Valkyrie Elysium Review

 

Valkyrie Elysium's public demo I grew mildly enthused but still felt a general sense of unease regarding what a drastic departure this entry took from its roots. 

It doesn't remotely come off as being part of the same franchise and I was concerned over whether this shake up an identity would work to its detriment. 

However, after fully playing through the game my fears became unfounded because Valkyrie Elysium has managed to stand on its own by being a standout and fulfilling action experience. 

Throughout this title, players control Valkyrie a tool of intervention made by Odin to bring salvation to the world. 

It's a simple premise that never becomes intricate or elaborate as the narrative progresses while significant developments occur in the game's latter half, the story can merely be seen as a backdrop for other elements to propel and shine, namely the navigation in action. 

The gameplay is set across several stages divided between exploration and combat. 

The former is surprisingly well handled with the maps meticulously crafted to hide rewards in just about every corner one can stumble upon. 

Treasure chests blue flowers indicating the lingering thoughts of those who have passed on and individuals granting subquests or players will find when going off the beaten path. 

Further, Valkyrie's soul chain ability allows her to reach higher elevations and her companions can occasionally destroy obstacles impeding progress. 

None of these elements are presented in ways to propagate complex problem solving still they offer consistent freshness to alleviate the potential tedium constant battle would provide. 

However, battling never grew tiresome on her quest. Valkyrie gradually gains the aid of numerous Einherjar potent souls compelled to join her mission. 

They provide passive damage output when manually summoned while also coding Valkyrie's weapon in a specific element. 

The Einherjar's combative efficacy is enhanced the more they are utilized in personal side quests involving their yearnings and backstories grant additional gameplay benefits. 

Additionally, memories of their pasts are locked and viewed in the main menu serving to establish deeper dives into their places in the former world. 

Thanks to these avenues of characterization and interaction, the Einherjar truly felt unique from one another in ways other than solely being elemental outlets. 

While more time could have been put into their bonding, the relationships came to feel genuine they even converse amongst each other while you explore stages with some endearing outcomes. 

Going back to gameplay I was genuinely surprised by the weapon variety. With each feeling distinctive from the other due to their individual realized handling and proficiency percentages. 

The latter provides enough incentive to occasionally switch up your weapon choice and the half a dozen quantity is quite welcome. 

Valkyrie's movements are rapid and abundantly responsive but some attacks require time dedication to perform fully. 

So, there is a sense of risk versus a reward if dire straits arise. When throwing runes into the mix essentially weapon add-ons with varying benefits some notable synergies become apparent. 

Like the exploration, the weapon choice and overall customization are simple and yet undeniably effective and instilling continuous achievement and growth. 

The skill tree in quests also house a few shakeups to the gameplay systems with the latter worth pursuing at every opportunity possible. 

Further, also regarding quests, speaking to the Einherjars will open up new ones as well which I appreciated as their conversations granted practical benefits and not just fluff. 

The magic system is potentially my favorite facet since some spells regardless of matching elemental alignments enact their effects in differing ways. 

For instance, you have multiple ice and lightning spells that track phone in different paths so you aren't tethered to stylizing elemental output in one defined way. 

It's a subtle yet majorly appreciated implementation and I wish there were more spells of the same element that weren't only upgraded iterations and instead inherently unique in their approach. 

One design choice I was fearful of going into the full game was how often maps were likely to be reused based on the demo and while they are reused primarily for side quests their frequency never came as a bother since each area is vast. 

This may put some players off but the quests are often brief and never overstay their welcome so their presence in previously used areas was not something I ever found to be an issue. 

I mean this with no exaggeration when I say that Valkyrie Elysium's combat is among the most gratifying and addictive systems I've experienced. However, if I have one major critique, it's the camera. 

I dealt with a few instances of minor camera obstruction while playing the demo but the umbrella issue was pronounced tenfold here. Corners narrow hallways and other enclosed spaces contain frustrating angle oddities. 

As a result, Valkyrie's model will often jut in and out of focus with enemies unfairly gained in the upper hand. I honestly sometimes dreaded battling in specific environments because of the camera. 

Regrettably there is a lack of proper lip syncing with the English dub. The voice cast is excellent as their deliveries are solid and fitting for their contexts and characters. 

Still, we've reached a point with modern gaming where lip syncing is usually perceived as a default feature so its lack of place here is jarring at several points. 

Moreover, as a half critique the soundtrack is atmospheric and mesmerizing, perfectly complementing the dreary and naturalistic state of the environment you visit. Unfortunately, the number of tracks is noticeably low at least while in stages. 

