Jusant Review – Reaching The Summit

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Don't Nod
Developer: Don't Nod Entertainment
Rating: Everyone

Jusant asks players to do one thing: climb. As a silent mountaineer accompanied by a cute critter, the only thing standing between you and your mysterious mission is one very tall mountain. The journey to its summit is treacherous, but thanks to an ingenious climbing system, beautiful art direction, and intriguing world-building, inching toward the top is worth the effort. 

The intuitive climbing mechanics are the star of the show. Pressing the left and right shoulder buttons lets you grip handholds with the corresponding hands of the climber while you aim with the left stick. The back-and-forth rhythm of hitting both buttons to pull yourself up precarious terrain feels natural and realistic without being cumbersome. Gripping drains a stamina meter, and though managing this isn’t often difficult, it does add a nice element of thoughtfulness and tension to the ascent. Climbing excels, but simply walking can be troublesome as the character has a habit of getting stuck on even the most negligible geometry, such as small pieces of rubble, resulting in awkward jumping and spinning to break loose. 

Your only tool is a retractable climbing rope that automatically anchors you to a wall, meaning you can never fall to your death (or die in general). While this contributes to the game’s relaxed, meditative atmosphere, that doesn’t mean failure isn’t a factor. Slipping sends you dangling back to where you began, which can result in having to reclimb lengthy stretches. You can prevent demoralizing setbacks by staking up to three pitons as you climb, extending your reach while creating makeshift checkpoints. I love the strategy of managing the placement of my pitons, as it gave me creative agency in how I navigated tricky sections – namely walls lacking handholds – while ensuring any lost progress was entirely my fault due to bad or infrequent piton staking. The rope also allows for performing fun maneuvers like swinging across gaps or wall-running to reach distant goals. 

Ballast, the climber’s cute, water-like pet, offers another helping hand. Hitting a button makes it emit a pulse that transforms organic elements, such as making giant flower bulbs sprout climbable buds or causing vines to grow rapidly and letting you hitch a free ride on them. There’s only a small handful of these tricks, but they complement traditional climbing while adding an entertaining layer of whimsy.  

These mechanics result in climbing that feels challenging in the right ways. Scaling the mountain requires enough physical effort and coordination combined with mindful planning to make hitting each elevation milestone feel like a well-earned accomplishment. Looking down over a cliff to see the entire section I just completed before looking up at the obstacles to come is satisfying and daunting. Climbing in games is often shades of being either mind-numbingly simplistic or painfully tedious. Jusant strikes a great sweet spot. The great controls made me confident and eager to tackle the well-crafted, puzzle-like climbing routes and obstacles. 

Developer Don’t Nod does a great job of mixing up Jusant’s premise by introducing new environmental or platforming challenges in each of the game’s six chapters. One section has you riding powerful wind gusts to reach far-off platforms. Rock-like bugs serve as moving handholds that can carry the player along, provided you watch the path they're on and adjust if they lead you astray. One of my favorite areas lets you scale and swing across massive stalactites in a giant, bioilluminated cave. Jusant has a relatively short run time (about six hours), but it remains fresh and engaging throughout. 

Jusant’s picturesque scenery looks fantastic. Set in a world that has mysteriously lost nearly all traces of water, the mountain is situated in a dry, vast seabed. Dehydrated coral, fossilized seashells, and shipwrecked vessels provide the only evidence of the former ocean, as do numerous abandoned settlements where a lost society once called the mountain home. It may technically be a world in ruin, but the warm colors, great lighting, and sharp art design make it fun to look at. 

   

How this calamity happened, and the plight of the people who experienced it is told through a series of sometimes lengthy but fascinating diaries. Whether it was the story of a young woman eagerly abandoning her home life to embark on an expedition to the summit or the day-to-day musings of folks who can’t fathom living on a horizontal plane, these logs are enjoyable and worthwhile reads that provide vital context to the world and your quest.

Numerous paths inside and outside the mountain hide various collectibles and interactive artifacts, such as wall paintings telling a grand legend and seashells that provide audio-only flashbacks of this lost civilization. I went out of my way to find as many of these as possible, and thankfully, the game tracks all of them. That makes revisiting chapters to locate missed items an easy and inviting proposition. Even if you can’t collect it, I was happy to find new rooms, stores, and other infrastructure to get a better idea of these people’s way of life. 

