Author: Andrew Logue

  • Review: Sorry We’re Closed (Xbox Series)

    Review: Sorry We’re Closed (Xbox Series)

    Sorry We’re Closed is a smart and stylish hybrid of character-driven visual novel, first-person shooting, Silent Hill’s dual-reality horror, Resident Evil’s survival-horror formula, and a bit of that tragicomic weirdness of Deadly Premonition in some of the writing and cutscene direction. It’s not as singularly good as those classics, but it has a satisfying survival-horror framework, visual style, and fantastic original soundtrack that complement a strong narrative thread.

    I found the classic gameplay mechanics engaging enough, but Sorry We’re Closed is primarily caried by the well-paced, choice-heavy story that repurposes a familiar tale of angels and demons as a not-so-subtle allegory for the inherent dangers of falling in love and navigating dysfunctional relationships. As such, half your time is spent simply exploring a small neighbourhood and a demonic hotel, chatting to significant NPCs, and making decisions that affect other relationships and protagonist Michelle’s fate.

    The story begins as Michelle, coasting along in limbo since breaking up with her girlfriend three years prior, finds herself cursed by “The Duchess”: an arch-demon that’s been kidnapping mortals in the hope of finding “love” to fill a void created when she was cast down from the heavens. Several confusing and horrifying encounters later, Michelle finds herself gifted with a literal third eye that allows her peer between realms with a satisfying snap of her fingers.

    This ability brings with it the realisation her neighbourhood sits on the edge of the underworld and is home to an assortment of celestials – angels and demons – who masquerade as mortals to socialise with or manipulate those around them.

    Events escalate over the course of four days as the curse takes hold, giving Michelle an opportunity to engage with the small cast repeatedly, get advice, give advice, complete small side quests that usually boil down to finding and delivering items, and face a dozen or so major choices that influence the end-game sequence and available endings. As the narrative is a highlight, I don’t want to spoil too much, but what Sorry We’re Closed does best is present you with characters that seem like classic good or evil archetypes, before delving deeper into their motivations and leaving you conflicted.

    Is it possible to find love without making yourself vulnerable? Can you sustain a relationship without change and sacrifice? Does someone deserve a second chance if their intentions are pure? Do those who’ve done terrible things out of fear still deserve a chance at redemption? Familiar themes that have been tackled in other media, but despite its quirky premise, Sorry We’re Closed’s great writing and relatable cast made it one the best explorations of love and relationships I’ve seen in video game form.

    Of course, as a video game, you expect gameplay. Sorry We’re Closed is no slouch so long as you can accept the back-and-forth flow between dialogue-heavy interludes and traditional survival-horror “dungeons”.

    Each day has Michelle exploring a new location to find a victim of The Duchess – all mortals that refused her advances, descending into madness and monstrous forms that reflect some of the most damaging elements of transactional love or one-sided relationships. Although I enjoyed seeing the consequences of my early choices influence the end-game, these early dungeons were the highlight as a fan of the survival-horror genre.

    Each location is visually distinct and creepy; packed with weird encounters, combat, key hunts, and puzzles; and they culminate in an epic boss fight that reinforces the narrative themes through creature design and the accompanying original soundtrack. It often felt like a mix of classic Resident Evil absurdity with a Silent Hill twist thanks to Michelle’s third eye vision.

    You explore a grungy underground station, a delipidated aquarium, a surreal crypt, a twisted dream realm, and ascend a corrupted hotel – each new location bringing with it tougher foes, more interesting puzzles, and more lethal traps. You’ll often backtrack through an area once or twice, and the more thoroughly you explore, the more ammunition you’ll have to clear out paths, and the more artefacts you’ll find to fund a small selection of upgrades.

    Sorry We’re Closed switches to a first-person view when aiming, as the focus is on hitting exposed weak points to conserve ammunition, quickly defeat lesser foes, and charge up a “Heartbreaker” shot to deal with tougher demons, bosses, and even a few puzzles. The axe, pistol, and shotgun can fell most enemies at range, but you’ll need to master hitting weak points when Michelle triggers her third eye vision. This grants a second or two of stun to line up a shot, with each successful hit granting another brief stun to line up the next weak point.

    It’s an intense but fun system that rewards racking up combos, especially while dodging the blows from massive boss creatures, but both lining up Michelle before aiming and quickly switching between weak points can feel a little sluggish using a controller.

    Minor combat gripes aside, Sorry We’re Closed is easy to recommend to survival-horror fans looking to intersperse the action with a thoughtful player-driven narrative that alters later encounters. If you’re comfortable with the gameplay style or happy to drop the difficulty, I’d also say it might be worth a look for traditional visual novel fans that want a quirky but no less thoughtful exploration of love and relationships.

    Pros:

    • A thoughtful exploration of love and relationships by way of demons and angels
    • A day-by-day narrative structure with plenty of player choice moments
    • Satisfying survival-horror “dungeon” sections and intense boss fights
    • Stylish 32-bit era visuals and a great original soundtrack
    • A new game+ mode to streamline replays for different endings

    Cons:

    • The storytelling would have benefited from voice work
    • Pulling off weak-spot shots can feel inconsistent using a controller

    Score: 8/10

    Sorry We’re Closed was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch.

  • Preview: Gothic 1 Remake – PC Demo (Nyras Prologue)

    Preview: Gothic 1 Remake – PC Demo (Nyras Prologue)

    Arriving almost 24 years after the original release – and 5 years after a divisive “Playable Teaser” was used to assess interest – the “Nyras Prologue” demo of the full-blown Gothic 1 Remake shows serious potential. Albeit probably only for existing Gothic fans or the increasingly niche audience that enjoyed Piranha Byte’s later work like Risen and ELEX. In stark contrast to the Playable Teaser’s action-focussed gameplay and wise-cracking protagonist, the Nyras Prologue aims for a degree of authenticity despite the smoother mechanics and modern game engine powering it.

    Using a rockslide as an excuse, the self-contained demo traps the titular Nyras in the impressively recreated “Exchange Camp” canyon from the opening of the original game. The human Kingdom of Myrtana is slowly losing a war against orcs, essential ore for the war effort comes from the Valley of Mines, but a magical barrier cast to contain the prisoner workforce went awry trapping the entire region under a magical shield that kills anything attempting to leave. Fresh prisoners and goods are sent in by the king in exchange for ore, but the humans trapped inside the valley have split into three factions with their own ideas on how to thrive or escape.

