Platform: PC

Oh sweet Shatner, this game is brutal! The Nintendo DS Giana Sisters game was a cute, simplistic and moderately challenging throwback platformer. Twisted Dreams is a relentless, brain twisting modernized update.

First off, the game is visually stunning. The richly rendered backgrounds and overall attention to detail is amazing. On top of that, the game’s primary mechanic is the ability to switch between aggro Giana and sweet Giana which, not only changes your abilities, changes every visual element in the game from dark to cheery and back again. Owls transform into devils and flowery blooms become wilted and rotten. The effect is seamless and jaw dropping.

That switching mechanic is the key to overcoming many of the more puzzling obstacles. The control does not come very intuitively and I would would often find myself fumbling and button mashing as I would try to time a switch just right. The main goal is to finish each level with as many gems as possible and with as few deaths as you can. The better you do the more stars you earn which, in turn, opens up boss levels. Death comes very easy and I rarely could finish a stage without racking up at least fifty deaths. Like I said, this game is brutal. I’m sure a twelve year-old might breeze through it, but my middle-aged reflexes weren’t quite up to snuff.

This was a game that I supported in Kickstarter, and, despite my sore thumbs, I’m glad I did. It has been one of the few crowd-funded projects I paid into that delivered within months of funding and has been more than generous with updates and DLC.

Saints Row IV is an obvious rip-off of Grand Theft Auto all the way down from the open-world mechanics to the gangster themed plot. In realizing this, the makers of Saints Row opted to differentiate themselves by completely disregarding the gritty realism of GTA for an insane sci-fi fantasy plot twist in IV. Aliens have destroyed Earth and the last remaining humans are the Saints gang leaders, all of whom are trapped in a Matrix-style virtual world. The game never takes itself seriously and is filled with amusing quips and plot moments. As the game progresses you begin to overcome the simulation, causing it to glitch and pixelate and giving you unstoppable super powers.

The plot is really stupid and revolves mostly around reviving your friends, none of whom I knew anything about since this was the first Saints Row game I ever played. I guess fan of the previous games may get a kick out of each of these characters, but I really couldn’t care less. The plot and characters are just a necessary background to what is really the fun of this game: open-world mayhem and ridiculous player customization. I spent half the game with a bra on my head and my character talking like a duck.

Like any open-world game this hinges on the variety of missions and activities. Saints Row IV does okay with this for the first half of the game, but once you start to gain powers most of the tasks become trivial and you can just explode everything. That said, I did manage to waste a bunch of time on collectibles and side missions so it must not have been as repetitive as I am remembering it. I would love to see one of these open world games to make the world persistent so that your path of destruction would scar the land forever.

Man, this game was a bit of a mess. I guess I wanted it to be a Baldur’s Gate style tactical role playing game with all the characters and story of Bioware’s other big RPG, Mass Effect. Well, despite the zoomed-out tactical battle mode, this is not an Infinity-Engine style game. Most of the game is played in a stilted third-person view with super-wonky controls. You can zoom out, but you aren’t allowed to pan around the battlefield much. Eventually I got the hang of it, but I had to put the game aside for a while out of sheer frustration.

There was a large chunk in the middle where I appreciated the mindless hack-and-slash game-play. But I found myself just watching my health bars and timing healing while letting the computer control all the fighting. This gets old and it doesn’t help that you will occasionally hit a battle that is inexplicably a zillion times harder than the last hundred or so encounters. You’ll have to replay the same battle over and over again wishing you could save your game during the fight. While the rush of striking the final killing blow at the end of one of these endurance tests is satisfying, they just began to weigh down on me.

I spent the last third of the game on easy mode just so I could grind through the mediocre story. Demons threaten the lands. You must gather your forces. Blah, blah, blah, yawn. There is a hint of the character relationship building we got in Mass Effect but it doesn’t mesh with the game as a whole and just feels like the silly mini-game it really is. I had high hopes for this one (especially being on the heels of completing two stellar RPGs: Skyrim and Wasteland 2), but in the end it just felt like work.