Jusant is my favorite Don’t Nod title since the original Life is Strange and is one of the year’s best gems. The climbing mechanics are so smart and well-executed that I hope other games take notes. Add an inviting presentation, a pleasant soundtrack, and an alluring air of mystery and isolation reminiscent of Team Ico’s best works, and Jusant is a rewarding expedition.

Score: 9

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EA Sports UFC 5 Review - A Sustained Run

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: EA Vancouver
Rating: Mature

A target appears on your back when you’re a long-reigning champ. No longer the enigma you once were, contenders begin studying your body of work to figure out the path to ending your time at the top. The best way to fend off would-be challengers is to continually build and evolve. Developer EA Vancouver seems to understand this because while no legitimate contenders have emerged in the mixed-martial-arts genre, EA Sports UFC 5 retools several key areas to show the franchise isn’t resting on its laurels.

Like its predecessors, UFC 5 aptly captures the thrill of stepping into the Octagon. After thankfully truncated pomp and circumstance (gone are the grating pre-fight emotes from the last game), the fast-paced fistfighting had me on the edge of my seat until the final horn. I love that the licensed fighters are programmed to behave like their real-world counterparts, forcing you to solve a different puzzle with each new encounter. The action satisfies, particularly in striking battles, though the occasional glitched fighter, unnatural limb contortion, and awful camera swing break the immersion in frustrating ways.

Momentum is a key factor in the simplified grappling system, and longtime UFC players will need to retrain their brains to defend takedown attempts. Once on the ground, you choose the position or submission you want to pursue, and the game determines your success based on stamina, fighter attributes, and whether the defender acts properly. The resulting grappling exchanges can lead to awe-inspiring scrambles that are much more natural-looking than anything we've seen in the series before. On top of that, I do not miss the annoying submission minigames from the past UFC titles one bit.

 

Sticking to your game plan is crucial. But in MMA, even the best-laid plans can disappear in the blink of an eye; I went into a fight with a kickboxer with the plan to take him down, tire him out, and submit him. However, I got caught by a knee to the face on a takedown attempt, changing the complexion of the fight.

Each exchange has fight-ending or fight-altering potential, and the newly implemented Frostbite Engine does an exemplary job of showcasing the action. Scanned fighter models look incredible. Standing across the cage from a superstar like Israel Adesanya or Max Holloway is surreal, thanks to the intricate details that UFC 5 captures. Unfortunately, that means the gap in visual quality between the real fighters and the created fighters is immense; my created fighter looks like he was pulled from UFC 2.

UFC 5 is the first M-rated entry, allowing fighters to sustain more realistic damage. I loved seeing deeper cuts and more swelling develop during the firefights. I found myself in. If things get too brutal, a doctor can even intervene to determine if the fight should continue. Thankfully, this is a rare occurrence; in my experience, fighters almost always succumbed to the damage before a doctor had to step in.

The M-rating also means the trash talk and in-game cinematics have more authentic language. While I enjoy hearing fighters and coaches talk the way they do in real life, the in-game soundtrack feels like they went out of their way to include explicit songs to a tiresome extent, which is particularly noticeable as you spend so much time in menus during Career Mode.

The Career Mode keeps the same basic format as the previous releases. Using a created fighter (or blank-slate licensed fighter), you work your way to the top of the UFC rankings with the ultimate goal of becoming the greatest of all time by breaking a set number of UFC records. You start with a low-stat archetype of your choosing, then develop them over the course of several in-game years. I love that throwing a lot of hooks in fights and training sessions develops your hooks while training with a real fighter lets you learn their signature moves.

However, over the course of a Career, the repetition sinks in fast. Sparring the same partners, tackling the same challenges, and navigating the same menus becomes a monotonous affair in the weeks leading up to your fight. You can simulate a lot of the sparring, but you might end up with worse benefits. Even outside of training, you take part in the same binary social media trash talk and menu-based activities. The mode doesn’t go nearly far enough to replicate the UFC’s personality-driven drama.

I grew tired of the weekly grind after about 25 fights in Career. Thankfully, a suite of other modes allows you to jump right into the action. Online Career and Ranked Championship give you longer-term online experiences, but my favorite online mode is Blitz, where you compete in rapid-fire elimination tournaments. If you’d rather avoid the sometimes unstable online connections, you can keep the action offline by taking part in one-off fights with custom rulesets, creating your own events, or even playing curated fights based on real-world cards.

