Recent reviews by Vintage Devilry

I'm playing an official release of Final Fantasy IV on my PC.

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Honestly, this was a better effort than I was expecting. The manic pace, rapid fire slashing and cartwheeling acrobatics are all intact from the arcade original. References to that game abound, and I couldn't help but smile to see a nod to the strange NES version many of us without access to a Genesis endured. Boss fights are plentiful and well-designed, relying on classic pattern memorization skills to get through.

That being said, Strider has a few issues. Instead of a linear action game, we're instead greeted by a lite Metroidvania affair. This is fine, but unfortunately many of the "rooms" are massive and sparesely populated with enemies, making it extremely easy to blast through them with little effort from the player. The music is also weirdly subdued and sounds as though composer Michael Mollo was trying to remix the original soundtrack in a similar way to Simon Viklund's work on Bionic Commando Rearmed. What little I could hear of it under the chaos of battle failed to evoke a similar response; a real shame considering the original game's strange and bombastic score.

A solid effort from Double Helix. I wish Hiryu would pop in more often.

An excellent follow-up to Telltale's initial season of The Walking Dead, I ended up enjoying The Wolf Among Us more than that series, even if it doesn't hit with the same emotional wallop. Instead we're presented with a murder mystery that is, much like the setting it takes place in, much more than it seems. Especially impressive is the way your choices in the first four chapters heavily impact the tense final half hour in the fifth.

This is not a difficult game, nor is it an especially complex one (in fact it doesn't get much more basic in terms of mechanics - this makes the Sierra and LucasArts adventures of yore seem impossibly dense by comparison). However, it had me enthralled for its entire duration, and in the end, I really can't ask for more than that.

It's done.

I'm free.

FREEEEEEEEEEE!

About as close to the likes of Ico and Journey as PC gamers are going to get. Like those games, Brothers is emotionally poignant with very little in the way of overt explanation (or indeed, intelligible dialogue). Unlike those games, it is extremely clever mechanically without ever being frustrating.

A beautiful little game.

Note: I'm reviewing Gone Home after buying it for a whopping three dollars during the sale. Had I paid full price, my review would likely be negative.

Gone Home is an interesting experiment written by a handful of people that still vividly remember what it's like to be a teenager, that chaotic time in everyone's life in which they come to grips with who they are and feel everything with an intensity that is forever lost as we get older (for better or worse). It is about family in a jarringly real way, with all the baggage, joy, frustration and sadness you're likely familiar with when dealing with your own.

Sadly, I feel it can only be recommended to a very few with the patience and open-mindedness to unravel its secrets. It is something to be contemplated, and most will find it tedious and/or pointless. It is worth the gamble if you happen to find it at a discount. With a running time of 2-4 hours and with little replayability, the full price of $19.99 is likely to leave most feeling burned.

A substantial number of gamers (including myself) have hit a game-crippling bug in which the game gets stuck in an endless loop during a phone conversation in chapter 3, rendering it unplayable. There are no workarounds and Deep Silver have made no attempts to address the issue here on Steam. They've basically stolen $20 from those of us having the problem.

While Fall of Cybertron is more than serviceable as a third-person shooter (excellent production values, fun but underused transforming gimmick, multiple unique characters to play as), the real draw is High Moon's enthusiasm and respect for the Generation One source material, particularly the proper animated film from 1986. It's very much a love letter to all the children of the 80s that grew up with this franchise, with tons of references, bits of familiar dialogue and cameos that will have longtime fans (like myself) grinning from ear to ear. Multiplayer is quite fun as well, though unfortunately tarnished by rampant cheating.

Bonus points for the best credits roll in recent memory.

Almost unbearbly difficult to experience (especially if you've previously suffered or do suffer from serious depression yourself, or know someone who does), Actual Sunlight is the story of a dead-end 30-something rapidly being consumed by his cynicism and disdain for himself and the life he leads...or doesn't lead. Though it's obvious from the onset how this story must end, it makes the conclusion no easier to stomach.

Barely a game in the traditional sense, but that's hardly the point. Actual Sunlight is brave and incredibly well-written, but not likely something I'll ever go back to. Some stories just hit too close to home.

A sort of Metroidvania-lite, finding a strange middle ground between IGA's post-SotN fare and Lords of Shadow. It actually ends up being a more interesting game than LoS, and I would have liked to see a more fleshed out offering in this style, even if it does some seriously weird stuff with the classic lore.