Reviewed for: Microsoft Windows
Jett: The Far Shore is one of the single most unique science fiction games I've ever experienced. I almost don't know where to start an overview of the story, but my best guess would be to start by saying that it's kind of a Star Wars kind of setup where humans are 100% humans, but there's no Earth...if that makes sense. In this world, the people of a certain planet live in a culture guided by a set of holy books that tell of a great planet more suitable to inhabit than the one they currently live on. This planet, as the holy books attest, calls out to the people by way of a mysterious signal called "the Hymnwave." These people largely don't take the books as necessarily holy anymore, but they're still quite traditional in their holidays and consistent quoting of the scriptures....and also the Hymnwave is undeniably real, so at the start of the game, an expedition many years in the making is about to take off. The mission is for a group of scouts and some commanders to go into cryogenic sleep and travel through space for 1000 years to locate the planet, establish a firm foundation on which to start building colonies, and determine the true nature of the Hymnwave. You play as one of the scouts sent on this mission: Mei, an acolyte of the scripture's author brought along on this mission for the insights that your devotion will lend you in navigating the new terrain. In case it hasn't already become clear, this is a game whose story appeal largely lies on the lore and mystery side of things, not the moment-to-moment plot. Much of what happens over the course of this game is just fulfilling your directives (with some exceptions), but the whole experience is wrapped up in this intense sense of mystery and discovery, and when the lore comes to the forefront it just adds to that feeling. Adding even further to this feeling is the made up language everybody speaks in. Just, everything about this game is programmed to make everything feel as atmospheric and alien as possible. And you know what? It's fascinating. I'm not incredibly patient anymore when it comes to cutscenes, but every time I experienced one of them, I just ate it up. One particular scene that comes to mind is the scene that plays after one early-to-mid game chapter, in which the scouts spend the whole day preparing for "tsoultide," one of their many holidays. When the time to celebrate finally arrives, the crew just sits in a circle in their FOB's kitchen lit only by candlelight, and they sing and recite scripture with no extra noises or music. It's the kind of thing I'd normally be annoyed by, but here I was invested in experiencing this moment! So, that's pretty much the story side of things in a nutshell.
Before I go on to gameplay, I'm actually going to discuss the technical side of things first, since that goes a long way in developing this game's excellent atmosphere. Let's get the negatives out of the way first. There are times when the framerate suffers as the game progresses, there are some textures that are just...reeeeeeally bad, it's easy to get totally lost in certain story missions because of the unreliability of waypoint/friendly npc markers, and there are occasionally times when the smoke and mirrors of the game's incredible sense of scope fall away and you can see the illusion for what it is. It's been difficult for me to find the words to describe what I mean by that last point. But I noticed it during a mission where I had to remain in my jett (more on that later) while some side characters got out of their jett's to attend to a wounded scout. During this time, my co-pilot pointed my attention to a nearby structure that he said was a nest for one of the planet's more aggressive fauna. In this moment, for some reason, I noticed that the nest was just stretched out to make it look bigger and the npc character models had just been shrunk to a smaller size than normal. You're probably reading this and thinking "duh," but the point is that it was noticeable, and it was one of the few times where the illusion broke for me. Thankfully, most of the game retains an excellent grip on its sense of scope. See, the planet is roamed by gigantic monsters called "Kolos." Every Kolos is shaped differently and behaves differently, but the way the game juxtaposes them with the environment, the normal fauna, and your freaking machine you're flying all serve to really hammer the point home that the Kolos are freaking huge. The first couple Kolos I encountered in my playthrough literally made my jaw drop, and I guarantee you'll have a similar experience. This sense of scope works on the opposite side of the spectrum as well. Because you're made aware of how big your jett is when you get out of it, when you see something that looks small while you're gliding around, you can't help but realize that whatever it is is actually going to be bigger than you are. You're constantly reminded of these facts as you explore the world, and it all adds to the sheer majesty of it all. In addition to this, the world itself is rendered with just enough of a muted color pallet to make it impressive to look at while also retaining a sense of danger. Finally, the thing that serves the game's atmosphere the best is the excellent soundtrack, composed by scntfc. The "space-y" moments are orchestrated with solemn singing as well as software vocals that truly sell the isolation of certain scenes. On the other hand, the times where you're just gliding across the map without a care in the world are scored with sliding violins reminiscent of some of the tracks from Journey. Every time this game needs a particular kind of sound to sell the moment, the soundtrack answers the call, and I can't give enough praise to scntfc for their work on this!
