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]

The remaster of Legend of Mana turned out to be too conservative. It improves the backgrounds (they’re beautiful!), the save system and the music, but the game’s biggest problems (poor combat system and botched storytelling) remained and will bother you more than they did decades ago. This new version might be enough for the fans of the original Legend of Mana, but I doubt it will appeal to anyone else. [09/2021, p.53]

After initial delight and ten hours of fun Anno 2205 became a bit boring. [13/2015, p.40]

It’s fun when your characters gang up against a single enemy, music is fantastic and the idea for searching for a random mole in your team is an original one. Unfortunately tight budget made both the story and gameplay tediously clichéd. [11/2015, p.67]

Unbounded is a part of a franchise strongly associated with consoles but somehow turns out to be average on X360 and one of the best arcade racing games in years on PC. On PC it just plays better (even with a keyboard!) and is extremely rewarding. [June 2012, p.66]

For many reasons Block N Load can’t compete with Battlefield and Call of Duty, but I liked it for being something else than a dead serious shooter. [07/2015, p.64]

A rather simple RPG doused in Slavic folklore and an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack that marries Slavic and Balkan sounds in one big genre experiment. [03/2020, p.70]

Solid survival game, a bit hardcore in places. However, the heavy emphasis on exploration and the associated character development pays off with the opportunity to explore the British 1960s zone and play detective to unravel the mystery of the nuclear power plant.

A beautiful homage to Grim Fandango. Not perfect though – Chapter One is short, could be funnier and the choice of some of the voices is questionable. [CD-Action 03/2013, p.66]

You can expect a lot of charming dialogue, easy puzzles, amazing soundtrack and satisfying combat. Unfortunately you will be forced to battle not only your enemies but also terrible camera. [01/2017, p.75]

This game has a very simple structure – we travel from one cutscene to another slaying groups of monsters wandering around. But the strength of Aarklash Legacy lies in its deep system of tactical combat. [12/2013, p.46]

Cognition feels like some old game by Sierra and this is its biggest strength. [1/2013, p.72]

Backbone has far fewer puzzles and stealth sections than you might expect after finishing the brilliant first act, but it will still keep you engaged thanks to the quality of its storytelling. [09/2021, p.40]

Here’s a proof that it’s possible to create an engaging game based mainly on dialogues (comparisons to Disco Elysium work in Gamedec’s favor, but there’s a lot less text to read here). Gamedec’s world is original and immersive, the investigations are interesting, the detective’s unique skill system works great and the deduction mechanic is brilliant. [11/2021, p.54]

You may dislike walking sims, you may have never heard of Stanisław Lem or you don’t care for his books. In all those cases The Invincible extends a hand to you. Firstly, it tries to vary the gameplay as much as possible. Secondly, it doesn’t require knowledge of the novel it draws from. Thirdly, it makes Lem’s hard sci-fi accessible even for people who are not fond of his work. Above all, The Invincible is a neatly told story, suspenseful till the very end and supported by an absolutely brilliant soundtrack.

Bae Team managed to create such distinctive feline characters, that I still smile at the thought of some of them, but the visuals are mediocre most of the time and the game as a whole is afraid to step outside of the genre’s restrictive bounds. [03/2018, p.71]

The biggest disappointment for me was that although you play as a Templar, it has almost no influence on gameplay. The historical backdrop is not exciting at all and it’s pretty obvious that the whole game was designed so that the assets from Assassin’s Creed III and IV could be reused. The whole naval module borrowed from Black Flag is still fantastic, but after having played 7 games of the series I need something better than just more of the same. [01/2015, p.46]

The action is fast, spectacular and satisfying, but also short (especially for a roguelike), because I finished the campaign in around six hours and was left with a bland challenge mode. [10/2018, p.87]

If you regard the 90s and first two Fallout games as ancient history, Underrail is not for you, because without the anesthetic power of nostalgia it might be completely indigestible. [03/2016, p.71]

A highly addictive hack’n’slash with great art direction and many small but really good gameplay ideas. The developers wear their inspirations on their sleeve, so you can almost hear the game shout “Yes, this is Diablo! Yup, it’s Tristram! Don’t pretend you don’t remember!”. [02/2019, p.36]

A perfect game for short sessions. It’s not deep enough to convince online shooters veterans, but it will definitely win over Star Wars fans. [01/2016, p.34]