The Thrill And Terror Of Making Monsters

The first season of Telltale’s Batman did an admirable job creating a version of Gotham unlike any other, with Bruce Wayne carefully managing his relationships with confidantes and would-be friends when he wasn’t punching out thugs in alleyways. Though there have been a thousand stories about the origin of Batman, Telltale’s emphasis on how choices dictate allies and enemies made this version particularly compelling. Having established this anything-goes version of Batman’s world, the second season focuses on his greatest nemesis: the Joker.

This second outing starts off rough, with the Riddler showing up in Gotham city to wreak havoc in a killing spree. He’s soon joined by fan favorites Amanda Waller, Harley Quinn, and a host of rogues from Batman’s universe. Telltale puts too many moving pieces on the board, and tedious puzzles and ludicrous plot twists (like one involving an undisguised Bruce Wayne having to infiltrate a group of supervillains) made me question whether the set-up would ever pay off.

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About midway through the season, something special happens: The majority of puzzles and superfluous plot threads disappear, and the relationship between the Joker (a.k.a. John Doe) and Batman takes center stage. Doe is close to Harley and provides a way to gain her trust. However, he’s also mentally unstable, childlike, and desperately wants to to earn your affection and respect. The way my interactions unfolded with the clown prince made it feel like this relationship was a living thing, constantly taking new shape, wriggling just beyond my control thanks to Doe’s unpredictable reactions.

At its core, The Enemy Within is a series of ethical dilemmas centered on friendship, and all those scenarios build to something fascinating and explosive. Just who is John Doe to me? Is he my friend? Someone I’m using for my own personal gain? Is he an irredeemable psychopath, or a man who can use his talents to fight for the greater good? These questions are all Joker-centric concepts that the Batman comics have tackled before, but The Enemy Within shines because it puts us in control of sculpting this iconic character.

Telltale has received plenty of earned criticism over the years regarding choices with too little impact, with series that effectively end in the same way no matter what players do. The Enemy Within upends that. Depending on your interactions with Doe throughout the series, his eventual transformation serves as a catalyst for the finale, with two radically different Jokers that lead to separate (yet equally satisfying) conclusions. The final episode in the series completely changes, with unique episodes telling completely different stories depending on whether or not Joker has joined you as a vigilante or become your nemesis. Both of those paths end whatever side you’ve chosen with thrilling (and heartbreaking) finales that perfectly cap off your adventure through Gotham.

For my part, I felt torn. I tried to serve Gotham, but I also saw John Doe as a person. I wanted to believe he could be good, not just because that would be an interesting twist, but because the Doe’s characterization and dialog is so well done that I was sympathetic to him at all times. Bruce and John also have a buddy-comedy chemistry, with Doe often wide-eyed and making goofy jokes that provide stark contrast to Bruce’s stoic nature.

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The second season’s writing has a surprising amount of craft behind it. I felt like every decision I made was a poor one, but I wasn’t forced into that box in an artificial way. Bruce and John are two people who find themselves in an awful situation. They have different needs from one another and from society as a whole, and what emerges from that combination is disastrous and heart-wrenching, but also compelling.

Beyond superb storytelling, the more traditionally gamey (and often criticized) elements of Telltale’s oeuvre also improve with that halfway point story switch. The puzzles all but disappear, and the quick-time combat scenes have an enjoyable level of creativity, with brutality backed by convincing sound design. These improvements help the story jet along at a nice pacing toward end, refusing to let any obstacle stand between you and the unfolding story.

Despite a flawed start, The Enemy Within emerges as one of Telltale’s best series and one of my favorite narrative-focused games in years. It goes all-in on allowing players to shape the intricacies of Joker and Bruce’s relationship, and it pays off marvelously. As the game sped toward its memorable and beautiful conclusion(s), I couldn’t help but just think how smart the series was, manipulating my emotions much in the same way I had manipulated John. As the credits rolled on my second playthrough, I still felt a lingering desire to dive back in from the beginning, not to see if any of new choices would dramatically shift the story but instead to experience this masterfully told story one last time.

Note: This review is an overview of all five episodes of Batman: The Enemy Within. You can read individual episode breakdown here:

Episode 1: The Enigma
Episode 2: The Pact
Episode 3: Fractured Mask
Episode 4: What Ails You
Episode 5: Same Stitch

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The Online Slump Continues

The boo-birds come out when perennial all-stars are ice cold in the opening months of the season. Fans believe these players didn’t take care of themselves in the offseason, and treated spring training like a vacation. In reality, April’s frigid weather and windy conditions impact player abilities and limit the flight of the ball. As the weather heats up, so do these players.

MLB The Show 18 is the video game equivalent of the slow starter. Online performance issues have become an unwanted annualized feature – so much so that Sony made online infrastructure a central focus of development this year. In previous years, Sony has patched up or stabilized the online experience as the season progressed. This year, the development team didn’t want the online experience to start out cold, but achieving this goal meant difficult cuts.

In prioritizing new technology, Sony was forced to remove online franchise from this year’s game. Offline season mode is also oddly absent. These are two huge avenues of play that delivered different experiences for people – whether it’s shortening up a season for a breezier path to the playoffs or spending significant time battling friends for the pennant. Both are gone.

Did the cuts pay off? As of this writing, MLB The Show 18’s online performance has not improved over previous years. It may even be worse. Along with intermittent latency issues on the field, which can lead to players running past balls or pitches accidentally served up as meat, all online avenues of play are subject to inexplicable loss of progress. A productive morning of playing Battle Royale ended with my experience points and Stubs disappearing, never to return. On another day, I couldn’t locate some cards I purchased with Stubs, and wasn’t reimbursed for them. Servers are also occasionally down during peak hours, and not just for maintenance.

Stability isn’t the only frustrating element of online. As much as I love seeing legendary players like Vida Blue taking on Babe Ruth, the means to obtaining these players is comical. To unlock the best version of Jackie Robinson, I need to get Chase Utley’s program souvenir, another program that isn’t even in the game yet and is listed as “coming soon,” exchange dozens of hats and jerseys, tally 10 hits with a different version of Jackie Robinson ONLY on April 15, and/or perform a bunch of other crazy tasks. Getting immortal or diamond-rank players in The Show has always been a lengthy process, but it’s out of control this year.

Opening a pack of cards to find hats, jerseys, bobble heads, and other unwanted things just strips away the chance of getting a player you can actually use in play. The images on the cards are also showing age. Tommy La Stella is pictured on the Braves, a team he hasn’t played for since 2014. Many players just have silhouettes as images.

The Show’s troubles are mostly contained to just the online component. As usual, Sony has refined the action on the field, which is better than ever this year. New ball physics lead to a wider variety of hits and bounces, and players react to situations in more realistic ways – such as a batter holding up in the batter’s box for a brief second to see if a ball is slicing foul, or a catcher pouncing on a squibber or blocking a ball in the dirt. Catchers get out of stance much faster and can’t be exploited as easily. Fielders are more aware of the runners and apply more authentic tags, depending on how the runner moves. Opponent A.I. is also much savvier, using more shifts and deploying different bullpen and hitting strategies for specific situations. I lost a game to a suicide squeeze in the ninth inning.

The flow of the game is also enhanced with a wider variety of shots of fans, the stadium, coaches, and players. Full-motion replays also add to the broadcast presentation, even though Mark DeRosa’s color commentary is frequently repeated or too generalized.

The control you have over the action is largely unchanged, but you get a better insight into what went wrong with your swing through the redesigned feedback system. The revamped ball physics lead to more hit types and player reactions, but I saw an unusual number of balls bobbled and dropped.

Road to the Show received the most tweaks in terms of how progress is logged. You can no longer create a player capable of reaching level 99 in every category. You must now select an archetype, which has strengths and weaknesses that are capped in specific categories. It makes more sense to hone those skills, and I love the move away from assigning experience points. All gains and losses come on the field and through training. Players get called up quicker if they are tearing it up; my Road the Show player from last year (who toiled in AA ball with a .400-plus average) was immediately called up to the majors when I loaded him up. That’s awesome.

