The Old City: Leviathan Review

The Old City: Leviathan

Developer: PostMod Softworks

Publisher: PostMod Softworks

You are the character Jonah and you wake up alone. You walk through life talking to Leviathan, looking upon the remains of what was. You don't know what you'll find, but there is always a feeling of foreboding.

Jonah, voiced by Ryan Cooper, is a complicated fellow. We only get to know him when he decides to talk to Leviathan or to himself, and that distinction can get a bit blurry. You learn more about Jonah and the people who use to live in the old city by reading letters left laying around the area. Through Jonah you get a distinct understanding that the world lived through some sort of horrible calamity and Jonah might be the last human alive. As you might have predicted, Jonah isn't going to be the most reliable narrator of The Old City: Leviathan.

The art of The Old City: Leviathan is visually fantastic in a nostalgic, decaying kind of look. The way that lighting streams through the darkness of buildings and caves is so well done that you can see floating bits of dust in the light. That sort of detail is truly appreciated to give the world a more real feeling despite its surreal nature. Then there's the sculptures and buildings and the strange giant animals are all rendered in a way that makes you feel like you've been here before. All these tiny details added to the bigger imagery of The Old City: Leviathan makes the game realer and then emphasizes the surrealism when you walk into it.

The music of The Old City: Leviathan by Atrium Carceri is a mix of what you expect from horror movies, melancholy feelings, and enchanting fairy tales. Like your friend or family member died in a horrible way and you miss them, but they always had a joking attitude towards life and you know that they would want you to tell awful jokes about what happened and who they were like. That's the feeling The Old City: Leviathan music gives in my opinion. You're always alone with your thoughts in this game, so it is more likely that the feeling of horror will weigh on you than any other feelings.

The game play of The Old City: Leviathan is simple enough. You just have to move around and explore. There are no puzzles to solve, there are no traps you get yourself into, and there are no bad guys to beat up. All you're doing is looking around and listening; easy for anyone to play.

You can find The Old City: Leviathan at Steam: $5.99.

I'm not much for horror, and I felt like this game had horror elements, but I'm probably just a pansy. Hope you guys enjoy this game, I give it a 5/5 stars.

The Book of Gray Magic: Part One - Brilliant Shadows Review

Brilliant Shadows

Developed by Ithaqua Labs

Published by Ithaqua Labs

Brilliant Shadows is set in the mythical land of Celeste, a place of fun magic and tragedy written by Christopher Michael Hall. The story focuses on the character Veronica Ashmar (voiced by Mel Gorsha). Veronica is a Necromancer who just graduated from the Mountain School of Magic with her best friend Prudence Celeste (voiced by Olivia Brown) who gradated as a Paladin. At Mountain School there is an event called the Pairing Ritual that bonds you to your perfect partner for life that has the opposite magics of ones self. It was Veronica's plan to tell Prudence how in love she was with her after they got paired, but unfortunately things didn't go as planned.