Additional combat and explorative songs would have been nice for variety's sake. Another part of the experience where varieties lacking is the enemies though only physically and not gameplay-wise. 

To elaborate a few select enemy models in the game, though their elemental affinities differ, their appearance is only slightly vary. Amid combat it likely won't pee you much it's just that in hindsight they found it all questionable. 

Lastly this is pretty minor but I figure still worth mentioning the performance on PS5 was smooth on my end save for when I would use the meteor swarm spells strongest variation. 

Its initiated slowdown was strongly noticeable for a few seconds when activating. 

Valkyrie Elysium is an enjoyable action JRPG suffering from clear problems regarding its camera system and more granular details. 

Yet its core combat is undeniably stellar with transparently depicted customization and upgrading. 

Additionally, it's cast in narrative are light but effective paving the way for a satisfying adventure if you don't embrace critical presumptions. 

Despite my initial disappointments with this entry's lack of clear connective tissue to the franchise's origins I genuinely loved my time with this title. 

I hope its gameplay elements are used as a basis and improved upon for further installments.

Trails From Zero Review

Trails From Zero follows protagonist Lloyd Bannings and the special support section or SSS, a branch of the Crossbell Police as they unravel the mysteries of rival gangs, illicit activities and ultimately a nefarious plot that seeks to collapse the entire region. 

Joining Lloyd or Randy, Tio and Ellie each with her own interesting backgrounds and over the course of the game's 40 plus hours the group ended up becoming inseparable. 

Randy's raunchy casanova-esque personality is a particular standout of the cast. On a few occasions, you do have other characters join your squad for support but generally it's the same foursome for most of the adventure. 

Having completed the four Trails of Cold Steel Games before this one, I did find the lack of more playable party members a bit of a downer; even if the SSS team up works well in terms of the plot and each member's own characterization. 

Most of the game takes place in Crossbell City with Lloyd and Kobe accepting job requests in each chapter ahead of completing a primary objective to advance the story. 

There are dozens of side quests to work through which reward in terms of story beats quirky moments and Mira, the local currency, completed requests also provide detective points and these contribute to your overall detective rank. 

As you level up your rank, you are awarded with a variety of items like accessories to equip or gems called quartz to slot on to each character to provide stat Buffs and unlock different arts or spells for using combat. 

Those wanting to reach rank 1 may want to consult a guide given that Hidden Side Quests and even specific dialogue choices can yield the extra points needed to get there. 

Compared to the cool Steel games which took you all over the Erebonian Empire, Trails From Zero being set in and around Crossbell, does make it feel much smaller in scope.

Fortunately, this more condensed setting works well in tandem with the SSS playing the role of Detectives. 

While the city itself can grow a little stale, spending more time with its inhabitants and informing closer relationships with people you encounter across multiple chapters lends the story a degree of charm and intimacy. 

At times, you're almost just waiting for characters like plucky journalist, Grace or bracer extraordinaire, Arios to show up. 

The turn-based combat of the Trails In The Sky titles returns here with many offensive and support Arts having an area of effect radius to try and maximize their effectiveness. 

Craft points or CP, are also a part of combat and build up as you make successful attacks and take damage. 

CP can be stored up to unleash powerful s-crafts that often hit nearly every enemy on the battlefield for massive damage. 

You can even interrupt the indicated turn order by activating an s-craft outside of a character's normal turn. 

It's worth mentioning that the battles are a little less complicated in Trails From Zero compared to Cold Steel 3 and 4 so be prepared for that step down if those are the only other Legend of Heroes titles you've played. 

Some nice quality of life features are included in this release of Trails From Zero including a customizable speed up option that can be toggled on and off with the Press of a button. 

Such a feature is welcome in any RPG but especially so and one that takes dozens of hours to finish. You can adjust how fast the speed up actually is, both inside combat and out. 

Fast travel within crossbow city is another helpful feature. What misses for me is the lack of English voices and a mission that's especially glaring after having them in the two Cold Steel games. 

Obviously, such a lengthy script would require a similarly sizable investment in an English dub but it's unfortunate to not see one here. 

In addition to cooking and fishing, in-game achievements provide another incentive for being thorough and try to collect and do everything Trails From Zero offers. 

That said, I didn't miss the regular bonding events of the Cold Steel games and it was tough not to feel an overall lack of variety compared to the games that were developed after the two Crossbell entries. 

This is why I mentioned earlier that would be a lot easier to appreciate Trails From Zero  the opportunity to play it after the three Trails In The Sky games which followed the adventures of Joshua and Estelle Bright; two characters who end up figuring fairly prominently here.

