Patient Gamers
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A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
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founded 2 years ago
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Background
I’ve always had a soft spot for adventure games, going all the way back to the DOS era. The depth of their stories and characters always resonated with me more than the often bare-bones narratives found in many contemporary games. The golden age of LucasArts adventures in the '90s produced a string of classics that still stick with me today. While the 2000s were something of a fallow period for the genre, the 2010s brought about a revival, largely driven by indie studios. This resurgence also marked a split in the genre between traditional puzzle-heavy games and more narrative-driven experiences, popularized by Telltale’s The Walking Dead.
Life is Strange 2 falls firmly into the latter camp, aligning more with the narrative style of Telltale’s work. I've played through most of the Life is Strange series up to True Colors, but I had put off playing Life is Strange 2 until recently. The premise never grabbed me as much as the others, and early online discourse suggested it wasn’t as strong as the rest of the series.
Production
As a narrative-driven adventure game, Life is Strange 2 lives or dies by its story and writing. Structurally, the game takes a road trip approach, a notable shift from the first Life is Strange, which was largely confined to a high school and its surrounding town. While this new format offers more variety in terms of settings, it comes at the cost of character depth. The transient nature of the story means most supporting characters appear in only one or two episodes, often reducing them to broad archetypes rather than fully fleshed-out individuals. This stands in contrast to the original game, where the static setting allowed you to grow familiar with a cast of well-developed personalities.
The heart of the narrative lies in the relationship between Sean Diaz, the player character, and his younger brother, Daniel. By centering the story on two Mexican-American protagonists traveling through a politically tense, Trump 1.0 America, the game directly engages with themes of racism and social justice. While these are bold and commendable narrative choices, the handling can feel a bit heavy-handed at times, likely due to the limitations of the episodic structure and limited runtime per chapter.
One of the game’s biggest weaknesses is its pacing, especially in the early episodes. The first episode, in particular, drags in places and struggles to find narrative momentum. Fortunately, this improves in later chapters as the writing team appears to find its rhythm and better balance character development with plot progression. The episodes also feel more self-contained and rarely end on cliffhangers like those in Life is Strange 1, which reduces the urgency to immediately jump into the next episode.
Where Life is Strange 2 truly shines is in how it handles player choices. While it also concludes with a major final decision, the game’s ending is much more responsive to the cumulative decisions made throughout the journey. This gives the story a more organic and emotionally satisfying denouement, especially compared to the binary choice that closed the first game. In fact, I’d argue that Life is Strange 2 sticks the landing much better whereas Life is Strange 1’s final episode felt rushed and tonally inconsistent, the sequel ends on a far stronger note.
On the production side, the art direction is excellent. It builds on the digital painting art style of the first game with a more refined look. Character models, especially for background NPCs, are noticeably improved, adding a level of polish that helps elevate the overall presentation.
Gameplay
Gameplay in this genre will always be somewhat limited, and Life is Strange 2 is no exception. Unlike the first game, which featured a time-rewinding mechanic that played a central role in both puzzles and narrative choices, the superpower in Life is Strange 2 has a much lighter touch in terms of gameplay. It's more of a narrative device than an interactive mechanic.
Traditional puzzles are virtually nonexistent. While there are moments where your decisions influence the story, these choices tend to shape character relationships or determine minor outcomes rather than create complex branching paths. The game follows a mostly linear structure, and it lacks the high degree of narrative divergence seen in titles like Detroit: Become Human.
Conclusion
While I had to push myself through the slower early episodes, the journey that Sean and Daniel go through gradually grew on me. Life is Strange 2 ultimately tells a stronger story than its predecessor, but the less engaging superpower mechanic and a cast of less memorable side characters hold it back. It lands as a solid, upper-tier “mid game” which is more emotionally resonant than mechanically compelling.
7/10 Worth playing for any gamer
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Background
Superliminal is an Indie first person puzzle game that was released in late 2019, right before the COVID19 era. I recall vaguely hearing about this around the time it was originally released, but never gave it much thought until I saw it was one of the games that was going to be removed from the PS Plus catalogue in late 2024.
Production
For those familiar with similar titles, Superliminal is best described as a hybrid between Portal and The Stanley Parable. The game is a first-person puzzler built around a unique gimmick reminiscent of Portal, while the tone and atmosphere evoke The Stanley Parable—from its eerie abandoned offices and maze-like backrooms to the quaint British narrator. As the game is premised on exploring and escaping from a dream world, the level design becomes increasingly surreal as the game progresses.
The graphics and controls are serviceable but have a distinct "basic Unity-game" feel to it, where it lacks the level of polish that would bring it to the next level. While it's not the sort of game to push graphical boundaries, I could see it greatly benefiting from a ray tracing remaster down the line where a more realistic presentation would enhance its unsettling "liminal" atmosphere. Unfortunately, the controls—whether in character movement or camera handling—suffer from a noticeable floatiness, making interactions feel imprecise.
Similarly, the writing and voice acting for the narration are competent but fall short of their inspirations. The game clearly aims for the tone of Portal and The Stanley Parable, with a disembodied voice guiding the player through an abandoned facility, yet it lacks the same humour and charm, making the experience feel somewhat underwhelming by comparison.
Gameplay
Superliminal’s core gameplay mechanic revolves around perspective manipulation—objects retain their apparent size relative to the player's viewpoint, while their actual size changes based on the background as the player moves the camera. For example, a player can pick up a normal-sized apple up close, where it fills most of the screen, then turn to face a distant ceiling while keeping the apple in view. Upon releasing it, the apple "resizes" accordingly into an enormous house-sized apple falling from above.
The early puzzles gradually introduce this mechanic before ramping up in complexity. While genuinely fun, the limitations of the system soon become apparent: the perspective-based interactions lack the deliberate precision found in other puzzle games, often leading to frustrating trial and error when adjusting an object’s size and orientation. As the game progresses, the puzzle design starts to feel repetitive, with many later challenges boiling down to finding the right object to create a ramp. Although new mechanics are introduced, many feel like one-off gimmicks that aren't expanded upon in later puzzles. Towards the endgame, puzzle-solving takes a backseat, and the game shifts into something more akin to a trippy walking simulator.
The game is relatively short—my first playthrough lasted around four hours, yet certain sections still felt padded for length. A speedrun achievement for completing the game in under 35 minutes highlights just how quickly it can be breezed through.
Conclusion
Superliminal is built around a genuinely innovative mechanic, but struggles to fully explore its potential in a meaningful way. It’s clear that Superliminal draws heavy inspiration from Portal and The Stanley Parable, but this unfortunately invites unflattering comparisons. Where Portal excels in precise puzzle design and gradual mastery of its mechanics, Superliminal often feels imprecise and inconsistent. Likewise, both Portal and The Stanley Parable uses sharp writing and humor to create a compelling world, while Superliminal’s storytelling lacks the same charm and wit. Ultimately, Superliminal feels like an ambitious experiment that's definitely worth checking out for fans of the genre, but falls short of being a truly good game.
6/10 worth it if you're a fan of the genre
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