Veronica Ashmar aka Ash is a woman who is smart, loving, an inventor of magic and a hard core lesbian. Or well, she's only ever loved Prudence. When she gets rejected, she tries to find love else where but getting over someone you've loved since you were ten doesn't go away easily. Despite all that Ash loves her friend as a friend even if she knows she can't love her as a lover.
Prudence Celeste aka Prude is a fiery minded, swear lacking, kick butt warrior, who definitely has a thing for guys. She cares about her friends and hopes to become as great as a King as her mother is. She is ill-prepared for the throne but she is capable of throwing down with anyone that tries to hurt her or her friends.
Hector Warlock aka Hek (voiced by Alex Weber) is an extremely capable mage, strong in battle, a little bit socially inept, and has some anger issues with authority. He's a Necromancer like Ash and is two years older than the girls. After graduating he helped at Mountain School teaching the younger students to hone their skills in Light or Shadow magic. Even though he doesn't understand the people around him very well he still cares in his own way. Especially with his love for Prude, but she helps with what she can with Hek.
Aelfnod (voiced by Daman Mills) is an older man who is quick to learn new tricks, cares deeply for the health of those around him, is wise, and is also very much gay. Back at home he tried to commit suicide when he couldn't learn the magic of his home land, couldn't live up to the role of leader after his father passed, and after his best friend supposedly died. Instead he survived his attempt and found his way to Mountain School and learned he was capable of Paladin magics. He befriends Ash, Prude, Hek, and Belinda through Hector's privet tutoring.
Belinda Vikki aka Bel (voiced by Jane Redd) is also an older woman who get's easily frustrated, isn't very inept with magic, loves her family, and has the biggest crush on Aelfnod. She's an adopted child who was raised in a rich house hold with many other children. Her goal in becoming a Necromancer was to prove to herself that she doesn't need the family money to make a difference in their world. Because of her lack in magical understanding she is also being tutored under Hector.
Luciana (voiced by Amber Leigh) is the Necromancer Head of Mountain School. She is depicted as the level headed one of her pair. She cares deeply for her students, but her limits can be pushed. She is married to Zakaria.
Zakaria (voiced by Marissa Lenti) is the Paladin Head of Mountain School. She is depicted as being the type to act first think later, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have her moments. She also cares deeply for her students and is married to her wife Luciana.

The art work of Brilliant Shadows is split up into two separate kinds of art, the puppets and the expressive digital paintings. The art was done by Sita Duncan and company. The expressive painting parts of the story show more raw emotions, detail, and gives a much better idea of what the characters are doing. The puppetry of the art are the stock photos of the characters in various poses, facial expressions, and costumes. They are what you would normally see in the story; interacting with each other and suggesting movement. Personally I enjoy the expressive digital paintings, Sita and company create such immersive expression that I feel exactly where they are coming from. But having the mix of puppetry and digital paintings isn't jarring and is quite enjoyable.

The music of Brilliant Shadows was composed by Johnathan Johnson and company. I find the soundtrack is most enjoyable and was done well to match the theme of the story. Even though there are other instruments in the soundtrack I find the most prominent instruments in Brilliant Shadows is the violin and the piano. Providing that much desired mythical setting and feel to the story, like you are being serenaded by the fairy folk themselves. Sadly though Ithaqua Labs don't have their soundtrack up on their official YouTube sight, but I did manage to find one person who decided to upload their copy of the soundtrack they got from Steam right here. Depending on copy rights it is possible it won't be there for long.

Brilliant Shadows is mostly the story of Ash's choices. You get three endings; The Good, The Balanced, and The Evil. You get the Balanced or Evil endings when you do things that give you negative points in the game. You are given a set amount of nondescript good points and every bad deed you do takes away from the about of points that you have until you reach the end were you have either all your points, only a part of your points, or all of your points are gone. It's simple and the game takes into account that you might not want to play through the whole game three time in a row to see the different endings. They have a skip option so you can just pick your choices quickly to see the ending you want to see.

You can find Brilliant Shadows on Steam and itch.io for $6.99. Also Ithaqua Labs are always looking for voice actors for their work so if you are one or probably aspiring to be one here is there auditions area.

Over all this game was fun, sad, interesting, and LGBT friendly. I give Brilliant Shadows 5/5 stars. I hope you have fun with the story as much as I did.

Transistor Review

Transistor

Developed by Supergiant Games

Published by Supergiant Games

You play as a singer named Red who was attacked by a powerful group of people who call themselves the Camerata. The love interest is a body guard that died protecting Red and his trace was absorbed into the Transistor. The Transistor is like a sword version of an USB, capable of storing the traces of dead people to use as weapons against this unthinking, uncontrollable army of robots called the Process and the Camerata. Red and the Transistor go on a quest to get Red's voice back and the body guard's body back, it's like a medicine journey story line. Things don't go as you would hope though.

