In an industry that has seemingly forgotten how to make a proper RPG, Spiders have to once again remind us what an actual RPG looks like; and that RPG is The Technomancer. Developed by Spiders and published by Focus Home Interactive, The Technomancer is a third person RPG in the same vein as its predecessor, the criminally underrated, Mars: War Logs.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So it's a good thing that The Technomancer's weakest link happens to be redeemable. The Technomancer puts you in the shoes of Zachariah Mancer; a newly initiated Technomancer that is contracted to work with a powerful corporation on Mars. Unfortunately, revealing any more of the story would spoil too many of the twists and reveals. Oddly enough, many of the big twists aren't all that surprising, but the smaller, more character specific reveals, are much more surprising. The main story in The Technomancer isn't all that interesting or engaging, and mainly serves as a means to shuffle you along from one place to another.

Luckily, this is easily redeemed by the fleshed characters you meet along your journey. Zachariah isn't alone on his quests. You will also have two companions with you at all times, and you are able to choose from a large, diverse cast to bring along with you. Taking the time to speak to your companions is crucial as it not only will that unlock new quests, but it also allows you to get to know them. Almost all of you companions feel like real people with real goals. Given the desolate nature of the game, you will often hear a saddening story from a companion's past that is genuinely believable due to the writing and delivery by the voice actor. I haven't genuinely cared about a cast of characters like this since Mass Effect 2 from all the way back in 2010.

The world of The Technomancer feels well crafted and each location's culture and populous differ from each other. I can't say that it feels like a living, breathing world as you play because it doesn't. Sure, you will occasionally pass by groups of NPCs in city hubs talking about events that are unfolding, but these interactions are few and far between. Locations can range from giant mega cities constructed by corporations with a government run purely by corporate interest in mind, to slums put together over decades by people with scrap metal they happen to come by, to baron wastelands once inhabited by early settlers of Mars. Once you begin to tire of a city hub, you will be introduced to another filled to the brim with even more lore and quests.

One feature The Technomancer would have benefited greatly from was a codex for all the lore and characters. The world of The Technomancer is one of the most original and interesting I've seen in almost 10 years, but the only way to learn more about the game's lore is to ask certain characters about locations and factions or eavesdrop on NPCs speaking to one another.

Being that this is an open world RPG, you will eventually have to make moral decisions that will affect who lives and who dies or your own personal karma and reputation with other characters. Most of the choices you will have to make are fairly binary that have little lasting impact on you. The biggest punishment you'll get is a lowered reputation level for a certain faction, but that may also cause you to no longer be able to receive quests from the faction you scorned. In fact, there are a few decisions that are some of the most morally ambiguous I've ever seen in a game, especially for some of the companions and quests towards the end.

As a third person RPG, The Technomancer could have gone one of two routes; it could have been a generic cover shooter or it could do something original. Thankfully, we got the latter. Technomancers, themselves, are highly skilled warriors that are capable of using mage-like abilities to control electricity in battle for offensive and defensive purposes. The Technomancer focuses almost solely on melee combat, of which, there are three combat stances/modes: Warrior, Rogue, and Guardian. All of which are just as important as the others.

Warrior allows you to wield a two handed staff that swings somewhat slow, but deals a considerable amount of damage. You won't be able to block with Warrior though. Your only defence is to dodge. Rogue gives the player a short blade in one hand and a gun in the other. The attacks from the rogue stance are quick, but don't deal a lot of damage. The gun in this stance is similar to Bloodborne's as it is more of a defensive weapon to disrupt attacks with. Again, you can't block with this stance, but you can still dodge. Guardian, the final stance allows the player to wield a blunt object and shield. The attacks are about as fast as the Warrior stance, but you can actually defend yourself with the shield.

Initially, it seemed as though all you had to do was tap X until your enemies died, but you'll quickly realize that will only result in your own untimely demise. The enemy AI will adapt if you begin mashing one button and promptly counter you dealing massive damage. So you should be ready to change stances quickly, and adapt to the enemy and situation as you'll find one strategy isn't strong in every case.

Technomancer abilities do seem seem a bit underwhelming with their extent being electrifying weapons and shooting lightning from your hands to temporarily stun your opponent. You do feel a sense of superiority as a Technomancer since you hardly ever face enemies that have similar powers. Although this will amount to nothing if you take the combat as a joke because you will quickly realize that, if you aren't thinking, the enemy can get the upper hand and kill you.

