Games you missed out on in October 2023

I speak four languages, and so when I heard there was a new game all about learning languages and translation, I was so excited to jump on board. The art style is gorgeous, the music is beautiful and atmospheric, and the whole package seemed like it was tailor-made for me. Just like learning a real language, people begin to understand and translate words from context clues, where the majority of puzzle solving comes from the language.

It’s an incredibly interesting premise, and I felt it started out incredibly strong. However, the further you go up the tower, the more likely it is that you are going to wait for the page to trigger to work things out, or you can be in a situation where you are certain of the translation, but you can’t tick it off until you have the page it relates to. For the most part, the translation puzzles are well done and thoughtfully put together, but a little more adjustment to the finer details could have really elevated the whole game.

The part that felt they didn’t fit in with the rest of the game was the reliance on stealth. There are numerous stealth sections throughout, and I felt they were put there to make it feel more ‘gamey’. There should have been more faith in the words as the gameplay, as they are the strongest aspect, and the stealth is just a distraction. Clearer maps to work your way around also would have done a lot for the exploration and prevented some frustrating backtracking.

In all, these seem like smaller issues that take a lot of intentional changes in order to tighten the whole package up. While it’s too late for Chants of Sennaar to fix it, I would be incredibly excited to play a game with a similar premise, when this game was so close to something great.

Score: 7/10

Version tested: Nintendo Switch

There are plenty of great roguelike shooters out there these days, so it takes a lot for one to stand out among that crowd, and Endless Dungeon doesn’t quite get there, despite having a lot going for it.

The premise of clearing floors is unique. While your party of three do have their own health, the main one that matters is the health of the little robot you have to escort through each floor. You can do this by manually shooting down the hordes of enemies that come for it, or by spending resources to build turrets and other defenses.

This is a fun enough loop, and you have crucial information like enemy spawn points that let you strategize in-depth about what to place where, considering the entire route of your little robot friend. The thing is, I found myself losing interest in it pretty quickly. Exploring floors isn’t all that interesting, as I never found anything truly special or exciting behind any particular door. Roguelikes often live and die on the highs and lows of what’s around each corner, but Endless Dungeon didn’t give me those feelings.

That said, it’s certainly not a bad roguelike if you’re into the genre. The content there is engaging enough to keep you going for a while, just don’t expect it to be the kind of game that’ll be in your regular rotation for years to come.

Score: 7/10

Version tested: PC (Steam)

Inescapable is that ‘Danganronpa-clone’ you probably saw during a Nintendo Direct, and while the trailers made it look as such, it’s a lot more. There are 11 of you trapped on an island, with six months until your release. While the trope is old, there is no death game here. Yes, things can devolve into a Lord of the Flies-style free-for-all, but it can just as easily be a six-month-long vacation with strangers, Big Brother-style.

The Big Brother comparison is far more apt. You are given challenges from time to time, but you can decide whether to do them or not, though you will be rewarded for doing so. The strength here is in the character building, and you do have very unique characters from a variety of different backgrounds. The cultural aspects can feel a bit heavy-handed, but you can tell the intention is to give a more whole picture to each character. I do wish that the protagonist Harrison who you play as was more of a blank slate, though. There are many choices that Harrison makes where you aren’t offered a choice, and while I understand you can’t hand everything over to the player, sometimes I felt swept along.

What most interested me is that the ending you achieve isn’t only in the choices you make, but in the way you play. Without spoiling the surprise, even meta aspects of how you play lead you down certain paths. You can’t save at a seemingly important choice and go back and see the other path, but you have to play again, and you will notice a whole different outcome. This way of path choosing was an innovation that I had never expected, and what left me thinking about the smaller things I do in real life too. This system is something special, and despite smaller issues with the characters, this system has shown a new era for visual novels.

Score: 7/10

Version tested: Nintendo Switch

Hexarchy has a cool concept behind it: It’s essentially a high-speed version of Civilization that’s been reimagined as a deck-building game. You still explore and colonize a hex-based world with your scouts and settlers, improve natural resources on your territory to gain their benefits, and exploit the lands around your cities for food, gold, and production. However, you do all this by playing cards from your hand. Building a settler? That’s a card. Constructing a harbor? That’s a card. Researching a technology? You’d never have guessed it, but that’s a card as well.

Naturally, this introduces a bit of luck into the equation. If an enemy shows up in front of your city with an army and you’ve got no units nearby or to play out on your hand, you’re toast. You can permanently delete cards during a match – you’re not going to need the basic warrior later on, anyway – to manage your deck size a little bit. Luck’s also a huge factor in the game’s rapid and chaotic multiplayer matches with up to ten players. Maps are generally pretty small, and you will often spawn right next to enemies. If they’ve got a warrior on their hand before you, it may be game over on the second or third turn, which isn’t that much fun. There is also lots of water on the maps despite naval gameplay not existing, so it feels like there is a lot of wasted space. Games end when the first player reaches a certain points milestone by claiming territory, growing cities, building wonders, and so on, or the match reaches a turn limit.