Red is voiced by Ashley Barrett. Red is a spunky, confident, determined, and introverted woman. Becoming a singer was not something Red intentionally planned as she was going to college to become a civic planner. After years of involving herself into the college's art programs and writing, singing, and recording her own songs, Red became a Cloudbank sensation. A sensation that stirred up unintentional controversy with her songs.
 The Transistor is voiced by Logan Cunningham. He does most of the talking since Red lost her voice. Not much is known about the voice of the Transistor. He has no name and information about him is corrupt in the data banks of the Transistor. What is know for sure about the voice of the Transistor is that he wholeheartedly loves Red and he does what he can to keep her safe. He's also a bit sassy at times but hopeful.
The Camerata is comprised of four people. Sybil Reisz, Grant Kendrell, Asher Kendrell, and Royce Bracket.

• Sybil Reisz is the eyes and ears of the Camerata who fell in love with Red and her actions directly instigated the events of the game because of her desire to have closer relations with Red.
• Grant Kendrell is the founder of the Camerata and it was created in hopes of making Cloudbank an exceptionally fantastic city, but the path of good intentions can lead to hell. He is married to the reporter, Asher Kendrell. 
• Asher Kendrell's almost direct contact to the public helped keep news about the Camerata quiet. He also knew just what to say to the public to make them happy. He is married to the administrator, Grant Kendrell. 
• Royce Bracket is an engineer and is the one who created the Process. His job was to build the city as the people of Cloudbank what it to be. Eventually he noticed the pattern of the people and had hoped to make monuments that would stand against the test of time and the wants of the people. It didn't work out and in his disappointment he managed to make the Process.

I appreciate and enjoy the fact that three of the four Camerata members are implied and/or confirmed LGBT, but I also disapprove of this because only the "Villains" of this story are of the LGBT community. If Red was a lesbian with the voice of the Transistor being female then we wouldn't have the problem of vilifying an inherently non-evil trait of humanity that is homosexuality. I know it seems that wasn't or isn't the case in the making of these characters, but the LGBT community is a minority community and when a minority group is villainized that helps validate the animosity created by large hate groups.

The Art of the Transistor is absolutely breathtaking. You see repeated color pallets of blue, gold, red, and white. The stark white of the Process most likely represents how when properly used they are a liberating tool for the public and the contrasting red eyes of the Process represents how much pain they are capable of committing. Then there's Red and the Transistor, gold and blue. Almost like their colors are the rising sun of a particularly dark night. Shining rays of hope to people of Cloudbank. The design, colors, and animation of this game was made with so much love and is fantastic eye candy.

My absolute favorite part of the Transistor was the music. Ms. Ashley Barrett's voice just melts with the music like ice cream in milk. The instrumental's vary between Hawaiian-esk to electric rock to jazz-ish music. It's hard to explain, when you listen to the Transistor's sound track it feels like you're being surrounded by a living, benevolent, non-human entity that just want's you to feel the full range of your emotions and see the world in a new light. I truly enjoy this music and I hope everyone else will too.

The game play of Transistor is a live action, strategic, and combative type of game. You get special powers from the traces of people that go into the Transistor called Functions. You can install these Functions into the Transistor and you can have four main powers to destroy your enemy with, then you have two blocks underneath each of your main attacks to enhance them to do double the normal damage. With two extra blocks on each side that unleash passive powers that allow you even more possibilities of combat. Then there are the Limiters that make the game more difficult. They are optional but if you do decided to use them they give you extra experience points for your difficulty level. I at first didn't know what the Limiters were for and I accidentally kept making the game much harder for myself with each new Limiter I added, but I leveled up phenomenally quicker before I realized what I was doing to myself and took out all of my Limiters. It's a fun mechanic.

 You can mainly find the Transistor on Steam: $20, GOG.com: $20, and the Play Station Store: $20. If you want you can wait until there's a sale for this game but if you don't wait I say the 20 bucks are worth it. The story, characters, game play, and environmental design come together wonderfully making this a solid game.

