At first I looked at Mind Scanners as a copy, but as the story progressed, the game distanced itself from Papers, Please and developed its own identity. It’s rather short, but gives reasons to try different approaches, while the varied array of patients along with some random elements make every playthrough different. [07/2021, p.75]

Angels of Death’s visuals are, to put it gently, crude, but that didn’t bother me at all. The game’s violent, engaging story with a twist plays out behind the scenes, in the characters’ heads and words. I think every horror fan should experience it.[07/2021, p.74]

In a nutshell: as a researcher, you travel to various places, interact with wild Pokémon and take photos to document their behavior. This simple concept only works thanks to the Pokémon, but it doesn’t have to be a drawback, because the game shows the world of pocket monsters more realistically and vividly than any title before it. [07/2021, p.72]

Stardew Valley fans will feel right at home in this charming and beautiful game. Unfortunately, the more I played, the more flaws I noticed (e.g. fetch quests being the main course) and the more I was annoyed by poor optimization. Problems with the latter intensified as my base grew and they’re the main reason I couldn’t rate Cozy Grove higher. [07/2021, p.70]

Despite being a spin-off, Judgment firmly stands on its own two feet, offering a great story, immensely fun combat and the usual truckload of cool side stories and engaging activities scattered around Kamurocho. The main plot line has some pacing issues and the detective mechanics are shallow, but you should definitely give this game a try, even if you don’t care much for the Yakuza series. [07/2021, p.68]

Does ancient AI ruin the fun? No, and neither do some graphical flaws. There’s a reason for Rome being so cherished by Total War fans, and the developers did great job at rejuvenating this magnificent classic. Grab your pilum, Carthage must be destroyed! [07/2021, p.66]

The concept behind The Invisible Hand is interesting, but sooner or later the game’s blunt anticapitalistic message becomes annoying, while the graphics gave me nightmares. [07/2021, p.63]

Picross S 6 is basically an expansion pack with 485 new puzzles, but its gameplay is still crazy addictive. Haven’t tried Picross yet? You need to! [07/2021, p.62]

Although Never Yield is a fun auto-runner with a great soundtrack and a valuable message (it gracefully brings up the subject of racism without being pushy), it feels like a short experiment rather than a full-fledged game. [07/2021, p.61]

Godstrike is a well-designed twin-stick shooter, but be aware that it is not just hard, it’s mercilessly brutal. Try it if you dare, but steer clear of it if being butchered is not your idea of an enjoyable evening. [07/2021, p.60]

Similarly to Resident Evil 4 back in the day, Village will attract a new generation of players and redefine the franchise for the modern age. I guess it’s time to stop looking back and counting on the series to return to its roots. Capcom is well aware of those roots and willingly draws from them to create something new but still infused with Resident Evil’s spirit. Village is not perfect, but neither was RE4, and once again it’s easy to turn a blind eye to the flaws, because overall it’s an amazing game. [07/2021, p.56]

The phrase “reversed Darkest Dungeon” springs to mind immediately. Groups of heroes delve into dark dungeons, suffering bodily and mental wounds as they face hellish monsters in an attempt to reach the evil lord. The difference is, in Legend of Keepers you are the evil lord – and it’s so much fun! The only flaw I need to point out is that it’s quite easy to find a combination of monsters which makes it possible to finish every dungeon without much effort. [07/2021, p.55]

I love the game’s visual style, but the developers’ idea to essentially get rid of written text and make the player work out all the gameplay mechanics by himself sometimes works fine and sometimes feels like an unnecessary nuisance. I was also annoyed by the awkward menu and the fact that a game with such simple graphics can’t maintain a stable framerate. [07/2021, p.54]

An interesting, quite easy and simple survival game that puts emphasis on atmosphere, storytelling and decision-making rather than action. Overall, it’s like a dish with too little salt in it, not amazing, but still tasty. [07/2021, p.52]

Papetura is a cute, very short gem that’s genuinely a joy to look at, to listen to, and to play. [07/2021, p.50]

A simple, lighthearted game about a mean cloud who enjoys spiting people. Some of its 50 levels are genuinely funny and its magic lasts longer than Untitled Goose Game’s or Dinner Date’s. [07/2021, p.48]

An unobvious reinforcement of PlayStation’s range of exclusives. You can love Returnal, you can hate it, the feelings can even be simultaneous. Even though it’s tough love, there’s something about this game that makes you scream into a pillow and then try again. And again. And again. [07/2021, p.44]

When SaGa Frontier was first released in 1997, it was not magnificent, but it was memorable for its interesting attempts to do many things differently than the time-honored jRPG tradition demanded. When I played the remaster, I was pleasantly surprised how well the game stood the test of time. I wouldn’t call it an essential title every jRPG fan must play, but it is charmingly unpretentious and I enjoyed my time with it. [07/2021, p.42]

Stitchy is a decent game, but way too conservative. It doesn’t even try to peek outside the genre’s basics and standards. I think younger players will enjoy it, but older platformer fans will probably get bored. [07/2021, p.41]

For on open-world action RPG developed by a handful of people, Biomutant makes a very striking impression. It’s hard for me to imagine someone not falling in love with the beautiful, unique world conjured up by Experiment 101. Sure, the game as a whole is not perfect, but if a sequel is ever created, I’ll be the first in line to play it. [07/2021, p.38]

The developers of this atmospheric point’n’click adventure succeeded at something very important – the puzzles are not just annoying hurdles on your way to the finale, they are inherent to the setting and the story. I enjoyed my time with Strangeland very much and the only flaw I can point out is the rushed, banal ending. [07/2021, p.35]

Storywise, this classic jRPG is more relevant today than it was in 2003, as its tale of global apocalypse turned out to be a quite fitting metaphor for what we have all experienced in the last 12 months. Nocturne’s age is obviously noticeable, but for a game this huge the quality of the remaster is acceptable, even if Atlus’ enormous work only managed to turn the clock back by a couple of years. [07/2021, p.36]

Insurmountable suffers from the “pretty syndrome”. Pretty nice graphics. Pretty good music. Pretty cool idea. Pretty solid execution. And pretty much no emotions. [07/2021, p.34]

Some things about Legendary Edition disappointed or irritated me (no support for the mods, no option to import save files or characters from the original games, no multiplayer in ME3, Denuvo, some bugs and glitches) but as an avid fan who played through the trilogy many times, I enjoyed the remasters immensely. [07/2021, p.28]

After insanely intense Doom Eternal it was somewhat strange to revisit much calmer Doom 3. Back in the day I loved its slower pace and horror atmosphere though, so I was excited to return to the UAC facility. It is still a decent game, but it’s quite ugly even compared to other PS VR shooters and it was hell-bent on giving me motion sickness (there’s no option to replace fluid movement with teleportation). [06/2021, p.71]

There are some well-designed and well-realized elements in Dead Age II and at first I was certain it’s going to be fun. After 8 hours I was already tired of repetitiveness and relentless grind which overshadowed everything that was done right. [06/2021, p.70]

If you want to practice fast typing, Nanotale seems like a good choice, because that’s how you cast spells in this game. Unfortunately, the story is not engaging and fights become tedious after some time. [06/2021, p.69]

Still fresh, still creative, still atmospheric. Two chapters released earlier as DLCs and included in the Complete Edition are absolutely on par with the original content, but despite this addition the game remains quite short. [06/2021, p.68]