I grew up loving point and click adventures and in recent years that evolved into enjoying the episodic games from Telltale. But I always find myself returning to the classic story telling that point and click adventure games provided, uncovering the story via detective work and following clues to reveal a bigger story. So, when approaching State of Mind it had already ticked a good few boxes with me thanks to the setting and sci fi feel to the thriller and suspense style of mystery game.

You start the game in the role of Richard Nolan who is being rushed to a medical facility following a car crash. Richard has suffered some memory loss which has all but wiped out the last couple of weeks memory meaning Richard has no idea how the crash happened but is able to remember who he is, his job and who his family are. We learn that Richard is also a journalist and harsh critic of technology which is interesting as the setting of the story is in the near future where technology is advanced enough that robotic life has become part of everyday life with servants in every home an drone systems serve as security throughout the city which has a very clear divide between people with money and those without. Richard heads home after some treatment expecting to find his family waiting for him but soon uncovers the truth that his wife and child have vanished and he beings his search for them. The story then switched to another character in Adam Newman who is very similar to Richard but he is clearly a man of wealth living in the very opulent part of City 5 compared to the very typical bleak overpopulated Berlin where Richard calls home. Soon the story will bring these two together as Richard asks for Adam’s help in the search for his family and their two lives become entwined as the story unfolds.

The first thing that hits you as the player is the visuals and art style of State of Mind which can be a little jarring at first. Every character model is a blocky mess of polygons which instantly reminded me of early MTV music videos using computer generated models for the first-time years ago. The futuristic word is wonderfully created using this style however and whilst it may not have the same detailing as another title like Detroit Become Human, it still managed to immerse players enough in the world that it feels real enough. The only issue I really had with how the player models were designed was that they failed to really convey some of the emotions that dialogue scenes and major events need throughout the game.

Gameplay wise State of Mind actually surprised me somewhat in how it very much takes the detective style of point and click games to tell its story whilst rather refreshingly avoids including of any combat at all. As this is the future, Richard has implanted technology as everyone does in the world which enables him to interact with technology but also to identify objects and people and get immediate information about them. Like the visuals this can feel a little strange and clumsy at first but the further you venture into the story the more accustom to it you become. Probably as a result of just how clunky and clumsy character movement can feel in the game, the decision to not include any type of fighting or combat is wise as I said above. Just moving around can feel awkward so attempting to put any form of combat in there would really feel out of place and just wrong. By focusing the gameplay on finding clues and investigating what happened to Richard’s family which works really well though some of the puzzles can be rather simplistic at times.

What was a very pleasant surprise was finding out that the typical futuristic world setting which sees robotic life mixing with that of humans is not the focus of the story and so avoiding the very cliché oppressed robots rising up against the humans. Instead the game very cleverly focuses on the very real themes of just how far can technology can go and be integrated into our daily lives. Richard as a character is very much a person pushing back against such technology advances and he had a real distain to the robot servant in his own household which is seen in how he quickly becomes angry when interacting with him at the start of the game. It explores the themes of whether or not technology is a tool for humanity or if we will grow to depend on it far too much and therefore losing what makes us human in the end.

The one really annoying aspect to the game however is Richard as a character and mostly because of the delivery of the voice acting for him. With the visuals making every character look blocky and wooden, having the dialogue given in the same wooden style really doesn’t help at all in connecting to him as a character. In the beginning as you start to piece together the early clues as Richard discovers his family gone, I failed to really sympathise with him simply because of how dickish his character is written. The way he speaks and interacts with their house servant robot Simon hammers home just a little too hard how much Richard is pushing back against the integration of robot technology into his life. It carried on through the story and I never really managed to care enough about him as a character to want to solve the mystery for him rather than just finding out what happened for the story itself. Thankfully you do spend some time playing as Adam and two other characters but Richard is the one you will always come back to.

State of Mind is a good thriller and mystery game that has a solid and steady pace for the most part and allows players to piece together the story on their own terms. Progression is fairly linear there is still some freedom when exploring areas and the story is allowed to unfold per each discovery you make so you never really feel left out when it moves forward. I especially like how player choice can decide the ending be it good or bad with four possible outcomes depending on the choice you make but the story will give you enough information in order to make an educated choice at that point.

This is a very different game and at this time when silly season is about to start with heavy hitting big name game now launch on an almost weekly basis until the end of the year, State of Mind is a nice step outside the conventional box which delivers a good story which is told very well but perhaps due to the style of the game would be one to pick up in a sale rather than rushing out to experience right now. I enjoyed the puzzle solving and exploration of the story but would have preferred some more challenging ones along the way to step things up a bit. The movement animations feel heavy and clumsy throughout but then the game does not require precision to trigger interaction with things and hopefully could be polished a little more in future title updates.

