01 | Life is Strange: Before the Storm | PC
Time: 12 hours
Score: 6/10
Before the Storm does away with the time travel story of the original Life is Strange and instead decides to focus more on the relationship of Rachel and Chloe, a risky move that ultimately turns out pretty well. Rachel and Chloe are two interesting characters in their own right and the story of their relationship is both sweet and heartbreaking. Yet I had hoped that Deck Nine would have also gone more in depth not only in how the relationship started but how it ended, as everyone who has played the original knows by now. What lead Rachel to do the things we did? To these questions we don't really get an answer. I'm also a bit let down by the last episode, which features some questionable scenes and doesn't have the memorable moments of the first two episodes. But overall Before the Storm seems like a good way to wrap up the story of Max, Chloe, Rachel and all others caught up in the events in Arcadia Bay.
02 | Quantum Break | PC
Time: 14 hours
Score: 8/10
Finally, a good time travel story. It is clear that Remedy has put a lot of effort in designing their world and the consistency and logic applied to their fantasy science is admirable. The characters are great and well written, the story is interesting throughout and their are quite a lot of plot twists that keep you on the edge of your seat. I also liked the live action show. Seriously, who wouldn't want to have cast members of The Wire such as Aiden Gillen and Lance Reddick in their game? Now, as awesome as the story might be, the game is let down by uninspired gameplay. They tried to incorporate some time travel gimmick in the combat moves but it's not very convincing. The platforming also falls flat. Luckily most combat encounters are quite easy (at least on medium difficulty) and for the majority of the time you will be listening to dialogue, exploring your surroundings and reading through personal correspondence anyway.
03 | Pillars of Eternity | PC
Time: 100 hours
Score: 8/10
I played Pillars at launch and gave up after Act 2. The game has come a long way since then. Combat has been balanced better, there have been much needed changes to the keep and with the White March expansion Obsidian knocked it out of the park. This time I also chose for the more challenging Path of the Damned difficulty, giving much more weight to your choices and decisions outside of the narrative. I gave the game another shot in preparation of Deadfire and it turned my initially negative opinion around entirely. That doesn't mean there are no issues with the game. Choice & consequence is disappointingly shallow, just like the various factions and your interactions with them in the game. Most of your companions are (at best) tangential to the main storyline and don't have much input overall in the game. Caed Nua still feels like a cheap mobile game (although the Endless Paths are pretty fantastic). And the game, like many others, suffers from an inverted difficulty curve, especially on Path of the Damned. Struggling with a pack of wolves in the first hour while being able to defeat the final boss without micromanagement. But Obsidian has addressed and recognized all those issues and will seemingly try to do better in the sequel. Which makes me very excited for Deadfire.
04 | Tyranny | PC
Time: 40 hours
Score: 8/10
Tyranny is the overlooked little brother of Pillars of Eternity. Its sales suffered mainly from a poor marketing campaign and an unfortunate release date. Yet where Pillars of Eternity feels like a relatively safe grand adventure RPG, Tyranny aims to shake things up. It puts you into the position of Fatebinder, a travelling judge with the authority to deliver verdicts and root out treason in the empire of the evil overlord Kyros. Sounds great? It is. You are tasked with resolving a dispute between two armies allied to Kyros who are invading an independent nation. The amount of reactivity in this game is ridiculous, to be honest. There are so many options to achieve this task, ranging from allying with one of the two armies to forsaking both and remaining a fully independent member of the court. And there are more options I won't spoil. Whatever path you take, influences the locations you visit, the quests you receive and it all comes full circle in a satisfying manner in the last act. Your companions are all mostly directly related to the main plot of the game and the choices you make influence their behavior and opinion of you. The writing is excellent and playing judge (and executioner) feels very rewarding and consistent with your role in the game. There are multiple issues with the game though. Combat is relatively shallow compared to Pillars, the level-up system is pretty awful and the second act tends to railroad you in the path Obsidian wants you to stick to. But I can't fault such a (relatively low) budget game for that when it is willing to go the extra mile in other aspects. Tyranny is a typical example of a game that aims for the stars and lands upon the moon.
05 | Expeditions: Viking | PC
Time: 30 hours
Score: 7/10
Viking is the successor to the sleeper hit Conquistador but takes the series in an altogether different direction, not only from tropical South America to the frosty beaches of Denmark and Scotland but also away from a more strategically minded RPG to a classic CRPG. Part of this move is a success, as the writing and choice & consequence in the game are a significant improvement. But on the other side the strategical elements related to managing your hird, feeding them and keeping them content, have been reduced from essential to very easy. Which makes them more of a chore than something challenging to manage. But luckily the combat is solid, if a little easy, and the setting is well realized. You also have multiple options to go about your playthrough, from playing a diplomatic and (relatively) peaceful thegn out to secure political allies, to being a badass viking raiding coastal towns and churches for plunder. Both styles allow for different endings. The only thing I didn't like is how your ending is heavily tied to two arbitrary values, prosperity and power, and it's not explained very well that it's best to max out one of the two instead of going for balance. I didn't have this problem but many others did, I've noticed.
