Being raised as the daughter in a noble aristocratic family in the 14th century, Amicia de Rune must protect her younger brother Hugo, who up until this point has been confined/quarantined to his room due to an unknown illness. Their mother has been working tirelessly to cure him, ignoring Amicia in the process, but it isn’t long before tragedy strikes when the Inquisition comes barging through the estate, leaving a trail of blood and bodies. Their goal, capture the youngest son of the de Rune family. Amicia becomes entrusted with her brother's protection, even though she has barely seen since his birth.

Considering Hugo has been restricted to the castle for his entire life, one of the many pleasures in the game is watching his curious nature interacting with wild animals you’ll come across as you journey through the French countryside. The narrative unfolds through each of the game’s seventeen chapters, starting with the simple task of visiting a doctor by the name Laurentius (who may be able to cure Hugo) in the nearby town. It’s not long before things begin to fall apart as the town itself is full of death and decay, leading to Amicia and Hugo fleeing for their lives. Although you’ll be spending the majority of the game hand-in-hand with Hugo, it never feels like a hindrance, like in many games that feature escort quests. Although, Hugo will panic and draw attention to himself if you venture too far from him. Along the way, you’ll interact with new characters, each with their own back story and reason for assisting you. Each of them provides much-needed support, whether it comes from a pair of sneaky thieves that can pick any lock or provide a much-needed distraction, an inspiring alchemist that seemingly always has something new for you to craft, and a blacksmith’s son, who uses his physical prowess to his advantage.

The game’s focus comes from the use of stealth, sticking to the shadows to avoid more than just the Inquisition. Although Amicia does use her slingshot throughout, both to dispose of enemy patrols and to solve the environmental puzzles (such as breaking chains or distracting patrols), the game does not shy away from the grisly and macabre theme of the period. If you allow a sword-wielding soldier to charge directly towards you unimpeded, you’ll witness a gruesome death for Amicia, as the sword horrifically pierces through her body. I wish I could tell you that is the worse you will face (I wish I could), however, setting a title within the same period as the Black Death means only one thing; rats...and lots of them.

The rats have been a main gameplay component to the game since the initial reveal and gameplay walkthrough a few years back. Your first interaction with these beady-eyed pests is not only highly cinematic but genuinely terrifying at the same time. If you aren’t careful, their glowing red eyes and constant, gnawing squeaking may be the last thing you see and hear before you become fully engulfed by the creatures without remorse. Whether you are in the middle of a spooky graveyard on the outskirts of a town, or the ruins of an ancient dilapidated castle, the rats can (and will) find their way through every crevice and every crack. Even the safety of a forest isn’t enough to save you, as hundreds and even thousands of these unholy creatures burst through the ground, saturating the landscape like a wave breaking over a beach. The only guarantee for survival? Light.

As much as the game is a tale about character growth and hardship between siblings, it also profoundly symbolizes the dynamic between light vs. dark, good vs. evil. Light becomes a death sentence to the rats, and light can come from many forms. The Inquisition learns this quite swiftly, as almost every soldier carry a torch or lantern. They have even devised a way to illuminate pathways using makeshift medieval spotlights (that can also swivel). A burning torch (or stick) can safely guide you through hordes of rats, but the game doesn’t shy away from allowing you to use this knowledge to your advantage against your foes. Although the game is quite linear with most branching paths leading to dead ends, but offer a chance to gather crafting materials or collectibles, most encounters give you a certain amount of freedom. Equipped with your slingshot, a well-placed rock to an exposed head can be deadly. Aim for a glowing orange/red lantern held by a soldier, however, and you doom them to the darkness. Where there is darkness, there are the ever-hungry rats. It is quite satisfying seeing the rats devour (and I mean devour) members of the Inquisition. Not so much when it happens to you, or one of the characters following you. It only happened a couple of times, but pathing can be a bit wonky for companions, who randomly decide to walk right through the darkness before being swallowed by the vermin. Additional items become available through story progression, aiding you on your journey — each one, adding a new dynamic to both encounters and puzzle solving. Being able to light smoldering torches, bonfires, etc. provides protection at night, while extinguishing them can dispose of soldiers, but also helps corral the vermin to desired locations. Eventually, you get a full suite of craftable concoctions, but I don't want to spoil all of the goodies at your disposal.

While there are a handful of thrilling escape sequences, most of the game features stealth-based gameplay and environmental puzzle-solving. You may be forced to lure soldiers away from specific areas, giving you the option of avoiding them, killing/incapacitating them, or letting the rats do your dirty work. Most of the puzzles involve pushing crates to access ledges, sending Hugo through small passageways to open locked doors and using the light to traverse the environments safely. The character growth in the game is undoubtedly phenomenal, especially when you realize that Amicia and Hugo have barely interacted with each other before the events in the game’s opening. There are a bunch of little moments that help breathe life into the characters, such as Hugo’s purity about the real world, his cheerful and curious nature about all living things, especially frogs and ducks. Then there are moments where Hugo places a freshly picked flower in Amicia's hair, even with everything going on around them. Life is a struggle, and the bond that grows between them is enough to bring a tear to anyone’s eye.

The game has an almost painterly like quality visually, bringing a world so full of death and decay to life. The moments of calm serenity never last, serving as a glimmer of hope. You may enjoy a relaxing moment in the countryside beside a flowing river full of life, Hugo certainly does, but knowing that soon after you may be walking across a bloodied battlefield overflowing with corpses or fleeing from the swarms of vermin that want nothing more than to eat you alive. The music elevates the incredible atmosphere in the game, especially with the sheer amount of tense moments.

Simply Put

A Plague Tale: Innocence is one of the most compelling adventures I’ve experienced not only this year but this entire generation. I felt enthralled throughout the 12-15 hours it takes to complete the game and didn't want to put the game down. There are explorable side areas that can trigger additional scenes and conversations about your companions and plenty of items to collect. At the end of my first playthrough, I realized I missed the majority of them, and I thought I was quite thorough in my exploration, but thankfully the game does have a chapter select that shows how many items are missing in each one. Load times can be bit on the long side for some of the chapters.

As an industrial simulation, you must figure out what the public wants to purchase, by understanding supply and demand across multiple cities/towns. Not paying attention is essentially a swift death sentence for your business and chosen industry. Without the need of city building, the first step is figuring out what products are currently in demand, which leads you down the path of what crops to grow, items to craft, and how to properly maintain and supply all of the local establishments with the desired goods. On paper, the goal may seem quite simple, but in practice, things spiral out of control if you don’t have the proper mindset required to keep a thriving business booming amongst the thirsty AI competitors.

There are plenty of options available, allowing you to customize the procedurally generated maps to your liking. There are preset regions, such as the United States, Spain, Germany, and more, influencing the naming conventions of the randomized locales, but Rise of Industry also lets you adjust the minuscule details, affecting the map size, number of rivers, the amount of AI, required upkeep/loan settings, and more. You can even enforce the US to start driving on the left side of the road. There are three key modes in the game; career, scenario, and sandbox. The latter of the three is a more relaxed experience, giving you unlimited funding, and everything unlocked in the tech tree from the start. Scenarios provide the toughest challenges, featuring different objectives and constraints, while the core “career” experience feels almost the same as sandbox, but with tech tree and funding limitations in place.

As your new entrepreneurship journey begins, you must click on the heart of a city (town center), giving you a list of the various types of stores, and products in demand. You may want to begin closer to a town that has a high amount of nearby natural resources that can feed your production. By matching the need for the requested goods, you get the general idea for the type of industry to carve out your empire, at least at first. For me, the most requested items were quite simplistic to produce; wool for the hardware stores, and mutton for the farmers market. When viewing the menu for each store type, a single click displays the exact recipe for the selected items. For wool, you need water (1x), and wheat (1x) to sustain your sheep, which can be turned into sellable wool (2x) and mutton (1x). With this as a base, I built water siphons across the nearby river, with a farm next door to produce the necessary crop. Once you advance deeper through your tech tree, may want to move to more complex (and multistep) production, such as furniture, potato chips, or automobiles.

Rise of Industry features a lengthy, but mostly basic tutorial. It serves to set the groundwork, but I found it doesn’t cover enough, leaving you directionless. For example, warehouses are the backbone of your industry, but I can’t recall them ever being mentioned. It wasn’t until I spoke with other team members that were playtesting the game, that I understood the significance of sending all of your resources into these buildings for storage and distribution. As long as your harvesters and production buildings are within range, the entire process can be automated. If not, you need to manually transport resources to and from each of your premises, as well as to retail locations for profit. Thankfully, the game’s unique low-polygonal visual style works well with the colorful UI panels and icons.

Events appear randomly and may assist or hinder your progress, such as skyrocketing the export price of a particular product for a set period. You may be tempted to send most or all of your water production out of state for massive profit, but that means that the rest of your factories, won’t have the necessary surplus of resources to continue production. This is why warehouses are vital, as you can ensure that everything you collect is correctly divided between multiple locations at the same time. You’ll also need to keep an eye out on auctions, where you bid against the AI businesses for various things. If you aren’t careful, they will also creep up against your territory in the blink of an eye, taking precious natural resources for themselves.

There are a lot of moving parts in Rise of Industry, and thankfully, the game has ample options to keep your business afloat. The budget overview panel gives you a quick breakdown based on profit and production. You can take that a step further, and really dig into all the details you want based on specific products, to ensure that your ROI (return on investment) stays healthy. If not, maybe it is time to shift your core business to a product.

