A great, addictive game that should please the fans of Animal Crossing, simple RPGs and Harvest Moon. [08/2015, p.79]

A low-budget but solid arena shooter that drops superfluous mechanics for the sake of fast-paced gameplay. [08/2016, p.57]

Grid will be an ideal game for subscription based services – stunning at first and tasty in small bites but unfortunately easy to forget after one week. [12/2019, p.50]

Spellcaster University is repetitive and full of poor design choices. The gameplay needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, because in its current state the game still looks like something out of Early Access rather than a final release. [10/2021, p.44]

In Cloudpunk I found ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Drive’, ‘Altered Carbon’ and even ‘Lobo’ vibes scattered around the cyberpunk city. The gameplay itself can be a bit repetitive but if you drive off the beaten path and bother NPCs on the way, you are in for a treat. [07/2020, p.63]

Even The Three-Headed Monkey would not be unable to distract you from The Critter Chronicles’ shortcomings but this prequel to The Book of Unwritten Tales is still likeable. It’s just smaller in every aspect.[CD-Action 02/2013, p.56]

Simply put, Star Allies looks great, sounds great and plays great. [05/2018, p.47]

Despite being a low budget game built with assets from A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes is a great Zelda designed for co-op. [13/2015, p.74]

A textbook example of a 2D point'n'click adventure game. Probably just a handful of players will decide to give it a chance but they will be rewarded with a good story served with 'early SCUMM' visuals. [January 2012, p.73]

If you love with Battlefield's team deathmatch mode, you must get this DLC. [August 2012, p.76]

Not bad in small doses but can get tedious during long sessions. Works better in multiplayer. [CD-Action 02/2013, p.69]

I have fond memories of the latest rendez-vous with Miss Croft in the Temple of Osiris and I wish you the same. [02/2015, p.50]

Should I dash forward or jump backwards risking getting hit? How do I deplete his defense meter so he doesn’t work out my attack patterns? How do I hit him during a super attack to maximize the damage? You will ask yourself such questions a lot while playing Yatagarasu – and that’s what makes fighting game great. [10/2015, p.63]

It has some better and worse moments but for the most part Dungeon Travelers 2 is perfectly average and I can’t imagine any dungeon crawlers enthusiast being particularly disappointed or delighted with it. [11/2015, p.67]

It doesn’t try to be innovative, but neatly adapts some tried-and-true mechanics. [12/2015, p.74]

I have nothing against tough games but if instead of satisfaction after overcoming a challenge I’m rewarded with a feeling of relief and humiliating gratitude for stopping the torture for a while – something went wrong. In my opinion Rive’s designers failed to distinguish what’s reasonably challenging from what’s unfair. [13/2016, p.59]

The developers wasted a promising maximum security prison setting by resorting to clichés that drag the story down. Do not expect the atmosphere to be on par with The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay either. I wouldn’t call this DLC worthless but it’s a shame that we’re parting with Adam Jensen under such disappointing circumstances. [04/2017, p.45]

Fans of Outriders should be happy with Wordslayer, as it’s still a very enjoyable shooter and the expansion’s story, while silly, does its job of motivating you to push forward. It’s a shame that it ends so quickly and the endgame – while slightly improved over the base game – probably won’t engage you for very long.

1428: Shadows over Silesia is a very good adventure game, an unexceptional stealth game and a frustrating action game with some traces of an RPG. I enjoyed its engrossing dark story set in medieval Europe with magical elements, distinct atmosphere, great music and very difficult (yet logical) puzzles, but unpleasant combat and other flaws sometimes turn Shadows over Silesia into a chore.

I was flabbergasted by what two largely unknown studios managed to achieve. Lords of the Fallen is not just a creative take on the formula introduced by From Software, but also a game that can rival the greatest recent RPGs and looks like Monica Bellucci and Sophie Marceau from their best years. [Dec 2014, p.40]

Need for Speed Unbound has some issues (e.g. in-game economy needs immediate balancing), but is still quite satisfying and I consider it one of this year’s best arcade racing games (not that there’s a huge competition…). You may also like its unusual art style, but I personally think the developers took it a bit too far and should’ve worked harder on technical aspects of Unbound’s visual side.

