Blacksun388

Disco Elysium The Good, the Bad, and the Funky This game sneaked in at the tail end of 2019 and I am so glad that it did. Disco Elysium is a darkly hilarious RPG/Point-and-Click Adventure written by Estonian novelist Robert Kurvitz that mixes a story of drugs, sex, disco, dystopia, and politics into a well thought out and in-depth roleplaying mechanic. You are... Well, you don't really know. Some ugly mug who woke up next to a giant empty bottle of booze in your underwear in a dingy apartment. After stumbling about for a good while and regaining your faculties you piece together that you're a police detective who was in the area investigating a murder. From there the game opens up into its main storytelling mechanics. How you choose to investigate the murder (or even IF you choose to investigate it) are completely up to the player's discretion. You can be a hardboiled no-nonsense authoritarian, a judicious and fair investigator, an intimidating renegade cop, a smooth talking manipulator, sly and wily seducer, or any other type of person justified in the game's 24 different skills in the skill tree. All the while these skills will constantly be tested and rolled against like a traditional RPG with dice rolling mechanics. Your individual path to success or failure will depend on what mix of skills, attributes, and equipment you choose. The roleplaying mechanic is a balancing act of attributes and skills and there is no real preference given to what sort of character you can make. The game's two "health meters" are your health and your morale. Getting too high or two low in either of these can lead to dire consequences. Failure in this game can be a common occurrence depending on the situation. If you have too high a psyche then you might drive people away with how high and mighty you are. Too low a psyche and you become despairing, unstable, and belligerent. Being a physical weakling means you'll be given a heart attack if hit by a stiff wind while being too mighty makes you punch a guy so hard that you knock him out and can't talk to him anymore. For instance: My first detective was an intellectual titan but a physical weakling and I paid for it 10 minutes into the game by taking a tiny amount of damage and suffering a fatal heart attack in the process. Not my finest hour in gaming by any means next to trying to rig a nuke in Fallout 2 and making it explode in my face. But don't take failure so hard. The main strength of the storytelling in Disco Elysium is that there is no clear way to a golden ending. Sometimes being TOO good at a skill can work to your detriment. Sometimes the outcome for failing a skill check can actually be BETTER than succeeding. Sometimes even a character who is experienced in a skill or feat can still fail a check spectacularly and cause the story to take an unexpected turn. However the story turns out you will assuredly get a chuckle out of the cynical and cheesy dialogue as your multiple inner monologues (all 24 skills, the fractured parts of your psyche, and different parts of your body have distinct voices) all vie for your attention and argue over each other like spoiled children after their father's love. All the voices are a council inside your head trying to drive you in different directions at once. How you choose to organize them, listen to them, or ignore them (because their advice can sometimes lead to a bad decision) can be the key to cracking the game's main mystery and salvaging what is left of your spotted and sordid career. Disco Elysium is a dialogue heavy and story driven game that is a must have for people who enjoy RPGs. Highly recommended. It was released for PC on October 15, 2019. A PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release is planned for 2020.

Infinity Train (originally a cartoon network pilot in 2016 but now a full series released in 2019) is a fantastic Cartoon Network original that captures the style of other cartoon hits from the network and wraps them around an intriguing and fun mystery. The plot is about a teenage girl named Tulip who runs away from home after her parent's divorce gets in the way of her going to a video game design camp in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In her attempt to leg it on her own through the wilderness to get there she comes across a mysterious train station at which a train stops in front of her that conveniently is going to where the camp is. She steps aboard and is swept away into the eponymous train where each car contains a new universe, new friends to meet, and new dangers and challenges to overcome. She also gets a mysterious glowing number on her hand that counts down to some unknown end as she moves from car to car. Together with her robot companion 1:1 and a brave and noble Corgi named Atticus she must solve the mysteries behind the Infinity Train and try to get herself back home. This is a fantastic concept for a series as the system of having a new universe for every car the heroes travel through allows for the creators to flex their creative muscles to make a unique challenge or puzzle for every episode. Also the characters and their development over the series is strong especially considering the first season is a rather scant 10 episodes long. However Tulip herself is notable as a character because she has to deal with some issues that many other children's shows are reluctant to touch on. Her parents are divorced and it puts strain on her relationship with both of them as well as interferes with her life, her father struggles with depression, and her very name was inspired by a rather unfortunate event (Not going to spoil what), and it affects her in a very believable way for a 13 year old. She is also rather tomboyish preferring video games, science, coding, hoodies, and a headstrong attitude over more traditionally feminine pursuits and appearance. Next to her is the noble and adorable talking Corgi Atticus and the bipolar robot 1:1 (who splits into two distinct personalities: The optimistic and playful Glad 1 and the more downbeat and pessimistic Sad 1) who provide more comedic moments to the show but are also useful and loyal companions in her travels. Overall Infinity Train is a fantastic if sadly short series that is definitely worth the watch. The concept is really intriguing and creative, the characters have strong writing, and the show itself promises to deliver more after it's first season test run on CN. The episodes are freely available to watch on the Cartoon Network website and I highly suggest giving it a go.

This game is Castlevania in every sense short of the name. Koji Igarashi's style of blending 2-D and 3-D elements, highly detailed setpieces, creative enemies, challenging combat and bosses, and a high level of customization for your hero, Meriam, makes this a game absolutely shine. There are a few gripes with minor bugs and playing on mouse and keyboard is a nightmare so definitely go for controller if you can. Overall a fantastic game that brings back that old metroidvania magic.