the world of Tamriel.

At one point in time, this game ranked as one of my favorites. The world of Skyrim sucked me in with its lore and its mysteries. It provided me with a world filled with discovery where even the smallest towns had a charm of their own, and a story to tell.

As I've played more games over the years though, particularly RPG's, I've come to realize just how shallow Skyrim really is.

To start, the combat sucks. Though it fixed the problem with enemies scaling with your character in Oblivion, it still feels like there is no depth to it at all. Even with the flashy kill cinematics, most combat encounters can be summarized as "stand in front of the enemy and spam your attack until either they die or you need to heal, at which point you can just pause combat and chug 10 potions". Stealth archers are still a little broken, with enemies just not bothering to check who just shot them in the face with an arrow, and even if they do there is a good chance they will never be able to reach you due to the horrible pathfinding on the A.I. To make things worse, the magic system is stripped completely down. You will be spamming the same three or four spells for the entire game, with little thought needed as to what spell is best for the current situation or how to combo spells and abilities together.

As for the writing, it's about the same as Oblivion. Some of the questlines are fun and interesting, but a majority of them are cliche and mediocre. The characters are all forgettable, often boiling down to one characteristic and a half dozen voice lines. It's kind of impressive how little I know or care about Lydia despite spending 40+ hours with her by my side. I have no idea what her backstory is, the things she likes or dislikes, or anything really. She doesn't have a personality. The characters that stand out tend to be ones that you see frequently, like the Jarl of Whiterun and the greybeards. Again though, despite how frequently you see them throughout the game, you will never really get to know them past the one dimensional characterization they are given. Almost all of their dialogue will be to explain some lore or details about their next quest to the player.

The best part of Skyrim is without a doubt its world. The world of Skyrim is a joy to explore, filled with lore and interesting sights to see. I wish the folks at Bethesda were not so hung up on filling their games with hundreds of things to do if they are not going to spend the time to craft it all with care though, because of the dozens and dozens of caves, bandit camps and tombs I explored only a few were actually enjoyable and engaging experiences. The vast majority of them almost feel procedurally generated, with corridors and hallways that look nearly identical from location to location. I want more Black Reach and Broken Ore Grotto, less random bandit camps and caves that have the same 4 enemies in them and randomly generated loot.

It's not the worst RPG you'll ever play, but it's far from the most interesting. Hopefully one day Bethesda will make a TES game that is as interesting as the worlds they are set in.

If there is one thing I love, it's rougelikes and deckbuilding games, so when Loop Hero was first revealed I immediately put it on my watchlist. With its killer art style and a pretty good OST, everything seemed good going into it. I was expecting to love every minute of it.

At first I did. The looping mechanic was addictive, as you unlocked more new cards (and characters) to play with and make it a little further with each run. After a half dozen loops though, some of the major problems started to show.

First off is the repetitiveness. You see, almost every run will be playing out the same because of how enemy encounters work in this game. You make a deck of cards filled with tiles to place on an empty game board, each one with unique effects on the game. Some will boost the heroes stats, others might give him a small heal every once in a while. Most importantly though, some will spawn monsters for your hero to fight, which will drop new cards and equipment when defeated.

This means besides the random slimes that spawn at the beginning of the game, you get to decide what enemies you will fight and where. In theory, the deckbuilding aspect of the game would add variance here, so maybe you don't get the right cards early on and are forced to fight different enemies every run. In my experience though, it was pretty easy to build a fairly optimal deck, so you always fought the same enemies.

Compounding this was the fact that the combat is all automatic. In fact, the only things you have control over are placing down new tiles and equipping new gear. This means if you don't get the tiles you are looking for or some better gear to equip, you'll just be watching as the game plays itself and you wait. This can lead to large stretches of time where you are actively doing nothing but watch combat play out, especially in the mid to late game of a run. It's just not that fun watching a game play itself with nothing to do.

