Fresh review weeks are usually noisy in an obvious way. One giant game takes the oxygen, everyone else waits their turn, and smaller releases get sorted into the backlog before they even have a chance. This week is different. The better story is in the middle shelf: a co-op sequel that critics seem happy to hand to almost anyone with friends nearby, a bright action adventure with uneven edges, and a substantial sci-fi DLC that reviewers like more when it stops pretending to be essential.
So this is a smaller critic-score roundup, but not a minor one. Heave Ho 2, Fading Echo, and The Alters: Last Variable all ask for different kinds of attention. One wants a couch full of people yelling at each other. One wants you to enjoy elemental movement more than its lore. One asks whether an expansion can be worth playing even when it is more side path than missing chapter.
For Perthro players, this is the kind of week where the wishlist earns its keep. None of these look like compulsory homework. All three have enough critical signal to be worth writing down before the next release wave rolls in.
Heave Ho 2 review scores: critics love the chaos, with one big caveat
Heave Ho 2 is the clear critical leader of the three. Le Cartel Studio and Devolver Digital released it on July 16 for Switch 2, Switch, and PC, and OpenCritic currently lists it at an 87 top critic average with 78 percent of critics recommending it. That is a strong number for a small physics co-op sequel, one built around the same wonderfully dumb premise as the original: little round bodies, grabby hands, bad decisions, and friends who will let go at the worst possible time.
Game Informer scored Heave Ho 2 an 8.25 and framed the fun in a way that gets to the heart of it: "I enjoy dying in Heave Ho 2." The reviewer was not praising failure for its own sake. The point was that the deaths are quick, funny, and usually your fault or your friend's fault in a way that becomes the story of the session. Game Informer liked the eight worlds, the roughly 60 campaign levels, and the way the objectives shift from simple traversal to keys, ski lifts, gondolas, zero-gravity spaceships, and other curveballs. The complaints were specific: Chef's Orders and Medieval Travels were called frustrating, and Showdown mode sounded like a thin side dish next to the co-op campaign.
COGconnected was warmer, scoring it 85 out of 100 and calling it "silly, funny and brilliant." Their review put a lot of weight on the basics. Simple controls, clear goals, fast respawns, consistent physics. That sounds plain until you remember how many local co-op games fall apart because the joke is better than the handling. COGconnected's read is that Heave Ho 2 works because the nonsense is supported by a stable little machine underneath it.
Loot Level Chill went higher at 9 out of 10, calling Heave Ho 2 "a wonderfully silly multiplayer game" with "plenty laugh out loud moments guaranteed while swinging around with your buds." MKAU Gaming went higher still at 9.5, while OpenCritic's quoted summary from Uagna landed on one of the few recurring warnings: Heave Ho 2 sacrifices solo play. If the first game worked for you as a weird little solo challenge, this sequel is not trying to meet you there. It wants people in the room or online, ideally people you already like enough to forgive.
The consensus is pretty clean. Heave Ho 2 is being reviewed as a confident multiplayer toy rather than a broad platformer. Critics agree that the controls are better than the chaos makes them look, that the campaign has enough variety, and that the best moments come from human error. The divide is not about quality. It is about use case. If you play mostly alone, the 87 average may overstate its value for you. If you have two to four people ready to be stupid together, the score sounds about right.
Fading Echo review scores: stylish elemental action with rougher storytelling
Fading Echo is harder to pin down, and that makes it interesting. Developed by Emetria and published by New Tales, it released on July 21 for PC. It does not have the same OpenCritic footprint as Heave Ho 2 at the time of writing, but the review spread already shows a clear shape: critics like the elemental movement, the visual style, and the combat ideas. They are less sold on the story and some of the writing.
Loot Level Chill gave Fading Echo a 7.5 and wrote that it "undeniably has some issues, but most of them didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the game." That review is probably the most useful short version of the critical mood. It describes a world hit by Paradox Corruption, a protagonist named One, and a structure where magical portals, floating land, and elemental powers matter more than the finer details of the plot. The standout mechanic is One's ability to turn into a ball of water, then shift properties by interacting with other liquids and elements. Water tunnels, steam traversal, acid jumps, and environmental tricks give the game a tactile identity.