Folks, I believe that at this point you know if Jett: The Far Shore is for you. Gameplay-only folks are definitely not going to get anything out of this, nor are people who are easily frustrated by a lack of control polish. But if you're like me and you can just sit back and enjoy a dense, dense, dense atmospheric lore experience in spite of some frustrations, you might enjoy it as much as I did!
Let us review:
-Technical shortcomings - 1.0
-Poor handling and control - 1.0
The final score for Jett: The Far Shore is...
8.0/10 - Great
Good work, Superbrothers, good work!
Reviewed for: Microsoft Windows
When it comes to game journalists, there are none that I trust more than Laura K. Buzz. It isn't that we have similar tastes in games, but if she describes a game and it sounds like I would like it, I end up liking it 100% of the time. Recently, as I've tried to catch up on Podquisition episodes, Laura ended up recommending Chicory: A Colorful Tale, and it sounded like a fun (if simplistic) time, so here I am!
In this game, the titular Chicory is the current wielder of a magic paintbrush that gives the world its colors. Renowned for her excellent style, she's beloved by all the anthropomorphic animals in the land of picnic. But none love her and her art more than her humble janitor, an anthropomorphic dog who we'll call "Alfredo," but whose name will vary depending on the person playing. See, the title is a bit of a misnomer. You aren't Chicory. You're her janitor. One day, all of the color suddenly disappears from the world, and you go up to Chicory's office to investigate, only to find the magic brush lying out in the open. So naturally you take the brush for yourself and venture forth on a quest to restore color to the world and see what's up with Chicory. The story here is a bit deeper than you might be expecting based on that blurb, and in an interesting way. See, indie games have a bit of a reputation for literally always being about mental health or anxiety or depression or what have you. But this may be the first indie game story about helping someone going through that that I've seen, and it's definitely the first one I've seen about learning to be accountable for yourself when poor mental health causes you to hurt someone. So it's pretty special, and it's handled in a way that doesn't drag down the mood of this cute animal game about painting. Good thing, too, because this world is just adorable. As I've already stated, this game takes place in the land of picnic, and the towns and people adhere to the spirit of this name. Every character is named after a particular kind of food (remember that my character's name was Alfredo), and every area is named after a particular food context (i.e. luncheon, teatime meadow, etc.). Furthermore, every npc is a delight to speak to. It's kind of amazing how many likable characters the developers were able to populate this world with without personalities overlapping! But the real kicker of this game's whole personality is the hint system. If you find yourself stuck on a puzzle or you don't know where to go next, you can go to a phone booth and call your mom. And my god, your mom is so flipping adorable! With only a couple of little details (such as the fact that she's always holding a cup of tea), the developers make your mom out to be an old lady dog, and that paired with how much of a sweetheart she is just makes going to call her so positive. But anyway, when you call her, she'll say something like "oh, sweetie, that does sound tricky!" and then she'll give you a couple gentle hints on what might need to be done. But if you just want to straight up know the answer, never fear! Towards the end of the call, your mom will say that your dad wants to be put on, and if you let him take the phone, he'll just tell you what you need to do in excruciating detail. This is seriously the greatest hint system of all time! So the story is special and the world is as cute as a button, what about the actual act of playing the game?
So that's gameplay, how about the technical side? Well, thankfully there's not much to complain about. I never experienced any glitches, framerate drops, audio issues, etc., and to boot, the game comes with "warm colors" options. A game that's mostly just white space can possibly be hard on the eyes, so it lets you set how warm the white is, which was excellent for me given that I played this in a dark room. Furthermore, the soundtrack (composed by Lena Raine, who also did the soundtrack to Celeste) adds even more personality to the world on top of everything else I've already mentioned. There is, however, one technical caveat...I did have one hard crash that came with a code error warning. Would you like to know where this crash occurred? It wasn't while painting. It wasn't while solving a puzzle. It wasn't in the middle of a boss fight. No, it was during the end credits. That's hardly a game-breaker, but boy is that a noticeable place for a crash to happen! Other than that, though, Chicory is solid on the technical front.