The scope and combat changes of the later Cold Steel Games also mean that Trails From Zero feels like a step back in comparison. 

If it sounds a bit confusing and a lot messy well that's because it is. Ultimately, your experience with Legend of Heroes games will likely shape your enjoyment of Trails From Zero. 

While the background of the Trails In The Sky Trilogy will help to explain certain events and moments, these three games simply aren't available on modern consoles. You'd probably need to play them on Steam. 

If you played Cold Steel 3 and 4 respectively, you may find the more insulated first Crossbell game plays a little too safe. 

Fortunately, Lloyd and the rest of the SSS crew make for likable characters that you can't help but root for. 

The dialogue heavy second half of the game can drag a little bit but the cumulative experience is still a positive one that I would recommend to RPG fans. 

With Trails To Azure coming in 2023, the stable of Falcon titles continue to grow and there's zero reason to be unhappy about that.

F.I.S.T. Forged In Shadow Torch Review

 

It's becoming harder to market your metroidvania as more and more take inspiration  from the genre. 

However I feel like little is done to evolve these games as they simply boast an interconnected world with the promise of abilities to reach new areas. 

Developer TiGames isn't going to settle for the basic definition of the genre for their new released F.I.S.T. Forged In Shadow Torch. 

So instead, we get a genuinely unique experience that no one would ever expect from anthropomorphic animals. 

F.I.S.T. Forged In Shadow Torch begins with a former soldier named Rayton, who's reflecting on the good old days with his buddies. 

Evidently, the timing of these conversations are convenient as the very next day the Iron Dogs who control the city and prison one are Rayton's friends. 

Not completely understanding the situation, Rayton didn't waste time thinking and instead equipped his mechanical fists to take out the trash. 

Rayton is eager to help those in need and fights against the oppression of the Iron Dogs and similar factions that loom over towards city but he also understands his position. 

He's just one person but during his prison break mission, he discovers others are out there who are willing to fight. 

Further, his past comes back from the grave literally and he's forced to face this and all the drama that comes with it. The characters of this world are a massive part of the charm; I mean, you play as a bunny. 

Other animal friends help your adventure in various ways as characters operate shops and provide goods to make your time in this doggy dog world easier. 

Through the interactions, you realize just how much detail has been injected into the history of this game. 

These characters all knew each other before the events but you rarely feel like the odd one out thanks to the added context provided during dialogue. 

With the added benefit of an English and Japanese voice over that really sells the character's personality, I will say that the translation is decent but I feel like the localization could have been a bit more creative during some moments of dialogue. 

Being the soldier that he is, Rayton can kick some serious ass with the help of his fist. Through gameplay, players can not only upgrade this fine piece of machinery but added passives unlockable skills and even new weapons are on the table. 

The weapons and abilities are the highlight of exploration as they allow you to get through doors and get to higher areas. 

Double jumps and wall jumps are used most of the time but then the game throws in ways to hover and whip your way through levels. 

The evolution of exploration is paced well as you don't learn everything all at once and new weapons are woven into this narrative this makes them more impactful to the mission at hand and the fact that they open new ways of traversal makes them fit naturally in this world. 

Combat is the accumulation of these new abilities and weapons as it packages everything together for a very satisfying experience. Regular attacks build SP which can be used to execute powerful SP attacks. 

Further EP can be used to auto parry refill health or even shoot a homing missile. 

It's almost imperative that you learn how to chain these moves together while dashing and reading enemy telegraphs. F.I.S.T can be a challenging game because it hardly allows any downtime while you head to the mission marker. 

A typical enemy can easily take you out if you aren't paying attention. This is further found in the bosses, who seem more like mini bosses most of the time but they are all very entertaining to fight. 

The difficulty can become overwhelming at times though as challenge rooms pitch you against waves of enemies. 

The most significant problem is that you're melee based but the Iron Dogs can use guns causing you to shift focus to take out ranged enemies first which may result in damage as the melee enemies target at you. 

However, there is no lack to enemy designs which is notable and even extends to the enemies men underwater. 

The environment is another enemy altogether with many puzzle-based sections and hazards throughout each area. 

Everything the player does is rewarded with new upgrades and possible abilities. Like other metroidvanias, the map begs to be completed and F.I.S.T's map is enormous with different themed sections and obstacles. 

There are moments of stealth swimming and swinging that only add to the normal exploration. 