I would love to love this game but more often it was irritating me than genuinely moving. The game has a lot of innate warmth but is was designed badly. [03/2019, p.62]

More of the same yet again, but the developers’ obvious love for the DC Universe easily spreads even to someone who’s not into comic books very much. [01/2015, p.82]

One of the best, most enjoyable games in the wide selection of Lego titles, a real superhero extravaganza. [01/2018, p.39]

Quite an enjoyable remaster made with respect for the originals. However, the first game in the series was released almost 30 years ago and there’s no way to hide it, so you’ll endure some jarring here and there, sometimes painful. The collection will probably attract veterans and retro enthusiasts, but I doubt younger gamers will find it appealing.

Neither gameplay nor game modes will make you return to this game after World Cup in Brazil ends. [06/2014, p.67]

Disgaea 6 can’t deny its blood ties to the previous games of the series, but it introduces fully 3D graphics and significantly cranks up the level of absurdity. The price for the former is poor framerate on Switch and the story will give you a lot of reasons to smile but won’t leave a lasting trace in your mind. Combat on the other hand is very solid and discovering new abilities and developing your party of characters are strong incentives to keep playing. [09/2021, p.35]

If you miss Impressions Games, Laysara: Summit Kingdom will give you an AVALANCHE of excitement. It’s not just a Tibetan village chief simulator! Beneath the clever facade of a colorful and cheerful city-builder lies a truly challenging title.

Rocket Arena is surprisingly fun and addictive for a simple, non-violent title for younger gamers. It would’ve been a blast if there were more people playing it, but a couple of weeks after the release its servers are pretty much desolate. [10/2020, p.74]

I really recommend you play this game and see for yourself that an online shooter does not have to be a Call of Duty clone. [10/2012, p.76]

Dead Island 2 does not pretend to be anything more than just a video game, even for a moment. Its every element, from the bland story to the environments, serves the purpose of making smashing zombie heads fun. The problem is, after a couple of hours this fun starts to give way to repetitiveness.

First hours with Banished are very enjoyable, but when the town starts functioning like clockwork, the game loses its appeal, because it's short of features – there’s no campaign here, no scenarios. [04/2014, p.68]

Despite Eagle Flight’s scanty content and the fact that its visuals are just okay, it was my most enjoyable VR experience to date. [01/2017, p.49]

Minute of Islands seems like a promise of a brilliant story but sadly some mechanics and developers’ choices got in the way and the game’s potential was squandered. Poorly designed platforming sequences quickly becomes tedious, while hallucinations caused by spores are boring and repetitive. I also wish the designers told me more about the intriguing world they created, because minimalist storytelling does not work here as well as it did in Journey. [09/2021, p.52]

After every moment of enjoyable flight or other dynamic event comes a segment that requires patience and counting seconds to time the next jump right. It’s a pity that instead of A Story About Jumping Around Like A Maniac we got such a drag. [8/2014, p.71]

Reikon Games mixed Doom with Ghostrunner, added a pinch of Titanfall 2 and Metroid Prime, and shook it all up to create a unique and delicious cocktail. Now that's what I call a surprise!

Yuke’s made some improvements taking the series in the right direction, but do not expect any revolutionary changes, because the most important aspect – the combat system – was only slightly modified. [13/2015, p.38]

Looks great, uses motion controls and apart from planes lets you choose a dragon. [12/2015, p.73]

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is a great game, but only on Xbox One. The PC edition is troublesome beyond belief. I had to face failing Windows Store download, abysmal performance (so much for the Full HD, not to mention 4K...) and lots of different technical issues ranging from missing textures to game quitting unexpectedly. [05/2016, p.45]

Three interesting career paths provide many hours of fun. [06/2015, p.61]

A great example of an eyesore spit out by indie devs convinced that only the story matters. The worst part is that they had no idea how to write the story to avoid it being a cliché running with the pack of sad, moving indie games. [08/2014, p.69]

Truly hilarious, brilliant dialogues are not enough to compensate for random, grind-oriented gameplay. [07/2018, p.74]

Visually, Croc is just severely out of date, and the gameplay itself seems too archaic to retain for long. I would only recommend it to turbofans of the original, if only for the extensive collection of bonus material.