In The Technomancer, exposure to the sun on mars will cause severe radiation sickness and transform people into mutants with deformed bodies and altered DNA. This is something that is explained in the opening cutscene and through a few other cutscenes along with the existence of the mutant factions in the game that have been exposed to the sun. Since The Technomancer already has a day/night cycle, this idea sounds great. You would only be able to leave cities at night to avoid the exposure to the sun resulting in the death of you and your companions. Sadly though, this isn't an actual gameplay feature. The only times that the sun's radiation is any danger to anyone is during cutscenes. Otherwise, it's purely aesthetic. That is such a missed opportunity for a unique gameplay mechanic.

You have no idea how refreshing it is to play an RPG that has the guts to tell you that you can't have every perk and ability in one playthrough. You will have to play through The Technomancer multiple times to see and experience everything it has to offer. For me, that's a proper RPG. You are more than welcome to level up each combat stance and pick new perks, but you will have to choose wisely. Often times you have to choose between perks such as doing more damage in a certain stance or increasing the likelihood of getting a critical hit. You can't have both. The Technomancer also isn't afraid to throw you in a big world and let you figure everything out. After a short combat tutorial, which you can choose to skip, you are on your own. It feels wonderful not being treated like a child and being led around by your hand.

Creating a game with a lived in world, compelling characters, and fully fleshed out combat just wasn't enough for developer Spiders. On top of everything The Technomancer has to offer, you are also given an in depth crafting system not unlike the crafting in Spiders' previous game, Bound By Flame. Almost every item of clothing and weapons can be upgraded and health items can be crafted.

In the world of The Technomancer, you will be able to find varying qualities of metal and leather, and misc items in containers and on defeated enemies in order to craft and upgrade items to survive longer on Mars. The upgrades for articles of clothing typically fall under three levels of damage reduction, disruption, and energy regeneration. Whereas, weapons can be upgraged for either increased damage, increased disruption, or increased critical hit chances. Again, just like the skill system, you can't have it all at once and will be forced to swap out and choose each upgrade.

You will often find yourself digging in trashcans or dead bodies looking for the last ingredient for your upgrade, or scrounging up enough money to afford a recipe to craft better upgrades. The crafting system is much more in depth and involving than I thought it would be and is almost a game in itself. Some enemies may be more susceptible to disruption, and some enemies are mainly susceptible to critical hits, so you will need to swap out your increased damage upgrade for an increased disruption upgrade or critical hit upgrade.

Don't expect the latest AAA lensflare simulator when picking up The Technomancer. Textures aren't anything to write home about, but some of the vistas can be downright breathtaking. There were multiple times where The Technomancer rendered me immobile as I stared at the awe inspiring view. As for texture models, they are serviceable, but in the current year just don't stand up to most games released so far. But if you only care about graphics, please stop playing video games.

The version of The Technomancer I played the most was on Xbox One. Obviously, it wasn't as graphically appealing as on PC, but some of the textures were surprisingly bad. Character and weapon textures were okay, but many of the rocks and buildings in the world looked almost untextured and seemed to be only a flat color. Despite this, the Xbox One version ran smoothly and hardly ever fell below 30 frames.

I mentioned briefly before that the voice acting is delivered well enough to compliment the writing and make characters believable. That is with the exception of whomever is voicing the playable character, Zachariah. His performance is constantly fluctuating between perfect delivery and "that tone has nothing to do with the situation." It's a shame really, because his performance is crucial to keeping players emotionally invested in the story, and I believe that's partially why I found it so hard to actually care about the main story. It's a good thing that your companions and the actual world of The Technomancer make up for that make up for it.

The soundtrack for The Technomancer can only be described as synth slathered supremacy. It is a large conglomeration of many instruments, but seeing how this is a cyberpunk game, synthesizers are the star of the show. The Technomancer knows when to expertly cut through a tense moment with a brooding 80's synthesizer that even Charles Bronson would approve of. And then the game knows when to play a soft melody during an emotional scene. Every track compliments the given situations and never feels out of place.

The Technomancer achieved everything it strived for. A non-linear, proper RPG with an emphasis on storytelling and combat. Admittedly, it stumbled over a few hurdles, but was still able to finish the race gloriously. For me, it's safe to say that The Technomancer is one of the best game of 2016. An indie developer was able to make a cyberpunk RPG to rival Mass Effect, one of the biggest AAA franchises on the market. Take that in, and do yourself a favor, don't miss out on The Technomancer.