Everything is connected through a fast travel system that isn't really helpful because there isn't many areas to fast travel to. Still, it works for getting around if you're trying to absolutely see everything. 

All roads lead to the Hub town where you can spend money earned from fallen enemies. In addition, some collectibles can be delivered such as plans and posters to customize the color of your weaponry. 

Each character offers a range of items to help your journey but you aren't really forced to spend time here if you don't want to. 

Strangely this area is really spread out which causes a lot of back and forth while you interact with the many different characters. 

Regardless, I liked every one of them but I feel like I postponed going back to the town because I knew it would take a large chunk of time and I'd rather progress through the mission. 

F.I.S.T Forged In Shadow Torch is a gorgeous metroidvania that tells a much better story than any anthropomorphic narrative has a right to tell. 

It's emotional and engaging during each scene brought together with challenging moments of action and puzzle platforming. 

This game respects your time but some moments can drag on due to the limited fast travel and some confusing objectives. Who cares though. You're a rabbit with a robotic fist attached to your back; how cool is that 😊 

Stray Review

 

Silent protagonists are nothing new in video games but Stray certainly pushes that concept to an interesting place. 

Part platformer, part traditional adventure game, this cyberpunk world full of neon-soaked robots transforms into a giant jungle gym from your perspective which is just one foot off the ground. 

The concept of putting you in the paws of an average cat may be a silly one on the surface but Stray uses that furry vehicle to tell a genuinely compelling story with some entertaining action along the way. 

Not all of its ideas land on their feet but it was impossible to shake the fuzzy feeling it gave me right from the adorable opening minutes. 

To be perfectly clear you're not a magic cat in Stray, not a mutated sci-fi cat, not some kind of sentient super cat; just a normal cute cat. 

Albeit one that displays the sort of intelligent awareness we all like to pretend our own cats might have when we're not looking, the simplicity of that concept works wonderfully especially because the fact that you are a cat doesn't actually matter all that much to the artificial people you interact with or the things they ask you to do. 

The robotic denizens of this cyberpunk world generally talk to you like they would anybody else and the only way it's ever really relevant to the story or the action is when you can fit into tight spaces they can't. 

At the same time, Stray revels in the fact that it has made you a cat your feline form brings a lovely and lighthearted flavor to this otherwise dark world and there are moments all throughout that encourage you to set aside your responsibilities and simply play. 

Walls and carpets can be scratched at, legs can be lovingly rubbed against, objects can be heartlessly pushed off of ledges and there's a dedicated meow button that I rarely stopped pressing you can also find serene spots to curl up and take a nap, letting the camera pull out and giving you a moment to enjoy a nicely staged scene alongside one of the many impressive songs in Stray's excellent futuristic soundtrack. 

This is a wonderfully rich world, one I really enjoyed learning more about. While your cat's own story is a pretty simple tale of a lost adventurer trying to get home, the conflict you end up stumbling into is very well told. 

The beautifully designed city you have to make your way through is bleak without feeling pessimistic, full of history to learn and charming robot citizens to chat with despite the fairly dystopian situation around them. 

I talked to everyone I could whether they were relevant to the story or not and I loved seeing what their computer screen faces would display whenever I meowed nearby. 

Be that annoyance surprise or just a big hard “meow”. When you're not sleeping on a pillow, Stray generally puts you in one of two types of situations. 

You'll either be running through fairly linear levels full of amusing platforming challenges and some light puzzle solving or exploring one of its more open town areas where you'll talk to friendly robots and collect items to complete tasks for them. 

The former sections almost reminded me of something like a 3d version of 2016's Inside, with relatively simple obstacles being elevated by the exemplary atmosphere built around them. 

The latter sections on the other hand shift straight into a genre more keen to a point-and-click adventure game, except in this case, your pointer is a cat. 

In either case, moving around as a cat isn't always quite as fluid as I hoped it would be. 

It's fun to scamper up air conditioners, mounted to the sides of buildings or walk along railings but you don't actually have a dedicated jump button to do any of that with. 

Instead, you can press a button to hop to predetermined, interactable spots, automatically when prompted. 

That means the only difficulty associated with any of the platforming is lining up the right position to hop to the spot you want and you don't always move with the nimbleness of a cat once you do. 

Though that's partly the fault of the movement animations themselves which can be noticeably stiff at times. But the more linear sections are still quite enjoyable despite their straightforward ease. 

Kept interesting to the end of the five hours it took me to beat Stray, by constantly introducing fresh ideas and environments. 

There are exciting chase scenes as you run away from mutated creatures called Zerks, stealth sections that have you avoiding security drones and puzzles where you might have to lure the enemy ai to your advantage. Not all of these ideas are as successful as others. 