Franchise mode is improved, not from additions, but the streamlining of menus and tasks. All aspects of managing a team are broken up into phases that cover the draft, trades, mid-season play, and more. All of these areas feature shortcuts and can be turned to manual or auto with just a click of a button. Sony also added Retro mode as a style of play for Franchise, which is a bit odd given the arcade framework works against the simulation stats to a degree, but it is fun to compete in a throwback game from time to time. CPU trade logic and roster management looked spot on; it's nice to see cold players getting benched for a game here and there. That's a touch I never expected to see.

Load times for all avenues of play are better, and the play on the field is once again a showpiece of iteration, but the online aspect of the game – where Sony is focusing the most for additions – remains unpredictable at best and completely broken at its worst. As the season goes along, the experience will hopefully get better, but for the hardcore baseball fans that purchased the game early, it can be a nightmare.

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A Bit Too Elementary, My Dear Pikachu

Pikachu was never intended to be the face of Pokémon, but thanks to the popular show, the adorable little electric mouse became the default mascot for the franchise. This critter also wiggled his way into my heart; despite the hundreds of unique pocket monsters Game Freak has created over the years, Pikachu remains one of my favorite travel companions. But none of our adventures have ever looked like this. This version of Pikachu wears an adorable deerstalker hat, talks in a gruff voice, and has the attitude of a noir detective. Somehow, this odd combination makes Pikachu more endearing than ever. The coffee-obsessed sourpuss is a welcome companion during an otherwise-average adventure.

You take on the role of Tim Goodman, the son of an acclaimed detective who was investigating a rash of violent Pokémon outbursts across Ryme City. After Tim’s father goes missing, Tim partners up with Pikachu and the new gumshoes hunt for clues that lead them to the bottom of the disappearance. The larger mystery is surprisingly serious, but I was rarely invested in the overall narrative – and you can see the main twist coming a mile away.

Fortunately, the shenanigans I got into with Pikachu along the way were far more memorable than the overarching story. I liked watching Tim and Pikachu bond over their love for black coffee, and laughed when Tim mistook Detective Pikachu for a “normal,” non-talking Pikachu. The title character also has a lot of lovable personality quirks – he can’t resist sweets and gets excited when he hears his own echo in a cave. I found it endlessly charming to watch one of the most adorable characters in gaming talk like a gruff, middle-aged man while pacing the room with his hand on his chin. At any point in the game, you can touch Pikachu’s portrait on the 3DS’s touchscreen to see what Pikachu is thinking, and I often spammed that button because I was fascinated to see what he would do next.

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The fact that Pikachu is so engrossing is fortunate, because the actual puzzles leave a lot to be desired. Each chapter contains its own mini-mystery that might have Tim and Pikachu recovering a missing neckless, saving a stranded Pokémon, and investigating the nefarious inner workings of a chemical research company. During each mystery, you gather clues by talking to bystanders and examining your environment. Once you’ve collected all the clues for each area, you interact with an incredibly simple matching game where you pair the mystery with a solution and then back up your claim with the supporting evidence you’ve gathered.

Finding these solutions requires no thought or effort; even if you didn’t pay attention when talking to people, selecting the correct answers is easy thanks to brief summaries in your notes. Pikachu also holds your hand through this process and nudges you in the right direction. Even when you make a wrong guess, he tells you to try again, so failing is impossible. This makes the stakes incredibly low, and as a result, provides little satisfaction when you arrive at the solution.

Despite its title, Detective Pikachu isn’t for people who like a good mystery. Its larger narrative isn’t sophisticated, and I felt like I was just going through the motions to solve the smaller mysteries along the way. Even so, Pikachu made a delightful Watson to my Holmes, full of genuine charm and laughs. I enjoyed exploring this Pokémon-filled world with a surly Pikachu so much that I almost didn’t care how we filled our time.

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A Split And Thrilling Conclusion

Telltale’s second season of Batman has a had a lot of moving pieces. The Riddler. Catwoman’s return to Gotham. Amanda Waller and Jim Gordon’s fight for control. Harley Quinn’s supergroup of villains and their mysterious intentions. At the center of it all, the crux of this story has been Batman and the Joker. If the first season was an origin story for Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, then the second is an origin story for his greatest nemesis. Telltale goes all-in on the relationship in the most spectacular fashion, culminating in a fantastic episode that carries the heavy weight of tragedy and made me feel like my choices mattered.

Same Stitch is effectively two episodes in one – an unprecedented move in Telltale’s adventure catalogue. Depending on your choices throughout the series, John Doe (a.k.a. the Joker) either becomes a vigilante to fight alongside of you, or he adopts the classic villain persona. These two paths create different stories for episode 5. And when I say “different,” I don’t mean minor changes; they are radically separate experiences with unique plots and themes. Somehow, they are equally satisfying.

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The vigilante path finds you and Joker squaring off against Amanda Waller as she pursues the clown prince of..uh…do-goodness after the explosive events of the previous episode. Layering plot twist within plot twist, this episode also takes chances with Telltale’s version of Gotham. Bruce and the Joker make jokes with one another, bond, and fight rows of thugs as the Joker squeals happily when he gets to sit in the seat of the Batmobile. However, vigilante Joker still retains some of the menace and the insanity that makes him so memorable, like when he barks at Waller for threatening Batman. It’s a well-balanced act that ends with a barrage of sequences that filled me with dread and wonder, including one lingering shot that’s both grotesque and elegant.

The villain path pits you against an evil, cackling Joker looking to torment Bruce and Gotham for slights against him. While this might sound more boring than vigilante path, Telltale make sure the things that made John Doe so interesting, like his whimpering monologues and his desperate need for Bruce’s friendship, remain in this version of the story. The Joker is still evil, but he sees his villainy as an exercise to earn Bruce’s love, resulting in a twisted (and violent) game of cat and mouse. Several scenes indict your choices throughout the series without being clumsy about it. One of my favorites is a tense sequence in a dining room involving a game of Never Have I Ever. I won’t say more than that, but as a whole, the villain path is diabolical and ends with a devastating, explosive showdown.

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Both versions of Same Stitch assault you in effective ways over your treatment of the Joker throughout the series. The Batman mythos has often presented the idea that Batman himself is responsible for bringing all the lunatics to Gotham city, which in turn makes his crusade a failure from the start – a rich boy’s hobby that makes everything worse. Same Stitch spins on that axis, critiquing Batman just as much as it celebrates him, resulting in a work that feels just as smart as it is earnest.

Not only are these episodes strong on their storytelling merits, but the criticisms often applied to Telltale games have been ironed out. No tedious puzzles or barriers exist between you and this well-paced story. The action sequences are still quick-time events, but they’re also choreographed well. Every encounter is laced with energy and creativity, like a deadly knife ballet with Joker, or throwing Harley through a tea party.

The finale of Batman: Enemy Within is a joy any way you cut it. I was on the edge of my seat during both paths, wondering what would happen next, feeling both dread and excitement all the way until the credits rolled. The episode drops some hints that Telltale isn’t done with Batman yet, but if the series continues, topping the beauty and brilliance of this finale will be difficult.

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Big Sigh Country

After targeting tin-pot dictators and megalomaniacs across the globe, Far Cry 5 sets its sights closer to home. This entry moves the open-world mayhem to Hope County, Montana – a beautiful base of operations for outdoorspeople, rugged individualists, and a murderous death cult. It’s also a playground for the explosive antics that we’ve come to expect from the series, where you and a friend can seamlessly go from taking down an armed convoy to bow hunting to fly fishing – or flying a plane – depending on what sounds fun. Once the luster of the new setting and co-op companionship wears thin, however, you’re left with an experience that’s familiar to a fault.

