DarkStation's Scores

  • Games
For 3,653 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 48% higher than the average critic
  • 7% same as the average critic
  • 45% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 72
Highest review score: 100 The Pedestrian
Lowest review score: 10 Another Dawn
Score distribution:
3656 game reviews
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Imagine Soviet Union in the dark 1980’s, home computers being a scarce luxury. Maybe, just maybe, DreamBreak is a pastiche of those old Commodore 64 games that were pirated to behind the iron curtain. Due to a language barrier and lack of manuals, such classic games as Impossible Mission and Project Firestart - another obvious inspirations behind DreamBreak - must have felt exotic but strange and clumsy. DreamBreak mimics those nostalgic sentiments with its awkward gameplay married to a thin narrative. Nah, that would be just a bad excuse. The transient Russo-retro experience isn’t enough to carry the game and the final verdict is that DreamBreak just isn’t very good.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    I wasn't the biggest fan of this one. It's a simple game that quickly left me bored and never got much better. The game is alright in some areas but it suffers from being mindless and simple, which isn't what I look for in a game. Phantom Breaker serves a purpose, though the Switch is so loaded down with games at this point that space on the console is better off being used for something else.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Don't be fooled with this brawler's budget pricetag, as its attrocious camera angle, repetitive gameplay and dated visuals makes it a complete waste of your money.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    At the very least, Gun Gale Online could have been a world worth exploring. But no, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet offers nothing to keep you but freely gives more than enough to make you wish you had the time you spent playing it back.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    It's very important to understand what Hydrophobia: Prophecy is; literally, the third version of the same game with major technical and creative modifications made based on user feedback. With this iteration of Hydrophobia being riddled with issues, I have to wonder about the quality of the initial release and am curious about whether or not Dark Energy Digital will continue to modify it in the future.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    There’s a reason scope management is taught in game design schools. Overflow Games’ underestimation of its own limitations is the source of almost all of the faults in Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Cave isn’t completely without merit, but it is unquestionably a subpar game in more than a few respects, and one of its developer’s weakest outings. It has a great look and an interesting setup, but it just loses too much of its potential to middling mechanics. I wouldn’t recommend spending your fifteen bucks on it.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dream Alone makes a valiant effort to live up to its inspirations, Limbo and Inside. However, it falls short of creating an immersive world that would cleverly combine fun platforming and crafty puzzles. What’s left are awkward, frustrating platforming and forced puzzles. Combined with an overly dark display and cheap level design, this is a tough recommendation for even the biggest dreamers.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Even if the game’s challenge or the appeal of having a shiny new toy tempt you to acquire this game though, you are better off leaving it alone.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The RPG genre has just started to bloom on the DS, but not helped by Konami's outdated title and hampered by its frustrating touch controls.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Its a shame that the core basketball game still feels like it needs another couple of years of polish to even come close to its competitors. For now we are left with a solid lineup of features and a game of basketball thats just not worth anyones time.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Another disappointment in the turtle's world. I can still see all the potential the series could have but unfortunately this year Konami took a step in the wrong direction.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Toy Soldiers: War Chest feels like a game that was rushed through without care or polish. Nostalgia can’t save this game from being an absolute disappointment.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sega has jumped the shark with their Sonic franchise, as this release massively disappoints with frustrating controls and useless camera.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    A more ambitious script, combined with a few memorable levels, would have made for a pretty good game. Instead, Star Trek: The Game, is a boring experience that you will forget about soon after you are done with it.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    You won’t find the fast-paced action of Diablo, or the tactical challenge of Dragon Age: Origins or Pillars of Eternity. Whatever you are looking for, you will probably find it somewhere else in a better game that you already own.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Amazing Spider-Man on Vita, while impressive in scope, is more disappointing than broken.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    With the street racing genre having done to death already, this copycat is a lazy port of the poor Dreamcast racer. If you're looking for a quality title, look elsewhere.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Off-Road Drive is a good example of a game trying too hard to imitate reality when the technology behind it is simply not there and is unbalanced.