PC Game Reviews

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Our detailed reviews help you make informed decisions about your next PC game purchase. We provide a thorough analysis of gameplay, graphics, story, and more.

Review: Goodnight Universe Might Make You Cry Nice Dream experimented with unexpected control schemes for the first time with Before Your Eyes . As the name suggested, tracking your blinking helped control memories. In Goodnight Universe , that concept is expanded upon and added to a much more compelling story that sees us helping an above average, supernaturally gifted baby find his way through extraordinary situations. Isaac isn’t your average baby. He’s smarter than normal, able to understand the world around him and engage in some pretty complex problem solving situations. There’s also the telekinesis. But he can’t just spend time processing that and trying to connect with his awkward family. There’s a company named Aio Industries that is very aware of what Isaac is capable of and wants to use him for their own purposes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuGuy9VsDxs While Goodnight Universe can be controlled via more typical control schemes, such as a controller, and there will be some segments where we need to move Isaac, the main mechanic here involves actually looking at things and blinking in order to affect the world around you and make things happen. (As such, it’s not a great fit for something like a Steam Deck or handheld gaming PC!) I played using the built-in webcam on a laptop, and it worked pretty well. I do recommend calibrating the game first in Settings to ensure it is catching your eye tracking, since there will be some segments where you want to be certain the game is recognizing when you’re focusing on an object/person or blinking. But I found it’s quite capable in most situations. There are some situations where I did notice it didn’t seem to recognize my inputs, but those were ones where there time felt of the essence and I wasn’t sure if it was due to my moving too quickly and out of my patterns or the game not properly recognizing it. After playing all of Goodnight Universe via the intended control scheme, which didn’t take long since it is three hours or so, I did try it playing only with a controller. It definitely feels less “special” that way. So I will say if you can’t play it with the eye-tracking option, you will be missing out. Images via Nice Dream While Goodnight Universe is an adventure game, it can also feel a bit like a visual novel or interactive movie due to how heavy and pivotal the story and character relationships are. It’s an incredibly well-written affair with a lot of moments that can hit you hard. This is all without feeling overly melodramatic. The plot beats are amazing here. While it also is a drama with some supernatural thriller elements, there’s some levity too. It’s genuinely funny! Some altercations with Aio Industries are scary! As someone who was incredibly close to her grandfather, the parts involve Angus got me misty. This game is absolutely moving and heartfelt. There are a few parts around the middle that feel a bit slow, but in general the pacing is okay. A part of that also has to do with the fantastic casting. I really loved Lewis Pullman as Isaac, and Tessa Espinola does a great job as Cleo. Both Al Madigal and Kerri Kenney-Silver are perfect picks as Isaac and Cleo’s parents, and I’m glad they went with folks who are so adept at comedy for those roles. Perhaps my favorite was Beau Bridges as Angus, as he nailed the part, came across as sympathetic, and it ended up being quite a surprise to hear him. Images via Nice Dream Goodnight Universe features a wonderful story with great performances and a unique, competent control scheme. Said method even works pretty well, considering it’s relying only on eye-tracking! I will say part of the experience is lacking without that, so you should make sure you can play under optimal conditions. But even if you can’t, the narrative and performances from its stacked cast are pretty great. Goodnight Universe is available for the Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC . The post Review: Goodnight Universe Might Make You Cry appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraDec 14

Review: Forestrike Will Test Your Skills Forestrike , a roguelike about martial arts fights and the power of premonition, sounds like it makes so much sense. Go on a journey. Enter basically your “mind palace” to work out a fight in your head. Implement it in reality, based on your foresight, to ideally survive and keep moving forward. If you manage to learn exactly what you should and do everything right. There are times it can be great! But when it isn’t, I’ve found it can be the most frustrating roguelike I’ve ever played. A foreign Admiral placed Emperor Lun Liao under his spell, and Yu is one of the few who sees exactly what’s going on. As such, our warrior heads out under one of multiple Masters and Paths in order to deal with the Admiral and save the country. This means using the power of The Cold Eye, The Leaf, The Monkey, The Storm, and The Tiger to win, with only Master Talgun and The Leaf available initially. While you will head through the Moongate and practice using foresight to deal with the situation, you need to go through everything in reality, with no practicing, to understand the full scope of this political thriller and discover the truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCbJLFTjgbo&t=1s While it’s never guaranteed that a roguelike will feature a fantastic story, or even offer any explanation at all, Forestrike offers an explanation and intent. Granted, you absolutely need to earn it! (Not to mention, I had to unlock my favorite Master.) Which is frustrating due to the difficulty. After seeing the outcome, I do think it is interesting. However, I’m not a fan of a design decision that means you lose access to certain options once beating a run with them. I feel like narratively, more could have been done with it, not to mention I really liked certain run types a lot. I do appreciate how the narrative does tie in to the repetitious nature of things and explains the foresight ability. When a Forestrike run begins, you choose a Master. This influences the techniques and moveset you get. You then head into fights against The Admiral’s forces. So an initial tutorial match will involve three enemies and Yu, with a task of surviving and perhaps accomplishing an optional goal for additional rewards. (For example, clearing it in under 10 moves.) Since Yu has three health and a heavy hit could knock out more than one, being careful is critical. Enemies come at you one at a time, and certain types have specific patterns you can memorize. You can use attacks or Techniques you’ve learned, and if you collected the right resources perhaps block or dodge an attack. When you win, you might get an active or passive Technique. These involve precise button presses and perhaps even resources. Once the first fight is done, you can see the map and determine which road (and experiences) you’ll face that run. While Forestrike is a roguelike, in that we are picking a path, building a “deck” of moves, and should expect to try multiple times before we succeed, there are ways in which it doesn’t work like one. As a result, I feel like that weakens part of the experience. For example, the fights against foes felt random sometimes. I’d find myself in situations where I couldn’t win, even if I was doing things “right.” Also, unlike a more traditional roguelike, if you lose you don’t start off in a better place next time. You begin with nothing carrying over. As such, it can get incredibly frustrating going through an attempt. Things might go great and you’ll get situations that take advantage of your Techniques. But more often than not, I found myself outclassed. I also felt like not all Masters’ paths were created equal. Some of them can be really cool and fun! The Leaf is a good start, and I enjoyed The Storm. The Monkey is my absolute favorite. However, I hated The Tiger, even though I really liked Buton as a character. Perhaps it’s just me, but it seemed like some were more creative and offered more opportunities for success depending on your choices and implementations of Techniques. Forestrike features an interesting concept and aesthetic I appreciate, but can feel unbalanced. I happened upon many situations where I felt like I couldn’t win, which was even why it took longer to prepare this review. I like the story and the way some of the martial arts movesets work. I just wish it didn’t often feel like chance so heavily affected my odds of success. Forestrike is available for the Switch and PC. The post Review: Forestrike Will Test Your Skills appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraDec 13

