To no one who reads this blogs surprise, I have been playing a lot of video games as of late. This is always a great thing, but it’s actually starting to stress me out. Almost all of the games I’m playing range from good to amazing, but I keep adding new games to my rotation, and I haven’t had much luck completing any. We are now midway through March, and I have only completed three different games that were released this year.
I know that’ll change soon enough, but with another massive game in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows coming out in less than a week, I’m legitimately wondering when the hell I’m going to start getting more games finished so I can write more reviews.
Like many others, I said that 2025 had a great chance to be even better than 2023 and 2024, two years that I consider some of the best in gaming history. and so far, I think 2025 could more than live up to the hype.
With that, here are some thoughts on all the games I am currently plugging away at. I am giving my first thoughts on the blog for three games and giving little updates on my progress in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Avowed. I hope it is worth your time!
Split Fiction
A few times each year, I hit a moment with a video game where I think to myself, “Is this my game of the year?” That feeling has been with me almost since moment one in Split Fiction. I’m now about 3 hours in, and I still think just as highly of it. This might very well be the best co-op games of all time.
I completed the last game from Hazelight Studios, It Takes Two, a month ago and retroactively gave it my game of the year for 2021. Split Fiction has a chance to do it again in 2025, and I feel that way because I think Split Fiction is a good bit better than It Takes Two, which is not an easy accomplishment.
I immediately noticed that Split Fiction’s core movement and platforming feel a lot better than It Takes Two. There’s a new weightiness that makes it feel a bit more consistent and fun to jump.
Perhaps more importantly, the pacing of the game is even better. The opening 30 minutes of Split Fiction gave me Nier: Automata vibes. It’s absolutely insanity, with tons of different gameplay systems all thrown at you in a very short amount of time.
From there, the game settles more into the flow that it will likely have the rest of the game. You play as a science fiction and fantasy author stuck in their own story concepts. The game rotates between science fiction and fantasy and will have new gimmicks each time it rotates. The first gimmick in the game might have been more fun than any gimmick in It Takes Two. You get either a sword or a gravity whip, depending on what character you and your friend play as. I got to use the gravity whip, and it was a blast tossing random objects at enemies. The game also throws in wild set piece driving moments and other crazy scenarios.
Split Fiction also throws in random optional levels that are just as fun as the main mission. I just played one that had me laughing for a full minute as I played it.
This game is seriously magic, and this is all in the opening hours. It Takes Two seemed to continuously ramp up as it went along, and it’s exciting to think about that happening here, too. I’ll have a lot more thoughts when I finish. I’d put the game at a 9.5 right now, and I’d say the lowest I could see it going is a 9. It absolutely has potential to be a 10/10. I only gave out one 10 in 2024, and my last 10 before that was in 2020. I don’t give them out easy, but Split Fiction has a shot. I really hope it makes it there.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
I’ve had an interesting journey with my hype levels for Pirate Yakuza. The initial trailer made me roll my eyes a bit, as the concept was just so outrageous that I had a hard time taking it seriously. But the more I saw, the more intrigued I got. The pirate mechanics looked legitimately deep, and I was excited to go back to the action gameplay after the turn-based gameplay of Infinite Wealth started to feel like a bit of a slog by the end.
Now, as I’m about 8 hours into the game, I am kind of settling in somewhere in the middle. Pirate Yakuza is a sidestory of sorts, so it’s no surprise that it doesn’t hit the levels of Infinite Wealth from a story perspective. The intro is a little too long and drawn out for me. It takes a very long time to kind of establish why there is this weird pirate culture in Hawaii, and it’s all so nonsensical that it was a real waste of time in my view.
The actual pirate elements are also a bit underwhelming in the early going. It’s kind of fun in short stretches, but spending a long time on the water gets old fast. It takes a bit too long to go from point a to point b, and the combat gets pretty repetitive after a bit. I’m hoping that I start enjoying it more once I can at least do a bit more to upgrade and customize my ship, but I’m not super optimistic at this point. If it’s a more limited exercise, I think I will like its inclusion, but if I’m spending an hour straight on the water, I’m probably not going to be happy based on what I’ve seen so far.
