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Arsene Lupin - Once a Thief:
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How did he do it? That is the question. Jump into the shoes of the famous French gentleman thief and master of disguises, Arsene Lupin! A criminal who can pull off the most incredible heist and elude the police while executing his plans. But hot on his heels, his nemesis, Inspector Ganimard, is always a whisker short of arresting him. Will he achieve his goal, or will Arsene Lupin prevail in Arsene Lupin - Once a Thief?

Arsene Lupin - Once a Thief is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Blazing Griffin and published by Microids on the 17th of October 2024 on the Steam platform. The game is playable on the Steam Deck but might be difficult for people who have visual impairment as the text may be too small to read. The game is also available for PS4/PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

The game starts at the Chateau de Malaquis, where Arsene Lupin aims to steal a Faberge egg from a steel cage that sits in a secure vault protected by two guards and their dogs. You’ll be shown how to use the camera, interact with objects and access your inventory. If you have already played games from Blazing Griffin, you'll be at ease straight away, and for those who haven't, it's an excellent tutorial.

What I enjoyed in this game is that you will be playing each stage, which is divided into two parts, not only from Arsene Lupin's perspective, but also from the perspective of Inspector Ganimard. On the last level, you’ll even play from the perspective of the famed English detective, Herlock Sholmes. I suspect the name was changed slightly due to property rights. The story unfolds in four locations: on board the SS Provence, in the Prison de la Santé and at the Châteaux de Malaquis and de Thibernesmil.

The gameplay is as expected: moving around the levels and searching for clues to achieve the goals listed in your inventory, which is presented as a journal. Make sure to use the camera angles so you can fully see everything within each area. As you accumulate evidence for each objective, you'll need to link them to reveal what happened. You’ll go through this process a few times for each objective to complete the deduction process. You also have several timeline deductions, and these are presented as a list of events on a page, which you have to place in the order that they occurred to complete. Make sure to read all the evidence carefully as you might find codes to open safes, too. There are other puzzles in the game, presented as riddles.

Yes, you will be talking back and forth with several characters in this game, and at some point, you'll be prompted to correctly choose a selection of questions and answers with some of the characters to move forward within the story. Don't worry if you are not right on your first attempt; you'll restart these sequences until you get them right, and they are not long, usually three to four interactions with three sentences to choose from. When correctly done, an interaction with Arsene Lupin and his creator, Maurice Leblanc, will take place in front of an open fire. It's an excellent touch from the developer as it is implemented as part of the story!

The graphics are beautiful. The narration and the voice-overs are well done. The stages are well-designed, and all the puzzles are well-presented and make sense. During my playthrough, the game ran well and had no crashes. In terms of control, you can play with the mouse and keyboard or with a gamepad. The interface and subtitles have been translated into nine languages, and the full audio is in English and French. It's the best game I have played from Blazing Griffin to date.

Positives:
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+ Great graphics
+ Fun story with good dialogues and voice-overs
+ Variety of puzzle deductions
+ Achievements
+ Great touch to have Maurice Leblanc (creator) and Arsene Lupin interact throughout the game

Negatives:
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- Probably a bit too easy to finish and does not have much replayability
- No trading cards as yet

A point-and-click adventure that is well-structured from start to finish, Arsene Lupin – Once a Thief offers a variety of puzzle deductions with charming artwork, good dialogue and excellent voice-overs.

7/10

Note: This game was not received for free; I purchased it through the Steam store.

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God of War Ragnarök:
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In this sequel, the bond between father (Kratos) and son (Atreus) will be tested to its limits. While Atreus is in search of answers regarding the "Loki" prophecy, the main protagonist is himself. On the other hand, Kratos fears losing his son and keeps training him to face any danger in the nine Realms. His fears become even more potent when the evil Odin appears at their modest hut to seek peace with them. Even worse, he offers to help Atreus reach his goal of understanding and fulfilling the Loki prophecy. The Evil God is in the house! Tensions are hitting sky-high at the start of God of War Ragnarök!

God of War Ragnarök is an action/adventure game with deep storytelling and stunning cinematographic sequences developed and self-published by PlayStation Publishing LLC on the 20th of September on the Steam platform. The game was initially released for PS4/PS5 on the 9th of November 2022. It has also been verified for Steam Deck users.

