Director's Cut is by far the best way to experience Kojima’s latest game. However, if you’ve already played Death Stranding and you’re considering buying the new edition just for the added content, better sleep on it. [12/2021, p.78]

The idea behind The Artful Escape is great, the art style is breathtaking, while the story about coming of age, teenage insecurities and meeting expectations is told brilliantly. Unfortunately, all that doesn’t count for much when a music game has an awful score, guitar shredding quickly becomes boring and the whole thing is basic to a fault. [12/2021, p.77]

Ember Lab didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. Instead the developers opted for tried and true mechanics that entertained us time and again in many action adventure games, and mixed them in an almost perfect way. The beginning might be a little slow, but when Kena: Bridge of Spirits gains momentum, it becomes truly great. It’s hard for me to point out any significant flaws apart from overall lack of originality. What a debut! [12/2021, p.74]

While WRC 10 will not become a timeless classic due to some flaws, it has everything rally fans need, including a satisfying driving model and stellar design of special stages. [12/2021, p.72]

Combat in Bloodrayne Betrayal: Fresh Bites is enjoyable, heroine’s moveset surprised me with its broadness, and varied menagerie of monsters frequently forced me to change my tactics. Sadly, annoying platforming sections with frustrating difficulty spikes drag the game down. [12/2021, p.71]

The latest entry in the Tale series offers everything loyal fans could have expected, but also has a chance to enamor many newcomers. The story about two heroes from the opposite sides of a conflict joining forces is surprisingly multi-layered, the combat is flashy and satisfying, and the journey leads you across beautiful, varied regions. As for the flaws, I need to mention problems with map legibility and the necessity to grind, but fortunately both issues are occasional. [12/2021, p.68]

It could have been a relaxing game about playing golf on the ruins of our civilization, but its whole sporting aspect is subpar (due to poor physics, among others), sometimes frustrating, and makes it harder to appreciate the story. However, Golf Club: Wasteland definitely has its unique flavor and the in-game radio station is fantastic. [12/2021, p.67]

Hoa’s defining quality is simplicity. No complex gameplay mechanics, no elaborate story, no need to grow a third hand to push through challenging parts. That’s why I would recommend this beautiful, rather easy platformer primarily to young players. [12/2021, p.66]

Owlcat Games has made huge progress since Kingmaker. Time limits, randomized elements of kingdom management and other annoying aspects were ditched, while combat and character development return in all their glory assisted by very atmospheric new mythic paths and a bit simple but still cool army management system. For me, the new Pathfinder, Wasteland 3 and Divinity: Original Sin II are a trio of contemporary RPG classics, with the first one being the most faithful to the genre’s tradition. [12/2021, p.64]

NBA 2K22 offers very good gameplay mechanics, but the series’ focus on simply playing basketball is fading. In the story mode, the developers experiment with open world and put too much emphasis on side activities related to sponsors. As a result, the city in NBA 2K22 is a one big advertising billboard. Willingness to try new things is generally commendable, but this is not the way to do it. [12/2021, p.63]

Centipede: Recharged is a good remake that retained the feel of the original. Sometimes the action gets too chaotic, but revisiting this almost 40-year-old arcade classic was a satisfying experience for me. [12/2021, p.62]

WarioWare: Get It Together is a fantastic assortment of tiny experiences that add up to create a huge festival of awesomeness. Add cool multiplayer and co-op and you’ve got a seriously fun game distinctively different from Mario Party. [12/2021, p.60]

A disappointing, lazy remaster of a very good platformer. The developers took the path of least resistance by stretching textures and trying to conceal their blurriness with aggressive lighting, which made things worse. The only advantages I see here are the quality of the original game and the fact that the Ultimate edition brought it to new platforms. [12/2021, p.59]

Eastward is pretty and at first glance seems to have everything a good RPG needs, but its boring story and drawn-out conversations between clichéd characters made it harder to enjoy. [12/2021, p.58]

Aragami 2 was released in an abysmal state. Tons of bugs and lame AI made it pretty much impossible for me to enjoy the two main improvements over the original game – increased focus on the co-op mode and enhanced character mobility. I was also disappointed by boring mission design, as the tasks I had to tackle made the impression as if RNG worked on them. [12/2021, p.56]