Gemini Rue is another enjoyable point-and-click adventure from Wadjet Eye that has a sci-fi noir theme. Having gotten used to the click for any action mechanism of other Wadjet games, I was a little thrown off by the strange “actions” pop-up interface. You click on a hot-spot and then have to chose whether to use your eyes, hands, mouth or foot. I eventually got used to it, but the few times I was stuck in the game, it was because I forgot I had a “foot” action that I could use.

The story is split between Azriel (your typical noir anti-hero on a quest to find his brother) and Delta-6 (a captive in a prison colony where memories can be erased and the prisoners are being trained for some unknown purpose). Both halves of the story are interesting and much of the motivation to continue on is in finding out how these two worlds connect. The big twist is not terribly hard to predict, but I still was satisfied by the ending.

My only complaints about the game are with its somewhat tedious room-traversal in the name of solving some relatively simple puzzles. There is also a shooting mini-game mechanic throughout the game that is okay, but doesn’t really add much. Other than those points, the game is worth trying out. The graphics are nice and pixelated and the music is excellent (buying it on GOG.com includes the soundtrack).

Primordia is an absolutely beautiful point and click adventure from Wadjet Eye Games. Besides the graphics, it has a lot going for it: a unique sci-fi setting, fun and interesting characters, great ambient music and a some nice voice acting performances.

The story is essentially an object quest that slowly reveals the back story of the world and the main character. This one is a bit more puzzle-centric than other Wadjet games I have played. That’s mostly a good thing, but there are a few moments that didn’t seem fair. Not that there was a lack of clues, but on a couple of occasions I had to revisit areas that where already explored and had deemed finished only to find out the *now* I could click that piece of scenery.

There are multiple endings and I think I got the “B+” ending. Fortunately, I had a save and could go back and see the “good” ending later. I am not terribly interested in ever replaying even 10/10 adventures despite the multiple ending gimmick (although I have gone back to all these games to listen to the commentary track).

Having finished the wonderful Blackwell series, I wanted to try some of Wadjet Eye’s other offerings. The Shivah was the company’s first foray into commercial games, but this isn’t the original version. This graphical overhaul was from 2013 and it visually matches the quality of the final Blackwell games.

The Shivah is most noteworthy for its unusual subject matter. How many other games have the player assuming the role of a mystery solving rabbi? Well, besides Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortext Strikes Back.

As far as adventure game mechanics go, this isn’t the best I’ve played. The puzzles mainly consist of clicking through dialogue trees to pick up on names and places that need to be searched out on the Internet. You’ll find yourself needing to take notes… like, actual pen-and-paper notes! I know, I know… like, who has time for that these days! However, the point of playing this isn’t for the challenge (although the final puzzle was infuriating at first, but a real a-ha moment when I realized what I needed to do). What shines here is the characters and story. The plot is not too deep, but I ended really hoping that Rabbi Stone would find the killer and, more importantly, re-discover his faith. Ew, did I just type that? Whatever, buy this game and give it a try.

The original Geometry Wars was one of the purest, most exhilarating gaming experiences of the post-arcade era. It combined the visuals of Tempest with the frantic, twin-stick shooting of Robotron 2084 to form a thoroughly modern point-driven shooter. The Wii exclusive sequel Galaxies added level variety and the great risk/reward mechanic of collecting geoms to increase your point multiplier. It’s still the game that I play the most on my Wii.

The third game in the series builds on the Galaxies formula but with the mind-blowing twist of moving the game grid onto curving non-euclidean surfaces. The result is nothing short of spectacular. You are still technically moving in two dimensions but now you need to navigate around spheres, cylinders and other irregular solids. These new non-euclidean mechanics don’t seem like they would work, but controlling your ship feels completely natural. As the grid begins to fill with hundreds of enemies, if you are having a good run, you start to feel like Rainman as you rack up the points. Like the other Geometry Wars installments the screen starts to look like an insane iTunes music visualizer that somehow you are able to navigate. Highly recommended.

This was a rare case in which I finished a game that I had started years ago. I really enjoyed the Tomb Raider reboot that Crystal Dynamics did back in 2006 with Legend. I played that game as a freebie back when Game Tap was in its hey day and started Anniversary shortly thereafter but only got about 2/3rds the way through before it was taken off the free list. I only recently got it as a $1.99 game on Steam with the goal of finally finishing it.

