Sunderfolk
This is a tactical RPG released by Secret Door and published by Dreamhaven which are all teams filled with ex-Blizzard personnel, the team that brought us pretty much every classic from the mid-90s to the mid-2010s. They have always been innovators, and Sunderfolk is kinda the first game of its kind. It is a multiplayer game that you get on console or PC, and then each player uses their phone as a controller, but all look at the shared screen. It's a great idea to get a group of non-gamers around a TV having an adventure together, very similar to a tabletop RPG but far more accessible.
The other thing Blizzard was known for was polishing their games to a perfect sheen. That is exactly true of Sunderfolk which strips away all the needless complexity of deep tabletop RPGs, and leaves you with a rewarding, straightforward game that adds more and more depth as you go along. Essentially every level is a new self-contained puzzle to figure out, one that requires team work, communication, strategizing, and a decent amount of brain work. We never struggled too much until the final boss, but neither did we ever fly through any level. It had a perfect difficulty balance and did a tremendous job of introducing new concepts in a simple way yet without holding your hand.
You get to choose from 6 characters, all with unique builds and abilities, but once you choose you are locked in. They each follow typical RPG tropes (tank, damage, support) and although this game doesn't reinvent the wheel with the RPG elements, they are all unique enough to stand out. I chose a tank and Jess chose damage, and by the end we were masters of our respective craft. Jess firing that final arrow to win us the game was one of the most attractive things she has ever done and out marriage has never been stronger.
So as far as the multiplayer elements go, this game is amazing. There is a solo mode, and I would say that this game would still be a strong 8/10 going that way. It's a creative, well-made game, but it's the team element that sticks out. I should also mention that outside of the levels, this game can be HORRENDOUS. I mean, the art style is attractive, the character designs are cool, the music is nice. Mostly what I mean is that the writing is truly atrocious, and the voice acting even worse. There is one voice actor doing every character, and she is truly terrible. This is a low budget game, so I get it, but I can't recall ever hearing voice acting this bad in a modern game. It became a bit, and we'd often be laughing for minutes at a time when she'd have a particularly embarrassing read. Luckily you can skip the story and voice acting and not suffer in the least. I won't hold it against the game in this case.
The same night we beat the game, we started our new campaign. We realized we can each pick 2 characters, and we increased the difficulty, and have loved every minute of the new campaign. It took 25 hours to beat, and I suspect we have a minimum 25 hours remaining. It's also a fun game to play when friends come over... I mean this game has it all! Couldn't recommend it enough. It's a small, mostly unknown game (for now) and I'm happy I found it.
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