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February 13, 2020

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February 13, 2020

Publisher: Application Systems Heidelberg, Coconut Island Games

Developer: Lantern Studio

Rating: Everyone 10+

Reviewed on: PC

Luna: The Shadow Dust is visually enthralling. The opening sequence shows a boy falling from the sky and entering a twisted tower that is both exotic and magical thanks to a gorgeous hand-drawn aesthetic. Luna looks like a picture book come to life, and its world is so warm and inviting that I want to cozy up under it like a warm blanket. Unfortunately, some of Luna’s point-and-click puzzles are so prickly they sour much of the experience.

The main hero in Luna is a nameless boy who explores a massive tower alongside his cat-like companion. Each new level of the tower is filled with new discoveries and curiosities. When I entered the main hall, I pored over its murals, which seemed to tell the story of an ancient society plagued by a shadowy evil. Inside a labyrinth library, I marveled at the small details on every bookshelf. In a tiny medieval-style kitchen, I could practically feel the warmth coming off the hearth. Each new room brought new visual wonders, and I was excited to explore every inch of this mysterious tower.

Each room also contains one or two puzzles, which you must solve to progress. Many of these puzzles are incredibly rewarding, requiring out-of-the-box thinking. For example, in a room full of animal skeletons and lab experiments, I discovered a way for my cat-like companion to platform across a series of shadows projected on the wall to reach a lever that opened our exit. In another room, I used a special door to warp between seasons and help a tree grow fruit. When Luna is at its best, you feel like you’re uncovering a secret magic trapped inside the world.

Unfortunately, Luna is bad at clearly communicating your goals. It uses outlandish and vague puzzle logic, which often left me confused and frustrated. One puzzle requires that you feed a rat certain food to make it remove a barrier from the room. However, the solution to this puzzle involves jumping on the rat, which doesn’t feel logical, so it took me a while to work it out. Another puzzle has you walking through a series of doors to illuminate wall paintings; I resorted to brute-force trial-and-error here because the connection between the doors and the paintings never became clear.

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Part of my challenge in understanding Luna’s world comes from the fact that developer Lantern Studio tells a wordless story. After finishing the game, I pieced together several of the big narrative beats, which involve the boy’s journey to fix a past mistake that led to his master’s downfall. However, several moments are missing key connective tissue, and the story ultimately doesn’t leave a lasting impact. It’s fitting that there isn’t a single line of dialogue in the entire game, because most of my frustrations with Luna’s puzzles stem from rarely understanding the game’s language.

If Luna had not been so obtuse, it might have been close to greatness. I loved the atmosphere and the little touches in this world. Many puzzles are a joy to solve, but the bad ones are so poorly constructed that they tipped my frustration over the edge. As much as I wanted to love Luna, I felt like the game was pushing me away.

Score: 7.5

Summary: Luna looks like a picture book come to life, but some of its point-and-click puzzles are so prickly they sour the experience.

Concept: A boy and his cat journey up an ancient tower and solve a variety of puzzles

Graphics: Luna has a striking style that leaves a lasting impression thanks to its hand-animated visuals

Sound: The piano-driven soundtrack feels magical, setting the perfect atmosphere for this bizarre adventure

Playability: Navigating Luna’s world is incredibly easy, but some puzzles are hard to solve because the game doesn’t clearly communicate your goals

Entertainment: I wanted to explore Luna’s world and soak in its sights for hours. Many of its puzzles are rewarding, but a few stinkers mar the experience

Replay: Moderately Low

February 13, 2020

Hello shingobz,

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February 12, 2020

Publisher: The Arcade Crew

Developer: TurtleBlaze

Rating: Everyone 10+

Reviewed on: Switch

Also on: PC

Metroid has inspired countless games, and they all balance aspects of the classic formula differently. Some are focused on the thrill of exploring sprawling maps, while others emphasize an arsenal of creative weapons. Kunai includes those elements to a degree, but its main priority is mobility. As a tablet-faced robot, you use the titular kunai to attach ropes to most surfaces; this lets you easily swing, climb, and launch yourself through enemy-infested areas. Though this is a fun twist on navigation, it isn’t enough to carry the whole experience. In exploration, combat, and boss fights, Kunai falls short.