It brings back memories of Painkiller and Serious Sam – again and again you get drowned in enemies. From time to time Hard Reset will beat the hell out of you but it does it in a quite pleasant way and graphics are very nice. The game has two substantial flaws – the single player campaign is short (ca. 6 hours) and there is no multiplayer mode. [October, p.66]

Provides a couple hours of genuine fun but if you have a portable device capable of running anything more complex than Pokémon Red/Blue, there’s no real reason to play Pocket Mortys. [03/2016, p.72]

When it came to rating the game, I was torn between 7+ and 8. There are some technical issues here, the bosses are disappointingly bland and both enemies and environments could use some more variety. I made my final decision when I played the wonderful song from the game and started to look through the screenshots I captured. I instantly remembered how much fun I had with The Surge’s great combat system and felt the need to start New Game+. And I don’t even consider Dark Souls the best thing since medieval torture devices. [07/2017, p.54]

The game features on of the most unique combat system in the tactical RPG genre. The maps are small, the RPG element is rather weak and the interface could use some polishing. In spite all of that Iron Danger still remains original and fun. [05/2020, p.55]

The Switch version is ideal for couch gaming and the gyro controls change everything... even if from the technical standpoint the game has some real problems. [13/2019, p.81]

Spellforce 3 is average both as an RPG and as an RTS, but the developers managed to mix these two genres skillfully, elevating the game beyond mediocrity, and ensured it looks spectacular. Still there are some major issues that drag Spellforce 3 down – questionable design choices, larger battles descending into frustrating chaos, bugs and widely understood crudeness. [02/2018, p.42]

Session: Skate Sim is the best skateboarding game right now. It’s difficult, it’s challenging, but it offers unbelievable possibilities for a video game and is very realistic without going overboard. I’ve been dreaming of something like this for the past 20 years. If you like skateboarding, you must play it.

A real flight simulator for the consoles. It has good flight model and huge number of planes, but sadly isn't a great game as a whole. [June 2012, p.68]

Outriders guarantees an enjoyable evening with friends. We had lots of fun clearing out stage after stage, gathering loot, upgrading our gear and improving our builds so they complement each other perfectly. The final score would have been higher if it weren’t for tons of technical issues we had to deal with. [06/2021, p.28]

If you want to get sweaty, play the game without the active pause. [06/2020, p.70]

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree is a moderately successful soulslike game and is far from perfect. The game's biggest flaws turn out to be the unpleasant platforming elements and the repetitive minibosses.

Despite some flaws the incident at Atamipek Lake is definitely worth experiencing, as long as you rank atmosphere and discovering a gloomy mystery above shootouts and car chases. [06/2017, p.53]

A space sim, an RPG and a 4X strategy mixed together skillfully, but held back by outdated technology and excessive grind. [08/2017, p.66]

Some of the fights seem too repetitive but many of the game’s shortcomings are made up for by its fantastic atmosphere of the original anime. [03/2020, p.60]

Andy Davidson (the original Worms creator) returned to help refresh the series. It didn't really work out the way it should have – Revolution is not what I was hoping to see. [12/2012, p.57]

Hard West delivered exactly what I wanted – a dark atmosphere and a decent story with a twist. If only AI and the interface were more polished... [01/2016, p.58]

If you like early Fallouts and other traditional 2D RPGs, if you think X-COM games from the 90s were awesome, if you enjoy reading sci-fi classics – this game was made for you. The story set in the alternative 1970s is not perfect and it’s obvious that the developers had to work with a tight budget, but Encased makes up for it with sheer fun. Actually, I think I haven’t enjoyed a game so much since Wasteland 3 was released. [11/2021, p.48]

An enjoyable tactical game in the vein of the new XCOM with a very unique strategy layer. [08/2015, p.64]