    All the basics are covered as Nyras encounters members of the Old Camp – former prisoners intent on maintaining the flow of ore for goods; members of the New Camp – outcasts and bandits that grow their own food and plan to escape; and he hears of the Sect Camp – swamp-dwelling, weed-smoking mystics intent on reviving an old god. You’ll also encounter and hear rumours of the dangerous beasts that stalk the wilds between settlements. If nothing else, those interested in the Gothic 1 Remake with no prior knowledge of the originals could find this demo a useful primer.

    The limited scope of this demo means there’s only so much to see and do, but it feels much as I’d expect from a “AA” style remake targeting an existing audience rather than the masses. A lot could obviously change, but there’s a clear trade-off between playability and authenticity that should thrill Piranha Bytes fans but might frustrate anyone expecting a modern action-RPG experience. Gothic was never an RPG in which you start competent and end up overpowered; it’s a game about starting on the bottom rung, climbing up while being kicked in the face repeatedly, and eventually coming out on top.

    The demo suggests that design philosophy is intact, but traversal, combat, and menu-ing feels way less clunky – especially on a gamepad if you’ve ever experienced the Nintendo Switch ports. It remains to be seen if the remake tweaks progression, but Gothic was a traditional RPG in the sense you could go far by mastering the stiff combat system but improving your character level, skills, and gear were essential (that or breaking the AI). Also familiar is how dense and hand-crafted the world feels, with plenty of fine details, NPCs going about daily tasks, and items secreted away to reward exploration – assuming you don’t run into something that kills you first.

    The Nyras Prologue demo provides a few opportunities to die by scavenger beak or goblin club if you’re reckless, but the combat feels far more fluid and manageable when facing one or even two opponents. You can swing a sword, pick, or flaming torch; parry or dash back and to the sides to avoid damage; and draw back a bow to full extension for maximum damage at range. While it might not be an intentional nod to the original, I could even cheese a few enemies by awkwardly climbing onto high ground and leaving them sitting around helplessly. I don’t doubt the Gothic 1 Remake will be rife with enemies that’ll one-shot you early on, but the smoother combat is perhaps the most significant takeaway from this demo.

    The last thing to touch on is the Unreal Engine 5 powered visuals and lighting. Despite the archaic engine, the Gothic games generate an impressive atmosphere when the visuals are coupled with ambience and music. The Nyras Prologue demo might not push boundaries, but it still looks good in this early build and recreates that original atmosphere by using the classic soundtrack. On my ageing gaming laptop – with an Intel i7 4C/8T CPU, 8GB RTX3070, 16GB DDR5 RAM, NVMe SSD (components running at lower power draw/clock speeds than their desktop counterparts) – 1440p/30 on the high “Gothic” settings was surprisingly doable, albeit with some momentary chugging after reloading a save.

    Wrapping up my thoughts, the Gothic 1 Remake – Nyras Prologue Demo shows a lot of potential for those craving an authentic Gothic experience, but it’s ultimately a tiny chunk of a much larger game, with limited mechanics and only one environment on show for now. While playing the demo, I kept thinking of 2024’s Alone in the Dark – a game I really enjoyed and felt was underappreciated, but one that commercially underperformed and spelt the end of the developer. I just hope Alkimia Interactive and THQ Nordic are looking at the budget and sales of a game like ELEX II and planning appropriately so we actually have a chance of seeing this become a success and maybe fund a remake of the sequel too.

    Gothic 1 Remake – Nyras Prologue Demo was played on PC (GOG or Steam). The final release will be coming to PC, Xbox Series S|X, and PS5.

  • Impressions: GRAVELORD (PC) Early Access

    Impressions: GRAVELORD (PC) Early Access

    GRAVELORD was not the trajectory I expected Fatbot Games to take, having discovered their Vaporum games after playing through Almost Human’s Legend of Grimrock 1 and 2 – all of them grid-based, first-person, real-time, dungeon-crawlers. Vaporum offered a more streamlined and polished take on the now niche genre – replacing multiple party members with an expanded gear and ability system – but they stuck to the creatively blocky world design, abundant puzzles, hundreds of secrets, and real-time combat that I’d best describe as a deadly grid-dance. In contrast, GRAVELORD is a retro-inspired first-person shooter competing in a saturated market – but between their knack for level design and the unexpectedly great shooting, it might have a chance of standing out.

    Befitting the genre, GRAVELORD is light on story elements. The intro reveals the hulking, square-jawed, top hat-wearing gravedigger Queedo, who works in the employ of Death as his ancestors always have. The problem that you’re running and gunning towards is an alchemist by the name of Keron Husk – murderer of Queedo’s father and manufacturer of supposedly life-extending potions that have instead created an undead scourge. Unless you read through the short comic-style collectibles found in each map, that’s all the context you’ll get. Queedo’s personality boils down to barely controlled rage and a string of bad jokes in a Cockney accent that grew tiring by the end of the first map, so it’s probably for the best that narrative elements don’t interrupt the flow of gameplay too often.

    Based on this first episode – with 8 maps and a boss at the end – GRAVELORD is remarkably traditional in structure and, to its benefit, distinctly Quake-like when it comes to movement, gunplay, and the visual design language. You traverse Gothic-themed maps on the hunt for coloured keys or switches, following visual cues like coloured lighting; you acquire traversal-based abilities like a spectral grapple and double-jump to reach new areas and secrets; every time you collect said key item, you can expect monster spawns; and most maps culminate in a chaotic charge to the exit or a boss fight, typically under the influence of “rage” runes that briefly buff resilience and weapon fire rate.

    Despite footsteps that suggest he weighs half a ton, Queedo hurtles around the map like he’s sprinting on an ice-rink. The movement mechanics are perfect for surviving firefights in a game with no hit-scan enemies and a high default difficulty (I spent a lot of time on low health and save-scumming) but it does force you to slow down when tackling platforming sections or avoiding environmental hazards that litter many arenas.

    Given their prior games, the shooting was an unexpected highlight, with a familiar but powerful arsenal ranging from a shovel to a pistol, double-barrelled shotgun, chain-gun, grenade-launcher, and, in a nod to their prior games, an arcing Fumium rifle as the special. Every weapon remained useful throughout for specific enemy types – think melee rushers, nimble flying spitters, tanky explosive users, and magic wielding sorcerers – and they both sound and feel powerful in use. Enemies react to hits with staggering animations, blood splatter, or a gory demise, and when you throw in a dynamic soundtrack that shifts between creepy ambience and thumping combat loops, GRAVELORD ensures simply shooting at something feels good, no matter what you have in hand – a feat that shouldn’t be taken for granted despite the genre.

