Indika throws a lot of cool things at the wall, but too little of it sticks, creating a mess of elements which work in a proof-of-concept but fail in a full game. While the narrative and storytelling are capable of moments of intrigue and even greatness, the story and game as a whole are thematic skeletons where nothing substantial ever came to be. It succeeded in pulling me in, but didn’t do a great job of keeping me there. That said, there were enough exceptional elements that I am eager to see what Odd Meter/11-bit studios do next.

The undeniably-aged gameplay keeps The Last of Us Part I Remaster from being among the best around, but there are elements of pacing, immersion, and narrative which are perhaps without peer, and that makes this title a worthwhile visit for any fan of post-apocalyptic survival horror.

‘I describe the original Alan Wake as “an early-years Stephen King novel married to an extended cut of Twin Peaks” and feel that does a pretty solid job of capturing the aesthetic. Alan Wake 2 is more original, carving its own path while retaining and respecting that foundation, creating a next-level survival horror narrative that strikes a remarkably well-balanced note between action and story.’

Sagebrush opens with headlights crossing a desert. There’s a brief monologue wherein a woman recounts meeting someone named Amy, who promised inner peace through the teachings of a man named James. Not the disciple, but an actual flesh-and-blood figure who had a church out in the wilderness. Shortly thereafter, the car pulls up outside of the Black Sage Ranch, an abandoned compound somewhere in the American Southwest where the gates are chained and the windows are dark.

‘Bendy and the Dark Revival is an uneven game that opts for being scary and interesting over challenging or especially fun. This is a game about the experience and on that front it delivers, it’s just tragic that the solid story and rich world get mired in bad mechanics.’