I think if the deckbuilding aspect was more strategic and in depth I could of put up with the game playing itself mostly as each run would at least feel a little different as you played new strategies. The fact that it only took me a few runs to build a fairly optimal deck that took me to the end of the game meant a solid 50% of my playtime was just going through the motions and waiting for something to do.

If you are the type of player who likes hunting for secrets, there are a lot of cool things to discover in the game. Certain tiles will interact in cool and unique ways depending on which tiles they are connected to, so you can explore the deckbuilding to find all the secret combinations for hours (which admittedly, does spice things up a bit as you discover new possibilities for strategies).

If you are looking for a game that rewards strategic deckbuilding and decision making though, the only thing you will be rewarded with here is a pretty game to watch as it plays itself. Once you figure out the game, everything just becomes a chore.

I really wanted to like Dicey Dungeons more than I did. Rouguelikes are something I have a personal affinity for, and I love a game with a bit of personality. If one thing Dicey Dungeons has oodles of, its personality.

The art and music are both amazing, and together create an experience that really stands out. It was one of the things that drew me toward it rather than the hundreds of other rouguelikes that seem to be released every year these days.

Unfortunately the basic gameplay system is rather bare bones, so it quickly becomes monotonous after the initial charm wears off.

Your given a 3x2 square each run to hold equipment, with some equipment taking up only 1x1 and others being 2x1. This means you can have between 3-6 pieces of equipment per run.

The idea of carefully selecting which equipment to use should, in theory, add a lot of depth to each run. If you have 12 or 13 pieces of equipment, you could easily have 50+ combinations that you could go into combat with. Unfortunately, from my experience, you just dont run into that much equipment during a run, so the amount of decision points is rather minimal on this front. I often ended runs with between 5-8 pieces of equipment, with some of them being completely useless for that run. Sure you might see a few more pieces of equipment in shops as you progress, but often times it felt like there was a clear choice when you entered a shop, if you took anything at all. In the end, it never felt like I was ever forced to make a hard decision during a run. Lots of equipment work well enough together, but there aren't many synergies that require careful planning to assemble. You'll often just take the best equipment available, and every now and then you'll stumble into a nice piece of synergy.

It doesn't get much better during combat either. There was rarely a time when you aren't just using all of your dice and equipment in a turn. If there was, it was usually pretty obvious which equipment you weren't going to use. The dice manipulation the game allows you to do makes it so RNG rarely feels like it will.make or break a run, but the lack of decision points during a turn really simplifies the experience to a point that it gets dull. Some of the characters add unique twists on the combat, but even the most complex characters the game gives you become rather linear after you "figure them out". The first few runs will feel fresh and fun, but you'll soon realize that all the problems with the simpler characters are still present, it's just masked with a new gameplay mechanic. You'll still only see a limited number of equipment each run, and you'll still have few impactful decisions to make during each of your turns.

In the end, it feels like a very beginner friendly roguelike that just does not satisfy. The saving grace is that runs are quite short, only taking around 20-30 minutes (faster if you really try and make quick decisions). Its a fun title just to start up every once in a while, but the lack of depth really holds back its replayability. I couldn't even finish each of the characters 6 "levels" (each character has 5 special variations for their runs you can try after beating their standard run). I just got bored before I could finish.

I'll probably complete this one day, booting it up here and there in between more meaty experiences as a bit of a palate cleanser. But I can't recommend it to anyone looking for a new game to sink their teeth (and hard earned cash) into. If you usually find rouguelikes (especially those that are strategy/ turn based) too difficult Dicey Dungeons will be quite a treat. If you are looking for your next Slay the Spire you'll have to look elsewhere.

How do I talk about Breath of the Wild in a way that hasn't been done a hundred times before?

When I first stepped into the world of Hyrule in BotW, I remember being mesmerized by the openess of the world. The previews and impressions going into it promised an open world that felt truly open, unlike anything that came before it. And though other games have promised similar feats, only to let me down, Breath of the Wild kept that promise and then some.