Sable never rushes you. You take in the setting and simply enjoy the essence of the game – the journey entwined with a tale about maturing and change. If you don’t like to hurry at breakneck speed and prefer to look under every rock, there’s a chance Shedworks’ game will charm you. You’ll just need to turn a blind eye to some technical flaws, get on your flying motorbike and set off towards the horizon. [12/2021, p.54]

A Souls-inspired roguelite set in a techno-biological world, where your weapon is a symbiont and you develop your character by mutating – all that in a Nordic mythology coating and seasoned with humor. Sounds weird, but it works, at least until it gets repetitive. [12/2021, p.52]

Lost Judgment is the sequel we needed. The story and combat are still the game’s strongest features, while the previously disappointing detective elements were improved. Some mistakes were made along the way (stealth sections, climbing), but overall it’s a great successor of Judgment. [12/2021, p.50]

The idea behind Dice Legacy is great, however the developers focused on unnecessary elements and, as a result, created an engaging city builder but a poor roguelike. [12/2021, p.48]

Life Is Strange drifted away from exciting teenage stories towards serious narratives commenting on our reality. Alex’s ability elevated interactions to a new level but its potential feels unrealized. The game is also short and the story only livens up by the end of it. [12/2021, p.46]

It’s obvious that Mayhem Brawler’s developers love the genre and truly understand what makes it fun. Their game resembles Streets of Rage 4 a bit too much for my taste and sadly fails to reach its level of awesomeness, but it’s one of those beat ‘em ups that let you really feel the old school vibe – and that’s awesome. [12/2021, p.45]

Superb visuals, distinctive atmosphere and a punishing Dark Souls-inspired combat system resulted in an engaging action RPG and one of the best indie games I played in 2021. [12/2021, p.42]

If you have a lot of free time (50-60 hours seem like a reasonable minimum) and are in no hurry, if you enjoy very complex, immersive games, if you’re willing to overlook numerous bugs and glitches and don’t mind a bland story – Medieval Dynasty is for you. Even though the constant backtracking might be a pain, I personally found the game’s slow pace relaxing rather than annoying and enjoyed my time with it. Plus there are a lot of options that let you simplify the experience and lower the difficulty level, so you don’t need to be a hardcore survival games fan to have fun with Medieval Dynasty. [12/2021, p.40]

Severed Steel left me conflicted. On the one hand, it’s a pity that a couple of truly brilliant ideas were implemented in a generally unpolished game. On the other hand, despite all its flaws it’s a fun, engaging shooter that kept me in front of the screen for hours. [12/2021, p.39]

FIFA 22 shows its wasted potential every step of the way. When everything works as it should, it’s the best FIFA in years. The problem is that while sometimes the new HyperMotion technology works great and really makes a noticeable difference, the game often picks wrong animations from its mind-boggling array of 8 million. Let’s hope EA Sports builds on these promising foundations, fixes what needs to be fixed and delivers a truly great experience next year. [12/2021, p.36]

Some minor but interesting experiments introduced in Chapter 2 are a welcome breath of fresh air and along with excellent writing make the game worth finishing twice. However, it’s hard to overlook the fact that Deltarune was built on the same, rather simple blueprint as Undertale and the formula might soon need a deeper makeover. That’s a worry for the future though. Today I urge you to download the game and experience another portion of Toby Fox’s great sense of humor. [12/2021, p.35]

Diablo II returns with refreshed graphics and unaltered gameplay (apart from some small improvements). It’s as fun as I remembered, so I quickly felt at home and gave in to nostalgia. However, it’s hard not to notice that beneath revamped visuals lies a 21 years old design. [12/2021, p.32]

The latest entry in the Far Cry series brought many little joys, great performance by Giancarlo Esposito and beautiful tropical environments. Alas, it is annoying and disappointing in too many aspects. The story should have been approached more seriously, Yara is not a believable world and some of its areas are empty, while the gameplay suffers from copy-pasted assets and bugs that shouldn’t pollute a game from such an experienced developer. Overall, Far Cry 6 is a letdown. [12/2021, p.26]