Recent reviews by Dr. Constitution

Everyone's heard of CK2 by now, surely? Yes, you have. Don't lie to me.

Really..?

Oh ok then. Crusader Kings 2 is arguably the best game PDS has ever put out. Think the Sims, but instead of designing a character you pick a guy from Medieval history like Richard the Lionheart or King Wenceslas (yes, from the Christmas Carol. Real dude. Real feast). There is a DLC that lets you replace a character with one designed by you and you can play that but I'm getting sidetracked.

Right, the Sims. So instead of a house you design you instead have... A ledger of character pages. And a map. Paradox's main influences include board games, ok? They're even turning this one into a board game, coming soon (TM). But I digress again. Your character has traits and a family and friends and rivals and stuff (the Sims comparison is fair, OK?) and some sort of title. Like king or duke or count of somewhere (again DLCs add options if you want) and you make decisions for your character like who your kids should marry, whether to invade your neighbour, or how to assassinate your annoying brother.

Unlike PDS's flagship series Europa Universalis, you're not trying to turn the entire map your country's colour (although that is an option) because you are leading a *Dynasty*, rather than a nation. You - through your decisions - are trying to put your House in charge like the Capetians or the Hapsburgs (but hopefully with less incest, yeah?) and as you might see from my play time it's a ton of fun and everything I described above and more is well actualised. Learning curve's a bit steep at first but video tutorials are easy enough to find online and it's generally a good idea to run your first game in Ireland to learn the ropes.

And despite the 2012 release date, it's really a very fresh game and has been continually developed and expanded for the past six years since release, each new main DLC adding free (free!) features to the base game in addition to the ones locked behind the expansion. There's a ton to do and every game pans out differently. Every one of those hundreds of hours well-spent.

“Indie Puzzle-Platformer” isn’t the most enticing of terms for a PC gamer. It seems like such an accessible kind of game that every bedroom dev and their mother has made one, but that’s only because of games like Limbo. Probably preaching to the choir here but on the assumption that you’ve never heard of this game, I’ll tell you why it’s great.

The mechanics are the standard 2-D side scrolling fare, except your movement speed and jump height feel a little less than other games of the genre. But that really plays into the main selling point of the game, which is the atmosphere. The entire game is in a bleak, high-contrast, black and white and beside some beautiful ambient sounds one might almost call music, the main sounds you’ll here are the ones made by interacting with the environment: Creaking wood or trudging footsteps – sounds normally minimised – are amplified to contribute an atmosphere of I guess “loneliness”. I’m unashamedly in love with this game’s sound design.

Limbo’s release rightly sparked up the “games as art” debate when it was released, and if you experience it for a moment you’ll see why. All the above and more contribute to make you feel things: more than a usual sense of accomplishment or kick of adrenalin (although it has those too). It draws you in and makes you feel lost and powerless, but with a sense of hope spurred on by every small victory over the environment.

Limbo is after all a game about a journey. Where from or to is not readily explained and it doesn’t really matter because the getting there is the experience. Every obstacle you overcome is simple but satisfying because it brings you closer to your goal, even though you have no idea when or where that is. And the journey never gets boring. The moment you get bored of the trudging moving of boxes on foot, the game shakes things up by rotating the screen or giving you a brain slug (no, really).

If you have no patience for trial-and-error gameplay then maybe the puzzles might irritate you a bit. The game will unfairly kill you sometimes, but pick you up right before your death with the knowledge of the oncoming buzzsaw. Also, if you’re expecting an especially long game you’ll be pretty disappointed (unless you SUCK at puzzles). Oh and if you don’t have a wired 360 controller you might fall afoul of imprecise digital keyboard controls.

Negatives done? OK, roundup: Limbo is beautiful, atmospheric and (for me) the right level of challenging. I’d hesitate to call it perfect except that I can’t think of anything I’d change, but then I’m not a developer.

Pretty much unplayable with the random crashes and no autosaves.