One thing that the game doesn’t do all that well (besides the lacking tutorial) is letting you know when things are running smoothly. While there are ample pop-ups, icons, and warnings if things are broken, such as factories or farms not getting the required resources or if roads are not properly connected, but it took some time to figure out if I was profitable. The game prioritizes monthly budgets, so if you are playing the game at the highest speed, you’ll notice your money continually fluctuating, as it resets each month. I was initially confused as to why the numbers would drop from six-figure profit to negatives in a moment’s notice (the cost to keep the lights on and your delivery trucks functioning) every month. Many of the advanced features the game offers isn't explained, so it will take a few games before you feel entirely comfortable. This seems to be a running theme with the game, and you can find links to user created videos and the game's Discord directly in-game to assist you.

Simply Put

Rise of Industry is such a delight and a much deeper experience than I was expecting. Almost every aspect of your budding empire can be maintained and tweaked to your personal preference, although you’ll have to give the customers what they want. Competition is fierce, and not only is the AI cutthroat, but you’ll have to properly build a transportation network to ensure traffic doesn’t slow down your profit margin. On top of that, pollution becomes a concern, and when you throw the random events and auctions into the mix, there is so much that you have to track to keep your business flourishing. While I may have built my empire on wool, nothing came between me and my desire to become the ultimate supplier of potato chips and berry pies. The game launched with Steam Workshop support, ensuring the game has a bright future due to the endless possibilities.

Fade to Silence has already been available for almost a year and a half thanks to Steam Early Access, although the full release brings the game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Coming face to face with a representation of death, literally, the opening sequence briefly walks you through some of the games basic mechanics, attempting to ready you for the harshness of the blistering cold winter. Survival comes in many faces in Fade to Silence. Not only do you have to deal with a world full of horrible monsters, but you’ll be managing food, and warmth meters for not only yourself but all of your followers. On top of the survival elements, you’ll be constructing a camp, a place to process all of the raw materials and resources you harvest, as well as provide protection from the swarming monsters of the Eclipse. Once rescued out in the wilderness, you can choose to have these local inhabitants live with you at the camp, and although there are benefits in doing so, there are also drawbacks. The more people that you save, the more mouths you have to feed and protect. While this was more an issue in the first few hours of the game, it becomes a moot point once you have ample supply lines for easy resource gathering and processing.

Progression in the game comes from exploration, finding new hunting grounds (deer hunting), new forest regions for precious wood, rock quarries for stones/minerals, and clearing out corrupted areas. The highly dangerous nested locales populated with spiky tentacles, sharp teeth and swarming foes must be cleaned if you are to uncover new areas and outposts. The process in doing so drains the maximum health of Ash, requiring you repeatedly mash buttons, but leaving you vulnerable to attacks. The survival book accessed through a menu serves as a knowledge base; complete with all of the information that the tutorial doesn’t cover. The game is quite vague with instructions, and unless you take the time to read about how the advanced mechanics' function, you aren’t going to get far. Important things, such as proper base building, and how to command and direct your followers is only found in this spot. One tip, the leftmost meter (resembling a crystal) warns you of impending attacks at the refuge, and if I didn’t read about it in the survival book and how to build proper fences and towers, my base would have been nothing but smoldering wood and ash ages ago.

Light and heavy attacks are the cornerstones of the combat system, prioritizing, timing and spacing with parrying and blocking, in a similar fashion to the Dark Souls franchise. However, it lacks the finesse and responsiveness that is needed in providing an overall satisfying experience, and instead, feels mostly cumbersome/clunky. From attacks to dodging, every action drains stamina, punishing those who overexert themselves. For example, rolling and light strikes use a small percentage of your overall endurance, while a heavy attack completely drains it. Even then, the combat can be exploited, as the heavy attack stuns/knockbacks the frequent basic creatures you’ll come across throughout the entire game. Simply backstep after every attack, and you become nearly invincible. Of course, this practice is wasted on tougher foes, but it works well enough as a starting strategy. However, ranged attacks from spitting foes are frustrating to dodge, as they seemingly follow you, changing their trajectory in mid-air.

Before starting a new game, you are given an option of two different difficulties, exploration and survival. In the easier of the two modes, you’ll not have to worry about a limited amount of lives and losing resources, ensuring you can play at your own pace; however, achievements/trophies are disabled and you are unable to gain improvements through the Circle of Torment (minor stat bonuses to health, stamina, hunger, and warmth can still be earned). Survival on the other hand, can reset your progress after you lose all of your lives. Starting over, even if some bonuses is not my idea of fun. Regardless of the mode selected, if you are finding the combat too difficult, followers can accompany you on expeditions once they join your refuge. In my experience, they serve as a good distraction allowing you to attack without the Lovecraftian horrors targeting you directly. An online friend can take control of the follower, adding a cooperative element to the game; however, both players are tethered, limiting how far players can travel from each other.

Although the base building is a significant component to the game, crafting at a campfire out in the environment is just as crucial. Inventory space feels quite limiting at first, but once you can craft additional pouches to hold more resources, on top of actual weapons and armor, the game starts to feel more fleshed out. Of course, I learned the hard way after spending a solid hour trying to survive with nothing but a torch to protect myself. I appreciate games that attempt to give players freedom without overly hand-holding them throughout, but a bit more of a structure to the opening sequence to the game would have gone a long way.

Exploring the massive open-world tundra can be tedious, and slow, but you do gain access to a teleportation system once you cleanse outposts by defeating bosses located across each of the central regions. This in itself does help to decrease travel time, not to mention also providing large amount of resources, but you’ll want to prioritize the dog sledding building once you rescue a couple of wolves. Although the controls are slightly clumsy, and I’ve seen the sled fly up into the air more often than I can count, it does provide additional storage and a faster traversal option. It also comes in handy when attempting to dodge falling cars and wreckage from the floating sphere of death in the sky.

Simply Put

Fade to Silence does leave its mark on the survival genre, namely the terrific use of a dynamic weather system. However, everything else in the game is slightly cumbersome, from combat to item management. With player inventory being limited, your only option is to transfer items to your stash at the camp. However, the only options are to place items one at a time, or everything you happen to be carrying. There isn’t any way to transfer individual stacks of items. The game needs a better introduction to many of the game’s mechanics, especially when playing on the harder difficulty that can leave you with starting over with nothing, outside of the permanent unlocks.

Age of Sigmar reminds me of a mixture of Gwent and Magic; using the Gwent system of lanes combined with the casting/rotating pieces of Magic's table management and card actions. Even the players' health systems and card damages directly of Magic, and I think these comparisons can help draw in fans of both games as a smooth transition in the card management of Age of Sigmar.

Games work out in this fashion: your Champions are assigned to lanes before the match starting. Each Champion has their unique attributes, such as bonuses or a focus on spellcasting, making their placement vital in prepping for the game. Once everything is ready, players are given two actions per turn - play two cards or end early and either draw one or two additional cards depending on how many you've played. Some played cards, like abilities, might activate immediately before discarding. Others, like some creature cards or spells, require you to cycle a few turns before they can be enabled. Keeping everything limited to two actions will keep your focus on planning and strategizing - leaving a champion's lane open might give the enemy a chance to earn a damage bonus or more.

To add a bit a thrill to the game, Champions have a set of objectives attached to them in every game (these tend not to differ). They can be as simple as "deal damage to the enemy" using a creature card or ability, or they can be something more difficult like "spawn a beast-class creature" which can be entirely impossible if you don't have any in your deck. Managing to complete these four objectives unlocks the Champions' blessing, a powerful ability that can quickly turn the tide of a match.

Honestly, the craziest thing about this game to me is the fact the physical cards themselves are scan-able into the game. Given it's a free-to-play title, there are many items available to purchase in-game on top of a 30-day Champions Pass for $4.99. There are gems available for purchase in the Nintendo eShop (and presumably the other stores this is available on) which are used directly for special gems-only purchases or general items, which can also be bought with gold earned from completing objectives/leveling. However, for those unwilling to purchase gems, using physical cards is still possible via scanning them onto your account, but unfortunately, that does require either a smartphone or computer in order to do so. But all versions of the game are connected, so adding one will grant access to the card across all versions of the game. That piece blows me away since it adds an entirely new layer to the game - you can play both digitally and physically with the same cards.

One significant aspect for this game is the interconnectivity being the Nintendo Switch, smartphones and Steam. The fledgling community isn't limited to just Switch, meaning gamers should be able to find a robust and active community to play online against. I know I only waited a minute or two at most when looking for opponents (then getting beaten), but it was an unexpected and pleasant experience to see there are ample challenges out there. However, the game does require a constant online connection for pretty much any mode, so keep that in mind when you're out and on the go with the Switch. This continuous connection is even required if you're planning on managing your decks and swapping out cards, so it can be a bit frustrating for some if you're not in an area with stable wifi coverage.

Simply Put

Given that it is a free-to-play title, I'm genuinely surprised and actually delighted by the polished feel of the title. There are several available modes (requiring a constant internet connection), an active community to play against, and ways to get by without having to pay for anything out of pocket. Considering there are some pay-to-play titles can really put the onus on gamers almost requiring buying something from the developer, overall it's a nice change of pace, making Age of Sigmar: Champions a solid title.

In order to progress through the game, you’ll always need to race against the AI. However, a two-player local race option does exist, but it's counter-productive in the long run as you don’t earn any cash for competing against a friend. It’s not something the game tells you either, but after battling for about 20 minutes with a friend, I realized I still only had $16 in my pocket — what a waste of time. The races themselves are quite short in length, and you’ll only have to contend with moving left to right across the track, or in this case towards or away from the camera. During the race, you have two options; boost and shoot.