Two Years after the aftermatch of Human Revolution, Mankind Divided throws Adam Jensen and the player into a new world of hatred, prejudice, and oppression. After augmented people were sent into a killing frenzy, the natural world began to reject the augmented and their values. Augmented people and natural people are segregated apart from one another and those with augmented limbs or abilities are treated as second class citizens, and Adam is stuck in the middle of the turmoil.

Our battery acid gargling protagonist, Adam Jensen, is back and just as enjoyable as he was in Human Revolution. Adam begins as an agent for a task force in the Czech Republic that may or may not be controlled by special interest groups. As he arrives in Prague, the train station he stops at is bombed and all the blame is put onto the controversial pro-aug group known as the Augmented Rights Coalition. Now Adam must solve a mystery that could topal entire governments. If that all sounds somewhat vague, then it's supposed to. It's best to go into Mankind Divided with little to no knowledge of the events after Human Revolution.

Perhaps Adam isn't as likable as he was in human Revolution since we no longer can sympathize with him having no choice in augmenting his body. Adam finally embraces the machine he is and it's your job to progress through the story as the nicest guy in Prague or just as rude and abrasive as the Czech state police. Thankfully, you can always pick when you want to be good or bad, but you can also settle comfortably in the middle as well.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided also focuses on conspiracies much more than in Human Revolution. Often times you will have to choose who to side with during arguments and choose who to give plot important items to. I loved the return of the "this is bigger than all of us" conspiracies. It really helps harken back to the original Deus Ex.

The social commentary was enjoyable and rarely became preachy. Once in a blue moon you'll stumble onto a document or TV broadcast that does seem to be a bit one sided though. The social commentary also isn't forced down your throat either. Besides the Augmented Rights Coalition during the main story, you will only find it in optional newspapers, e-books, and television broadcasts. So if you disagree with everything Eidos has to say or get offended easily, you're in luck.

Side quests are also much more dynamic and satisfying to complete than in Human Revolution. Most times, you will stumble out of a building and see a commotion off in the distance. Investigating further will likely activate a new side quest to complete. My personal favorites were The Harvester and Last Harvest side quests. In those quests, Adam becomes a bit like a consulting detective when he helps an ignorant detective solve a string of murders upon augmented people. The revelation is great and is written in a way that makes the world feel so three dimensional. That not everything is about you and your adventures.

All is not good in Jensen town though. The story has major issues. For starters, new characters to the series are never properly introduced. They just sort of show up out of nowhere and help advance whatever quest you're doing. Adam clearly knows them and has a past with them, but they weren't in Human Revolution so my only guess is that these characters were introduced in a secret game set in between Human Revolution and Mankind Divided that was never released. The only logical explanation is that Eidos got too close to the illuminati with this middle game so they made Mankind Divided and just advanced the story a few years. Or they were probably introduced in the midquel novel and we're expected to buy that too.

The main story has issues too. I can easily look past its serious pacing problems, but what really bothers me is the blatant sequel bait cliffhanger ending. With Human Revolution, it could have easily stand on its own as a prequel to the original Deus Ex. But it seems Eidos Montreal is getting cocky and probably plans a trilogy of to tie into the original game. It also doesn't help that the main story only clocks in at about 12 - 15 hours. Side quests add about another 5 or 6 hours though. Which is a let down compared to Human Revolution's 20 hour main story and 10 hours of side quests.

"If it it ain't broke, don't fix it" is and isn't true in Mankind Divided's case. Not only is it clear that Eidos Montreal took fan complaints about Human Revolution to heart and remedied them, but they also built onto the established gameplay to make Deus Ex fresh again. What does that mean? Well the overall clunky feel from Human Revolution is gone, but it also doesn't devolve into generic first person shooter territory either. Combat, stealth, and ghost gameplay have been improved on dramatically.

Now no one approach to a situation is anymore viable than they others. Want to stealthily navigate around your enemies to get to your objective? Look around your environment. There is often a door or a vent conveniently placed near you to avoid frontal assaults. Are you one to tackle your problems head on? Loud combat approaches are made all the more enjoyable with a larger arsenal of weapons at your disposal as well as a much needed overall to the controls.

