Lonely Mountains: Downhill Review – Serene Velocity

Publisher: Thunderful

Developer: Megagon Industries

Release: October 23, 2019

Rating: Rating Pending

Reviewed on: PC

Also on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Mac

A gentle wind rustles the autumn leaves, and an owl’s solitary call echoes across the mountainside in the pre-dusk light. My bike rattles across an old wooden bridge, and the path ahead curves around the rising roar of the waterfall. Instead of following it, I accelerate off the cliff at ill-advised speed, and crash headlong into a tree trunk, just missing the jump. Time to restart the checkpoint.

Such is the flow of Lonely Mountains: Downhill, an idyllic mountain biking game of nature sounds and beautiful vistas juxtaposed against excessive speed and foolhardy jumps. 16 trails across four mountain landscapes all start the same: Your bike and rider are poised at the peak, ready to descend. From here, it’s all about the path to your cozy base camp, bumping and sliding down gravel switchbacks, dirt slides, hidden tree paths, and waterlogged streambeds. Can you beat your best time to the bottom? Can you manage fewer crashes this time? That simple formula carries the game forward, while the precise controls and many shortcuts and add depth to ensure you come back for more.

Gameplay owes a debt to classics like Marble Madness and its isometric view of the slope, as well as the time-trial optimization of the long-running Trials series. However, the injection of a Zen-like natural landscape and soundscape sets these lonely mountains apart. The ambient nature soundtrack is an inspired choice, and the low-poly but vibrantly colorful visuals perfectly capture the hazy sense of speeding down a hill as the background details blur together.

In any given run, you’re challenging yourself to beat time thresholds by any means necessary, hitting the finish line with a cleaner run, or both. The objectives are limited in scope; without more variety in targeted goals, the potential for tedium can set in over time. As it is, the main avenue to difficulty is shaving seconds off each checkpoint, transforming seemingly impossible time goals into increasingly realistic possibilities. The frustration of dozens of crashes is softened because it’s so amusing to see your poor rider go tumbling into empty space, or bang with a grunt into a stone wall. Restarts are instantaneous, so you don’t have time to dwell on your failures.

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The bikes control like a dream, with quick-turning, believable acceleration arcs and lots of variance between the six unlockable cycles, each of which feels like a “class” of its own. One bike excels at big jumps, while another can’t be beat in the off-road. Each one adds a compelling playstyle, and a new way to tackle all the courses. In fact, it’s that compelling variability between playstyles that leads to my biggest frustration. Each new bike unlocks in parts, and you can’t use the vehicle until you get all its parts. In most cases, getting the full set of pieces for a new ride only occurs late in the game, and at especially high challenge thresholds. That’s a bummer, because it means players are bound to limited options for most of the game, and may never get to experience the impressive variety in playstyle encouraged by the different bikes.

For the most dedicated players, that distinction won’t matter much. Discovering new shortcuts never loses that eureka moment feel, and each trail has a surprising array of alternate paths to explore. Mastering the physics of the cycle and learning the visual language of each landscape is a lengthy and rewarding endeavor. Detailed leaderboards help you not only compete against friends and the wider global playerbase, but also help pinpoint individual checkpoints in any given run where you can still improve. Beyond new mountains and trails, cosmetic unlock rewards let you tweak the appearance of your rider and ride. Go especially off the beaten path, and you can even find all the cleverly hidden resting places on a given mountain. To what end? To see the game pause, and watch your rider relax by a beautiful vista for a well-deserved break.

Lonely Mountains: Downhill is a skill-focused arcade experience of surprising depth and replayability. The relaxing aesthetic is a figurative breath of fresh air when compared to other games that compete to be loudest and most in-your-face. Even so, there’s a searing intensity and competitive flair to this outdoor adventure that can easily accommodate serious engagement. Like the real sport, this mountain biking undertaking is ultimately about challenging yourself, and pushing just a little harder to improve, and that’s enough to keep me coming back.

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Score: 8.75

Summary: This mountain biking game blends an idyllic nature aesthetic with tight arcade action to create a surprisingly thrilling adventure.