Hope County has been overrun by Joseph Seed, leader of an apocalyptic cult called Project at Eden’s Gate. A disastrous raid on Joseph’s compound leaves your created character, a rookie sheriff’s deputy, alone and outnumbered in a hostile environment. The setup is interesting, but soon settles into a standard routine. Your job is to clear out the Peggies (the local slur for the cultists) by any means necessary – most of which boils down to reclaiming outposts and taking on missions for the locals. Joseph has a lot of land to cover, and he’s a master at delegating. His church heralds include the charismatic John Seed; hunter of man Jacob Seed; and psy-ops hippie Faith Seed. These three walking archetypes have little consistency between them apart from their last names.

Far Cry 5 isn’t as provocative as its posturing may lead you to believe. Its exploration of religious extremism is too bizarre to be taken seriously, and it’s delivered with a self-serious tone that it doesn’t earn. You get knocked out, abducted, and tied to a chair a ridiculous number of times. Since your character is mute and can’t (or won’t) engage in conversation, you end up with extended scenes where vamping bad guys talk at your immobilized form and over-explain their half-baked philosophies. Some moments attempt to subvert your expectations, but they’re generally limp commentaries along the lines of saying, “Ah, yes, but have you considered that YOU are the real villain here?”

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The story doesn’t offer many big surprises or payoffs, and the same can be said for the gameplay. It’s competent on most fronts, providing a massive world to explore and an arsenal of destructive tools, but it doesn’t feel fresh. Taking down outposts doesn’t provide any new thrills or challenges, and new items like proximity bombs don’t open up encounters. Past games introduced strategy and light puzzle elements as you were rewarded for staking out these camps and figuring out how to take advantage of their weak spots. The Peggies seem more interested in maintaining their human flock than setting up decent defenses. They all follow the same basic setup: A couple of guys are on roofs, one or two have set up shop by the alarms, and a handful of bearded weirdoes linger near the explosive barrels. You’re certainly welcome to scout the bases and direct your A.I. companions to help you remain undetected, but going in with guns blazing is just as effective and definitely more efficient. You may miss out on a few cash bonuses, but I was generally flush throughout the game and at no point felt like I was missing out. Vignettes showing former residents reclaiming each outpost are satisfying, but getting to those points isn’t particularly gratifying.

Ubisoft Montreal does break from past games in a couple of major ways. First, your deputy doesn’t reveal the world around them by climbing towers to get a better view. Instead, you remove the fog on your map by doing missions and finding maps scattered in ranger stations and other structures. Environmental puzzles are still here in the form of lucrative prepper caches, which are one of my favorite parts of Far Cry 5. Each one offers a unique challenge, which can include escaping a trapped bunker or navigating a mountain obstacle course, with big rewards at the end of each one. I got excited every time an NPC conversation put a new cache icon on my map. 

The second major break from tradition is a decreased focus on hunting; animal pelts are only redeemable for cash, and are no longer associated with crafting. I enjoyed the survival aspect from past games, as silly as it was, and it felt strange to see a previously important part of the series fall to the side like that. Instead of using skins to build holsters and ammo pouches, now you invest points in upgrades as you see fit. The game is generous with the points, which you earn through mission progression and challenges, and it’s easy to prioritize abilities to how you like to play. For instance, if you prefer diving into fast-travel locations from the air instead of spawning on the ground, you can choose to do that. Or you can prioritize potions, making it easier to find the required components and reduce their cost. You will be able to pick up most, if not all, of these perks along the way, so it doesn’t matter too much in the long run. 

Dismantling Jacob Seed’s operations could be downright tedious if not for one of the game’s most fleshed-out systems. The Guns for Hire, A.I. companions that you recruit to fight alongside you, add some much-needed variety to the game. There are nine of them to find in the world, and you have to complete a special mission to convince them to tag along. It’s generally worth it. You can bring two of them on your adventures in the solo game, and finding effective combos is part of the fun. Feel like being stealthy? Bring Grace, a sniper, and a tamed cougar named Peaches. Would you rather go a little crazy? Put Hurk (and his RPG) in your crew. Each companion brings something special to the table, too, such as dog Boomer’s ability to automatically mark targets for you. It makes playing solo feel less lonely, and I got a kick out of experimenting with different pairings. The best pairing is with another player, however, and that’s where the game shines. 

For the first time in the Far Cry series, you can play through the entire campaign in co-op. Having a second player around makes the game significantly more entertaining (even if the difficulty balance seems tailored for one), and exploring the playground together is a blast. I had a great time tormenting my partner, whether I was luring him under beehives, blowing up dynamite inside our plane, or rigging his car with explosives. Players are tethered together, so you can’t freely roam around the entire world independently, but it’s a generously long leash. It was never an issue during my time with the game, aside from a few times when I hopped in a plane and took off before my partner could join me in the cockpit. The scripted tasks can feel like chore lists, but players who enjoy messing around with systems can find plenty to love. It’s worth noting that you’ll need to find a charitable partner, since only the host’s mission and world progress is saved. Your buddy will keep their character progression and inventory, but they’ll have to repeat everything else on their own game. 

The experience isn’t necessarily about beelining through the critical path, however. If you don’t take the time to talk to NPCs, you miss out on a wealth of side missions, which are generally more interesting than being talked at for the Nth time by one of the Seeds. Still, Far Cry 5 doesn’t deliver on exploring the lives of people who live in this Red-Dawn-meets-David-Koresh nightmare. You can read notes that outline some of the challenges the characters have faced, but the tragedy isn’t typically explored through gameplay. Instead, you’re asked to chase down baseball cards for a former player who is sad, or harvest bull testicles for a picnic. Those moments of levity are especially jarring when you routinely drive past corpses that have been hung from bridges or strung up in grotesque effigies. “I guess I can help you catch that lunker, ma’am, but have you noticed that your neighbors have been crucified?”

Public executions aside, Far Cry 5’s world is meticulously constructed, and it’s a remarkable facsimile of Big Sky Country. Unfortunately, too much of the action in it is uninspired. It’s a beautiful but bland recitation of what’s come before, from both the series and Ubisoft’s open-world playbook. It’s never bad, but considering how great the past games have been, its overall predictability is disappointing.

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Fun In A Shallow Pool

Sea of Thieves is like the kiddy-pool at the waterpark. They’re both pirate-themed, they both feature fun activities improved by having friends with you, and they’re both shallow in the interest of keeping things entertaining without being dangerous. The stories Sea of Thieves gifts you and your crew are jubilant and silly, but many elements of the experience left me wanting, even when it delivered on the pirate life.

From the beginning, developer Rare has pitched Sea of Thieves as a pirate simulator, and its execution on the core idea is impressive. It lets you manage and sail a ship on the ocean, find hidden treasure, pillage, and drink grog until you stumble and puke all over the bar. Participating in these scenarios with friends is where the game shines. Working together to steer the ship, land on an island, and dig up treasure is incredibly satisfying and almost always leads to laughs, regardless of whether you’re successful/

Nearly every play session results in a story, whether you are suddenly ambushed by a kraken while trying to deliver a treasure chest, or your friend who always screws everything up crashes the boat into the dock and sinks your ship. These moments are joyful, and show Rare has succeeded in manufacturing a digital playground that is fun to explore.

Digging deeper in Sea of Thieves’ assorted tasks, however, reveals the long-term game doesn’t offer much incentive to keep playing. You level up your reputation by completing assignments for the three trading companies which each offer different types of missions. The reward for completion is the opportunity to take on increasingly complicated tasks. The Gold Hoarders, for example, start you with “X marks the spot” maps, but you graduate to full rhyming riddles that require counting paces from landmarks. These offer the most worthwhile rewards in the game, but it ultimately feels moot considering what you can do with your money.

