Adios And Hell is Others Are Free On Epic

Monday, I wanted to roll a truck over Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 but that’s not what Samuel was on about, and I believe the Vulcans are coming to Stellaris to offer warp drives with a new First Contact DLC. Tuesday, for some reason I could actually see someone on the cover of 2K23, and an Art of War card game is a thing. Wednesday, Mimimi announced a game of pirates and time travel that I’m excited about, and Forspoken has a demo for those not sold by it yet. Thursday reminded me that I need to talk to someone at Cygames about naming something Granblue Fantasy: Versus Rising, and I’m confused why the new Story of Seasons: The James Stewart Tale isn’t releasing on PS4 and Xbox One.

Moving on to the Epic Games Store this week and what was supposed to be an easy week has turned into me also moaning about Hell is Others. Released last October, the top-down almost Hotline Miami multiplayer horror-themed shooter certainly looks interesting from a stylistic point of view. The visuals are similar to that of a drab and depressing 80s apartment in the few story-infused elements I’ve been able to glean from it. Nonetheless, as I made evident a couple of weeks ago, it is a PVPVE shooter and I find online play as interesting as dishwater.

Mischief’s 2021 story-focused single-player walking sim is a lot closer to what I prototypically enjoy with Adios. The short “tease” I gave at the end of last week is pretty much the whole gimmick. You play as a pig farmer who wants out of the body disposal business with Marion Anthony Paul D’Amico or his Cousin, The new and improved Fat Tony. At only a couple of hours long, I guess there was pressure to give you something more on the part of Epic and that is emblematic of something I don’t quite enjoy here.

Adios isn’t very much of a game on its own but is a heavy amount of story. When you are trained to expect 70-hour campaigns full of nonsensical action, it dog whistles you into expecting a mile-a-minute combat. What Adios tries to accomplish deftly is to tell an almost filmic story of an old man looking back on past mistakes. How it is attempted and how it is accomplished are two different things, but one thing that stands out is the writing. It is effective at doing something that is often forgotten here with two or only a few characters simply talking. There is very clear and striking conflict.

Adios isn’t going to convert the same people that ended up giving Tom Cruise another billion dollars from watching Top Gun: Maverick for some reason. Adios is more for the people who really enjoyed the flawed but fantastic Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The point isn’t about some ultra-cool action, it is about the conflict of characters no matter how problematic they are. You aren’t looking to redeem the character, the point is knowledging the mistakes made. As a game, it is limited due to trying to be a film, and as a film that I have to interact with it isn’t very much of a game at all.

All this week, you can pick up Hell is Others and Adios on the Epic Games Store until the 2nd of February. Moving on to next week I’m once again shouting that I’m too busy to get reviews on some of these games done thanks to double-bills. The biggest release for next week will round out the Dishonored collection that you’ve picked up in the last month through Epic and Prime Gaming with the Death of the Outsider standalone expansion. If that’s not your thing I’ll be giving my opinion on SomaSim’s Al Capone simulator in 2021’s City of Gangsters.