The combat is also a bit hit or miss. It’s perfectly serviceable as a brawler. It is fast-paced and can be fun to tear through dozens of enemies. But it does get a bit button mash-y, and a few mechanics don’t work as well as I’d like. The jump button only seems to work when you are completely still. I’ve had a few awkward moments with the grapple mechanic. And the “heat actions” that the series is famous for even feel a bit weird to use. I know that if I go behind an enemy I can use a heat action (which basically triggers a mini cutscene where you do a lot of damage to your enemies), but the heat action button flashes so briefly, that I often don’t have a chance to use it when I’m trying to. I never had this issue back when I played Yakuza 0, so I’m not sure why this game is like that. I can unlock more heat actions as I go, so I’ll probably unlock enough where I’ll luck into them more often (the same button that triggers heat actions is also your “strong attack” button), but it’s a bit of a bummer.
I also wish the game gave me a few more options for dealing with ranged attack enemies, but it’s not the end of the world. Additionally, I was pretty surprised at how easy normal was, so I upped the difficulty, and the balancing feels a lot better now. I will definitely take the easier difficulty over some of the more spongey bosses from past games, so I’m not mad about it.
Despite my issues, once I finally reached Hawaii (which took like 5 hours), the game got significantly better for me. Much like Infinite Wealth and really any past Yakuza game, the game gives you an insane amount of things to do on its map, and they are all really fun. The “substories” are back and are as entertaining as usual. There are bounties to hunt on the map, random party conversations to find, and, of course, dozens of minigames. As soon as I’ve reached Hawaii, I’ve had a blast slowly taking down different tasks in town. The fact that almost anything you do can earn you money or points that you can use to upgrade your character makes it even more rewarding and fun.
Even though I’m not into the story yet, I have faith that I will get there. The Yakuza/LaD games are great at building to epic conclusions. There was already one moment at the end of chapter 1 that was so stupid and funny that it has a real chance of being on my “top 15 moments” list at the end of the year.
Right now, I’d put Pirate Yakuza at an 8/10. I can’t see it going much higher than an 8.5 (which is what I gave Infinite Wealth), or much lower than a 7.5 at this point. It’s a fun one to pick up for short stretches, and now that I’ve reached the city, I’m enjoying it quite a bit, despite some qualms. This one looks like a no-brainer for fans of the series.
Cabernet
Cabernet is a narrative game where you navigate the world of becoming a vampire in Eastern Europe in the 1800s. I needed a game that I could play on my Switch when I went on vacation, so I decided to take the plunge. And so far, I think I made a pretty good decision, despite some pretty rough issues.
The main thing that makes Cabernet stand out as a narrative game so far is a surprising emphasis on RPG elements. These RPG elements are all tied to conversations. You have 4 different stats that you can level up that give you different dialogue options as you go through the game. These stats are tied to art, literature, politics, and science. If you get into a conversation with someone about books, and you have a high literature stat, you might get a dialogue option that shows off your knowledge of different books as an example. By using that dialogue option, you can get exp, which allows you to level up and continue to improve more stats. These special dialogue options can also help you out with getting around various things in both side quests and the main story.
The game also has a bit of a morality system. Whenever you say or do nice things, you gain “humanity,” and when you are not so nice, you gain “nihilism.” This also gives you dialogue options. I haven’t been able to advance one particular side quest yet because I don’t have enough “nihilism” to be able to accept it, for example. I have to imagine this system will tie into the main story more eventually. As of right now, my morality hasn’t played into anything major, but I’m only on chapter 3 of what appears to be 8 chapters.
I’m not sure how I feel on the morality system’s execution yet, but the RPG elements with dialogue options are undeniably cool as hell. I would love to see more narrative games go this route. The game even has a Persona-esque calendar system, and there are limited things you can do each day. This is a surprisingly ambitious indie narrative game.
As for the story itself, I’d say it is pretty solid so far. The game has several plot hooks that have drawn me in, and I think the writing is mostly strong so far. I’ve grown to either like or at least be interested in several characters already. You choose a lot of dialogue for the main character, Liza, but she still feels like her own character in positive ways.