Unbeatable ReviewA visually striking rhythm game that suffers from an identity crisis.

IGN PC ArticlesDec 10

Routine ReviewA stylish and surprising sci-fi horror game.

IGN PC ArticlesDec 10

Review: Bits and Bops Really Feels Like Rhythm Heaven Nintendo’s Rhythm Heaven games work because they are such a fantastic pairing of clever music minigames with wonderful music. That formula can be difficult to replicate, since a game is going to falter if it doesn’t get both parts absolutely right. Bits and Bops is a concise little collection with minigames and music that actually does capture the same sense of whimsy. It isn’t perfect, but it is delightful. Bits and Bops is both the name of the game and a virtual record store we visit. Each minigame is set up as basically a new album, with shelves that feature 16 unique experiences and four mixtapes that combine the four from that shelf. (Think of that as being similar to the Rhythm Heaven remixes like ones we experienced in recent entries.) As we complete these games, which all might use one or in some cases two buttons, we earn little souvenirs and some other rhythm-based novelties that test timing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbziKeMD4Ok As with Rhythm Heaven , the Bits and Bops minigames are short and almost tell little stories of their own. So the first is a cat photographer on a ship photographing a seal that will pop out of the water to hit a beach ball, sometimes juggling it. The standard note pattern, indicated by audio beats, involves one button press to take a single picture. If you hear a sort of syncopated beat, then you know the seal is about to juggle it, meaning you need to press the button three times in a row to take three quick photos. Another involves a game of rock-paper-scissors, with the timing telling you how quickly to throw out your choice. The mixtapes combine clips from all of the four previous minigames for a longer song, with the animations now featuring the same characters, but with a matching theme. The fact that Tempo Lab Games based Bits and Bops on Rhythm Heaven is very obvious. One minigame involving ants marching is definitely Flock Step-like, only with the bell signifying a quick three-step instead of taking flight. One in which a robot is performing alongside two backup dancers sort of reminds me of Frog Hop in terms of gameplay, what with pattern-matching and waiting for the spin move, but reminds me of Love Rap in terms of appearance due to the use of a trio. The miner moles on a cart? That’s See-Saw. While Fort Lifter involved nabbing peas with a fork and the hammer and nails minigame involves hitting nails, the gameplay and call-response element feels the same. I got strong Working Dough vibes from a minigame about a monkey tossing coins to a snake to get them into a chest, with the money featuring the same sort of sound effect as Hole in One. There are a lot of times when I felt like it was a fan game offering updated or additional takes on minigames Nintendo’s team did before due to them feeling so similar, rather than entirely original. They’re fun! They’re also very “on the nose.” How someone may feel about that might vary. I honestly wished there were more that felt 100% totally original ones, such as the minigame about the birds talking. Screenshots by Siliconera They are quite clever, though. The music in Bits and Bops feels very much like a tribute to Tsunku’s work. The animated segments are cute and genuinely funny. There’s a sense of pure whimsy woven throughout. I will note that in the introduction and tutorial, Tempo Lab Games makes a point of trusting your ears and not your eyes. However, the only minigame that really made me feel as though that was possibly true was the ants marching one. And that’s only because during the initial tutorial, I didn’t initially catch that the quick three-step came almost immediately after the bell. While Bits and Bops is far shorter than Nintendo’s Rhythm Heaven games, it absolutely captures the same spirit. It’s a clear tribute that looks and plays well. Some of the minigames might feel even a little too similar, perhaps due to the premise, appearance, or song. As long as that doesn’t bother you, you’ll likely have a good time with this homage. Bits and Bops is available for PCs. The post Review: Bits and Bops Really Feels Like Rhythm Heaven appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraDec 10

Routine ReviewIn space no one can hear you wait 13 years for Routine The post Routine Review appeared first on WellPlayed .