Hazards populate the race track, whether you are in a pixel-based urban environment, or the empty wasteland of the Red Planet. Robots resembling TV monitors attempt to disrupt your concentration by shooting large pink bullets at you or by merely cluttering the racing area. The scarcity of ammunition ensures you aren’t trying to play the game like a shoot ‘em up, however, if you run out during a race (and you will multiple times), a refueling vehicle appears at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to boost into it, replenishing your stock. Helping you figure out if you are in the lead or trailing, the music during races will be audibly louder when you are winning, and softer when you are falling behind. Winnings, however, are quite paltry, making the entire game feel like a never-ending grind to the finish line. It’s a simple gameplay loop, and once you found a way that works for you, you’ll probably have no trouble winning every race. With that said, I’ve had a "warning" message appear randomly, removing my ability to boost, ensuring I would lose. I still have no idea why it occurs, if it is something that can be triggered or if its a bug.

After scrounging up enough cash on Earth, you head to Mars to keep competing in races to earn the required $10,000 entry fee into the Grand Prix. Winning a race may net you $100 (or less), where you have to manage your spending by repairing your hoverbike, keeping your hunger satisfied and leaving some in the bank to ensure you eventually reach your goal. Lose, and you’ll have to settle for the couple bucks that you picked up during the race. The city of Olympia is comprised of interconnected stylized corridors that you must walk through each time you want to race. After every run, you are dumped back into the town to spend your money, and must painstakingly walk back to the racing headquarters to compete in another fast race. Although stylistic and fitting with the game’s atmosphere and visuals, I found some of the looping songs in the game quite irritating, especially during prolonged play sessions.

I found it odd that parts for your hoverbike (although made on Earth) are hard to come by on the Red Planet, especially considering you spend most of your time there. After a race, you may find another hoverbike parked next to yours. If you are so inclined to do so, you can attempt to steal a part through a timing mini-game. There’s a good amount of installable upgrades for your bike. Power cells and components are placed on a grid, and afterward, you can junction power to them to boost their performance. Like much in Desert Child, I had to discover this for myself. These parts can improve your chances of winning, by increasing both the size of your bullets and the maximum amount you can carry, as well as increasing the amount of money that comes out of the TVs when they explode. There are different weapons in the game, but the choice is set in stone once you begin, so you have to start a new game if you want to try something else.

Simply Put

Desert Child has its moments, but most of the experience feels shallow. The repetitiveness of wandering through the town after each race was more of a distraction than anything. The retro-inspired pixel art is enjoyable, and most of the game’s music works within the racing setting, but I had to mute the game when walking through the town. I understand the overarching theme of the game, the hardship of survival and earning the right to live in a society where the rich have all the power, but I feel it missed the mark considering how little of a narrative exists.

Tropico 6 doesn't reinvent the series, but naturally evolves the core gameplay that fans have come to expect over the years. However, some small changes leave a lasting impact on how you'll develop your tropical nation. Instead of focusing on one main island, Tropico 6 allows you to expand your society across smaller sets of islands. Thanks to the inclusion of bridges and tunnels that can be connected to your central city location, you can quickly gather resources from outlying areas. Steep mountains and rivers are no longer a roadblock, as you can tunnel and build bridges through and over them, granted you have researched the technology and reached the required era.

The campaign in Tropico 6 follows the rise of the dictator from his meager beginning as a lowly governor, serving The Crown. Objectives and other requests come from multiple sources, given you an option to increase your favor with the Empire or with the revolutionaries praying for the day where you will declare independence. As you are not yet your own nation during the colonial era, you must complete any political request from the Lord in charge of the island; otherwise, you'll have to restart or load a previous save. It wasn't initially clear at first, and I ended up in an unwinnable loop where I didn't have enough time to complete an export priority from the autosave location and wasn't able to declare independence as well.

At the same time, you'll want to bolster your forces to turn against the Empire and win the hearts of your people. Maybe you'll want to construct a pirate's cove to secretly smuggle gold away from the tyranny of The Crown and keep it for your young nation, or create a new way to generate necessary supplies. There is a fine line between keeping the population happy, with a steady amount of food, work, entertainment, and protection against crime. The overlays do a great job of showing you exactly what and where you need improvements. The color-coded overlays certainly play a significant role in how you develop your economy, based on the available natural resources. If one of the islands has a considerable surplus of sugar cane, rum flows like water improving the happiness of your citizens, as well as working as a major export to line your treasuries with gold.

Things aren't always that black and white; however, as you must be dutiful in figuring out the needs of the nation. Why aren't your storerooms full of corn? Why is it taking months to complete a simple construction? Do you lack housing near places of employment? Can workers support their families with current salaries? Did the latest edict have a negative effort that you weren't expecting? Is it worth avoiding a war with a world superpower at the cost of your own citizen's freedom? These are the questions that are constantly rotating through my mind. If you are like me, you'll be continually juggling a queue of buildings under construction. When cash begins flowing steadily, you may opt to complete construction by spending some benjamins (money) instantly. If you can't spare the extra money, the priority order informs the workers which need to be completed first and which can wait a little longer.

The series has already moved to the modern era years ago in an expansion for Tropico 4 and Tropico 5, but I still get giddy advancing your struggling colonial nation of plantations through the years with shopping malls, space programs, and amusement parks. Heck, why not add a few local fast food joints in for good measure. Eventually, you'll airlift entire world wonders, with the help of some fancy diplomacy, such as the Great Sphinx, the Statue of Livery, Taj Mahal, and even Hikone Castle.

I've always been of the mind that Tropico is at its best when you are people watching. Although the game offers a 4x speed option, I can count the number of times I've used it on a single hand. There is just something enjoyable and relaxing about watching your workers travel to and from a construction site and slowly seeing progress being made. In Tropico 6, your nation is brimming with life, as every one of your citizens can be viewed and followed through their daily routines. Considering the population limit can be increased to a maximum of 10,000 citizens, that is undoubtedly impressive. Each member has their own needs, desires, and ideas of how the government should run. I have never paid so much attention trying to appease my people on an individual level before in any game. It also gives you an insight into which members of society need to be thrown in jail, have an "accident" at work, or publicly assassinated for speaking out against the government. Foreign powers and rebel factions are inevitable, and each player will have a different way of handling these situations. A few guard towers with heavy machinery and questionable abuse of power never hurt anyone, right?

I've always seen the campaign portion of the series, and most simulation titles as an appetizer to the main dish; sandbox mode. Tropico 6 features robust options whether you are playing offline or online multiplayer with up to four players. Instead of some of the asine political requests, that must be completed; such as having multiple taverns or a crazy amount of exports, the requests generally look to improve your island nation. During the campaign missions, you are always given a partially prebuilt country, but in the sandbox mode, you genuinely start from scratch (something I still want to do). The map can be preselected from over 20 existing presets, or you can generate and share your archipelago using a wide arrange of options, such as setting the climate, amount of islands, total land mass, and size. There are a handful of different victory conditions, all of which are quite standard for a strategy game.

Simply Put

Tropico 6's evolution and depth take the series into new heights, or in this case, new islands, stretching your nation across multiple islands with the inclusion of advanced traverse options. Throughout lengthy sessions, the game's soundtrack may see a bit repetitive, but it is so easy to catch yourself humming along even after you've exited the game. I've already put dozens of hours into the sandbox mode thanks to the randomization options and can see myself putting many, many more in the future, especially with the planned upcoming downloadable content /expansions that will surely alleviate the experience evener further.

The narrative set in the game’s story mode falls in line with b-movie monster tropes, as giant monsters have been wreaking havoc across the globe. The United Defense Force (UDF) has been struggling to counter against the xenotypes of unknown origin. To bolster their numbers, they turn to pilots from the Mech Battle League; a competitive sport where giant mechs battle against each other. After showcasing your talents by defending Japan, you are invited to the UDF, along with other competitors. Regardless of who you choose as your pilot, the narrative plays out quite similar, although, with one save file, you have to restart if you want to change your mech.

Each story mission has a set difficulty, and the further you progress, the more difficult the monsters you face become. Not only that, but you’ll be pitted against infected versions of other mechs. Set across notable countries, such as Japan, Russia, Morocco, and the United States, the arenas have been crafted to resemble real-life cities/landscapes, featuring recognizable landmarks. After each successful mission, you’ll spend research points on improving your mech; increasing your armor rating, thrusters, attack power, and more. This progression is limited to the arcade/story mode, and since you need to wipe your progress if you wish to try a new character, it becomes rather trivial once you reach the last couple of missions. I don’t think I even spent a single research point until the very last mission. Mods can also be equipped, which may be given as a reward for completing a mission, providing stat bonuses and other effects, such as being healed with every successful punch or kick. Unlocked weapons can be added to your loadout, and will drop into battle, however, outside of the novelty of equipping a shield and laser sword to resemble a Gundam (especially as watchbot), I found them not worth the hassle.

Mission structures are primarily identical, whether you are facing waves of foes, having to protect an objective or battle against a boss. Strangely enough, there is a timer that seems to appear randomly, signifying that you’ll fail the mission if you don’t hastily kill all the monsters. It seems rather pointless, as the time seems to increase with each kill, and I’ve never seen the counter drop below thirty seconds. There are also only a set number of spawn locations for enemies, and on the Japan map especially, the waves tend to appear from a single position. The monsters overwhelming numbers mean very little if you can stand still and kill them one-by-one without even moving as they emerge from the same spot. Stages vary in size but still happen to feel a bit cramped. Some stages, such as Brazil and Egypt add elements of vertically, with my favorite is being able to explore an Egyptian tomb under the pyramids, however, overall the environments are rather flat. Buildings are fully destructible, and it can be quite satisfying to smash through many objects or rows of city blocks, even if the chunks simply disappear. It would have been a neat touch if there was any form of interaction, such as being able to toss a building, a car or something, anything at your opponent. Heck, it seems like a missed opportunity that the game doesn’t feature any grappling or throws. The lack of interaction is quite apparent once everything is destroyed and you are left battling on a flat wide-open landscape.

