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]

I’m impressed by how natural and inclusive Raptor Boyfriend is. Fantastic creatures seem weird only in the beginning. Their appearance and nature quickly become unimportant and you realize they are intriguing and friendly guys that are easy to like and even love. [10/2021, p.43]

Jonas Manke accomplished something incredible. The game he spent five long years creating on his own is relaxing, enjoyable, and above all surprisingly full-bodied. It looks and sounds great, there are no technical issues, and it can compete with titles developed by larger, more experienced teams in pretty much every aspect. It’s a great little game that I wholeheartedly recommend. [10/2021, p.42]

A mix of a platformer and a rhythm game, inspired by the original Prince of Persia (the one from 1989) and set in a dark fantasy world. Unfortunately, an interesting combat system is not enough to counterbalance repetitiveness and some crude gameplay mechanics. Also, Prince of Persia looked better. [10/2021, p.41]

Brilliant visuals, great music and unusual user interface will score points with people who like games that have a soul despite being very complex. However, to reach a broader audience, the developers would have to significantly improve the transparency of gameplay mechanics and iron out rough edges. [10/2021, p.40]

A full-fledged entry to the Sniper Elite series, with 18 missions and a story that binds them together and lasts a couple of hours. It’s decent (if you consider the fact, that PS VR is not a cutting edge gear), but be aware that it resembles a low-budget version of Call of Duty and the graphics are average at best. I’ve seen many PS VR games that were much more impressive in terms of visuals. [10/2021, p.39]

A charming but unpolished adventure/puzzle game with an environmental thread. As a photographer, your job is to document the existence of a magical island and its extraordinary species of animals and plants. Slow pace and unusual atmosphere are relaxing and make Beasts of Maravilla Island a good family title. It’s a shame the developers failed to take full advantage of the game’s potential. The photo mode (which of course is the central mechanic here) and interactions with the environment could have been done better. [10/2021, p.38]

Henford-on-Bagley is charming and picturesque and I had a great time tending animals, getting to know the local community and completing some minor tasks for my neighbors. I would have been even happier with Cottage Living, if the developers had added more new furniture pieces and made the barn larger, as it only holds one cow or llama. [10/2021, p.37]

Equipped with one simple tool offering a surprisingly wide array of capabilities, I was thrown into a maelstrom of crazy fast action and overwhelmed by every wave of enemies. Boomerang X is so addictive I couldn’t put it down. Luckily it offers a lot of flexible options to make the game easier, so you can have fun with it even if you didn’t grow eyes on the back of your head and never developed superhuman reflexes. [10/2021, p.36]

Eldest Souls’ difficulty level is so overwhelming even soulslike veterans will feel unsure of their skills. The developers boiled the game down to its essence, which is killing enemies, while the story and exploration were relegated to the background. As a result, the narrative tying boss encounters together is rather shallow. [10/2021, p.34]

It’s a very good game, but it was tailored for a specific audience. If you put the story above everything else, you’ll have a great time playing The Forgotten City. However, if you’d like to feel the adrenaline rush at least once in a while, it’s probably not a game for you, because there’s barely any action here. Oh, don’t be afraid of the whole time loop thing – this integral mechanic is forgiving and won’t erase your progress without a serious reason. If it resets, it’ll be a consequence of either wrong choices or a conscious decision. [10/2021, p.32]

This solid turned-based tactical game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and focused on the struggle of the Blood Angels against nightmarish Tyranids is more fun than you might expect. It definitely deserves the Emperor’s blessing. [10/2021, p.30]

An interesting return to The Zone and a perfect game to help you survive the wait for Stalker 2. Chernobylite is atmospheric, intriguing, sometimes beautiful, but also needlessly bloated with distracting elements that force you to deal with unimportant or repetitive stuff. It has its issues, but first and foremost it’s an original game with an engaging story and I do recommend it. [10/2021, p.24]

The Sword of the Necromancer tells its love story in an interesting way and may surprise you with a plot twist, but its not enough to outweigh the game’s repetitiveness or the fact that you can’t control your undead and need to rely on their random, silly AI. [04/2021, p.63]