If you want to see what zumba is all about, Zumba Fitness Rush is a great introduction to this discipline. [CD-Action 02/2013, p.71]

An experienced traveler will deal with the campaign in 2 hours tops, but gathering experience in a series of adventures in a randomly generated world is the most enjoyable thing here. The moments of triumph and fear that you will experience along the way are reasons enough to give this game a chance despite its many (but not severe) technical issues. [05/2016, p.42]

After crazy Shadow Warrior 3 and toned down Trek to Yomi the Warsaw-based Flying Wild Hog studio offers a new IP that combines Wild West, horror and steampunk. It’s an explosive concoction with a surprisingly complex combat system, but if slaying monsters is not enough for you and you expect a wider range of experiences, Evil West is not a game for you.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker offers an interesting world to explore along with satisfying combat, and the first half of the adventure is top-notch old school fun. Unfortunately later the game loses its momentum and becomes boring. Anyhow, it’s a solid RPG that should keep Baldur’s Gate’s fans happy for many hours. [12/2018, p.86]

At first Fist Puncher seemed like good, mindless fun, but the more I played, the more tired I grew of it. [CD-Action 10/2013, p.75]

It’s more of a DLC than a real stand-alone product. Fetch is likeable and the game evokes some pleasant memories of Second Son, but I had no desire to stay in virtual Seattle any longer than I needed to finish the 3,5 hour long story. [Nov 2014, p.56]

Unstoppable Gorg differs from other tower defense games and offers enough content and variety to provide a couple of fun evenings. [March 2012, p.63]

Mario Strikers: Battle League Football relies too heavily on whether you fall in love with the core gameplay. Because there’s not much else here, you can either consider it a highlight of the year, or a really mediocre entry in Next Level Games’ track record.

I can only recommend this collection to people who intend to play it with a young Potter fan. Otherwise Lego Star Wars or Lego Hobbit will be a better choice, because these games are simply better. [13/2016, p.49]

I was sure Little Hope will improve significantly upon the first installment in The Dark Pictures series, but the developers opted for the bare minimum. The story is more interesting, the ending is more surprising, and the character cast is better. There are also some technical improvements. Little Hope is decent, but still fails to provide things I expect from a good horror game, like more engaging gameplay, interesting plot twists (Until Dawn!), and a real sense of terror. [13/2020, p.38]

The main goal of Haven is to relax you, and all gameplay mechanics work in harmony to help convey the beauty of living in a happy, trusting relationship. Exploring an alien planet indeed is calming, but monotony creeps in after a couple of hours. [02/2021, p.46]

It’s a competent, accessible sim, but there is nothing special about it, so I didn’t miss it after I stopped playing it for the sake of this review. [12/2016, p.72]

The game’s most notable problem is that its gameplay lacks narrative context. Over the course of the two-hour-long campaign you just complete some enjoyable minigames at the gym, fight nine times in the ring, listen to Stallone impersonator mumble some nonsense and wonder what was the only retrospection about. [02/2019, p.34]

Something more than just a homage to LucasArts classics. Broken Age built its own identity brick by brick, drawing inspiration from its ancestors, but not mindlessly. [06/2015, p.56]

A charming metroidvania with a disappointingly bland story and poor stealth segments. Its simple gameplay is relaxing but I longed for more tension and a sense of grand adventure that Fe lacks. [04/2018, p.66]

Square tried to give us a modern game heavily inspired by classic Final Fantasy titles, but lost its orientation somewhere on the way. The only advantage of Brave Exvius is the wonderful music during battles. [11/2016, p. 75]

Big Brain Academy returns in decent shape – it’s still a simple but enjoyable and engaging game that additionally exercises your brain. Possibly. A doctor’s opinion would be welcome.