For example, the weakest of them gives you a weapon to kill the Zerks which quickly devolves those previously tense encounters into a pattern of killing a few and then running backwards while you recharge it over and over. 

But that said, these twists are all clever enough to nicely refresh the platforming throughout. 

Exploring the small towns between the more linear sections is a lot of fun from a four-legged perspective too. With each area sporting a surprisingly dense layout full of nooks and crannies to sniff around and a great use of vertical space. 

While the main quest will send you running across them on its own, there are also plenty of optional collectibles and quest lines that i enjoyed stumbling upon just as much. 

Some might have you tracking down the combination to a hidden safe in classic adventure game fashion, while another has you collecting sheet music for a musician bot to play back to you. 

There's a lot to find and some collectibles are hidden well enough that I didn't quite manage to uncover them all on my first playthrough. 

So there's definitely at least a bit more than 5 hours worth of stuff to do if you want to find every last secret. Assisting you with the less paw friendly tasks, is B12; an equally adorable floating robot companion who hangs out in your backpack. 

B12 accompanies your cat for most of the campaign and the relationship that forms between them is a nice cornerstone for the plot as a whole. 

This is as much B12 story as it is the cats, even more so honestly making your cat feel more like a furry avatar in someone else's tale a lot of the time. 

That's not necessarily a bad thing though and the writing for B12 and the rest of the robots you meet is more than good enough to make up for the limited conversational skills of your protagonist. 

B12 doesn't get all of the interactive glory either as I enjoyed when initially superfluous cat actions were occasionally repurposed into actual game mechanics. 

For example, you might need to get someone to open a door for you by scratching at it or wake someone up by knocking something off of a shelf above them. 

Later on the meow button I had been incessantly pressing with no consequences up until that point could suddenly alert a guard to my presence, which would have been dire if I hadn't been appropriately hiding in a cardboard box. 

Again none of these tricks were ever very complex or challenging but they were entertaining all the same. 

Stray is a delightful adventure in a dark but endearingly hopeful cyberpunk world and that's thanks in no small part to the fact that you're playing as an adorable cat the whole time. 

It's mix of simple platforming and puzzles with item hunting quests is balanced very well across the roughly five hour story. 

And though I wish my movement was a little bit more nimble during that time, I still loved hopping across rooftops and scampering through back alleys to find its well-hidden secrets. 

The new ideas it introduces along the way help keep things fresh even if not, all of those ideas work quite as well as others but whether I was scratching at a carpet or curling up into a ball and taking a cat nap, Stray does a great job of setting itself apart in a way that feels like more than just a novelty.

The Quarry Review

 

The best way to experience The Quarry is to go in as cold as possible and while it has a few issues with its script and it’s lack of interactivity, the first run-through is great and well worth your time. 

Like many of developer Supermassive's previous games, The Quarry is clearly made both by and for people who love horror movies. 

From the start it slowly builds tension and atmosphere and gets you invested by constantly asking you to make small decisions that will guide its teenage cast of potential murder victims. 

Now by the time the blood starts a flying, you'll always feel like you are on the verge of disaster and that makes it nearly impossible to put down. 

When you go back to replay it however, it's impossible to ignore just how non-interactive much of The Quarry actually is. 

As a spiritual sequel to Until Dawn, it's a better movie but a worse game. You follow the story of nine camp counselors who end up stuck in the woods overnight at the end of summer with nothing to do but throw one last party before they go back to their lives. 

Now there's something stalking them from the tree line because (of course there is) and your choices determine which if any of the Counselors will be able to survive the night. 

This setup layers three fairly textbook horror plots on top of each other as you progress but you can tell that Supermassive Games had a lot of fun figuring out how to connect them together. 

When you play, you may think you're in one type of horror movie but you're actually often in another. 

Now the title location of The Quarry, is a summer camp in upstate New York package quarry that's slowly falling apart. 

It's initially designed to look like the most postcard worthy version of itself backlit by warm sunlight and spread out across approximately a billion acres of natural splendor. 

It's a Hollywood version of The Perfect Summer experience with colorful cinematography that makes the whole camp look like somebody's cherished memory. 

Then the sun goes down, the woods get dangerously quiet, the rot gets more obvious and the nightmare starts. 

You play as each of the nine camp Counselors controlling one at a time at various points in the roughly 10 hour campaign you can influence how its events play out through exploration scenes, conversation choices, quick time events, stealth, simple combat and Mass Effect style interruptions where you have a short window in which to make a sudden move. 