There is a solid single-player component as well, though. You can play weekly challenges and compete for the high score in them or participate in the Hegemon mode by picking one of the ten civilizations in the game and playing matches with it to contribute to their overall power. Each of these civilizations comes with one special unit and another special card to differentiate them from the rest – I wish there were a little bit more uniqueness to them to really flesh things out. Hexarchy is a great deal of fun with your friends, if you’re out for a somewhat strategic but mostly chaotic experience, and can be a fantastic little timekiller if you’re not in the mood for a long run through a more traditional turn-based 4X strategy game. The game's visuals serve their purpose and go easy on hardware, but they’re nothing to write poems about. All in all, Hexarchy is a casual turn-based strategy game worth checking out.

Score: 7/10

Version tested: PC (Steam)

I absolutely loved the adventures with the indomitable Gauls and the Romans as a kid, and the writing and art of Asterix & Obelix: Heroes absolutely transport me back to those days – what a fan of the French comic book series wants to see is all there: punny names, the running gags, and typical character interactions. In terms of living up to the source material, this is a fantastic Asterix & Obelix game.

It’s also a competent deck-building title that’s heavily inspired by Slay the Spire – heck, some of the status effect names and symbols are basically the same. Starting a mission, you choose a quartet of characters to come with you. Three of them fight actively, while a fourth supports them from the back. Interestingly, these fighters and supports use two different card decks, enabling you to customize what abilities you’re bringing even more than usual. Speaking of abilities, each character comes with a cooldown-based signature skill they can use on their turn. You can level these up by increasing the character ranks, for which you need to find additional copies of them. Items, characters, and cards can all be found in chests or in post-battle loot.

Unlike Slay the Spire, this is not an endless roguelike. Maps are predetermined and have a set number of paths, though you can’t explore all of them in one go, so you’re still incentivized to go back several times. There are also secret locations you can unlock by bringing certain heroes. Team composition is also important because some characters unlock additional powers when teamed up with certain other heroes. The biggest problem with the game is that it’s a bit janky. Targeting your cards at the right character is sometimes difficult, and there is always a delay between playing the card, the little character animations this triggers, and the sounds of the animation. It’s also a very easy game, so those looking for a challenge won’t exactly get one here.

Score: 7/10

Version tested: PC (Steam)

Saltsea Chronicles promises a lot. It promises a cast of kooky characters, with deep backstories, on a voyage to find their friend. It promises a unique setting, in a world that is both futuristic and archaic. Finally, it promises a branching narrative, where your decisions decide the outcome of the story. However, it doesn’t quite deliver on all of this, though it very much almost does.

It’s easy to get pulled in by the gorgeous art style, and whimsical setting, but when you dive in, there isn’t a huge amount of depth. There are two types of choices, where you go, and who you take with you, but at the end of each chapter, you end up converging at the same point. I was also a little disappointed by the characters and their development. You take just two members to each island, and with a large number of members, you never get to really know each one. You also feel pushed to take certain members as there are issues that need resolving. You learn a lot less about each person this way, with your attention split by the many.

If you like visual novels, I would still likely recommend Saltsea Chronicles if only for the things that it does differently. My largest disappointments come from what was felt promised and didn’t deliver. The story attempts to do something with mystery, but these feel so telegraphed that the bigger intrigue would be if the twists never happened at all. A worthy attempt, that doesn’t quite hit greatness.

Score: 6/10

Version tested: Nintendo Switch

Jeppe Carlson is known as the lead gameplay designer on both Limbo and Inside, so a lot of eyes were on Cocoon to be an incredible game. Fans were not disappointed by the outcome, as despite Cocoon being completely different from both Limbo and Inside, it captures the same sense of surprise. It plays on a very unique game mechanic, where you carry around orbs that not only have special abilities but hold whole worlds inside. The puzzles surround getting the correct orb to the correct area of the map, but in working out how to use their powers in each of the worlds.

The puzzles ramp up in complexity as you continue through the worlds, as you can affect worlds inside worlds even from the outside. The puzzles are difficult and complex, but never obtuse, and you always feel that you have the tools to figure out the path forward. Like Limbo and Inside, the story is wordless, and as you move through the world, you can figure out the complexities through what you see. There are also deeper puzzles hidden for a secret ending, for those who want to feel stretched.

Overall this is Carlson’s best game yet, taking what made Limbo and Inside so great, and taking those puzzle mechanics to completely new heights. In a year of amazing games, Cocoon still stands out, which we certainly weren’t expecting so late into the year.

