Recent reviews by Ed Rooney

It's disappointingly rare to find games developed specifically with co-op mechanics in mind that aren't competitive multiplayer games so We Were Here is a bright spot for people looking for experiences to play with a friend. Even though it's short and it's basically the demo for a larger series of games it's an hour to two hours depending on how long it takes to get the puzzles which is generous for a free game considering I've spend money on escape rooms that are shorter and have worse puzzles. A few mechanics are a little janky and the puzzles you can die on end up just causing you to spend a few tedious minutes getting back to where you were rather than adding any tension, but these are all forgivable flaws in a free game.

Snake Pass is one of those nice little games that has a completely original mechanic for you to master and doesn't overstay its welcome. It takes the running and jumping out of the 3D platformer and has you slithering around and winding your way around bamboo jungle gym playgrounds to seek out collectibles. The learning curve is solid and I went from uneasily making my way up small obstacles to quickly winding my way over poles that jut far over vast death pits with little worry. Mechanics are a little confusing at first, but once I got used to them I found them very lenient and in most cases you only need to just barely make it to a platform and get your head onto it to be able to wiggle the rest of your body up.

If Snake Pass suffers from anything it's a lack of variety. Over the course of my playthrough I felt like variety of challenges hadn't vastly changed from the first level to the last, aside from the addition of some moving obstacles to climb they only increase the amount of time you have to spend over death pits. If you think of the best platformers there's the general difficulty curve of the platforming, but also unique challenges appear frequently across the levels so there's always something new to figure out. Each of the four worlds in Snake Pass has a theme, but only in the last does this come up as a new challenge in the level design.

Even if it's a a bit shy of being as good as it could have been it's nice to see a game that tries something unique.

Decent exploration platformer that's carried by an excellent aesthetic. The grim-dark Spanish themed world is lovingly rendered with gorgeously gory pixel art and haunting Spanish guitars. Ultimately it tries to land somewhere between a pure Metroidvania and Dark Souls and misses a lot of what makes those special and lacks that bit of oomph that makes it stand out from the crowd. The world while visually striking lacks a feeling of emotional progression. In Super Metroid entering Norfair feels different from exploring the crashed ship. In Hollow Knight Deepnest and The Ancient Basin have a different emotional feel than The City of Tears and The Queens Gardens. As much as I liked the world of Blasphemous every area felt fairly similar and it led to an emotionally flat adventure (and as much as I loved the uniquely solemn music the lack of range in music only exacerbates this problem and I feel you could swap any song into any other area and I wouldn't even notice). On the same note the types of enemies and the tactics required to fight them were similar through out barring one area that had slightly more aggressive enemies. Character progression give you a couple new attacks, but movement options remain basic throughout. One of the ways to ease the repetition of backtracking inherent in this style of game is to give you more/deep movement options so every time you return to an area you have new tools to play with or can show off the skills you've been developing.

These are all problems that aren't initially a major detriment, but add up over a playthough. By the end of the game I'd lost my enthusiasm for exploring and had no desire to go back and discover secrets after beating the final boss. That being said one trip down Blasphemous' critical path is solid so I'd still recommend it to adventure platformer fans who've already played the fenres best and are looking for something new, although maybe hold out for a sale.

I like Dead by Daylight, but if there was ever a posterchild for needlessly obtuse and grindy progression systems in multiplayer games this is it. The bloodwebs and shrines and need to grind out every character's levels to have access to all the perks, plus all the perks have multiple levels you need to grind them up to is such an incredible turn off for me and I don't know what they add to the game other than a treadmill to put the players on. It comes off to me as trying to add the illusion of depth to what is a fairly simple game. Every map is pretty much the same and requires the same objective to win with the difference being adapting to what killer you're up against if you're the survivor. I like that it's a relatively simple game, it's a good game to play when you're tilting in something else and need to clear your mind. If they wanted it to be a game with more depth they should have reflected that in the mechanics and game design, not a series of choices that you have to make before you're playing the game that may or may not end up helping you and god help you if you haven't grinded enough to even have choices.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand some people like an overarching meta that they have to predict and adapt to, but I think this game is served poorly by it and it's completely at odds with how simple and easy to pick up it is. Every killer is easy to understand from a mechanical standpoint, but you're at a disadvantage if you're not studying all the possible perks and offerings etc. that they have available to them. That's complexity without any depth and it's not fun, it's just extra homework.

You can choose to play the game without bothering to study and know all this stuff and just throw random perks and items on yourself. That's what I've been doing and it's still fun, but it's impossible to play without having all these things looming over your shoulder and affecting how you feel about the outcome of every game.

Cuphead is a boss focused run-and-gun shooter with one of the most appealing aesthetics I've ever seen in a game. Back in the 16-bit era I would see games like Yoshi's Island and imsagine that one day graphics would advance to the point where games would look like a fully animated cartoon. Shortly after that polygons became the next big thing and we suffered a decade of blocky polygons while technology adanced enough to make 3D graphics look acceptable. While there certainly were beautiful 2D games released in that time span Cuphead brings my fantasy of a game that looks as good as a fully animated carton to life with its hand-drawn animations inspired by 1930s animations. The animations look fantastic and they absolutely nail the look with surreal enemy designs that ooze charm and style.

