SLITTERHEAD

There’s an abundance of horror games out there in our current market, but few of them (or more precisely, none of them) are anything like Slitterhead. Coming from Silent Hill, Siren, and Gravity Rush creator Keiichiro Toyama’s new indie team at Bokeh Game Studio, Slitterhead is undoubtedly a flawed game, and probably not to everyone’s tastes. It does tout a fascinating core premise and body swapping gameplay hook, however, which makes for one of the most unique action horror experiences in recent memory. Yes, there are a dozen different ways it could have been a better game, but even in its current state, Slitterhead has an undeniable (if very specific) appeal to it.

Princess Peach: Showtime!

One day, Nintendo woke up, looked back on how underwhelming Super Princess Peach was, and decided to do something about it. The result is Princess Peach: Showtime!, with Peach harnessing multiple forms across various plays to stop the sorceress Grape and her Sour Bunch. With a fun story, enjoyable gameplay, and solid level design, there’s much to love, even if the performance would have been better.

Developed by Simogo of Sayonara Wild Hearts fame, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a mystery puzzle adventure game that touts a non-linear structure. Players play as a woman who explores a mansion as she solves increasingly more dangerous and bizarre mysteries.

In our review of Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, we awarded it a score of 8/10, saying, “Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a unique, distinct, and memorable experience that leverages the strengths of video games as a storytelling medium. It is recommended for anyone who is interested in mystery stories or adventure games.” Read the full review through here. 

Whether we can also expect Lorelei and the Laser Eyes to release for Xbox consoles at some point in the not-too-distant future remains to be seen, but that’s the only major platform that the game isn’t on at this point, so hopefully Annapurna Interactive and Simogo will remedy that sooner rather than later. 

ANIMAL WELL

Indie Metroidvanias are a dime a dozen these days, but Animal Well manages to stand out from the crowd nonetheless. On top of incredible level design, endlessly satisfying exploration, and ingeniously designed puzzles, Animal Well also boasts incredible art design and visuals. All of it comes together in one of the richest and most engaging Metroidvanias we’ve played in recent years.

]]> 595672 https://gamingbolt.com/15-most-unique-aa-games Sun, 14 Jul 2024 17:59:07 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=592602 The AAA space is where most of the action tends to be, but the AA space is where our hearts often beat the loudest. This, after all, is the space where you don’t typically have to worry about games being unnecessarily bloated, or games crumbling under their own gargantuan budgets and development cycles, or games that are unafraid to take risks and be experimental. That last bit is, in fact, what we’re focused on for this feature, as we go over what we feel are some of the most unique AA games we’ve ever played.

Before we move ahead, do keep in mind that calling a game AA or AAA isn’t a measure of its popularity or quality so much as it is a measure of the scope of its production and its development budget, which means we might also talk about AA experiences made by companies that usually operate in the AAA sphere. With that out of the way, let’s dive right in.

DISCO ELYSIUM

You could call Disco Elysium a CRPG, and on paper, technically, you would be correct, but that would also be an incredibly reductive way to describe this masterpiece. From its surreal setting to its heavily flavoured and thematically dense writing, from its complete lack of combat to how bizarrely yet ingeniously it uses its RPG mechanics in conjunction with its storytelling, Disco Elysium is a singular game that’s unlike anything else out there.

"Much like Sayonara, what is truly striking about Lorelei, at least at first glance, is the visuals."

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is essentially set up as one of those old school adventure games — if you played any of LucasArts or Sierra’s catalog in the 1990s, or any classic text adventure games, or even some more modern visual novels such as the Ace Attorney or Zero Escape games, you’ll have some basic context and idea for how it works. You’re basically going around the game’s environs, investigating things, contextually interacting with them based on the knowledge or items you may have at the moment, and puzzling things out. There’s obviously the game’s own twists and takes on the formula — you can do things out of order (which may change how things unfold), and you can gradually unlock shortcuts that help finding your way across easier and less of a hassle. But you’re playing, at its core, an adventure game.  

