It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve played a good ol’ straightforward first-person shooter. The last one I reviewed is certainly a distant memory: that honour goes to Mothergunship in 2019, which was forgettable then and definitely hasn’t improved with time. It’s strange too, because shooters in general are a genre I tend to enjoy; I spent uncountable hours playing various Halo games in single and multiplayer as a teenager, moved on to Warframe in university, and have more modern releases like Robocop: Rogue City and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun sitting in my Steam backlog. Maybe it’s just that recently I’ve been more invested in narrative-centric (see: the several visual novels I’ve covered in the last year) and cozy games (Mika and the Witch’s Mountain and Tiny Garden both jump to mind) over the traditionally “shoot first, ask questions later” experiences of many shooters. Then again, perhaps that expectation has been clouding my judgement all this time, because while Shooty Shooty Robot Invasion is thoroughly a game about shooting stuff (I think it’s illegal to put “shoot” in your title twice and not be), it surprised me with how much of a story it actually wanted to tell.
Tag: Cartoony
Death’s Door Review
What is a Souls-like? I found myself asking that question a lot while playing through Death’s Door, as in some respects it clearly apes FromSoftware’s venerable franchise, while in others it distances itself. With the rabid fanbase those games have accrued (not to mention all the memes about “X is the Dark Souls of Y”), I’m always a bit wary when slinging the Souls-like label around, lest I be called a filthy casual who doesn’t understand the genre … or worse. In the case of Death’s Door, though, I feel relatively safe assigning the moniker, as even the Steam store page has it tagged as such; the fans have spoken, and all that jazz. I think that it’s also one of the more accessible Souls-likes I’ve played, though that’s not to say it’s easy. Rest assured that Death’s Door is more than willing to provide a stiff challenge, but – well – we’ll get into that.
Little Kitty, Big City Review
Open world games have a tendency to get bogged down in tedium. One need only look at the latest guff put out by the AAA gaming sphere to see countless examples of games promising massive open worlds with hundreds of hours of content … which tends to boil down to mindless fetch quests and a sea of meaningless collectibles. Enter Little Kitty, Big City, a game which – on the face of it – may seem a bit lacking because of its length. According to How Long to Beat, it can be completed in a mere two and a half hours if you’re mainlining the story, and my playthrough took just over five with many side objectives completed and collectibles found. As is so often the case, though, brevity breeds quality, and while Little Kitty, Big City is not without its faults, it’s still a shining example of an open world that’s actually fun to explore.
Antonblast Review
The first thing you need to know about Antonblast is that superlatives can’t properly capture how truly bonkers it is. From its neon graffiti by way of Courage the Cowardly Dog aesthetics to its blasting rock-infused rhythms to the fact that the game has a damn button that does nothing but make your character scream, this is pretty much the definition of firing on all cylinders insanity. I lost count of the number of times I could barely process what was happening on-screen – where I was just pressing buttons and not dying and calling that good. My first play session lasted for about an hour, and it simultaneously barely felt that long and had me needing a break afterwards just to stop my retinas from frying. If you want calm, collected, cultured commentary, look elsewhere, but if you want a game that hits the gas from moment one (even the opening titles got me hyped every time) and never lets up, Antonblast is your game.
Olive's Game Garden 