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Sea of Thieves’ various systems make the experience a double-edged cutlass. Every purchasable item is cosmetic and expensive, which keeps the playing field level, but also means you don’t have anything worthwhile or enticing to save up for. Plus, Rare has leaned so hard into the pirate theme that none of the outfits, weapons, or items look cool or distinct. They all just feel… piratey. Rare has confirmed microtransactions are coming to the game eventually, but paying real money for items won’t make them any more enticing.

You won’t find much in the way of a tutorial, which is great for onboarding your friends who just want to start playing with you as soon as possible, but it also means you might be chasing pigs around an island for an hour without figuring out how to catch them. Attacking other players in the open world is exciting, representative of the pirate life, and often hilarious. However, when you and one friend have been working together for an hour to collect multiple chests and a group of four kills you right in front of the redemption point and steals your booty, it is infuriating.

Locking your crew into groups of two, three, and four from the outset fosters comradery and commitment, but adding a friend in the middle of a session is complicated, which goes against the social nature of the game. Combat and shooting shies away from complexity in order to keep it fun for all skill levels, but it feels bland as a result. In most cases, I understand the logic behind these mechanics, like having ship-sailing be a hands-on process to keep everyone communicating and engaged, but it doesn’t always make the pirate-life more fun.

Sea of Thieves’ highs are high. Hearing the clank of your shovel against a chest as you dig feels great, and physically carrying it to the goal is emotionally rewarding (even if it isn’t monetarily rewarding). Exploring the ocean while playing music together with co-op partners on your boat is silly and fun, and watching the sun rise from the bow of your ship as you carry your spoils home is a novel experience. The core mechanics of an innovative co-op journey can be found here, but the carrot being held out in front your ship is unfortunately small and unappetizing.

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A Not-Always Dynamic Duo

A Way Out must be played with a partner in crime, creating cooperation, antagonism, and communication between the game's two characters, Leo and Vincent. Fugitives on the run, the pair confront a wide gamut of experiences, bringing them together both in the shared purpose of revenge and even in understanding. That the game creates a connection between the characters, and to a lesser extent the players as well, is a measure of success, but that doesn't mean the title always hits its intended mark.

In their attempt to break out of jail and track down the man who has done them both wrong, Leo and Vincent are bonded in spirit and in gameplay. A Way Out often divides into splitscreen (vertical and horizontal) to show both players what their characters are doing, letting each person move around and act freely simultaneously. Apart from some occasionally hard-to-hear audio mixing when there are two different conversations occurring at the same time, the screen system works well. It's not distracting to watch both screens at once if necessary, and the switch to a single screen is also effective.

The ultimate expression of this co-op vision is the game's hospital scene, which unfolds in a cinematic single cut that follows both men as they simultaneously evade the police in different parts of the building. The action is not boring visually or physically, and you're focused even when the game camera wipes over to the trouble your comrade is in.

Unfortunately, swaths of the gameplay in the title are less absorbing, consisting of simple button presses or mashing that don't always match the possible excitement of what's going on. During the jailbreak sequences, for instance, the gameplay and tension of the moment don't always match up effectively. Leo and Vincent often have to work together, but the gameplay doesn't do justice to the title's central component: the characters' solid bond. Moving dumpsters, boosting your partner to a ledge, and performing simple R2 button presses isn't interesting as the game progresses.

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Hazelight introduces some co-op-focused side activities in the world, from a Pong-like arcade cabinet called Grenade Brothers to darts, baseball, and arm wrestling. But they aren't that engaging, and they slacken the narrative tension rather than fleshing out the world. You can press square to screw in a lightbulb in a barn, but that doesn't make the game better.

I enjoyed the way Leo and Vincent's journey ended, as it fits the characters and the co-op format. But even with all they go through from robberies, torture, and family interludes, I wasn't attached to their relationship. Hothead Leo is endearing and well voice-acted, but Leo and Vincent don't have the bond-through-banter that Uncharted characters might, for example. It's fitting that a relationship born of the need to escape prison and defeat a shared enemy comes off as one of convenience that's not strengthened even through gameplay. While A Way Out is not a choice-based game per se, the fact that the decision points that are supposed to encapsulate each character's worldview don't actually have repercussive effects in the world (you end up at the same places no matter what) or affect the pair's relationship only dulls their identity.

A Way Out's co-op vision is a bold choice that works because it uncompromisingly places players in a co-op context, joining them onscreen and off. But given the weakness of the gameplay at times, perhaps the game isn't bold enough.

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Not Quite A Winning Move

While Sam Barlow’s previous game, Her Story, channels the appeal of older technology to tell an enriching mystery, his latest effort stokes more current anxieties. #WarGames touches on the modern surveillance state, our vulnerability to being exposed online, and the veracity of news media. But while its premise and approach to cinematic storytelling are intriguing, its storytelling lacks the punch necessary to build on its novelty.

#WarGames does a good job of making you feel like a voyeuristic hacker. The story plays out through an interface of shifting video feeds of characters’ webcams and phones, as well as security feeds, Twitter pages, and more. You can highlight a specific feed to enlarge it, letting you pick up on a few minor character moments you might otherwise miss. You can also alter the story depending on which feeds you focus on, but shifting to a specific character’s video didn’t make me feel like an active participant in the story. Instead, I felt like a moviegoer who had to do a little extra work to get the full picture.

The multi-screen approach to storytelling puts a large emphasis on characters, which #WarGames falters on as often as it succeeds. The story follows Kelly “L1ghtman” Grant, one part of the hobbyist hacker crew “#WarGames,” who enjoys screwing with celebrities and uploading viral videos exposing them. When Kelly sees a misleading report on the news accusing her now-deceased veteran mother of treason, however, she and the #WarGames crew start tackling more personal targets.

Actor Jess Nurse does a great job of bringing Kelly to life, and she quickly won me over.  Many of the secondary characters, such as bratty schoolkid Zane or mother-of-two Torch, are hit-or-miss; awkward lines and overeager deliveries reminded me more of a budget TV series than a blockbuster film. This is clearly Kelly’s story, but you don’t get enough screen time with anyone else for them to develop. Still, the interactions between #WarGames, their allies, and their targets lead to some fun moments, especially as the action ramps up during a couple of heists.

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The plot also draws parallels to real-world events, such as the controversy surrounding U.S. Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl, the circulation of US weapons to war-torn countries, and the doxxing and exposing of high-profile celebrities. These are all fascinating threads to pull on, and the story is at its best when it explores their implications. But the plot only skims their surface, leading to a bland story that stifles its message and ends on a disappointing cliffhanger.

You can go back through the season once you’ve finished all six episodes, but there isn’t much reason to. The additional scenes you unlock by focusing on different screens don’t justify multiple playthroughs. You might learn a thing or two about different characters, but you can’t meaningfully alter the course of the plot.

The biggest difference I encountered comes when the #WarGames crew tries to sneak into a target’s hotel room. On my first playthrough, Kelly acted as a diversion by confronting the target head-on long enough for her boyfriend Rafi to get in and out of the room undetected. The second time, Zane was able to activate the sprinklers, forcing everyone out of the building and letting Rafi get away. Most other differences, however, are negligible.

#WarGames’ TV-style branding suggests a second season might soon emerge, but I’m not invested in seeing it continue at this point. It has potential as an experiment in interactive storytelling, but it’s going to take better acting, more meaningful choices, and meatier subject matter to keep me on board.

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A Bloody Good Party

Vermintide 2 shamelessly wears its influences on its sleeve. A love letter to both Left 4 Dead and Diablo, the game casts you as a party of characters fending off an invading army of rat-men (called Skaven), orcs, and all sorts of nasty beasts that want to tear the world to shreds. While that pitch might sound generic, strong multiplayer systems and enjoyable combat make Vermintide 2 a blast as long as you’re playing with other people.

After a short prologue, you pick your hero. Each one is essentially a class, and all of them fall squarely within fantasy tropes; the dwarf swings a big axe, and the elf snipes foes from afar with her bow. However, all the characters have well-defined personalities, and the exchanges between them as you roam the levels of Vermintide 2 are amusing as they bicker, comfort, and even compliment one another.

