The Phoenix Project

Matthew, 33 😱 Reader 📚 TV Binger 🍿 Gaymer 🎮 Creator, reviewer, and, one day, author here at The Phoenix Project: Welcome! See more on Twitter/X @phoenix_prjct

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Review: 📚 Murder by Design is a clever little mystery that revels in the shadows of its inspirations 📚

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Author (Platform): Lee Goldberg (Kindle)

Length: 236 pages

Murder by Design is a fast-paced detective story unafraid of its spiritual predecessors that takes you on a fun journey like a friend. Unlike a friend, it uses its narrative winks and sly smirks to distract from the clear facts in front of you, lining up a killer twist embodying its title in a wickedly satisfying finale.

When you leave, this simple story will have you looking for the threads all around you and the manipulations in place to guide you where others want you to go. Depth hides at the front, and author Lee Goldberg sculpts this deceptive little forest-for-the-trees nugget into smooth gold.

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Review: 📚 Murder by Design is a clever little mystery that revels in the shadows of its inspirations 📚

Edison Bixby is wealthy, handsome, and, due to a traumatic brain injury, impulsively rude. He’s also a brilliant insurance investigator who

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Review: 🎮 Directive 8020 is a nifty narrative horror lost in its influences 🎮

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Developer (Platform): Supermassive Games (PlayStation 5 Pro)

Publisher (Release): Supermassive Games (2026)

Directive 8020 nails its promised The Thing in space and delivers Supermassive’s familiar blend of choice and consequence with a surprisingly tight and consistent roadmap. The muddy atmosphere pairs well with the sci-fi horror themes and, despite a slow start, characters share interesting dynamics that play well with the fear that the enemy could be anyone you know. A cinematic payoff hides a variety of endings that overall feel satisfying depending on your decisions throughout.

Sadly, 8020 isn’t without its too familiar hiccups. Stealth mechanics introduced to provide some engagement between scenes is overly simplistic and largely unnecessary given they can be circumvented by just, well, not stealthing. Inspirations are clear as day but prevent the game itself from crafting an identity of its own, further muddying the waters with out of place licensed tracks that rob veteran Jason Graves of his otherwise solid soundtrack.

Overall, fans of the genres, both narrative and sci-fi horror, are absolutely going love this tense and unsettling jaunt through space, and the story does have some nifty twists that lead to thoughtful cast contemplation while consistent choice to consequence outcomes make the payoff impactful.

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Review: 🎮 Directive 8020 is a nifty narrative horror lost in its influences 🎮

Earth is dying and humanity is running out of time. 12 light years from home, Tau Ceti f offers a small sliver of hope. When the colony ship

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Review: 🎮 007 First Light - license to enter the modern video game stratosphere? Granted 🎮

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Developer (Platform): IO Interactive (PlayStation 5 Pro)

Publisher (Release): IO Interactive (2026)

First Light delivers an exceptional origins story of a young, reckless James Bond brought to life with hearty charm by Patrick Gibson in a sleek, action-packed tale of identity, artificial intelligence, and conspiracy that puts many a silver screen outings to shame. IO Interactive leverage their expertise in player freedom to craft a controlled but flexible third-person adventure with stunning set pieces designed to make the most out of their gameplay concoction of stealth, combat, and spy craft.

Some rough spots come from trying to squeeze in as much Bond goodness as possible, but it’s hard to hold it against the game too much. Overall, First Light is a cinematic but engaging action-adventure game that balances player control with bombastic spectacle, proving IO Interactive were very much the right choice to break the pall that has lingered over the franchise’s gaming exploits over the last decade.

So, from at least me, I’d say IO Interactive’s license to continue killing it with instalments is more than granted…just don’t make the experience so bumpy with as many parts as Hitman, please?

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Review: 🎮 007 First Light – license to enter the modern video game stratosphere? Granted 🎮

After a heroic act, young Naval air crewman Bond is offered the opportunity to join the newly revived Double 0 programme. But when a mission

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Review: 🎮 Silent Hill 2 Remake is a masterpiece’s masterpiece 🎮

Rating: 🔥 PHOENIX RECOMMENDED 🔥

Developer (Platform): Bloober Team (PlayStation 5)

Publisher (Release): Konami (2024)

I’ll say it, Silent Hill 2: Remake is the best horror game in years. It’s terrifying, punishing, and an absolutely nail-biting experience pristinely paced to wring every chill and cry from the player it can. Bloober absolutely excelled in creating a masterpiece from a masterpiece, learning from the wonderful work of Team Silent while coding in their own DNA to create an instant modern classic.