Tabby, your ninja-like hero, battles through a bleak world populated mostly by other machines. You find your sword and kunai almost immediately, and they are the foundation for your adventure, mixing close-range combat with acrobatic navigation. The sword-slashing is simple and functional, but your movement is a fluid hybrid between the signature styles of Spider-Man and Doc Ock. The game encourages you to use your momentum as well as multiple anchor points to freely maneuver horizontally and vertically, which is entertaining. The combination initially feels great, but it starts to seem more like a gimmick as the action fails to take the concept in new directions. Apart from encountering some frustrating platforming sections and surfaces that your kunai can’t stick to, this part of your repertoire doesn’t grow to meet its potential, and instead remains disappointingly static.

Tabby walks a gradual path to power, collecting additional abilities as he travels from one zone to the next. Tools like shuriken, machine guns, and a double-jump are improvements, making it possible to reach new areas, but Kunai doesn’t make the process satisfying. Most of the items you collect to expand your arsenal feel less like powers and more like keys in disguise. For example, your electric shuriken opens a specific kind of door, but I rarely had an excuse to use that weapon for any other purpose. Firing down with the machine gun helps you cross gaps, but it is underwhelming as an offensive option. This means that your abilities seem like they were primarily designed to overcome trivial progress-gating obstacles, and they don’t do much to impact your overall combat style, even once you upgrade them.

The different maps have names that sound exciting, like Haunted Factory and Crypto Mines, but they don’t feel distinct enough once you’re in them. With a minimalist art style and muted colors, the various zones blend together over time. Moving from a greenish area to a brownish area is technically different, but the limited enemy types and sparse details never convey a sense of exploring uncharted territory. The thrill of discovery is similarly dull, since the hidden areas you can uncover usually just contain hats, which are dumb-looking cosmetic items. This completely kills the desire to revisit maps once you get new powers, because you know you won’t find anything worthwhile.

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Boss battles are another weak spot. Most rely heavily on repetition, so they become endurance bouts rather than true tests of skill. In one fight, you need to climb a mountain while evading attacks in order to score a few hits on the boss. If you succeed, you are knocked back down the mountain only to repeat the process three more times. After that, the next phase has you outrunning the boss in a race up the mountain where a single slip-up results in a one-hit kill – and failure at any stage results in starting the whole fight over. Not all bosses lean on this frustrating pattern, but the ones that don’t aren’t much better; those are too easy, serving mainly as testing grounds for a new item you just acquired in an adjacent room.

With various weapons, mobility enhancements, and a sprawling series of connected maps, Kunai appears to have all the right components, but they aren’t assembled into a cohesive whole. Swinging around the world is a cool novelty, but that alone isn’t enough to propel players through the blandness that pervades the rest of the game.

Score: 6

Summary: With various weapons, mobility enhancements, and a sprawling series of connected maps, Kunai appears to have all the right components, but they aren’t assembled into a cohesive whole.

Concept: Control a ninja-like robot who swings, slashes, and shoots through various connected zones

Graphics: A limited, muted color palette conveys a consistent-but-boring visual style

Sound: The music and effects support the action without being memorable

Playability: Launching your ropes and swinging from them is fast and intuitive, but the hit detection with your sword and guns is imprecise

Entertainment: The novelty of traversal doesn’t last, leaving you with a generic adventure inspired by Metroid

Replay: Moderately Low

February 12, 2020

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February 11, 2020

Publisher: Bigben Interactive

Developer: Big Ant Studios

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 4, Switch, PC

Flow is important in tennis, but it’s hard to get in the groove in AO Tennis 2. Rough spots in the gameplay, including wonky animations and that dreaded feeling that some outcomes are pre-determined, undermine a game that nevertheless includes an admirable career mode. It’s not a loss in straight sets, but it’s a defeat nevertheless.

Players’ movements don’t always synch up with expected shot animations, which can produce some surprising outcomes. You and your opponents can seemingly teleport a short distance to all of a sudden make a shot – an issue that is even more egregious online. Players also give up unexpectedly on balls that look like they can be chased down. Perhaps this phenomenon influences the title’s high number of outright winners, where a player hits a clean, unreturnable shot. When these occur due to strategic rallies and/or a well-hit and placed shot, that’s great. However, too many times these happen seemingly out of thin air.