CGMagazine's review takes a similar angle. It says Fading Echo "immediately captivated me with its unique sense of style and dynamic combat," then notes that the game is simpler than expected but still built around a strong interaction between environments and elements. That is a useful distinction. Fading Echo may look like an action RPG from a distance, but several reviewers describe it more like an action adventure or puzzle platformer with elemental combat layered over the top.
Gamereactor also pushes back on the RPG label, saying it may lead players to expect something they will not get. Their review calls Fading Echo "a very enjoyable experience and a super strong adventure game," with fast, tight combat and puzzles that keep adding new mechanics as the player settles in. WayTooManyGames is cooler on the narrative. Their review says the story is a classic adventure but that it was hard to feel motivated by the characters, and it calls some of the writing "new age cringey" in a mixed but not wholly negative way.
That split matters. Fading Echo sounds like a game where the act of moving through the world carries more weight than the reasons the world gives you for moving. The reviewers who respond to it are responding to feel: sliding, flowing, kicking enemies into hazards, combining elemental effects, and poking through bright fractured spaces. The reviewers who hesitate are hearing the dialogue and seeing familiar adventure stakes.
The practical takeaway: Fading Echo is not being treated like a must-play, but it is being treated like a pleasant surprise. If you are hungry for a colorful action adventure that feels a little like a lost Xbox 360 experiment in the best way, the 7 to 8 range makes sense. If you need sharp storytelling to keep you going, wait for more reviews or a sale.
The Alters: Last Variable review scores: a strong expansion, not required reading
The Alters: Last Variable is the strangest fit in this roundup because it is not a full new game. It is the first major DLC for 11 bit studios' The Alters, released July 13 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series. OpenCritic lists several reviews between 7 and 8.6 out of 10, which is a healthy range for an expansion that seems to be doing two things at once: giving fans more Jan Dolski, and admitting that this is not the missing half of the base game.
TechRaptor scored it 7.5 and said Last Variable "builds on the base game with new mechanics, a new story, and more, but it doesn't always make the most of its innovations." CGMagazine gave it 7 out of 10, calling it "a mostly positive return for the Jan clan" that adds complexity to the core gameplay but "removes depth and character from the story." Those are not dismissals. They are cautious endorsements, the kind that tell you the expansion is good but not cleanly superior to what came before.
GamingBolt was more positive at 8 out of 10, praising Jan Scientist and his specialized Alters, while noting the cryo-sleep system as a twist on long-term decision-making. PressAttack went higher at 8.6, arguing that Last Variable meaningfully expands the universe by following a Jan who stayed behind and by shifting the focus away from a simple replay of the original campaign. Playday's review is also enthusiastic in prose, saying the DLC gave the reviewer "a renewed appreciation" for The Alters and kept them hooked for nearly 20 hours.
The most honest line may come from Sector's 8 out of 10 summary: "It isn't an essential DLC; it doesn't bring anything fundamental to the universe." That sounds harsh until you read the rest of the thought. For players who want more time with Jan, the DLC offers a decent story and minor additions for research, crafting, and exploration. In other words, Last Variable is not being reviewed as a correction. It is being reviewed as a return trip.
That is a useful way to decide whether to play it. If The Alters worked on you because of its moral pressure, production loops, and strange intimacy with alternate selves, Last Variable has enough critical support to justify the download. If you bounced off the base game's rhythms, none of these reviews suggest the DLC will convert you. It seems richer for fans than persuasive for skeptics.
The week in brief
Heave Ho 2 has the cleanest recommendation and the strongest score profile: 87 on OpenCritic, with critics broadly agreeing that its co-op chaos is backed by smart design. Fading Echo is messier but appealing, a stylish elemental adventure where movement and combat are doing more work than the writing. The Alters: Last Variable sits in the middle as a substantial, thoughtful DLC that reviewers like best when they treat it as an optional return rather than a required chapter.
I like weeks like this. They are easier to miss because none of the games arrives with the full machine behind it. But they also say more about how people actually play. Some nights you need the loud, stupid co-op game. Some nights you want a bright world to move through. Some nights you want twenty more hours with a system you already know.
If you are using Perthro during the TestFlight beta, this is a good three-game note for the backlog or wishlist: Heave Ho 2 for friends, Fading Echo for action-adventure curiosity, The Alters: Last Variable for when you are not quite done with Jan.