Game Review: White Night (Switch)

White Night is an effective psychological horror game by French indie developer OSome Studio. Set in the thirties somewhere outside of Boston, the game follows a man who gets into a car accident and stumbles into a nearby creepy mansion for help. Terror ensues!

Everything about this game stands out: the stark black-and-white visuals, the unnerving score, and the gameplay that mainly involves lighting matches and solving puzzles. The unnamed and injured main character must advance through various unlit rooms and corridors to find a way to call for assistance. Players can only carry a limited number of matches, and being in the pitch dark of the mansion for too long results in a game over screen...or worse. For you see, specters haunt the halls...

The mansion has four levels: the main floor, the upstairs, the attic, and the cellar. As soon as I saw the door leading down, I was like "NOPE!" But, naturally--and this is hardly a spoiler--the underground portions of the mansion serve as the final stage, the death icing on the cake of fear, as it were. Before getting there, however, it's a slow creep through once-glorious rooms, serial killer artwork, and recently unearthed tombs. Party time!

White Night has been described as Resident Evil without the combat, which it is. And it's seductive, with a fragmented story scattered throughout the mansion's rooms that compel players to discover ever more about the ghosts lurking...or about the living, clearly psychotic person who might be in there with you as you explore. The puzzles are fairly simple, such as finding keys to unlock rooms, or following a cord to plug in a lamp that will eliminate a spirit blocking the path. The soundtrack, which often consists of just one insistent, loud noise--such as a window banging open and shut, or eerie wind chimes--heightens the tension.

And there's a thematic weight to the character's exploration, underscored by each found diary entry, newspaper clipping, and letter. The mansion is home to a disturbed, conflicted family whose members have different ideas about power, wealth, responsibility, status, and love. Everything comes full circle in the end, with a conclusion that might be predictable to horror genre fans, but is nonetheless beautiful, tragic, and infuriating. You know, French.

TL; DR: Scary! Amazing! Highly recommended for horror fans!

---

This post brought to you by muesli!

Game Review: Transcripted (Switch)

Transcripted is a fun shooter/match three combination game with a microbiology premise. Players assume the role of an overworked lab tech tasked with piloting a nanoprobe to destroy pathogens. These pesky microscopic enemies evolve to counter your weapon, and so you too must learn and grow!

The gameplay is straightforward and the controls are relatively easy to master. The nanoprobe can move all over the screen, and starts out with basic pew-pew guns and a shield. The guns are to destroy murderous pathogens that interfere with your main work: matching three color cubes within the ever-moving DNA strand, to disrupt the growth of the unknown virus. The match three portion consists of the probe destroying pathogens, which usually releases a cube, which players then haul in and shoot out at the chain. Thankfully, the probe becomes invisible to its enemies when carrying a cube.

At higher levels, specific individual cubes are highlighted as being priority for elimination, earning more research points that go toward buying new skills for the probe, like more speed, or a death laser. Transcripted lets players replay levels to improve their previous scores and earn more points. These upgrades are vital, because the probe is S-L-O-W. It lumbers around like my toddler at five in the morning, a tiny, terrible, hilariously nonthreatening force of nature. Once you get some juice in there, though, we are in business!

Below is a sample of the action:

The nanoprobe (left arrow) should shoot one blue cube at the highlighted spot (right arrow) to remove three blues from the chain and score more sweet research points.

As the image shows, the visuals in Transcripted are clean despite all the action. The backgrounds are typically very muted and allow the moving bits to shine. The music is similarly terrific, soothing and energizing at the same time. And the levels really build up the challenge factor, demanding quick reflexes and some light tactics.

However, the banter between Adam the tech and the lab AI is annoying, and the bad guy's identity is obvious from the start. I respect the storytelling, but every character is just grumpy and snarky. Maybe too realistic? I'm flashing back to my cubicle and our outdated lab, the horror, the horror...

Minor bellyaching aside, this game is so engaging that I would recommend it without hesitation. Pew! Pew! Lasers! Science!

TL;DR: Super fun! Highly recommended!

---

This post brought to you by Fragrant Husband's delicious leftover lamb!

Game Review: Jotun: Valhalla Edition (Switch)

Jotun: Valhalla Edition, developed by Thunder Lotus Games, is a delightful action game. Players take on the role of a Viking traversing the underworld on a mission to impress the gods. Along the way, she gains new skills and reveals her backstory, and concludes her journey with an appropriately epic showdown.