Movement is a problem when it comes to changing direction. Whether you have the movement assist on or off, your player is occasionally unresponsive. In tennis you must keep moving to prevent from being caught flat footed, yet the game isn’t always up to the task. I don’t expect to be able to joystick around the court unabated, but it’s disappointing when you anticipate your opponent’s shot correctly and still aren’t able to make a play on the ball because the game is not responding to your input.

AO Tennis 2’s gameplay has redeeming qualities when it’s not working against you. Points can be saved or won by choosing the right shot type at the right moment. Slice shots take less time to execute, providing a way out when you’re rushed, and the key to winning points is often to push for precise shots. Shot depth, placement along lines, taking a chance with a more aggressive shot, and getting the correct shot timing can make a big difference. Setting up your opponent with your shots before putting them away is also important, and I needed different strategies when one approach wasn’t getting it done (even though the drop shot is overpowered).

Raising player attributes like speed, stamina, and ability to hit certain shot types are integral as you play harder opponents and play on higher difficulties. This dovetails nicely into the career mode, which is the game’s highlight. The mode’s task of balancing a weekly tournament schedule with rest and training sessions isn’t unique, but I like how cleanly the pieces fit together.

It’s important not to get behind the fatigue eight ball, lest it lower your stats as you get further into a tournament, affecting your abilities just when you need them most. Careful planning and rest keep fatigue in check, but so does paying for a retinue of support services, including a coach, physiotherapist, sports scientist, photographer, and more. These positions help keep you in tip-top shape, reduce the effects of traveling to tournaments, and boost the effects of training. These aren’t simply one-and-done upgrades, however, as money from tournaments and sponsors fuel these annual expenses. The fact that your money also raises your attributes keeps you on the tour’s treadmill, striving for that next rung up the ladder.

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Real-world sponsors such as Uber, Lacoste, and Häagen-Dazs give the mode a fun boost, and developer Big Ant takes this a step further with its creation and import tools. These let you bolster the existing licensed player pool, add replicas of real-life stadiums, and create your own sponsor logos. The community has already taken up the charge, creating real-world player lists you can import to bolster your career experience. You can even take these online, but unfortunately that mode consists only of quick match and create a match, with no matchmaking or larger structure apart from a leaderboard.

Despite the strength of its career mode, it’s too bad AO Tennis 2’s gameplay isn’t more dependable, because the genre has needed a new light for several generations. However, this game can’t muster the consistency needed to be a credible threat.

Score: 6.5

Summary: Developer Big Ant keeps improving the series' career mode, but the gameplay is what really needs the work.

Concept: AO Tennis 2 builds off the improvements in 2018’s AO Tennis International rather than actually being a direct sequel to the first AO Tennis, which also came out in 2018

Graphics: Player faces are decent likenesses, if emotionless

Sound: There are no match commentators, but at least the chair umpire reads the score in French where appropriate

Playability: The sometimes-unpredictable animations and unresponsive controls can be frustrating

Entertainment: The career mode and creation tools are the best parts of AO Tennis 2, but the gameplay struggles to keep up its end of the bargain

Replay: Moderately High

February 11, 2020

I’m not the most aggressive battle royale player, but I put a lot of effort into supporting my team. I stick close to my squad, share my loot, and heal my teammates whenever I can. In games where downed players can be brought back, like Apex Legends or Fortnite, I always go out of my way to revive them and keep the…

Score: 8.25

Summary: The League of Legends card game successfully translates a vibrant world.

Concept: Take on an opponent in fast-paced card matches with characters from the League of Legends universe

Graphics: Card art is great, and the level-up transitions and animations give a little extra oomph to a game that generally boils down to numbers

Sound: Voices add an essential bit of flavor to major and minor characters, with sturdy (if repetitive) sounds and score

Playability: Those who already are immersed in the world of digital card games will be familiar with most mechanics immediately

Entertainment: Cool animations, League of Legends flavor, and smart gameplay elements that reward strategy make Legends of Runeterra a solid addition to the genre

Replay: High

February 11, 2020

Hello Rai,

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Rai joined on the 02/11/2020.