They say size isn't important but clearly 9mm is not enough. A major failure by Gameloft – the game is mediocre at best and laughable at worst. [August 2011, p.74]

The enemy AI needs work and the game’s budget was too low for the developers to polish all the details, but with its spacious environments perfect for extremely long shots (headshots on moving targets from 1500 meters are awesome!) and interesting combat scenarios turning sometimes into puzzle-like situations, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 is definitely worth recommending as a well-designed, really fun game. [08/2021,p.68]

An interesting medieval action game with a very good combat system (except for a rather primitive mounted combat) which is more refined than its counterpart in Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. [CD-Action 13/2012, p.62]

An interesting idea – a 3D brawler focused on multiplayer. The combat system seems simple but offers quite a bit of depth. Unfortunately it is hard to find people to play with over the Internet and the single player mode is dull as hell. [CD-Action 03/2013, p.64]

Dandara’s unconventional movement system makes strategic thinking equally important as nimble fingers. Long Hat House’s take on the metroidvania genre might get frustrating sometimes due to lack of precision necessary to navigate some of the environments, but beautiful, creative visuals do a great job at soothing nerves. [04/2018, p.49]

A little better than the first Shift for iOS – new tracks, new cars, very similar visuals and a bit more fun. [September 2011, p.76]

A perfect game for the last stage of a party – its gameplay is very simple, the fights are very short and there’s a lot of goofiness. [12/2013, p.67]

My first impression of Gigantic Army was not very good. But the longer I played, the more I enjoyed it. I realized how much I missed such games. [05/2014, p.61]

My evening with My Brother Rabbit was enjoyable, even though the game fails at being a touching fable it wants to be and backtracking was too annoying for my taste. [12/2018, p.90]

Double Kick Heroes is a very interesting arcade rhythm game with cool pixel art, great soundtrack, and fun references to real-life rock musicians. Unfortunately, some poor design choices spoiled the overall experience for me. User interface items that you need to focus on to stay alive are too tiny and therefore tire the eyes very quickly. I had to take breaks every 20 minutes, because I simply couldn’t concentrate any longer. [12/2020, p.72]

For a game about painting, Behind the Frame surprisingly lacks creativity. [11/2021, p.69]

Red Thread Games obviously looks up to Telltale, but the first episode of Dreamfall Chapters lacks pace and excitement associated with The Walking Dead. [13/2014, p.78]

Lamplight City is neither as good, nor as bold as Unavowed’s mix of adventure and RPG but certain ways it reforms the genre do pleasantly surprise. Gonzalez’s marriage of a crime story with a period drama piece came out better than ever before. [13/2018, p.66]

As a sandbox game No More Heroes is extremely bad – the city is ugly, repetitive and almost completely empty. Those who dig the Japanese craziness will appreciate the game's biggest treasure – its atmosphere and absolute unpredictability. First you save your progress in a toilet, a moment later you run around with a lawnmower doing a side quest, then you agree to assassinate a corporate boss and at last you listen to the protagonist's philosophical monologue about the meaning of life. [August 2011, p.69]

Dead Rising 4 has some obvious flaws, like a shallow story, poorly executed co-op and the difficulty level that is nonexistent for anyone who has a tiniest bit of gaming experience, but I honestly enjoyed killing almost 15.000 zombies throughout the campaign. [02/2017, p.26]

For me the most important feature of this remaster is the inclusion of the optional chronological mode. It makes the story a bit less flashy but way easier to comprehend. [01/2016, p.65]

Men of War II is an extremely expansive – and still somewhat buggy – RTS set in World War II, which could put many turn-based strategies to shame with its complexity, attention to detail and regard for historical accuracy. It’s more suitable for hardcore fans of the genre, who will appreciate its immersive and enjoyable gameplay.

Layers of Fear can send shivers down your spine, but it lacks a good story and moderation. It looks like developers could not decide which favourite horror motifs to use, so they used all of them and although the game started really well, after two hours I was already tired by the throng of predictable clichés and jump scares. [04/2016, p.57]

Serious Sam 3 convinced me that somewhere along the way FPS genre lost something but on the other hand the game's old school vibe might become tiring if you overdose it. [January 2012, p.54]

PSP origins of the game are obvious on every step of the way, exposed by ugly character models, low quality textures and small areas riddled with loading screens. I can only recommend it to a narrow group of most enthusiastic jRPG fans. [05/2015, p.77]