Early on, I thought the plot pacing was excellent, as you are constantly learning new things about this secretive world of vampires, and the early mysteries are really intriguing. Chapter 3 has been the first time the game has slowed down a bit, as I’ve essentially been told to just do side activities and wait until the calendar gets to a certain day. This has been a bit of a bummer, as the side activities and characters are mostly good but not as consistently strong as the main story so far. But the story and writing still get good marks from me so far.
My biggest issue with the game right now is mostly the bugs and some various interface issues. I’ve had several hard crashes. Sometimes I can’t get the icon to show up when I’m trying to talk to someone or select a certain item, because the game doesn’t do great when two selectable things are close to each other. One time, my progress seemed to get halted on a quest because of a bug, as a character randomly disappeared after I sucked their blood, but luckily, everything was back to normal the next day. The menus are also atrocious. There is no button that lets you easily shift through menus, so even on console, you have to basically play like you are controlling a mouse, which is fucking awful. The text size in certain areas is also unbelievably small. I literally can’t read item descriptions in the shop menus. There were some truly insane design decisions with all of the menus, and it has impacted my enjoyment a little bit. These things matter.
I’d probably put Cabernet at a 7.5 right now. It’s actually closer to an 8, but the bugs mean I would approach this game with care. It might be worth waiting a few months to see if some things get patched up. I’m also eager for the main plot to pick back up a bit. Either way, this is a really neat concept for a narrative game, and the developer, Party for Introverts, needs to at least be commended for the concept and ambition here.
Avowed
I gave my Avowed impressions a few weeks ago, and I don’t have much new to say here. I’m still having fun with the combat and exploration as a magic user. My general disinterest in the story was really slowing down my progress with the game, though. I was mostly viewing Avowed as a “short burst” game. It was fun to fight, explore, and do a few quests, and then move on. I just wasn’t hooked enough to really want to play more.
I’m happy to say that I may have finally reached a turning point, though. Near the end of the second open zone, there is a plot moment that has me officially interested in the story now. The game was so vague about everything that I was just having a hard time caring. The end of this second zone offers enough answers where you still have questions, but they are much more interesting questions than before. This zone also finally sets up who the big villain is going to be.
I’m at the halfway point and am pumped to see where this goes. Much like Pirate Yakuza, I am currently at an 8, but I could see it going anywhere from a 7.5 to an 8.5, depending on how things go. I am just happy that I have a real plot reason to press forward now. I’ll have more thoughts when I complete it.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
It has been about a month since I last wrote about KCD2. At the time, I saw the magic and was genuinely having fun in a lot of ways, but I was equally frustrated in other ways. This is a slower paced game with a whole lot of different systems, and there was a lot to adjust to.
I am much further into the game now. I am now in the second massive open world area, and I would say that I have finally adjusted to a good chunk of those systems and am enjoying myself more than I did before. There is still occasional awkwardness, but I feel much more comfortable than I did before. I’ve just reached a nice flow with the game where I’ve figured out the best way for me to play it. Whenever I get into a bigger town, I’ve kind of established a rhythm where I go brew a few more potions, sharpen my sword, clean myself off, maybe do some laundry, etc. And I’ve slowly actually started to enjoy almost all of these systems.
The amount of “maintenance” work means this is a hard game for me to pick up for 30-45 minutes. I’ve had a busy few weeks for a few reasons, and I haven’t had a lot of points where I could put 2 hours straight into a game. I feel like I need at least 90 minutes with KCD2 to really feel like I “accomplished” something with it, so I haven’t really touched it in the last few weeks, but I’m still eager to get back and finish it. I will not be abandoning it like I did the first game.
I still have some issues. I really do not like the combat overall (though unlocking the counter move has made it feel a touch better), and there is random jank that annoys me still that I’ll go into more detail on when I do my review. But the general immersion of the game, as well as the strong story, have more than made up for any misgivings. I’d put KCD2 at around an 8.5 now, up from the 8 I was giving it after 15 hours. I doubt it goes any higher than that, but KCD2 has a real shot to be in that #9 or #10 range in my top 10 list at year’s end.
Big Nerd Gaming 
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