From the foreboding fog to the crunchy combat, Silent Hill fans the world over should rejoice because the series is back and back with a voracious vengeance. It’s gorgeous and narratively timeless, showing an incredibly raw look at mental health issues that, while not the most hopeful, contain painful lessons with uncomfortable truths that might just leave you with a level of compassion to your fellow man you otherwise wouldn’t have experienced.

And all from a video game…take that naysayers.

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Review: 🎮 Silent Hill 2 Remake is a masterpiece’s masterpiece 🎮

After receiving a letter from his wife Mary three years after her death, James Sunderland returns to Silent Hill, their ‘special place’, whe

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Review: 🎮 Silent Hill 2 is a timeless piece of psychological horror 🎮

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Developer (Platform): Team Silent (PS3 as part of the HD Collection)

Publisher (Release): Konami (2001)

Silent Hill 2 is arguably the best psychological horror game to ever grace the gaming landscape. Harrowing, tense, and dripping in an atmosphere of existential dread and trauma, our second trip to the titular town plays host to a variety of heartbreaking stories that are as honest as they are painful.

The series’s signature blend of scrappy, clunky combat and riddle-infused puzzles creates a strange addiction to exploration that is rewarded and punished in equal measure.

Overall, Silent Hill 2 is a classic of a bygone era that richly revels in regret and the very human tendency to get ourselves stuck in cycles of self-destruction. It’s terrific, thrilling, and my only real negative note would be over how darn difficult it is for casual gamers to access and experience, especially as a sequel that outshines its predecessor by miles.

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Review: 🎮 Silent Hill 2 is a timeless piece of psychological horror 🎮

Returning to the resort town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife Mary, James Sunderland faces unspeakable creatures i

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🎮 Silent Hill scars psychological horror in a way no one has come close to since 🎮

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Developer (Platform): Team Silent (PlayStation 3)

Publisher (Release): Konami (1999)

Silent Hill is as impactful to the survival horror genre as mainstay Resident Evil, and, in many ways, transcends it entirely. Moving from B-movie schlock to serious psychological torment, dynamic camera work and scrappy combat blend into a terrifyingly tense jaunt through the mysterious and atmospherically unrivalled titular town.

Characters need work and some mixed messaging obscures a meatier story that can lead to a confusing finale, but, out of the gate, Team Silent came swinging hard, birthing a style that clashes Japanese and American horror into a satisfying spookfest.

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Review: 🎮 Silent Hill scars psychological horror in a way no one has come close to since 🎮

As Harry Mason and his daughter Cheryl make their way to the resort town of Silent Hill for vacation, a mysterious girl causes Harry to cras

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🎮 Outlaws is a rudimentary but flexible action adventure that rewards curiosity 🎮

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Developer (Platform): Massive Entertainment (Xbox Series X)

Publisher (Release): Ubisoft (2024)

Star Wars: Outlaws is an undeniably passionate and personal jaunt through some beautiful and painstakingly curated locales. Curiosity and exploration are rewarded while an emotionally punchy tale of a lovable rogue in Kay Vess sells an adventure dripping in 80s sci-fi goodness.

Marred by some pretty significant technical issues that scream to be left in that development oven just a little longer, some thoughtful design choices help balance the experience out, delivering an overall satisfying open-world action adventure with rudimentary but flexible mechanics.

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Review: 🎮 Outlaws is a rudimentary but flexible action adventure that rewards curiosity 🎮

Marked with death, scoundrel and thief Kay Vess sets her sights on the mother-load of credits, enough to buy her way to freedom and out of t

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Review: 📚 Extinction is devilishly delightful if struggling to push the series forward 📚

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Author (Platform): Iain Rob Wright (Kindle)

Length: 280 pages

Extinction is both exciting and frustrating. It sadly falls into the same trap many an apocalyptic horror does, with its no one is safe approach clashing with keeping consistent overarching storylines, most of which end in a sudden and sad whimper. Repetitive plot points and recycled dialogue is also beginning to crack the series’s dark veneer, and Extinction tries to fill in the gaps with far too much fluff.

On the flip side, Extinction does find its moments to advance its mythology, deepening the fantastical elements that compliment the brutal horror. When it isn’t repeating another rousing, existential speech, readers are treated to some juicy world-building, capping off the story with a much-needed break in the status quo.