I don't really have enough left to say to justify a full conclusion paragraph unless you just want me to say "you probably already know if this is for you" again, so...
Let us review:
Sometimes forced ugly color pallets - 0.8
Impossible to gauge height for jumps - 1.0
Tripping at the technical finish line - 0.3
The final score for Chicory: A Colorful Tale is...
7.9/10 - Pretty Good
Great work, Greg Lobanov and friends, great work!
Reviewed for: Microsoft Windows
Of all the subjects of this article, Demon Turf is the one I'm most sad to not be writing a full-fledged review of. I won't mince words: Demon Turf is the single greatest platformer I've played in literal years. Nothing even comes close. To give a brief glimpse of how much I loved this game, I'll say this: I 100%-ed it and to this day I'm still going through the levels trying to get better times on the leaderboards, which is something I've literally never done before. So let's get started talking about what makes this so good!
In Demon Turf, you play as Beebz, a little girl demon living in the demon settlement of Forktown. In this world, tribes of demons are engaged in constant warfare, but no matter who rises to power in which areas of hell, the demon king reigns supreme. However, our heroine believes it's time for a change in management, so she sets out to the various "turfs" belonging to the 4 predominant demon gangs to take them over one-by-one and take the fight to the demon king! As is usually the case for platformers, that's about all there is to say on the story front. Whether the princess is in another castle or another gang of demons needs to be brought to heel, the story beats in a platformer are always mainly a vehicle to ferry the player between one section and another. So let's move on to the meat and potatoes of Demon Turf: the gameplay.
As for what you'll be doing in these levels, if you've played a platformer before, you'll likely already know the basic concept: you use a variety of jump types to make your way across several challenges to reach a finish line. As for your jump types, you have your standard jump and double jump, as well as some moves that will be familiar if you've played a Mario game before (i.e. side jumps or super high jumps if you jump the moment you land on the ground three times). Unique to Demon Turf is the spin, however. By pressing L2, Beebz turns into a bat-like demon that spins. This can be used to stun enemies, but more often than not, you'll use it after a jump to hang in the air for a second and fall slowly. In addition, if you use the spin in the air without doing a double jump, pressing the jump button will launch Beebz into a super jump that can end in a bounce if you continue holding the jump button after execution. So there's plenty of moves at your disposal to get from A to B, but there's still more variety to be found in the types of stuff you'll be doing on top of that base. There are several instances where levels will present you with a particular challenge you need to complete (well...not really in most cases, but we'll get to that) in order to open up the way forward to progress in the level. This can be one of many different challenges: foot races, ring races, curse zones, key hunts, or combat encounters (there are also sections where you just have to find a switch, but they're rare and not really worth mentioning). Foot races charge you with getting to a finish line in a certain amount of time. Ring races have you jump through a certain amount of rings without letting x amount of seconds pass before getting to the next one. In curse zones, you'll have to make your way to a finish line with one or more of your abilities taken away (you might not be able to double jump or spin, for instance). In key hunts, you'll have to traverse an area containing some kind of hazard to find x amount of keys. Finally, in combat encounters, you have to defeat a certain number of enemies.
