While not quite able to pull off the effortless charm, quirk, and wit of Earthbound—to me its biggest inspiration—Eastward still makes a hell of an impression with its wonderful art, satisfying game design, strong writing, and oh my god such a killer soundtrack. John is perhaps my favorite silent protagonist of all time, and Sam is endearing to an extent that almost feels manipulative…but I still can’t help caring about her

I can’t shake the feeling that the narrative didn’t quite get to where it should’ve gone though. Upon finishing, it was a bit awing to reflect on how much despair and loss pervades the game given its bubbly demeanor, but I feel like it could’ve reached even further. Its story is really what gives it a leg up on something like Earthbound, and it seemed like it was swinging for the fences and was gonna give you a lot to chew on, but then it just…kind of didn’t. And I’m really not sure what to make of the epilogue either

Still one of the best of the year

I get the sense the developers had a clear vision early on for JETT’s thematic content and atmosphere, but struggled a long time trying to figure out what the gameplay should be. If they had managed to soak the entire game in the feeling of subdued awe it evokes in its finest moments, they could’ve had something really special. That feeling evaporates, however, as soon as you’re bogged down in its series of tedious, finicky tasks. I think they should’ve gone even more minimal with the game design

Had to play this after watching the Action Button review, and although that video was longer than my playthrough of the game, I still had some pleasant surprises and takeaways, most notably 1) this game has an incredible sense of humor and 2) the mental exercise of keeping requisite information at the front of your mind as you strategically schedule out your months makes for an exquisitely satisfying gameplay loop. The game’s biggest accomplishment, however—which I fully anticipated from the AB review—is how much personality/complexity they manage to imbue these characters with using such simple building blocks

Deathloop was enjoyable enough, but ultimately felt like a watered down Dishonored 2 with Outer-Wilds-for-babies grafted onto it. Outer Wilds is a Swiss watch puzzle box whose solving will make you feel like a genius, and will then make you shudder in acknowledgement of the several-orders-of-magnitude-greater genius required to construct such a thing. Deathloop semi-successfully recreates the joy of “discovering how it all fits together,” but ends up feeling far less rewarding because of how aggressively it guides you through the experience. Outer Wilds makes you rely on your wits to figure out where to go and what to do next. In Deathloop, you are forever presented with a series of clear cut objectives that tell you exactly where to go, exactly what to do, and exactly when to do it. They’ve removed any need for the player to perform the mental gymnastics that could have made this game more interesting

To its credit though, I love the aesthetic of Blackreef, the levels do uphold Dishonored’s legacy of lovingly crafted sandbox mazes with discoveries around every corner, and I adore Colt and Julianna as characters. It’s just the way you get from the game’s A to Z that leaves me feeling a little deflated

The closest I’ve seen a game come to literature. The remarkable thing is how much Game it still manages to pile on top of its literary aspirations. I’ve never played a survival game where the struggle to survive was so pervasive throughout the entirety of the playthrough—and where how much you’re struggling at any given moment is so intrinsically tied to the narrative itself—yet it’s all so marvelously balanced that I never once felt like I had “failed” (unless we’re counting moral failures, but let’s leave that for another time). Instead, P2’s magic trick is to leave you consistently teetering on the edge. Always teetering…

It feels like a miracle that all of its ambitious pieces come together to create such a cohesive whole. Essential…luminous…the world needs more games like this

It’s impossible for me not to compare Returnal and Hades. Housemarque and Supergiant had a real Edison/Tesla moment, developing these at the same time

These two projects are near-triumphs of gameplay design that reward on-the-fly adaptation and boast an impressive (but never overwhelming) depth and variety of weapons, abilities, and power-ups. Although Hades edges out Returnal for me—as its greater focus on run-to-run progression produced a meatier hook to keep me going back (not to mention its presentation is perfection)—Returnal absolutely justifies its existence and is unassailable from a technical standpoint. My only real complaint with Returnal's design is that the success of my runs felt a little too dependent on the RNG

Story-wise, there’s something of a Lynchian ambiguity to Returnal that ended up feeling more like Housemarque narratively bit off more than they could chew and less like a legitimate and inspired artistic choice. I like where their head was at, but the execution left something to be desired