Unfortunately, the launch roster has a few glaring omissions. While all the stars are there, a few highly ranked contenders and several up-and-coming prospects aren’t included, while various fighters who are no longer with the UFC are. I like having legacy fighters available, and EA Vancouver has a proven track record of post-launch updates, but it’s disappointing to be missing so many at release.

Even with its shortcomings, EA Sports UFC 5 delivers an exciting MMA experience regardless of the mode in which you compete. Fighting your favorite UFC stars never gets old, and the adrenaline rush that comes with knocking your opponent out in a fierce back-and-forth battle makes it hard to resist the allure of stepping back into the Octagon for one more fight.

Score: 8

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Alan Wake 2 Review - Back To Reality

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Epic Games
Developer: Remedy Entertainment
Rating: Mature

Remedy is known for being experimental. It mixes live-action footage into its video games, plays with player expectations, rewards those devoted to the developer’s history and gameography, and in the case of Alan Wake II, eagerly performs big-budget lunacy for our entertainment and sometimes confusion. The highs of Alan Wake’s follow-up adventure are tall, but there are frequent lows that drag the whole experience into The Dark Place. I also encountered a number of bugs that forced frequent restarts and one full reinstallation. But even in the moments I was most frustrated, I still admire Remedy’s commitment to creating a unique experience and embracing its weirdness.

Alan Wake II takes place in the real amount of time since we played the original game. Alan has been stuck in limbo for 13 years, trying his hardest to write himself back to reality. From a zoomed-out perspective, both Alan Wake games are about a man trying to escape an evil entity. On closer inspection, however, the story is about the nature of art, what it means to create, the reliability of memory and reality, parenting, friendship, and of course, murder. Alan Wake II’s story, sometimes clumsily, navigates all these topics with morose voiceover, beautiful visuals, impressive performances, and bizarre set pieces that will undoubtedly become the game’s primary talking point for the rest of its legacy. This is where Alan Wake II shines. The way it presents its story is different than just about everything out there, and even though I would have liked more interactivity during conversations and internal monologues, I remained consistently engaged.

The exception to this is new playable protagonist Saga’s investigative techniques. While I overall preferred playing as Saga to Alan, her special detective abilities led to frequent underwhelming reveals. Saga arrives at impossible-to-know case facts by simply sitting in a room and thinking to herself. I am happy to buy into the conceit that she has special powers, but from the player’s perspective, watching Saga just know things for no reason is deeply unsatisfying. Her interactive efforts to build evidence out on a wall also feel like painting by numbers, when you generally already know what image you are creating. Overall, however, Saga’s story and the mystery surrounding her family is the more interesting one, and I followed her threads when given the choice.

Alan lacks Saga’s investigative abilities, but playing his portions, which take place in the abstract Dark Place, have their own issues. Alan is supposed to be lost and confused in the Dark Place, and from a narrative perspective, it works. But when a location (and troublesome map) is already difficult to navigate and then filled with doors that change exits depending on the lighting, things get opaque in a way that isn’t consistently fun.

 

Even when lost and frustrated, however, combat can be a beacon of action-packed joy. Lighting up enemies with a flashlight and filling them with bullets feels more determined than in the 2010 game, but pulling off a perfect flashlight-shotgun combo still feels great. So great, in fact, that I wanted much more. There are few instances where you must fight enemies. Ammo is scarce and dodging is reliable, which means engaging is discouraged. Combat ends up feeling like a fantastic dessert when you are watching your calories. You want to partake, but you really shouldn’t. Thankfully, the penultimate confrontation throws plentiful ammo and enemies at you and serves as a fun homage to the original game.

Alan Wake II also leans into an irritating video game trope more so than any game in recent memory where everything always feels just out of reach in an unsatisfying way. You must go through this electronic door, but right as you walk up to it, the power goes out, and you must find items A, B, and C to get electricity flowing again. Variations of this happen constantly. Thematically, it makes sense that the story, which is being written as you progress, creates barriers to slow you down, but on a practical level, it feels antagonistic to the player, which is just annoying.