Override: Mech City Brawl mechanically feels reminiscent to the arcade classic King of Monsters franchise (later ported to consoles). Controlling your massive, and colorful mech makes use of every button on your controller. The four trigger/shoulder buttons each control a limb, while the face buttons allow you to block (and counter), jump, dash, and trigger special attacks. Each attack can be charged, knocking down your foe if you connect. While powerful, the charged attacks are easily telegraphed, allowing you to get out of the way or counter. Shields can deflect basic attacks, but will not protect against special or charged attacks.

Your segmented special meter fills quite fast by damaging opponents but also fills (at a slower rate) as you take damage. These moves highly unique to each mech, and you’ll want to play around against the AI before hopping online to see if you like their moveset. Watchbot, which grew to become my favorite choice, can transform his arms into MegaMan style blasters that knockdown any foe in their path. Metageckon feels heavily designed after Mechagodzilla, while Vintage looks straight out of the history book with his old school robotic appearance. Of course, there are ultimate attacks, that are not only flashy, with a hint of anime flair, but can turn the tide of a match. However, it can only be triggered once your health gets low enough, serving more like a comeback mechanic than a finisher.

Although you can battle against the AI, Override was designed for local and online multiplayer as its focus. The game does feature proper one vs. one ranked and quick play options, but the game is at its best when you four mechs battle against each other. The additional mayhem that is produced from the additional mechs is quite compelling. However, the party co-op option is without a doubt a comical and local favorite at my household. Up to four players can cooperatively take control of a single character, with each player controlling a separate limb, similar to how each of the colored lions combines to form Voltron. These can get a bit wonky when only two players work together, as one is in charge of moving, but the other gets camera control.

Simply Put

Override: Mech City Brawl, while clunky and cumbersome, is an enjoyable, casual party fighting game. Battles are quite slow, and require proper timing and spacing, especially given how quick your robot will overheat, limiting the number of attacks that can be performed in a single combo. Each of the colorful cast of characters is highly unique, and I enjoyed unlocked new skins/accessories after each battle. Many of the skins are simple palette swaps, but some of the epic and legendary ones change the styling enough to make things interesting. The single-player content feels unfinished or lacking, but adding other players to one mech certainly ups the entertainment factor.

Rival Megagun is split into three game modes: story, versus, and online battle. The story itself has you play out the hero's story of taking on the Harvester threat while also fighting against your opponents. Versus will let you play against another human, the CPU, or watch an all-out CPU vs. CPU fight if you desire, and lastly, the online battles operate in a similar fashion same as the versus mode. The story mode, albeit only a handful of levels, is still fun as you work your way through the entire roster before reaching an endgame mode that's essentially one classic shoot 'em up boss fight. The story mode has some fun twists and gameplay to keep you engaged. Both the local and online competitive options have their appeal, but there's only so much ass whuppin' you might be able to dish out (or take in some cases) before you're willing to drop it and move on entirely. For those intent on really getting into the online experience, it is possible to customize your character's loadout and give yourself different attacks.

Now, going back to the mashup aspect of the game - it is your standard affair shoot 'em up where enemies swarm the screen, and it's your job to take them down. But you also need to kill your opponent on their side of the match, but technically you can't shoot them directly. As you eliminate things, you'll chain your attacks and cause little swirly balls to appear on your enemies side. Once your chain ends, all of those swirly balls will turn into additional enemies that spawn against your opponent. While you're destroying enemies, you'll start to charge up power that can be used to trigger a special attack (depends on what you've got selected). Once fully powered, you can transform into a mega gunship that spawns on the opponent's side of the map. That's the only chance you'll get to attack them directly with your super-powered ship.

Do not, for any reason, play this game on a keyboard, especially if you plan to play local multiplayer. The keyboard is virtually split down the middle, with one player handling the left side using the traditional WASD keys, and the second player uses the arrows on the right side. I don't even want to imagine how hard this would be to play with two people on a keyboard, so I recommend sticking to controllers. I used my Xbox One controller and immediately went from "I can't play this well" to finishing several levels rather quickly. It's a night and day difference to have a controller layout over the keyboard.

The look and feel of the game itself reminded me of the over the top 90s shooters where I'd be piloting some crazy ship just blasting everything on-screen. It's got the same frenetic energy with a hundred things occurring at once; your ship maneuvering around, enemies and their projectiles whizzing by, and a crazy background you can just barely make sense of within the maelstrom. And that's only on a little less than half of the screen! The game, from the times I could stop and enjoy what I was watching, just looked great with the retro stylization and pixel animations. There's something to that animation style and the craziness on-screen that seem to make everything mesh perfectly along with the fast-paced, arcade era music.

Simply Put

Rival Megagun, as I said, is a fun experience. For those that played a lot of these types of titles back in the day, it'll draw some serious nostalgia. Even now listening to the music while writing this, it sounds very reminiscent of the 16-bit era. My only major concerns with the game are the keyboard controls (easily fixed by using a controller) and the shortness of it. Like I mentioned earlier, the story mode is excellent, but once you've run through the handful of levels with multiple characters, it loses some of its charm. Sure you can play on harder difficulties, but that's mostly in the form of challenge only so you can collect some more cards. Expect to win some and lose some while playing online, which I hope will continue to have some legs. I was able to find matches quickly, but it's hard to judge what the community will look like in 6 months to a year.

As a side-scrolling platformer, Monster Boy doesn’t shy away from the fact that it borrows elements from previous games while giving it a modern spin that will appease newcomers and long-time fans alike. The inhabitants of the Monster World Kingdom have been transformed into animals thanks to your barrel riding, overindulging uncle. Jin’s initial efforts to confront his uncle don’t go according to plan, and he gets transformed into a pig for his efforts. This is the first of five uniquely designed animal forms (six in total if you count Jin’s human form). This form should be familiar to fans of the series, as its based on the always smoking, one-eyed pirate looking shopkeeper that appeared in previous games. Regardless of the form, each one has a unique approach to combat, as well as traversal, requiring you to switch between the forms to make your way across the interconnected world. The environments are designed so that it gradually opens up as you progress through the narrative and unlock new forms, but it takes it a step further, as accessing new paths may also require you to purchase/find new pieces of equipment.

Jin’s pig form may be the first form, but it comes quite in handy across the entire 15-20 hour adventure. Using his keen sense of smell, you can locate hidden objects and doorways. While he is unable to wield any of your collected gear, he is the only animal form that can use magic spells (Jin's human form can also use them). Not to mention, his pig form is so, so kawaii, that’s cute for those that don’t speak Japanese. The magic spells are quite useful; however when initially acquired, they won’t have many charges. The boomerang is ultra powerful, but if you miss catching it when it returns, you are out of luck. Other actual spells, such as fireballs, lightning bolts, and mini-cyclones start with only a handful of uses. While you can recharge your spells at a shop (at the cost of some precious coins), you will occasionally find drops from defeated foes. Some equipable items can increase the drop rate, depending upon your immediate needs. However, as a pig, you can put your massive snout to good use to find hidden truffles throughout the kingdom. These truffles increase the number of charges for each of your spells, letting you unleash even more havoc on enemies and bosses. You'll need to maximize the number of charges for your spells to open late-game treasure chests.

This wouldn’t be the Monster World franchise without multiple transformations, and the rest of Jin’s forms doesn’t disappoint. As a snake, you’ll lose your ability to harness magical spells, but using your small stature, you can fit into tiny gaps no one else can access. Not only that, but you can slither and attach your way across slimy ledges, letting you move up and down walls and across ceilings with ease. You aren't entirely helpless, as you can swing your tail in a pinch for minimal damage, but your essential talent involves spitting acid at unexpecting foes. It also comes in handy to solve some of the game’s numerous environmental puzzles, activating crystals to illuminate darkened caverns and activating levers that would typically be out of reach. Once you collect the snake talisman (there's one for every form), you can strengthen your scaly head to break rocks blocking your path.

While your snake form can get you into tight spaces, and the pig form can butt-stomp to stun enemies and activate switches, the frog form helps you reach new heights, literally. He can wear and use equipment; however, you lose the ability to butt-stomp and use magic spells. The added equipment means you can utilize sets of armor, swords, and shields. The most significant addition in this form comes from your tongue, which can be used to slingshot yourself high into the air or used to swing from precariously placed rings. It’s a double-edged sword when used to attack foes. While eating mosquitoes can replenish your health, as long as they are not electrified, most other types can actually harm or leave you with adverse status effects, such as confusion (reversing movement controls), or slowness that will cause you to move slower than a snail through molasses. Some enemy weapons, such as bombs, and shields can be stolen using your tongue and spit back out.

The lion form is the backbone of your transformations, and one of my personal favorites to use. Like your frog form, you can fully equip any piece of equipment, but you gain a downwards thrust attack with your sword. His unique ability lets you smash through blocks, run across water, and damage weaker enemies at unimaginable speeds. Eventually, you’ll gain an upwards thrust that comes in handy to activate switches on ceilings, as well as giving you slightly more oomph to your jumps. With the inclusion of boots that give you the ability to double jump, this essentially gives you a third jump. Jin’s final transformation is a fiery dragon, with the ability to shoot fireballs, and fly. As the final form, it can neglect some of the previous level design mechanics, but I appreciate being able to traverse through previously explored areas with relative ease.

Regardless of the area you are in; there are shops littered throughout. The nurse station can replenish your health, and gives you the opportunity to purchase an elixir that will revive you if you happen to die, as well as a potion to negate adverse status effects, such as poison. As mentioned, the magic shop replenishes your magic spells, which are only used in the human and pig form. The map highlights any chest that you come across but did not open (marking it with a question mark), and warping portals let you return to past areas regularly. Eventually, you’ll earn a magical staff that enables you portal back from anywhere. There are even items you collect that can be given to the treasure master to mark any chest that you have yet to come across.