Not only is this a world where you can travel without boundaries, it's a world full of mystery and intrigue that just begs to be explored. Never have I felt the pull to explore quite like when I first stepped into the light just outside the cave at the beginning of the game.

But you have probably already heard people talk about all of that. So I'll just talk about my favorite thing from BotW, that being how everything comes together to create an incredible adventure.

One of the biggest complaints you will hear from BotW is how the weapons break after repeated use. People complain that the cool weapon they found will be destroyed, so they end up keeping it in their inventory and never actually using it. What I would suggest to anyone going into BotW it to let these feelings of attachment go.

The fact that my weapons broke constantly was what drove me into starting encounters I would have normally avoided or stray from the path forward to explore new areas. Ruins were a great place to look for chests or old weapons from previous conflicts, and defeating enemy camps was a great was to stock up on some weapons when my inventory was running low. I was pushed more and more to continue exploring, continue adventuring in order to find better and better equipment that could help me conquer the next part of my journey.

If I had simply avoided all fights in an attempt to keep the weapons I had already found in new condition, there are so many places I would never have visited and encounters I would have never fought. It's like when people complain about a JRPG being too grindy or difficult, only to see their inventory full of powerful elixirs and single use items. Like how single use items in a JRPG are meant to help you through difficult encounters and stronger enemies without giving you unlimited access to these powerful effects, weapons breaking in BotW also serves a purpose. It pushes you to explore and engage with the world more.

And because I was forced to explore new areas in search for better weapons whenever my best equipment would shatter, I discovered more and more about the world of Hyrule in BotW. Much of the story and lore isn't told through cutscenes or dialogue between characters, but by exploring the world itself. Ruins of villages destroyed by the calamity, scenes from large battles that took place a hundred years prior, and the remains of an ancient civilization that predates Hyrule itself all can be found scattered around the map.

That exploration also lead me to finding a lot of the games hidden collectibles and areas that are required for upgrading links abilities. There are 900 Koroks to be found, and by the end of my long adventure I had found about a third of them without ever going out of my way to search for them. Similarly, the shrines Link has to complete in order to gain additional hearts were something I would often stumble across on during my exploration.

Hopefully I didn't tread too much familiar ground in this review. I just wanted to address one of the most cited criticisms of BotW and how I see it as one of its strengths.

Is BotW a perfect game? Probably not. There are some areas I could see where improvement could still be made.

But when I was deciding whether I should give BotW a perfect score, I thought about one thing. What would a 10/10 game have to do for me to consider giving it that score? And the answer I landed on is the following: After playing this game, did it fundamentally change something about you?

And I think the answer to that question is yes. There is a me before BotW and one after. The version of me now cannot see open world games the same way I had before, and games need to do a lot more to draw me into them than filling them with a checklist of things to do and see. Open world games seriously have a lot of catching up to do if they ever hope to see the same level of critical acclaim as BotW has seen since its launch.

This was my first experience with Age of Empires II, and honestly I'm sad I missed out on it so many years ago. It is possibly the greatest strategy game I have ever played, and the only reason I have not given it a perfect score is because there is a certain RTS series I have yet to sink my teeth into that I feel could potential take that spot.

First let me just talk about the gameplay. It is incredibly deep and skill intensive, yet it is so easy to get into that I casually got a friend who only played FPS games to play with me only for both of us to be hooked for months.

You don't need to have crazy micromanagement skill or APM (actions per minute, or how fast you can do things) in order to have fun here. Amassing huge armies to smash into each other is fun no matter your skill level, and joining in large 4v4 wars will never be anything but utter, brilliant chaos. For me and my friend who was new to the genre, we would do 2v2v2v2 against AI slightly harder than he could manage by himself. This lead to many great games where we had to defend against onslaughts of enemies and claw our way to victory. Were we perfectly collecting resources and upgrading our units in the optimal order? Far from it. We could barely notice though as our armies clashed into each other, only for a third or even forth army to join the fray and completely change the outlook of a battle.

