From where I’m sitting, there can never be enough good action games to play. In recent years especially, it’s felt as though the months were marked by a consistent stream of stylish, challenging games that rewarded mechanical skill and scratch that itch for self improvement. Volgarr the Viking II and Kill Knight were two such
Kill Knight is a title that immediately jumped out at me when it came across my virtual desk. For the absolutely radical name, yes, but also for far more than that: the isometric viewpoint, the chunky original PlayStation-esque aesthetic, the apparent emphasis on tight mechanical execution and strict resource management… Everything about it screamed the
I have to admit to no small amount of surprise that I’m penning a review for Volgarr the Viking II, the source of which is twofold. Firstly, because its predecessor was a highly punishing, highly niche indie title that hooked its claws into me personally for its particular brand of arcade-style gameplay and required precision
Allow me to tell you (briefly, I promise) about a little game called Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Released by soon-to-be Dishonored developer Arkane Studios in 2006 and powered by Valve’s Source Engine, it’s a first-person action adventure game with light RPG mechanics spun off of the greater Might and Magic series of RPGs.
When the Wachowskis unleashed The Matrix onto unsuspecting moviegoers in 1999, there was little inkling of just how much its gun-toting, martial arts-flinging, slow motion-laden antics would persist in popular culture for decades after. Setting aside the flood of parodies and inspired works in film itself, video games were (naturally) quick to take inspiration from
I am a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to the Star Wars franchise, but not in the way that a lot of people are. There’s a certain curmudgeonly streak of people that have existed more or less since 1983 with a very specific idea in their minds about what the films, books, games,
Are you exhausted? Overworked? Do the events of your life feel akin to the tides, where everything takes place in an omnipresent cycle, looping day in and day out without end? If you answered yes to any of the above, you have something in common with the Grim Reaper himself—or at least as he’s represented
The longevity of the metroidvania continues to impress. It feels as though every new year brings with it an ever flowing stream of new iterations to the genre that expand on its staples while throwing their own flavors into the mix. Astronite, releasing November 30th, 2022 from developer Dume Games Studio and publisher JanduSoft, is
You get to run around as an adorable crow slaying monsters ten times your size with a glowing red sword, do I REALLY need to say anymore? But if that sentence failed to convince you, allow me to regale you with the my full experience for Death’s Door, releasing July 20, 2021 for Xbox systems
If you’re anything like me, you’ve always looked at bone-crushingly hard games with equal parts respect and abject fear. From the NES days to now, we’ve always had that one game that other gamers point to as the pinnacle of difficulty. For some it’s the Souls franchise. Others point to the usual suspects like Contra,
So here’s your Japanese lesson for the day. “Onee-chan” is an affectionate term for an older sister. “Chanbara” means swordfighting. Thus, the title of this particular game series is a play on words. It’s an older sister swordfighting! It can also be written as “Oneechanbara” or “Onee Chanbara” depending on localization; we’re going with Onee
Touhou is perhaps my favorite series I’ve never played. It’s hard to have even a passing familiarity with the top-down shooter genre without hearing of the beatiful and deadly curtains of bullets the series is known for and the brutal difficulty it can reach. Part of the reason is the creator’s encouragement of fangames, resulting
Ahh, Koei Tecmo’s Warriors franchise. Ever since Hyrule Warriors (my first Warriors game) I’ve had a bit of a soft spot for you. While you don’t change a whole lot from one iteration to the next (most of the time), you never fail to deliver a great way to kill a few hours bashing through
Let’s be honest here. Were it not for writing for Gamer Escape, I probably wouldn’t have fell as hard for the Yakuza franchise as hard as I did after I started off with 0 and had the chance to review Kiwami afterwards. Mind you, it’s obviously not my first exposure to open world games or
Rock is dead. Nobody listens to it anymore. Who wants to listen to music made with real instruments anyways? It's all about that electronic music now. It's what the people want, and its what the music industry is gonna give them.
I grew up back during the times of the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64, and it's an era that I have much nostalgia for...despite never owning either system. Before I turned 13 or so, my parents did not allow any video games in our home ("They aren't educational."), so I got most of my gaming memories from time spent at friend's houses.