Concept: Race your mountain bike down peaceful mountain trails at breakneck speed

Graphics: Low-poly, high-color graphics are attractive and provide readable pathing

Sound: Quiet, ambient nature sounds accompany your frantic descent – a simple design choice that does wonders for the aesthetic and enjoyability

Playability: Precise controls allow for skill and improvisation, but some aspects of the long-term unlock approach are frustrating

Entertainment: Somehow simultaneously soothing and thrilling, this excellent arcade-style experience captures the joys of biking, nature, and competing against yourself

Replay: High

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Luigi's Mansion 3 Review – Frights And Delights

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Next Level Games

Release: October 31, 2019

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: Switch

After ridding several haunted mansions of their ghost infestations in the series’ first two games, the taller, goofier brother of Nintendo’s first family is ready for his biggest task yet: cleansing a whole haunted hotel. In Luigi’s Mansion 3, our hero grabs ghosts and solves simple puzzles on a mission to defeat King Boo and rescue Mario, Peach, and the Toads. With themed floors full of fun environmental puzzle and a ton of exciting encounters, this hotel is well worth checking into.

As Luigi progresses through the hotel’s 15 floors (and 2 basements), he encounters all manner of spirits, traps, and puzzles, which require him to use all the moves in his arsenal centered around his ghost vacuum. I appreciate how the puzzles and fights have you use Luigi’s abilities in unexpected ways, often in conjunction with one another. Encounters have fun ways of pushing your expertise with Luigi’s moveset, like one that had me dodging lasers with the vacuum’s burst jump while searching for hidden ghosts with the dark-light flashlight before stunning them with a strobe and vacuuming them up.

The entire adventure is well-crafted, with environmental cues giving you just the right amount of breadcrumbs you need to feel like you discovered the hidden paths yourself. However, the clues sometimes fall too far on one end of the difficulty spectrum; I sometimes was hot on the trail of solving a puzzle when Professor E. Gadd would pipe in with too much information and spoil the discovery, while other times I aimlessly explored an area before finally finding what I needed to do. The secrets, which typically involve rotating seemingly ordinary objects or looking in mirrors to reveal hidden items, are enjoyable to discover and encourage exploration in an otherwise linear experience.

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Luigi’s Mansion 3 also makes use of Gooigi, a slimy clone you can deploy to reach areas Luigi cannot. Gooigi can squeeze through grates, spikes, and drains, opening the door for fun puzzles revolving around opening passageways for Gooigi. The floors all do fantastic jobs of hinting at new areas you can send him, with hidden grates and drains galore. You can only control one character at time, but switching between them is as simple as clicking the right stick. While the swap between the two is mostly smooth, it can be annoying when a heavy object or ghost requires you to use the suction power of both characters. Thankfully, a co-op partner can take control of Gooigi, which makes everything easier. Co-op play in story is a fun way to streamline the experience and tag team challenges, but single-player is still just as viable and entertaining.

Unfortunately, clunky controls prevent the game from being completely without frustration. A fixed camera, an omnidirectional right stick, and motion controls combine for an imprecise experience. While the plunger mechanic for pulling items often locks on, I had to experiment with different control schemes before I felt like I had a handle on Luigi’s aim.

Once you do get a grip on the controls, the boss battles serve as a highlight of the story. From a shark ghost that possesses a pirate ship to a DJ that wields spinning vinyl records, I loved seeing the final challenge for each themed floor. While I don’t want to spoil my favorite boss encounter, it pays homage to kaiju films of the past in hilarious and exciting ways.

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If you’re too scared to go alone, ScareScraper, an eight-player cooperative mode where you try and clear randomly generated floors of ghosts before the time expires, serves as the highlight to the multiplayer offerings. Banding together with the rest of your team to clear out the final few rooms as the timer screams toward zero is a blast. With a strict time limit, you need to be judicious with your exploration, but I love how rewarding a little poking around can be; a trap-detecting alarm or a map showing the locations of ghosts help immensely. Whether you have one other person to play with or a full lobby, ScareScraper is an exciting co-op multiplayer mode.