What's really impressive is how well the animations work in an action packed run-and-gun. Often smoothly animated frame-heavy sprites feel slow and clunky and don't work well in 2D games with a lot of fast paced action and have generally worked best in slow paced cinematic platformers like Out of this World and Prince of Persia. Fortunately all the animations in Cuphead feel snappy and I always felt in control of Cuphead as I blasted my way through the levels and navigated my way around enemies and projectiles.

The main bulk of the combat is reminiscent of games like Contra with an added dash move, a super meter for more powerful attacks and a parry attack that activates if you hit jump a second time in midair. Anything that's pink can be parried whether it's a projectile that the parry absorbs to charge the supermeter or an element in the environment that parrying might activate. I wish the parry move was used more often and in more interesting ways because some of the best fights have unique uses for it, but it's often an ignorable mechanic. The best use of the parry is in a fight where you're on a cart on a train track and parrying the sides will move the cart back and forth, but there are also enemies that drop parryable attacks that will also move your cart if they connect with the sides. More often than not there are just a scarce amount of parryable projectiles that you only need to think about if you're replaying a stage for an S-rank.

Even if they could have potentially used the parry to deepen the mechanics of the boss fights, the fights themselves are a fun challenge as long as you're the type of person who's alright with a bit of pattern memorization before you'll be able to best an encounter. And that's without mentioning the traditional platforming stages, flight stages that play like a shmup, the variety of weapons and powerups to mix and match, and a few bonus stages. There's a decent amount of variety to Cuphead that doesn't detract from the meat of the game.

I noticed a few odd glitches. The worst was that ocasionally the game would start skipping frames for a second which happened roughly seven or so times throughout my playthrough and means almost certain death if you're avoiding a tricky attack pattern when it happens. A few boss attacks acted strangely at a few points in the game, such as projectiles still appearing into other phases of a fight even though the animation for them had already played out. And once a boss fight just froze forcing me to quit back to the overworld. Since the levels are short and only take a couple minutes to beat you don't get set back far when they happen, but at the same time since you're working towards one really good run of a boss fight or stage it can be really frustrating when they mess up a good run. It's infrequent enough to not negatively impact the game, but they are there, for me at least.

Overall the shortcomings are minor and don't detract from a fun throwback with an amazing aesthetic.

Perhaps since Nintendo and Konami have been lax in maintaining the two series from which the genre take its name Metroidvanias have become overly represented in the indie scene. Hollow Knight manages to rise above the pack as one of the best exploration focused platformers to not feature Samus, Alucard, or a Belmont.

Beneath the unassuming town of Dirtmouth lies the cavernous Hollownest, a giant system of caves that hold the ruins of a one great civilization. You descend into the depths to face what creatures remain and find cryptic answers about what happened and how your character ties into it. Hollow Knight feels a little linear at first, but after the first few areas the world opens up more and you're free to explore in a bunch of different directions, and while the game does a good job of pointing you in a certain direction you have a bunch of different routes available to you as well as shortcuts to and from areas if you're able to suss them out.

Along the way you'll fight dozens of different enemies, fight a lot of challenging bosses (this is not a game for someone who's not willing to die a bunch to figure out how a boss works), and stumble into a lot of varied environments. One of my favorite parts of the game was just seeing the visual theme for each new area. Some are quiet and tranquil, some are dark and foreboding, some are lush and full of life, and others are dessicated and lifeless.

Mechanically the game is solid and the platforming and combat allow for you to manuever your way around some really tricky platforming and boss patterns. I like the lack of healing items in lieu of a soul (magic) meter that refills when you attack enemies. Healing takes a moment to charge so there's always a risk and challenge in finding just the right moment to get a tick or two of health in and since you need to fight to refill your magic you can't remain passive and play it safe. The importance of using your magic for healing meant I rarely used the game's attack spells since standard physical combat is so effective. There are equppable charms to offset this, but then again why not just equip charms to make your physical attacks even better?

I also thought the game could have used more movement abilites. I know alot of the harder platforming challenges are designed around the game's relatively basic set of platforming skills and more abilities might break them, but as I got further in the game I found that getting to the true final boss fight required a lot of backtracking. Moreso than I recall ever having to go through in any Metroids or Castlevanias I've played. While the game was packed with enough secrets that I was still finding new items, rooms, and hidden boss fights I'd missed up until the end it does get tedious to return to old areas several times without new ways to traverse them and I felt like I experienced that with most areas in Hollow Knight at some point.

That being said I loved the bulk of Hollow Knight enough for that to be a minor quibble and I reccomend it to anyone with an interest in Metroidvanias.

Legend of Grimrock is a great example of an indie game that finds a niche that bigger devs and publishers have no interest in and does it well. It takes the gameplay of old dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder and puts a nice coat of paint on them. It's surprising how well the idea holds up with only a few little quality of life improvements.

