Recent reviews by Pelican

MoonFire: A Seeker's Saga is a captivating tale of adventure and political intrigue that sees the player as a stranger in a strange land navigating tense fights against bandits, consequential decisions of leadership and trust, and engrossing expeditions to uncover lost magics. The stories of the accompanying main characters are riveting and heartbreaking, and the setting is rich in lore and history. The supporting cast fills out the experience throughout the story's approximately 16-hour runtime, particularly as the climax builds, and the party adds a handsome and heroic avian, whose inspirational commitment to righteousness elevates the thrilling conclusion. Anticipate memorable music, fascinating scenery, combat mechanics and skill checks reminiscent of tabletop gaming, brief puzzle interludes, and no voice acting.

It's an interesting experience and a nice enough town to discover through the eyes of a pigeon getting his footing in intern-year medicine. The story had some impactful moments, but some specifics of the healthcare system and the finale with its muddled message didn't quite land. This won't have the cultural impact of the similarly styled Night in the Woods or older game with an avian doctor, Hatoful Boyfriend, but is worth a look.

I enjoyed Brok the Investigator and recommend it to anyone who enjoys such detective and point-and-click adventure games.

Gameplay is divided between puzzle-solving investigation, dialogue, and combat. Rather than action sequences and puzzles providing diversion for each other, the combat mechanics are integrated into the other parts of the story; Brok can punch pieces of the environment to brute force obstructions that could otherwise have been resolved with brains. Amusingly, he can even punch characters that most games would punish the player with a game-over screen or just not accept as valid inputs; this game continues somewhat believably, and sometimes decisions like this innovatively branch the story. Don't come to the game for the combat though; you can practice and increase your skill in the sidescrolling brawler segments, which are competent in their construction, but other games excel in the gameplay I'd treat as a bonus in this primarily point-and-click adventure game.

The strained but believable relationship between the eponymous investigator and his feline stepson Graff pulls a lot of weight in the story and in many ways supersedes the broader mystery and conspiracy investigation. The narrative isn't flawless - the dystopian future world is built better than that of Backbone, but the premise that an underclass subsist in the slums where they are dependent on a daily medication to ward off succumbing to pollution, and this medication comes exclusively from an enclosed dome where the elites live and the slum dwellers are prohibited entry, with this status quo unchallenged for an extended amount of time, is a bit excessive.

There are eleven endings which range from single decision points towards the end of the story to playthrough decisions spanning the entire game, but skipping scenes and fastforwarding dialogue previously heard is easy, so exploring different narrative options isn't onerous. Blacksad: Under the Skin would have benefited from such a system, and Brok's story threads branch much further.

The game's base price is lower than previously mentioned titles, which are older and less masterful, and thus a respectable bargain.

Reviews of this game after less than two hours of playtime will be misleading, because the way you start is rough. Each run gives you the opportunity to collect a knowledge resource which can be converted into permanent character upgrades (taking reduced damage, better luck in scavenging, and improved stamina for example), and I nearly consistently made it further each run and felt the game getting more playable.

The atmosphere is quite absorbing with the postapocalyptic survivors rummaging through a decade of decay in diverse environments particularly when the bleak mood is set by night and a heavy rain. There are four major biomes separated by plot-significant chokepoint maps, and each has a distinct library of locations to shuffle between in which to fight zombies and collect resources like ammunition, weapons, medical supplies, crafting ingredients, and fuel. The tactical and strategic element of the game is also frequently strong. Each run sees the volunteer already infected and gradually losing maximum HP unless using antivirals, and acquiring these during the journey can risk heavier encounters with the zombies, or using the batteries to open an antiviral supply can deplete your ability to open valuable supply caches. Some caches can be gathered right away, or they can be used to give extra supply to the next volunteers, introducing a strategic element across multiple runs.