Weapon shops sell sets of gear; swords, armor, bracelets, and shields, all of which can be upgraded. Each piece and full sets come with bonuses, such as the ice body armor raising your fire damage resistance. On the other hand, the boots in the collection located in a secret treasure chest let you walk across lava without taking damage. It’s required to progress properly through the game; however, you are never directed towards their location. In this case, I became overly frustrated, thinking I was not understanding a puzzle mechanic until I tried a new route and just happened to come across them. The same can be said about the ice sword; however, it needs to be purchased from the shop, as well as upgraded in order to freeze projectiles. Without it, you won’t be able to access the required areas. Because of this, much of the game is gated off, not only due to progression but also from what equipment you have purchased or obtained. If you are like me and found yourself short on money, its best to find a spot to farm enemies over and over. Traditionally enemies respawn once you return to a previous screen. Even if you don’t leave the screen, enemies will eventually respawn, sometimes too fast.

During the last third of the game, the difficulty truly ramps up, requiring you to be precise with your timing and jumping, usually combining multiple forms in a single maneuver. You may have to use the frog’s tongue to launch yourself high into the air (or swing across a gap), then transform into the lion to perform an upward thrust to gain additional height, and then finally switching to the snake form to attach yourself upside down to the ceiling. Be swift with your movements, as you may have to outrun lava that is increasingly inching towards the top of the screen.

Projectiles are my biggest annoyance with the game’s combat system. If you need to block anything straight in front of you or directly above you with the shield, it's not a problem. Anything coming at you at an angle will most likely result in you taking damage, even if it appears like it would make contact with the shield. Most of the time, checkpoints are are well placed, although you may have to replay certain sections multiple times. It is almost punishing that you only respawn with only three hearts of health, especially when a single hit can practically wipe out your health.

When I initially saw Monster Boy for the first time, the game was oozing with charm; however, the amount of expression and personality with each form has reached incredible heights thanks to hand-drawn animations and beautiful environments. There is also an anime style opening cinematic and a stunning soundtrack to go along with the game, with each area having its own style and feel. The game emphasizes puzzle-platforming elements, as well as varying and uniquely designed mechanics to each of the boss encounters.

Simply Put

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is everything that you’ll want in an official sequel to the Monster World franchise. Regardless of the late game frustrations and spike in difficulty, it is one of the best modern day platformers I have ever played.

Darksiders III has abandoned the action RPG loot system from Darksiders II and instead feels more like the original title, focusing on getting new equipment through narrative progression. Consumables, crafting ingredients, enhancements, and crystals are the only things that you’ll pick up strewn throughout the wasteland and from fallen enemies. The glowing ember-like appearance of the items is very reminiscent of the Dark Souls franchise, especially since the game has many aspects in common. Crystals come in various forms, either providing additional attribute points to further increase Fury’s stats or lurcher clumps/clusters that contain a set amount of souls once shattered. Ulthane (Black Hammer), a Maker, who appeared in the first game, makes his return, improving your weapons in exchange for adamantine fragments. He can also enhance your socketed gems using artifacts (demonic or angelic), giving you two different paths to choose from depending on your preference. Each of your weapons can socket a single gem that you find during your adventure. For example, the Unfocused Chaos gem returns a percentage of dealt damage to you as health and boasts its effectiveness further during havoc mode.

The heart and soul of Darksiders III revolves around the four Hollows that you’ll acquire, serving more than just secondary weapons. The chains of Scorn, for example, grants Fury with the power of fire, setting her hair ablaze with a fiery orange glow, and letting her freely walk through lava without succumbing to the scorching heat. Although your range is limited when using the chains, they make up for it with speed, whereas the Lance of Scorn (lightning element) is slower, but has a lunging attack for closing the gap with your foes. Each one also grants additional traversal options, based on the specific element at hand. The world you explore feels largely interconnected, as new areas open up with each new traversal option you gain. However, at the same time, it makes fast traveling hit-or-miss as you don’t know exactly where you are going to wind up in relation to where the next boss/area is located. The compass does an acceptable job at pointing you towards your next objective (namely the location of the subsequent boss), but I still miss being able to see which areas remained unexplored. However, you’ll be hard pressed to miss any of the hidden passageways and branching paths, as they stand out quite well.

Souls can be spent on not only consumables but to increase the level of three key stat categories for Fury: health, strength, arcane. Both strength and arcane relates to your damage output, adding a percentage bonus to both physical and arcane damage. Physical damage is dealt through your basic attacks using your primary and secondary weapons, while arcane damage is dealt on evade counters, charged attacks, wrath attacks and when you transform into your havoc form. As you attack and defeat your enemies, you’ll fill both your havoc and wrath meter. Wrath form increases Fury’s offensive prowess, while havoc form transforms her into a larger than life fiery beast, unleashing the full fury (pun-intended) of the Horsemen.

Consumables can be quickly sorted through using the direction pad (left and right) and used with a press of a button, however, there is an animation involved, so you’ll have to have a spare (and safe) second to use them. These shards can assist you in various ways, either providing healing, replenishing your wrath, boosting your strength, and more. Instead of collecting the life energy from fallen enemies directly like in the first game (the floating green skulls), it is absorbed by the Nephilim’s Respite flask. A gift crafted by Death, it allows Fury to heal once recharged, however, it is upgradeable; increasing its capacity and healing power.While the game does include three different save game slots, there is no way to save the game manually. Instead, you are forced to rely on the autosave functionality. This could mean you are going to have to replay certain sections or traverse a few rooms to return where you left off, especially during boss encounters. It's not always an issue, but there are a couple of frustrating sections. You’ll have to juggle with the notion of killing freshly respawned foes, which take additional time to fight or sprinting past them. Upon death, you’ll drop any souls that you haven’t banked, but the game is less harsh with punishments. Even if you die again, the souls won’t disappear, and can easily be reacquired.

Simply Put

The well-designed and vibrant post-apocalyptic world of Darksiders III is simply a joy to traverse. The narrative is well-written, and the boss encounters, including the interactions between characters, before, during, and after encounters are quite enjoyable. Although the game takes its inspiration from new titles and genres, it still feels like it belongs in the series I’ve been playing for the past eight years. On the technical front, the game suffers from occasional hitching and slowdown, even on an Xbox One X.

The game revolves around the ultimate public spectacle, Speed Brawl, with the hope the entertainment quells the ever-growing unrest with the working and middle class. It’s described as a sport only for the elite, pitting players against not only the clock but the remnants of the defeated insect-like menace known as the Selenites. In all honesty, the basic alien creature, the Ripper, resembles the arachnids from Starship Troopers although you will also have to face returning veterans from the war, mercenaries, and even former speed brawlers.

Before starting each event, you’ll be encapsulated in a cage, while a countdown prepares you for the start of the event. Think of it like waiting at the starting grid in a racing game. In similar fashion to some arcade racers, if you charge and time your dash correctly (begin holding right as “steady” appears), you’ll get an instant burst of speed to maximize your placement on the leaderboards. There are various types of events, ranging from championship events that combine your time from multiple runs to challenges that will push you to your limit. In pole racing events, you’ll have to swing on each pole, or checkpoint, before crossing the finishing line. You must choose an optimal path and find your groove as you platform your way across the stage and swing between poles for satisfying speed boosts. These racing stages start simple enough but quickly add to the complexity requiring you to activate checkpoints above, below and even behind you. Fortunately, you can quickly change direction mid-swing using the left stick to point in the proper direction.

As already mentioned, championships combine multiple events, requiring you to platform your way across levels as fast as you can, before being interrupted by combat encounters. Even then, you are expected to keep your momentum during engagements to best make use of your time. Using both finesse and power, you’ll want to use your basic attacks to push enemies into groups, optimizing your time by attacking as many foes at once. Once grouped, make use of your launcher attack to pummel them in the air, and then slam them back down for even more punishment. Getting hit completely stops your momentum, especially if you are knocked to the ground and forced to recover, all of which costs you valuable seconds. It may even be quicker to switch brawlers instead of waiting. You’ll heed my words once you miss out on achieving gold by one-tenth of a second due to getting hit once in the final encounter.

Besides basic attacks, the game prioritizes dodging and counter-attacks, not to mention special abilities and ultimate attacks. These character specific abilities are great at dealing out damage multiple foes at once, but I found it more important to learn how to counter-attack properly. The counter window is very tight, even if enemies telegraph their attacks. Dodging once you see an attack coming is an excellent way to avoid damage, but in order to counter, you need to be quite precise with your timing. It is probably the smallest counter window I’ve experienced in recent memory, but there are items/skills you can equip/unlock to make it slightly easier. During the tutorials when you are dealing with stationary enemies, it may seem simplistic to pull off, but in practice when dealing with a handful of foes on the ground and in the air at the same time, it becomes much more complicated.start each event, by selecting a team of two brawlers. Even if you are playing cooperatively, online or locally, each player chooses their own team. Since you will have a group of two, you can tag in/out at any time, as well as trigger an assist attack. This is especially useful as each of the characters have different playstyles. You may have one character equipped with the best offensive gear and skills and another focused on movement speed. As you progress and earn fame (essentially experience points), you’ll obtain skill points to spend on your characters across three individual branches; power, defense, and technique. Power generally relates to special attacks for each of the characters. For example, Ebba can add the chance of poisoning foes, with her special attacks, whereas Cassie can add a slashed status. Defense focuses on your dash attacks, movement speed, and overall health. The last branch, technique, is more uniquely tied to individual characters, adding additional damage output when near or at full health, or increasing damage when your combo reaches a set amount.

Characters have three slots to equip items from your inventory, gloves, boots, and trinkets (rings, necklaces, etc.). Your goal is simple, beat the allocated time on each event to earn prizes. The treasure chests yield RPG style equipment, such as a rare tier set of gloves that can inflict a burn status and increase your attack rating. It isn’t limited to equipment, however, as you’ll unlock new color palettes for the six brawlers. With the money you earn, you can purchase new equipment from the shops, if you aren’t satisfied with your current loot.

