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Reviewed on: Switch Platform: Switch, iOS Developer: Super Evil Megacorp
<p>The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles starred in several iconic video games <a href="https://ift.tt/0u6jBm2 the franchise's 40-year history</a>, but none are more beloved than the beat 'em up entries like the 1989 arcade game and Turtles in Time. However, that genre often lacks the depth modern gamers desire. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate takes various cues from recent popular games – specifically Supergiant's smash hit, Hades – en route to modernizing the action-packed hack-and-slash gameplay the Turtles have been known for since their earliest days in the medium. The result is a fun roguelike full of meaningful progression and engaging action that doesn't soar quite as high as the games that inspired it.</p> <p>After a mysterious captor abducts Master Splinter, you control one of the four iconic turtle brothers on a quest to get him back. Each playable character possesses different basic combos, special attacks, and tools, allowing you to pick a foundation to build upon as you progress through each run. Leonardo's average range is complemented nicely by his ability to toss shurikens and gain an extra charge on his special, while Donatello's long range is offset by being a tad stiffer, but his tool also recharges 80 percent faster (after all, he <em>does</em> do machines). I loved Michelangelo's sweeping nunchucks and the chance to land multiple hits on a single strike, but Raphael's grappling hook that pulls enemies closer and higher critical damage quickly made him my main. You'll have plenty of time to experiment to find your right fit, as each time you die, you start back in the Turtles' lair to start the run anew.</p> <section class='type:slideshow'><figure><img src='https://ift.tt/DXY10pk src='https://ift.tt/I8tM0rs src='https://ift.tt/15hDSdH src='https://ift.tt/WjxtI8u src='https://ift.tt/SftDpCr src='https://ift.tt/2Oymr3c src='https://ift.tt/C2NyaYQ src='https://ift.tt/T4c9UM3> <p>Each run plays out in similar fashion: You start by choosing a skill like additional dash charges, a better chance to dodge, or an enhancement to your selected turtle's special ability. You then fight through room after room of enemies ranging from rats and Mousers to Foot Clan ninjas and fellow mutants. Each faction brings different attacks, requiring slightly different approaches, but the action typically consists of dashing around the arena to avoid incoming attacks while working towards clearing the room. Combat feels great, with each attack in your arsenal feeling like an impactful part of a successful and fun strategy. This is particularly true when Elite enemies drop in, like a giant StockGen robot or special elemental Foot assassins. </p> <p>Rooms typically don't take long to clear. When the repetition begins to set in from successive runs, I often find enjoyment in trying out new combos or simply getting through the earliest rooms as quickly as possible. Testing out new builds or setting your own challenges are fun, but it doesn't change that you're still completing the same rooms and facing the same bosses on repeat. Splintered Fate attempts to remedy this by introducing new variants of the handful of bosses in the game, but regardless of whether the first boss suddenly summons more minions or the second boss now uses flame attacks, I still dreaded facing them for the 20th time. Even the gauntlet challenges, unlocked after completing your first run, do little to diversify the experience. Splintered Fate's co-op, which can be played locally or online, shakes things up by letting you combine the Turtles' tools and abilities, but the structure remains the same.</p> <p>Obviously, a crucial element of the roguelike formula is the upward trajectory of both your skills as a player and your character's strengths through permanent upgrades. TMNT: Splintered Fate handles this admirably; I always felt I was improving run over run, aided by the permanent upgrades unlocked through various currencies. This satisfying loop is, unfortunately, hindered by the sheer number of currencies you need to keep track of.</p> <iframe width="560" height="315" frameBorder="0" allow="autoplay" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L7zfH43jx_I?start=1" width="640"></iframe> <p>In addition to Scrap, the in-run currency used for temporary upgrades, you receive two distinct permanent currencies to upgrade different parts of the experience; one lets you upgrade the economy, including the amount of Scrap dropped by enemies and more powerful upgrades offered after beating rooms, while the other permanently improves your character's attributes like attack damage and health. However, some upgrades also require special items dropped by bosses, of which there are several, in conjunction with the permanent currencies. If it sounds confusing, that's because it is. I don't mind having more stringent requirements to unlock higher-level upgrades, but when a game requires me to constantly reference a help screen to know what each of its more-than-nine currencies does and how to obtain them, it should serve as a warning to the developers that the system has gone too far. </p> <p>Despite the overt repetition, both by design and through over-design, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate effectively channels the spirit of the most well-liked games that have come before it in the franchise. Though I sometimes succumbed to frustration after falling short during a promising run, the experience only galvanized me to excitedly take what I learned from my failures into the next run.</p>
Reviewed on: PC Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Plaion Developer: Critical Hit Games Rating: Mature
Nobody Wants to Die’s world terrifies me. Set only a few hundred years in the future, it paints a dystopian society where humanity has unlocked the secret to immortality, but instead of eternal bliss, it paved the way for the government to have full legal control of our bodies. The world is as fascinating as it is upsetting, and a high-profile murder becomes the catalyst for a gripping (though not always actively engaging) mystery within it.