February 10, 2020

Publisher: Sometimes You

Developer: Sergey Noskov

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 4, PC

A television set comes to life, static filling its screen. Within the noise, you can barely make out a humanoid figure. Moving the analog stick makes this faint specter move, but it’s trapped in this small box with no clear objective or interaction point. This is 7th Sector’s first puzzle, and it’s a bit of a doozy, at first making me think my game may have glitched out. Developer Sergey Noskov gives you no indication of what you need to do in this moment. Almost every puzzle is free of guidance, which can lead to moments of frustration. But more often, it leads to the satisfaction of having the insight to figure something out on your own. This is a game that lives and dies by its obtuse design.

After the first puzzle is solved in a fairly unconventional way, 7th Sector only gets stranger. You don’t take control of the human you saw or anything even close to a typical game character. You become an ordinary electrical spark. It can’t emote or do anything other than travel along cables to devices that it can bring to life. As the spark moves through the world, you see a dystopian cyberpunk story unfold in the background, catching glimpses of robots warring with humans and even more distressing and fascinating things. This is a clever way of telling a story, but it doesn’t deliver much excitement or build up until the final act, which concludes with a great reveal in the vein of The Matrix.

The spark of note is used effectively for clever navigational puzzles along a side-scrolling setting that push you to figure out how to reach other cables or to open doors. Just when it seems like the puzzles mostly revolve around figuring out patterns or using the correct timing, Noskov (who is a one-person development team) throws math at you. You are asked to solve fairly simple math problems, like figuring out which group of numbers adds up to 220 (a specific number used often in 7th Sector), but you are also presented with division and multiplication tests. If a math problem is too hard, you can randomly click numbers to brute-force the solution without negative consequences (as I did once). That said, by the time the credits rolled, I looked back on the math and found it connected nicely to what Noskov is trying to reveal in the story. It’s quite clever.

Just as I was getting used to controlling my emotionless blue spark, the gameplay changes completely to power up a robotic ball, which you then control. Outside of more math, the puzzles become entirely different at this point, yet just as fun and directionless, only now involving more physics-based actions. Just when it seemed I had the ball gameplay down, the spark jumps into another robot. This one is much bigger and has guns, which leads to some combat amidst even more puzzles. The combat isn’t great, and is easily the weakest part of the game, but it is used sparingly and is only mildly frustrating.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

The spark moves on to other entities as well, but it wouldn’t be fair of me to spoil where this adventure goes next. In the three to four hours it took to complete 7th Sector, I was eager to see what would happen next, all while cursing math and not knowing what I needed to do. I got stumped a few times, but the puzzle spaces are small and most of their interactive elements are easy to spot.

I’m a big fan of Playdead’s Limbo and Inside, and 7th Sector scratches the same kind of itch, but in much stranger and mathematical ways. It’s a journey worth taking, but just know you’re often left directionless and perhaps in need of a calculator.

Score: 7.5

Summary: Robots, electricity, and math all come into play in this unique side-scrolling puzzle game.

Concept: A side-scrolling adventure that delivers little direction in its puzzles, yet makes you feel great when solving them

Graphics: The dark cyberpunk setting sells the mood, and the backdrops effectively tell the story

Sound: The score is appropriately empty and eerie. Sound is sometimes used to help guide you through puzzles

Playability: Outside of having to solve math problems, many of the puzzles are clever one-offs, meaning you almost always have new challenges to look forward to

Entertainment: The story delivers a nice payoff at the end, making the difficult puzzles worth the time

Replay: Moderately Low

February 10, 2020

Hello Roboticexile,

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Roboticexile joined on the 02/10/2020.

February 9, 2020

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February 8, 2020

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February 8, 2020

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February 8, 2020

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February 7, 2020

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February 7, 2020

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CringyKid joined on the 02/07/2020.

February 7, 2020

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ImOffMyMeds joined on the 02/06/2020.

