Resident Evil: Revelations is a game of two halves: the first one is effective in building a horror atmosphere in a claustrophobic environment, but the second offers mediocre action sequences with endless amounts of similar enemies to be defeated.

The story begins when Jill Valentine and Parker Luciani – agents working for a counter-terrorism group – are tasked to investigate a drifting vessel on the high seas, a luxury ship named “The Queen Zenobia”. Bizarre carcasses carrying a devastating virus have appeared on a nearby beach and their colleagues, Chris and Jessica, have gone missing: their last know location is on the Zenobia. When Jill and Parker arrive on the [...]

Close to the Sun is a narrative adventure game that falters when it comes to its most fundamental part: its narrative. With shallow, boring characters and undeveloped themes, the game even foregoes some conclusion in favor of leaving doors open to a sequel.

The story takes place in 1897 in a reality where Nikola Tesla has built a futuristic ocean linear named Helios, which is supposed to house the best and most prominent scientific minds of the world. Tesla builds a miniature Rapture inside his ship, promising that in Helios scientific research will not be bound by laws or morality. One of the posters you find very early on in the game promises, “Invent and innovate without [...]

The first game of The Dark Pictures Anthology, Man of Medan, has some good ideas up its sleeve, but they are ultimately wasted on a very problematic story. The game fails to develop interesting characters and build a horror atmosphere, especially on repeated playthroughs.

The story follows Alex, a young man who decides to go for a dive with his girlfriend, Julia, to explore underwater wrecks. Alex’s brother, Brad, has found a note talking of a “Manchurian Gold”, with some coordinates in the paper, and they decide to investigate the subject. However, they’re soon boarded by pirates, who take them to the coordinates, finding a ghost ship.

Man of Medan opens on a negative [...]

Backbone is a strange point-and-click adventure. Its story moves from one extreme to the other too fast, going from complete cliché to “holy hell, what’s going on” after a single twist. However, it never commits to both approaches, abandoning important elements for the twist, but not giving it time to breathe.

The protagonist is a raccoon that wears a trenchcoat and works as a private investigator. Howard Lotor is your typical noir detective: he’s reckless and cynical, talks tough and claims to be used to the dark, filthy places of his town: “Granville. Smells like wet concrete, overpriced fast food and puke. My kind of battleground.” One day, when he’s investigating the [...]

Lara Croft, always looking for a lost city, hunted by ancient organizations, chasing the ghost of her dead father. Rise of the Tomb Raider builds upon the foundations of its predecessor, with a more carefully written story – that is not at odds with the gameplay anymore – and complex level design. The decision to put the act of raiding tombs as a side-activity in a Tomb Raider game remains head-scratching, but the game succeeds at what it sets out to do: provide exciting set-pieces.

This time, Lara Croft is in search of the lost city of Kitezh. Her father lost his credibility – and life – chasing the so-called Divine Source, which is supposedly hidden in the city and capable [...]

This review contains spoilers.

Developed by Frictional Games, Soma is a sci-fi adventure game that mixes horror with philosophical discussions about identity. However, with poorly developed characters and troubling design decisions, the game ends up sinking under the weight of its own ambitions.

The protagonist is Simon, a young man who gets into an accident after proposing to a woman without success – an accident that causes her death. Weeks later, he decides to take an experimental test and have his brain scanned. All seems well until he wakes up and realizes he’s no longer in the doctor’s office, but in a ruined underwater facility filled with corpses, robots [...]