Recent reviews by Cold Hand

Damn, this episode is indeed bad... The constant party shifts make sure you can't get attached to the (boring) characters, the sense of progression that was present in the first one is totally gone (merchants only seem to sell the same equipment everywhere) and the disparate stories are uninteresting and dreadful.

Honestly, I was warned this game was a bad lazy cash-grabber. I didn't believe it, I know now I was wrong. Hopefully, you'll believe or see you soon in the review section.

It breaks my heart to write this, because I'm usually a big fan of Airship Syndicate's productions. But this game still absolutely reeks of MMO. Since it no longer is one, you only get the downsides (instanced dungeons, cosmetics everywhere, huge areas with nothing to do, tedious grinding...) without the upside (massively multiplayer fun). The core mechanic is ok-ish, but in 2025, with so many great games coming out almost every week, "ok" unfortunately doesn't make the cut. I really hope the company didn't sink because of this game, as I'll definitely check out their next one!

Pur hommage au Flashback de 1992, Lunark est un cinematic platformer qui reprend à la lettre (et avec brio) tous les codes du genre : aventure, pixel art agréable, contrôles rigides mais précis, animations splendides... On retrouve même les courtes scènes animées lorsque le héros ramasse un objet ou interagit avec son environnement. Un vrai plaisir nostalgique qui se boucle en 5h lors de son premier run (un peu plus si l'on est un vrai complétioniste)

Attention toutefois : si les checkpoints en jeu sont plutôt généreux, le système de sauvegarde n'est lui pas extrêmement bien pensé en cela qu'il ne permet pas de quitter un niveau en cours de niveau. Certes, ceux-ci ne sont pas longs, mais se rendre compte qu'on a perdu 35 minutes de jeu parce qu'il était l'heure d'aller au boulot, c'est un peu agaçant la première fois.

The master of modern point-and-click strikes once again, offering this time a classic adventure in its essence, yet brilliantly executed in its form. Not only does it faithfully follow the genre’s conventions, but it also plays with timelines, forcing you to resolve paradoxes and alter NPCs’ lives.

While some puzzles may feel a little bit far-fetched, the overall experience is solid and will delight fans of the genre for fifteen hours at least.

Special mention to the now-traditional audio commentary option by Dave Gilbert, once again featured in this game!

Without inspiration, without gameplay, without a relevant message, Wanderstop once again proves that no developer, no matter how talented, is immune to Annapurna Interactive's superhuman ability to release bad games.

Do yourself a favor and (re)launch the incredible Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe instead.

It's difficult to provide a definitive opinion on this game, as its proposition is indeed quite unique: partly (fairly light) tactical relying on a grid-based combat zone and units with specific skills, partly narrative experience, partly deck builder, partly puzzle game...

It's actually these last two points that tend to pull me out of the experience. Given that (almost) each game offers different rules and victory conditions, you are strongly encouraged to regularly modify your deck... and to rely to a lesser extent on luck, since you depend on a random card draw. More than building a powerful deck with clever synergies, as in other TCGs, it's about solving a problem hoping that game will provide you with the right answers.

It's up to you to see if this mix of genres will interest you. I know it's not necessarily my case.

Naive as I was, I hoped the developers would have used this second installment to fix the (many) rookie mistakes from Hercule Poirot: The First Cases, starting with the totally arbitrary and absurd connections we were supposed to find between the different clues.

Unfortunately, it only takes 30 minutes to realize that nothing has changed, and we're forced to brute-force the game right from the prologue, linking both contradictory and identical clues.

Luckily, these games were part of a bundle, otherwise, I would have been furious to have spent my money on this.

Amateur de jeux d'enquête et de réflexion au rythme un peu lent, j'espérais passer un bon moment en compagnie du jeune Hercule. Hélas, après trois (pénibles) heures, force est de constater que le coeur même de ce jeu, le système de "mind map" sous-tendant tout le processus de déduction est une véritable catastrophe qui ruine totalement l'expérience.

En quelques mots, tout échange, observation ou indice factuel collecté par Poirot vient compléter un graph dont il s'agit de relier les sommets pour créer des déductions. Sur le papier, l'idée est intéressante et a d'ailleurs été correctement utilisée dans d'autres jeux. Sauf que dans notre cas présent, les liens sont à ce point arbitraires et rigides que 80% du temps est passé non pas à comprendre le mystère auquel on est confronté, mais à chercher comment le jeu s'attend à ce qu'on lie les indices entre eux. Résultat, on tente trois paire et on laisse le mécanisme d'aide du jeu nous afficher en surbrillance les deux indices que l'on doit relier. Pas franchement intéressant.

If, as I, you've really enjoyed Battlechasers back when it came out, buying this game is a no-brainer : you'll get exactly what you're hoping for and more. Astounding artistic direction, badass characters, interesting tactical(ish) combats, fishing (I mean... why not ?), looting, etc. In addition, if you're a fan of the LoL lore, I've been told there are some fun hints of it here and there. Count roughly 25 hours to finish the main quest and 15 more to clean everything else.

Quick tip if you're used to this type of game : go straight for the highest difficulty. I went for a lower one and ended up being quite OP around 60% of the playthrough.

If I had written this comment after 3 hours of play, I would definitely had recommended to steer away from this game, clunky and unfair at every level. Fortunately, I had the good idea to push my experience a little bit further and consider it with a more open mind... And I won't lie, as soon as you stop trying to make it fit into the all too well known X-Com mold we love and cherish, it's a pleasant game to play. Forget everything you know about the importance of cover, the 25 soldiers roster or the meticulous turn based plans : Chimera squad clearly is a spin off, an experiement, and has to be considered as such if you wanna enjoy it. The main issue actually is the strange reverse difficulty curve, the first third of the game being way harder than the rest...

That being said, you might want to wait for a 30-50% sale if you're a die hard X-Com fan.