"Epic" is the perfect word for Jotun's hand-drawn visuals. The Viking, Thora, is consistently dwarfed by the enormous environs of the Norse afterlife. At certain points, the game pauses to slowly zoom in on something enormous and significant in the background, which would surely delight Norse mythology nerds. It's like playing through a comic book.

Thora can only succeed by finding runes to unleash and then defeat the Jotun, the giants of mythology. The levels to be explored are appropriately wild: one has Thora climbing Yggdrasil while a giant hawk swoops at her; another is the lava stage, with rock creatures throwing boulders that can then be sent against them or used to make bridges; and there are a couple of ice areas where Thora must be quick on her feet or else fail. There's also some easy puzzle solving involved, always a plus!

I failed to impress the gods multiple times. The controls and gameplay are straightforward, but battles reward the swift. There's a dedicated button for Thora's new skills, but players must very quickly decide which to use, scroll to it, and then deploy it. She also has basic moves like axe swings and jumping. Boss battles are incredibly fun because the Jotuns are HUGE and Thora is comically tiny in comparison, yet keeps earnestly hacking away.

The protagonist is a strength of the game. Voiced by an Icelander with the most Icelandic name ever, Thora is stoic, determined, and prime Valkyrie material. Through her intense voiceovers, we learn that her ignoble death is why she must seize her second chance to enter Valhalla. There's another narrator who guides Thora, but mostly he just kept telling me, "You have failed to impress the gods!" All dialogue is in Icelandic, further enhancing the Norse-ness of the enterprise. The narration works well with the very cinematic soundtrack, although the volume on the voices is a tad on the low side.

Overall, Jotun delivers on every gaming element, with its stunning visuals, excellent sound, clean gameplay, myth-inspired dungeons, solid heroine, and best of all, its slew of utterly fantastic and challenging Jotuns. The Valhalla Edition on the Switch lets Thora just wail on the bosses without the exploration and puzzle-solving, but be warned: the Jotuns got powered up, too. All the better to challenge you, my dears!

TL;DR: SO FUN! Highly recommended.

---

This post brought to you by hamburger!

Game Review: The First Tree (Switch)

The First Tree is a short and sometimes irritating game. Ostensibly the story of a fox, it devolves into a maudlin narrative with terrible voice acting, and is barely saved by the gameplay, visuals, and music. I for one am outraged on behalf of the fox who deserves the only starring role in this game.

The First Tree begins in a bleak, white landscape. Players become a mother fox, easily the most gorgeous element in the game. Controls are straightforward, and a small tutorial in the form of a diagram helps demonstrate the fox's unique moves. I set out to explore, but alas, this triggered the story.

It turns out that the fox is but a dream!, an allegory for a man, Joseph, who's suffered a recent loss. Her search for her cubs represents Joseph's flailing for...meaning, I guess? The sparse landscape is littered with items from his past, and those with particular significance must be dug up by the poor fox so that Joseph can ramble about his life. The dialogue is clumsy, heavy-handed, and far less interesting than if the fox were narrating her own adventures.

That said, the gameplay does have a couple of fun features. The fox can double jump to reach high places, and more inaccessible areas need special butterflies as helpers. There are easy puzzles to solve (I love easy puzzles!). One stage in particular is good: the space/sky area, where Joseph's wife Rachel talks about her own past struggles, spurred on by the fox chasing an ephemeral stag across the heavens. Rachel talks less than Joseph, so the ratio of sad human to fox action is excellent.

The music by Josh Kramer is terrific: very soothing piano and strings, the kind you can listen to on repeat. It wouldn't be out of place in an epic adventure, and is a perfect accompaniment to our little fox as she advances through various environs looking for her young. Here's the entire track on Youtube.

Another positive is the reveal of the first tree and its connection to all those lights that the fox collects on her journey. It's unexpected and moving, so kudos to indie developer David Wehle for a strong finish.

Overall, The First Tree is a quick, diverting game, especially when the unseen protagonist is silent. I would play another Wehle game, sure! I'd even help edit his script!

TL;DR: Brief, easy on the eyes and ears, just needs script trim and voice coaching.

---

This post brought to you by WHERE DID JULY GO?!?!?!