Score: 9/10

Version tested: Xbox Series S

There was so much to love about Thirsty Suitors. You play as Jala, an impulsive free-spirit who left town to follow love, leaving a stream of broken relationships behind. She returns to her hometown to make amends with those she left behind, and grow closer to her family once more. Facing the people she has hurt takes place in an emotional battle, with goofy attacks and summons that are sure to make you smile.

It portrays the difficulties that immigrant South Asian families can face in the US, and character-building is one of its strongest points. While the story that plays out in the battles is another strong point, the battling itself feels all wrong. Hits don’t feel on time to the beat, and feel like a barrage of quick-time events. Also, the story builds through the first three main fights, adding the backstory of this complex protagonist and the terrible things she has done, but flounders in the second half.

Being into skateboarding adds some extra fun to traversal, though it doesn’t feel as smooth as something like Jet Set Radio. In all, Thirsty Suitors is an incredibly strong basis for a game but needed so much more to ensure it was ready to play. From a technical standpoint, there is still a lot of jank here, and while it doesn’t crash, everything feels low-budget and not quite finished. This is seen most in the facial animations, and in a game that’s all about emotion it really hurts it that everyone hits you with a blank stare. It feels like such a missed opportunity. For everything that Thirsty Suitors does well, it feels that a little bit longer investing in the game could have turned it into something great.

Score: 6/10

Version tested: Nintendo Switch

At first glance Hellboy: Web of Wyrd looks fantastic, taking from the gorgeous art style of the original comics, and making them stunning in 3D. However, while it claims to be a roguelike, it isn’t until deep into the game. The Wyrd is split into layers, but you will only take on a few at a time before you have to return to the hub. The difficulty is low for a roguelike, so you will likely be able to take on each set of layers in the first few tries without too much difficulty.

By the time you take on the Wyrd in one shot, you have unlocked stations in the individual levels, and upgraded weapons in the hub, which will allow you to clear it more easily. It trivializes the idea of the genre by not allowing you to learn and grow. The other weakness is the push to keep the graphics beautiful to the detriment of the gameplay. The camera comes close behind Hellboy, which stops you from seeing what is going on in front of you.

At the regular setting, enemies don’t telegraph their attacks, and you need to go into accessibility if you even want to have a chance at dodging. Your dodge also offers limited or no invincibility frames and a short range, meaning you are unlikely to come out of a fight feeling powerful. The different weapons you grab, and the boons you pick up don’t add to the depth of the gameplay, while let down a visually stunning game.

Score: 5/10

Version tested: PC (Steam Deck)

In some cases, the name alone is enough to get me through the door, see also: Cowboys vs. Aliens. However, much like that film, I was rather disappointed with what I found when I got started with Wizard with a Gun.

This is a roguelike shoot-em-up where you play as… well, a wizard with a gun. The idea is that you continually rewind time to eventually find a way to prevent the end of the world – you know, wizard stuff. Immediately my mind was awash with thoughts of a complex magic tree combined with a variety of weaponry, and the game does have a fraction of that. However, it’s mostly in the different types of bullets you can craft, which is still cool, but not quite what I was hoping for.

The biggest problem that I find with WwaG is that the gameplay isn’t particularly interesting. You repeatedly go out into a procedurally generated world to find stuff, be that resources, time gears, or other bits and pieces. However, the world isn’t interesting to explore, filled with generic bad guys leading to slow-paced and predictable combat encounters, which is not how to make a good roguelike.

As with a lot of these things, they get better as you settle into it, gathering more powerful weapons and generally getting better at the game, but I can still name so many other similar games that I’d rather play instead of this.

Score: 6/10

Version tested: PC (Steam Deck)

I’ve been a fan of the Jackbox Party Pack games for a long time, having played through each and every one of them with both family and friends. Some of those packs are better than others – the format is much more versatile with trivia than it is with drawing games, for example – but in every pack there’s at least one game that steals the show. In The Jackbox Party Pack 10, that game is Dodo Re Mi.

Before we get to that, though, we’ll quickly rattle through the other games in the pack. Tee K.O. 2 is a slightly enhanced version of Tee K.O., a drawing game where you have to make funny t-shirts. It’s fine, but what you get out of it will massively depend on who you’re playing with. FixyText is a bit like a shared Google Doc, where multiple players have to respond to a text by typing in real time to come up with funny responses. I found it prone to massive desyncs, which made it almost unplayable, and the prompts weren’t that good anyway.

Hypnotorious was surprisingly fun — each player is given an object, character, or position, and has to answer prompts as those things, then figure out which category they belong in and which other players belong in the same category. It’s a fantastic social deduction game, but I wish the categories were a little less abstract. Timejinx is a fairly straightforward trivia game where you have to answer questions by identifying when specific things happened in history. It’s nothing special, but trivia lends itself particularly well to Jackbox so it’s a blast.

