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.

Spirit Mancer Review: A Run-And-Gun & Deckbuilding Mess-UpA road paved with good intentions... The post Spirit Mancer Review: A Run-And-Gun & Deckbuilding Mess-Up first appeared on Kakuchopurei .

PC | Kakuchopureimoments ago

Miniatures Review: Emotional LandscapeArtistry of storytelling. The post Miniatures Review: Emotional Landscape first appeared on Kakuchopurei .

PC | KakuchopureiNov 21

Review: Death Note Killer Within Starts Investigations Among Us The concept behind Death Note Killer Within is great, given it uses everything we know about the manga and anime and adapts it into an Among Us style social deduction game . It works reasonably well, and I never had issues finding a match. It even plays smoothly. However, the details get in the way, ranging from things like being forced to silently watch your chalk outline if you’re killed or seeing a match immediately end if one person leaves or is disconnected due to other reasons. As in games like Among Us , Death Note Killer Within hinges on everyone doing their best with the random roles they are given. Kira (Light Yagami) and Kira Follower (who looks like Misa Amane) want to eliminate criminals, L’s Investigators, and L. So Kira holds the Death Note, uses it to write people’s names in it after either getting their IDs or getting IDs from the Kira Follower, and build up their progress bar. The Kira Follower can steal IDs for Kira or hold the Death Note so if one of them are arrested, the Death Note and IDs aren’t on them. Both can also cause distractions to “force” L and L agents to areas of the map. The Kira forces win if L is killed or their gauge fills. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNfuze29zjc&t=190s&ab_channel=BandaiNamcoEntertainmentAmerica Meanwhile, L and the Investigators just need to investigate the situation and find Kira. Like Among Us , this means essentially doing sorts of tasks in Death Note Killer Within by doing things like working together when L commands it and talking to NPCs to find out if Kira acted in an area. Of course, during meetings you need to discuss and determine if someone should be voted out for suspicious behavior and perhaps even arresting someone. Meanwhile, L gains even more power, as he can use cameras to watch the scene, force joint investigations, and create decoys to protect investigators. It works as a gameplay loop, though a lot is being thrown at you at once and it can be complicated. It involves people paying attention, investigating, and looking for opportunities to catch people off guard. Knowing there are always only two Kira individuals in play can make it more difficult in larger groups, since they can be more easily hidden. Also, given how involved roles are, it can feel more complicated than Among Us at times. Though honestly, I do prefer the minigames there to the investigation execution here. Among Us also handles death better, as dying in Death Note Killer Within means you just are forced to sit and stare at the chalk outline of your dead body until the game ends and can’t follow anyone else around. Images via Bandai Namco The thing is, the actual gameplay isn’t really what gets in the way of enjoying Death Note Killer Within . It is some issues that can keep it from being playable. A recurring problem I experienced in Death Note Killer Within is that it is far too easy for a game to abruptly end. If one person leaves, the whole match is over. You need to completely restart and hope that the next folks showing up are more reliable. Even when playing with friends, it became a problem due to randoms also joining. It’s the most frustrating thing. I get if it was Kira or L dropping out, it would be a problem. However in one match this happened I was L and it occurred. In another, after consulting with people I knew who were in that round, the people who were Kira, Kira Follower, and L were all still around. Though, this might not be because someone is maliciously leaving the game. I noticed this was a more evident problem when I ticked the box allowing crossplay. When that was turned off and I was playing with only PC players, it was a little better. I still ended up getting kicked out of about 50% of games, but it could have been worse. Image via Bandai Namco I would also say that the initial community for Death Note Killer Within isn’t ideal. You can opt for a game with no chat. However, it is necessary to help accomplish goals. With it on, a match with random players can feel stressful at best and deeply unpleasant at worst. In one match, I ran into some folks just screaming at everyone. In another case, someone was a jerk to me because they realized I was a woman once I started talking. Though mostly, the reaction to my being a woman was to possibly being hit on? But also, it's difficult to accomplish things and get things done when everyone is shouting and off-topic when proximity chat kicks in or you head into a meeting. This isn’t on Grounding or Bandai Namco and the companies even brought up the reporting function as a means of calling attention to people behaving inappropriately or cheating, but sometimes it feels like a losing battle. Death Note Killer Within is better than I expected it to be, but is also a game where your experience hinges on other people’s behavior and actually getting to complete a match. If you are only playing with people you know, everyone is on a PC, and you all are committed, it can be a lot of fun! If you aren’t, then good luck! My enjoyment tanked pretty severely once random players got involved in my matches, and I suspect it isn’t an isolated issue. If that problem gets fixed and we see more reaction to reports about bad behavior, I think it could be a solid 6/10. But because it becomes so difficult to actually finish a round, it might be better to wait for a patch. Death Note Killer Within is available on the PS4, PS5, and PC . The post Review: Death Note Killer Within Starts Investigations Among Us appeared first on Siliconera .