I have been eagerly waiting for Alan’s return since the original game ended with a cliffhanger and 2012’s American Nightmare did little to move the story forward. I am narratively satisfied with the events of the game and enthusiastically welcome Saga into the world. But actually playing the game, navigating the world, and avoiding combat is where I stumbled. I was eager to see the next cutscene, but gameplay often fell short, and I fought more bugs than Taken enemies. For longtime Remedy fans and those who want to see what happens next for Alan Wake, the sequel is a success, but making it to the end includes unnecessary hurdles.

 

Score: 7.75

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Ghostrunner 2 Review – Finding The Utopia In Dystopia

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: One More Level
Rating: Mature

The first Ghostrunner is one of my all-time favorite games, and I've been excited for its sequel, Ghostrunner 2, since its reveal more than two years ago. I didn't need much to be satisfied with another parkour venture into developer One More Level's cyberpunk dystopia; I just wanted more Ghostrunner. And when Ghostrunner 2 is doing what put its predecessor on the map – fast-paced first-person action-parkour gameplay – it shines. But a few new attempts at expanding this world, both narratively and mechanically, don't shine as bright, however interesting and admirable they are. Nonetheless, Ghostrunner 2, with its exceptional action, soundtrack, and beautifully oppressive world, kept me smiling in delight for most of my 15 hours. 

The first game ends with the titular Ghostrunner liberated from his A.I.-powered Cybervoid trappings under a new name, Jack, and humanity finally free within its last living city, the Dharma Tower. Ghostrunner 2 picks up one year later, with Jack living the hero life before discovering the Asura, a group of four mechanical beings intent on filling the power void to become its new leaders (with their own superhuman-esque creatures replacing humanity in the process). It's a fine setup, but it unfortunately begins with the worst boss fight in the game. The encounter is not bad but it pales compared to the significantly improved bosses Jack encounters later. 

After taking the boss down, I meet up with the ragtag Interface Council, including Zoe from the first game and various other NPCs. Instead of talking to floating heads like in Ghostrunner, Jack returns to a homebase where he speaks with everyone in person. Interfacing with physical people is a nice touch and breathes life into Jack's otherwise mechanical existence, as do the traces of humanity, like humor, that Jack picks up on in conversations. Unfortunately, conversations lack the energy featured in the rest of the game, as Jack and whoever he speaks to, stand directly across each other while stilted but informative conversations play out. In this base, Jack can purchase new abilities for his kit and play through Roguerunner.exe, an optional but awesome roguelite experience that puts combat front and center. 

 

After checking in with the base between most missions, Jack is quickly thrown back into the explosive action One More Level excels at, and it's always a treat. As techno percussion and synths mesh together to create an excellent score, I send Jack slashing enemies left and right with a katana, slowing down time in-air to dodge projectiles and deflect energy pelts back to their origin. Like the first game, Ghostrunner 2 also feels like a puzzle game. 

Every arena can be mastered – jump here, grind left, wall-run forward, grapple up, slash enemy, deflect that enemy's bullet, throw a shuriken at that explosive barrel to take them out, then jump over this machine's energy blast and slash through it when the coast is clear. And that's just one puzzle solution to the enemies before you. Ghostrunner 2's action feels amazing because every potential solution unveils itself in what feels like the most optimal path; it's how I imagine a mechanical being like Jack feels when scanning the battleground. I wish my Ultimate and other abilities felt as intrinsic as the shuriken, but each is still good fun, even if I have to remind myself they exist.

Those action-packed, puzzle-like moments are when Ghostrunner 2 is everything I want in a sequel and more. But the results are less consistent when One More Level introduces new mechanics. A new motorbike brings a somehow even more exciting dynamism to Ghostrunner 2's action – jumping off it to launch over a laser wall, then grappling back onto my bike after it safely passed through said wall never stopped being the coolest thing ever. I enjoyed most moments on this bike, but after a quick ride through Dharma Tower's neon-drenched cyberpunk city, most of the bike action happens in the less-interesting world outside the tower.

I love that One More Level showcased the outside world, especially after never leaving the tower in the first game. However, the post-apocalyptic desert wasteland is simply not as fun to explore as what's back inside, especially on foot. While this part of the world does give Jack a more open area to play in, that extra space tones down the excitement I feel inside the more constrained spaces of Dharma Tower (and it doesn't help the latter is more visually stimulating, too). It's worth mentioning, however, that this desert wasteland is home to one of my favorite boss fights of the year that left me shouting "no way" to myself throughout. Another addition is the wingsuit, and while using it in new parkour lines is fun, using it in combat feels like an unnecessary addition. Fortunately, it arrives late in the game and does little to affect the full experience. 