Much like Sayonara, what is truly striking about Lorelei, at least at first glance, is the visuals. The game is highly stylized, using a monochromatic palette (broken by splashes of color used sparingly to great effect) — and it’s a hell of a look. The visuals are immediately eye catching, and in spite of how simple they may seem, they cast an incredible, incredible atmosphere that almost makes the location the game is set at come to life as a character all of its own. The developers Simogo recommend that you play this game in a dimly lit area — and I personally second that recommendation because it can definitely enhance the effect and the impact. 

"Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a very unique and striking experience that merits playing almost solely on the back of that uniqueness, and the extremely singular atmosphere that it creates and casts."

The impact of that story will presumably depend from player to player, but to be honest, I think it’s the best thing about the game. The puzzles are fairly simplistic — we’re talking about basic observation, memory/recall, math, and “have the right item in your inventory” sort of things here. But they remain fun enough to add the extra mechanical depth to this game that I previously mentioned, and definitely make it a lot more compelling to explore the world and engage with it (and get lost more and more in its unique atmosphere). It also helps that you get to find optional items in the world if you explore, which can make it worth it to engage with the world all on its own for just that reason. 

But ultimately, all of this is playing second fiddle to the fact that, subjective experiences aside, for most people, the meat of this game shall be the story, and how it is told. And it’s an extremely interesting setup. The game begins with no preamble or introduction, and you figure out, as you play more, that you were invited to a hotel for some reason by an unknown person. Nothing else is truly known — when the game starts, Lorelei is truly a blank slate, and the game strongly suggests that in their quest to fulfill the game’s objective, which is to “uncover the truth of what happened” they should be questioning every single thing — up to and including Lorelei’s own identity and participation in these events. 

From there the story gets more and more bizarre and strange, as you find fragments that seem random and disconnected, until more and more a picture begins to form. That picture may not necessarily be comforting — the game’s scenario can get extremely surreal and meta, and it touches upon themes that may be difficult for some players. Matters are further compounded by the game’s non linearity, meaning you can come across something that seems even more out of place a whole lot earlier than you have the context to make sense of it. 

"Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is an experience that’s more than the sum of its parts. It’s not a game that will appeal to everyone, given its singular vision and how much it adheres to it."

I personally really enjoy this style. It’s a unique, interactive form of storytelling that is something that can only happen in video games — while movies like, say, Memento employ a lot of similar fragmentary and non linear techniques in theory for their storytelling, they are ultimately the exact same experience for every single person who engages with them, whereas Lorelei can unfold extremely differently for each player, depending not just on what they choose to interact with and how much they choose to engage with the game, but also when. 

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is an experience that’s more than the sum of its parts. It’s not a game that will appeal to everyone, given its singular vision and how much it adheres to it, and as I mentioned, the game has some shortcomings that could grate on the player. But it is extremely unique, extremely immersive, and very, very, very distinct to video games as a medium. Like this developer’s previous games, this is a title that you may come away from untouched or may find making a surprisingly large impression on you. It depends on just how much you find yourself in the footsteps of Lorelei as she tries to uncover the truth. But for me, the experience was incredibly unique, and well worth it. If you’re at all a fan of mystery stories, adventure games, or just really unique experiences, your takeaway will hew far closer to mine — and you’ll come away really enjoying what this game has to offer. 

This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

The story centers on a woman who ventures to an old hotel in Central Europe at the behest of an “eccentric man.” Upon entering, she becomes embroiled in a mystery with various puzzles and riddles involving characters like an auteur, an artist and an illusionist. What your character’s role in all of this remains to be solved.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes seemingly employs a non-linear structure that players can solve at their own pace. Very little is known, but it carries the same stylish presentation and music that defined Simogo’s earlier efforts. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay for the title in the coming weeks.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is described by developer Simogo as a non-linear adventure game that will feature cryptic puzzles. The title’s website describes the game as featuring puzzles revolving around patterns that players will need to observe carefully.

The game is set somewhere in central Europe, and puts players in the shoes of a woman who is wandering around in search of answers. It will feature characters like an international auteur, an aristocratic artist, and a vagabond illusionist.

In the past, Simogo has worked on quite a few critically-acclaimed games, including rhythm game Sayonara Wild Hearts.

While Lorelei and the Laser Eyes doesn’t yet have a solid release date, it is slated to come to PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023.