06 | Final Fantasy XV | PC
Time: 40 hours
Score: 5/10
I rarely play JRPG's but having built a new rig I was eager to play Final Fantasy XV. The game looks absolutely stunning and manages to evoke an atmosphere reminiscent of a roadtrip adventure. This is the game's biggest strength along with the personality that Square Enix has bestowed upon the four main characters. While the writing ranges from mediocre to poor across the entire adventure, the game more than makes up for it with charm and personality.
Then why is this only getting a 5? Well there are multiple reasons: the side-quests are absolutely atrocious and range from bad to terrible. The four guys aside there are nearly no fleshed out NPC's, you'll rarely be doing anything meaningful and the game is too easy to make the progression and leveling system meaningful. Besides that the combat isn't anything to write home about. And worst of all the storyline is a gigantic mess. It's very clear that this game changed in direction a lot over its development duration.There are interesting concepts and features but rarely are they fleshed out well. Take the boss fight in Altissia for example: gorgeous set piece and animations all ruined by non-existent gameplay mechanics. You'll be in that wonderfully beautiful city for maximum an hour and then the story advances again. What the hell?
Final Fantasy XV is clearly a very flawed game but despite that I couldn't help but enjoy some of its aspects. No idea if I'll return for post-game content though.
07 | The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit | PC
Time: 2 hours
Score: 6/10
Short, sweet and full of human tragedy. A nice, enjoyable vignette in the Life is Strange universe. This has made me excited for the second season.
08 | Vampyr | PC
Time: 30 hours
Score: 7/10
Great atmosphere and voice acting make Vampyr one of the best titles of 2018 so far. The combat is equally enjoyable, if a little simplistic. The game also does a good job of tempting you to stray from the path of the righteous by awarding XP for embracing NPC's so peaceful playthroughs will force you to work with much less XP, making some boss fights very challenging. What I liked less is the dialogue wheel and the lack of control over Jonathan in those dialogue wheels. The dialogue itself ranges from banal to interesting but the biggest issue is that you cannot skip single lines or you will skip the entire part that the NPC is speaking. Very frustrating.
Overall Vampyr is a well executed and original take on both the RPG genre and vampire games though.
09 | Kingdom Come: Deliverance | PC
Time: 90 hours
Score: 9/10
An extraordinarily beautiful open world that truly feels like a real place...Warhorse Studios have set the bar very high with their interpretation of 15th century Bohemia. The splendour of all the forests, towns and hamlets is even more highlighted by the vibrant graphics and day and night system that significantly contribute towards the immersion factor.
Next to that the game also features surprisingly good writing and all of the main characters are very well written and have their own side-quests which spin off from the main story. The game at times feels like a blend of the more sandbox like approach of The Elder Scrolls games and the more narrative focused The Witcher 3. Kingdom Come aims to combine the best of both worlds and more often than not succeeds in this enormous undertaking. The combat is impactful and satisfying and there is a lot of choice and consequence present in the various main and side quests.
Negative points? There are still some bugs left, some parts are not executed that well (thinking about infiltrating the camp, the monastery) and the combat lock can be very annoying in fights against multiple enemies.
But overall Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a massive success, especially considering this is Warhorse's first try at creating a gigantic historically inspired open world RPG. Count me in for the sequel.
10 | Shadow of the Tomb Raider | PC
Time: 20 hours
Score: 5/10
+ Beautiful locations and set pieces
+ Less combat encounters
+ A bit of character development
+ Underwater sections
+ Challenge tombs are cool
- Story is still awful
- Writing and side characters range from mediocre to bad
- Progression is the same as in previous games and very unsatisfying
- Side quests are mostly bad
- Piranhas...whose idea was this?
Game didn't do a lot for me. It has refined the formula that has been building up over the rebooted series but none of it feels like a real step forward, we keep retreading the same territory over and over again. Lara, a few scenes aside, remains a mostly uninteresting character and besides Jonah there is actually no one worth mentioning in this story. It's kind of amazing how the developers manage to create such beautiful locations and populate them with the most boring characters imaginable.
11 | Call of Cthulhu | PC
Time: 10 hours
Score: 6/10
Call of Cthulhu promises you a detective RPG in the popular Lovecraft setting but after a few hours it becomes clear that this is a different kind of game. The RPG elements the game introduces you to rarely come into play and never feel like they matter. The sanity system also feels like a bit of a missed chance. On the other hand the game is quite an enjoyable walking simulator with a great atmosphere. I do wish there were more open levels such as when first entering Darkwater. Because after that chapter most of the game you will be going down a linear path, going where the game tells you to go. Overall Call of Cthulhu still feels like a solid effort at capturing the genre, even though the limitations of the budger are quite clear.
12 | State of Mind | PC
Time: 10 hours
Score: 8/10
State of Mind submerges you in a dystopian world where the role of technology, the consciousness and humanity are put into question. Around those teams Daedalic Entertainment has managed to craft an intriguing story with a well rounded cast of characters. The strong suit of the game is in its dialogue and plot, less so in the various environmental puzzles you encounter. Still, State of Mind does a much better job tackling this kind of genre than Telltale has ever done in the last few years. The game is a slow burn but very enjoyable for people who like narrative driven games.
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