 

With Ghostrunner 2 behind me, I’m thrilled more of this series exists. Even after rolling credits, I'm excited to tear through its levels once more to find collectibles like sword and glove skins and old-world artifacts like VHS tapes, and try my hand some more at the delectably simple roguelite minigame. Though Ghostrunner 2 falters in a few ways, like its more open-ended sections and superfluous wingsuit, what remains in the hours outside of those missteps is its best-in-class parkour action. And like its predecessor, it remains a damn treat.

Score: 8.5

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Super Mario Bros. Wonder Review - Getting Its Flowers

Reviewed on: Switch
Platform: Switch
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo

As a series that has been around for nearly four decades, Super Mario Bros. should have shown signs of slowing down years ago. But continuous thoughtful reinvention has helped the franchise remain a genre leader. Super Mario Bros. Wonder represents the next step of evolution, delivering the tight, tried-and-true gameplay in the context of the most creative 2D entry in nearly 30 years.

Simply platforming through a stage is often a pure delight; Mario and his large roster of friends have never felt, looked, or sounded better. A joyful soundtrack full of upbeat earworms I’ve been humming since I first turned on the game complements superb gameplay. And the new expressive art style accentuates the most important parts of the characters and world. 

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Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s level design rarely disappoints. Each course introduces a new, creative gimmick. Whether it’s hippo-like creatures you can bounce off to reach new areas or circular rocks you must use to roll through lava while snatching collectibles, the perfectly designed on-ramps let me learn the new convention. However, the excitement of how the stage gimmick would evolve to its ultimate utilization always had me champing at the bit. 

The new power-ups, namely the Elephant Fruit, Drill Mushroom, and Bubble Flower, add fun and practical ways to explore each stage. However, the new Badge system is my favorite way to augment my character’s abilities. The Parachute Cap, which lets you glide, and the Sensor, which tells you when there’s a secret nearby, were helpful, but my favorite was always the Crouching High Jump, thanks to its wide-ranging utility.

 

Still, the key attractions were the eponymous Wonder Effects. These level-changing warps had me constantly guessing at what could possibly come next. I never knew if grabbing the Wonder Flower would transform Mario into one of Bowser’s minions, skyrocket him into an outer space obstacle course, or cause the entire stage to break out into song. Nintendo used this opportunity to install all-new gameplay mechanics like top-down sequences, slow-motion action, and fun chase sequences. I adore how unexpected each Wonder Effect is, even aiding the title’s less creative boss battles.

Though there are only a few true boss fights in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, they use Wonder Effects to bring new twists. However, outside of these effects, which include changing the terrain, cloning enemies, and more, most battles are against the same character with the same move set. I appreciate how far the Wonder Effects go toward diversifying these confrontations, but I can’t help but wish for more variety in the encounters themselves. Thankfully, that’s not the case for the final battle, which will stick with me for a long time due to its uncompromised use of Wonder Effects in a creative and fun fight.

I spent most of my time in Super Mario Bros. Wonder solo, but I enjoyed the limited multiplayer offering. I’m disappointed by the lack of online cooperative play, but playing locally with friends is a blast and less chaotic than past games since characters can’t interact with each other (aside from riding on Yoshi). 

You can play online with friends, but you’re limited to forming a lobby where you appear as ghosts in separate instances; you revive each other, but that’s the extent of the interaction. You can also set up course races, where you see who makes it to the flagpole first, but while these challenges are enjoyable, they take away what makes Super Mario Bros. Wonder so good in the first place. My favorite moments in Super Mario Bros. Wonder came when I was taking my time finding secrets or enjoying Wonder Effects rather than speedrunning.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder surprises and delights from the moment you turn on the game. Though the gameplay feels familiar, Nintendo’s ability to iterate on the established formula in unique ways kept me on my toes throughout the journey all the way up to the memorable final battle. After all this time, I thought I had a grasp on the breadth of the tricks the 2D Mario series had up its sleeve, but that Super Mario Bros. Wonder so consistently surprised me speaks to just how much gas is left in the iconic franchise’s tank.

Score: 9.25

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