For a little friendly competition, you can visit the ScreamPark, where you clash in three minigames that feel ripped straight from the Mario Party series. I enjoyed the competitive ghost hunting and target practice games, but the one based on an annoying water section in the campaign wasn’t fun in the story, and it’s not much better here. These minigames can be fun diversions with a group of friends, but the story is definitely the main attraction here.

With unique puzzles, diverse floor themes, and exciting boss battles, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a spooky delight for players of all experience levels. Seasoned ghostbusters and rookie paranormal enthusiasts alike would do well to look into Luigi’s latest eerie adventure.

Score: 8.5

Summary: Luigi's Mansion 3 is a fun ghost-hunting adventure regardless of your experience with the franchise.

Concept: Climb through a haunted hotel as Luigi on a spooky quest to save Mario, Peach, and the Toads from King Boo

Graphics: Crisp visuals, great animations, and interesting floor themes create a colorful but spooky atmosphere

Sound: Tunes fitting the action haunt the hotel as much as ghosts do, and the satisfying sounds made by the vacuum never grow old. However, the low-life warning sound is more annoying than stressful

Playability: Sucking up ghosts and other items feels great, but clunky controls lessen the enjoyment

Entertainment: Creative environmental puzzles and unique boss battles make this a rewarding experience from start to finish

Replay: Moderate

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Afterparty Review – Worth The Hangover

Publisher: Night School Studio

Developer: Night School Studio

Release: October 29, 2019

Rating: Rating Pending

Reviewed on: PC

Also on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Alcohol has a sinister temptation that can lead to excess. Bad and embarrassing things often come with a night of overindulgence, from losing inhibitions to waking up hungover. Night School Studio, best known for its breakout hit Oxenfree, leverages that by making alcohol the centerpiece of Hell. But before you think this is just a game about partying, think again. Afterparty is at its strongest when it subverts your expectations, explores relatable topics about life and death, and is okay with not having all the answers. 

We all have our own ideas about Hell, but Night School Studio created an intriguing version in which everyone works basic 9-to-5 jobs followed by a night of debauchery at the bar. While this premise could easily become silly fast (it has plenty of well-done humor), Night School Studio isn’t afraid to touch deeper themes, like what it means to have a good life and the impact of being locked away with alcohol for eternity. Afterparty is at its best when it takes a break from nightlife antics to discuss the afterlife and what it means for longtime friends Milo and Lola, our main characters. They mysteriously end up in the inferno, and part of the journey is piecing together their lives and what caused their untimely demise. The other part is doing a bunch of tasks to ensure you can face off against Satan in a drinking contest, the only loophole to get back to Earth. 

Afterparty is a story-driven experience (much like Oxenfree was), and that is certainly its strong point. Colorful characters and witty dialogue drive the narrative, and the natural flow keeps things moving despite having a lot of spoken lines. You can alternate between Milo and Lola, getting their different perspectives on how to approach problems or how they feel about the current situation and their friendship. For instance, as you learn more about Hell, small puzzles pop up, like how to get past a bouncer, and Milo and Lola both push for different solutions. I especially enjoyed switching characters, as you get to view the friendship from their different lens and understand where they’re coming from when they get into arguments or bigger discussions about life. This also evolves later, as the game recognizes who you’ve been siding with more, which is a nice touch.

While the heroes’ changing friendship is a core focus, cast standouts Sister Mary Wormhorn and taxi driver Sam offer a welcome reprieve from the Milo and Lola dynamic. The former is Milo and Lola’s personal inner demon and she’s constantly trying to rattle them, and by extension, you. She frequently comments on the choices you picked, putting doubts in your mind. Sam has a mysterious aura about her, but her down-to-earth nature and subtle quips make her fun to have around. 