After meeting up with the ghost of Prince, Adam learns that he has unstable experimental augs hidden away in his body that can be activated at a cost. That cost is overclocking his own body causing overheating and severe glitches. This is actually a nice and believable explanation to addition of new augmentations that does eventually tie into the main story. The balancing of your experimental augs is actually well done as well. To ensure that you can use those augs with serious side effects, you have to temporarily shut down another branch of augmentations to cool your system. This can be overridden with a plot device about half way through the game though so you can use everything without consequence.

Augmentations are just as fun to use in Mankind Divided, if not more so. All the augmentations that could be unlocked in Human Revolution return with some new friends. New additions include remote hacking, titan armor, nanoblade, and a few more. Augs are all the more fun to use with the return of Biocells. Instead of having to recharge your bio meter with random foods and drinks, Biocells can be used and are now craftable, buyable, and findable. For those who don't know, this is an item that was absent in Human Revolution, but found in the original and Invisible War (although under a different name).

Weapons also have gotten an overhaul since Human Revolution. Darting between cover and picking off targets both lethally and non-lethally has never felt better. Guns feel much more in line with usual first person shooters and that's thanks to the new control options. Now you can choose between classic Human Revolution controls, new Mankind Divided controls, and typical FPS controls. Your augmentations weren't the only thing that got upgraded. Guns have always been customizable in Deus Ex, but now you can customize to your heart's content on the fly. All you have to do is hold down the reload button/key and Adam will hold his gun out and allow you to change attachments, rate of fire, and even the ammo type. It's a bit like Crysis, if that makes sense. None of the gameplay really feels streamlined from Human Revolution. It just seems that Eidos fixed the problems people had and added more to the game. More developers should take notes.

Unlike Human Revolution that featured multiple decently sized city hubs, Mankind Divided instead opts for one large city hub where the majority of the game takes place. Many main missions and side quests are played out in the Prague hub, but a few missions are played out elsewhere like Golem City, an augmented ghetto. While Prague isn't a bad place for a city hub, it just isn't as memorable as Detroit or Hong Kong from Human Revolution. The samey grey buildings do get tiresome after hours of exploring. Perhaps this was a design choice to make landmarks like The Red Queen stand out more, but it still doesn't make that "been there, done that" feeling go away.

The amount of detail, be it large or small, is incredible. From Adam quickly switching the safety on when holstering his gun, to enemies calling out your location and what weapon you're using in real time. Segregation is a theme and Mankind Divided, and it shows when you board a "Natural Only" metro car. Other passengers will glare at you and the state police will warn you not to do it again once you get off. I hadn't even realized what I did wrong at first when I stepped off the Natural Only metro car and got scolded by the police. I assumed that the segregation areas were just for show, but there were actual consequences for stepping over the line. It's clear that a special amount of love and care went into Mankind Divided that may be overlooked by many players looking for cheap explosive thrills instead

Even for 2011 standards, Human Revolution still looked a bit dated compared to other AAA releases at the time. Mankind Divided on the other hand looks downright beautiful thanks to the Dawn Engine. Clothing, faces, and weapons all look as if you could reach out and actually touch them. Bright neon lights reflect off of objects and NPCs. Rain will stick and drip off of Adam's well toned augmented body. Mankind Divided is candy for the eyes, for the most part.

Some textures don't get the same treatment. Textures such as certain walls, miscellaneous objects scattered around the world, and the little foliage that can be found are often incredibly basic textures that made me wonder if I was even supposed to be looking at them. But the biggest issue regarding the graphics is the frame rate. I played through Mankind Divided on the PS4, and I found an abundance of frame rate dips. "Dips" doesn't even begin to describe the problems with the frame rate. "Frame rate plummets" is a much better description. Even the act of walking down a lonely alley way can result in the frame rate tanking like the Titanic in a tsunami. Thankfully, the actual story missions stay at around 30 frames per second the entire time.

Besides the frame rate, the most noticeable issue with the graphics are the idle animations and lip syncing. Lip syncing ranges from serviceable to just plain bad. Outside of prerendered cutscenes, characters look like dogs when they have peanut butter in their mouths, filmed it, and then the developers just looped dialogue over that. Now what about animations? Well combat and takedown animations are great to watch and even seamlessly transition back into gameplay. Idle animations are another story. Often times characters will flail their arms about and shake their heads when they didn't say anything that would warrant that.