    The other highlight was Fatbot Games’ dense, intricate, and secret-packed level design. The maps can feel sprawling and maze-like, yet they’re incredibly compact and often loop back past, over, or under themselves. In addition to typical key hunts, there is no shortage of consumables tucked away, or secret buttons and rotating statues (with riddle-like clues) that lead to mega-health boosts, early access to powerful weapons, and a range of character and weapon upgrades.

    Regardless of whether you’re purging graveyards, riding conveyer belts through crypts, avoiding magma pools in crematoriums, swimming through sewers, or navigating a gothic town, each map feels hand-crafted with a ton of thought going into their layout and enemy composition. I’ve no doubt most maps could be blitzed through by speed-runners in a few minutes once you know what you need to do, but compulsive secret hunters could spend upwards of half an hour scouring them fully.

    The last mechanics to touch on feel like an attempt to include rogue-like elements in a traditional save-anywhere FPS, to varying degrees of success. Collecting weapon alt-fire modes on each map feels pointlessly irritating, though I’ll accept resetting movement abilities due to the map design and gating progression. The 3-tier card system, which allows you to pick one from a random draw, feels more thoughtful and impactful as you can choose to favour an aggressive or defensive build. As an example, I could massively boost my survivability by combining a card that regenerates 30 health points with cards that let me deal more damage and receive less damage at or below 30 health.

    As it stands, GRAVELORD might not offer much novelty, but it looks to be a solid entry into the retro-FPS market with legitimately great shooting that emulates the classics, and fantastic level design that draws on Fatbot Games’ heritage.

    That said, there is one element that might prove divisive. GRAVELORD currently has a strong visual filter enabled, far more aggressive than the marketing materials suggest, that ensures everything more than a meter from the player becomes heavily pixellated and increasingly indistinct at range. It feels similar in function to the filter seen in Prodeus, but it’s ramped up to 11 and I doubt it’s working as intended. It grew on me over time, but there seems to be no option to tone it down in this early access build, and I’m wondering if a degree of auto-aim might be due to the fact distant enemies are often reduced to a handful of moving pixels difficult to track against the background?

    GRAVELORD was previewed on PC using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher.

  • Tech Review: PowerA OPS v1 Wireless Controller for PC and Cloud Gaming

    Tech Review: PowerA OPS v1 Wireless Controller for PC and Cloud Gaming

    The PowerA OPS v1 Wireless Controller for PC and Cloud Gaming is a great choice for if you’re looking for budget wireless controller with several features normally available on more premium gamepads. I’ve enjoyed using it over the last two weeks, gaming on both my PC and testing it with game streaming apps on my Smart TV, but like most third-party controllers there are a caveat or two to consider.

    Design and features

    Befitting its purpose, the Power OPS v1 Wireless Controller feels very familiar to a modern Xbox Series S|X gamepad. Not just the layout but also in form factor. It has a similar overall size, profile, grip curvature, and even feel, with a smooth plastic front and textured plastic grips. Flip it over, however, and you’ll find an internal battery, four programmable buttons, and several toggle switches for on-the-fly tweaking. Most significantly, it features Hall Effect thumbsticks and triggers – position sensors that use magnetic field interactions – which minimise the potential wear and tear you see in traditional potentiometers that leads to stick drift.

    I spent most of my time alternating between slow survival-horror with the Silent Hill 2 remake and the chaotic action of Helldivers 2, finding the Power OPS v1 Wireless Controller satisfying to use, even in comparison to my ageing Xbox Elite V1 and my favourite third-party wired gamepad, the Razer Wolverine V2. The thumbsticks feel responsive, accurate, and sit at a comfortable height with concave tops; the triggers are broad but have a decent range of motion; the bumpers and face buttons are suitably clicky; though the classic D-pad shape might disappoint some who prefer the Xbox Series circular design. It also comes with some seriously chunky thumbstick extensions that I never found a use for, but they might work as mini joysticks for a fighting games or flight sims.

    When it comes to additional features, you’re going to get the most out of the Power OPS v1 Wireless Controller if you download the standalone PowerA PC HQ app (not the PowerA Gamer HQ app you can install and update through the Microsoft Store). You can define individual thumbstick inner/outer deadzones and adjust the response curve; you can tweak the activation range of each trigger for one of three toggle positions; you can tone down the rumble motor intensity if that irritates you as much as it does me; you reassign and enable turbo modes for the face buttons; and you can assign the four rear buttons that sit towards the middle of the grips where my middle fingertips rested comfortably.

    The Power OPS v1 Wireless Controller felt great out the box using default settings, but it’s a solid mix essential, nice-to-have, and more situational features that are not an option if you get a basic Xbox Series or Dualsense controller. I found myself making most use of the two lower rear buttons to keep my thumb on the sticks and forefingers on the triggers in Helldivers 2, while playing around with the right thumbstick response curve gave me a little more control when dealing with the inherently sluggish aiming in the Silent Hill 2 remake.

    Good compatibility with one minor caveat

    The problem with all third-party controllers – and I’m guessing this down to a mix of patents and driver support – is general compatibility and weird limitations you’d expect to be standardised.

    In that regard, the Power OPS v1 Wireless Controller does better than most and gets bonus points for not messing with the layout for no good reason; offering three ways to connect – wired by USB-C, Bluetooth, or using a 2.4 GHz USB-A adapter; and including an internal battery that got me close to their 20-hour claim. If you’re partial to lighter controllers (I prefer a bit of heft), it weighs about as much as an Xbox Series S|X controller without batteries.

    Using the 2.4 GHz adapter, my LG Smart TV recognised it as an Xbox style gamepad, but I did have sporadic issues with Steam and the Xbox PC App if I powered up the controller after starting the app, or if it went into standby and I had to power it back up. As an example, I took a break after playing a few missions in Deep Rock Galactic, then powered it back on to use Xbox PC App Cloud Gaming to test out some other titles only to find it would no longer recognised the controller until I restarted the app. Not the end of the world but it’s something that doesn’t happen with official Xbox controllers (or when it’s connected over a USB-C cable). I should also note it has some weird default button assignments in Windows, so don’t go mashing buttons when you’re not in a game.

    Final thoughts

    PowerA have been making accessories, for better and sometimes worse, for about 15-years at this point. In an increasingly crowded budget market, the $50-equivalent PowerA OPS v1 Wireless Controller for PC and Cloud Gaming is one of the better choices if you want a decent Xbox Series S|X alternative that also sports programmable features usually found on more expensive devices. Even for those uninterested in tweaking settings within an app, the build quality is good, the connectivity options are great, and the Hall Effect thumbsticks and triggers feel excellent.