If you do decide to dive into the games strategy a bit more though, it is incredibly easy to get into and begin improving. Something as simple as looking online for tutorials on "build orders", or the general order in which you should take certain actions, will immediately click and improve your gameplay.

Though the original launched with 13 civilizations to play as (a later expansion later brought that number to 18), this HD edition brought this number up to 31 after releasing 3 of its own expansions. Honestly, the 13 civilizations of the base game would still have been enough for me to consider this game one of the all-time greats in the genre, but by more than doubling that number AOE II has made sure that players will never want for variety. There are thousands of variations you can play when factoring in enemy civilizations and maps.

In the end, AoE II provides an incredibly rich and exciting experience for players of all skill levels. Whether you're playing a 3 hour game where armies in the hundreds clash against one another or you are a competitive player who will try and rush your opponent down before they can get out of the bronze age, you'll have a blast playing. If you have even a passing interest in RTS games, this is a must play.

I feel like Bioshock is a product of a bygone era. An era where games were bigger, looked better and had all the features necessary to tell deep and interesting narratives compared to previous generations while maintaining a development cycle that allowed hits to roll out with ease. These days you might see a game like Bioshock every other year, if you’re lucky. In 2007 it felt like every year was packed full of haymakers and there was always a great, new experience waiting around the corner.

Where Bioshock shines is its storytelling. Mostly credited to Ken Levine, the story bears no shame on wearing its messaging and underlying philosophies on its sleeve. As you explore the nightmarish Rapture, a city that should have been a libertarian paradise, you’ll hear lectures from the cities founder Andrew Ryan as to why he created Rapture and his philosophy. You’ll also learn about the history of Rapture and some of its inhabitants.

One of Bioshock’s biggest strengths in its storytelling is its environmental storytelling. A lot of information is never outright told to you, meaning there is a lot to be learned through the simple act of exploring and taking in your surroundings. Though you’ll follow the story just fine if you only focus on going from point a to point b, you can learn a lot more about the world and the characters by exploring it. To help give some context to certain events or characters, audio logs are found randomly throughout the world that give Rapture a sense of history. At times you will feel like you are an investigator trying to unravel Rapture’s past.

Though I consider Bioshock’s narrative to be its strongest point, the gameplay and presentation are not far behind. Single player shooters need to do a lot to stand out from the crowd. The steampunk aesthetic and upgrade system certainly make Bioshock feel like a fresh experience. In addition to the usual weapons you’ll find in any other FPS, your character also can wield a variety of unique abilities you acquire through special “tonics” and “plasmids”. Though many of the powers you can find may seem rather dull, such as the ability to shock enemies or shoot fire, the juggle between using these powers and more traditional weapons was always fun and engaging. It gives the players more options in any given situation, giving the combat some extra legs it wouldn’t have had if you were stuck with using shotguns and rifles.

If you haven’t played Bioshock yet, you’re missing out on one of the 7th generation’s gems. Though this golden era of gaming has since passed, we can still enjoy all of its greatest triumphs today, and I strongly urge you to do so.

When I was first putting together my backloggd profile and deciding how I would rate CS:GO, I thought at first I’d probably put Valorant above it. It combined two of my favorite competitive shooters, that being CS:GO and Overwatch, and blended my favorite aspects of each of them into a fresh new experience. Then I remembered I put 1,200 hours into CS:GO before I ever tried a fourth map.

If tactics and pure gameplay are what you are looking for, Counter Strike is the clear choice. No gimmicks, just teamwork, awareness and raw aim deciding each round. Can’t put all of the blame on someone not playing their role, if you need smokes you’re just as much in charge of them as the next guy. Map knowledge is key and knowing lineups can be the difference between a simple site execute and absolute chaos as you try and brute force your way through a choke.