The volunteer system is one of the narrative weaknesses of the game. Each character has a background that determines starting equipment, and they have some different names and appearances, but there's no reason to care about any as a character. It's a very gamified Rogue-lite system failing to establish a sensible in-universe lore reason for existing. The writing also falters especially in the introduction sequences. Performance could be better - the game most of the time runs and looks fine, but sometimes delay and poor framerate amplify the zombie threat more than your dwindling ammo and persistent infection.

There's a strong enough gameplay loop and plenty to discover once the player has developed the appropriate skills and unlocked character abilities that I'd recommend The Last Stand: Aftermath. Be prepared for a potentially sharp learning curve and frustration at suddenly losing a promising run. I had only some familiarity with one of the browser-based games from the series so no strong nostalgia, and while there are some gameplay elements and a shared universe in common, this title is otherwise distinct. While a worthy title, Aftermath fails to surpass my current favorite zombie game in a series with at least two prior Flash titles developed by a team of less than three people after a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Jesus Christ be praised.

I am honored that you should read my review of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

The summary up front, I do recommend KCD and think it is an artistic achievement with a reason for existing beyond making the corporate video games industry money. KCD is among the most cultured game I've ever played with its detailed and attentive recreation of its fifteenth century central European setting. The world becomes its own character in many contemporary open-world games. Warhorse Studios crafted a space comparable to those of larger budget developers, but I find the people and society populating the world map to be more compelling than the typical fantasy RPG. The game story is initiated by high medieval politics that most of the peasantry aren't fully aware of and don't have agency in but are impacted nevertheless, and you take on a player character, who is personalized to an extent, with a bit more direct involvement than the commoners. Henry is, in my experience, generally a good character allowing for both player projection and experiencing the narrative.

KCD is more realistic than comparable games, but this isn't a documentary, and even it falls astray and repeats misconceptions of purity of drinking water and brewing in medieval Europe. There are video game elements like a common storage chest shared between physically separate locations. The desperate situation Henry is in within a few hours of gameplay, impoverished and physically outmatched by countryside bandits, is appropriately conveyed by the mechanics, but the game unfortunately has an inverted difficulty curve in which getting started can be hard and frustrating, but the world grows easier as your skills increase and especially as you acquire armor and become literate. Being outnumbered and flanked by enemies continues to be a realistic threat though. You can level up your herbalism early in the game and then pick abundant amounts of the right kind of flowers to craft lucrative potions for free if so inclined. You can also craft the game-saving potion and get around the much maligned save system even without mods. I understand what the developer was intending with this system, as you can certainly continue the story and cope with the circumstances of quests completed sub-optimally, but this element of the storytelling is not one of the ways KCD is exceptional. The first-person melee combat has a lot of depth in its various weapon types, but you'll rarely use the combos and elaborate techniques as it's safer (and safety matters in a game with realistic combat) to rely on unblockable counter attacks.

I enjoyed many fantasy RPG's, but I wish there were more games like KCD. This game can at times be trope heavy, but the genre has become trope obese, so it's refreshing to break from the power fantasies, 'chosen one' blank slate characters, abundant wizards and potions, and fantasy pantheons and races to experience a game so grounded and genuine.

For the completionists, all the achievements can be earned in two full playthroughs, but the typical player won't accidentally stumble on a completion even if playing twice to make different decisions in a second playthrough, as some require cumulative decisions. I only played the entirety of the DLC content on my second playthrough, which was in hardcore mode. Everything worked as intended, and the hardcore mode for the most part added some interesting variation to gameplay. However, completionists will need to take all negative perks in hardcore mode and complete the game for one achievement, so there isn't a point to taking fewer. The most ill-conceived negative perk is numbskull, which can make it difficult to simulatenously achieve the level cap achievement even if you complete every quest in the game.

The story and setting is great and unique, the gameplay is pretty good with the exception of a few mechanics, and KCD is absolutely worth the time to experience it.