I enjoyed State of Mind as a fan of sci fi and mystery thriller games and whilst it doesn’t push the envelope in any real way, it focuses on the mystery and uncovering the truth well enough to make this a game worth investing some time into as it has a relaxing pace which is a nice step away from all the high action games available right now. If nothing else, this has made me appreciate the idea of having a robot butler in my life within the next 25 years and Richard has taught to follow Wheaton’s Law when it comes to dealing with our robotic children.

I loved the first Guacamelee game for so many reasons. Not only did it just have a game title that instantly put me back into my gaming early years with Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition shouting at the Street Fighter II fan in me, but the presentation of the game was just so refreshing to see with references to other iconic names in gaming as well as cultural nods to TV and Films. It was just such a fun and surprising game to enjoy that got so many things it wanted to have players experience right. So, when I heard that a sequel was on the way I started to smile and all the way through playing the game that smile simply grew bigger.

The very first thing the game does is deliver a Rocky moment by having the player replay the final boss fight of the original game, which is just a genius way to put you back in the role of Juan the Luchador of Legend. It also serves as a fantastic reminder of how the original story ended with Juan defeating Calaca and returning to his normal live to start a family and be able to enjoy life. Skip to seven years later and Juan is a shadow of his former self, now a father of two young children, he is clearly a man who did little adventuring after his big win shown by his rather impressive Dad bod belly.

Suddenly Juan is summoned by his old mentor Chivo, the old man who can transform into a goat, to travel to the Darkest Timeline and help defeat the evil Salvador. This is where Juan discovers the ‘Mexiverse’ which is a multiverse of many different worlds of alternate timelines and finds out that he is the last surviving Juan and must defeat Salvador who in the Darkest Timeline actually managed to defeat Calaca when that timeline’s Juan fell in battle. Learning that Salvador is searching for the three ancient relics which will grant him the knowledge and recipe to make the God’s Guacamole in the hopes it will turn him into an all-powerful god himself. Juan is tasked with finding the relics first and defeating Salvador before he destroys the entire Mexiverse.

Much of what made the first Guacamelee game so brilliant has been kept unchanged and that is a good thing as it would have been tempting to dive back in and make changes. Instead and quite sensibly, attention has been put into crafting a larger story for Juan and players to inhabit for the sequel. Gameplay is practically the same, to being with at least, in that it is still a Metroid-vania style action platformer with the most fun combat I have enjoyed in this genre for many a year. It would also be fair to say that the dev team at Brink Box have doubled down on the clever humour threaded throughout the story and character dialogue making this one of the most charming games I have played this year. It shows great intelligence and self-awareness in the writing and gameplay so that it never crosses the line of being too clever for its own good and uses the cultural references and 4^th wall breaking moments to enhance the story telling and offer some fun surprises along the way.

During the first few hours though I did get the feeling that a shift had been made to move the focus away from the combat system that was so acclaimed in the first game and instead place it on the platforming aspect instead. To that end I noticed that the abilities and powers Juan would gather throughout the first game were very quickly rediscovered such as the Rooster Uppercut, power dash, frog splash and power headbutt moves. Not only are these moves vital in combat as you face increasingly tougher enemies but they also provide much needed traversal aids such as the rooster uppercut allowing Juan to reach higher levels and the power dash that can help rush Juan to the left or right giving added distance. All these abilities are very much needed as travelling through the different regions in the game has been tweaked and made more challenging.

Moving and navigating the world of Guacamelee 2 is perhaps the biggest change in this sequel and at times it can be frustratingly difficult requiring close to second perfect timing of combining the various power abilities to solve the puzzles that are lined up before the player. There is a lot of trial and error repetition at times that will stop progress until you master that section. Perfecting the combinations sequence of mixing the different powers together in the early stages will just about prepare you for the really challenging areas later on in the game but it can be a stumbling block similar to games such as Super Meat Boy was designed to test your patience and whilst the game will try to ease you into how to use the abilities for moving around, the learning curve can spike at times.

Just as I was feeling the switch to a more platform focused gameplay it then gave me the gift of returning to the combat side which I loved so much in the first one by added new wrestling moves to the regular combat with new skill trees to be upgraded via the gold gathered through gameplay. The ability to add a piledriver or suplex finishing move to a combo which as a wrestling fan not only makes sense as Juan is a Luchador wrestler but its just very cool to grab an enemy during a combo and drop them with a piledriver onto other enemies. The bonus is that these moves can be used in your chicken or ‘Polo’ power form so bringing down a giant enemy with a suplex as a chicken never gets old in this game.

Guacamelee 2 managed to deliver everything I hoped that the sequel would simply by sticking to what worked so well before and just tweaking and adding new elements to the gameplay. The story is nuts but in a way fans of the original can embrace and newcomers will not feel too overwhelmed by as the writing and humour can appeal to everyone. Though the platforming side has been made the most challenging aspect by far, with a little practice and patience players can still get the most from this game.

This was just solid fun to play and even after ten hours I am still finding secrets to uncover and things to do following a satisfying story campaign. I had a big grin on my face from start to finish and the wait was certainly worth it.