Gamebox 2.0: Games of May 2025
May was a gaming-packed month for us. We got a one-two punch combo of gaming content as we ventured off PAX East in Boston and finished off the month with lots of games to check out at home. We hit the high seas with Captain Blood, burned the books in SpreadCheat, played a twisted game in FMV with Hello Stranger, and more. Check out everything we played this month below in this month’s Gamebox 2.0.
Tunnels (Zach): Developed by Nomad Monkey and published by Mastiff, Tunnels is a claustrophobic horror game for the Meta family of VR headsets. You play as a member of a team trying to demo a dangerous cave to seal it off, but you fall into a chasm and end up deep in the labyrinthine tunnels with only a flashlight, your radio, and your wits. As if crawling through tight, dark caves wasn’t scary enough, horrific creatures are roaming the tunnels looking to devour you. The game does a good job of simulating the tightness of the environments, especially as you are crawling through the tunnels. You have to use your controllers to grip and pull your way through, and, while realistic, I struggled a bit to find where I could grab and pull myself along. Having the option of smooth movement and more realistic movement would have been great.
Along with crawling through tunnels, you’ll also have to zip-line, climb, and occasionally swim through each chapter. The movements for these, to me, were a bit smoother than the crawling and climbing, especially when navigating rock outcroppings or up and down ladders, which were fast and smooth. You need to find batteries to power your flashlight, as that is the primary thing that will ward off the hideous creatures lurking in the tunnels. The creature design is cool and looks like something out of The Thing or Alien. The game is free to play in multiplayer mode, where you’ll see other players navigating the tunnels. The single-player story campaign is a DLC add-on that costs $14.99. The setting is creepy, and you definitely feel the tightness of the walls at times, but the crawling mechanic didn’t quite click with me, and that’s the majority of what you are doing. If you’d like to check it out, you can find it on the Meta Quest store for your preferred headset.
Best Served Cold (Chris): In the city of Bukovie, speakeasies offer a brief escape where citizens can relax and forget their worries. Whether you’re a worn-down laborer, an elite socialite, or a hardened mob enforcer, a chilled cocktail has a way of softening your defenses. But as Bukovie tightens its grip on prohibition, only one speakeasy remains: The Nightcap. It’s a dimly lit haven where secrets are poured as freely as the liquor, and every guest brings more than just thirst to the bar. Rogueside’s Best Served Cold is a stylish visual novel title that puts the player in the role of a nameless bartender, tasked with not only mixing up flavorful libations but also investigating a series of murders. To keep The Nightcap from getting shut down, you form an uneasy alliance with a watchful constable, who has determined the speakeasy as the perfect hunting ground for the criminals looking to hide in plain sight. But in a place where every patron has something to hide, serving up a murderer to justice will take more than stiff drinks in clean glasses.
The core gameplay revolves around mixing cocktails to influence patrons’ trust and coax out their secrets. As a skilled bartender and part-time sleuth, your job is to put customers at ease with excellent service and charm. Each customer has a preferred flavor profile, and choosing the right drink is key to loosening their lips. Cocktail creation is handled through a mini-game that involves tracing outlines—nail the trace, and you’ll craft the perfect mix; fail, and you’ll serve up a bland drink that sours the mood.
It’s not just flavor that matters to the customer; the alcohol content plays a role in loosening those secrets. Serve something too weak, and they’ll be on guard. Too strong, and they’ll get drunk and leave. Every successful drink also grants action points that the bartender can use to ask questions. As you serve drinks and earn more appreciation from patrons, you can test boundaries by hinting at accusations and presenting evidence to see how they react. The careful balance of cocktails and conversation is what turns casual chats into crucial clues for your case.
The jazzy visuals and sounds help create a smooth atmosphere, letting you slowly take in the details of the characters and setting at a comfortable pace. The fictional Bukovie resembles any busy metropolis, filled with working-class individuals, rising entrepreneurs, and the privileged, all trying to make a living. But a few who would snuff out another for a sinister reason. The patrons of The Nightcap come from all walks of life, each with distinct personalities that are thoughtfully written to pull you into their world.
