And here are the closing paragraphs for the reviews, fresh from my digital copy:
Weird West
We never experience many of the larger procedural elements. The rainstorm in Boulder Creek is one of the few times its weather system has a role to play; we're not sure we see a tornado, aside from the short-lived ones summoned by magical abilities. Nor the zombie plagues threatened by loading screens, where deceased friends and enemies rise from the grave. The idea of widowed characters remarrying, meanwhile, gets lost among the many dozens of NPCs you meet, or the considerably larger number you murder. Nevertheless, knowing those things are (allegedly) present is enough to prime the imagination, leaving us ready to take a sequence of unintended consequences and shape them into a story. When we revisit Boulder Creek, hours later and in the guise of a new character, the town is thriving once more. The blacksmith is back up and running, now managed by a group of pigmen. A new sheriff has taken over. Every sign of the infestation has been wiped away. Almost. The busiest spot in town is the cemetery, where a dozen mourners kneel in prayer amid the dirt. Among the names, we recognise the cleric and sheriffs wife. The character responsible for that explosive attempt at liberation has since retired to NPC duties and been recruited into our party. No line of dialogue is triggered but, between the lack of detail in the character model and the zoomed-out view; to fill in the flash of guilt on his unmoving face. All the frustrations and abandoned saves wash away, at least for a moment.
7
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Despite all this, and a few late-game upgrades that speed up your rescue act, the ultimate act of altruism comes to feel slightly arduous. As thrilling as it is to explore an urban sandbox that seems almost as tall as it is wide, Ghostwire: Tokyo feels like a brilliant linear action-adventure that's spread a little too thinly, even if this beautiful vision of Japan's capital remains captivating throughout. For the duration of its story, it grips like a grasping, otherworldly arm. And though it eventually succumbs to repetition, it says much for Tango Gameworks that its blend of western open-world ideas and eastern culture, and its juxtaposition of melancholic narrative and effervescent combat, feels so utterly cohesive - weaving a ripping yarn from which it's surprisingly hard to tear yourself.
7
Stranger of Paradiese: Final Fantasy Origin
Yet though its combat has heft, Stranger Of Paradise's loot game carries no weight whatsoever. You'll exit each stage with an avalanche of gear, the various effects and job affinities of each piece making such a negligible difference that you may as well simply press the button that optimises your loadout and move on. The volume is such that you'll probably hit the 5oo-item limit without realising, until you stumble across an item you can't pick up - forcing you to spend a tedious minute or two in the menu, discarding all but the highest-level kit. Regrets? Team Ninja may have a few. Its chartered course doesn't seem particularly well planned, nor its steps along the byway especially careful - and it certainly bites off more than it can chew. Yet while this curious, distinctive spin-off may not be close to the finest hour for its developer nor this storied series, its makers can stand tall knowing that, to paraphrase Ol' Blue Eyes, they did it their way.
6
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Taking your time brings other rewards, too. Granted, the 'open galaxy' is something of a misnomer, since the 24 planets here all comprise large but self-contained areas - this isn't No Man's Sky. Yet it offers a lingering look at locations we're more accustomed to being shuttled through, which in the context of
this universe is more valuable than most. It is oddly stirring to see the scale of the Rebel or Resistance effort, and to gain a stronger sense of the world beyond the limits of the films. Even -especially - those whose affections have waned in recent years will find something to make their heart flutter, even if it's just a borrowed Ben Burtt sound effect or a burst of one of John Williams' themes. For all its minor shortcomings, if one of the main design goals of The Skywalker Saga was to make you fall in love with Star Wars again, on that particular front it is an unequivocal triumph.
7
Tiny Tina's Wonderland
The gunplay still isn't a patch on the likes of Destiny, but it just about survives comparison, building to a hypnotic flow as you switch between weapons and spells, mastering the art of emptying your clip just as a cooldown completes. The experience is less fluid in menus. Borderlands isn't exactly celebrated for its Ul, which is much the worse for some fantasy stylings. You have to squint to distinguish weapon portraits, and it's easy to forget what you have equipped when selling the rest, though you can mark items as favourites or junk. Wonderlands isn't junk, but we wouldn't regret accidentally selling it. For all Tina's spirited efforts as dungeon master, every aspect of the Borderlands experience is showing its age. The next instalment needs more than dismal puns and wonky guns if it's to avoid being the butt of the joke.