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Review: 📚 Extinction is devilishly delightful if struggling to push the series forward 📚

VAMPS: After dealing with his rival, Pusher, and escaping the clutches of treacherous Prime Minister, John Windsor, Vamps and his last remai

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Review: 📚 The Last Thing He Told Me bucks the genre’s traditional trends to tell a thrilling tale around identity and family 📚

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Author (Platform): Laura Dave (Kindle)

Length: 319 pages

The Last Thing He Told Me is a deceptive little mystery that relies a tad too much on its tension and inciting incident that it falls to the protagonist and her stepdaughter to capture the reader and entice them onwards. Entice, however, they do, with a stunning and dynamic relationship that sees two insightful women dive into the dangerous past of the man they both love and what caused his sudden disappearance. It’s honest and gritty, bucking the genre’s traditional trends to deliver a powerful message of family that’ll stay with you after the book closes.

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Review: 📚 The Last Thing He Told Me bucks the genre’s traditional trends to tell a thrilling tale around identity and family 📚

IT WAS THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME: PROTECT HER Before Own Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his new wife, Hannah: protect

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📚 Blood Beast & Demon Apocalypse form a killer one-two punch (In-Depth Review) 📚

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Author (Platform): Darren Shan (Kindle)

Length: 277 & 212 pages

Blood Beast and Demon Apocalypse are two exceptional stand-alone stories that combine to form a killer one-two punch. Beast's cliffhanger had me distraught as a child who had to wait for Apocalypse's release, but the latter more than makes up for it with a global race against time to save humanity from extinction. Filled with dynamic characters and finger-snapping cameos, readers will be wowed by the sheer size and scale of these novels that could've ended a series rather than be just one more step to a near impossibly gargantuan finale. The ramifications, the intrigue, just everything is so pristine and confidently gleeful that even the viscerally violent bloodshed will pose little obstacle between you and the next entry in this fantastical feast of fiction.

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📚 Blood Beast & Demon Apocalypse form a killer one-two punch (In-Depth Review) 📚

Grubbs Grady has firmly placed his skirmishes with the monstrous Demonata in the past, resolute in his convictions to live out the rest of h

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🎬 The Scargiver drives home why two films aren’t needed to tell one story (In-Depth Review) 🎬

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Director and Writer (Platform): Zack Snyder (Netflix)

Length: 2 hours and 2 minutes

The Scargiver isn’t Part 2 so much as it’s the ending to Part 1 stretched and twisted to reach an overlong runtime primarily using slow-motion as a crutch to hide a lack of substance in style. I feel transported back to the 2010s when it felt like every YA film needed two parts to tell one story.

I hated it then and I hate it now, and it leaves the bitter taste in my mouth that someone needs to step in and moderate Snyder’s overly ambitious but sadly underdeveloped ambitions. There are nuggets of gold here and there that glimmer with potentially juicy mythology that only needs to be tapped into.

The scale is interesting despite the derivative ideas and, with some better choreographed action, Rebel Moon could take its solid soundtrack and create a space opera less reliant on forcing the viewer to watch faux flair and get their hearts pounding with some epic science fiction.

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🎬 The Scargiver drives home why two films aren’t needed to tell one story (In-Depth Review) 🎬

Kora, her recruits, and the farmers of Veldt prepare for the Motherworld’s impending attack.

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🎮 Still Wakes the Deep is a chilling creature-feature crawling with atmosphere (In-Depth Review) 🎮

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Developer (Platform): The Chinese Room (Xbox Series X)

Publisher (Release): Secret Mode (2024)

Still Wakes the Deep is a chilling creature-feature that delivers a powerfully pure narrative bolstered by phenomenally talented performances from a cast that convey visceral emotions. Streamlined gameplay won’t satisfy every player, but developer The Chinese Room, in my opinion, does a fantastic job of balancing ‘walking sim’ with platforming and puzzle engagements that keep things spicy.

Overall, Still Wakes the Deep is a lovingly curated journey through a Scotsman’s struggle to survive on an offshore oil rig crumbling to pieces while being relentlessly stalked by mysterious monsters. It’s tense, beautiful, and fantastically priced for the content.

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🎮 Still Wakes the Deep is a chilling creature-feature crawling with atmosphere (In-Depth Review) 🎮

1975, North Sea, Scotland. Cameron ‘Caz’ McLeary works aboard the Beira D, an offshore oil rig facing industrial action over a dangerously c

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🎮 Senua’s Saga is a stunning sequel whose highs struggle to combat its lows (In-Depth Review) 🎮

Rating: ⭐️⭐️.5

Developer (Platform): Ninja Theory (Xbox Series X)

Publisher (Release): Xbox Game Studios (2024)

Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga is an absolutely gorgeous jaunt that scintillates the senses and challenges the mind. Sound design and atmosphere are near peerless and a powerfully tragic protagonist anchors the experience in a bloody and brutal reality that begs to be explored…

…only to rob that opportunity from you.