My first impression was great and early on I was sure this pretty action adventure game will score higher. Then the difficulty level rose drastically and allied itself with frustratingly imprecise controls to murder all the fun. [04/2021, p.62]

The game follows in her predecessor’s footsteps, but many new ideas for puzzles, unique environments and creepy scenes make it a fresh, engaging and surprising experience from start to finish. Everything that worked well in the original Little Nightmares now packs twice the punch. [04/2021, p.60]

Tohu won surprisingly many awards, but in my opinion its only element that truly deserves praise are the visuals. The game looks great (the hand-drawn environments are wonderful!) but is much to infantile for my taste (especially the dialogues) and not creative enough in the puzzles department, while the awful narrator does a lot to destroy the atmosphere. [04/2021, p.59]

After a brief introduction, you get access to a virtual USB flash drive found at the scene of a possible crime. You browse its contents (photos, apps, books, videos, a journal and a password-protected archive) in Windows to determine whether the device really is connected to some awful occurrence. The most important file is the journal, which in fact is an extremely well-written crime story. Reading it, analyzing the files for clues and looking for a way to crack the password was truly thrilling. [04/2021, p.58]

I wish the devs from Chaosmonger Studio could decide whether they’re making a funny and cute game or a dark and depressing one. Encodya tries to be both and is not great at it, as it pulls its punches when it has a chance to tell something more meaningful, only to bestow some cheap wisdom a bit later. Apart from that, it overwhelmed me with the amount of useless junk you hoard in your inventory (I didn’t use most of the items even once), and disappointed me with uninteresting puzzles. [04/2021, p.55]

Borrowing from various genres, Curious Expedition 2 is an interesting and pretty simulator of an explorer. Sadly, it doesn’t offer enough content to keep you fully engaged throughout the whole adventure. In my case, the initial fun of exploration started to fade around the half of the campaign, as the lack of auto-battle started to annoy me (especially that my party became so strong that combat lost its thrill) and random encounters began to recur. [04/2021, p.52]

A game based around surveilling squirrels sounded like a guarantee of a boring afternoon, but thanks to its great art style and gripping mystery, Nuts turned out to be almost as good as Firewatch. [04/2021, p.50]

I wanted to both scold Bravely Default II for its many flaws and kiss it for some stellar moments when it shone like a diamond. At the end of the day the latter decisively outweighed the former. The game boasts one of the best combat systems I’ve seen in jRPGs, towns that are a work of art, and a breathtaking soundtrack. If you like the genre, there’s a chance you’ll fall in love with Bravely Default II. [04/2021, p.48]

Destruction AllStars is flashy, fast and enjoyable, looks good and runs smoothly, but severely lacks varied, engaging content and therefore quickly becomes boring. [04/2021, p.44]

Olija is an atmospheric but rather derivative throwback to the Another World, Price of Persia and Flashback era. Its gameplay mechanics are quite elaborate for this genre and the story is satisfying, but the game somehow looks worse than the mentioned classics. [04/2021, p.43]

Falling somewhere between Dark Souls and Shadow of the Colossus, Shattered offers a huge, beautiful world full of secrets and shortcuts that’s a joy to explore, and adds platforming sequences to the mix. The game has a lot going for it, but it’s also full of bugs (minor but very numerous) and most of its bosses are rather bland. [04/2021, p.42]

Super Mario Odyssey is still the best Mario game, but that doesn’t change the fact that 3D World is up there among the best platformers ever made. So is Bowser’s Fury, a game much smaller in scale but still phenomenal. [04/2021, p.40]

Disjunction’s gameplay is quite repetitive and there are some annoying flaws, but if you like tech noir and remember the Amiga days fondly, there’s a significant chance you’ll have fun. [04/2021, p.39]

Crossbow: Bloodnight is a fast and smooth arena shooter that doesn’t offer enough content and variety for long sessions, but works well in short, intense ones. Switch seems like a great platform for it but unfortunately neither the Pro Controller nor the Joy-Cons offer the precision that the unforgiving gameplay requires. [04/2021, p.38]