But by Philip K. Dick's ghost, that cyberpunk atmosphere though. Where Human Revolution was overflowing with cyberpunk cliches and a yellow and black color palette that often overstayed their welcome, Mankind Divided instead goes for a more nuanced approach to the cyberpunk genre. Much like the original Deus Ex. That doesn't mean Mankind Divided is any less cyberpunk than it's predecessor either. Neon still soaks through subtlety, especially in the red light district. Synthesizers still plays perfectly to the situation you're in. Whether you like to be bombarded with cyberpunk visuals and jargon or prefer or more realistic take on the genre is a matter of opinion.

If you thought Human Revolution's soundtrack was great, you're in for a magnetic treat with Mankind Divided's score. Following the gameplay's "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" mindset, the score in Mankind Divided is an orgasmic ensemble of synthesizers and cyberpunk good times. Expertly switching between slow and somber for depressing moments. Then ramping up the energy in each track as you go guns blazing after a botched stealth approach. If the atmosphere and story weren't cyberpunk enough for you, then the soundtrack is what you need.

The sound even factors into the gameplay. Just walking around a building that you're supposed to infiltrate can lead to wondrous discoveries. Many times I began to overhear idle chit chat between two NPCs discussing the building or location they are outside of that lead to me figuring out alternative paths that were pretty well hidden. Footsteps also make a welcome return. Nothing is more infuriating than a stealth where you can't hear your enemy's footsteps. Footsteps echo off of different materials and even your own footsteps are affected by the type of floor you're walking on and how fast you're moving. Thankfully, Mankind Divided remembers its stealth roots.

Elias Toufexis is back as Adam Jensen, but Stephen Shellen does not return to voice David Sarif. And that's a shame too. Shellen's performance as Adam's aggressive boss was one of the most memorable elements of Human Revolution. While Sarif's new voice actor does a more than serviceable job, it's still a shame that we won't hear "ADAAAM" in the right voice again. I'm not personally Czech, believe me I checked, so I can't comment on the authenticity of the accents of the Prague NPCs, but they sound believable enough. Almost every character has an accent so I hope it's authentic.

No game can be this good without an ugly sore hidden somewhere. That sore comes in the form of Breach. Breach is the incredibly unnecessary multiplayer mode for a single player centric game. Those who have played the original Deus Ex know that multiplayer isn't exactly new to the series, but not like this. Take the single player from Mankind Divided, neuter the gameplay, add actual microtransactions that forms a pay2win business model, neuter the gameplay even more, and bam: Breach mode. It isn't worth your time at all. Especially with new game plus for the base game. Luckily it can be ignore altogether.

To answer the opening rhetorical question: Mankind Divided proves that Human Revolution wasn't a fluke and the Deus Ex franchise has a bright future ahead of it. If you liked Human Revolution, you'll love Mankind Divided. It isn't exactly the definitive cyberpunk RPG, nor is it even the best in the Deus Ex serious, but it gets damn near close.

Now where did this undying love begin? Well one day, whilst strolling through the Xbox Live marketplace, I stumbled upon an interesting little title that caught my eye; Mars: War Logs. The description and screenshots made it appear as a Mass Effect-esque space adventure. This was back in 2015, so I was still emotionally scarred from the utter disappointment of Mass Effect 3, and had yet to experience the human rights violating atrocity known as Mass Effect: Andromeda. I needed a worthy successor to Mass Effect, so after glancing over some reviews, I took a gamble on Mars: War Logs, and boy, did I get it.

Mars: War Logs opens on, you guessed it, Mars, in a POW camp where we are introduced to our first companion, Innocence, through a heavily implied attempted gay rape scene. If there's a better way than that to start a game, then I haven't seen it. Luckily the protagonist, Roy, intervenes just in time to prevent that from happening. What follows is a slow, yet deliberate prison break sequence reminiscent of The Great Escape that sets the tone and narrative for the rest of the game.

While some might be initially put off by the overall depressing tone of Mars: War Logs, I think it's fantastic because it illustrates a grittier depiction of war and death in a cyberpunk future. Most games with similar themes, such as Mass Effect and the latest entries in the Call of Duty series, show a much more "Hollywood-ized" version of those themes complete with huge budgets and explosion filled set pieces. Whereas Mars: War Logs drags you down into the thick of it. If that's the kind of future we have to look forward to, I'd look at Mars: War Logs to get a more accurate picture of what to expect; technomancy excluded.