Of course, Grimrock isn't for everybody. Most people are probably going to find it a little tedious to slog through same looking hallways while having to save scum in case a monster closet opens up on them.The tile based movement and "click on a character portrait" combat is less than smooth, but if you're the kind of person who likes Resident Evil with tank controls than you probably understand how restrictive design can be a good thing sometimes. It creates a frantic combat atmosphere as you try to coordinate moving around with attacking while setting up rune combinations to cast spells.

For a certain kind of person, there's something engrossing about wandering lonely, abandonded hallways, solving puzzles and finding secret treasures. There's no soundtrack here, just the moan of an empty dungeon and the occasional skittering of an enemy that might be safely locked away or just around the corner waiting to pop out at you. There are no loot drops, if you want better weapons and armor you better make sure your puzzle solving is up to snuff as everything needs to be earned and a lot of things are squirreled away pretty deviously. Generally the game is pretty fair and you can get through with a minimum number of secrets found (I discovered a little over half) one puzzle that required backtracking for specific items that you might not think important to carry was annoying, but most puzzles that you need to solve to progress won't make you tear your hair out.

If you're interested it may be better to jump to Grimrock II, which I've heard improves a lot on the formula here, but on its own this is still a solid game and a unique experience if you're not familiar with this style of game.

I played The Witness at launch and since then I've read a lot of dissenting opinions on how well the game's puzzles validate being part of an interactive world and how the sparse story and thematic elements help or hinder the game and even John Blows own pretentions of being the "Thomas Pynchon of video games." I've bounced back and forth between thinking the game is pure genius and thinking the if it had a head it would be up its own ass.

When I step back from post game analysis and remember what it was like to play the game with no expectations I can't help but think of it fondly. Stepping onto the island and feeling overwhelmed by what could be waiting around every corner. Solving a series of seemingly pointless puzzles only to realize that I'd just learned how to solve a previous puzzle that seemed impossible. Stumbling over little details in the envoronment that I'd walked past a dozen times without seeing. There were so many moments of wonder and discovery that I can't help but step back from the debate over how well executed John Blows idea were and fondly remember the experience of playing The Witness.

In the end these things will add up to something different for different people and there's something a little off-putting about the endings which are simultaneously (and intentionally) obtuse and blunt in a way that's makes them not what you wanted, but exactly what you should have expected. There's the cynicism of someone who's spent too much time thinking about the industry and the art of game design embedded in The Witness, but the wide-eyed view of someone who's fascinated by the possibilities of games is there too and for me that voice was the stronger one and the one I'll remember when I look back on The Witness.

Pony Island reminds me of a lot of the flash games I used to play on Newgrounds. It's a small game that understands its scope and uses the charm of a clever idea to keep you playing as much as, if not more than, the gameplay. It does just enough to keep you entertained while having just enough good ideas that you'll remember it. Sometimes that's all a game really needs to do.

The general idea here is that you're trapped in purgatory and doomed to play satan's arcade game, Pony Island, until you finally give up your soul. The gameplay mostly alternates between playing Pony Island, which is a very basic runner style game, and a basic "hacking" puzzle game. Neither are particularly deep or challenging and don't get developed well over thr course of the game, but the strength of Pony Island is in how they're strung along with the concept and plot. There are just enough little twists and clever moments to keep you consistently interested.

There are games with better meta/self-aware narratives that also have better gameplay, but as a cheap experience Pony Island is smart enough to not over-strech itself and stay a short-but-sweet game.

Shmups are a dying breed, it's rare to see a modern shmup on Steam that doesn't immediately betray that it was made by a small indie team hacking together a tribute to the classics. Astebreed, on the other hand, looks and feels like a game that I wouldn't mind paying $14.99 for, but with the caveat that, like many shmups, the story takes less than two hours to play through and is designed for multiple playthroughs and highscore chasing.

Astebreed plays like Platinum Games made an old school shmup. It's simple enough that someone new could make it through the campaign on a low difficulty and feel like a bad-ass, but the mechanics are deep enough that you really need to master them for the hard difficulty or if you want to play for high scores. Once you get thngs down you'll be zipping around the screen, shooting enemies down, using lock-on attacks, deflecting enemy fire with your melee before charging in for the kill, and unleashing one of several different super attacks. As this happens the pespective will occasionally shift between top-down, side-scolling, and behind-the-shoulder. The latter works the worst, but the devs obviously knew that because that perspective is used more for wow-factor moments and comprises the least challenging moments of the game. Overall it's hectic and fun and a condensed experience without any filler. Some games might be 8+ hours long with 1.5 hours of truly exciting gameplay, Astebreed just simply ditches all the extra fluff, but regardless the length will be a sticking point for people who just want more for their money.

There's a surprisingly deep story here from a shmup and it's absolutely absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane, although I'm aware that it may just be par for the course if you're into anime. Whether you're interested in it or not, you'll likely miss most of it because the voice acting is all Japanese and the english text is shoved into the bottom corner where you're going to miss it because a good 50% of the exposition happens during firefights. Even when I was able to see the text a lot of the story is an odd mix of pretentious and inane. I have a feeling that may have been exactly the intent, but it's just not for me, and fortunately it's not necessary to enjoy the game and also completely ignorable.

If you can find it on sale (it's been as low as $4) it's definitely worth a play.