PC Archives - SiliconeraNov 20

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl Review in ProgressSo far, severe bugs have been holding back a refreshingly brutal single-player FPS.

IGN PC ArticlesNov 20

Portal 2 looks mighty tasty indeed with RTX Remix Portal 2 seems like a lifetime ago, now. It released all the way back in 2011 and was the last (and just the second) time Valve took us on a journey through its puzzle-based game with the sardonic robot antagonist. It's a shame we never got a third entry, as it feels like there's still so much to explore. Still, we can always make what we have look shinier. As noted by DSO Gaming , you can now play Portal 2 via Nvidia's RTX Remix software, which gives the game full Path and Ray Tracing features. To put it simply (because I don't understand how the tech works myself), it boosts the lighting and overall visuals, making you go "ooh, shiny," throughout. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yORRCNjgVxw You can download the mod – which was created by user xoxor4d – from GitHib . However, it should be noted that this is still a work in progress. The description on the download page says RTX Remix was "never intended to support Portal 2." As such, you may encounter one or two bugs or a few crashes, so do bear that in mind before you install it. Remixing the classics Here are the features for the RTX Remix compatibility mod of the game: Most things are rendered using the fixed-function pipeline. Remix friendly culling and the ability to manually override culling per visleaf . Per map loading of remix config files to set remix variables. Spawning of unique anchor meshes. As you can see from the video above, Portal 2 looks pretty striking. To be fair, even though it's been 13 years since it was released, the vanilla experience still holds up, but if you can get it running through Nvidia's toolkit, you'll definitely notice the visual differences. Nvidia launched the beta of RTX Remix at the start of this year. Since then, modders have been using it to inject a bit of Ray Tracing goodness into some classic games, including The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind , GTA: Vice City , Half-Life 2 , Tomb Raider , and even the original Unreal . We also got an official release of an RTX Remix version of the first Portal back in 2022, which looked stunning. However, it was notable for requiring a much beefier system to run when compared to the standard game. According to the Steam page , it even recommends a GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card and 32GB of RAM if you want to play it on "Ultra" settings. Maybe that's one of the reasons it has a review score of "Mixed." The post Portal 2 looks mighty tasty indeed with RTX Remix appeared first on Destructoid .

PC Archives – DestructoidNov 19

Divine Dynamo Flamefrit Review: Passionate 2D Retro Fun For The AfternoonFire in your eyes. The post Divine Dynamo Flamefrit Review: Passionate 2D Retro Fun For The Afternoon first appeared on Kakuchopurei .