True to its noir roots, Best Served Cold delivers an episodic, twist-filled mystery that never lets you rest easy. Fans of whodunits will feel right at home testing their sleuthing skills in this moody bar drama. While the gameplay won’t strain your reflexes, its tangled narrative rewards anyone willing to settle in and piece the story together. Best Served Cold was released for Steam on May 5th and will be coming to PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch later this year.
Hello Stranger (Zach): Developed and published by PRM Games, Hello Stranger is an FMV thriller from writer/director Paul Raschid, who also worked on modern FMV games like The Complex, Five Dates, and The Gallery. You control Cam, who rarely, if ever, leaves his apartment, working and living almost entirely electronically. One of his main activities is using Hello Stranger, a Chatroulette-style app that randomly pairs him with other users. When he gets paired with a creepy masked figure, Cam becomes trapped in a dangerous game that has potentially fatal consequences if he loses. The game features two modes of play: a “Cinema” mode, where you make choices that advance the story, and a “Game” mode that incorporates minigames alongside decision-making. One of Cam’s challenges, for instance, is “Arcade,” where you can play a shoot ’em up game or a beat ’em up game to try to earn a high enough score to beat that challenge.
The game also offers two options for decision-making: “Timed,” where you have a short time to make a decision, and “Paused,” where you don’t have a time limit, which can be great for playing in a group or on a stream. The game has 10 different endings, and when you hit one, you can see a tree of all of the other possible decisions, so the replayability is high if you want to try and check out everything in the game. The FMV footage is well-shot and well-acted, and the game features actors George Blagden, Danny Griffin, Christina Wolfe, Laura Whitmore, and Kulvinder Ghir. At the start of the game, you also get to choose the voice for your AI companion, which can be either Yasmin Finney or Derek Jacobi. If you are a fan of modern FMV games or the dearly departed Bandersnatch on Netflix, then Hello Stranger is definitely worth checking out. It’s out now on Steam.
Captain Blood (Zach): Originally intended for release in 2010, Captain Blood was lost to Davy Jones’ Locker until it was brought back by SNEG for release this month. A classic hack-and-slash action game in the vein of games like the original God of War trilogy, you play as the titular pirate Captain Blood, who prowls the seas of the 17th-century Spanish Main. In an era where most action games are copy games like Demon’s Souls and its timing-based, precise combat, it’s kind of a breath of fresh air to go back to a game where you can wade in, slash through hordes of enemies, and occasionally block when needed. You have both your sword for melee and a pistol for ranged combat, and you can find other weapons, like rapiers and muskets, to use temporarily against your foes. You build up a rage meter that you can use to trigger when powered up, temporarily boosting your attacks and allowing you to execute enemies with a growing repertoire of finishing moves. As was the style around 2010, there are also numerous quick-time events, especially when battling the various boss characters in the game.
The game also features ship battles where you need to fend off enemies trying to board your ship, and you can also man rapid-fire cannons to blow up enemy ships and take down scores of advancing foes. The game plays fast and smoothly, and you can unlock combos to add more options to the combat. The story and voice acting won’t win any awards, but they have a goofy charm, thanks to extremely exaggerated models that evoke a Japanese or anime vibe. One minor nitpick is that there is a slight gap between checkpoints, so if you die, you will be sent back further than you probably would like, and it may cause you to set the game down for a bit instead of replaying a long, difficult session again. Captain Blood is a fun throwback that features fast and loose combat in a fun setting, and it’s definitely worth checking out, especially if you are looking for a break from the various Souls-like action games out there. It’s now available on PC, Switch, PS4/PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.
UVS Games – Attack on Titan: Apocalypse (Chris): The city of Shiganshina is destroyed, Wall Maria is crumbling, and the titans have arrived. Humanity’s final stand is underway. Attack on Titan: Apocalypse marks the conclusion to the UniVersus Attack on Titan trilogy, featuring powerful new cards, unforgettable character moments, and exclusive original artwork from series creator Hajime Isayama. This final expansion to the Attack on Titan deck series features over 180 new cards, including six chrome rares.