I give this game a 4/5 stars. I hope you all enjoy this game as much as I have. Also you'll need some tissues for the end of the game if you're a weeper like me.

Stellaris Review

Stellaris

Developed by Paradox Development Studio

Published by Paradox Interactive

Author's note: I have bought all the current DLC's for this game so I'll be talking about Stellaris like the DLC's come with the game naturally.

Stellaris is a space faring strategy game. You can be anything you want; ancient robots, normal humans, some sort of space squid, a space hobbit or even a dino bird. Then you get to choose what type of morales your space faring society will value; dictatorship, peaceful, secluded, or politically inclined. There is no wrong way to play this game as there are multiple ways to win at Stellaris. At first, if you are unfamiliar with strategy games, you will be a bit overwhelmed with all the different possibilities, choices, and buttons Stellaris provides for you. Thankfully you can have a little robot advisor to help you with figuring out certain mechanics in the game and never feel ashamed about starting the game over. Repeatedly.

The music of Stellaris is quite expansive. There are over 20 songs on the game's playlist and are nice to listen to. All of the songs come off of as techno and space-like but they each have their own tone. One song, To the Ends of the Galaxy, sounds excited and impatient. Like a child who's excited to visit the waterpark and is unaware of any possible dangers. Another song, Luminescence, sounds like a tempting siren luring you two what you would think would be something fantastic but only brings your doom. Having good variety like this means you're never really bored of the music you're listening to, but you always have the option to pause the music if you want.

The artwork of Stellaris is limited but also fascinating. You can tell that the alien designs were thoroughly thought through and are interesting to look at. Then what's most interesting is the way space looks in the game. It looks absolutely stunning with black holes, dwarf stars, planets and ancient space stations. Giving you that, the-universe-is-much-larger-than-your-punny-life-problems, feeling and it is awesome.

Stellaris is a space strategy game. You want to try and get as much space as possible, don't try to mine everything that's in your territory or you'll have nothing for your mandatory space assignments. Then you have to worry about your galactic neighbors and figure out who you want to be friends with, who you'll barricade out of your borders, and who has the best stuff to trade things for. You've got to make sure your army is self sufficient and can defend itself and your planets. Have to make sure your not starving your people and that they are happy and don't want to revolt. The list is endless really. It also has multiplayer so you can have this kind of fun with everyone who has this game.

 You can buy this game on Steam: $40.

I give this game a 5/5 stars. Great for those strategic people and for those who have nothing better to do and this will be great for killing time.

Mandagon Review

Mandagon

Created by Blind Sky Studios

Published by Blind Sky Studios

Mandagon is a simple platformer game based on the Tibetan philosophy and Buddhism. You play as a square little totem who is trying to open a giant red door as you are trapped inside this one level. I, unfortunately, cannot talk about Mandagon without revealing its spoilers. If this information so far that I have given you is enough then I hope you enjoy the game. The rest of you have been warned about the spoilers ahead.

The totem you play as in the Mandagon was once a man who gave his life up for his daughter. The totem's daughter was dying of some kind of lung disease, Mandagon doesn't really specify what type of lung disease, and the totem decided to die in the place of his daughter. Now that you are in the afterlife you see plenty of symbolism for lungs and large murals depicting the replacement of bad lungs with good lungs. As the totem you eventually also find a mummified man sitting cross legged between an image of Buddha and a Wrathful deity. I theroise that mummified man was who the totem once was before asking the gods to help spare his daughter's life.

Mandagon's music is very calming. Richard Jackson, the music, SFX, and sound design guy, did a beautiful job of making the music both ancient sounding yet still to modern tastes. The music has a low thrumming background, then there's the light strumming of the shakuhachi and the occasional light hit of a gong. There are obviously more sounds to it than the examples I have provided but overall the music is amazingly relaxing. If you want to know more about the sound design and music of Mandagon Richard Jackson has written a blog about his work and you can go here if you want.

