Spiritfarer Review – The Long Way Home

Publisher: Thunder Lotus Games

Developer: Thunder Lotus Games

Release: 2020

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PC

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

Most simulation games are designed to go on forever. Even after you have passed all major milestones and achieved every meaningful upgrade, you can continue gathering resources and accruing wealth. The machinery of the world still runs, even if it has no clear goal. Spiritfarer is different. It’s an engaging story-driven management sim with a clear beginning, middle, and end. However, its bittersweet narrative also highlights the theme of recognizing when it’s time to move on.

You play as Stella, a recently appointed Spiritfarer who ferries the souls of the dead to their next phase of existence. As you sail across a colorful 2D world, you bring these aboard your boat, then fulfill their various requests until they are ready to leave. They may want to visit specific locations, eat their favorite foods, or see new amenities on the ship. The premise is simple, but giving the spirits what they need involves a gradual escalation of refining resources and building new structures. This is Spiritfarer’s central gameplay loop, and even though it’s satisfying, the process is filled with an unfortunate amount of busywork that wastes your time instead of enhancing it.

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At the beginning, your boat is sparsely equipped, and creating what you need is easy. When you need linen thread, you build a garden, grow some flax, harvest the fiber, and then complete a quick minigame at your loom to weave the thread. You have a wide array of items to craft, so managing multiple lines of production and optimizing your ship layout is a lot of fun in Spiritfarer’s early hours. However, as the requirements get more complicated, those “quick minigames” pile up; performing simple button presses to work bellows, hammer glass, and crush seeds is boring, especially considering how often you need to repeat these tasks to create the resources you need. A second player can control Daffodil in local co-op to split these tasks up, which eases the burden but still doesn’t make the chores fun to complete.

While the crafting itself gets old, seeing the results of your effort remains rewarding. Your small ship grows into a sprawling naval village, complete with orchards, farm animals, and places for your spirit companions to live. I had fun arranging and rearranging the different buildings, unlocking new blueprints, and sailing to every corner of the world to find useful items. Your destinations are usually small side-scrolling islands with light platforming challenges, and because time passes in a day-night cycle, I fell into a happy routine of setting my course, then running around my ship to perform upkeep in transit. Until the credits rolled after nearly 30 hours, I always had an interesting upgrade or task to pursue.

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Most of your passengers take anthropomorphic animal forms, like a bird or lion, and they wander around and make the boat feel like a community (and ask you for food constantly, which gets annoying). Each one has a distinct personality and story that unfolds through dialogue and quests, and advancing these tales is how you progress through Spiritfarer’s different acts. I appreciate how this gives the journey a structure beyond the usual “build stuff and get rich” motivation, but most spirits feel like embodiments of general concepts rather than fully realized characters. For example, you meet a philandering lion and an old hedgehog with a failing memory, but your interactions with them are more about what they represent than their personal stories, which can make it difficult to get invested in them as individuals.

The spirits’ broad characterization is not always a bad thing. Spiritfarer is ultimately about the process of saying goodbye, and because the cast embodies different elements of the human experience, their arcs have a universal and relatable quality. This is especially apparent during the spirits’ farewell scenes, in which Stella rows them to the door that leads to whatever happens next. With the benefit of full retrospect (and Stella’s assistance), they are able to confront their lives in sad and poignant exchanges full of optimism, regret, and patience. These scenes are excellent payoffs to the time you spend with the spirits, and I looked forward to each one.

You encounter a limited number of spirits in your travels, and seeing their stories is your primary incentive to continue. Once that task is done, it’s time for you to say your own goodbye to Spiritfarer. Even though you can technically keep sailing around after the credits, that feels unnecessary. The journey is complete, and I was satisfied by that sense of closure. Despite occasional rough waters in the pacing and characters, Spiritfarer is a voyage I will remember fondly.

Score: 8

Summary: Spiritfarer's crafting can be tedious, but the unique story and rewarding progression make it a journey worth taking.

Concept: Ferry spirits to the great beyond while refining resources, exploring the world, and upgrading your boat’s ever-expanding capabilities

Graphics: Vibrant settings and expressive animations lend cinematic flair to the world and characters

Sound: A solid score sells the otherworldly and playful atmosphere, and the voicework is limited to brief exclamations rather than full dialogue

Playability: Simple controls makes basic navigation easy, but the various minigames get tedious quickly

Entertainment: Spiritfarer taps into the fun of farming/lifestyle simulations, but adds a unique story layer that sets it apart

Replay: Moderate

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UFC 4 Review – Another Worthy Title Defense

Publisher: EA Sports

Developer: EA Vancouver

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 4

The sport of mixed-martial arts is a fickle and ever-evolving entity. Strategies and skillsets that got you a championship a few years ago could lead to a string of defeats today. UFC 4 takes the lessons of the athletes it portrays seriously, building upon the strong foundation of UFC 3 in some places, while going back to the drawing board and completely revamping its approach in others. The result is another outing worthy of wrapping the title belt around its waist.

