Recent reviews by Liviola

Incredibly immersive.

Even if you simply used this game as a camping and wildlife watching simulator, doing nothing but observing and filling out your encyclopedia of animals, you'd still have a GREAT time because the game is gorgeous.

Of course, you'll be doing a lot more than that :)

The writing is really funny, had me burst out laughing a bunch of times.

It's got offbeat Aussie humor, charming characters and a massive open world with so many random little easter eggs. You can tell the game is a labour of love. The game is pretty fast paced (love a super fast character walk speed) and the races are intense and chaotic in the best possible way.

Bonus, you can complete the game start to finish 100% stark naked with your bum cheeks hanging out. What more could you want???

Surprisingly deep, moving, personal and genuinely prompts you to question religion, art, and the purpose of life itself. Actually teared up several times EXTREMELY unexpectedly. One moment I'm clicking around nonchalantly - literally 2 seconds later in a conversation with a villager - sobbing. It hit me so hard because it was subtle.

While the game is a slow burn, the narrative is powerful. I was first drawn in by the visuals and the setting, but by the end of it, Pentiment instantly became a frontrunner for my GOTY.

Really nice experience. I felt so immersed. The music and UI is nice, the story was short and sweet. The characters were quite nuanced and likeable for the short amount of interaction with them. The moral of the story wasn't super deep or "high stakes" but I didn't need it to be. Sometimes you just want a chill little Uber Driver simulator with cool art. The only thing is I wished it was voice acted :) But sometimes the lack of VO can give it a certain charm, too!

Thoroughly enjoyed it! A lovely story. Visually impressive. Nice cinematics and great voice acting. I would have liked a few more main story cases, but there are plenty of small side quests to make the game worth it. An improvement on the previous versions of the game, too - there are much less of those tiresome minigames and quick time events - and the one minigame that remains is now fully skippable :D

If you like stealth and squad command games, you'll like this. It reminded me of how much I enjoyed Valkyria Chronicles. It's not often a really good game in this genre comes along. Really dig the art style and characters, too.

A huge amount of content, interesting sidequests, well-written dialogue and a satisfying skill system.

If you like the "use the skill to level it" system in Elder Scrolls and gaining perks as you level up like in the Fallout series, you'll probably enjoy this, which uses some of the best in both worlds.

While some aspects of the game are slightly tedious, I didn't mind it in this setting because it added to the immersion of playing a feeble peasant and slowly working your way up the world, and so you really feel like you earn that progress. Although the prologue was a tad drawn out, I was glad I stuck to it and really enjoyed when the world opened up.

Overall I had a fantastic time and experienced some really memorable sidequests. I had a drunken romp with a priest and had our own version of The Hangover the next day; I defended a woman in an inquisition trial questline where the final cutscene unexpectedly brought me to tears; I played doctor and detective and solved a bunch of medieval crimes and mysteries.. it was just a really fun 100 or so hours :)

Visually gorgeous, emotionally wrenching. If you've gone through anything remotely resembling grief, guilt, a complicated family, trauma, anxiety or gender dysphoria, this game touches on it all. The story is quiet, intimate and has so many understated moments. I've also never been to Alaska nor lived in a small town, yet the game perfectly evokes that intense nostalgia you get from seeing the people and places from your childhood, and you can almost breathe that crisp mountain air from the beautiful vistas and locations in the game. It's equal parts emotionally cathartic and beautifully zen - the hallmark of a Dontnod game :)

Pendulo Studios and YS Interactive prove they can take the place of the next big storytelling studio after Telltale. Hope they continue to make games because Blacksad was great.

The game takes good gameplay elements from Telltale games, the Sherlock Holmes series and possibly even DONTNOD games. If you liked any of those, you'll like this. Dialogue decisions with characters have meaningful impacts. You gain clues and solve crimes using the mind-map/deductions interface, which is very satisfying.

I haven't read the graphic novel but it feels true to the artistic vision. The shots and moments were beautifully constructed, the plot was good, overall it felt like a good film noir story.

The only downside to the game for me was the very clunky controls, especially on a controller. For example, the character has to be positioned exactly to see certain object interactions, plus clunky analog stick controls are sometimes paired with QTEs. The timers I'm guessing are based on the average mouse/keyboard user, so if you're using a controller, expect to fail one or two QTEs that require you to position a sluggish, hard-to-control reticle over a precise point in a matter of seconds (you'll know what I mean). Don't let that detract you, though, overall the game is very much worth it!

This is a very underrated game!

Once I finished, I was reminded a bit of how I felt when I finished Undertale: the gameplay experience was all a bit strange and oftentimes simple but creative and interesting, however, the story reveal at the end gets you right in the feels when you're really not expecting it. You're left feeling like you just experienced art.

Plus the soundtrack is so good!

If you can pick it up on sale, it's worth experiencing :)