PC | KakuchopureiNov 19

Review: Great God Grove Is a Great, Goofy Game Great God Grove is, at its core, one big fetch quest. One person needs something, you go get it and bring it to them, and repeat that pattern for the entire run of the game. This has the potential to be tedious drudgery, and yet this concept was turned into something thoroughly compelling instead. Great God Grove puts you in the shoes of a nameless godpoke. You are like a cowpoke, but your job is wrangling gods. You are sent to an island populated by the world’s various gods with the task of fixing a serious problem. A rift is opening in the sky, but the gods are too busy arguing with each other to do anything about it. You need to get them talking again so the world can be saved. You are aided in your task with the Megapon, a lip-shaped megaphone that doubles as a vacuum cleaner. You suck in the words of characters you talk to, then blast them at other characters who need to hear those words. That’s the entire game. You’re a cosmic mediator who bluntly forces everyone to listen to what they need to hear. Screenshot by Siliconera Let me give you an example of how Great God Grove works. At the start of the game, you find yourself in an area that’s constantly raining due to the tears of the local god who’s sad at the disappearance of your predecessor, King. So now you must speak to the locals and get them to say something encouraging that he would have said, suck those words up and shoot them at the crying god to reassure her. While most of the game involves figuring out the correct words to progress, there are also plenty of useless joke phrases that exist simply to spark some goofy interactions. Like sucking up a speech bubble saying “Boo!” and using it to terrify everyone in the vicinity or shooting random compliments at whoever you feel needs one. It’s a simple concept but Great God Grove is incredibly creative in how it approaches it. The game is broken into a series of areas, each with their own squabbling deities, and each of these areas presents a unique challenge to crack. And they are genuine challenges, with many sections making me circle around several times until I was able to piece together what words I needed to throw around to progress. Screenshot by Siliconera This is where Great God Grove shines. Quite often the words you need to combine are less obvious than you’d expect. In one area, I had to wake someone who was blocking my way, and despite my efforts of throwing various shouted phrases at them, they wouldn’t wake up. It wasn’t until I realised that I could swipe the metaphorical phrase “open your eyes” uttered by another character and turn it literal. There are so many moments like this, where you’ll beat your head against the desk for a while until suddenly that “aha!” moment kicks in and you realize that seemingly useless phrase in your inventory is the key to everything. The inventory is also an inspired move, as it restricts you to five items total. Not just phrases, anything you suck up with the vacuum goes here, including beach balls, pumpkins or planks of wood. This means you can’t brute force these puzzles by sucking up every phrase in the area and throwing them until something sticks. You have to pay attention, keep note of everyone’s needs and wants, and actively seek out what might make sense and tossing out anything that doesn’t. Screenshot by Siliconera It helps that the world of Great God Grove is full of bizarre characters. This is not a game that takes itself seriously. This is most obvious in how much of your time is spent hanging out with the local detective force, the Bizzyboys. These boys are incompetent, often chasing the most useless leads or bickering amongst themselves while you do the actual work. They are also responsible for the chaotic live-action puppet shows that crop up in each area. While their purpose is to explain the world’s lore, they mostly left me confused. That’s a compliment, by the way, as the manic energy is what makes Great God Grove so appealing. This extends to most of the cast, who are a misfit bunch of weirdos across the board. Almost everyone has odd speech quirks, boisterous personalities or have strong reactions to everything you say. And yet, despite all this, their problems remain relatable. Even at their silliest, there’s a logic to their complaints. In a game where puzzle-solving and comedy are both key elements, it’s easy to let one side get in the way of the other but Great God Grove keeps its puzzles grounded while layering jokes on top. There are no LucasArts-style “monkey wrench” puzzles here. Screenshot by Siliconera The art style helps the vibes. It’s similar to Paper Mario , where cutout-style 2D sprites are layered in a pseudo-3D top-down view. Character designs look like they’ve been lifted out of a turn-of-the-century Saturday morning cartoon, where asymmetry and exaggerated features rule. Your character is especially notable in their weirdness, with their hair covering almost their entire face apart from a persistent perma-grin. Meanwhile, every single visit to a god sees them shoving their ridiculous faces in your view with theatrical flair with every word they speak. That said, while I did enjoy what Great God Grove had to offer, sometimes it can be a bit much. Most of its tone is intensely in-your-face and it rarely lets up. Most of the time I was happy to go along with it, but there were times when I had to turn the game off for a while until I was in the right mood for it. Some character speech quirks were also a little grating at times, and in a few rare occasions, made it harder to understand what was being said. Its humor is definitely an acquired taste, and it’s likely that some players won’t click with it at all. Screenshot by Siliconera The only other major complaint I had about the game was how unwieldy managing all the speech bubbles could be at times. Sucking up words takes a couple of seconds, and if you’re trying out different words in different places, it can be tedious to shoot the speech bubble and spend time sucking it back up before it disappears. Quite often this could also result in an active conversation happening while your inventory is open and a discarded speech bubble is on screen, which caused the screen to get cluttered and almost unreadable. In addition, the limited inventory space sometimes causes problems for puzzles that require multiple speech bubbles to solve. A song you have to assemble at one point in the game requires four lines, so it becomes much harder to engage with other characters when all but one of your inventory slots are blocked up. Ultimately, Great God Grove is a great romp about the importance of good communication. If you enjoy puzzle games, the works of Double Fine, or Undertale , you’ll find a lot to love here. Great God Grove is available on the PC, Switch and Xbox Series X/S. The post Review: Great God Grove Is a Great, Goofy Game appeared first on Siliconera .