The timeless concept of two fighters punching, kicking, and grappling their way to victory has never been more realistically represented than in UFC 4. With its improved control scheme, modifying strikes to be heavier or flashier is as simple as holding the face button for longer. Standing up and striking with your opponent continues to be an edge-of-your-seat experience, with progressive, localized damage throughout the bout, as well as the potential for flash knockouts with well-timed strikes; I jumped off my couch in shock as Conor McGregor ended my championship run with a counter left cross.

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If you’d prefer to settle things on the ground, the grappling system is also improved. Clinching with your opponent and shooting for takedowns now feel like a natural extension of the stand-up experience, taking into account locomotion to determine success. Once you’re on the ground, the new grapple assist system lets you select the outcome you want and the game does the rest. While this option is handy for casual players, I quickly changed the controls back to the legacy scheme since I like controlling exactly which positions I take on the ground.

Perhaps the most welcome improvement is the addition of new submission minigames. The old system is replaced by two intuitive sequences where the attacker must cover the defender’s bar as the action plays out behind the overlaid user interface. With two different minigames to complete depending on if you’re in a joint-manipulation or a choke submission, the processes feel different, and do a great job of blending player skill, fighter attributes, and fatigue to determine the outcome.

The offline offerings include one-off fights in traditional MMA, Stand and Bang, and Knockout mode (with a new health-bar system that mirrors that of traditional fighting games), as well as custom events and tournaments. However, the destination for offline play is career mode. This year’s career starts off more cinematic, as you work closely with your head coach to learn how to fight, rack up some wins, and make the jump to the professional circuit. Once you’re finally in the big show, the primary goal is to win a championship en route to becoming the greatest of all time. Fighting up the ranks is more exciting than ever, as fighters more accurately mimic the behavior of their real-life counterparts, making each opponent feel unique; Khabib Nurmagomedov’s pressure fighting makes you feel like you’re suffocating, while Justin Gaethje brings his wild-swinging firefight approach into the Octagon.

Planning for these contrasting styles is important in the lead up, and UFC 4 overhauls its training camp system to give you more options. You can spend your time watching tape of your opponent to learn their moves and tendencies, promoting your fight through social media and public appearances, or putting in work at the gym. Training is now less menu-oriented, with sparring serving as the focus, which I vastly prefer over the repetitive system of last game. I love how your fighter’s moves evolve based on how much you use them, while you can round out the rest of your skills by inviting other athletes to train with you or manually improve your attributes through skill points you earn in the gym.

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A big part of getting your fighter’s name out there is through social-media interactions. Some of these involve answering questions from commentator Jon Anik, while others are fighters in your division calling you out. I like being able to respond to them in respectful or taunting manners to build relationships and rivalries, but I’m disappointed in how the system seems to fall off once you reach the top of your division; when you’re champion, you should have more athletes shooting their shot with you, not radio silence.

In the online suite, Blitz Battles sticks out as the star. This mode pits you in a rapid 64-player tournament with rulesets like a one-minute-long fight or a best-of-three Knockout mode match. I love how if I lose in these get-in-get-out tournaments, I can just jump right back into another in hopes of a better result.

Whether you want to challenge the best in the world online or simply claim your throne in career mode, this is a terrific next step for EA Sports’ MMA franchise. UFC 4 effectively evolves its gameplay and career mode, giving you more than enough reason to step back into the Octagon.

Score: 8.5

Summary: By carrying forward the best elements of past games while revamping and overhauling other parts of the package, UFC 4 delivers a strong new entry for the franchise.

Concept: Refresh career mode and revamp gameplay to deliver another strong outing for fight fans

Graphics: The fighter likenesses are vast improvements over those of UFC 3, and the grappling animations are more fluid this time around

Sound: Every strike sounds crisp as it connects, and despite some misfired calls, Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier are a well-matched commentary team

Playability: Overhauled striking controls make throwing down easier than before, while the all-new submission minigames make grappling a much more approachable affair

Entertainment: With a retooled career mode, strong upgrades to gameplay, and the fun Blitz Battles online mode, UFC 4 delivers a complete package

Replay: Moderately high

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Fast & Furious Crossroads Review – Going Nowhere Fast

Publisher: Bandai Namco

Developer: Slightly Mad Studios

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 4, PC

With Fast 9’s theatrical release delayed until 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Fast & Furious Crossroads could have given fans a jolt of vehicular mayhem to tide them over. Even with the star power of Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Tyrese Gibson reprising their roles as Dom, Letty, and Roman, respectively, this combat-racing experience sputters along like a clunker on its last mile, gasping for someone to hit the brakes and take it to the junkyard.