February 6, 2020

Publisher: En Masse Entertainment

Developer: BonusXP

Release: 2019

Rating: Everyone 10+

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: Xbox One, Switch, PC, Mac

We see fewer licensed tie-in video games on home platforms these days, and that’s understandable. Capturing the tone of a popular fiction in a different medium is tricky, and developers are rarely given the time and means to capitalize. The new The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance series from Netflix is a stellar presentation of craft and storytelling, but I’m sorry to say that the game simply doesn’t maintain the same high bar. A pale imitation of its source material, Age of Resistance Tactics draws on inspirations like Final Fantasy Tactics for its gameplay model, but misses the mark in the ways that matter.

Players build and level a team of the elf-like Gelflings, along with a smattering of Podlings and Fizzgigs, helping to save the world of Thra from its horrible Skeksis rulers. That sentence of whimsical nomenclature echoes what you should expect if you’re a new arrival to the world of The Dark Crystal, and the game doesn’t do a lot to catch you up. The storytelling never takes off in its own right, almost as if it presumes that your memory of the show’s sweeping narrative should be enough to maintain your interest in the events at hand.

Battle after battle echoes major events from the show. They eventually branch into unseen events only hinted at in the show, like the recruitment of the other clans into the growing resistance. Early on, the flow of these stages is brisk and inviting, suggesting deeper tactical decisions down the road. Unfortunately, that expectation never comes to fruition; levels soon get staid and repetitive, with too little variety in objectives and enemy types. That problem is exacerbated by the presence of optional battles that are virtually necessary to proceed, since they offer the bulk of available treasure and XP to strengthen your team. These battles are always time-wasters about defeating all onscreen foes, and extend the length of a game that is already longer than its shallowness can support.

Likewise, an initially intriguing job system for the heroes loses steam and becomes an onerous chore. Unlocking the highest-tier jobs takes a long time and demands you put characters in roles that don’t suit them just to fulfill certain leveling requirements. The whole process isn’t worth the effort, as the available powers are usually horizontal shifts rather than actual power increases. Some of the earliest base skills virtually demand to be kept in play (like the scout’s Mark), so it’s hard to diversify, especially since any given character can only have a few abilities equipped at one time. Tweaking jobs and equipment is made worse by an unwieldy menu system that requires too much backing out and reentering to compare characters or items.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

That’s not to say that Age of Resistance Tactics is a constant disappointment. The grid-based stages sometimes necessitate thoughtful character placement and strategizing. Seeing a good combo come together for a big-damage sword strike is fun, as is placing your caster in a spot where she can nuke a whole enemy team in one go. During a fight, manipulating the turn order is an interesting tactical option, as smart ability usage can move individuals back and forth in the queue. However, many enemies all look the same in the initiative line, hurting its usability; you can’t plan effectively if you don’t know which bad guy is actually acting next.

The flow of new equipment gives you something to work toward, offering some helpful offensive and defensive tools – I just wish I didn’t need to fight so many meaningless side battles to afford the cool items. Difficulty can be customized as you go, which is good; the overall balance swings dramatically between “too easy” and the occasional “too hard for the recommended level.” Most battles are blessedly brief, which is especially important with no quick-save option for stepping away in the middle of a fight, which is a big misstep.

With better tactics games on the market, The Dark Crystal’s foray into the strategy genre has a limited appeal. As one of the devoted franchise enthusiasts who are presumably the target audience, even I feel like it loses sight of the magic, narrative weirdness, and dark tone that makes the show so captivating. And without tactical sophistication or a meaningful engagement with the lore, I can’t recommend joining this resistance.

Score: 6.25

Summary: Inspired by classic grid-based strategy affairs, this tie-in game to the recent show fails to capture the whimsical tone and narrative flair of its source material.