The Apocalypse set features artwork from the manga and anime of Attack on Titan. Epic and melodramatic moments from the final arc are captured as various Action and Foundation cards, which will now give Attack on Titan players a more complete theme to their decks. UVS Games sent me one of the two new playmats for the set—The Usurper—which features a blood-soaked Eren slicing through something that definitely won’t be walking it off.
Whether you have previous Attack on Titan decks or are looking to add some new style to your deck, these cards will work alongside any UVS Games cards. You can add some Titan flair to your Gozilla Minus One deck for a monstrous battle, or lend one of Mikasa’s speedy attacks to Izuku Midoriya’s quirk. Attack on Titan: Apocalypse had a pre-release on May 9th and a general release on May 15th and can now be purchased at your local game stores.
Spreadcheat (Zach): Spreadcheat, from Games People Play and Rubarb, takes you back to the 90s for some Excel-inspired puzzle action. You play as the newest member of an increasingly shady business who is in charge of making sure all the spreadsheets are correct (or if not accurate, benefit the higher-ups). Each puzzle consists of several cells, and you must ensure that the numbers add up to a specific total. The game starts fairly easily, as you have to enter single digits, but you soon have to enter more complex formulas and determine which cells will add up and how you can make everything work to achieve the desired outcome. If you’re a fan of things like Sudoku, you will probably love the math-based gameplay of Spreadcheat. In between puzzles, there are some goofy minigames, like cleaning up the office after a wild party or making a kick-ass PowerPoint presentation.
The game has a great Windows 3.1/95 aesthetic that it fully leans into, including a Clippy-esque helper character that pops up to spout mostly useless information, as well as extremely pixelated and low-fi visuals between the puzzles. Math isn’t my strongest area, so I was getting stumped fairly quickly. You can make several mistakes when trying to figure out the puzzle, but there is a limit, and if you go over it, you’ll have to restart the puzzle. You can also restart at any time by clicking an icon at the top of the window if you want to reset and start from scratch. The idea behind the game is highly original and well-realized. If you love math puzzles, Spreadcheat is definitely something to check out, as it offers a new and unique challenge in a wacky and hilarious setting. It’s out now on Steam.
Among the Whispers: Provocation (Zach): If you’ve wanted to try your hand at being a ghost hunter, then Among the Whispers: Provocation from D&A Studios will probably be right up your alley. You play as Stephanie, a paranormal investigator who has journeyed to a massive, creepy mansion to investigate the claims of ghostly activity. You have all the tools of the trade available, including an EMF gauge, an EMF pod, a laser grid, and a temperature gauge. You set up your equipment and then use a camera, camcorder, parabolic mic, and audio recorder to record evidence. For each spirit, you are trying to determine who they are, how they died, and how you can help them move on to the afterlife. You can return to your base camp in the main entrance at any time to lower your stress, which increases the longer you are in the vicinity of spirits, and do research and check emails on your laptop. The game does a good job of replicating what I would imagine is how a typical ghost hunt would go, but that’s a double-edged sword, as there’s a lot of aimlessly wandering around with things like the EMF gauge or the temperature gun, trying to find a specific area where something might be happening.
When you do manage to capture some evidence or record audio, it’s pretty cool. Still, the investigation grid on your tablet is a bit confusing to navigate, with symbols that the game doesn’t clearly explain the meaning of, and I had to fudge my way through, hoping I clicked the right options. Along with the visual and audio evidence, you need to use the titular Provocations, which are questions that you can use to try and prompt a response from the spirits, such as asking them to show themselves or describe how they died. If you can manage to communicate correctly, you may be able to get the ghost to reenact their death, which will help you figure out the how and why and bring you one step closer to releasing their spirit into the afterlife. If you provoke a ghost in the wrong way or when you are not prepared, you may get an angry spirit in your face. The mansion is a vast, intricate environment with over 30 rooms to explore, and it’s filled with creepy, dark corners and unique areas. Among the Whispers: Provocation is an interesting concept, and it does a great job of replicating the real-life gadgets of a ghost hunter; however, it’s a little too fiddly and aimless for my taste. I prefer a more focused, more story-driven horror experience. If it seems interesting to you and you want to become a ghost hunter, you can check out the game on Steam.