    Pros:

    • Solid build quality and a similar form factor to an Xbox Series S|X controller
    • Three connectivity options cover a range of devices
    • The Hall Effect thumbsticks and triggers feel great by default
    • Additional customisation features you rarely find at a budget price

    Cons:

    • You’ll need to use the PowerA PC HQ standalone app for full functionality
    • Potential connection issues if powering on after a gaming app is already open

    Score: 8/10

    The PowerA OPS v1 Wireless Controller for PC and Cloud Gaming was reviewed using a sample provided to gameblur by the manufacturer.

  • Review: Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged (Nintendo Switch)

    Remastering and re-releasing a ‘90s point-and-click adventure game must be a tough ask in a modern market, where the genre is increasingly niche and survives only in the indie- or AA-space. Arriving on the Nintendo Switch a month after other platforms, Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged is a curious mix of compelling and frustrating, as it tries to make 28-year-old game more accessible and playable.

    As someone with a nostalgic hook and tolerance for dated gameplay, I feel Revolution Software have done an excellent job revitalising the audiovisual elements, while adding some much-needed control- and puzzle-assists. However, for fans of modern games in the genre, or those simply curious about this influential slice of history, they’re additions that can only do so much to smooth over the laborious gameplay.

    Shadow of the Templars: Reforged opening manhole cover
    That said, most point-and-click games from the mid ‘80s to early 2000s – what I’d guess was their “golden age” – relied on the narrative, cast, setting, and atmosphere more so than the gameplay mechanics to hold your attention. The typical gameplay loop, considered in isolation, is a tough sell as there’s a lot of down time, deliberate or otherwise. Moments between puzzle solving and story beats are often spent trudging across the environment at a glacial pace, watching canned animations play out repeatedly, listening to lengthy dialogue sequences, working through conversation topics hoping to discover a significant clue, and trying to use every item in your inventory during conversations, on each other, or on puzzle objects. Most locations are only a handful of screens big, but you can spend literal hours shuffling back and forth between them on your first playthrough.

    That might sound awful in a modern context, but the mechanics and controls were simple and intuitive, increasingly mouse-driven from the ‘90s onwards, and I can understand why the genre was so popular on PC – especially when you consider the lavish artwork, voice acting, and music they were known for. The problem was no matter how great a story these classics may tell, the quality of puzzles was often inconsistent. To its credit, Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars was never that cryptic and kept most puzzles limited to the immediate area, with the final chapters feeling more linear and focused as it rushed towards a conclusion. Most puzzles reward logical choices or creative thinking, and will leave you laughing at the outcome and sometimes feeling smart. However, there are still puzzles will see you just exhausting all available interactions until something significant happens – and sometimes they’ll have a fail-state that’ll mean sitting through unskippable cutscenes before you can reload and try again.

    Shadow of the Templars: Reforged hiding manuscript
    To be fair, all point-and-click games have the same flaw: any significant roadblock can grind the narrative pacing to a halt and quickly frustrate the player. Thankfully, Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars Reforged includes much-needed control and hint features to keep you moving forward. It still uses an emulated cursor for exploration – or even the touch screen on Nintendo Switch in handheld mode – but menu and inventory interactions use the d-pad and make it much quicker to discuss, examine, or combine items. The “Director’s Cut” hint system returns, providing a succession of increasingly detailed advice, but you can now enable in-game highlights. At first, you’ll see a faint sparkling effect over screen transitions, characters, interactible objects, or inventory items, but it’ll eventually changes to blue icons that spell out the correct course of action. You can, of course, disable them if you want, but I’d consider them essential for a smooth journey.

    I’ve already mentioned the narrative, characters, and setting were often the most crucial elements of these games and that still holds true. For better or worse, depending on your perspective, Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged is a product of its time. There are plenty of absurd situations, awkward conversations, witty observations, and slapstick humour that’ll make you chuckle, but there’s also a reliance on some outdated references and stereotype-driven humour that writers tend to avoid these days. Look past that though, and you’ll also find an incredibly well-written and compelling historical mystery-thriller, which features plenty of real-world events re-worked into a modern-day conspiracy involving the remnants of the Knights Templar and an order of Middle Eastern assassins.

    You play as George Stobbart, a seemingly stereotypical brash American tourist, who narrowly escapes injury during a café explosion assassination. Having seen the killer dressed as clown, and having been brushed off by the French detective who arrives suspiciously quickly, he befriends French photojournalist Nico to investigate further. What begins as a quest to identify the assassin for the police quickly evolves into a continent-spanning adventure to uncover clues hidden in an ancient manuscript that might lead to the site of a Templar treasure. You’ll frequently return to Paris, but also explore towns and ruins in Ireland, Syria, Spain, and Scotland, meeting new people, solving puzzles, and avoiding both Templar goons and a Syrian assassin attempting to thwart their plans. Nico plays a limited love-interest role on the first game, but both her and George grow over the adventure into a tough and likeable pair of protagonists.

    The core story is fantastic, full of interesting snippets of history, nefarious schemes, satisfying revelations, and a few stylish cutscenes, but the highlight and source of much of its humour is the excellent writing for every character and possible interaction – regardless of whether they’re necessary to push the story forward or not. George is inherently likeable given his enthusiastic approach to everything, from the mundane to the remarkable, gleefully tackling dangerous investigations, exploring ancient ruins, or simply irritating locals to distract them from their duties and steal their tools. He has plenty of great observations about the environment and the people he sees, and will discuss just about any inventory item with anyone. The sewer key he finds in the opening scene must have a hundred lines of dialogue dedicated to it, and it was always worth showing the tools you’ve stolen to their owners for added hilarity.

    Shadow of the Templars: Reforged excavation key puzzle
    In wrapping up, it’s worth highlighting that Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged looks great and runs well on the Nintendo Switch despite that one-month delay. The remastered artwork retains much of the environmental geometry and distinctive character features, but everything has been massively embellished at a much higher resolution, and with a ton of added detail that enhances but rarely changes the original designs. It has a more vibrant, stylised look (similar to Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse) that sometimes alters the original atmosphere, but you can always switch back to the classic visuals if you want. The cutscenes also look impressively sharp and enhanced, and most of the audio has been cleaned up – though the odd line sounded distorted and out of place.

    Overall, it’s an excellent remaster of an influential classic, and fans of the original won’t be disappointed. For newcomers, just go in with your expectations in check and make full use of the hint system the moment you find yourself stuck. There’s a great story with endearing characters that still holds up, but no amount of audiovisual or control enhancements can hide the fact the gameplay is rooted in the past.