Each hero’s skills are unique and make the different classes feel distinct, even if you are mostly just chopping your way through hordes of monsters. My personal favorite is Kerillian, the dual-blade wielding elf who also regenerates health and fires homing arrows that can do massive damage. I also like jumping between the Battle Wizard, capable of showering foes in disintegrating flames, and the pistol-wielding Witch Hunter Captain.

Each character also has two subclasses, giving you ample opportunity to develop your style of play further. My Kerillian flirted with being a close-quarters, stealthy character capable of stalking foes to deliver devastating backstabs. However, I didn’t care for that playstyle, so I switched back to her original focus on archery. Vermintide 2 offers enough flexibility and variety here for most players to find a character they’ll like.

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Vermintide 2 has a large stack of levels, all of them taking about half an hour to finish, with the goal being to get from one end to the other to accomplish some objective. Sometimes that means freeing prisoners from cages, while other times it’s solving a puzzle or taking on a boss. Every environment is varied and pleasing to the eye, so I never felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again. My favorite section took place in a destroyed village on a mountainside, with parts of houses and interiors being suspended over a great chasm.

At the end of each level, you earn a set amount of experience (even if you fail, which is nice), as well as a lootbox. Vermintide 2 has no microtransactions, but the lootboxes contain random pieces of equipment. You can upgrade the the quality of loot with tomes and grimoires, which boosts your stats and damage-dealing properties. However, the objects need to be carried to the end of a stage, and they make the game harder (like cutting down everyone’s health bar). This creates a satisfying metagame of risk and reward for players who want to play levels over and over to earn the best loot.

The combat is satisfying enough to kill the boredom of repetition from doing these levels repeatedly. The bodies of your foes fall realistically and gruesomely, with sideway slashes tearing apart limbs and heads, and you can almost feel the thunk of an axe as it splits a rat in half. When hit by fire, enemies screech and turn to a pile of ash. Occasionally, you have the horde of weak enemies descend upon you, and if you’re together as a group, it’s easy to cut through them and create this disgusting (but highly entertaining) blender effect with bodies and blood flying in every direction.

Vermintide 2 is a hell of a time, especially if you’ve got a dedicated group. You can play with random players and still have a great time, as the lootbox design of the game rewards players for working together and teaching one another how to play, but Vermintide 2 shines the most when you’re working with a skilled team who know where all the secret items are and have strategies ready to go to take down the nasty bosses. In these moments, the game goes from being a fun, dumb romp to a thrilling experience that requires tactics and cooperation to earn your party a victory.

However, the intensity of the matches can be thrown off by wonky difficulty scaling. Bosses are the biggest problem. In every level, there’s a chance you’ll encounter one or more bosses. Sometimes it’s a bullet-sponge creature that deals heavy damage; other times it’s a fragile monster that’s capable of downing you in a single hit. One of them is particularly nasty: the Spawn of Chaos. This monster not only has a ton of health and takes little damage, but is also capable of grabbing one of your party to feast on them and recover health. While it’s fun and intense to scream panicked orders and pleas, the game has a habit of stacking the odds against you in a frustrating manner.

Unlike the Director A.I. technology that made Left 4 Dead’s dramatic boss fights feel well-placed and satisfying, Vermintide 2’s equivalent is more random. One time, my party used up all our potions and supplies defeating a Spawn of Chaos, only to turn a corner and find another one waiting to kill us. Another time, we proceeded through a level and didn’t fight a boss at all. The randomness felt more like it detracted from my experience than added to it, with a number of my matches coming to an end that felt unfair.

Even more disappointing than that lack of balance is the lack of consideration for those who want to face the Skaven alone. Vermintide 2 has bots that take the place of your fellow players, which is useful if you only need one to help draw away the horde. But playing with a full set of bots is not recommended. They’re just not smart, and are often incapable of being there when needed. You can probably get through earlier levels with them but in the harder stages, you essentially need other players to help you.

Vermintide 2s’s co-op delights are gruesome fun, especially if you have a dedicated group of friends to take on the horde of monsters and level up your characters. The bloody thrills of working with fellow players to shred entire armies of foes into meat makes this grisly battlefield surprisingly fun (if unsettling) place to spend time.

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Building An Imperfect Union

No government is perfect. While many idealistic concepts give birth to new nations, the implementation of those ideas usually strays from the intent – and yet, governments can succeed and thrive despite their imperfection. Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is the same. It chronicles the monarchy of King Evan with an ambitious framework that includes elements of traditional role-playing, city-building, and real-time strategy – which all sounds amazing in theory. In reality, these concepts fall short in their execution and leave the game’s full potential conspicuously unrealized, but those missed opportunities don’t prevent it from being charming or entertaining.

Ni no Kuni II is a brand new story, and doesn’t require any familiarity with the first game. It follows Evan, a young ruler forced to leave his homeland and start a new kingdom from scratch. I can’t exactly say that the narrative is bad, but the straightforward fairy tale doesn’t go anywhere interesting. Evan wants to create a world without war, so he sets off to unite the other kingdoms one by one. You collect a handful of archetypical party members along the way, but after their initial introductions, they fade into the background and stop playing any notable role in events. Because of this, most characters never grow; you know everything you’re going to learn about the smart and confident sky-pirate princess as soon as she joins your party early on. This means advancing a lot of dull text-box conversations that don’t convey much in terms of personality (due to sparse use of voiced dialogue and full-fledged cutscenes), and cast members who feel like interchangeable cardboard cut-outs.

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Though the story didn’t keep me interested, the gameplay propelled me forward due thanks to a clever kingdom-building system. Your realm, Evermore, starts as a meager encampment and grows into a sprawling city as you upgrade abilities, recruit specialists, and build structures like farms and shops. The brilliance here is how Evermore functions as your primary progression system. If you want better armor, upgrade the outfitters. If you want better items, invest in the general store. You can also research passive buffs that improve your experience gains or help you expand Evermore more efficiently. I was completely hooked on this loop; I loved chasing down sidequests that lured new residents that my kingdom. This gives you new research and construction options, and the abundance of available tasks always provides something enticing to pursue. Plus, I like how currency and items accrue in the background as time passes, so no matter what you do (even if you’re just standing idle), you’re making progress.

With things like weapon development and spell upgrades, much of what you accomplish in your kingdom funnels into combat. Battles are fluid and action-driven, letting you control any party member in real time and take down crowds of monsters with various techniques. The simple system is accessible and fun, but it is also the nexus for the myriad ways in which Ni no Kuni II’s ideas need refinement. Fights may be entertaining, but they also don’t provide much challenge, so you don’t have any incentive to learn its intricacies. For instance, you can craft and level up a vast array of magical helpers called Higgledies to assist you, but you can also get by just fine with a basic set, so the extra effort seems pointless. And despite your ability to upgrade spells, magic isn’t more efficient or useful than basic skills, so that endeavor also feels like wasted resources. The optimizer in me still enjoyed digging through my options and mowing down my opponents, but ultimately, my reward was making an already-easy game even easier.

A secondary combat system involves more strategic encounters that have Evan controlling a small army, but this idea feels half-baked. A basic rock-paper-scissor dynamic generally determines victory, so choosing your four units before the encounter carries much more tactical significance than any decision you make on the battlefield. I enjoyed getting new units and bolstering the strength of my forces, but the limited scope and clunky controls of these conflicts hold them back. I enjoyed engaging in these skirmishes occasionally for a change of pace (or to get a new citizen), but they were usually on the bottom of my to-do list.

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom may not nail everything it attempts, but it gets the important things right. Building your kingdom is satisfying and engaging, even with the weak narrative hooks. The cycle of rewards became an obsession, and had me staying up late to recruit just one more ally, or complete just one more upgrade. Combat could be tighter, and other supporting elements could use some polish – but like any kingdom, this experience isn’t about individual contributions. It’s about how those contributions come together, and the fun of this experience as a whole outweighs its flaws.