The campaign, which clocks in at roughly five hours, has its heart in the right place. It has massive amounts of chaos, incoherent plot twists (as fans have come to expect), a little bit of humor courtesy of Roman, and huge setpiece moments, like cars being used in superhuman ways to dismantle a speeding train. We are also introduced to two excellent new characters to the Fast world: Vienna (voiced by Sonequa Martin-Green of Star Trek: Discovery fame) and Cam (voiced by Asia Kate Dillon, who is currently on Billions). Their personalities blend nicely with the existing crew, and give the game that ensemble vibe that is always present in the film series.

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Their character models and animations are rough, however, and some of their dialogue is stilted, but I enjoyed the goofy, save-the-world mission they were on – which sees them trying to stop madman Ormstrid (voiced by Peter Stormare) from crippling the world’s defenses. It’s all nonsensical stuff, but the ideas are fun, yet come up short in executive and polish.

Ormstrid has plenty of firepower to call upon, but the real threat the good guys face occurs whenever they get behind the wheel. Developer Slightly Mad Studios is well-versed in racing with successes ranging from Project Cars to Need for Speed: Shift. The studio’s expertise in racing excitement and precise driving controls are nowhere to be found here. What we experience instead are cars that resemble out-of-control pinballs, used to smash into everything haphazardly with a frustrating lack of visibility on the player’s part. Crossroads only offers one camera view, and it’s zoomed in too close to the vehicle, meaning you can’t really check what’s on your periphery. The one viewpoint is a puzzling design decision that makes the game nearly unplayable at times. The questionable vehicle physics and turning radius only complicate matters. I always felt like I was out of control when drifting.

Smashing into rival cars with forceful sideswipes is enjoyable in the same way the Burnout series was, but the goofy physics steal away the excitement of the moment, especially when the rival car glitches out and spins like a top or drifts away like a balloon. In the game’s 30-plus missions, hundreds of vehicles are turned into smoldering steel, and while Slightly Mad Studios has some fun with the setups and locations, the vision never solidifies in a meaningful way and instead becomes a parade of functionality issues and bugs galore. You can’t even trust the casual-driving A.I., which sometimes collides into one another in comedic ways.

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The best missions embrace the idea of teamwork, pushing the player to switch between four different characters to accomplish various tasks. Each of the four characters’ cars are equipped with different gadgets, such as Letty having a grappling hook she can use to rip off a piece of armor, which exposes a weak spot Dom can attack with a rocket barrage. Moments like these happen periodically, and provide the flavor of the Fast movies, but just not the intensity or excitement. In most missions, even the ones that require teamwork, the goal is to simply ram a vehicle to death.

Crossroads also offers a unique nine-player multiplayer experience that sees three teams of three trying to accomplish different tasks for a specific mission. For the mission Tank Takedown, the hero team is pushed to destroy the tank before it escapes. The villain team needs to provide protection for the tank. The third team is the cops, and they just need to stop and arrest both sides. The idea is sound, but all of the matches I partook in descended into unmanageable chaos, with cars flying every which way. I like how each team is equipped with different gear to try and thwart the others, but most of my takedowns came from the chaos and not carefully executed maneuvers.

Many of us lived through the era of video games that was overflowing with bad movie-to-game adaptations, and Crossroads is a pointed reminder of those days, showing just how far games have come since then. It’s a mess of a game that hones in on why the Fast movies are great, but will make you want to put the controller down to watch one of those movies instead.

Score: 5

Summary: Slightly Mad Studios' combat racer shows potential, but lacks polish and ends up being a frustrating play.

Concept: An official new story in the Fast lore that shows Dom and company on their worst mission yet

Graphics: Some of the vistas look great, but the vehicle damage, effects, and character animations are all rough and in the spotlight too often

Sound: The soundtrack pumps out excitement, but it’s not enough to bury the stilted dialogue

Playability: Car physics are too loose, and the only camera angle is too close and makes mission completion difficult

Entertainment: Seeing the crew behind the wheel again is good, but they deserve so much better than this

Replay: Moderate

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