Alluris is a fantasy adventure game based around cards which present two choices to the player, swiping left or right, to progress. There is no deck building, but you do build a character through the RPG elements and can acquire different followers and items throughout the quest. The first run will feature a human peasant as the protagonist, but the world can be experienced again as a hero of a different race or background once unlocked. Likely you won’t complete the broader story about stopping an evil overlord within a time limit, which each card swipe representing one day of the adventure, on the first attempt, but you can uncover more quest threads with each attempt and unlock character backgrounds that make starting out easier and the game replayable. Once you know how to approach different side quests and minibosses you can do the same thing on a later game, but possessing certain items or having certain attributes, which you gain in various ways or start with based on your background, sometimes opens up creative approaches. A main road through the kingdom acts as a central hub to journey into the different biomes, most of which have a deeper biome such as the forest leading to the deepwoods. Finding the area you want to adventure in from the main road can sometimes be a timewaster since you might have to keep swiping left to carry on until the location card you’re interested in appears. I was impressed with the game’s depth, when it first seems like you just swipe right to fight things, and found it reasonably priced for the experience.

This is what a remaster of beloved games from previous generations should be. It's so faithfully done that even though I never played one of the PlayStation games, after completing the Reignited Trilogy I can recognize any part of any of the original three games. Each level, character, collectible, and activity has been recreated in a modern engine with plenty of quality of life improvements over the original games, not merely improved graphics and textures overlaid.

100% completion in each of the three games and all the achievements are definitely obtainable. I think I cleared more stages without outside assistance than ones I consulted a guide (the gems hidden behind the entrance area of Cliff Town before I learned that Sparx can point the way to the nearest treasure comes to mind). Similar to the original releases, Spyro 1 can be finished in one straight run, but the second and third games will require some backtracking after unlocking new abilities.

The game isn't perfect, however. The annoying side activities have been recreated faithfully too. The memetic trouble with the trolley from Spyro 2 isn't even that bad compared to the trial-and-error based activities such as the firefly escorting missions in Spooky Swamp in Spyro 3, which is itself a worse version of the alchemist escort mission in Spyro 2. For the second flrefly you only need to stomp three mushrooms out of the way, but good luck guessing which ones they are until you've failed the mission a couple of times.

The first two games have a bit more polish than the third. I had only one bug forcing me to restart when I initiated dialogue while also boarding a vehicle and one hard crash during a minigame, both in Spyro 3.

This series also has a lot of weird anthro confusion going on - who's your enemy, ally, and who is your fodder? In one level rockhopper penguins are fodder, and in the third game a penguin is a playable character!

Overall it's a great trilogy of games faithfully rebuilt beyond a simple graphics update.

It's very atmospheric throughout punctuated by brief animation, and there's plenty of game here including the arcade-like rocket sections; it isn't a pointless chicken joke.

It's a simple game in which you build a ranch for chickens, often referred to as chooks, and go through the harvest, reward, and upgrade cycle of many clickers and waiting games. Clicking will do little for your profitability, though, but most can reach the maximum level farm and earn all the achievements in a couple of days. There are thankfully no microtransactions and no plans to ever include them, so the game shouldn't become broken later like AdVenture Capitalist did. The game is visually cute and relaxing but needs a better soundtrack. If that sounds remotely interesting, go ahead and play for free.

Lords of Strife is a game about pain, which isn't evident by the colorful backgrounds and soundtrack reminiscent of classic video games, but the mood is right there in the title. The gameplay is difficult and innovative in that to move forward you will have to suffer. The platforming and puzzles will take several attempts to achieve mastery, but you will also have to adjust to enemies and how they change the levels. Several are impossible without effectively utilizing the enemies, and creatures like the frogs, owls, and coyotes provide more utility than obstacle. Your greatest weapon is determination, and the only other contender is a pitchfork. The dialogue is humorously grim. Death is frequent but, at least in the earlier stages, not a large setback, and advancing to the next screen preserves your progress. Ride those scarecrows.