The artwork of Mandagon is a simple type of elegant. It gives an impression that the artist, Tom Kitchen, decided to use the mosaic method with paint. This 2D game has decaying homes, overgrown shrubbery, old statues, and large bodies of water. Visually, playing Mandagon is like walking through a snow covered forest by yourself. It's pleasant, a bit isolating, but refreshing.

Mandagon game play is simple enough. Collect six tablets, place them inside six stone blocks and open the giant red door so you can go speak to Yama.

You can get this game on Steam for free or you can get this game as an app for $2. I have not found anyplace else that you can get Mandagon at.

Overall I give Mandagon 5/5 stars. My favorite part of the game were the birds and I hope you enjoy this game if you get it. I also wrote down all the spoken works Mandagon has right here if you want to see it. 

Contrast Review

Contrast

Created by Compulsion Games

Published by Focus Home Interactive

You play through Dawn. A silent woman with an amazing power to faze in and out of the shadows. You are best friends with Protagonist, Didi, and you help her out with her family problems using your shadow powers.

There is very little known about the character you play as. Dawn has no speaking roll so you have to get what characteristic you can from her by Dawn's interactions with Didi and with the snippets of information you collect over the course of the game. If I told you what I know about Dawn I would be telling you spoilers. What I little I can tell you is that Dawn cares about Didi and that it's no accident that Dawn decided to become friends with this little girl.

Didi is a spunky little brat who loves her family very much. Despite being nine years old she gets herself into a lot of trouble that Dawn constantly has to help fix. If her parents are in a pinch then this girl with her technical wizardry can fix any electronic problem, as well as lockpick some doors.

Johnny, Didi's father, is a bit of a scumbag. Johnny dearly loves Didi and he loves Kat, but this man makes friends with the worst people. Johnny makes deals with thugs, gang members, and the like. Then there's his dark past that he'll never escape from that has always hurt his family in the end.

Kat is a hard working singer who tries to take good care of her daughter, but can't seen to be able to afford a babysitter in the 1920's apparently. She has aspirations to become a singing sensation in the world of Contrast but her singing job is barely enough to keep the apartment rent paid. She is so use to working and raising a child alone, despite how difficult it is for her.
Vicenzo is a hard working magician. Nothing gets in the way of his work and he loves it that way. Puzzles and illusions are his bread and butter and nothing brings him more joy than the looks on peoples faces when he performs a new magic trick.

The artwork of Contrast is lovely. The world is like a romanticized version of 1930's Los Angeles. Everything is so grand and colorful in the way when you look through an old, sepia photo. Making the light that you find in the game even more important as it reveals brighter colors. The design of the characters aren't bad either. Both Didi and Dawn wear striking bright colors, like red, making them stand out from the background. The creators of Contrast cheated a little bit with the design of the other characters as everyone else are nothing more than shadows. I can't complain too much about the shadow people though as they are important to the game play, plus it allowed artist to focus on the background art to make it more visually striking and interesting to look at.

The music in Contrast is absolutely amazing. The makers of the soundtrack for Contrast perfectly captured the essence of 1920-1930's swing music. Their one singer, Laura Ellis, just sells it. Her voice has that beautiful, husky, quality to it that melds perfectly with the drums, cello, piano, and sax. There is so much energy in this music, even when it's calm and collected sounding, the music of Contrast gives you this buzz that makes you want to listen to it on repeat for days on end.

Contrast's gameplay is the coolest thing about this game. At its core Contrast is a platformer game in third-person view. So you typically just jump from one platform to another but with Dawn's ability to turn into a shadow person she can also walk on shadows. Imagine, if you will, a normal bike. It's nothing special, but shine a light in front of it to show the bike's shadow, you could turn into a shadow person and ride the giant, shadow bike pedal up to a terrace. It's amazing when you actually see it.