    Pros:

    • A likeable cast of heroes and villains
    • A well-written and compelling historical mystery-thriller
    • Plenty of absurd situations, awkward conversations, witty observations, and slapstick humour
    • An excellent audiovisual remastering with updated controls and assists
    • Telling everyone about your sewer key

    Cons:

    • The point-and-click gameplay still feels laborious despite the new assists
    • Some humour revolves around dated stereotypes and 30-year-old cultural references

    Score: 8/10

    Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/5.

  • Editorial: Crow Country might be the cosiest survival-horror game (and perfect for the Nintendo Switch)

    Editorial: Crow Country might be the cosiest survival-horror game (and perfect for the Nintendo Switch)

    Crow Country is an incredible homage to classic survival-horror from the 32-bit era – think Resident Evil and Silent Hill – but it’s also one of the most charming games I can think of in the genre, and a near-perfect fit for the Nintendo Switch as a result. It’s suitably creepy and tense at times, but also accessible, humorous, and often heartfelt. It’s got resource management elements and revels in the illogical puzzle design so prevalent in the genre, but it could easily serve as an entry point into classic survival-horror for new or younger players.

    The highlight for me is the fantastic air of mystery about it. The protagonist – supposedly “Special Agent Mara Forest” – clearly knows far more then she’s willing reveal to others, and constantly slips up in conversation with others or when making observations about what she sees around her.

    She arrives at the shuttered Crow Country amusement park, two years after an incident led to its closure, only to find its rundown attractions still occupied by shambling, vaguely humanoid creatures, several evasive former staff members, and other interested parties, all converging on the same evening.

    Like any good horror game, Crow Country leaves the player feeling confused and vulnerable at first, but as Mara solves more puzzles, opens up new areas, interacts with survivors, and night falls, she slowly unravels an admittedly weird sci-fi-ish conspiracy and discovers the motivations of the former staff and the owner she’s desperate to find – Edward Crow.

    As Mara uncovers the truth, observant players can also piece together clues from several notes and Mara’s conversations to figure out who she really is and why she’s there long before the story tells you outright. It’s not then most surprising reveal, sure, but the narrative moves at a brisk pace and never feels secondary to the gameplay.

    How you traverse the small but dense environments, solve puzzles, and survive will feel comfortingly familiar to survival-horror fans. You’ll explore an expanding and evolving map room-by-room; you’re locked in place to shoot using a laser pointer; you can run past shambling foes; hoover up ammunition, grenades, med-kits, and antidotes; solve puzzles and complete mini-games to find key items or secrets (like powerful weapons and upgrades for them); and soak in the wonderfully detailed, retro-styled environments complemented by creepy ambience and music. My only real criticism of Crow Country is that the gameplay offers few surprises to veterans of the genre.

    Crow Country’s 5-ish hour playtime works in its favour here, as the combat is limited but never frustrating, the puzzles and mini-games always entertaining, and secrets are abundant. If you dislike the sluggish combat, you can avoid everything but the final boss if you’re nimble. Crow Country has a curious twist on the traditional survival-horror formula, as despite new “guests”, traps, and even boobytrapped items appearing as the night progresses, the horror elements diminish over time.

    There are some dark and tragic moments, but it was hard not to get behind Mara’s dogged determination, fearlessness, and fondness for awkward jokes. I soon found myself less interested in hoarding resources and purging every room, and instead fixated on unravelling the true nature of the park and Mara’s connection to it.

    For those who value an entertaining story and good narrative pacing above survival mechanics, Crow Country also offers a ton of smart assists to avoid aimless backtracking. The map highlights unsolved puzzle locations or points of interest, and fortune teller machine can offer hints. Shortcuts and save rooms (with soothing music, of course) are smartly placed, and there’s no inventory limit or item boxes – just a maximum amount of ammunition and healing items you can carry at any given time. If you run low on supplies, returning to Mara’s car, rumaging through a trash can, or kicking a vending machine will likely spit out a box of handgun bullets or small med-kit.

    Even the ranking system rewards playing it safe as it doesn’t consider total playtime or number of saves. There’s also an “Exploration” mode that disable enemies completely, or a “Murder of Crows” mode for those who want a tougher challenge with most assists disabled or limited.

    Better still, irrespective of whether you’re playing it docked or in handheld mode, Crow Country looks great (especially on an OLED display), sounds great, and runs smoothly on the Nintendo Switch. The only notable difference from the next-gen console versions is that larger rooms can take a few more seconds longer to load.

    I called it a homage, but perhaps the most novel thing about Crow Country is that it’s a rare example of “cosy” survival horror. The sort of game perfect for playing cozied up under blanket – on the couch or in bed – despite the horror-focused nature of the genre.

    Crow Country was played on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/5.

  • Impressions: The Riftbreaker: Heart of the Swamp (Xbox Series)

    Impressions: The Riftbreaker: Heart of the Swamp (Xbox Series)

    Returning to the The Riftbreaker for the fourth time, I’m forever impressed at how EXOR Studios has continued to expand and refine its hybrid base-building, supply-line managing, research- and loot-driven, isometric hack-and-slash, twin-stick shooter. If you critique each element in isolation, they’re not as developed or balanced as the games they draw inspiration from, but The Riftbreaker’s priority is always giving you the tools you need to have fun – something far too many developers seem to actively discourage these days.

    My excuse for investing another 20 hours into The Riftbreaker was the recently released Heart of the Swamp expansion (which arrived on console at few months after PC), with a ton of free content for the base game including a new swamp biome, new creatures, new research options, new structures to manage waterlogged environments, and massive new defensive towers and base-shields that’ll be put to good use before the end of the new story campaign. That said, The Riftbreaker is nothing if not formulaic when it comes to mission design and progression, so you’re primarily getting more tools to overcome a few new challenges, to complete a familiar job – assess and defeat a new threat to the Galatea 37 mission.

    The Heart of the Swamp expansion kicks off only once you’ve investigated potential Titanium, Uranium, and Palladium deposits to begin constructing the Rift Station back to Earth, with yet another mysterious meteorite crashing in the headquarter region. This time it’s giant mushroom spores, which leads Ashley and Mr Riggs to a massive flowering mushroom “tree”, invaded by a myriad of parasitic creatures and thorn vines draining its remarkable sap. Despite the new setting, events follow a familiar rhythm: investigate the organism while defending your outposts from waves of enemies, travel to the source of the threat to try wipe it out, then engage in a chaotic hold-out finale.

