Recent reviews by cz

Really interesting spin on the Danganronpa/Ace Attorney formula. This game doesn't hold your hand through the deduction and trial at all. You can accuse any character of any of the crimes, regardless of what evidence you've accumulated, and the game will roll with it. Truly impressive feat of interactive fiction engineering.

I did find that, due to this freeform nature of the trial, it wasn't really able to deliver any stunning dramatic *TWIST* moments that are the trademark of Danganronpa/Ace Attorney. All the work of deducting what *actually* happened with the evidence available is left up to the player's own brain-- and in that respect, the game actually owes a lot to such masterpieces as Obra Dinn and Outer Wilds, despite the aesthetic screaming "Danganronpa but even weirder!" I do think there's an interesting game-design tension between refusing to handhold the character's deductions, and being able to craft pacing and dramatic reveals, and I think that for a first-time, experimental project this game navigates that tension with flair.

Speaking of flair, the aesthetic, the bizarre story, and the surreal world would make this worth the experience even if the detective part were rubbish. Very pleased to have supported these developers and can't wait to see what they create next.

It's a grand continuation of the tradition of single-player first person shooters, a dying breed these days amongst the stultifying preponderance of multiplayer garbage and open world icon-collectathons. The art direction is gorgeous, and, importantly, the writing is high quality and the voice acting is that rara avis, both well acted and well directed. It's quintessential over-the-top, absurd yet heartfelt and thoroughly pulpy Wolfenstein. For almost the first time in a singleplayer FPS, I found myself actually wanting to look at every collectible: the amount and quality of concept art is impressive, and the faux Nazi pop songs that you find in the form of records are absolutely hilarious gems.

I actually found stealth to be a more viable option than others have reported. As long as you're not fixated on stealth killing every enemy perfectly, you'll be fine. The dynamic of trying to pick off the Nazi commanders before you're spotted, then transitioning to the ridiculous bloody slaughter once you're inevitably spotted, is just as strong in this game as in TNO and Old Blood.

Gripes: The combat and movement are a little floaty. Getting damaged doesn't really feel like anything, and neither does firing most of the weapons. The campaign is super short and ends anticlimactically, clearly setting up the paid preorder DLC, which feels exploitative and predatory--not a shocker coming from Bethesda these days. (I never, ever preorder, and I have no plans to buy this game's DLC campaigns until they're on sale. Doesn't detract from my pleasure with my purchase of the main game though.) The sidequests feel perfunctory and not well signposted--it seems like you're supposed to go out and get the two other "special" upgrades in addition to the one you originally chose in the course of the campaign, but the plot never (until the free-form epilogue) offers you a clear moment that says, "OK, here is the point at which you go out and do those sidequests." And then the game's over with you having unlocked only 1 of the 3 cool special toys. That was my experience, anyway.

No tactical pause.

It's an underrecognized gem. Play it!!