You can buy this game on Steam: $10, Playstation Store: $10, and Xbox Live: $10. Reasonable prices.

I give this game 5/5 stars. I warn you, however, the video game is a bit glitchy and despite all the good things I've listed those glitches might ruin it for some people.

Thomas Was Alone Review

Thomas Was Alone

Created by Mike Bithell

Published by Curve Digital

Thomas Was Alone is a game about an AI named Thomas who wants to escape the computer he's trapped in. As Thomas makes his escape he manages to make some friends along the way. By working together all the AI overcome many challenging platformer levels until they reach their end.

All of the characters in this game are absolutely charming. Even the AI's who are suppose to be assholes are charming. 

• First there is Thomas, the first AI that we meet who upon his creation starts noting everything he sees which in turn helps you notice more about the game as well. He's a confused little block of red but he loves the friends that he makes and has such an upbeat spirit.
• Chris is the second AI that we meet and his attitude is like a sour puss gnawing on a warhead candy. This orange little square doesn't want help and he never asks for help and he thinks he can do things fine on his own. Eventually he warms up to everyone, especially to a certain someone.
• Thirdly there's John, a tall, yellow rectangle who is quite a peacock. He revels in being the center of attention and tries to show off his amazing jumping skills as much as possible. John is also one of the most loyal characters in this game.
• Next we meet Claire the first female shown to us. She's a large, blue square who can't jump or move on land very well and she's very self conscious about this. Once Claire does some self discovery she become quite the hero and starts being more open with her comrades. Trying her best to protect her friends any way she can.
• Then you meet Laura. This poor AI has the lowest of self esteem one could have. She's a wide, thin, pink rectangle who can barely jump and has been used by many AI in the past and then abandoned. She doesn't believe these other AI would actually care about her but she learns to love herself and the new friends she's made.
• James likes to consider himself the weird one. On account that he has an inverted gravity and that he's green. James would love to make friends but is uncomfortable around other people mainly because he is uncomfortable with himself. Thomas helps James a lot with his comfort levels.
• Lastly we meet Sarah, she's a tiny, purple rectangle and a bit of a manipulator. Sarah is on her own personal quest when she met up with Thomas. She misses her old friends and is willing to do anything to finish her quest. Unfortunately life doesn't go that well for her.

The artwork and design of Thomas Was Alone is very minimalistic but in all the best ways. The most striking colors you see are from the AI with muted colored backgrounds and the platformes are black. Since this game is about abstract compute AI and the computer world that the AI are trapped in, they had to hold back on the colors and put more effort into the design of the world. What the designers did for this game is absolutely beautiful. The way the light trickles through the game, casting shadows on and around the characters gives this world a 3D effect. The way the platformes are shaped in interesting squares and rectangles in various ways is never boring to the eyes. I love how the platforms that move, move with the rhythm of the music. the design and artwork mesh so well together it's almost peaceful.

Speaking of peaceful, the music is very lovely. A lot of the music is electronic as one would expect from a game about AI's trying to escape a computer but it's not harsh or over dramatic. The electronic music is soft and cozy sounding. Lulling you into a sense of security letting you better understand the characters you play as, through the music you hear from the background. I also recommend getting the soundtrack from the game all together, Thomas Was Alone's soundtrack is one of those soundtracks that is great to listen to when you need to calm down, relax, or get over something stressful you recently went through.

The game play of Thomas Was Alone is very simple. It's a platformer game. You use each of the AI's special abilities to place everyone in their appropriate portals so you can move on to the next level. Some of the levels can be a bit challenging but it's not over the top challenging. This is a perfect game for casuals to play and for hardcore gamers who are needing a game to relax to after playing Dark Souls or Cuphead.

You can get Thomas Was Alone from Steam for $10, from the Playstation Store for $10, and for you Xbox One for $10. Just to name a few places as to where to can get this game.

I give this game a 5/5 stars. Thomas Was Alone is a chill game that has a story to tell. I highly recommend this game.