Simply Put

Speed Brawl has a lot more to offer than standard beat ‘em up titles. I certainly dig the unique and colorful stylized animated characters. The game features satisfying local and online multiplayer for the game’s 50+ events. There weren’t any joinable open online parties while testing, but I was able to invite a friend without issue. There are global leaderboards for each of the events if you are into that type of competition as well.

HellSign legitimately caught me off guard. This surprisingly deep action role-playing game (RPG) is a visceral approach to the supernatural investigation and elimination process. You're not a fun loving Ghostbuster in this game, but rather the victim of a HellSign and you're dealing with some seriously dark things. Don't expect the demons and other forces of darkness to go easy on you, in your attempt to rid the city from their influence.

And what an influence. The game consists of you traveling to points across the city to scout, sweep, or hunt down paranormal foes. Sweeping involves gathering signs of an infestation - clues in the form of ESP recordings, photographs, ectoplasm, and other items that allow you to deduce what's taken residence in the house and killed the occupants. Sweeping consists of you doing a simple sweep through the premises, clearing out any creatures you find. And hunting is essentially the combination of both - figure out what's haunting the place and eliminating it. It's fascinating how much goes into determining not only the type of monster you are dealing with but the best way to kill it. You have a journal where you take your discovered clues and use them to figure out what unholy being is there and the best method for getting rid of it.

Using a traditional mouse and keyboard control scheme movement is handled by the w, a, s, and d keys, with your actual view being manipulated by a mouse cursor. HellSign uses an isometric view, similar to many classic action-RPG titles. Using the number keys, you can select your weapons, items, and other investigation tools and traps. Equipping a weapon gives you the ability to sprint with shift and combat roll with the spacebar. Shooting/Researching is done via the left mouse button, but you can press and hold the right mouse button to "more accurately target." It honestly takes some time to find the sweet spot of combat - I sucked at it no matter what I did, and I ended up giving up on attempting sweeping missions because I'd get decimated.

Aside from the annoying combat aspects of never hitting the damn ground-based creatures, the user interface (UI) is cumbersome. Some screens do offer an "exit" option, but there were many I swear I could not find. I always ended up reverting to just hitting the escape button in order to continue unabated. Being in Steam Early Access as well, there were some things I noticed, like some skills required being level 99, but I'm assuming those are still being worked on and will be in the full version of the game.

The attention to the audio in the game is excellent and probably the game's best aspect. Voice actors, ambient sounds, using the parabolic mic or the EMF reader. All of it. Even the music, while repetitious, is still well done. Aside from the focus on supernatural and boogiemen creatures, the audio pieces really tie this game together. Horror and supernatural are built on an ambiance, and as you steadily explore the houses and bodies, the sounds inside and out help to amp up the situation. Especially during any appearance of an enemy.

Simply Put

I think HellSign has some outstanding pieces and I'm curious to see what a final, polished product will look like. The game looks good, even though it regularly recycled environments, but some odd visual hiccups still occur (especially during reloading). Once the game has been fleshed out and finished, I think it'll be a solid title that will interest many.

The Steel Rats are comprised of four different bikers, which you’ll unlock by progressing through the game. It wasn’t apparent at first, but each member is highly unique, not regarding how they maneuver, but primary weapon loadout, a charged attack, and the awe-inspiring ultimate attacks. Once unlocked, you don’t have to worry about selecting a character for each mission; instead, you can alternate between Lisa, James, Randy, and Toshi on-the-fly with the press of a button (the right analog stick). Based on the situation, you may find one group member to be better suited than another, such as Lisa’s ability to wipe out all foes around her by leaving a fiery trail behind her or James’s mid-air hammer drop that decimates enemies directly in front of him.

Each level hides a secret collectible that serves as backstory about each of the characters or the various locales through audio logs and imagery. By collecting enough junk, you’ll unlock new perks, and upgrades spread across each team member. Junk can be obtained by not only taking out enemies but also objects in the environment. See an abandoned car in your way, turn on the chainsaw (wheelsaw) on your front wheel and cut it in half. The upgrades expand upon your basic attacks and help flesh out the combat portion of the game. For example, you can upgrade Randy’s harpoon or Toshi’s "junkpet" by extending the range and boosting the damage of each. Perks are generally stat boosting, such as adding additional sections of health, energy cells (for abilities) or improving defensive capabilities. Once unlocked by reaching the set score on each level, there are also objectives to complete that can boost your total, you’ll need to spend junk points to unlock them.

Although the game can be described as a side-scrolling action platformer, there is some dimensionality to the movement system. You aren’t limited to a strict side to side motions, as you can move back and forth along the road, platforms, rooftops, etc. The game uses this added freedom to the level design, in some fantastic ways. At one point, you must outrun, or in this case, ride) a collapsing wooden structure, requiring you to leap off broken edges, make hairpin u-turns into the foreground and leap down again and again. Once mastered, the controls are a bit clunky at first, you can easily navigate around at ease without sacrificing speed and precision. The movement isn’t precisely free-flowing, as there are invisible lanes that you’ll adhere to once you move closer or further area from the camera. One of the cooler mechanics involves clinging to metallic pipes when using the wheelsaw, allowing you to ride directly up walls, and even upside down. These moments are some of the best in the game, especially when mixed in with death-defying leaps and requiring you to maneuver around obstructions in the environment while doing so.

Checkpoints are quite generous, and if you miss a jump and fall to your doom from a great height, you’ll respawn with a portion of your health missing. Lose all your health on a character, and you’ll only have to pick someone else and continue along your way. I can’t recall ever failing enough to warrant a game over, especially if you take your time to understand what you need to accomplish to move forward, instead of merely just holding down the accelerate button and speeding through each level. Not to say that I have not been guilty of doing this, but not all levels worry about your completion time and it is more rewarding to destroy most, if not all enemies and objects in the environment instead. You’ll find the collectibles off the beaten path as well, and if you are speeding through like a bat out of hell, you may miss it.

Simply Put

Steel Rats may be the surprise I’ve been looking for as we get into the busy (and crowded) holiday season. It combines a rather robust motorcycle combat system with a slick movement system. The developers even threw in massive boss encounters that utilize all of your abilities. It wasn’t apparent at first that you can freely switch between biker members, but once realized, you can tackle any situation. Each biker has their own set of skills, but regardless of who you use, the game is simply fun and engaging. There are also unlocking bike and character skins for each of the four characters. Playing on a PlayStation 4 Pro, however, textures seem to take forever to pop-in, which is disappointing as the rest of the game is mostly impressive visually.

When initially starting the game, players are quickly welcomed to the darkness with a warning screen stating that you may experience nausea and vague feelings of discomfort due to a "horror note" of sound some doctor discovered. I don't think I ever felt that, but it was a nice touch to try and start building the atmosphere through the caution of ambient noise. In an attempt to keep the feeling of dread, the menu system uses screaming horror sound effects/noises straight out of your local haunted house experience. Not only were they not scary, but they instantly started to get annoying.

At its core, The One We Found is primarily an atmospheric, tense game that relies on the use of your flashlight (and batteries), puzzle-solving skills, and eventually a mixture of your ability to play hide-and-seek as well as gun down wraith-like creatures. Honestly, it's not that fun to do any of this, and it pains me to say that. The flashlight illuminates everything, but it puts a sheen on any item that can be picked up. This can make it difficult to discern between the background and specific objects, causing you to overlook puzzle-critical items or additional batteries. I also had issues with the flashlight not responding to my controls properly, sometimes turning off/on when I was attempting to do something else with it. Switching weapons requires popping back into the menu itself, but you better hope the game doesn't glitch and cause things to disappear (this forces you to restart levels for the items to reappear).

Throughout the game's levels, you're a psychoanalyst at the Whisperwood Asylum, there to solve some of the asylum's issues and attempt to get it back on track. While it's pretty evident from the get-go, there's something else going on besides mismanagement and neglect of patients. The game starts to go off into a stranger path once you reach the later levels. Keen-eyed players will be able to flesh out more of the story through notes and files left around, but there's still a lot of odd questions you may want answered. Beating the game unlocks survival mode, where you get to take on waves of enemies from the main game. Successfully surviving grants you points to use towards additional weapons and ammunition, and this is arguably one of the better aspects of the game.

The enemies in The One We Found aren't exactly terrifying. There are some cool effects and neat things you'll experience, but there's not a ton of variety. You have two options to deal with them; hide and wait for them to pass or just pop them with your weapon and continue moving forward. Although the environment feels creepy, the enemy encounters don't add to the tension.

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I wanted to enjoy this game, I honestly did. However, The One We Found suffers from a case of "no polish." There's a lot of good ideas and gameplay in theory, but the practical aspect falls short of expectations. If this had received some more time to fix the overall buggy experience and improve upon some of the clunky control aspects and elements, I feel this review would be in a much different tone entirely.

Being a point-and-click adventure game on a PC makes sense. You've got your mouse to select and manipulate objects to further the plot. It mostly works the same on the Xbox, but players are given the option of either using the D-Pad to select objects or using the left stick to move a cursor around (slowly and clumsily) to choose your next object. Once you've found what you want to interact with, you can bring up a context menu - look, act, talk, and use an item. Looking will provide a brief description, Act will have you act upon the object (or awkwardly touch someone you weirdo), Talk will have you either initiate a conversation or talk to an inanimate object, or Use an Item will have you combine an item from your inventory to see if it solves the puzzle at hand.

