Recent reviews by bonelli )))

SUZERAIN might be your best introduction to Buddhist practice: much like the Tibetan monk who meticulously arranges countless grains of sand into a colorful mandala over several days, then sweeps it away as a symbol of impermanence — so too will you gradually shape your vision of an unwavering Sordland or Rizia through meaningful acts of leadership, only to be bum-rushed and backstabbed on turn 9 by a military coup.

All is transient, and SUZERAIN ensures you acknowledge it — whether through the sudden repercussions of your commands; the (atrocious) save system it offers; or even the in-game writings of martyred Malenyevist poets: "Our only strength is the will to survive, knowing that we will perish, knowing nothing more absolute."

Though its crooked core mechanics turn SUZERAIN into a seriously ruthless, souls-like visual novel, the sheer love poured into its story, characters, and world-building easily makes it one of my favorite findings of the year. Highly recommended. Also — ♥♥♥♥ you, Smolak.

Shadow Man is the modern gamer’s worst nightmare: insane level design choices; hours of backtracking with barely any sense of direction; a constant ambush of recycled visuals and soundscapes as crude as its über-jank controls. HOWEVER , these supposed “flaws” were the reason why an obscure game from 1999 ended up hatching what I consider to be a masterclass in horror, ambience, and atmosphere.

For the impatient or easily aggravated ( myself included), it could be seen as an exhausting, disorienting mess due to how convoluted navigating those worlds can be. Yet Shadow Man's true glory comes exactly from that: a game so viciously cryptic and unguided that it's capable of drawing you into an irrational state of immersion.
It thrives on force-feeding the player with buckets full of paranoia, from its Brutalist architecture that constantly tease you with unreachable items and doorways to the dozens of fiends hunting you down and shrieking in your eardrums—all of it while getting lost and going past the same claustrophobic, blurred corridors over and over again.

Shadow Man is built like a maze—finding your way through these chapters is a truly surreal experience, nearly mathematical. It reminded me of Jorge Luis Borges’ writings in a sense—though instead of an anthology of short stories, you're stuck with the hardcover edition of a 35-hour labyrinth.

Shadow Man (Remastered) is the ultimate, full-fledged true horror experience… and “the horror… I embrace it.”

Still Life might be named after its predominant themes of art and murder, but I wonder if it could also be in reference to its own gameplay and mechanics: for a Point & Click game, there isn't really a lot of pointing nor clicking here.

It does have an interesting, multi-layered story that helps bear the burden of actually playing it. Here, a session's duration is likely to be inflated by dozens of repeated attempts at decrypting some of the most obtuse puzzles I've ever seen in gaming.
In Still Life you're in charge of solving Zodiac-like murders - yet the biggest threat to your deduction skills will be to figure out how to bake a batch of Christmas cookies after reading some game-writer's fever dream recipe.

Where the release truly shines however is in its cutscenes and shameless aesthetics.
This is a grand feast of the most iconic and tacky video-editing formulas only found on proper (early 2000s) thriller/horror movies, fully capable of causing indigestion to any fedora-loving cinephile - and I'm here for it.

Complete this game and you'll accomplish a feat beyond belief, the one to finally uncover an entire catalogue of homicides that have been taking place across 3 whole generations between Chicago and Prague. Though a bigger mystery remains: who's the actual psychopath responsible for the whole "add 1/2 cup of integrity, 1 teaspoon of sensuality" ginger biscuits bs.

HoMM never did much for me back then. By the time I was finally able to get my hands on the family's computer, the only thing I wanted was my cousin's copy of Diablo II. That and to raise a burning fever on that old Pentium brick by clicking the hell out of it as another clueless, pixelated barbarian.

Those were the early 2000s. Flash-forward a couple decades and here I am, still putting my mouse on chokehold, a Diabloesque habit that forced me into reloading Songs of Conquest after more than a few misclicked hexagons.

It might be the flimsy plastic of modern wireless mouses; a little too thin to rest one's finger while scanning through the best spot to cast a disastrous fireball. Or perhaps the culmination of all those hours spent as a kid hacking 'n' slashing the undead, unconsciously building up this unstoppable force that clenches - unruly - kept untamed into my thirties. This Y2K's dungeon crawler rendition of a common index finger just begging for the devs to add a rewind button - though it also helped rush through the pointless bursts of dialogue during all 4 campaigns.

SoC lacks in its narrative, but so what? I'm not running strategy games looking for a bedtime story, I'm playing it for the immersion: To be consumed by my own 10min-long dissertations of "what should be my next move..?" then fumbling around immediately after. One could call it torture - I call it fun (and slightly torturous).

Should you play Songs of Conquest? If you've read this whole thing, then it might entertain you. Just like this post the game is somewhat unbalanced. Unconcerned about its long ramblings. Every so often pushing towards an unnecessary obsession over small, little details.

Certainly not to everyone's taste - but at the end of the day, we will always have Diablo II.

SKALD is a love letter to the old-school. At times, it even plays like those beloved pen 'n paper adventure books where you'd push through entire mobs of enemies on an hour-long display of candy-fuelled dice rolls, just to randomly die with a flip of a page afterwards. Nowadays, I'm trying to cut down on sugar but still enjoying venturing forth into the occasional dice rolling sessions - though I'd rather do it on the comfort of my couch now instead of lying down across the living room's rug.

Anywho, Lovecraftian narratives tend to be hit or miss for me but SKALD does a great job in bringing all of those cosmic horror elements together into a gripping title. The writing is good and along with its dark and heavily saturated artwork, it helps manufacturing the dense atmosphere I'm expecting from a good eldritch tale.

The mechanics are rather simple though and the story progresses with great pacing but in a very linear fashion, yet I think there's still a surprising amount of depth to the game especially having in mind this was a one-man dev job.

If I had to point out any negatives, the late game combat was slow and unbalanced. Occasionally, some of the elements/areas' design and lack of camera mobility also didn't help much when moving around but these were overshadowed by the overall experience and I fully recommend that you give it a try.

SKALD is a 8-bit finger pointing towards the golden days. It is also a middle-finger lifted at the current AAA industry and its overpriced lack of heart. 8/10

10/10

A labour of love by Supergiant Games. 10/10

While the main narrative of the game falls into the usual RPG fantasy tropes, DA:O has a lot to offer when it comes to character development and dialogue. In fact, this was the first (and only) time I was setting up a party not because it was the most efficient but rather the most interesting and entertaining. This is Bioware's crown jewel, just a shame it happened almost 15yrs ago. 9/10

Get past it's outdated visuals and terribly clunky mechanics and you just might have one of your most enjoyable and immersive role-playing experiences. 10/10