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While most of your time is spent exploring and engaging in conversations, you also make decisions and engage in some drinking-related activities. The minigames are really simplistic, such as a “Simon Says” dancing contest, aiming precisely in beer pong, and a cup-stacking game. You don’t really get a chance to practice any of these before you play them, but you aren’t punished for failing. However, they also don’t add anything entertaining to the gameplay. That’s Afterparty’s biggest problem: It tells an engaging story, but it’s not always fun to play. The backtracking doesn’t do it any favors, as you’re often required to go from the end of an area back to its beginning to take a taxi to your next locale. Considering you revisit a lot of places, this makes the whole structure feel repetitive and drawn out. To spice up situations, you can choose different drinks that provide extra conversation options as a way to roleplay. For instance, I spent a whole conversation talking like a pirate and another where I was a rich jerk, but these exchanges feel empty when they don’t affect anything larger.

Branching paths are important to any choice-driven game, and Afterparty certainly has them, but after playing through the game twice, they don’t alter the experience much. A lot of moments that seem important don’t matter, and the only big variations I saw were in the two different endings I experienced. I like that relationships you invest in have some payoff, but my second playthrough ultimately felt like a waste of time, especially since you need to replay the entire game to see any of the differences. I won’t spoil anything, but the ending is not what I expected, which made me appreciate it all the more. I didn’t feel judged, or like I had made a definitive “right” or “wrong” choice, and the various endings reflect this ambiguity wonderfully. 

Afterparty poses questions you don’t expect it to ask, and that’s what ultimately made me satisfied with it – just don’t expect a non-stop rager. As with most parties, there are high points combined with lulls. At the very least, the conversations, locale, and attendees make it a good party to attend, even if sometimes you get a little bored.

Score: 7.75

Summary: Afterparty has plenty of lighthearted moments, but you'll stay at the party for the meaningful conversations.

Concept: Explore the complex friendship between Lola and Milo as they take on Satan in a drinking contest to earn their freedom from Hell

Graphics: The neon color scheme captures the nightlife and the character designs look great, but the bars lack variety and personality

Sound: Night School Studio enlisted the help of top-tier voice talent that brings the characters and the world to life

Playability: Outside of a few simple minigames, you don’t do much except walk and chat. Everything controls fine, but the constant backtracking between locations breaks the immersion

Entertainment: The premise may seem silly and lighthearted, but Afterparty goes well beyond drinking games into something more meaningful

Replay: Moderate

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Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Review – A New Theater Of War

Publisher: Activision

Developer: Infinity Ward

Release: October 25, 2019

Rating: Mature

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: Xbox One, PC

Modern Warfare is familiar in name, but its content carries a different tone and flow than we’ve come to expect from the annualized Call of Duty series. Developer Infinity Ward takes big chances in both multiplayer and the single-player campaign, and while some of the ideas hit with deadly precision, others fall flat.

As great as it is to have a single-player campaign back after its hiatus in Black Ops 4, Infinity Ward shifts the focus away from the large-scale conflicts the series is known for towards more intimate firefights where the horrors of war are thoroughly (and grossly) explored. This story experience gets uncomfortable, putting the player in direct control of a young girl who is forced to kill with a knife and gun, as well as a soldier who is captured and waterboarded. The waterboarding even unfolds through a terrible minigame where you have to move your head back and forth to dodge the water. These gameplay sequences feel shoehorned in and do nothing to move the narrative forward – they just make it uncomfortable.

Innocent civilians constantly barge through doors right in front of you or pop up from behind cover, creating intense and disturbing moments where you may accidentally shoot them. Infinity Ward wants you to feel the gruesomeness of war, and its tiring how often you are presented with these scenarios. Outside of a couple of cleverly designed sniping missions and a ridiculous moment where I piloted remote-controlled toy planes, I didn’t enjoy playing through many of the story missions, not just from their heavy themes, but rather the fairly pedestrian combat scenarios within them. Raiding a home, cave, or high rise can be intense, but knocking down doors isn’t as compelling as partaking in the sprawling wars this series is known for. There are a couple of big battles, but they don't last long or deliver much in terms of memorable set pieces.

