Just when you're ready to love Croteam's puzzler, something will give you cause to hate.
A love-hate relationship is defined as interchangeable or concurrent feelings of both love and hate in a relationship. Croteam’s The Talos Principle, a narrative-driven, first-person puzzler that is about as existential as it gets, will certainly ignite these conflicting emotions. Furthermore, if it doesn’t make you question life as you know it, the fact that it was inexplicably developed by the same folks that brought you the hyper-violent Serious Sam series should.
The Talos Principle is often touted as the spiritual successor to Portal, which got a lot of people, including me, excited. It begins with Elohim - a disembodied voice that declares itself Creator - waking you and prompting you to walk the path to enlightenment, promising ascension to a higher realm of existence for your compliance in completing its will. The only thing missing is cake, so in many ways it does come across as nothing more than a re-skinned Portal.
This co-op platformer for the PC has plenty going for it, but can't quite get it all to execute in a fun and rewarding way.
Bambi is perhaps one of Disney’s most iconic movies, following the life and times of a collection of woodland creatures as they fight to survive the harsh realities of existing at the lower end of the food chain. The Deer God, developed by Crescent Moon Games and Cinopt Studios, is an alternate reality where Bambi took the bullet instead of his mother (at least, that’s how I’m interpreting it). The deer hunter is then mauled to death by wolves, only to be reincarnated as a fawn by the vengeful, titular deity and tasked with redeeming himself.
This premise, coupled with the trailers and pre-released artwork, left me wanting nothing more than for this game to succeed - but, much like Bambi’s mother, the execution is a disaster.
Vote 1 for BunnyLord in this violent sidescroller from the same house as Hotline Miami.
If the 2014 sidescrolling run and gun platformer Broforce was too heavy handed with all its stars and stripes, then Roll7 and Devolver Digital’s Britannic response Not A Hero might be more to your liking. If you can handle the relentless insanity, that is. Touted by its creators as a 2¼D cover-based shooter, Not a Hero follows the fabulously eloquent, anthropomorphic rabbit BunnyLord on his violent campaign trail to be elected mayor. Playing as one of BunnyLord’s gun toting “not heroes,” you are tasked with winning voter approval by cleaning up the streets, in a way more akin to Mad Max than Democracy 3.
Before playing Not a Hero, I was intrigued by the engine behind it, called ISO-Slant technology. Touted on ISO-Slant’s suspiciously vague website as being able to bring “an entirely different perspective” to the game. In reality, the extra quarter of a dimension is the difference between bullets whizzing harmlessly past you and turning you into a big red smear. It’s an interesting way to market the cover mechanic, toying with the idea that each game lately has a brand new technology, lighting simulation or artificial intelligence. Not a Hero makes fun of the way that other games try to reinvent the wheel, and this tongue-in-cheek humour sticks throughout the adventure.