Concept: Revisit and expand upon the events of excellent puppet-focused show with a hefty collection of grid-based tactical battles

Graphics: Losing much of the magic and detail of the source material, the graphical presentation feels utilitarian, but still exhibits the battlefield clearly

Sound: Too few musical tracks and sound effects mean that you may be tempted to turn the volume down after the first few hours

Playability: Menu navigation is cumbersome, but the core-play concepts are communicated well. This is a rare tactics game that is genuinely friendly to newcomers

Entertainment: Too much grinding and a limited array of tactical options hold the game back

Replay: Moderately Low

February 6, 2020

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February 6, 2020

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Release: 2019

Reviewed on: PC

Warcraft III is one of the best games of all time; Blizzard’s genre-transcending work shaped both the future of the company and the greater industry landscape forever. On the other hand, Warcraft III: Reforged is an uninspired remaster that lacks Blizzard’s signature polish and panache. Almost every aspect of this remaster drags the source down instead of lifting it up.

Reforged presents the player with the entirety of the original Reign of Chaos game and The Frozen Throne expansion, with optional modern assets in lieu of the blocky, pronounced models from decades ago and a smattering of miniscule changes. For example, Blizzard added World of Warcraft Stratholme bosses in the famous Culling level, but the tweaks essentially end there – begging one to wonder why the game is worthy of the Reforged moniker at all, instead of a simple “remastered.”

Warcraft III sets the stage for everything in the gigantic Warcraft universe that we know today, a sprawling saga featuring Arthas, Jaina, Sylvanas, and countless other characters. The campaign is an epic undertaking, with a mixture of traditional RTS missions, base-building, small-scale RPG-style escapades, and horde-mode holdouts. However, the journey in Reforged is marred by numerous bugs and aberrations. I saw strange lighting quirks, stuttering, missing portraits, and even a glitch that caused one of my undead levels to instantly fail when I started it up. Some of these errors could be dismissed individually, but the bucket of bugs gradually fills up and overflows, marring the entire game.

Some of the new assets make the game look better than its original incarnation (especially in terms of buildings and lower tier units like citizens, wildlife, and monsters), but others are jarring and uncomfortable. Errant animations and generic fantasy archetypes take away from the of zest the original designs. Some orc portraits lack unit identity; Mannoroth’s head looks bizarre on his massive frame, and even little goblin tinkerers appear unusually out of place. What the new assets gain significantly in presentation power, they are tinged with a kind of universal fantasy sterility that sucks the flavor out of them. Despite this, the campaign is still an experience I’d recommend, whether you opt to use the new or old assets, especially for those looking for a historical and still-relevant romp through an immersive universe.

While not every remaster adds new features, they rarely remove elements from the original. Reforged does, though. On release, multiplayer features like ladder and social functionality are completely absent from this new incarnation. The core multiplayer game is still solid as ever, and custom maps that have gone on to define entire subgenres of gaming are still available and awesome to play.

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I enjoy revisiting maps that I haven’t seen in nearly two decades, including Dota clones, tower defenses, survival maps, Mario Party-style games, and castle fight (a subgenre that would go on to inspire the modern deluge of Clash Royale-like games). Warcraft III’s custom map scene was a hotbed of creativity and color, and it’s refreshing to see that many of those games are still infinitely playable today. These classics are great, but map-makers and modders have not yet blazed any new and exciting trails in Reforged – possibly because Blizzard technically owns any player-made creations this time around. That said, revisiting these old game-design stomping grounds is an immensely enjoyable diversion, and by far the best part of my Reforged playtime.

Warcraft III: Reforged teaches the harsh lesson that sacred, legendary titles need to be revisited with only the utmost care. Core elements that made the original an absolute Earth-shaker still remain, but as a remaster meant to enhance the original experience, Reforged is greatly flawed.

Score: 6

Summary: Warcraft III remains an awesome game that stands the test of time, but the remaster is lacking.

Concept: Explore one of history’s best real-time strategy games with new assets and glitches

Graphics: While the revamped visuals are great on peasants and buildings, some characters are jarring diversions from their source material

Sound: Iconic barks, a rambunctious score, and the clashing of steel form a powerful backdrop to the action

Playability: Easy to hop in and play, with varying difficulty modes available for those who just want to experience the Warcraft saga and story

Entertainment: Warcraft III was a great game, but I struggle to find a reason to return to it in this form. Reforged has a laundry list of bugs, lack of polish, multiplayer options markedly amiss from the original offering, and uninspiring new assets

Replay: High

February 6, 2020

Hello typicalusername,

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February 5, 2020

Hello Rimland23,

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