While the campaign isn’t as big in scope or as thrilling to play as most Call of Duty games, it does tell a hell of a story – perhaps the best in this series since, well, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The character performances are fantastic – especially for Captain Price, Farah, and Hadir – who get plenty of screen time and are legitimately interesting, especially how they are woven into the conflict at hand. The story is nicely paced, establishes villains you can't help but hate, and is engaging from start to finish. I also appreciate how the story and gameplay flow seamlessly from moment to moment without loading screens, much like a Naughty Dog production. I completed the campaign in roughly five hours, yet found I enjoyed watching it more for the twists than actually having a hand in some of the battles.

As is the case with most Call of Duty games, the beating heart of Modern Warfare is competitive play, which succeeds by both shrinking and expanding the scale of war. The most rewarding multiplayer experience is a new mode called Gunfight, and it's designed for just four players. These 2v2 matches unfold on tiny square maps that deliver immediate action and end almost as quickly as they begin, since only two kills are needed for a team to win a round. Part of the brilliance of this mode is how level the playing field is: Both teams have the same loadouts and the map designs are fairly symmetrical. Laying down and camping is also frowned upon, as the match timer counts down quickly, and overtime pushes both teams to be the first to capture a flag. I can’t stress just how fun and frantic these battles are; I couldn’t get enough of them.

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Modern Warfare also balloons more than you would expect in a new take on Ground War, which borrows a page from Battlefield’s playbook with 64-players battling for a handful of control points on a sprawling map. This is another enjoyable avenue of play, but for entirely different reasons. Skill and precision take a backseat to organized chaos, as snipers line rooftops, kill streaks rain death every which way, and a tank could blast you from halfway across the map. Ground War is frantic, and while you won’t make much of a difference as one player, ends up being a great way to blow off steam after competing in this iteration’s excellently designed team deathmatch. Other multiplayer diversions like the new Realism and Night Vision modes are also good fun.

All of the competitive modes offer cross-play and prop up Call of Duty’s legacy gunplay. It's phenomenal in Modern Warfare, and deeper than ever. The kill streak rewards are nice and powerful, and the speed and feel of weapons still rank among the best in gaming.

Much like leveling a character in an RPG, players can level up guns – a process every bit as captivating as it sounds. With over 50 unlockable attachments and perks per firearm, players can sculpt their wares to their liking, and are pushed to keep using the same loadouts to power them up. I transformed my M4A1 into terrifying beast that was good for both blitz and distance tactics with a grenade launcher and 4.0x flip hybrid sight attachments. These alterations elevated my game significantly, but for every pro there’s a con. My sight zoomed further, but the zoom speed was reduced.

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As awesome as competitive play is, I can’t recommend players spend much time in Special Ops, Modern Warfare’s troubled version of cooperative play. Traversing a huge map with friends to hack computers and destroy heavily armored vehicles is a fun concept, and requires strategy. Aggravating bot spawns that can happen right behind you make the experience overly difficult in an unfair way. Even when my team was organized and moving slowly to clear out any threat, all it took was one enemy from behind to kill someone and create an unrecoverable scenario.

All told, Modern Warfare should have received a new Call of Duty subhead given just how different its avenues of play are. Not every one of Infinity Ward’s ideas works, but a few are successful enough that I could see them as series staples. Modern Warfare’s accomplishments may not be as pronounced as Black Ops 4’s (Blackout being one of them), but it still delivers a hell of a multiplayer experience. Gunfight alone is worth the price of admission.

Score: 8.75

Summary: This annualized series continues to pound out excitement, but this time in ways you may not expect.

Concept: A three-headed experience that succeeds in multiplayer, gets lost in the dark in single-player, and misses the mark completely in cooperative play

Graphics: Infinity Ward’s new engine delivers a high level of realism in the lighting and character models, but the environments are mostly mundane given the focus on smaller conflicts

Sound: The music, voice acting, and rattling gunfire are all excellent, heightening the intensity in all modes

Playability: The pitch-perfect gunplay is joined by a wide selection of multiplayer modes that give players variety, including short and fun 2v2 fights

Entertainment: Leveling up guns is ridiculously fun, and the breadth of modes keeps this experience from feeling repetitive. This is a game you can sink tons of time into

Replay: High

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