    The biggest challenge introduced in the Heart of the Swamp expansion – if you accept insanely hostile plant life and rapidly regrowing thorn thickets are typical of Galatea 37 – is establishing and sustaining several outposts on isolated patches of solid ground around the base of the giant mushroom. The saturated air makes renewable power generation difficult, while natural gas vents, Carbonium, and Ironium deposits are also scattered across small islands. The swarms of parasites you fend off come in waves, with self-replicating horrors emerging later, and that lack of space is a serious impediment to a solid defence. Of course, The Riftbreaker excels at giving you a myriad of tools for the job and, even if some are clearly optimal, you can hack together your own solution to just about any problem – be that through quantity or quality.

    I’d recommend anyone starting this expansion ensure they have large Carbonium and Ironium outposts set up to cover basic construction costs remotely, but you can establish mines alongside research outposts with some planning. In addition to utilising existing structures like Energy Pylons to transmit power between outposts, there’s a fresh selection of land-based, floating, and pipe-mounted defensive towers – including massive piercing towers and cluster munition towers – that allow you to build defensive lines in the swampy water. If you explore thoroughly early on, you’ll also discover a source of sap that can be converted in plasma; a novel solution to construct advanced buildings and base shields, buying you much needed time to destroy the massive swarms in the finale that shredded my base and framerate in equal measure.

    It’s admittedly familiar fare at this point, three years and two expansions since launch, but Heart of the Swamp is another solid addition to The Riftbreaker. It offers another excuse to explore more of Galatea 37’s hostile biomes; expand and upgrade my existing outposts; research more of the sprawling tech tree for new buildings and higher-tier gear crafting; and engage in more visually spectacular base-defence events. It’s a fantastic hybrid of genres that deserves to be more successful than it is, and I strongly recommend you pick it up if any of this looks exciting. With the “Complete Edition” on storefronts, this looks to be the last paid expansion, but there’ still the promise of online co-op in the future that could make a great game an incredible one.

    The Riftbreaker: Heart of the Swamp was played on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC and PS5.

  • Review: Frostpunk 2 (PC)

    Review: Frostpunk 2 (PC)

    Frostpunk 2 is not exactly what I expected from a sequel, but it didn’t take long for me to appreciate the shift in gameplay focus. The first game was a gruelling city-builder with choice-driven narrative elements, in which you cautiously expanded your city outwards from the warmth of a central generator, trying to balance resource production, resource consumption, research goals, and survivor demands as temperatures plunged. The basics remain unchanged in Frostpunk 2, but the increased scale and longer timespans result in gameplay that can feel more hands-off, as you juggle supply lines and appease political factions through menus, toggles, and map screens – with less of a focus on traditional city-building optimisations.

    As a result, Frostpunk 2 can feel like a pure management game at times – the kind you play from a detached perspective with many basic functions automated. A game in which entertainment comes from analysing numbers, weighing up choices, trying to balance said numbers, watching the consequences play out, and then adapting or iterating upon your plans. It can feel a little underwhelming in the opening hour or two when you’re focussed exclusively on establishing your first generator city, but it starts to make sense once you begin exploring the Frostlands, creating new settlements and supply lines, and dealing with several factions that have divergent ideas about the future of humanity in the frigid post-apocalypse.

    This gameplay shift makes a lot of sense when you consider the substantial campaign mode that tackles the fate of the New London survivors from the first game – the “A New Home” scenario –and serves as a lengthy tutorial for the free-form Utopia mode. Thirty years have passed since the city survived the first whiteout and the Steward has recently died (or was possibly murdered by one of the emerging factions). After a brief prologue reveals the presence of other survivors in the Frostlands, a civilian council consisting of centrist New Londoners, traditionalist Stalwarts, and adaptable Frostlanders elects the player as the new Steward and tasks them with both re-establishing coal supply lines for the generator and discovering new fuel sources.

    The five-chapter campaign swiftly expands in scope to encompass vast swathes of the Frostland, with events playing out over hundreds of weeks, rather than days, and several locations from the first games scenarios returning – albeit now with canon outcomes. The impact of this expanded scope is that building out your generator city, or other large settlements, feels less hands-on. The core districts of your city – think housing, food production, or resource extraction – are built in a cluster of several titles and provide a supply of resources like the population you draw a workforce and heatstamps from, fuel for the generator, prefab materials for construction, or scouting teams to explore the Frostlands.

    A thoughtful, compact city, with carefully placed stockpiles and specialised district buildings, does offer benefits like improving productivity or reducing heat and workforce demands, but you can now deploy frost-breaking teams to clear a linear path to distant coal seams, oil deposits, fertile ground, or frozen lumber, and still build an extraction or farming district far from the generator. Certain sheltered areas also offer heat benefits, so you can even place housing districts further out. Once placed, you sit back and watch roads and heating pipes materialise, while the districts build up dynamically based on the terrain, shape, and any specialised buildings you’ve placed within them. It’s all wonderfully animated and your expansive city can look incredible, but it is a significant change from managing individual worker teams and slowly expanding into radial zones around a generator.

    On the upside, it pushes you to engage with the expanded mechanics faster, as your focus shifts from ensuring the survival of a single city and small population, to re-establishing a new society with all the challenges that entails. Cities or settlements become visually spectacular representations of tables and graphs; swelling population numbers are only of interest for the workforce and heatstamps they generate; and the sprawling Frostlands map evolves into an interconnected network of trails and skyways between resource-generating and resource-consuming markers. Coupled with the accelerated passage of time, Frostpunk 2 feels satisfying but less intimate, as you spend more time in menus adjusting the flow of goods between settlements or shifting your workforce between districts based on current demands.

    Naturally, the remnants of humanity quickly fall back into old habits, pursuing their favourite excuse to commit savagery when resource scarcity is no longer their primary concern: ideology. Frostpunk 2 has an expansive selection of potential laws that cover everything from heating and housing to immigration, crime, healthcare, and research opportunities – but enforcing a law is no longer your mandate alone, and it needs to pass a vote in the council. This system complicates everything and introduces a divergent path through the campaign. Each faction has an idea on what the future of humanity should look like, but they’re broadly split between adapting to life in the Frostlands or turning the generator cities and settlements into self-sustaining bastions against the cold.

    Several choices in the campaign force you to choose a direction, and striking a middle ground is difficult if you’re unwilling to forfeit technological advancements that can generate near-infinite resources. To get a vote passed in the council means assessing the mood of each faction, considering the percentage of the council they hold, and engaging in negotiations; a promise to vote for or against a motion that always comes with conditions attached. Those conditions are often passing a law or research goal that aligns with their ideology, with a bonus to trust gained if you fulfil your promise, and potential backlash if you don’t. Obviously, you can’t please everyone; some factions are more aligned with one another than others; and gaining fervour with any of them – for or against you – can generate instability.