"Technomancy?" What? Yes, in a way, similar to Biotics in the Mass Effect series, Mars: War Logs features "Technomancy." However, unlike Biotics, technomancy is limited to the ability to wield and control the power of electricity. Characters trained from a young age to use 'pre-Turmoil' artifacts enabling them to wield the electricity produced by the human body are called "Technomancers." Normally this would be a spoiler, but Mars: War Logs spoils itself with a locked skill tree that says "technomancy" when selected; Roy is a technomancer. The introduction of this plot point also becomes a gameplay change that was executed perfectly. Up until this point, I'd been playing for about 4 hours, so the fights had been becoming rather stale, and I can't help but feel this was intentional to make your newly acquired technomancy powers feel all the more powerful to freshen up the gameplay.

Anything beyond that actually would be a spoiler. So let's recap the story thus far: you're on Mars, it's a gritty cyberpunk future, you play as a guy named Roy, and Roy is a Technomancer. Got it? Alright, let's move on.

Mars: War Logs is not, I repeat: NOT, a shooter. Not a first person shooter. Not a third person shooter. Not a Bulgarian miak shooter. NOT a shooter. Surprising, right? Well the reason I bring this up is because, according to many reviews from both critics and users that I've come across, many people went into Mars: War logs expecting a third person shooter similar to Mass Effect. I don't know if it's because shooters were the only games being developed at the time or the fact that Mass Effect really is the only game Mars: War Logs can be compared to, but Mars: War Logs is a third person action adventure, not a shooter. However there are gun in gameplay, but they are used in a similar way to the guns in Bloodborne. Yet you wouldn't categorize Bloodborne as a third person shooter, right?

Perhaps it was just me, but I was nearly overwhelmed when first experiencing the combat Mars: War Logs had to offer. That was until I realized how simple, yet ingenious it actually was. You have basic melee combat mechanics such as attack, block, and dodge, but that won't be enough to get your through most enemy encounters. That's because enemies are actually somewhat competent and won't hesitate to murder you repeatedly if you try to spam your attacks. Since the enemies are as tough as nails, you must remain vigilant in every fight. Like I said, you have your attack, your block, and your dodge, but you must also utilize your ability to break your enemy's block, your technomancy powers, and the orders you issue to your companion.

It may sound fairly simple at first, but in practice, it can be a nightmare to get through fights if you don't know what you're doing; even on the easiest difficulty setting. This is where I discovered the one major flaw in Mars: War Logs' combat- the companions. Being able to control whether or not your companions should focus on melee attacks, dodging, or ranged attacks may sound like a blessing, but that's completely squandered once you realize that enemies will gang up almost exclusively on your companion, so unless you set them to dodge, they're going down in just a couple of hits from multiple enemies. So I devised a routine to account for this problem. Set your companion to focus on dodging, take out the out any ranged enemies, then pick off the enemies ganging up on your companion one by one. This routine makes combat a breeze, but enemy encounters begin to get stale. While not fatal, this flaw definitely does hurt an otherwise great combat system.

Outside of combat, Mars: War Logs is a fairly open exploration game. While not an "open world game" per-se, Mars: War Logs' open, non-linear level design is great. You'll be able to visit multiple locations around Mars ranging from a hellish prison camp to a decaying ghetto and even a war torn city; all full of side quests with interesting characters and stories. It's clear that a monumental amount of love went into fleshing out these characters and locations to create a seemingly living breathing world. Even if that world is a sun scorched hell hole ravaged by war and human atrocities.

The side quests, and even some of the early main quests, introduce the player to Mars: War Logs' morality system. Now before you roll your eyes so far back that you snap your optic nerve, I am happy to report that Mars: War Logs is one of the few games on the market today that properly utilizes a morality system. I'm sure we're all used to morality systems in games being as simple as "be a jerk for absolutely no reason other than receiving weapon that is slightly better than the one you're using right now" or "be a goody two-shoes and get nothing other than a nice big thumbs up from the game for being a good person." While there definitely are some side quests that end like that, most of the quests in Mars: War Logs end in moral ambiguity, and it is imperative that you understand which decision will affect your moral standings with a companion and/or faction. Something you may believe to be beneficial to whomever gave you the quest may in fact cause your companion to grow suspicious of you and even eventually distrust you.