PC Archives - SiliconeraNov 19

New Metaphor: ReFantazio Story Trailer Comes Out a Month After Game’s Release Over a month since the game came out in early October 2024, Atlus released a second story trailer for Metaphor: ReFantazio . The trailer includes content from the second act of the game, but no spoilers. You can watch the second Metaphor: ReFantazio trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy57ydV8xJw This trailer shows characters like Junah, Basilio, and Fidelio. It also shows maps like Brilehaven, as well as how combat works when you’re on the Gauntlet Runner. In other words, this second trailer focuses a lot more on the story and characters, whereas videos prior to the game’s official release were a bit more vague on what it’s about. Metaphor: ReFantazio is the latest entry from the creators of Persona 3 to 5 . Taking place in a high fantasy world rather than one that’s similar to our own, it follows the nameless Protagonist, a traveling boy who’s part of the persecuted Elda tribe. He and his fairy companion Gallica are on a mission to save his friend, the prince, from a curse that left him in a coma, and part of this mission involves stopping Archmage Louis, whose dark ambitions spell trouble for the country. At launch, Metaphor: ReFantazio received critical acclaim. It also sold over a million copies on its very first day—a milestone that combines physical and digital copies, as well as across all of the game’s available platforms. You can read our review of the game here. Metaphor: ReFantazio is readily available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Windows PC. The post New Metaphor: ReFantazio Story Trailer Comes Out a Month After Game’s Release appeared first on Siliconera .

