The first time I heard about Antihero was back during PAX. Excited previews and hopeful journalists all around, I launched the freshly released title with my own high expectations. Tim Conkling’s Antihero delivered in every way, even matching the mood of the rainy day I sat down to play it. A thoughtful turn-based strategy themed to a dark old-London underworld, Antihero’s milieu of characters, mechanics, and pace do wonders to deliver players a wonderful blend of freedom and challenge, pressuring the player to succeed while moving in their own rhythm. You play as the leader of a thieves guild whose mission is to steal, kill, and corrupt his way to the top of the town. Played out in turns and action points, you begin by…
The Wild Eight is a top-down survival RPG that pits players against a devastating winter climate, Alaskan wildlife, and bouts of Lovecraftian horror in a challenge to uncover a unique story and surmount the even greater trial: survive. You play as one of eight characters, each with distinct backgrounds and perks. Chang, for example, has a strong academic background which is reflected in his passive ability to learn new skills more rapidly than his peers. Anna has medical school experience which bolsters her ability to craft medical supplies from raw materials. Survival plays out much like Don’t Starve. A contest against cold, hunger, and sleep meters will motivate players to craft, hunt, gather, and build. Alaska’s harsh environment will have players dying again and again,…
From its premiere Falcom credits screen, Ys Origin pulled me back into my PSOne years and kept me there for the long haul. An adventure colored by sprite characters in a 3D environment and a sprawling backstory, it touts all the character of old Square Soft titles Legend of Dragoon and Legend of Mana, as well as the at-times overwhelming text-based dialogue and equipment and skill systems that trained my mild milky generation to be meticulous. Nostalgia aside, Ys is firmly packed with well-founded mechanics, swift controls, and incredibly enjoyable gameplay that entertained yet somehow failed to inspire me. A weak overall story lined with Ys lore and uncompelling dialogue holds back the exciting gameplay from being a fulfilling RPG experience. Ys follows the generic…
Mahjong is a 19th century Chinese tile game. Traditionally a four player game, variants spawned as the game attained widespread popularity, including the tile matching game mahjong solitaire. Mahjong solitaire arranges the original game’s 144 tiles into a stack of rows and gives the solitary player the objective of clearing the table by matching and removing two identical tiles at a time. As someone who had never played any mahjong or mahjong titles, I felt a crash course in its history was necessary before digging in. Mahjong Deluxe 3 does the arguably simple job of presenting us with mahjong solitaire in its most basic form. A still-screen tutorial fills players in on the match-two type rules of clearing tiles then sets them loose on nearly…
Warmlamp Games’ Beholder truly stands out among late 2016’s releases. A household management game at its core, it twists together elements and themes seen in iconic titles This War of Mine and Papers Please without becoming a clone or “-like;” a healthy portion of player freedom and the removal of punishing player wellness meters encourages experimentation. Still, the Motherland manages to be anything but forgiving. Beholder has players in the shoes of Carl, a family man, a recent builder manager, and a servant to the Motherland, whose civic duty is to monitor and report the private lives of his tenants to the government. Players must choose whether to spend their allotted funds on college books for Carl’s son or hidden cameras to covertly watch their…
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