Since Blade Runner's release in 1982, renditions of a cyberpunk metropolis have been plentiful and familiar. Nobody Wants to Die’s bleak depiction of 2329 New York City stands out as one of my favorites due to its effective fusion of Art Deco. The game looks as if technology skyrocketed in the 1930s while retaining that era’s aesthetic; vintage cars soar across the polluted airways of the concrete jungle, and futuristic gadgets have a Tomorrowland-esque design. In addition to a strong art direction, the graphical fidelity is top-notch with beautiful lighting illuminating the densely detailed cityscape and interiors. Nobody Wants to Die is a gorgeous game, and a clever introductory reveal of its world ranks among my favorite moments of the year.
The visuals invited me in, and the world-building kept me. After developing the ability to transfer human consciousness to different bodies, humanity has essentially solved death. People routinely live for centuries by switching to new, more desirable bodies, engendering a terrible system where citizens must pay a subscription fee to keep their original shell after coming of age. Failing to do so results in government seizure, where your consciousness is forcibly extracted and stored in a memory bank while your body goes up for sale. The less affluent 99% may have to settle for occupying aging or medically compromised bodies. If you can’t afford a new body, your conscious mind could be trapped in a bank for decades or longer. From Orwellian government promotions of a healthy lifestyle to prevent citizens from becoming damaged goods to reintroduction parties where people familiarize loved ones with their new bodies, developer Critical Hit Games has crafted an intriguing culture around this concept. Every lore detail, whether through new paper headlines or radio broadcasts, added substance to the presentation’s sizzle.
The politics surrounding immortality means morally dubious politicians and celebrities can maintain their status and control for obscenely long periods of time. In a world where true death is a rarity, the mysterious murder of one elite figure rattles the cages. Protagonist James Karra, a 120-year-old loose-cannon detective, is tasked with finding the culprit in an off-the-books case. The first-person adventure sees James visiting crime scenes and using a small set of high-tech forensic tools to collect clues and reverse engineer sequences of events. Whether using a handheld X-ray to trace a bullet’s trajectory, shining a UV lamp on hidden blood trails, or, most often, using a time-manipulating gauntlet to rewind and scrub through a chaotic moment, I enjoy assembling the pieces of smaller puzzles to form the big picture.
Detective work isn’t difficult, relying less on deductive reasoning and more on thoroughly poking around and uncovering every intractable element available. I don’t mind this more guided approach, as finding clues can lead to insightful and entertaining conversations with James’ partner Sara, who provides remote tech support in his ear. The two share some fun, sarcasm-heavy banter, such as an optional exchange where Sara asks James to describe the smell of chocolate (which no longer exists). The performances, especially Sara’s, are strong enough to make their relationship feel genuine and endearing. Their back-and-forth also adds welcomed levity, though James’ hard-boiled noir detective act means he often spews verbose monologues with metaphors that sometimes make limited sense.
Connecting clues in a flow chart between investigations is a game of determining which piece of evidence answers the question at hand. In reality, you can cheese this by just slotting in every clue until the right one fits, but I always wanted to deduce the answer properly. That said, Nobody Wants to Die is ultimately a narrative-focused adventure that uses detective-inspired gameplay as a vehicle to tell its story. You can’t really get anything wrong, and so if you’re hoping for true agency in how you approach solving this conspiracy, you’ll be disappointed.
You can, however, steer the plot in different directions thanks to the choice-driven dialogue and significant decision-making moments, adding stakes to conversations. Some choices have timers and can be as simple as deciding whether or not to drink on the job; an inebriated James may open an additional dialogue option. Bigger decisions, like deciding whether or not to kill a suspect or to destroy or preserve incriminating evidence, alter the plot more significantly. While that provides a good incentive to replay the roughly five-hour adventure, you’ll have to trek through the entire game again since it lacks a chapter selection, which is unfortunate.