God of War Ragnarök was one of the titles on my must-play list for 2024, as its predecessor in 2022 blew me away. As I mentioned in my review back then, one of the fundamental elements for such a game is to find the right balance between the narration and the combat sequences to keep you entertained all the way through. Compared to the first game, I found the storytelling slightly more prominent and a bit too long in this game as it involves more. That said, it is a fantastic game.
As mentioned, the relationship between father and son is at its peak, and there are plenty of moments from both perspectives throughout the game that might strike a chord with you (especially if you are of a certain age). Each character will bring an extra layer, such as trickery, reconciliation, anger and more!

The different Realms you'll be exploring are visually magical, and each environment is distinct from the others. Apart from the main story, plenty of side quests are available in each realm, offering gamers excellent content all the way through. They will provide different environmental obstacles as well as enemies. Regarding goodies, chests of various sizes will be laid out throughout each realm, and some will be locked, requiring you to figure out the puzzle to unlock them. However, many of them will not be immediately accessible as you'll need to unlock a new ability or acquire Kratos' spear first. You'll also have a few Brok and Sindri dwarf camps scattered along the way, so you can upgrade the weapons, armour and other perks for whichever characters you control at the time, along with their companion. You can also sell goods or amour that you no longer need. With enough coins and resources, you can create new armour. But don't worry too much if you don’t have the resources, as you’ll always find yourself back at the tree house where the Brok and Sindri main forge is. All the characters that joined your party will be there, too.

Which brings me to the combat system; Kratos's favourite weapons - The Leviathan Axe, Blades of Chaos, and Guardian Shield - are part of his arsenal from the start of the journey. Both the axe and the blades have an excellent skill tree to unlock. Later in the game, Kratos will gain an extra weapon in his arsenal, the Draupnir Spear - a very cool weapon with a skill tree to unlock. While the shield only has one action, which is to block an attack, it also has one ability, and this ability is different with every shield you create at the forge. The weapons skills are divided into technique, range, and melee. This also applies to Atreus' weapon, which is the bow. You'll need specific experience points to unlock each skill, and it will take you some time to unlock all of them. After each combat phase, you gain experience points for both the character you control and their companion. I believe that Kratos will also be able to acquire another weapon through the DLC Valhalla.

The combat phases are challenging, rewarding and fun. Combat will occur sporadically throughout the realms, both in the main story and the additional quests, as well as when you face bosses. For the first time, I played this genre of game with a gamepad, and I must admit it is far better than with the mouse and keyboard. It took me a while to get used to the combat input, but after that, I was fine. The fluidity of the animations is exceptional, and the freedom combination of enemy attacks, as they come from all directions, not only elevates the difficulty but also gives you a burst of exhilaration, as every hit counts. Why, would you say? The obvious is that the more enemies that fall, the more chances there are to win the fight. But there’s more - each successful hit increases the rage gauge and, when complete, allows you to activate it for several seconds. An activated rage gauge provides double the damage to enemies, so yes, it does feel exhilarating. I also like that Kratos and Atreus have different companions throughout the game, which will influence your fighting approach and perhaps help you decide what perks to use for each character to maximise your winning chances!

With 50+ hours of gameplay, I finished the main story and a good number of side quests, but I still have plenty to complete, and that excludes the DLC, which I believe to be around 10 to 15 hours of extra content. My goodness, gracious, me, Ragnarök!

Splendid graphics, animations, voice-overs, sound effects, combat and cinematographic sequences! But I also encountered serious crashes throughout my playthrough, especially after each released patch. The last one, patch six, has been the ultimate devil for my system, recording a crash every couple of hours until I verified all the files. A big thank you to the community manager for posting on the Steam game discussion page to acknowledge the issue, and a huge thumbs down to the quality assurance team for pushing through these patches before verifying them!

Positives:
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+ Exceptional graphics
+ Fantastic story with excellent voice-overs and cinematographic sequences
+ Great combat system and animations
+ Challenging, rewarding and fun
+ Around 60+ hours of gameplay to complete, excluding the DLC (add an extra 10 hours)
+ A good variety of enemies and obstacles throughout each realm
+ Steam Deck Verified
+ Trading cards and achievements

Negatives:
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- Constant crashes after each released patch.

War Ragnarök is a fantastic game from start to finish! The only frustration was the crashes after each released patch. Apart from that, it’s a masterpiece.

9/10

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