    Dominant factions whose laws and traditions you permit might offer to support the city during a crisis, while others might sabotage it to undermine you. It could mean increased productivity in certain sectors, or protests that disrupt output. It’s a constant balancing act, but while finding some degree of balance is ideal, going all in with one faction will unlock more extreme laws and experimental technology to cement their rule. Each of the four difficulty levels adjusts how much trust you gain or lose based on resource scarcity and ideological conflicts, and if the council turns against you, your campaign run is over. It’s worth highlighting at this point there are some arbitrary limitations that feel designed to make life artificially difficult when faced with unexpected campaign choices and political turmoil, such as being unable to mandate a minimum stockpile level of a commodity, or to modify the fuel mix being consumed for the generator.

    There’s enough mechanical depth to talk for ages, but to bring this to some sort of conclusion, I’d argue Frostpunk 2 is a fascinating sequel that retains the basic foundations of the original but has a much grander scope. You could dive into the Utopia mode, pick a challenging starting settlement, set your own survival-based victory condition, and crank up the difficulty to better emulate the first game – but Frostpunk 2’s expansive campaign is the highlight. If the first game was about making tough decisions that involved trading a dozen lives for the survival of several hundred, Frostpunk 2 does this on an uncomfortably detached scale as populations swell into the thousands, spread across multiple settlements. It might not be the sequel everyone was expecting, but it feels like a terrifyingly accurate reflection of leadership in a time of crisis, in which your population is no longer a collective of individuals with needs but an ideologically fractious resource you need to maintain.

    Pros:

    • It’s easier to establish interconnected cities and settlements
    • Managing political factions is as stressful as managing resource scarcity
    • The choice-driven campaign changes up how later chapters play out
    • The Utopia mode offers highly customisable scenarios
    • Generator cities, settlements, and the Frostlands look and sound more beautiful than ever

    Cons:

    • Some arbitrary limitations can make life artificially difficult
    • It can feel like a pure management game at times navigating menus and maps
    • The district-based, city-building mechanics feel less significant

    Score: 8/10

    Frostpunk 2 was reviewed on PC using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is now also available on Xbox Series S|X and PS5.

  • Review: Edge of Sanity (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Edge of Sanity (Nintendo Switch)

    Edge of Sanity as a concept is great but less so in execution. It’s a narrative-driven cosmic-horror survival game, set in the Alaskan wilderness circa 1970, in which protagonist Carter attempts to rescue and sustain a motley band of survivors, fleeing an industrial accident that may have released otherworldly creatures. It’s got detailed and atmospheric pixel art environments; well-animated and gruesome sprites; and a strong focus on stealth and puzzle-like combat that rewards caution and preparation – a combination of designs I enjoy. However, the further I played, the more often scripting and dialogue bugs would ruin the experience.

    Edge of Sanity’s premise – corporate greed and unethical science triggering the apocalypse – is hardly novel, but it still offers a strong narrative, troubled cast, taunting antagonist, and several story missions to keep you engaged between contextless scavenging runs. Carter is your typical gruff survivalist, but it’s clear he’s already been exposed to the experiments performed by the nefarious Prism organisation. His colleague Frank seems well-meaning but has a racist streak when it comes to the native Alaskan tribes – or so it seems. He clearly has a relationship with local tribesman Fierceclaw, who offers Carter only hints as to what’s happening and the nature of his own “hunt”. On top of that, you have an unhinged environmentalist, an apologist PR officer, a calculating researcher – all of whom have their own take on events – and a dog!

    The opening act serves as a tutorial covering scavenging, stealth, combat, and crafting – gear, consumables, and camp upgrades – before it ramps up the stakes when you realise the protagonist may not entirely be themself. Rather than leave this as some late game reveal, it opens up some intriguing dialogue choices and complicates the usual flee-from-unknowable-horror premise. It reduces the fear factor but raises the mystery factor. Despite the otherworldly monstrosities, I was less interested in finding a way to flee, and more interested in finding out the nature of the forces at play. Most survival-style games have a narrative that feels secondary to the mechanics, whereas Edge of Sanity gives them equal weighting.

    Talking mechanics, Edge of Sanity is a mix of 2D traversal and puzzle-like combat through multi-layered environments, with day-by-day management elements that force you to upgrade your camp and sustain your team of survivors. Unless you’re playing on the die-once-and-you’re-done “Ironman” mode, both the hands-on missions and management elements are forgiving and reward caution and planning – a design that satisfies me no end, even if some might argue the lack of surprises makes it too predictable. Play cautiously and smart, you’ll always stay ahead of the difficulty curve. Play fast and reckless, you’ll be left with few allies and less responsibilities, but also less crafting resources and less understanding of events. It’s a smart design that lets you play however you want, with no hard barriers to progress beyond your main character dying, and it makes replays more tempting.

    During hand-crafted story missions or brief procedural scavenging runs, Carter can sneak, run, climb, interact with containers or switches, all within a 2D environment – often shifting to adjacent corridors that loop back or contain hidden resources, while sometimes you’ll need to solve code-based puzzles. The lack of a third dimension and limited mobility ensure all enemies are roadblocks, but you can often find alternate paths, use environmental hazards to your advantage instead of wasting consumables, or resort to simple melee combat. Resorting to melee with limited-durability weapons is rarely a good choice though, as taking damage accumulates stress – along with interacting with otherworldly elements – and that needs to be managed to avoid increasingly crippling trauma effects, think visual hallucinations and panicked footsteps, eventually leading to a run-ending death. With no ability to save outside of the camp, the stakes feel appropriately high, but no mission is long enough to make a replay feel particularly frustrating.

    I enjoyed the survival and management elements more than I expected, possibly because they’re easy to get on top of. In theory, there’s a lot to juggle. Survivors need food, water, rest to sustain morale, and sometimes a consumable to overcome injury or illness. In practice, prioritising early scavenging runs to upgrade your food and water stations to the maximum level allows you to quickly achieve a self-sustaining cycle, so you can focus on other upgrades, story missions, and crafting both offensive and defensive items. All of this is handled in your evolving camp, in which you can save anytime, assign workers to resource production and scouting, while missions are accessed from a simple map screen. Even if you’re not a fan of the survival elements, progress between chapters usually means gathering enough supplies or fixing something, so there’s no avoiding scavenging runs completely.