Nobody Wants to Die does an admirable job juggling three main story threads: the aforementioned murder, James’ struggle to remember and come to terms with a traumatic event surrounding his wife’s death, and a heartbreaking tale involving Sara I won’t spoil. These plot points are disjointed at times; I’d make a big breakthrough in the murder case I wanted to follow up on immediately, only for the story to shift focus on James’ problems for a period. A mysterious villain at the center of it all is menacing at first but winds up feeling too obscure by the end. Perhaps it's a result of my choices, but I’m still not entirely sure what the antagonist’s true goal was or even who they were. Though the main threat falls a bit flat, the story regularly gripped me and sprinkled a few effective twists and revelations that kept me guessing until the conclusion.
Nobody Wants to Die delivers a few hours of largely engaging storytelling, easy yet well-presented puzzle-solving, and jaw-dropping sights. It has an ideal length, as it wraps up just when the long investigation segments begin feeling repetitive since your toolset never changes. While I didn’t get to wear my detective hat as tightly as I wanted, I enjoyed my tour through this cautionary vision of the future.
Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Capcom Developer: Capcom Rating: Teen
<p>Kunitsu-Gami is the kind of wonderful, left-field Capcom release we don’t see often these days. Bound to be a cult classic in the future, Path of the Goddess is original and does not lean on any of Capcom’s established properties. Instead, it relies on an admittedly difficult-to-explain but well-executed gameplay loop that I found hard to put down with an art style that is equally challenging to look away from.</p> <p>Players take on the role of Soh, a masked swordsperson bound to protect the divine maiden Yoshiro as she slowly dances along the path of Mt. Kafuku to purge and cleanse it from invading demons. During the day, Yoshiro moves through a level while you explore to find experience points and villagers who can be assigned a job to help protect the maiden during the night as demons pour out from gates in all directions. The loop is intense and engaging as you rush through the levels during daylight to prepare and fight the demons under the moon.</p> <iframe width="560" height="315" frameBorder="0" allow="autoplay" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gFZZVYn1cto" width="640"></iframe> <p>Kunitsu-Gami is undeniably original, but it is not without its inspirations. If I had to assign it a genre, I would say tower defense with a heavy dose of Pikmin, but I spent plenty of time executing combos with my sword, strategically placing troops before and during combat, and even restoring each village I saved between the action-focused levels. Kunitsu-Gami never overstays its welcome or spends too much time making you repeat yourself.</p> <p>The moment I got the hang of the basics, I encountered a boss who made me re-evaluate my strategies, or I was forced to play out a scenario while making my way across a lake on a series of boats. I was impressed by how Kunitsu-Gami never let me get too comfortable and forced me to try new strategies in new settings in ways that were exciting instead of frustrating. There are even levels where all you can do is direct your villagers with no opportunity to fight yourself, and even those were thrilling and fun.</p> <p>New Game Plus options and harder difficulties will undoubtedly test your resolve, but I appreciate that the strategy and action never got too complicated or difficult. Nothing frustrates me more in comparable genres than when I spend hours preparing for an encounter, only for it to fall apart at the end and force an extended restart. I certainly had to replay certain attempts, but I never felt fully cheated, and thankfully, no level is so long that a restart became a consistent nuisance.</p> <section class='type:slideshow'><figure><img src='https://ift.tt/AQzWhEt src='https://ift.tt/5FhaD49 src='https://ift.tt/V72oaIQ src='https://ift.tt/SE5Kka1 src='https://ift.tt/VYHt6A2 src='https://ift.tt/OxbBDol src='https://ift.tt/OkNxMem src='https://ift.tt/1c2HpxL src='https://ift.tt/fLAbDQl src='https://ift.tt/ZOknh2L src='https://ift.tt/evCfM4z src='https://ift.tt/T2i9gB8 src='https://ift.tt/AbulrfO src='https://ift.tt/pZjHXS5 src='https://ift.tt/E0ZcY7D src='https://ift.tt/pJqKx9o src='https://ift.tt/Fk7PQMn src='https://ift.tt/y4sVCNu> <p>Between the Yoshiro protection levels and boss fights, you return to rescued villages and assign villagers to fix up their demon-destructed homes. Restoring villages rewards experience and other goodies that can be used to upgrade Soh and the various villager classes. That simple loop frequently made me stay up late. The quiet period between action sequences serves to excite you to try out new upgrades and is perfect at setting you up for one more try – I always fell victim to it.</p> <p>Kunitsu-Gami’s story is light but effective, with every moment delivered through simple choreography free of dialogue. I was more invested in the upgrade loop than the story and felt it ended without an emotionally satisfying conclusion, but I enjoyed making my way along the path of Mt. Kafuku. Time will tell if Capcom pushes Kunitsu-Gami along the same track as games like Monster Hunter or Resident Evil, but I would be perfectly happy for it to forever exist as an excellent standalone experiment that delivered satisfying results.</p>