There are a lot of accessibility options built into The Quarry that let you adjust the difficulty of all of these actions including a movie mode, that lets the story play out without any interactivity at all. 

Now while you'll see most of what there is to see in movie mode, you will miss a couple of major events, many optional ones and a lot of story context that can only come from taking direct control. 

Even without it, The Quarry's default settings make quick time events easy to pull off. 

In fact, there are several scenes where failing doesn't necessarily have a bad outcome which makes them more like snap decisions rather than mechanical challenges. 

The primary issue with The Quarry is that it's less of a game and more of a lightly interactive movie for most of its running time. 

Now you can go for surprisingly long stretches without having to make a meaningful choice or take direct control of a character. 

All you're asked to do is watch. In general one of the best parts of Until Dawn as well as the games in Supermassive's Dark Pictures Anthology was that it was at least as much of a mystery as it was a horror movie. 

During the adventure game style exploration scenes, you had the chance to try and find crucial details about what was happening by discovering clues reading files, solving puzzles and occasionally, falling into what was, with the benefit of hindsight, a really obvious trap. 

Now there isn't anywhere near as much of that in The Quarry. You do have the chance to unravel some of the weird history behind the cap and the area around it but it feels like a disappointing afterthought. 

Another issue is that you can't skip past cutscenes or dialogue that you've already seen on repeat playthroughs and Until Dawn, that was a mild headache. 

In The Quarry which is longer considerably less interactive, it's frustrating. There's a lot of fun and going back through it and deliberately making different decisions or even failing on purpose just to see what happens. 

There are plenty of surprises to find and it's a testament to how absorbing this setting and story can actually be, that you may go back for a second or third playthrough to find them. 

However, doing so would be a more entertaining process with a few important quality of life features that are missing. A better scene selector would be nice as well as a run button, a fast forward option or better labeled points of no return. 

As it is, any attempt to replay The Quarry involves actual hours of dead time, where all you can do is sit and watch it play itself out again. 

The Quarry is deliberately meant to have a lighter tone than Supermassive's other horror games in a way that its director compared to the scream movies which is made even clearer by the casting of David Arquette as Hackett's Quarry's weird head counselor. 

Now it's very self-aware right from the start with a cast of characters who have all seen at least one horror movie before and are acting accordingly. 

At the same time, The Quarry storyline feels like Supermassive's learned a lot from its past projects and is putting that experience to work here. 

It feels more confident with a more solid coherent plot structure. There are still plenty of twists but they're carefully calculated and a few can take you by surprise. Now the cast of motion captured actors are a particular highlight. 

A couple of them do still get relatively little to do and I'd hope to see more from Lance Henriksen's creepy backwoods hunter but most of the characters are genuinely likable and you're given plenty of time to get to know them. 

Ariel Winter, Siobhan Williams and Justice Smith as Abigail, Laura and Ryan respectively are all particular standouts and Brenda Song as Kaitlyn somehow manages to end up as the biggest badass in the cast. 

The characters in The Quarry don't actually act as if they're in a horror movie however, it goes further than that. 

Many of them are operating on a level of ironic detachment that occasionally verges on self-parity especially if you're on a run where the body count is still fairly low. 

You're running the sequences where characters are still talking earnestly about petty relationship drama despite being covered in someone else's blood. 

No scene is dramatic enough that it can't be derailed by a half joke and no amount of recent personal horror is enough to keep someone from landing the perfect sick burn. 

It doesn't come off as awareness of their medium as much as outright traumatic disassociation. Now in horror terms, if Supermassive games was aiming for scream it overshot and ended up with the cabin in the woods. 

The Quarry is worth playing at least once but when compared to Until Dawn, it's one step forward and one step back. 

It features a solid script performed by a great cast with a slow burn story that you can guide to a few different conclusions. 

Now it's not very interactive though and that makes replaying it as intended, a chore. It's still a fun experience particularly on your first time through it but Supermassive Games formula could use some quality of life improvements.

Elden Ring Review

 

In the 87 hours that took me to beat Elden Ring, I was put through an absolute ringer of emotion; a fair amount of sorrow for the hundreds of thousands of lost exp stolen by some of the toughest boss encounters and exhilaration from finally getting through that battle that I had been stuck on for an hour. 

But more than anything else, I was in near constant awe from the many absolutely jaw-dropping vistas by the sheer scope of an absolutely enormous world, by the frequently harrowing enemies and by the way in which Elden Ring nearly always found a way to reward my curiosity with either an interesting encounter, a valuable reward or something even greater. 