Reviews PC – WellPlayedDec 10

Review: UNBEATABLE Looks and Sounds Amazing If it came down to vibes alone, I think UNBEATABLE would be a 10/10 game. The soundtrack is phenomenal. There can be some clever quips from beat. The character designs and 2D folks exploring 3D environments pops. If there were an FLCL game, I think it would be like this. But while all those elements exude style, the execution of the narrative and some gameplay elements feel a little flimsy and in need of some patches. One day, when a pink-haired girl with a guitar was laying in a field, she looked up and saw a younger, blue-haired girl. Upon Beat meeting Quaver, the latter was shocked to see the instrument and spirited her away to her home. However, this was only temporary, as Quaver then used Beat as an excuse to get away from her house and gated community to head into the city to visit a stadium. When Quaver got up on the stage to “perform,” a cop showed up and was followed by a strange entities known as Silence. While dealing with these monsters and cops, Beat and Quaver head out to form their own band. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIrs322WdEY Like I said before, the narrative and atmosphere of UNBEATABLE very much reminds me of FLCL, and not just because they both feature pink-haired protagonists and a killer soundtrack. There’s a sense of rebelling against authority, determining who you are, and even a coming of age element for Quaver. There’s also a similar sort of attitude, with sharp quips and many characters having an edge to them. (In a good way, though!) It’s clever and stylish in every way, especially when it comes to its incredible music. As far as the rhythm element goes, it’s solid both in the main campaign and arcade mode. This involves two lanes of notes, with some Silence indicators showing up in the upper one and others in the lower track. The game begins with a timing input check, to ensure we aren’t dealing with lag. There are the typical types of note patterns with the Silence that come up, with some involving hitting both at the same time or held notes. In Arcade Mode it gets especially enjoyable, since there are tons of challenges and both standard and remix versions of songs from the game. Images via D-CELL So the main gameplay issues that got in the way of really enjoying UNBEATABLE involved some jarring transitions in story segments and sometimes even conversations. The big ones would come in going between one area or story beat to another. The first happened after the introductory segment, and I know it was intentional. But others seemed like maybe they weren’t. When Beat and Quaver were about to leave Quaver’s house, the game cut in the middle of a conversation before I could finish and I was just outside on the street with the two of them. When the two of them were in an arena and a police officer came up, there was another one of these sharp transitions that abruptly left the duo outside in the midst of a police chase. These kinds of awkward elements came up in conversations too. However, in this case it seemed like sometimes navigating dialogue options wasn’t as smooth as they should be. In one conversation with a security guard not long after Quaver and Beat meet, when I was making a selection, an issue with responsiveness and transitions meant I “chose” a dialogue option that I didn’t actually choose. Also, while unrelated, these text balloons can sometimes overlap in a way that keeps you from being able to read things, which gets annoying. Images via D-CELL The other gameplay elements that felt fiddly mainly popped up during exploration segments. There’s a forced camera perspective. In some situations, there might be some light climbing or moving across platforms, and it could prove challenging to stay atop without falling due to the view. (This doesn’t come up often.) While the standard rhythm game works well both in the campaign and arcade mode, as well as feature a lot of tracks, rhythm segments that don’t follow that two-line perspective with standard note indicators don’t always feel as immediately easy to figure out the timing and direction. I found the initial police chase one was the worst offender and another that was basically like dealing with a batting cage situation was best. But there are times when the more innovative rhythm segments might not hit in the same way as the traditional ones do. UNBEATABLE absolutely offers tons of style and an exceptional soundtrack, but sometimes I felt a bit let down by the execution of the story and its rhythm game elements. The idea behind the narrative is amazing and I love the plot, but I hated the sharp transitions that sometimes made it feel choppy. The traditional rhythm game moments are fantastic, especially in the arcade mode when you can savor all the tracks and take on challenges, but sometimes the rhythm minigames missed the mark for me. It very much feels like a title where, while it’s quite enjoyable now, I think it will be even better in a few weeks after some patches. UNBEATABLE is available on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. The post Review: UNBEATABLE Looks and Sounds Amazing appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraDec 9

Anno 117: Pax Romana ReviewGreasing palms with olive oil The post Anno 117: Pax Romana Review appeared first on WellPlayed .

Reviews PC – WellPlayedDec 9

Skate Story ReviewFusing a solid foundation of satisfyingly grounded skate tricks with a bizarre, abstract world, Skate Story wobbles a little under its weirdness but there’s no doubt it’s one of the most distinctive skateboarding games of the decade.

IGN PC ArticlesDec 9

Morsels ReviewOf mice and monsters The post Morsels Review appeared first on WellPlayed .

Reviews PC – WellPlayedDec 9