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The Dragon’s Fiery Conclusion

The Yakuza series is stronger than ever, with the recent wave of PlayStation 4 remasters and a new prequel game bringing Kazuma Kiryu to appreciative new audiences. Just as those fledgling fans are figuring out what loyal Yakuza players have known for more than a decade, Yakuza 6 comes along and upends it all. The latest entry in the series may mark the end of Kiryu’s tale, but don’t worry; Sega gives The Dragon of Dojima the sendoff he deserves. 

Without getting too deep in the weeds, Yakuza 6’s story centers on Kiryu’s adopted daughter Haruka Sawamura, who is struck by a hit-and-run driver early on. She was holding a child at the time of the event, and that child’s identity is paramount to the overall arc. The long story is told through an abundance of cutscenes, but I was engaged throughout. Players who are concerned about jumping into the finale without having played through all the other games shouldn’t worry, either. While the story is complicated, it’s largely self-contained. The game cleverly provides context for the important players in the world, and in rare instances when a cameo or reference didn’t click for me, I never felt lost.

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The story provides broad motivations, but much of the Yakuza 6 experience is about making your own way through the world. Between Kamurocho’s familiar neon playground and the comparatively calmer Onomichi in Hiroshima prefecture, Yakuza 6 gives you plenty to do. The two locations are a joy to explore, and they’re brimming with optional activities. Kiryu has a lot of time on his hands, and I looked forward to every opportunity to keep him busy. Many of the missions provide rewards that feed into two of your biggest diversions; the people you help often want to join your baseball team or help take down gangs in your new Kiryu Clan. I’ve spent my fair share of time in Yakuza’s batting cages, and it was satisfying to show off my skills while managing my own crew of sluggers. I didn’t find the clan missions (which are basically tower-defense, minus the towers) quite as interesting, but I was still compelled to complete them all.

The brawler-style combat feels satisfying, whether you’re swinging your fists or whatever random props you can grab, and I appreciate little touches like the way terrain affects how you take down goons. Getting into scraps is quick, too, which encouraged me to seek out encounters even near the end of my adventure. Dragging enemies into stores, where the battles continue, is particularly fun – probably because I didn’t have to worry about picking up the mess. Thanks to a reworked leveling system, I leveled up abilities and unlocked moves the way I wanted, rather than having to work my way around a preset ability grid. All these little elements help deliver an exhilarating sense of freedom. 

One of my favorite things about Yakuza 6 is that it delivers surprises at such a steady clip. Kiryu’s quest has life-and-death stakes, but he’s pretty much down for whatever along the way. If you’re interested, you can spend countless hours in side missions and other activities, including spear-fishing, babysitting, and chatting up ladies online. Japan’s citizens have their share of issues, too, which don’t necessarily involve gang warfare. I was eager to lend a hand to everyone who needed help, partially because the rewards can be great, but also in large part because these side missions are so delightfully strange. More importantly, it’s a blast. A typical Yakuza 6 session – if such a thing exists – can include darts and karaoke, before concluding with a goofy quest to retrieve an engagement ring from an errant robotic vacuum. The game does a great job in delivering both a meaningful and emotionally resonant story, as well as some of the weirdest, silliest stuff I’ve seen in a long time.

As fun as it all was, I’m still sad to see Kiryu off. He leaves the series on his own terms, and the conclusion is a fitting tribute to the character. One of the things I’ve liked most about him is how he remained decent, even though his lifestyle frequently put him into contact with decidedly less decent folks. Heck, one of the game's lengthiest mission chains is focused on making friends with all the patrons at a bar. Kiryu approaches the bizarre situations he encounters with grace and empathy, while also bringing a righteous rage when necessary. I’ll certainly miss Kiryu, but we clearly haven’t seen the end of Yakuza.

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The Pink Puff Goes On Auto-Pilot

For better or worse, Kirby is Nintendo’s most consistent franchise. New entries come often, and they don’t stray too far from the “pretty good” mark in either direction. On that scale of inoffensiveness, Star Allies rests a bit on the low end, offering a bland Kirby experience with few new mechanics.

The premise this time around is evil things are invading Dream Land and Kirby must expel them by grabbing some friends and beating up bad guys. The twist for Star Allies is Kirby can throw hearts at select enemies to add them to his team. It can be played cooperatively with up to three others, but if you play alone, A.I. controls the partners. The game delivers standard-but-unsurprising Kirby action, but the final boss does stand out as a large and interesting finale – though I won’t spoil it here.

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The option to play with friends is nice, and the Switch’s Joy-Con setup makes jumping in and out of cooperative play easy, but the overall design suffers tremendously from the multiplayer options. Having four players makes combat a cakewalk. Kirby and pals steamroll their way through every encounter, and every boss is a breeze. As a series, Kirby titles are generally designed to be friendly to younger players, but when gingerly tapping the attack button without any regard for position or stolen ability is enough to complete any objective, it gets boring. Having A.I. partners makes things ridiculously easy, as they do most of the work; they can even solve puzzles for you before you get a chance to consider the solutions.

The last two mainline 3DS Kirby titles, Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot, proved Kirby is capable of interesting level design, but Star Allies plays out as a series of flat, horizontal slogs. Apart from a few barrel-blasting sequences (in the style of Donkey Kong Country) and moments where Kirby and his partners roll along as one giant ball, you won’t find much to do other than move from left to right.

Star Allies gets credit for a great soundtrack, great controls, and an epic finale. Even if the visuals are the epitome of generic Kirby, they look sharp. HAL delivers a polished Kirby experience here that plays well, but it ultimately amounts to a forgettable adventure that demands so little from the player that I sometimes felt like I was barely involved at all.

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War And Laughter

Let it never be said that indie developer The Behemoth hasn’t carved out its own unique identity thanks to the studios blend of stylish art and offbeat humor. Following on the heels of Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater, Pit People channels the exaggerated art style of its predecessors while embracing a more strategic mode of gameplay. The result is a romp of a game that rewards you with hilarious jokes for dominating foes on the battlefield.

Pit People embraces absurdity out of the gate, opening on a blueberry farmer named Horatio fending off cannibals who want to eat his son, Hansel, while the world is showered in green good and a cosmic narrator mocks the farmer. Things only get wackier from there, with Horatio going on a quest to rescue his son after the bear kidnaps him, recruiting a gallery of characters to help out. Though Horatio doesn’t have much personality, the crew surrounding him is hilarious and memorable, like Sofia, an explorer who passionately claims every new area you come across in the world “in the name of Spain.” You also have a literal cupcake named Gluten to serve as your healer, and the mischievous-yet-loyal cyclops Yosef.

Your quest takes you through an overworld filled with every biome imaginable: deserts, snowy plains, forests, candy mountains, and cities made of circuit boards. Pit People’s world doesn’t have a unique identity, since more than anything it exists as a series of disparate environments stitched together. But that ultimately works, because it draws attention to Pit People’s biggest offerings: zany characters and battles.

The battle system is an odd blend, eschewing a surprising amount of unit control for a hexagonal battlefield where placement rules supreme. You can’t specify which enemies your units attack. Instead, you move them within range of enemies, and they attack whatever foe is there. If multiple foes are within that unit’s range, then they randomly strike one of them. This lack of control can be frustrating, like when the enemy with a sliver of health remains on the field because your unit attacks the foe next to him, but it also adds a kind of unpredictability that’s often missing from strategy games and can have its own rewards. For example, I once meant to shoot an enemy unit with an arrow but instead shot his companion. The companion died and exploded, dealing severe area damage to everyone around him, clinching in one exhilarating moment a battle that was uncertain from the get-go.