FromSoftware takes the ball that the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild got rolling and runs with it, creating a fascinating and dense open world about freedom and exploration above all else. 

While also somehow managing to seamlessly weave a full-on Dark Souls game into the middle of it, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that Elden Ring ended up as one of the most unforgettable gaming experiences I've ever had. 

To set the stage, all you know from the outset is that you play as a tarnish of no renown, blessed by grace and are compelled to make the journey to the lands between and become an Elden Lord. 

What that actually means, how one might go about doing that and what the deal is with that giant glowing golden tree, are all things that you have to discover for yourself. 

Like other FromSoftware games, the grand story is hard to fully digest on the first playthrough but it's a story that I nonetheless enjoyed trying to piece together for myself. 

It ended up being the organic side stories that kept me most enthralled rather than the grand overarching plot that credits Game of Throne’s George R.R. Martin as its scenario writer. 

FromSoftware smartly doesn't change much in its approach to these from the Souls games, Bloodborne or Sekiro. You'll just naturally meet characters as you explore and discover the world and become involved in their problems. 

There are no exclamation point markers on the map, no waypoints to guide you to them and these characters don't always flag you down or initially want or need anything from you. 

They're just people with their own agendas and goals, whose stories are impacted based on your own actions or inactions. 

That was actually kind of refreshing in an open world as vast as this one and it was always exciting to see a familiar face pop up again later as I was eager to learn about what brought them to this new part of the world and how their journey had progressed. 

The trade-off of course is that without any markers quest log or journal, it becomes very easy to forget about certain plot threads and accidentally leave them unresolved by the end. 

That's a bummer and I've already felt regret about missing out on stories that some of my colleagues have had but for me it was worth it because even after 87 hours, I never once felt the open world fatigue that usually sets in when my brain gets overloaded by a map, absolutely full of unresolved side quest markers. 

Besides any missed quests give me extra incentive to continue onto new game plus. Freedom is the word that every aspect of Elden Ring's design connects back to. 

From the moment you set foot in Limgrave, the first of many interconnected regions of the lands between, you are completely free to go wherever you want and sure, that's far from a new concept in an open world game but the way it's handled here is truly extraordinary. 

If you wanted to you could be an explorer and spend hours upon hours in just Limgrave, delving into every mini dungeon, fighting every boss, discovering every NPC and leveling yourself up to better prepare for what's next. 

Alternatively, you could follow the light of grace, guiding you toward the main path and the first major dungeon or you could find a hidden path to a new region that's meant for higher levels and completely bypass the first major dungeon entirely. 

Maybe even steal yourself a cool weapon early while you're there. Again, this is not unprecedented but a few things set Elden Ring apart from games like Skyrim that provide a similar openness. 

For one Elden Ring doesn't scale enemy levels to your own at all so jumping into a later region means you're always dealing with stronger enemies, making the risk-reward prospect of doing so very real. 

But perhaps more notably the way its different areas are connected makes finding these new ones more than a simple matter of choosing a direction and heading towards it. 

Limgrave is designed very specifically with a main path in mind that takes you through Stormveil Castle and finding a way around that feels like you've truly discovered a hidden passage or alternate route, which is a super cool feeling not present in most open world games I've explored. 

You also have more freedom in how you approach combat than any previous FromSoftware game, thanks to a bunch of familiar new systems that are used in interesting ways here. 

You can crouch walk and use stealth to avoid detection or more easily sneak up for a backstab, you can fight on horseback, you can craft items on the fly, you can summon a huge variety of creatures to fight for you and most substantially, you can equip ashes of war to your weapons and completely change their affinity and skill. 

The most important element of Elder Ring's philosophy though is the freedom to just walk away and do something else when you hit a wall. 

Elden Ring is hard which is to be expected from a FromSoftware game but its difficulty surprised me even as a veteran of the Souls like genre. 

I hit multiple points even all the way up to the moment I reached the very last boss, where I had unlocked paths to several bosses and simply could not make headway on any of them. 

But even though i hit dead ends on those paths, there was always somewhere else I can go, a region I hadn't thoroughly explored, an NPC quest that I had set aside for later, a light of grace indicator that I had not yet followed. 

There was never a point in Elden Ring where I was at a complete loss of what to do and every time I explored those other regions and followed those alternate paths, I would find new gear and items level up my stats or learn new spells or skills that would eventually give me the extra edge I needed to power through a boss that had given me problems. 