Additionally, it's possible to navigate over to the menu options on the far right of the screen to travel to another area or bring up the menu/save. I found using the D-Pad to be the simplest and less annoying way of navigating through the game. But that didn't fix everything. I had challenges as the contrast between what you had "highlighted," and the overall brightness and backgrounds of the game sometimes made it hard to know what was being selected. There were more than a few times I either ended up picking the same object/person, or I was inadvertently on the menu option without realizing it. Small annoyances, but this one started to add up at times.

The best aspects of the game itself are the wide-ranging cast of characters and the voice acting helping shape them into memorable people. The people you run into are widely diverse and represent a very different future than modern times. Throw in the inclusion of people purposefully modifying themselves to have items like cat ears or lizard-like skin, and you've got a whole slew of social commentary built into the game. It's neat to talk with everyone, and your responses and personality will dictate how they react to you. Considering the excellent voice acting, I'd love to hear some of the other possible exchanges. Topping this off with the beautiful pixel art juxtaposing a bright and cheerful future with some nasty underlying concerns.

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2064: Read Only Memories draws its inspirations from the greats of the old-school adventure games like Grim Fandango, Myst, and Monkey Island. This point-and-click adventure title has all of the trappings of games made upwards of 20 years ago contained in a beautifully rendered pixel art world with a fun, quirky cast of characters behind it. For fans of slower, puzzle-based games, this will be a must-have on their consoles. However, it is better suited for the PC and feels a little sluggish and off-putting using an Xbox controller when trying to manipulate objects. Plus, with how the game is slower paced and requires a lot of backtracking and managing of objects to help fill out the game's world and provide humor, those seeking faster and more direct gameplay/humor will turn away quickly.

A role-playing detective mystery game, Call of Cthulhu delves deep into player skills and branching dialogue with every character integral to the narrative. Call of Cthulhu lets you decide on how you want to establish Edward Pierce, besides his apparent drinking problem (although there is an achievement tied to being sober) and dependence on sleeping medication. There are seven essential skills; five which you can spend points to improve and two that can only be enhanced by exploring and interacting with objects in the world. Some of the core skills relate to how you handle conversations, such as your ability to influence others during dialogue (eloquence), or using psychology learned by studying human nature to better understand what motivates them (psychology). In my first playthrough, these two skills were the lowest, as my focus was on maximizing spot hidden, and investigation first, with the rest of my character points added to strength.

I would call spot hidden one of the two most essential skills in the game, considering it relates to being able to find hidden objects. If your skill level is too low, you won’t find an item that could lead you down a new path in your investigation or a clue to use when conversing with the locals. The other important skill is investigation, which heavily ties into your ability to reconstruct crime scenes and other past events. It doesn’t hurt that it also boosts your chance at picking locks. Strength, on the other hand, is all about your physical prowess to force doors/mechanisms open, or use of violence. I know at least one critical interactive sequence in the game where I wish I added points to this skill sooner. The last two abilities, occultism and medicine can only be improved by discovering certain objects in the environment. This is another reason why you want to fully uncover and explore each area, to increase your understanding of occult artifacts or how to diagnose conditions. I am purposely staying as vague as possible, as not to spoil anything involving the plot, so just trust me on this.

As you explore the always darkened former whaling port, you’ll talk to various merchants and inhabitants. The more you explore and interact with others and the environment, the more dialogue choices will become available to you. Typically, you’ll want to choose the option that becomes unlocked (marked by an open lock on the dialogue wheel) by finding the relevant tidbits from somewhere else. Most of the time, you won’t get a second chance at an exchange, so ensure that you are content with the path you plan on following. Just like in other adventure games, a popup appears on the screen, letting you know “This will affect your destiny,” when you make a crucial decision in the game. You won’t know how it will affect your destiny, as there aren’t any recaps for things you missed or things you could have done differently, like in The Council, another series published by Focus Home Interactive. I can tell you that by making these choices, you’ll be presented with alternate ending options.

I was caught off-guard during my second playthrough, as a single choice made a massive difference. For example, while exploring the harbor area upon reaching Darkwater Island, you are instructed to use your sleuthing skills, to find specially marked objects in the environment in a specific area. In this case, you collect all of the items to operate a wrench to gain access to a hidden tunnel to explore the Hawkins’s warehouse, which you can’t access directly. On my second time through, the wrench snapped, blocking access into the tunnel system. Instead, I was interrupted by one of the significant characters in the game, was beat up, knocked out, and dumped on the other side of the harbor.

The environments that you’ll explore in first-person are quite breathtaking, in a horrible nightmarish sense. The perpetual green-tinged night of the island had so much impact in setting the vibe for each locale throughout the 12-15 hours you’ll spend on your first playthrough. You’ll experience the game via chapters, with each one taking place in a different location on the island. From the neglected and decrepit looking Hawkins Mansion, underground cave systems complete with gory visuals of sacrificed marine life, to turn of the century insane asylums, the environments are horrifically delightful to explore.

Regrettably, Call of Cthulhu does feature moments where you must use stealth-based mechanics. These sections are not only frustrating but rather dull. I understand the desire to add more “gameplay” focused interactions, but it was simply not needed and does nothing for the overall mystery narrative. During one of these moments, which happened to be a boss encounter, you are left to your own devices without any indication of what you need to do to complete the deathly game of hide-and-seek. Over time, you will realize that you must collect a specific item and use it in a particular spot (without being seen). Of course, there are a handful of choices, and nothing to give you an understanding of which one you should use (until you pick the right one). Also, if the monster hears/sees you, you are killed almost instantly. After much frustration, I ended up running straight from point a to point b in full sprint, completing it and circumventing the entire design for the encounter.

The exploration stealth sequences aren’t inherently bad, but ruin the pacing of the game and feel somewhat incomplete. Without spoiling some of the locales in the game, I would say that it can be quite easy to find yourself turned around, having to go back and forth repeatedly. When you consider that you are crouch-walking to remain unseen, you are moving at a snail's pace. At least the game does include the ability to lean, which can help you finish these sections faster.

Failing any of these stealth sections merely sets you back to the previous checkpoint. There aren't any health or stamina meters to manage. However, the game does have a sanity system, which is a concept I haven't seen in a game for quite some time. If you succumb to the darkness, Edward’s mind begins to unravel, slowly at first. You’ll start to see hallucinations, either some hellish creature coming towards you or even dialogue choices in Lovecraftian (R’lyehian). Generally speaking, when playing these types of games, you’ll want to explore and understand everything possible. However, while knowledge for us, the player, is essential, it will take a heavy toll on Edward Pierce. You can only imagine the state of his mind by the end of the game if you read all of the unholy books and absorbed as much Lovecraftian knowledge possible.

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Without question, Call of Cthulhu captures the nightmarish Lovecraftian cosmic horror feel. Even if you haven’t read any of the mythos or haven't experienced the tabletop game, it is still a satisfying investigation into madness. It’s impossible to see everything the game has to offer in a single playthrough, but the stealth and equally awful boss encounters and gunplay (one section near the end of the game) may turn players off from returning. An option to autocomplete these sections may be a worthwhile addition, especially for those that want to experience the wonderfully dark storytelling and see all of the alternate choices.

What helps GRIP stand out from the rest of the racing games released today is the same thing that elevated Rollcage over its competition back in the day; verticality. Being able to drive seamlessly across ceilings and all sides of a tunnel is simply thrilling. No better sensation than winning a race by a fraction of a second, by using the ceiling to your advantage to launch yourself in front of a competitor, after pulling off a double front flip in the process. Rules of the road don’t apply here, especially with the weapons and power-ups you’ll be collecting to dish out some punishment on the competition. There are 22 tracks included in the game currently, set amongst some of the most varied alien worlds, ranging from desolate red-tinged rocky wastelands, to snow-filled mountain peaks, to futuristic and sprawling urban environments.

GRIP features all the standard game modes that you’d want in a combat racing game, including a tier-based campaign, split-screen local multiplayer, online multiplayer, competitive deathmatches, and even a mode inspired by the Trails franchise. The campaign itself is divided into ten different tiers, with each tier comprised of various events and tournaments. You’ll select your vehicle from the starting options, and further customize it with decals, uniquely designed tiers, rims, and body paint. As you race and hopefully win or place high up on the podium, you’ll earn experience which will level up your profile. New customization options unlocked as you progress, ensuring you always have something new to unlock.

The further you advance in the tiers, the more difficult the competition becomes. The first races are simplistic, easing you into the experience, with simple races against only a couple of AI controlled opponents, and only allowing for the speed boost power-up. Strangely enough, it is way more powerful and useful than the boost pads located on the tracks. Your car also comes equipped with a tiny boost, but it’s more useful in the air than trying to pass a rival in a race. Generally, races are quite close, thanks to the rubberbanding AI, that either work in your favor or against you at all times. Make a wrong turn or find yourself stuck and needing to reset your position, you most likely will not have too hard of a time catching up with the competition.

Similarly, you aren’t able to get comfortable in first place, as you’ll almost always have someone right behind you the whole way. While it is more thrilling when races are close, having the AI still outperform your vehicle on straightaways can be debilitating. The AI is not without faults, and instead of opting for the perfect racing line, they do make mistakes by crashing into walls, not landing from a jump accurately, all of which helps give them a “human” appearance.

Of course, racing is only part of the fun, as you’ll obtain various missiles, mines, mini-guns, and more to devastate the opposing racers. What’s better than locking on to the first place car, and knock them off the ceiling with a missile, seeing them fall onto the second place vehicle, with both of them losing control as you boost yourself to victory. You’ll need to stay vigilant as the AI attempts to take you out in a similar fashion. A backward facing shield can protect you from being blasted, but getting hit with a missile will still disrupt the HUD elements. The effect used is brilliant, representing getting your head being knocked around in the cockpit, losing self-awareness. Weapons also have a charged version of themselves, by consuming your secondary pickup. These are more useful during the combat challenges, but can still assist during races by causing wide-range destruction.