5
Abermore
We spend our first few missions saving up for a blowpipe, and gathering resources to craft a few sleep darts; when we finally shoot one at a guard, nothing happens. Another time, the button that allows you to grab guards from behind and pacify them stops working for the duration of a mission. In another, we die to a Hound's blade and are given a chance to respawn - in a vent closed at both ends, with the gas rising. No mission is without problems, it's just a question of whether they will make your task impossible or just very difficult. Nonetheless, we struggle through, resisting the urge to trigger the final heist early. We build our crew, stock up on ammunition and tools. When we arrive in the king's castle, the alarm has already been set off. We flee, abandoning the person we were here to rescue. Not to worry, though: after showing us one ending with her grieving husband, the game immediately triggers another, one where we
did return her safely. The scene plays out, naturally, in total silence.
3
Rune Factory 5
On paper, it all looks generous and open-ended. What a shame, then, about the execution. Growing pains from handheld to console are hardly new, as evidenced by Pokémon's leap to Switch. There's a difference here since, unlike Game Freak, Hakama is technically a new developer - albeit one still consisting of staff from Rune Factory's original developer Neverland, which went bankrupt in 2013. We might have been able to overlook the rudimentary anime character models and flat textures that hark back to a PS3 Tales game had the loading times been shorter and the framerate stable. Alas, it frequently fails to get above the low-20s, the judder at its worst after loading a save file, fast-travelling or when going indoors or outdoors - in other words, any time you need to load into a new area. Remaining idle for a few seconds in the hope things might improve is a waste of time, as things continue to stay choppy, which proves especially detrimental to the flow of combat. Switch owners may be used to inferior ports by now, but given that Rune Factory 5 is a platform exclusive, it speaks volumes that it hasn't been better optimised, particularly as it's been out in Japan since last year. Other quirks further dampen our attempts to immerse ourselves into small-town life. Fiddly controls, particularly when it comes to interacting with objects, make us yearn for simpler but more readable top-down square tiles (furniture being highlighted in red to indicate that it can't be placed next to a wardrobe or wall when there's room to spare is a particular bugbear). And gathering everyone together in the plaza for time-limited festivals proves underwhelming: the low-effort presentation has us questioning whether we want to waste more of our Seed points to hold another. Still, being the jack of all trades - and in this case evidently the master of none - is part of the series' identity. Every one of its features you will find in better games elsewhere - with a strong emphasis on the plural, since Rune Factory 5 tries to cram in so many different genres. In some respects, it's hard to fault that kind of commitment, yet we imagine most players would happily sacrifice some features for a more refined whole. Perhaps next time - and hopefully that's not another decade away - the series will bring in a stronger yield, one that's been more carefully tended.
5
Chinatown Detective Agency
As the credits roll, then, we're left with a hint of nostalgia after all, for the game's sure-footed beginning. It is at least worth a partial replay, thanks to a narrative structure that branches out, asking you to work for one of three different clients in its second act, before funnelling you back into a single questline. That's not enough to resolve the sense of incompleteness, but it's a good enough excuse to spend more time in the company of Amira and friends. Here's hoping we have bigger and deeper globe-trotting adventures with them in the future (provided we live to see it).
6
Devastator
While it's the kind of game where you'll thrive by playing on instinct, there's more to think about, from larger energy collectables that offer brief respite by stalling enemies to a rare "interrupt' pickup that slows the action to a crawl. Elsewhere, the three different weapon types (Reflex fires the farthest and its shots bounce; Spread fans out your shots; Vulcan fires fastest) are perhaps not quite different enough from each other, while a third mode, Cycles, combines Quadrants and Sectors to mildly underwhelming effect. But these are minor blemishes. While (Luke) Schneider may have moved onto 3D physics-based destruction in more recent years, there's something to be said for the enduring appeal of a 2D twin-stick shooter - and Devastator is a good one.
7
Patrick's Parabox
Yet while it might sound like the kind of game to make your head hurt, its critical path is surprisingly manageable: the most fiendish conundrums will not stall your route to the end, and many of those come to feel oddly straightforward when revisited after subsequent discoveries. With the ability to use undo, redo and reset functions at any time, it's forgiving, too, while a tip that suggests it pays to work backwards from the imagined solution is so useful as to almost feel like a cheat code. Though Priscilla Snow's music and sound design is perfectly pitched, this is a decidedly no-frills affair, the rudimentary presentation placing the focus solely on the level design. Those who like their puzzlers to have a supplementary hook will find it wanting on that front, then, but you will struggle to find more ingenious challenges than these in any other game this year.
8
A Memoir Blue
The underwater setting seems to deprive it of oxygen, too: what should be vivid memories are tangled up in kelp and acned with barnacles, the environments dampening the vibrancy of those animated sequences. And it ultimately comes across a little too polite, a determinedly
tasteful game that feels like it's had some of its rough, human edges eroded. It's more sopping than soppy, then - despite an abundance of salt water, a game we had pegged as a surefire tearjerker never really comes close to making us well up.
6
Preview of the next issue:
.jpg)