    In theory, the bite-size missions, accessible mechanics, and a brisk day-by-day structure make Edge of Sanity good fun and a great fit for the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode (or a Steam Deck/handheld PC). Sadly, even with the 1.10 patch installed at the time of writing this up, it feels increasingly buggy from the second chapters onwards, with weird dialogue bugs – think looping conversations or switching to another character’s lines – and there were progress-blocking scripting issues during story missions that forced me to restart them and reroute them on occasion. If Edge of Sanity can get patched into shape, I’d add a point or two to the score and happily recommend it to those looking for a narrative-driven survival game that finds a nice balance between pushing the plot forward while still stressing you out over survival needs. For now, though, technical issues start derailing the experience just as it gets into a satisfying groove.

    Pros:

    • An intriguing and well-paced narrative for a survival game
    • 2D exploration with stealth and puzzle-like combat
    • Simple but satisfying base management you can quickly get on top of

    Cons:

    • Some grind for resources is inevitable
    • Dialogue and mission scripting bugs need patching

    Score: 6/10

    Edge of Sanity was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/5.

  • Editorial: Alone in the Dark (2024) is yet another game that committed the unforgivable crime of being good rather than critically acclaimed

    Editorial: Alone in the Dark (2024) is yet another game that committed the unforgivable crime of being good rather than critically acclaimed

    Alone in the Dark (2024) is not some underappreciated masterpiece, but it is a smart and competently designed reimagining of the influential 1993 original. It plays as a third-person adventure – taking the same approach as Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes – and transforms a terribly-aged classic into something that straddles the line between narrative-driven, puzzle-oriented “walking sim” and traditional survival-horror: think limited resources, weapon durability, gruesome monsters, and puzzling your through a sprawling mansion full of unorthodox locks.

    Entering a market dominated by recognisable IP it once inspired, replicating the success of recent titles like the Resident Evil 4 remake or Alan Wake 2 was unlikely; however, as a “AA”-style game priced accordingly, it sure as hell didn’t deserve to do so badly the developer Pieces Interactive was shut down a month after its launch.

    Like so many mid-tier and high-profile indie games released over the last decade, Alone in the Dark (2024) committed the unforgivable crime of just being good, rather than critically acclaimed; more often than not a death sentence for IP and sometimes developers in a modern video game market seemingly desperate to gorge itself to death on a never-changing buffet. Yes, the combat is clunky, but I’d argue every other element is good to great.

    The storytelling, the cast, the puzzles, and the thick atmosphere generated by the impressive visuals, ambience, and period-appropriate soundtrack; these are all essential components of a narrative-heavy horror game that takes you far beyond the walls of the Decerto manor. Even the voice work – criticised by those I’ll wager have not played beyond the opening chapter – is a great fit for the protagonists as they begin to question their own sanity and struggle with past trauma. When you throw in accessible gameplay mechanics, brisk narrative pacing, two playable characters with unique encounters, and multiple endings, Alone in the Dark (2024) gets far more right than wrong.

    Unfortunately, that means little in 2024, when talent and quality seem less important than the cosmic alignment of effective marketing, a quiet release period, and luck if a game wants to stand out in a marketplace that’s saturated, risk-averse, and increasingly dominated by the same established IP we’ve seen for decades.

    It’s a shame too that so many reviewers and commentators casually dismiss games like Alone in the Dark (2024) as “not good enough” in contrast to its “AAA” peers, as survival-horror fans are going to deprive themselves of one of the more interesting and stylishly told narratives in the genre. As a remake of sorts, Alone in the Dark (2024) obviously draws on concepts from the original, with ideas from Lovecraft novels and cliches you’d expect from a 1920’s period piece, but it weaves them into a briskly paced narrative with plenty of reveals, red herrings, twists, scares, and cinematic flair.

    Aristocrat Emily Hartwood and grizzled PI Edward Carnby arrive at Decerto Manor looking for her eccentric uncle, who sent a confused letter about a “Dark Man” haunting him and staff engaged in occult rituals. Unlike the original – in which he’s already dead and the abandoned manor is filled with an assortment of creatures and spirits – the remake is set in a dilapidated mental health retreat run by the condescending Dr. Grey and his evasive staff.

    Jeremy Hartwood has gone missing, some of the patients and staff have died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and yet those who remain only seem interested in preparing for a yearly ritual that supposedly has Louisiana Voodoo roots. After skulking through the creepy manor and encountering a few callbacks to the original, a search of Jeremy’s room reveals the designs for a mysterious talisman, before the protagonist you chose is pulled into a nightmarish version of the New Orleans French Quarter based on Jeremy’s twisted memories and wild imagination.

    It’s a slow but unsettling opening that suddenly changes pace and throws you in the deep end, setting the stage for how subsequent chapters will play out as you explore every inch of the manor and increasingly fantastical and often beautiful dreamscapes. The dual-protagonist setup is designed for replays, despite functioning more like the original Resident Evil than Resident Evil 2’s connected A/B scenarios. There is plenty of overlap when it comes to puzzles and progression, but the focus of the story changes and, until the default finale, you’re always left wondering if anything they experience is real.

    Emily sinks into melancholy as she deals with Dr. Grey’s insinuations and tries to discover if the “Dark Man” man haunting her uncle is an actual curse, or just the manifestation of her family’s mental health history. In contrast, Carnby spends more time investigating the cult-like activities of the staff, while becoming increasingly manic in his attempt to save Jeremy from an occult contract – seemingly to make up for past failings.

    During the opening chapters, with identical puzzles and combat scenarios, the differences between the Emily and Carnby feel limited to when and where they encounter the secondary cast, and the nature of their interactions influenced by their personality, gender, and history. Whoever you’re not playing as becomes a foil for the lead, seemingly oblivious to the supernatural elements and often a source of humour when their paths converge. The second of five chapters gives you a little freedom as to the path you take through the manor, but the payoff is the lengthy fourth chapter that lets you tackle three objectives in any order and features a unique section for each protagonist that delves into their suppressed memories.

    If you want to get the full picture – or one of three secret endings based on collectibles and optional interactions – two playthroughs are essential, and all the more enjoyable thanks to a new-game-plus update that adds in new encounters and some unexpected scares.

    What I’m getting at is don’t leave games like Alone in the Dark (2024) languishing in the dark if you’re a fan of the genre – just because some circle-jerk internet chorus believes video games are worth little unless they attain a poorly-defined and often inconsistent “critically acclaimed” status. If this sort of hit-or-fail-terribly mentality continues, we’ll end up in an era of high-production value, low-risk, “AAA” homogeneity – a feat many large publishers have already attained with their remarkably expensive, polished, and heavily-marketed releases that are forgotten within a month. There’s still plenty of value in lower-budget and appropriately priced games that are just good, or hell, just interesting, especially when the quality of entertainment is so subjective anyway.

    Alone in the Dark (2024) was played on Xbox Series S|X. It’s also available on PC and PS5.