PC Archives - SiliconeraNov 16

Review: Miniatures There’s always been some debate around whether or not games are art, but in the late aughts and early ‘10s, some decided to really push for it. Sometimes, this resulted in kind of mostly successful experiments like Citizen Abel: Gravity Bone or Limbo , while other times we got more unfortunate, pretentious attempts like The Path . It was a really insecure time for video games. We seemed to want some sort of permission to take this hobby seriously, so it’s like, collectively, as players and developers, we tried to prove video games were something they weren’t. Oh, they’re totally art. You can see that in games about flipping eggs and trimming hedges . But it’s more about harnessing the interactive element to get that piece of yourself across. A developer might try to capture how they think or see the world by asking you to live it. I’m not sure what The Path was supposed to say. Don’t do what you’re told? We’ve largely moved past that, or at the very least, games that are 100% message have more of a purpose. A self-assuredness. It often feels more earnest and less pretentious. Which makes Miniatures something of a blast from the past. Screenshot by Destructoid Miniatures ( PC [Reviewed], Switch , Mobile) Developer: Other Tales Interactive Publisher: Other Tales Interactive Released: November 14th, 2024 MSRP: $5.99 Now, I’m not actually saying Miniatures is pretentious. No, I'm the pretentious one today. But, it’s at least making no mystery of the fact that it’s a digital art exhibit. What I mean is that it is only interactive-adjacent, and it is very art. I wouldn’t even call it narratively focused because the stories are pretty abstract. You’ll either connect with them, maybe just find them amusing, or maybe you won’t. For me, it reminds me of extremely late nights of being bored in front of Teletoon. Nights when my parents were out, so I had free reign of the TV and could watch whatever bizarre concoction was on the station in the later hours. Teletoon would often air things from The National Film Board of Canada, which was actually the butt of a Simpsons joke back in the day (not while they were still good). Very cultural stuff, but a lot of it was extremely strange. Sometimes, it would be something relaxingly amusing. Other times, it would be a piece of Canadiana, with the deepest of it being something from our aboriginal cultures. When you’re a pre-teen at 11 pm, it doesn’t matter what it was. Any attempt by an animation student to stretch their legs would hit like some sort of forbidden fever dream. That’s what Miniatures took me back to; a decaffeinated Saturday night in my father’s La-Z-Boy. It’s four short chapters that sometimes make you poke the screen. On Switch and mobile, you can literally poke the screen, but here I was just poking it with my mouse pointer. Clicking, if you will. https://youtu.be/3Tma3zvYOoM?feature=shared I’m not trying to be dismissive, but the interactivity is very basic in Miniatures . One of the chapters has you trying to arrange a band of small sand-critters in a little sand-critter town in an extremely roundabout way. This was by far the most amusing one for me, as you largely press on places you think something should happen and then watch while that something happens. It’s well-animated and amusing, so that’s something. There’s one where you pan the screen around to follow a story, and every so often, you need to click on something in the environment to uncover a trigger that allows you to move on. This one was my least favorite, not because of the lack of interactivity but because I didn’t connect with it. As far as I could see, it was a directionless story that wanted to look like it had something to say but didn’t say anything at all. Or maybe I just didn’t see the message. As for the other two, I can at least understand what they’re trying to communicate, but I think a lot of Miniatures fails because it will elicit a feeling and then not do anything with it. They don't use that feeling to deliver any sort of message. These are short, short little chapters – miniature, if you will – so if they want you to just soak in the feeling, then there isn’t much time to do so. One strength in the artistic side of video games is that by having the player take part in something, you can hold their head beneath whatever you’re trying to convey, and when they're good and soaked, hit them with what you want to say. Miniatures neither has a point nor does it drown you for very long. Screenshot by Destructoid But, with those last two, I at least got the vibe they were putting down. One seemed to focus on childhood loneliness and discovery, while another gave a sense of tension and dread. I’ve found I’m typically able to pick up on subtext, even in games that aren’t taking an art-first approach, so I’m not deaf to what’s going on in Miniatures . I mostly have two problems. Number one: I don’t think it leverages the advantages of an interactive medium for conveying ideas. Number two: I don’t connect with the ideas that are here. This makes it kind of hard to review a game like this because its effectiveness will vary from person to person, and I can’t speak to what you’ll feel. Maybe you’ll see yourself reflected in one or all of the games here. What I can say is that from an interactive standpoint, as well as a narrative one, I find Miniatures lacking. In comparison to other games that I would applaud for their contributions and approach to the art form, this wouldn’t be high on the list, but I wouldn’t throw it away wholesale, either. [This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.] The post Review: Miniatures appeared first on Destructoid .

PC Archives – DestructoidNov 15

Noble simulator Norland gets a map overhaul with Patch 26 Hooded Horse has announced that Long Jaunt’s noble family management game, Norland , has reached Patch 26. This one might be the largest yet, as it adds family trees, new NPCs, and – perhaps most notably – an overhaul to the world map. Norland launched into early access in kind of rough shape . The framework was there, but I found it to be unbalanced and required too much juggling to really enjoy. As I described it in my early access review, none of its facets have any time to breathe, leading to things breaking down. Since the time I played it, the devs have been hitting it hard and fast with updates to address player concerns. The gusto is admirable. I haven’t jumped back into the game since my initial encounter, but I have seen certain tweaks that seem like they would make things more palatable. Things like cutting down on the amount of babysitting the peasants need. Image via Hooded Horse Here’s what information I have on the update: “The latest update for Norland completely overhauls the world map with new sprites, more topology, and more regional diversity. Players will start each game battling for control over a single region before transitioning to the “world” stage and fighting over nation-states of different cultures. The overall map size is also bigger now, and a previous patch allows players to compel nearby vassals to tackle distant issues, freeing their own nobles to focus on matters closer to home.” On top of that, an added family tree means you can keep track of your lineage so that, I don’t know, you can keep second cousins from marrying each other. If you can stop them. There are also new “guest” NPC characters such as cultists and pilgrims. I’m not sure why “guest” is in quotes, but that’s how it is in the press release. Norland is currently in Early Access and available on PC. Also, it's on sale for 35% until December 4, 2024. The post Noble simulator Norland gets a map overhaul with Patch 26 appeared first on Destructoid .

PC Archives – DestructoidNov 14