Most of the tracks have various branching paths, letting you leap over barricades to reach a new pathway, or launch yourself off a ramp to crash through glass windows and land in front of the competition. As you are bouncing around from surface to surface, I didn’t like the face there were still parts of the tracks that are off-limits or capable of trapping you. You can reset your position at any point, but you’ll lose a few seconds in doing so. Tracks generally try to corral you into the proper paths, with the additional paths off to the side (or above/below you), but there are a couple that seemingly tricks me every lap into thinking that a particular opening on the side is, in fact, a valid pathway. It was not. Instead, I fell into a pit and was promptly reset. It is, however, in your best interest to explore each track, as you never know which way may end up being not only faster but populated with boost pads or power-ups that will give you a leg up on the competition.

Considering you’ll be spending plenty of time upside down, driving across walls and ample time in the air, you’ll need to take into account landing or exiting a tunnel to ensure continued momentum. Never is worse than outpacing the competition, only to awkwardly land coming out a tube and slowing you down. I initially missed the tooltip and became increasingly frustrated at the lack of air control, until it clicked that you need to release the throttle while in the air to gain control of your vehicle. With the velocity that you are traveling, it isn’t perfect, but it indeed is possible to prepare yourself properly. It does take some getting used to, especially if you are like me and tend to not let up on the accelerator at any point during a race.

Besides racing, there are competitive arena style game modes, which is a rarity in racing games these days, including deathmatch, steal the stash (capture the flag), and time bomb (tag). For some reason, the capture the flag and bomb tag game type are locked at the start. There is a handful of different arena, adding verticality to ensure escape from being targeted, options for time limits, kill limits, number of combatants, engine power, and difficulty. It feels like a nostalgia trip, and it’s quite satisfying to take out your frustration on your opponents. Steal the stash and time bomb are also enjoyable, with time bomb being a favorite of mine. You have to avoid the player marked with the bomb, especially when the bomb explodes, as anyone caught in the blast radius is destroyed. The final game mode, carkour, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around. The setup seemed simple enough, test your driving skills by jumping across platforms to reach collectibles. As it stands, I never was able to successfully reach the third platform at the very beginning of the level. Heck, I had a difficult time reaching the second platform 80% of the time. The launch (or jump) button didn’t seem to work in this mode, dumbfounding myself on how it is supposed to work correctly. Of course, all of the racing and arena modes can be played locally, via split-screen or online.

On the visual front, I was impressed by the games use of lightning and varying environments. The vehicles themselves are futuristic in style and are very reminiscent of those from roll cage. The added customization options and infinite color combinations and decals are a nice touch, and you shouldn’t see two players looking precisely the same. Playing the game on an Xbox One X, the frame rate appeared to be silky smooth. The sound design in GRIP is utterly fantastic. The heavy rock inspired soundtrack from the London-based independent record label, Hospital Records, features a great selection of licensed drum & bass tracks.

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GRIP: Combat Racing is a blast from the past, with intense racing and thrilling arena-based competition. The developers set out to make a modern Rollcage and have thoroughly succeeded. The inclusion of split-screen multiplayer, a rarity these days, is much appreciated, especially with the highly customizable online experience.

The game's premise is what most horror shlock always is: figure out what's going on and attempt to rid the world from the monstrosity before it kills you and everyone else. Your initial party of four teens are from the Occult Studies Club. They set out to get to the bottom of the mystery of the scary mansion in town. You'll chop, beat, and shoot your way through a horde of undead zombies, skeletons, and worse as you traverse the procedurally generated mansion's dark halls.

The game's control mechanics are quite interesting. You use both the mouse and keyboard, with the mouse controlling the camera, aiming, and your party leader's actions, including item management in this unique comedy-horror side-scroller. You'll use the keyboard to perform side to side movements, interacting with objects and attacking with the rest of your group. If you desire to take enemies down swiftly, you may want to combine your attacks. You'll also be able to block incoming attacks and trigger each character's unique ability to assist in your attempt to survive the mansion. The party limit is only three characters, so keep that in mind while exploring.

Aside from the game's quirky combat approach, there are also additional role-playing elements. Incendium went to lengths to ensure these archetypal heroes are all vastly different in their abilities and strengths. The Jock, for example, is focused on blocking damage, knocking enemies back, and generally being an excellent looking macho type. Even his papercraft appearance sports a blonde pompadour and letterman jacket from Corman High! These efforts at differentiating the protagonists, as well as building the procedurally generating maps and cartoonish looking enemies, helps to create a unique experience on top of the B-movie campiness. Even the one-liners reach back to the terrible horror movies we all know and love dearly. Heck, the developers also have officially licensed content from Evil Dead 2, including Ash Williams!

One of the best aspects of the game, and the one I think most will be drawn to, is just how this game brings so much horror and campiness to the player's screen. It's still challenging to manage your inventory, your party's health, and your overall awareness of the environment amongst the ghouls and goblins you'll face, but each case will help bring you closer and closer to the truth of what's going on inside the haunted mansion. It's neat to have a character start searching a dresser while your other party member(s) hold off the undead onslaught. Just do your best to keep an eye and manage your inventory! Using guns is a fun alternative to getting up close and personal with a baseball bat or sledgehammer, but rifles and pistols do take ammunition. I found myself scrambling in the middle of a fight when ammo became scarce in an attempt to find anything that will help me attack the undead before dying.

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While it can be challenging, Phantom Halls is a cheesy horror movie lover's dream game. The combination of fun gameplay, RPG elements, and an oddball story about the "Slayer Club" (wink wink) in their efforts to save their town show just how far Incedium is willing to go to show their love of B-movie Horror. There are so many callbacks to iconic franchises (Evil Dead DLC anyone?) There's some definite challenge as well, which I think many will enjoy.

As a party game with a ridiculous premise, Drunkn Bar Fight revels in its need of a fun, interactive gameplay loop. Everything from bottles, darts and stools can become weapons, but honestly, you’ll be failing your arms wildly to throw haymakers. Punching a zombie in the face will knock them down, but it's only a temporary affliction. You are going to grab a real weapon, namely a baseball bat or a firearm and knock their head clear off, complete with blood spatters. It is strangely satisfying to see the undead lumber around the bar with darts sticking out of their face. Eventually, the numbers will be against you, and you’ll get knocked down for good, just like in the base game.

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Drunkn Bar Fight on Halloween aims to provide those looking for a quick and easy VR experience to share with friends and family during Halloween. It is a very streamlined version of the game, featuring only the one level and populates it with hordes of the undead. The inclusion of firearms and new weapons is appreciated, but once you get your fill, there isn’t much else to do. It’s a decent addition to the full game, but the trimmed down stand-alone experience is lacking

The flagship title, You Don’t Know Jack: Full Stream has a new look, taking the fan-favorite trivia game and wrapping it in a fictional streaming service; Binjpipe. The female voice used to represent the services can be heard throughout your time with the game, popping in to pitch and highlight funny and outrageous upcoming fictional shows. You’ll also hear from specific online celebrities, such as Austin Creed, better known as WWE Superstar Xavier Woods. In Between questions, you’ll see eccentric Binjpipe recommended shows, including "Cold Face," "History is Immoral," and "I’m 35 and I Eat Cigarettes." There is eight-player support for the game, and it now includes the streaming options that have made the series widely popular on Twitch. There are new ways to screw over the competition, but the game can also be enjoyed by yourself.

Zeeple Dome is something completely different than what you would expect from Jackbox Games. Instead of having players pick from a set of answers, or fill in the blanks, the game feels more like an old-school action mobile game. The easiest way to describe the mechanics is to compare it to something akin to Angry Birds. You’ll pull back on your screen to slingshot your character towards enemies. Hit them enough times, and they will change colors, allowing you to hit them one more time to pop them to earn points. You’ll be pitted against waves of enemies, with the goal of getting more points than the other players. It’s simple, but the weakest of the five included games.

In my group of friends, and all of us at SelectButton generally gravitated towards Drawful in the past, and Patently Stupid is the only one this year that lets you showcase your talent. In a nutshell, you’ll be given a few prompts to fill in blanks to create specific problems, such as “my ____ keep exploding!” These are then distributed to other players, and it is up to them to take the problem and come up with a new product that is capable of solving the respectful problem. You’ll need to not only draw the product, but you’ll come up with a name and tagline. Once everyone has completed their challenge, players take turns to present their product and give out tokens for the ones they like the most, along with audience participation.

Mad Verse City is a Mad-Libs style rhyming game, where you complete lines that fit and watch giant robots in an epic rap battle. Initially, you fill in the blank in a single sentence, or first verse, and then asked to write the entire second verse, with the intention to rhythm although that’s not a requirement. This setup is repeated for the third and fourth line, and one thing to note is that you’ve written will be entirely spoken by your robot using a text-to-speech robotic voice. After each battle, which is one-on-one, players vote on who impressed them the most, so you’ll need to know your audience and what style of humor they prefer.

The fifth game in The Jackbox Party Pack 5, Split the Room, tasks players with creating situations that evenly splits the group/audience. This may seem like an odd request, as you aren’t looking for everyone to select one answer over another, but instead, need to come up with solutions that are so tough to choose from in yes/no style scenarios. It is one of the better games to play while streaming, primarily since it supports up to 10,000 viewers to participate and vote themselves. Trying to figure out answers with that many people in mind is quite daunting. I should also mention the game’s host is a cartoon cat doing his best Rod Serling impression, paying homage to The Twilight Zone.

Simply Put

The Jackbox Party Pack 5 is going to be the go-to party game for family get-togethers for the rest of the year and beyond. The distinctive games are mostly charming, and each one should have legs to keep you from getting bored, except for Zeeple Dome. Jackbox Games is indeed not afraid to experiment with new gameplay mechanics and designs, and more often than not they tend to work out.