I’m putting CS:GO at the top of my shooter list because it was the one I played the most during my time in university, but an argument could be made to put any of the popular CS installments here instead. Some of my first memories of playing a competitive shooter was with 1.6, and it’s surprising just how much that game got right early on. The fact that I can still go back to such an early shooter and have a blast is a testament to its quality. But CS:GO is the game that I put over 1000 hours into, and all of the improvements and changes it brought to the series are what I enjoy. The added utility that molotov’s bring to a round alone completely changes how certain maps can play out.

While newer shooters bring with them flashier graphics, fleshed out characters and lore, and new gameplay mechanics, it’s the simple and pure gameplay that CS has that keeps it at #1 for me.

The Last of Us is on the top of my list of “games I should play again to see if they are as good as I remember”. It came out in 2013, around the time I become more invested in games and anime as things more than simple entertainment to pass the time. The more games I played and anime I watched, the more it had to do to really impress. I think The Last of Us did a lot in shaping my tastes at that time and what I wanted out of my games.

The thing that I and so many others were blown away by was the dynamic between the two main characters Ellie and Joel. If you’ve been under a rock for a while and know nothing about this games story, it’s a post-apocalyptic adventure that basically centers around a nihilistic (kind of psychopathic) old man, Joel, and a young teenage girl who he is tasked with escorting to a special facility in the hopes of developing a cure for the infection that has taken out most of humanity. At first Joel only cares about getting the girl to where she needs to go, with his cold demeanor keeping him distant from his traveling companions. But as they spend more and more time together, and Joel starts to see more of his daughter he lost years ago in Ellie, the more he sees himself as her guardian. At the time, I and many others considered it some of the best character development and character driven storytelling in the medium.

Gameplay wise it’s a solid third-person shooter with most of the features you’d expect from similar games of that time. There’s stealth takedowns, the ability to hug cover and a variety of weapons to use throughout the campaign. Being set in a post-apocalypse, the addition of a crafting system was a good touch and the scarcity of bullets gave the combat an edge of tension. It’s not revolutionary on this front and I could see some disliking it for this fact, but it never took away from my enjoyment when I played through it in 2013.

This is probably the game with the biggest asterisk right now in my top 5. Is it really as good as my memory believes it to be or was it just a dark and “mature” game that hit at a time when I was being disillusioned by yearly Call of Duty releases. For now, I’m going off my memory as this being one of the best written stories in games. I’ll update this review if that ever changes.

It baffles me how 3 guys from South Australia were able to make such an incredible game. Hollow Knight might be the biggest step in Metroidvania’s since Super Metroid or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It’s spectacular.

Hollow Knight takes all of the lessons from the best titles in the genre and builds upon them with a deep and engaging world to explore. You’ll not only be exploring unique environments that feature new enemies and aesthetics, you’ll be encountering a wide range of unique characters and bosses that build upon the lore of Hollownest. The jump from Metroid / Metroid II to Super Metroid was incredible, as Super Metroid brought with it a much tighter design that made exploration more natural. This feels like the next step in world design for metroidvania’s, taking things a step further by not only making the exploration and navigation more fluid but filling the world itself with history and lore to uncover through gameplay. By the end of Hollow Knight, I immediately wanted to go back to find all of the items I missed in order to learn more about Hollownest.

From a gameplay perspective Hollow Knight is virtually flawless. It’s always clear where you should be exploring, something I can’t say is always 100% clear in the majority of metroidvania’s. The boss battles are varied and interesting, each one feeling wholly unique in their attack patterns and strategy. The secrets are well hidden, but don’t fall into the trap of hiding them in areas that would require pure luck to come across. The controls are tight and responsive.

The bar for metroidvania’s has been raised since the release of Hollow Knight. Level design has to push players forward in their explanation without hitting a brick wall, combat and boss design needs to feel fluid and varied, and the world needs to be captivating to uncover.

The bar has been raised, will anyone attempt to reach for it?