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At least half of the strategy in Pit People comes from pre-battle preparation. You have a certain number of slots in your party. You obviously want attackers and defenders, but how do you break that up? Do you have an archer for your long-distance attacks? Or a mortar? Do you sacrifice two spaces in your party to make room for a cyclops capable of dealing heavy physical damage? Should you bring a healer even though your units regain health when they level up in battle? Once the encounters start in Pit People, you’ve already made the important decisions that determine the flow of the fight. Ultimately, I think the uniqueness of this setup makes for a more interesting strategy game, but arriving to a battle and being screwed from the get-go because you don’t have the right unit can be frustrating.

If you want to add another element in the mix, you can also play Pit People co-op (local and online), with you and your partner splitting the characters between you. It’s a neat feature that adds another dimension to tactical play, but it’s not particularly deep or necessary to enjoy Pit People. You can also play battles in the pit, an in-game arena, to earn money to buy goofy cosmetics for your characters and mercenary characters to wage war for you.

The first few fights are surprisingly difficult, as I struggled to get my bearings with the idiosyncratic system and understanding how important preparation was. After the first couple of hours, I started building my army by capturing units during battle (buy the item that lets you do this) and making sure each slot had a character with a defined purpose. Soon I was devising tactics for my units, like using my healer as bait to draw enemies into firing range of my mortar. Figuring out how to manage your units and eventually triumph is immensely satisfying, as are the gags.

Pit People is a ridiculously funny game. If you’re fan of Monty Python’s wacky brand of humor, you’ll feel right at home with the jokes here. Whether it was the mocking and villainous space bear, who acts as the game’s narrator, or the whimsical Loki-like Jerkimedes tricking me into slaughtering a retirement home of cupcake people (oops), Pit People had me in stitches. The many sidequests are also hilarious, with several of them functioning as multi-step short stories centered on memorable characters, like Harry the Troll detective, who speaks as though he’s reading a gumshoe novel.

Pit People does a lot of things right, but it also has abundance of unnecessary systems that give rise to mild frustration. For example, when you leave your town to go out into the world, you have a limited inventory that you can use to store healing items, recruitment items, and the spoils of battle. If you’re completing side quests littered throughout the world, that inventory fills up quickly. And since there’s no fast travel to your home, you have to constantly journey back to to your base. This is tedious, especially since the fog of war on the overworld never goes away, meaning you have to constantly check your map to see where you’re going. The main quest also has a questionable stealth level that’s not insurmountable, but it sure is annoying.

When all is said and done, it’s the potential for laughter that proves to be Pit People’s standout achievement. The tactical gameplay is interesting and entertaining, but the comedy is the star of the show here. I enjoyed my time with The Behemoth’s new, funky world, as well as the cast of lovable characters who inhabit it, and will fondly remember many of its gags for a long time to come.

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Weathering Life And Loss

The first Life is Strange made its mark for showcasing the hardships of life and the parts about us we often hide from the world. The developers’ courage to pursue topics like grief and depression authentically is what made the series so special. Before the Storm continues to be brave and bold, presenting difficult situations similar to those we saw in the original. This prequel gives new insight into Chloe, showing her gaining confidence while she struggles with the loss of her father. With Rachel, a character we only heard about in the first game, we now know what was so unique about their connection and have plenty of their moments to cherish. Before the Storm’s greatest asset is how it builds a genuine relationship between its two leads, making you root for them and understand what they mean to each other as both their lives fall apart. 

The tale takes place two years after the death of Chloe's father (and three years before she reconnects with Max). Chloe is testing her boundaries, sneaking out to concerts, and ditching school. It may be a cry for help, but it’s also the best way she can deal with her grief. Enter Rachel, a girl who seems like she has everything: She’s popular, gets good grades, and has an ever-present aura of confidence. Rachel is tired of it all, though; even if you seem to have it all, that doesn’t mean your life is perfect. The girls find each other at a time when they desperately need someone else to understand their struggles, and it’s a great reminder of how listening to someone can go a long way.

Before the Storm’s biggest accomplishment is how Deck Nine developed one of the most genuine relationships I’ve seen displayed between two women in a video game. Since this was only a three-part arc, some episodes seem rushed (especially the finale), but Deck Nine creates a bond and makes you care for Chloe and Rachel as individuals and a pair. The writers also offer plenty of moments to accentuate their connection, from Chloe and Rachel’s performance in a play to Rachel’s disastrous family dinner with only Chloe there to help her pick up the pieces. Watching Rachel and Chloe’s relationship unfold is the core of the experience, but it isn’t perfect in its depiction. After knowing each other for only a few days, Chloe and Rachel’s relationship progresses at an accelerated rate, but the chemistry is there from the beginning so it doesn’t feel completely out of left field. 

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I also wish we saw more about how they had their falling out from the first game, and how Rachel eventually gets involved with Frank, but I’m also okay that the writers chose to showcase the early blossoming of this beautiful friendship. Before the Storm makes me feel for Chloe more than I ever did, and I now care about Rachel, who was merely an ephemeral, missing girl in the original Life of Strange. 

The bulk of the game centers on dialogue choices and some simple puzzles, where you locate items in the environment and put them to use. A new “back talk” option gives you a way to act out as Chloe and talk your way out of situations. This mechanic feels out of place in some instances, as her reactions are so over-the-top, but it becomes toned down as the story goes on. 

Unlike Max, Chloe doesn’t have supernatural rewind powers, so Before the Storm is grounded in reality. This forces you to own your choices, for better or worse. Your decisions may not completely alter the narrative, but you get little callbacks that make them satisfying, like another round of D&D or seeing that stealing wine actually turned out to be a good thing. The hardest decision comes at the end of the game, and it builds on the themes of growing up and living a facade. The game doesn’t judge you for this choice, but it says a lot about your vision for Chloe’s character and her relationship with Rachel. 

Before the Storm made me care about Chloe and Rachel, giving me backstory into both of their lives before Max comes back. The journey is bittersweet, knowing the tragic events from the first game for both characters. As a prequel, Before the Storm succeeds because it tells its own story that leaves you content, while also connecting to the original game in a meaningful way. Deck Nine may not have a hand in the original, but it made sure to do Chloe and Rachel’s story justice, capturing the essence of Life is Strange while providing plenty of nods to fans.

Bonus Episode: Farewell

Fans who purchased the deluxe edition were treated to a bonus episode with Chloe and Max’s original voice actresses. This story is told from Max’s point of view, right before she tells Chloe her family is moving. The two live out their childhood once more together, playing pirates and reminiscing about their friendship, like when Chloe got into magic tricks and they both loved boy bands. Sadly, their lives take drastic turns, forcing them to grow up in different ways. I enjoyed the episode for what it was, showing Max and Chloe going down different paths and why they both changed. Just don’t get your hopes up too much for this short epilogue; look at it as one last goodbye to these wonderful characters rather than something that expands the story in meaningful ways.

Note: This review is an overview of all three episodes of Life is Strange: Before the Storm. You can read individual episode breakdowns here, here, and here.

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Solid Survival Shooting

 

The concept of H1Z1 is simple: Hit the ground running, grab a backpack and whatever weapon is handy, and head to the safe zone while blowing away 149 opponents. Anything can happen during a match, including stealthy shootouts from behind crates, getting shot in the back while trying to cross an open field, and snagging a risky airdrop for some potent weapons and armor. Variety is the spice of life, and it’s also the cornerstone of H1Z1 that keeps you coming back for more.

 

The core mode can be played solo, with a friend, or with a team of five, so you can enjoy the bloody melee without having to worry how many friends you have around. Making it down to the final circle of play while dodging airstrikes, bullets, and poison gas is often a thrilling experience, and you can go from hero to zero with the single crack of a shotgun. Whatever your skill level, making it to the last moments of a match is fun and frantic, and snack-sized stories often happen along the way. A player who gives away their location with proximity voice chat by accident when his mom calls him downstairs for chicken tenders, the player who just does donuts in a cop car around a warehouse waiting for someone to come pick a fight, or the jaded sniper waiting for you on top of the final hill. These are all memorable moments that make a match interesting and engaging.

