Recent reviews by VideoWave

This is easily the most engaging game I've ever played.
On the surface Blue Prince is a challenge, a simple quest, but before going in it's easy to feel that the rabbit hole goes deeper. How much deeper? Good question! I have fully completed the game and I'm still wondering if I did.
At first glance it may seem that a "Roguelite puzzle game" is a recipe for disaster; the developers had to account for the player stumbling into random codes, passwords and keys without a hint of where to use them, but somehow, against all odds, nearly all of the questions have a satisfying answer. A game like Animal Well or Outer Wilds would have you look for the door, then the key and congrats! You've solved the level. Blue Prince incorporates this aspect of "Metroidbrainias" by having you make assumptions for about ALL of the puzzles. I won't lie and say this is a flawless cornerstone of its design, it can get especially frustrating when you come across a red herring that is really hard to write out, but when the door unlocks, the safe opens and all the pieces FINALLY fit together, the pure bliss and satisfaction is unmatched by any other game.
It certainly helps that most of the puzzles are designed really well and are incredibly intuitive, to the point where the typical "Catch" that's essential to any puzzle game is expressed in a suprisingly complex number of ways for an experience with such an open approach.
As much as I love this game though I feel like some flaws are pretty evident. For example, this game can at times be a NIGHTMARE if you're not a native english speaker like me. It's a game deeply rooted in the English Language, and as such can't be translated without encroaching into the delicate design of its gameplay, but that makes it significantly less accessible and even still it can be quite mean to non fluent english speakers at times.
Alongside this, I also feel like the non linear nature of the game is abandoned once you start peeling back the layers of the estate. The reason why a lot of the puzzles work is because they require little knowledge background, are almost always self contained and only typically require you to find around 60 to 80% of the clues regarding it. In the post game this is occasionally not the case: there seems to be a decently clear order to the progress and a lot of the time I found myself not only trying to analyze leads that I wasn't aware I was missing crucial information for, but also commonly finding hints for puzzles I had already solved. Does that mean that all the bonus content is flawed? Absolutely not, it just requires a deeper feel for what you may be able to do.
Lastly I also want to express a smidge of disappointment towards the VERY few puzzles that I wasn't a fan of, particularly there were a few that require you to wait for a specific time or look for a ridiculously hidden clue which are frustrating to experiment with and honestly a little underwhelming, but once again, these are so sparse that I consider them to be an exception from the norm.
On the narrative side of things this game also knocks it out of the park, mostly due to how it successfully ties gameplay to story. When you're 53 pages into a notebook that to anyone who lacks context might make you look insane, any story development feels really personal and the game knows that. It rewards attention with compelling character development: you know what this letter is talking about if you've read all the others. It also explores really good themes like family values, biased history and motherhood .

If someone asked me why games are an art form with its own unique strengths and weaknesses, Blue Prince would be one of my first examples.
If you want a secret that takes a hundred hours to chip at, you're going to have a great time.

Cute little game with some funny meta puzzles. It's a little short though, I can definitely see this concept having a lot more potential.

It's not an experience I'd necessarily call "fun" but it is still appealing and there is still a sense of accomplishment in the gameplay loop. Definitely an interesting game that's quite unique.

Fun bit of side content that keeps you on your toes and has a nice gameplay loop and a cool twist. Not very replayable, but it's still quite fun.

While not as inspired as the main campaign, this is still a pretty solid expansion. My main complaint is that the map feels a little too empty; I get you're expected to rush through it with the car, but I never had a big sense of discovery like in the Slums or Old Town. Not to mention the cars themselves are a little janky, uncooperative and require CONSTANT maintenance, to me they feel more like an obstacle you have to strategize around rather than something you can use to your advantadge.
All things considered though, this is still Dying Light and most importantly it still FEELS like Dying Light, so I can't complain much more.

Repetitive, short and unbalanced. You're given very little options in combat, there's barely any platforming and the enemies are either way too weak or way too strong, almost never striking a nice balance.
This expansion pales in comparison to the main campaign or any other dlc for that matter.

Dying Light excels in nearly everything it attempts to do. Combat, platforming, narrative... Every corner of this game is excellent to say the least. I especially like how many options you're given to handle encounters, even though it only gently dips into the immersive sim genre.
It's a classic that holds up incredibly to this very day and has a surprisingly large amount of content, even without any dlc. If you think you'd like cutting, smashing or blowing up zombies into pieces this is about as fun as it gets.

At first I found it weird how the game makes you play every level like 4 times, but then I realized that on repeat runthroughs you start noticing faster routes and fun skips, so the game stays fresh even though you're essentially just running through the same stage over and over again. I will say though, Amy and Big's levels are exceptionally boring and don't feel very rewarding. Other than that, this is a classic and mostly still holds up today.

A few of the puzzles were a little convoluted and unintuitive but that didn't make it unenjoyable.

Short and relaxing one hour puzzler. Wasn't mind blowing but it kept me entertained.