I've been a gamer for over thirty years. A Game developer for over ten years, and a programmer, a nerd, an achievement hunter, and now have become a critic. These are my reviews.
I’m Kinglink and it’s the beginning of February so it’s time for Humble Choice February 2023 Review.
So we have 8 or 9 games to talk about this month with a minor bonus game. A lot of these games have been seen in bundles before, but before we get into that, let’s take a look at the titles first.
I’ve played each game on stream for an hour, and now can tell you how the game plays, what problems there are, and who probably will enjoy each game. With that said, let’s get on to the lineup with this title.
The escape room craze has grown over the last decade, as a concept it’s interesting, players are locked in a room and solve a variety of puzzles leading to the ability to get out of the location.
Escape games also have been around and were created around the same time as the Escape Room idea, so Escape Simulator isn’t a new idea, however, it’s an attempt to get on that same craze.
Escape Simulator has the player choose an Escape Room from a list of 25 levels, included within are four sets of five levels in a themed chapter, but each room can be approached in any order. From there, players are given fifteen or more minutes to solve all the puzzles in the room and escape them.
I originally saw Not Tonight as part of the Humble Choice in January 2021 and gave it a pretty positive review, even calling it the best game of the month. Now two years later, I finally gave the full game a shot and while I still enjoy the game in concept, I haven’t finished the experience.
Not Tonight is like Papers, Please. It’s not even trying to hide the fact and as a concept, that’s smart because a lot of people enjoyed Papers Please. It’s a well-written and interesting story with solid gameplay. If Not Tonight was similarly delivered, this would be an instant hit.
Marvel’s Spider-Man is another attempt at the ultimate power fantasy. Giving players the ability to pull on a mask and take over the role of a famous hero has become a rather typical setup for video games, whether they be based on an IP, or if the hero or superhero was created for games.
When the focus is on telling a story or having players experience the role, the most important thing to the whole experience is how immersed players can become with the game, and that’s one of the reasons why so many people say “you feel like Spider-Man” because in many ways you do.
You’ll be able to web sling throughout a video game version of New York, fight famous villains, and be led on a powerful story as you learn more about the world that Spider-Man finds himself. The story starts with Spider-Man taking down Wilson Fisk, known as Kingpin. The story is definitely a core reason to play the game, so it’s important not to spoil yourself fully, but I also think the story is the one part of the game I have a major issue with.
I’m Kinglink and it’s time for a look back at 2022, which is a bit of a disappointing year for me. No, not because of any specific release, though there were a lack of major titles, but I feel like I failed as a gamer.
2022 for me was a year that I played over 300 games, which is an insane amount, I covered both Game Pass for the PC and Humble Choice so there’s a massive amount of variety in the games I covered… and yet I only completed about 25 of those titles, almost all of them short affairs like Pupperazzi or games I finished without realizing it, like Peppa freaking Pig…
Normally I like to talk about the best game I played over the previous year or the game I most recommend, but with most of these games already in videos, I’ve talked about that. There’s a bigger issue for me. I struggle to call games I haven’t finished this year the best. Can I call a game the best of the year if I only played a quarter of it?
I’ve played everything that has been released in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series from RGG Studio and enjoyed each one of them. There were amazing games like Yakuza 0, weaker games like Yakuza 3, and different games like Yakuza: Like A Dragon (the most confusingly named one).
Judgment isn’t technically part of that franchise, but it is from RGG Studio and is counted as a “Yakuza game” by most fans. It’s the same universe, same city, and has similar interactions with the same Tojo Clan, even if only a side story character crosses over between the two games. The engine the games run on and the style of the games is very similar.
In Judgment, you control Yagami, a former lawyer who is now a private investigator. A simple early case, which involves you trying to assist in the defense of a Tojo Yakuza Captain named Hamura, pulls Yagami into a series of events at the core of the story. Judgment’s main focus is telling a complex and intricate narrative that evolves throughout the story, though since unraveling is such a central part of the game, I’ll avoid mentioning much more about it.
I’m Kinglink and it’s the first week of January. That means it’s the Humble Choice January 2023 Review.
This month there are eight titles from Humble and there are a few oddities in the selection here, but before I get into the overall bundle, I’ve played each game for an hour on stream and I’m ready to tell you about the titles on offer and who might enjoy each game. Let’s get started with the game already on the screen
I’m Kinglink and once more into the breach… this is the December 2022 Game Pass Review.
As always, I take a look at everything that came out over the past month. We have sixteen titles this month, and that’s a good amount. There’s been some major releases, exciting additions, and a couple of great games. Since this series is focused on PC, that means we won’t be talking about Norco or Metal: Hellsinger but I have reviewed previously and console fans should check out Metal: Hellsinger, it’s a great musical FPS.
The rules are the same as always, a single night with each game, playing as much as I want and seeing how they are. The truth is this month I think the average time played was between two and three hours. I just wasn’t feeling as many of the games as in the past, but there still are some that I’m itching to get back to.
With that said, let’s start talking about the entries.
I’m Kinglink and it’s December, which means it’s time for the final Humble Choice … of 2022. This is the Humble Choice December 2022 Review.
As always we have 8 titles, this month having two major ones to start that I’m thrilled to talk about, and there’s a lot of strong storytelling here, so stay tuned for that. I’ve played each game for an hour on Twitch and now can tell you what I’ve found.
I’m Kinglink and it’s almost turkey day here in America, so it’s time for the Game Pass November 2022 Review.
This one is a bit late but, as you’ll see in the lists of games, I wanted to cover Pentiment and that came out on the 15th. The good news is I have that and many others, so we talk about all of these titles, and even give a hint of what’s coming up, but that’s for later.
Normally I play only the PC games, but give me a moment here, and let me call out Vampire Survivors, I’ve covered it previously on the series, and I remember I said you should buy it even if it’s on Game Pass. It’s 5 dollars on Xbox and I still believe that it’s worth it. It’s a lot of fun, so console gamers, you have the chance, check that game out, I will guarantee you’ll enjoy it, and good luck hunting me down if you don’t.
This month I haven’t played all of these games as much. While I do sit down with these titles for a night, quite a few of them are games I’ve played previously, or stopped for various reasons, we’ll get into the why when applicable, but I have had some great experiences, let’s start with what’s on the screen, perhaps the biggest release of the month.
Kinglink Reviews 