As I said before, my initial discovery of Mars: War Logs was while browsing the Xbox Live marketplace, so my first playthrough of this underrated gem was on my poor old Xbox 360. Of course, that being said, the graphical fidelity of Mars: War Logs on console was... okay. Obviously not up to par with the latest AAA or even most middle market releases at the time, but also nothing that made my eyes bleed. On PC, however, Mars: War Logs actually doesn't look half bad. Facial and clothing textures are well detailed, expansive Mars vistas are a sight for sore eyes, and all at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second on any PC built before the turn of the century with little to no dips during transitions between loading areas.

Although I was hoping for a more synthesizer heavy soundtrack in a cyberpunk game, Mars: War Logs' soundtrack is actually quite incredible. Often times I found myself in a quiet area of the map just listening to the original score Sylvain Prunier crafted for Spiders. So props to you, Mr. Prunier. Listen for yourself.

While not necessarily a masterpiece, Mars: War Logs is a testament to proper RPG and game design the likes of which we haven't seen since the original Mass Effect. Undeserved hate and criticism comes with the territory in the middle market, but Mars: War Logs is one of the most undeserving of said hate and criticism of any middle market game I've ever experienced. The combat could have done with a bit more polishing and testing, and the side quests could have been a tad bit more unique, but if you're like me and often long for a proper role-playing experience, then do yourself a favor a pick up Mars: War Logs.

Along with watching movies, I found myself playing video games in the same vein. I was introduced to them by my buddy Dylan who had become a YouTube gaming content creator. One of the games he made a series on was Layers of Fear from an indie studio called Bloober Team out of Poland.

If you didn't know the gaming industry is really big in Poland. So big in fact that the Prime Minister gave President Obama a copy of The Witcher II as a gift. Some of my favorite indie games like Layer of Fear, GoNNer, and Butcher have been ported to the Nintendo Switch are from Polish developers.

Bloober Team solidified themselves as a studio who could sit at the adult table with Layers of Fear. Now with Observer, there are talks that Bloober Team could be one of the studios to remake Silent Hill. That's only if Konami wants to follow the trend set by Capcom with the Resident Evil 2 remake.

Observer takes the theme of a futuristic Poland where cybernetic enhancements are a common medical practice after the last world war. You play as Observer detective Daniel Lazarski (voiced by Rutger Hauer of Blade Runner) who gets a strange call from his estranged son Adam. Like in most horror games taking place in one place. You find that Adam has been living in a rundown tenement building (which is a real building that one of the developers live) where drug and hologram addicts live.

(Screenshot taken from Nintendo Life's video on making the Observer)

You get yourself in Adam’s apartment, which has been ransacked. You find a body with its head cut off, which triggers a security shutdown to the building. Without being able to get a positive ID on the body Dan has to find a way to get out of  Adam’s apartment to find the killer. This starts the more core mechanics of the game. Opening and scanning everything you can, searching for clues, and hacking into keypads. Once you override the security system to the apartment you roam the halls trying to find a way out. Along the way, you have the opportunity to interview the other tenants.

With clues leading you to other dead bodies, you use your title as Observer to link into their memories to find out who and where the killer might be. Though linking up doesn't just give you access to the victims past, your past with Adam as a boy mixes in with those memories. The way these memories play out is where the horror and puzzle aspects of the game shines. With winding hallways, and puzzles where if you take the wrong turn you are back at where you started. Observer builds on what Bloop Team learned with Layers of Fear and ramped it to 11. This time around you have villains, the murderer and this rag doll monster that looks like something out of the movie 9 that you have to sneak by while trying to find an exit.

The story is well thought out. You have multiple people this time telling their side of how they either fought against Chiron (the mega-corporation that took over Poland and started the Fifth Polish Republic) or those who were apart their cybernetic experiments and the people who are addicted to drugs and/or holographic stimuli. If Layers of Fear deals in psychological horrors of a painter in the 1920s, Observer deals with the psychological choices made in a future where we can be anyone and have anything, though it may cost us our life.

That is the real horror about this game. That this fantasy could someday be our reality. This game may have been overlooked, but this game is just as brilliant as Detroit Become Human, and if you just own a Nintendo Switch longing for an immersive thought-provoking game, Observer is that game. This is already a cult classic, why not let us make it a critical success.