Technically this is a re-imagining of the first Tomb Raider game using the newer game engine. Having never played the original, I am not sure how close it is to the source material. It feels a lot like Legend but there really is not much of an attempt to craft a story around the puzzle-platforming. The levels are pretty empty (especially when compared to the 2013 re-reboot). This feels more like a level pack than a major release. The game-play mechanics are well-established and solid, so it works simply as a fun diversion. I enjoyed most of it despite the lack only driving narrative motivation and I assume this is much smoother to play than the original. But I don’t think I will be going back and trying to get 100% completed on the entire game like I did with the last Tomb Raider.

The fifth and final Blackwell game continues in the series’ tradition of thoughtful and interesting adventures that are light on the puzzles and big on character interactions. Technically, the games have come a long way. The graphics are top-notch and the voice acting is much improved. The games still are running on the freeware AGS (Adventure Game Studio) platform, which has its limitations. But, for the most part, these last few games in the series have been on par with the Lucasarts games of old.

Whereas previous games in the series offered small glimpses into actual New York stories and characters, this game focuses more on the fantastic. Most of the series’ lingering questions get answered, although sometimes you have to make sure to pay close attention to all the dialogue to pick up on the details (I have a tendency to get a little overzealous with my clicking). I felt most of the puzzles were fair with the exception of one where for some reason combining coffee and a rag makes you jump farther? Oh, post-spoiler spoiler alert.

The ending is satisfying and let me be the one-billionth reviewer to describe it “bittersweet.” By the climax, my entire family was crowded around the screen wanting to know what was going to happen next. The series has shown to be very entertaining to watch even for my pre-teen daughter (Although, be warned that the commentary contains some salty language—save that until the kids are in bed).

Wadjeteye has proven to be a top-notch developer and, since finishing Blackwell, I went on Gog.com a bought up most of the other games in their catalog. More pointing and clicking to come.

Soon after I plunked down a few Kickstarter bucks for Broken Age, Wasteland 2’s campaign popped up. Back in my Apple ][ days I knew about, but never played, Wasteland. If I was going to commit time and effort to an RPG, it was going to be Ultima. However, after my migration to Windows, the game’s “spiritual successor” Fallout was one of the first big games I played (it was also the first thing I ever bought on eBay back in 1998. The box smelled like cigars). I really liked the more recent Fallout 3 / New Vegas games, but, like many old-timers, I longed for the deep, turn based combat of the first two games of the series. Brian Fargo’s Kickstarter video promised to bring party-based, turn-based, post-nuclear-based gaming back… to base. To have. I was sold.

And now, unlike some other well-known Kickstarter projects that I perhaps mentioned a paragraph ago, Wasteland 2 has arrived on schedule! And, whaddya know, it delivered on all of its crowd-sourcing promises. The game-plays and feels very similar to the first two Fallout games, but it uses a 3-D engine with fluid animation and camera control. This is still an indie-game, so the game engine and art assets lack the polish of a triple-A title. There’s quite a bit of slow-down during explosions and the occasional weird rendering bug (every once and a while I would lose camera control in combat and would see a glitch where I was panning shadows around instead of changing the view). But these bugs where rare enough not to be a huge problem.

There are two things that really shine here. First, I forgot just how fun and satisfying tactical turn-based combat is. The meditative pacing and planning makes getting that one big kill just at the right moment feel like a real accomplishment. Second, the game is filled with ambiguous moral choices that helped really get me invested in the characters and story. Whereas a game like Mass Effect has very obvious good guy bad guy dialog options, Wasteland 2’s choices will have you allowing one evil faction prosper by eliminating their just-as-bad rivals in order to save a third group that will help you on your main mission. No one gets everything they want and that makes for a unique experience for anyone who plays the game.

Your choices matter. In fact, I was able to get the game to an unwinnable state because I hadn’t bothered to have more than one character develop a certain skill. I’m not very good a character management in RPGs. Fortunately, I only had to go back one save state, before a final level-up, to avoid this problem. I can see a lot of younger gamers hating this sort of outcome, but for me, it just raises the stakes.

All-in-all, despite it’s rough edges, Wasteland 2 was worth the wait and is a worthy successor to both the original Apple ][ version and the subsequent Fallout games.