Recent reviews by Swoon

This is my favorite controller ever made. I preordered mine back in 2015 and have been taking the best care of it that I can, but after almost 7 years, it's age is starting to show.
The haptics were strange at first but once set to the right level for me made using the trackpads second nature.
My favorite feature is the two buttons on the back of the controller; they really make games way more intuitive to play for me.
Please bring these back so I can replace my favorite controller.

This game is one of the best metroid-vanias I've had the pleasure of experiencing. The visuals, the gameplay, the progression, the exploration, the completion, the story, the sound and the music are all in harmony to make an experience that should go down in video game history.

Loading this game up, and pressing start begins a journey that you can't comprehend with a single playthrough.

As an artist I want to begin with the visual beauty of this game. It's gorgeous. Every part of the island is unique and haunting while fitting the comicbook style visuals. Or should I say the 90s Saturday morning cartoon style-of which you recorded on a single vhs too many times and the magnetic strip started wearing out around the edges... It all meshes and adds to the atmosphere. It's eerie and scary without jumpscares and loud sounds.

Which rolls us into the audio; being the true genius of Oxenfree. I don't know much about the time period the radio tunes us in to, but the clips that were chosen, from old wailing poka to bugs bunny, are all set to make you feel off, to add to the atmosphere you're wandering through. The dialogue, and the warped hollow sounds of the spirits, and the whispers caught over the airwaves, are all perfect.

I can't exactly talk about dialogue without getting into gameplay. Because participating in conversations is one of the major points of gameplay. Like a Bioware or Tell Tale game you have multiple things you can say in conversations. You learn different things about the characters in each playthrough, because you don't have the time to stick around and keep chatting. You effect your relationships with your friends with rarely the chance to truly make amends. And I wont mention how your choices actually effect the ending. Because they do. And there's some mind melting endings you can dredge up. The other major point of gameplay is the radio. Using a Steam controller, I found the radio puzzles simple to solve, but in a third playthrough I found that solving them too fast cut off dialogue I hadn't heard. Moving around the map doesn't take too much time, the only part of the map I hate traversing is climbing up and down the radio tower... And there's only been one glitch I've encountered so far, and it's not gamebreaking.

The plot is deep. And while I say a couple endings are mind melting, the adventure you go on is what really makes Oxenfree spectacular. At every step there's character interaction, something to learn about the island, or the spirits toying with you. There has been so much detail and care put into the world that half way through your frist run you think you're piecing together what really happened, only to realize that while the spirits do have a story, they aren't the problem.

Oxenfree has a lot to offer, if you don't want to give the masterminds behind this beautiful game the twenty bucks they earned, you can wait for a sale. I wont judge. But aside from a few minor glitches that'll probly get fixed, and a lackluster collectathon I can't reccomend this game enough.

I've found closure through this glorious puzzle platformer.

If you've experienced loss, felt alone, or been trapped by the darkness in your mind you'll pick this game up and go. Clinging first to the little orb dropped at your feet, then finding wonder through the first door you're directed through. The narrative is unveiled through the glimpses of the eerie environments of the three main characters you play as. Each level dives a little deeper into the unfortunate happenings of these souls while building hand over hand on the platforming elements it continues to introduce.

The music and the background sounds add many layers to the experience. While you may never encounter an enemy, the game makes you believe that sometimes, stepping outside of the light may lead to a worse fate than falling to oblivion.

Charismatic is most appropriate to describe the art in Closure. It could have been a teenagers doodle in a textbook years before being layered and shadowed. It could have been Jhonen Vasques inspired. Whatever the origin, it's unique. It's pleasing. And it's refreshing.

Enough of my prattle, go find closure for yourself, poor soul.

"Screw you guys. I'm going home."

Do you believe yourself to be an edgy person?
Or think you enjoy dabbling in gothic and horror themes?
Perhaps you just hear people call you crazy or insane all the time.

If any of the above apply to you They Bleed Pixels will poke at those boundaries with blood soaked pincers then mercilessly snap them in half before kicking them into a buzzsaw.

You might ask why, and the answer lies in the brutal level design and tight control scheme, where if you make the slightest mistake you'll likely die, and continue to die until you become a master of They Bleed Pixels or put the game away. Your thumbs will hurt, your arms will ache, your eyes will dry out and you'll keep playing. Because you'll remember finishing the last level, or earning the last checkpoint, and the immense satisfaction it gave your taxed brainpan. And all along the way the beautiful thumping music and the moody melodies will cradle your mind, and tell you, you may be alone in this asylum experience, and assure you you're near death when you're on your last heart, but it'll become a foothold for your sanity; an ill omen nudging you on like a horrible friend offering you cocaine, a friend second only to the checkpoint sigil.

The simple pixilated plot is more than is needed for the charming 32-bit looking game, but it's just one more facet that drives you on, deeper into madness. How does the girl rid herself of this evil book? Any other questions you may have become irreverent as her only goal night after night, to stop having these nightmares, becomes your own, death after eldritch death.

They Bleed Pixels is an experience worth the blood, fury, madness, sweat, despair, blisters, blood pressure, headache, tears, time, deaths, poison, cancer, money, hearattacks, nightmares, magnem arte eldricsghdfndstldngngnnnnf