Rating of
2/5
Bramble: The Mountain King
“Not the Norse Mythology You Were Expecting”
“Bramble: The Mountain King” (“Bramble”) is the second game from Swedish Indie developer, Dimfrost Studio, and their last game under that moniker, after recently rebranding themselves as Maximum Entertainment and becoming an Indie publisher as well as a development studio. Dimfrost’s first game was an ambitious dive into the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time world of Virtual Reality, and thus garnered little attention from anyone. For their second game, Dimfrost tried to garner more attention by focusing heavily on stylish visuals that play well in trailers, taking free* Unreal Engine money from Epic Games, and loudly announcing that their new game would be steeped in Nordic mythology and folk tales.
Seeing the game’s glorious …
Rating of
4/5
Elden Ring
From Software is a the developer equivalent of a masochist's dream. Because whom among us doesn't like being punished from time to time? Elden Ring is their most approachable game but still made me rage and cuss and ragecuss like I haven't in a long while... and that was all while completely avoided the PvP aspect and just playing the story mode. From Software is NOT known for great storytelling and while Elden Ring certainly has a story - I spent most of the game running around various areas and killing whatever - in caves, in tombs, in swamps - and had to wiki the damn side quests, most of which are far too easy to skip along the way, especially as the game doesn't often point you in any direction whatsoever.
Looks and Stuff: Not …
Rating of
4/5
Baba Is You
Baba Is You doesn’t have a traditional narrative story, there’s no unfolding plot, cutscenes, or dialogue. Instead, the story is largely abstract and told through the game’s progression, environments, and evolving rulesets. This isn’t surprising given the nature of the game, focusing squarely on the puzzles. Progression happens naturally through solving levels and unlocking new areas, revealing increasingly complex word blocks and combinations, making it more difficult to solve levels.
Presentation
Visually, Baba Is You is simple, and I like it. The minimalist pixel art gives it a retro feel, and the muted color palette keeps the screen from becoming visually overwhelming even in complex levels. The music is calm and …
Rating of
3.5/5
Demon's Souls Remastered
Difficult, Frustrating, and also Rewarding
Demon's Souls is a remake of a game with the same name on PS3. It's a beautiful, difficult, and rewarding game that lacks when it comes to controls and explaining things.
I had never played a game in the "Souls" series before starting this so when I began I only knew a couple things. First, the series is pretty popular and second, that it's viewed as extremely difficult. By the time I finished I understood both of these things very well.
The story of this game isn't that intriguing. In a land called Boltearia an evil presence is taking over. A fog is enveloping the area and there are evil creatures and demons strung about. Once you're in there is no escape and it appears there's a evil being making people like you kill …
