Prime Gaming - July 2023 | Phenixx Gaming

Another month, another time to complain about something while blaming a billionaire that probably doesn’t know or care about what I’m pinning on him. It must be Prime Gaming for July! As usual, you can pick up countless tripe, or as it tends to be called “in-game content” for things like World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Destiny 2, Smite, World of Tanks, Dead Island 2, Warframe, Pokemon Go, Diablo IV, and countless others throughout the month. Being July, there is a special change to the overall Prime offerings, but Prime Day won’t be too much of a change for us.

We’ll start with the GOG offering for this month, and it is kind of a repeat if you’re one of those that keep up with our Epic pieces, Prey. Not the 2006 release from the studio behind Rune, but the 2017 release from the Austin-based side of the studio behind Dishonored. To be quite honest, despite liking the atmosphere and the overall presentation, Prey (2017) focuses too much on jump-scares and if you’ve attempted to play on consoles the experience is genuinely dreadful. A touch Truman Show early on, later the mystery falls away and you are mostly concerned about coffee cups trying to eat you alive.

Though I said in the PC Gaming Show coverage last month that I am oddly excited for Baldur’s Gate III‘s full release, I can’t for the life of me get excited for the earlier releases in the series. This month you can pick up Baldur’s Gate II, which is now almost 23 years old and arguably looks it in terms of games. Being the enhanced edition released in 2013, there is some polish but still retains its late 90s CRPG influence which means it is UI-heavy and quite grimey. Fans of deep RPGs will be happy, but I don’t think this will gain new fans ahead of Baldur’s Gate III‘s release.

July 6th though will see two games appear on your radar with one due to Prime Day and the other part of your usual July offerings. Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!, which David did a review on it back in 2021, and I’ll hopefully have a preview/review of its sequel soon. More of the QTE-based cooking as always, its colorful and fast-paced, enjoyable though highly intense gameplay is matched with some management elements. In a far-flung future that is rapidly approaching, you continue your restaurant business out the back of a truck with convoluted upgrades.

Yacht Club Games’ 2019 release Shovel Knight Showdown is also available from the 6th thanks to Prime Day. Not the Shovel Knight that I think would be as exciting to those who’ve yet to play the highly beloved 2014 release or its sequel from 2017. It is a 4-player battler in the style of the 2D platformer with a couple of game modes on offer, though I don’t know that makes this option any sweeter. A bit like a Smash Bros.-like, fans of the Shovel Knight series might enjoy it for a short time, but it’s unlikely to be the standout of the month.

Prime Day offers are ending on the 11th, so it makes sense the next offering comes only next Monday, the 10th via the Amazon Games App: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. It is about as engaging as the recently dead, which is typical for something with George Lucas involved. Characters aren’t your meat and potatoes here and no amount of force lightning generating static between a character’s cheeks makes repetitive style gameplay enjoyable. Saying The Force Unleashed is one of the great Star Wars games is as much of a lie as saying the prequels are totally worth watching.

The budget seems to have been blown on Bethesda and EA’s load, as next we’ve got HomeBreakStudio’s 2018 “family-friendly adventure” title, NAIRI: Tower of Shirin. Mostly part of this month due to the upcoming sequel in Rising Tide, the animal-based society and genuinely inviting art direction (Ghibli-inspired) makes the mysterious conspiracy interesting enough. Though beyond the short playtime and upcoming sequel, those without children might not be too excited about this offering on the 13th via the Amazon Games app.

Alientrap’s Wytchwood from 2021 is on offer from the 20th, and Alexx has a review of the Switch port from 2022 for more in-depth thoughts on it. A story and crafting-heavy adventure, the colorful and inviting fairytale art direction makes the Canadian studio’s 2021 release something even I’m excited about giving a go at some point. Like most of the games available via Prime, the Amazon Games App (unless it gets renamed again) is where you’ll go for this one.

That is important to note as the final game, available from the 27th of July, is a code redeemed through Legacy Games, so you know it is a hidden object title too. I wouldn’t mind it if it was in the middle of the month, but to have Ops Game Studio’s 2022 Lunar Axe close out the month and arguably an important month nonetheless, that rubs me in the other direction. An interesting art style doesn’t hold up an otherwise simple and not-too-exciting title that is closing out a month where we’re seeing at least two or three interesting titles.