And then we come to Dodo Re Mi. I was expecting this to be bad, honestly, since rhythm games are hard to get right at the best of times. Add servers and multiplayer syncing, and you’ve a recipe for disaster. Against all odds though, the Jackbox team well and truly pulled it off.

You start each song by syncing your specific device to the screen by tapping in time to the voice, essentially making each device manage its own sync before pulling it all together in the end. After that, you pick an instrument ranging from easy to super hard, with normal instruments like piano and much sillier instruments like eternal shrieking, then tap along to the beat. If you’re in the same room, you’ll loudly hear everyone’s terrible attempts, often desynced, which is hilarious in all the right ways.

Once you’ve played through one of many fantastic songs, the game pulls everybody’s inputs, syncs and mixes them all together, and plays it back. The better you all did, the more likely you are to defeat a monster, though that’s easier said than done. Honestly, it all just works somehow, and it’s an absolute blast to play. While my family was only keen on playing every other game once or twice, we spent hours playing songs in Dodo Re Mi. It’s the best game in the pack by far, and possibly one of the best games from Jackbox to date.

While not every game in the Jackbox Party Pack 10 hits quite right, the few that do are some of the best the series has ever seen. Unfortunately, as high as the highs are, the lows are just as low, with FixyText souring the experience somewhat with unfortunate desyncs and boring prompts.

Score: 7/10

Version tested: PC (Steam)

I have fond memories of renting Disney’s Gargoyles game on the Sega Genesis in my youth, but playing this newly remastered version, I’m not exactly sure why. Gargoyles Remastered is exactly the game you remember from the Genesis, just with prettier graphics. Don’t believe me? Just hit a button to swap back to the original graphics and see that it’s still that same game, just with a new coat of paint on top.

In that regard, it’s a nice enough remaster. It runs well, looks great – exactly like the Saturday morning cartoon it was based on – and even has a few small quality-of-life additions that make it a little easier to play, like a rewind option and better difficulty settings. I have absolutely no complaints about the conversion — if you want to play Gargoyles, there is simply no better way to do it than this. It’s a flawless recreation of the original from top to bottom.

The problem, unfortunately, is that the original sucks. The platforming is frustrating and floaty, the combat is dreadful – you can’t tell when you’re hitting an enemy, and it’s way too easy to get stun-locked to death by random enemies – and the controls are frustrating at the best of times. Switching between the two graphics options doesn’t change any of this, just how it looks, which… is fair, but I wish more had been done to modernize the game part, not just the graphics part.

What’s worse is that all of the cheat codes you could enter on the start screen of the original don’t seem to work here. Or maybe they do! It’s hard to tell, honestly, because none of the buttons are the same, my Switch definitely doesn’t have a C button, and the start screen is very different from the original’s. If there are cheats to turn yourself invincible or have infinite flight like there was in the original, I haven’t found a way to turn them on yet, and a quick Google search shows that nobody else has been able to, either.

As I said though, I can’t fault the developers of Gargoyle Remastered, they did an excellent job of converting Gargoyles. Gargoyles is just kind of terrible to begin with, and short of a ground-up remake or reboot, no amount of pretty graphics is going to change that.

Score: 5/10

Version played: Nintendo Switch 

I had no idea what to expect after my first 10 minutes or so with Little Goody Two Shoes. A slick, '90s-style anime opening leads into what seems like a cutesy adventure game about a snotty kid living in the forest. Then it turns into a deduction game, a management sim, and a social game, with bits of horror and some retro-style arcade games sprinkled in for good measure. It sounds like a lot on paper, but one of Little Goody Two Shoes’ most impressive achievements is how well it manages to balance its moving parts.

You play as Elise, a peak fairytale character type. She’s a lonely girl who lives in the forest with her grandmother and has to put up with everyone in the nearby village, treating her like a lesser human. Elise isn’t some Disney Cinderella heroine. You won’t find a nice, humble, or patient sufferer, and there’s certainly no singing mice or kindly fairies to make her dreams come true. She’s bratty and generally unpleasant, but who can blame her under the circumstances?

Elise has the chance to take what she wants through magic and live the life she dreams of – even if it means hurting other people in the process. Playing as a morally dubious character is refreshing, and if you manage your relationships well, you eventually see how complex Elise is under her shallow, selfish exterior.

That desire to learn more about Goody Two Shoes’ world and see how your choices unfold kept me interested even during some of the more vague and annoying puzzles you have to solve and made it easy to overlook the awkward script. Another editing pass would definitely have been helpful, but even at its lowest point, it’s like watching a questionable dub of an older anime, thanks in part to how well Little Goody Two Shoes nailed the retro anime style.

It might frustrate and confuse at points, but Little Goody Two Shoes and developer AstralShift are definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Score: 8/10

Version played: PC (Steam)