It isn't just the promise of making my numbers go up that called me to turn over every stone on the map. The lands between is positively brimming with riches, intrigue and danger at every turn. 

Much of what Elden Ring’s open world does well can be traced directly back to things that made Breath of The Wild stand out from the many open world games that came before it. 

It's that same feeling of starting out in a world with little explicit guidance, finding something that piques your curiosity on your own, doing whatever it takes to get there and then being rewarded for that curiosity. 

The big difference is that in Breath of The Wild I could usually predict what's gonna happen when I get to that orange glowy thing off in the distance. I'll do a puzzle, unearth a shrine, do another puzzle and probably get a cool temporary weapon in spirit orb. 

That's not to take anything away from Breath of The Wild; it was awesome, but that pattern became somewhat routine by the end. In Elden Ring by contrast, very rarely did my predictions ever come true. 

I'd head to a lake and all of a sudden get ambushed by a dragon. Follow a river expecting to collect some minor crafting materials, only to find a dungeon filled with enemies and traps. 

Enter a cave and get jumped by little goblin men or take a seemingly unimposing elevator and find that just keeps going down further and further and further until, well, you'll have to get there yourself to find out. 

Best of all, each of these little excursions reward your curiosity with something worthwhile. 

That could be a new weapon, a new ash of war, a valuable consumable, a new creature for you to summon, a new spell or a new NPC to talk to there are so many valuable rewards available that I never felt disappointed by my prize regardless of the amount of effort it took. 

But the thing that's most impressive about Elden Ring is that in between all of this brilliant open world design, there are a handful of legacy dungeons that still deliver those wide linear levels that Soul’s fans have come to expect. 

These are gigantic castles, forts, manners, underground labyrinths and more that are packed with secret areas, challenging bosses and multiple paths that are linked by one-way shortcut doors. 

If they were all strung together without being tied to an open world, they could probably exist on their own as Dark Souls 4. Bottom line, Elden Ring’s open world exploration is a new benchmark. 

It's constantly exciting, rewarding and full of moments that made me go “Holyshit” in a host of different ways. 

As far as combat goes Elden Ring is certainly closest to Dark Souls 3 when compared to other games and FromSoftware's library of action RPGs, characterized by weighty attacks, careful stamina management and a bit of a slower pace in games like Bloodborne and Sekiro. 

The two big new additions are the ability to use a guard counter by blocking an attack with your shield and then immediately pressing the strong attack button to follow up with the crushing strike that can leave weaker enemies in a crumpled state, and a jump attack that gives melee wielders a new type of heavy attack that can also be used to stun enemies and leave them open for a critical hit. 

They're both great additions that offer melee classes fun new tools but for the most part, FromSoftware has certainly adopted a “if it ain't broke, don't fix an approach”. 

What really makes the combat and Elden Ring so good though, is its enemy design and variety. 

Not only are a fair number of them horrifying, but some of these baddies are absolutely vicious, coming at you with wild swings and combos that seemingly go on forever and can hit from 10 feet away. 

Others are more methodical and hide behind their shields to wait for the right opportunity to either parry you or catch you while you're winding up. 

Others still are weak but can be huge threats when they ambush you with a grab that kills you in one hit. 

Many are designed to punish those who just mash the dodge roll button without care which makes Elden Ring a very hard game but it's a good style of difficulty, one that's less about fast reaction speeds and twitch reflexes though those certainly help and more about learning adapting and finding the planted weaknesses in enemy attack patterns. 

Deciphering those tells and acting upon each moment of opportunity, is a large part of why these games are so much fun. And then there are the bosses. 

I don't want to spoil them but there are a handful that are some of the most visually and mechanically impressive from software has ever crafted. 

It is no exaggeration to say that Elden Ring is FromSoftware's largest and most ambitious game yet and that ambition has more than paid off. 

Even after 87 hours of blood sweat and tears that included some of the most challenging fights I've ever fought and innumerable surprises, there are still bosses I left on the table. 

Secrets that I've yet to uncover, side quests i missed out on, tons of weapons spells and skills I've never used and this is all on top of PvP and cooperative play that I've barely been able to scratch the surface of. 

Throughout it all while the fundamentals of combat haven't changed much from what we've seen before, the enormous variety of viciously designed enemies and the brutal but surmountable bosses have brought its battles to a new level. 

Even with all the threads I didn't manage to toggle on my first playthrough, of which I'm sure there will be several, what I was treated to can easily be held among the best open world games I've ever played. 

Like the Legend of Zelda Breath of The Wild before it, Elden Ring is one that we'll be looking back to as a game that moved the genre forward.