I chose this type of challenge to end that discussion with on purpose, because the combat is unfortunately one of the area where Demon Turf isn't quite up to snuff. If I had to compare the combat here to any other game, I'd compare it to Pinball. In combat, you use magic punches that travel a short distance, charged super punches, and spins to defeat enemies either by knocking them out of the area or into red objects (such as spikes or enemy attacks). Not too bad on paper, but I didn't compare the combat to pinball for no reason. Because of the game's art style (3D environments, 2D sprites), it can be difficult to get the right angle on an enemy to send them in a straight line. What this means in practice is that until you've really got it down, you'll just be bouncing enemies across the borders of the area until they happen to ram into a spike or off a cliff. What's more, the punches you unleash don't have any weight to them, and 9/10 times you'll start throwing them when you're too far away from an enemy. It's not game-destroying by any means, but boy is it a weak combat system. Now, normally this would be a bit more devastating given the game's one-hit-and-you're-dead nature, but Demon Turf actually comes with a game mechanic (that I'm pretty sure is 100% unique to it) that takes the edge off: its checkpoint system. In most platformers, your checkpoints will take the form of a flag or something similar that activates once you reach it, and from there you respawn from that area, and in some cases you can fast travel between these areas. In Demon Turf, there's only one checkpoint already set at the start of the level. From there, you, the player, set the other 3 (or 4 with the right mod equipped) checkpoints anywhere you want as long as its a flat, non-moving surface. This means that if you place your checkpoints carefully, instant death can be but a minor setback. In the early levels of the game, you learn about checkpoint efficiency pretty quickly. Did you just complete a difficult platforming section that you'd really, really not like to have to go through again if you die in the next room? Then placing a checkpoint at the end of that platforming section would make the most sense! But as the game progresses in difficulty, you learn to dole out your checkpoints a bit more conservatively and truly ask yourself if it's the right time. For instance, you might get through a difficult platforming section and think that getting through it the first time was the only tough part, reserving a checkpoint you would've put down 10 levels ago and taking a leap of faith that you're good enough to make it through whatever comes next at risk of starting again from wherever you last placed a checkpoint (which, in some cases, may very well be the beginning of the level).
I would understand if you had doubts about this system just reading about it here, but I have to emphasize that this is a game that does an excellent job of teaching the player about how to interact with its world in a truly tough-but-fair format. For example, there are certain sections that require you to move from an adhesive surface on one side of a tall rectangular prism to another adhesive surface slightly higher up on the next face of this prism. The first time you encounter one of these sections, nothing spells the solution out to you, but the game teaches you about your various jump styles well enough for you to know what move you might need to do to get off your current surface, around the corner, and up the right distance to reach the next surface. In addition, no matter where you first encounter the adhesive surface concept (whether in the first trip to area 3 or in the return trip levels of area 2 first), this concept is taught well enough for you to understand the basic rules well before you have the need to put that knowledge of your moveset to use. So, the same is going to go for how you learn to set your checkpoints, and beyond that, it also goes for how you learn to master the time trial that comes with each level!
Earlier I mentioned that you don't actually always have to contend with the various challenges a given level throws at you. That was essentially referencing these time trials. In most levels, if you really huff it, you can beat the trials while simultaneously going through each challenge one-by-one, and if you try to beat the time trials before moving onto the next turf, that's basically all you can do. But the level designers cleverly found ways for the attentive player to essentially "speedrun" levels without being speedrunners (read: cheaters who use glitches, fall through the map, etc). All it takes is to know what you're capable of and use your imagination...and have gotten far enough in the game to get the right abilities. See, right before each boss fight, you get a new power that aids your mobility in some way (i.e. a grappling hook or a glide). As I've already stated, you don't actually need these abilities to get through any level fast enough to win the time trial, but you will need them if you want to end up anywhere decent on the leaderboards. Now is the time for me to humble brag. As you might have noticed, I don't have much respect for professional speedrunners (the kind that exploit glitches or whatever instead of actually playing the game). Naturally, those people hold what are technically "world records" on pretty much each level in this game. But I, a non-speedrunner, hold the "legitimate" world records for several levels (for example, I'm at #2 just below the speedrunner "Nitro" by 2 seconds in the level called "Port Manteau"). [UPDATE: As of the evening after this was published, I'm the ACTUAL world record holder in "Port Manteau," beating a professional speedrunner's time by a meager 4 milliseconds. He'll probably find a way to fall through the map and reclaim the spot again, but for this brief and shining moment, the actual and moral victory is mine!]. When I call myself a "non-speedrunner," I don't just mean I'm not falling through the map to get to the goal in 2 seconds...I also mean I never have any desire to improve my times in games like this. And yet, me, with no experience in shaving milliseconds off the time it takes me to complete a level, was able to get within seconds of cheaters in this game. Now, part of that is probably that this is a small game and not a lot of people are trying on the leaderboards, especially given that most non-speedrunners don't try to improve their times. But at the same time, especially given my lack of experience, I couldn't have achieved what I have so far were it not for how well the levels were designed for the attentive player. To give you an example from a level I'm actually not even close to the world record on: There's a particular level that pits you against quite a few challenges that can be blown through easily...but an attentive player might notice that a section near the end of the level is in the distance if they turn the camera to the left, and following that line of reasoning, a well-timed glide could potentially change their record time from 2 minutes and 30 seconds to a meager 55 seconds. If you're the kind of person who enjoys finding secret ways to get from a to b in games, Demon Turf is endlessly rewarding.