Saga prioritises its art too much, stripping back its gameplay and player control while favouring failure to force its animations on you. Basic traversal is a slog, combat is crunchy but painful, and repetitive puzzles aren’t enough to break the short but padded playtime.

Saga fails to capture the intensely delicate balance of its predecessor and finds itself in a chaotic struggle with the player to play the game for them, wrestling and clawing control while forgetting that its visual and audio highs aren’t enough to balance the mechanical lows.

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🎮 Senua’s Saga is a stunning sequel whose highs struggle to combat its lows (In-Depth Review) 🎮

Senua returns in a brutal journey of survival through myth and torment of Viking Iceland. Intent on saving those who have fallen victim to t

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📚 Bec blasts us back to the past to deliver some bloody revelations (In-Depth Review) 📚

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Author (Platform): Darren Shan (Kindle)

Length: 272 pages

Bec should be, in my pointless opinion, entry number three in Shan’s Demonata series, and its fourth placement irks me to no end. Regardless, Shan’s devilishly delicious standard of rich world building, enticing fantasy, and colourful casting is a force to be reckoned with. A period piece that expertly merges with horror, Bec hints at big things to come with bloody repercussions, promising a rollercoaster of emotions for a reader helpless to stop.

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📚 Bec blasts us back to the past to deliver some bloody revelations (In-Depth Review) 📚

As demonic Fomorii ravage their land, Bec and a band of warrior companions leave their devastated home to answer a plea for help. An orphane

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🎮 Miles Morales swings onto the scene with some truly electrifying moves (In-Depth Review) 🎮

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Developer (Platform): Insomniac Games (PlayStation 5)

Publisher (Release): Sony Interactive Entertainment (2020)

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is woefully short and stumbles as it starts, but, past those pain points, a tightly tailoured, grounded, and heartfelt origin story revels in its sense of community as Miles fights to shed the imposter syndrome he faces being the 'second' Spider-Man. Gameplay and combat mechanics welcome past players with familiar abilities while slowly electrifying them with distinct and individual flourishes that better suit Miles. Sadly, side content still needs some tender love and care while its cinematic moments aren't well suited when in smaller spaces, but, overall, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an unmissably fun and emotional adventure that provides a nice bridge between the first and second games.

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🎮 Miles Morales swings onto the scene with some truly electrifying moves (In-Depth Review) 🎮

When Peter Parker leaves New York to join MJ in Symkaria, he leaves Miles Morales in charge of the city’s protection. Uncertain and developi

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📚 Legion creates a puzzle bound by blood and gore (In-Depth Review) 📚

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Author (Platform): Iain Rob Wright (Kindle)

Length: 267 pages

Legion is a far more confident entry in this apocalyptic fantasy, drawing strength from a wide array of colourful characters while they traverse a dangerous and layered new world order. Grounded by more personal story arcs, the overall plot is drip fed to the reader with impeccable pacing and a dark atmosphere. It’s bloody, it’s brutal, and if you’re a fan of the likes of Supernatural, the Hell on Earth series continues to deliver an even grittier experience of demonic delight.

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📚 Legion creates a puzzle bound by blood and gore (In-Depth Review) 📚

What will you do when the world ends? A question that needs answering quickly when the gates to Hell open all over Earth. Taking place acros

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🎬 A Quiet Place: Part 2 sees our protagonists find their voices (Basic Review) 🎬

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Director and Writer (Platform): John Krasinski - based on characters by Brian Woods & Scott Beck (NOW)

Publisher (Release): Paramount Pictures (2020)

Part 1 of A Quiet Place is one of the freshest post-apocalyptic horror dramas I've watched in recent memory; Part 2, remarkably, manages to carry that atmosphere forward, imbuing more frenetic action thanks to a bigger budget. Louder than its predecessor, Part 2 still has masterful sound design and character arcs, especially for the young ones in the cast. Anchored by Emily Blunt's fantastic, measured performance, the Abbott family's second fight for survival weaves a surprising tale of heroics in spite of futility.

Cillian Murphy is an excellent addition, but his character's introduction is clunky and his use as primarily a chaperone is the first real misstep the film takes before ending on a high but jagged note.

Overall, the themes of isolation, loss, and survival are as potent as ever, and Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe deliver stellar performances that embody the core story of taking back control regardless of the dangerous horror they'll have to face on the way.

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🎬 A Quiet Place: Part 2 sees our protagonists find their voices (Basic Review) 🎬

The remaining Abbott family leave their destroyed home in search of…well, they have no idea. Armed with new knowledge, their preparation and