 

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The one-life, last-person standing structure creates a high-tension slaughterhouse that is is the bedrock of H1Z1, but it has other neat modes that differentiate it from battle royale competitors. One is Combat Zone which lands players in a small playing field, forcing tons of immediate action for all participants, and everyone starts fully loaded with a rack of weapons ready to rock. More importantly, it also allows players to immediately respawn and get right back into the endless battle.

 

Combat Zone is an excellent way to get a handle on how weapons fire, combat tactics, and more in a zero-stress environment. It is the perfect aperitif if you’re a seasoned player looking to practice with certain weapons, or if you’re a new player who wants extra trigger time before stepping into a mode where the stakes are higher.

 

Getting behind the wheel in the standard game is a powerful way to zip around the ever-shifting field of play, but vehicular gameplay is taken to a new level in the Auto Royale mode where teams are stacked into cars at the beginning of the game. You can’t get out of the vehicles, so your driver had better be adept at slamming on the nitro boosts, hitting the jump pads, and plunking down land mines while the rest of the team unloads buckets of ammo at supply crates and opposing vehicles. If your car goes up in smoke, that’s the end of the match for you. The novelty of Auto Royale is fun for a few rounds and a nice palate cleanser, but it lacks the compelling gameplay loop of the core mode and ultimately feels like a tacked-on diversion.

 

H1Z1 has some cool modes that give it some extra oomph, but the field of battle royales already has some excellent choices. H1Z1 has a solid foundation of scavenging, shooting, and surviving, but it needs a little more vim and vigor to really compete in the battle royale free-for-all.

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Straying From The Path

My biggest problem with side-scrolling brawlers has always been their mindlessness. Even when a few upgrade trees or RPG systems are thrown in to make them more intricate, I can’t escape the feeling I’m just mashing the punch button until everyone’s dead. Way of the Passive Fist addresses this issue with more mindful combat that wants you to pay close attention in every fight. But while its combat is novel and fun at first, it doesn’t lift the experience above some glaring issues.

Rather than punching your way through legions of street thugs, Way of the Passive Fist has you hanging back and watching the movements of the many bandits, robots, and monsters you face as you make your way through a thin, post-apocalyptic plot that serves more as context than a real pull. Your main weapon against your enemies are well-timed parries and dodges, which drain your foes’ stamina until they keel over from exhaustion. 

Every enemy has their own multi-hit attack strings to memorize, giving combat a rhythmic feel.  Once I had learned most of the enemy patterns, I was parrying punches, dodging throws, and returning throwing knives to their senders in a matter of seconds, which made me feel like the center of a well-choreographed action movie fight scene. As you parry attacks you build up a combo meter, giving you access to powered-up moves like charged-up punches and grabs. Saving up these attacks for clusters of enemies or hulking brutes adds a fun strategic layer to all the parrying.

Unfortunately, combat grows stale over time. Though later levels introduce a few new enemy types, they’re mostly palette-swapped foes with faster, more difficult attack patterns, which don’t do much to stave off how repetitious combat can be. Although it can make for some cool maneuvers, the rhythm-based combat isn’t as satisfying as you’d expect; instead of feeling like I’d accomplished some feat of dexterity or skill, I was rewarded simply for paying attention and playing long enough to memorize each enemy’s pattern.

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Moving around during combat is also a bit of a chore, which causes a few issues. It isn’t a constant concern since you and your opponents are usually standing still as you defend against their attacks, but a few levels emphasize deft movements. The side-scrolling view isn’t great at relaying whether you can hit an opponent, making for some frustrating situations in which my charged-up punch missed because I wasn’t at the right height (which is especially aggravating during boss fights). Positioning causes problems during levels that have you dodging lasers or bombs; if you’re in the middle of parrying a string of attacks when you see your cue to dodge, you’re probably going to get hit. I also had times when enemies’ attacks would overlap with each other, asking me to parry attacks from two sides at once, which is impossible.

One way to mitigate these problems is with difficulty sliders, which let you tailor various gameplay aspects to your liking. After finishing the story mode, I wanted to test my parry reactions but didn’t want to deal with health management, so I made it much harder to land parries, but made it health pickups more abundant. This is a smart way to let players learn and experiment, and I like that no content is gated based on difficulty.

A few arcade modes encourage you to replay levels to get high scores and bragging rights, but I felt as if I’d seen everything interesting on my first time through. Enemy encounters don’t drastically change between playthroughs, either, and the lack of multiplayer means it lacks the party-friendliness that can liven up subsequent runs.

The rhythm-based combat and malleable difficulty set Way of the Passive Fist apart from most brawlers in an interesting way. But while it starts strong, the combat doesn’t carry it over a host of issues. Without other ways to keep players busy it isn’t worth going back to after the first unsatisfying playthrough. Way of the Passive Fist offers an interesting alternative to the mash-happy games of the genre’s past, but after the novelty wears off, it fails to connect.

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Dead On Revival

In 2000, Kronos Digital and Eidos released a unique anime-inspired action game called Fear Effect for the original PlayStation. Its slick presentation, Ghost in the Shell-inspired world, and mature narrative earned it a cult following. That following had reason to rejoice when Sushee's Kickstarter campaign promised to bring the series back. Unfortunately, Fear Effect Sedna could serve as a case study on everything that can go wrong when resurrecting a franchise.

The original Fear Effect and its prequel were some of the first games to bring anime-like visuals to life, and their smooth storytelling helped them stand out. Sedna fails to recapture any of that magic. The generic environments lack the neon glow and exotic technology that made the original series so dazzling, while the story is a mess of cringe-inducing dialogue. I didn't know who the main antagonist was until the final boss fight, and even then, their motivations were unclear. When the credits rolled, I was left wondering, "What was the point?"

As bad as the story is, things are worse between cutscenes. Sedna attempts to mix top-down shooting with stealth and strategy, but its execution is bad in every category. As a top-down shooter, Sedna feels unresponsive and clunky. During battle, you have the option to pause the action and issue commands to your party, but the combat isn't built around this type of strategy. A single attack does little damage, and you don't have a wide variety of abilities to choose from. This makes the action plodding and monotonous if you're pausing frequently. Hardcore strategy also isn't necessary because the A.I. is so stupid. It doggedly locks on to one character and rarely looks away; I often had that character hide in cover and wait until the rest of my companions took out the inexplicably fixated enemy.

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If you're patient, you can attempt to take out some foes before they spot you by sneaking up behind with a knife. Most guards have simple patrol patterns, but your stealth movements are so slow that catching up with them is difficult. Progressing through areas using stealth is tedious because you can't hide bodies, and once an enemy discovers a fallen comrade, they sound an alarm and every enemy in the room rushes toward it. Again, the A.I. is so simple that they just look at the body for a minute or so and then return to their patrol patterns, but you have to wait until they're done examining the body before you can progress. I also had enemies pop up in front of me as I was trying to sneak through an area, so the stealth option never felt like a viable tactic.

You encounter a handful of puzzles between gunfights. Most are a chore to navigate, some boil down to brute force trial-and-error, and others make no sense within the world's fiction. For example, you have to diffuse a bomb by cutting the wires that match a series of numbers on posters in different rooms, but there is never any connection made between the posters and the bomb. Even worse, sometimes you don't know if you don't understand a puzzles logic or if you're actually solving it correctly, because bugs prevent some puzzles from being solved. In one case, I had to restart an entire level because a puzzle wasn't accepting the correct solution.

Fear Effect Sedna has a handful of other bugs that ruined my progress as well. At one point, a character got stuck in the stealth position and would only attack people with a knife. At another, the game just stopped saving my progress, which was a real problem since there is no manual save system.

Even diehard fans of the original Fear Effect should stay away from this mess of broken gameplay, system-breaking bugs, and slapdash narrative.

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