But let's say you're tired of playing the base levels. What do you do, then? Well, thankfully, Demon Turf is packed with extra content for you to try out in addition to its main levels! Just head back to Forktown and take a stab at one of the following activities: demon soccer golf, photo hunt, Mr. Mint's trials, the arcade, or the arena. In demon soccer golf, you have to use your abilities to guide a ball to a goal in a set amount of time (imagine a version of the watermelon level from Super Mario Sunshine that doesn't royally suck). The photo hunt charges you with going back to the main levels to look for specific things to take pictures of (for example, the inside of a cabin that is only open on return trips). If you're able to find the switch that opens up the area, in Mr. Mint's trials you'll be tasked with completing incredibly difficult trials with only the original checkpoint. On the other hand, if you're able to find the cartridges hidden in hard-to-reach areas of Forktown, in the arcade you'll be tasked with completing incredibly difficult trials with unforgiving trophy times (so these two activities are two sides of the same extra-challenge coin). Finally, the arena is what it sounds like: you face waves of different enemy loadouts under different environmental circumstances. Completing any one of the many challenges that each of these activities offer awards you extra sweets to purchase cosmetics or mods. Both of these are fairly simplistic. Cosmetics take the form of clothing dye, hair dye, and an animal friend to sit on your head while you do your thing. Mods offer small-but-sometimes-critical effects such as the ability to place a 4th checkpoint or your movement speed being faster. You only have a set amount of slots for mods, and which ones you choose will depend on your priorities, obviously. These days, while I'm trying to get better and better level times, I like to go with a combination of faster movement speed, a slight updraft while spinning, and extra control of one of my turf powers, for instance. The real kicker about all of this side stuff is that it's all fun to do (yes, even the arena), so whether you're just going through the story or trying to experience as much of the game as possible, you're sure to have a good time with Demon Turf.
I've been talking a lot about the ingredients that make up the gameplay, but what's the secret sauce that makes Demon Turf the 5-star meal that it is? What is it that makes all the pieces click together so excellently? The answer, my friend, is the way it controls. The sheer act of moving around in this game is so responsive and satisfying that even when the game gets difficult enough to be frustrating, I still wanted to keep playing. When you're falling through the air and point your thumbstick in the direction you want to land with the intensity you think it'll take, you land exactly where you intended. If that sounds like an obvious thing to get right, I'd agree, but I find that some platformers (yes, including Mario, though I understand that's a hot take) can be a little oversensitive and floaty when it comes to your control of the character. In Demon Turf, however, it's as if the game always knows your intentions. I simply haven't played a game in which movement felt this good since last year's Doom Eternal. So all the positives I've mentioned so far are due to this excellently-crafted sense of movement control!
Folks, I meant what I said at the top of this review: Demon Turf is the single greatest platformer I've played in literal years, and there's absolutely zero contest. I've been replaying these levels and challenges over and over and over again almost every single day since the credits rolled, knowingly sacrificing time that could be spent with the long-awaited Pokemon remakes that I already paid for, so wonderful is the feeling of simply playing this game, even if I'm spending a full night trying and failing to get a better time on a level. The actual combat aspect of the game is pretty weak, and the QA team clearly either didn't have enough budget or enough people telling them not to take early lunches. But if the fact that I've ultimately accidentally written a full-fledged review in what was supposed to be a concise affair because I was too busy gushing and wanting to talk about this game more and more doesn't convince you that it's worth the potential headache, I don't know what will.
Let us review:
Weak combat - 0.2
Technical flaws - 1.0
The final score for Demon Turf is..
8.8/10 - Fantastic
Exceptional work, Fabraz, exceptional work!
Well folks, that's a wrap! The final reviews of 2021 are out of the way, so I'll see you next time for the annual Right Trigger GOTY article!
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