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Inside My Radio is a brief, interesting romp that never lives up to the potential it enters with.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    It’s a shame that Team17 have found it hard to strike a balance between complicating things enough to keep Mugsters interesting but not too much to make it tedious and frustrating. The first few levels are a fantastic hook into the game, showing off its terrific abstract graphical style and some fun, yet simple puzzle mechanics, but the more you play, the more it gets bogged down by the burden of adding more. The multiplayer does add some fun novelty, but ultimately Mugsters probably isn’t a game you’ll feel like completing.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    No Man’s Sky is a missed opportunity to do something truly epic, and while the final game, when measured moment by moment, showed glimpses of something more than merely ordinary, the final result, was far less than. Promises aside, there’s just not enough to this universe to make it worth exploring.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Montague’s Mount really tries to aspire to their level only to fall quite short.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Soda Drinker Pro has all the joy of a flat, lukewarm Pepsi.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Yup, there’s no online mode in Ninja Shodown. This means that as enjoyable as multiplayer is, it’s only playable locally in a living room. Combine this with the simple truth that Versus Mode is the only good part of the game, and you’re left with a product I just can’t recommend. If the performance issues were cleaned up and the price slashed down drastically, my verdict might look very different. That’s because, again, the game is surprisingly engaging when played competitively. Games aren’t necessarily outright bad when they’re too hard or even broken; it’s when they effectively don’t give you anything to do that they truly fall apart. And because it lacks an online multiplayer mode, Ninja Shodown fits that description for many players.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The story is pretty OK despite its heavy lean on worn mafia movie stereotypes and tropes. However, this remaster of Mafia II is hurt by its poor showing on the PlayStation 4 because of numerous and frequent problems within the most vital portions of the game. This is the kind of show I’d expect from something that was rushed out to the market and the results are pretty disappointing. You’re almost better off tracking down the original PC copy of the game until Hanger 13 and d3t Ltd. make the fixes that are so desperately needed.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    There just isn’t enough within R.B.I Baseball 16 to recommend buying it unless you’re an absolute diehard fan that needs to own every game in the series.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mario Party 7 has a minigame, Tile and Error, in which players must ground pound tiles to claim territory. The fact that Flip Wars can so easily be compared to a 30-second minigame from over a decade ago should say a lot about what you’re getting yourself into if you purchase this. Some of the hip dropping, tile-flipping mechanics are genuinely interesting, but Flip Wars is essentially a $10 minigame and a rather average one at that.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    If you’re looking for a game with good music and not much else than Beatbuddy is your jam. Otherwise, look for the soundtrack and skip the frustration.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fictorum, to me, feels like a game that has a single focus, its destruction mechanic, and everything else was slapped on after that was nailed down. It feels like the kind of game that is acting more as a business pitch to bigger companies, a way for the developers to say look at this cool thing we did instead of hey gamers, check out our awesome game. There is a great mechanic here that is fun to play with, but Fictorum lacks any kind of soul beyond that. It’s worth checking out for a weekend or two, but I can’t recommend much more than that.
This publication does not provide a score for their reviews.
This publication has not posted a final review score yet.
These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation.

In Progress & Unscored

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    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    What's most depressing about House Party is that some folks probably believe that this poorly written mess of a game is somehow daring. A juvenile take on sexuality, liberal profanity, and objectification of women are not daring, they're just... juvenile. Creating lifelike, complex characters with believable motivations and emotions - that is a difficult task, obviously light years beyond House Party, which fails as a sexual fantasy, as an interactive story and as a game. This makes Leisure Suit Larry look like Noel Coward. [Early Access score = 20]
    • 79 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    The Longing is one of those video games that dares you to see it through. Guiding a barely mobile creature who can’t be bothered to pick up the pace a little seems so nonsensical and completely antithetical to fun but if you’re the kind of person that likes to find their own unique brand of fun in video games - like following the rules of the road in Grand Theft Auto - then The Longing is bound to trigger some sort of positive electrical charge. And because much of the game can be accomplished while you’re away, it’s the kind of game you can have going on in the background as you sit through the latest Zoom meeting. Given the uniqueness and special circumstances of reviewing The Longing, Darkstation does not give it a score.
    • 48 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Gensou Skydrift has little going for it. There’s little to appreciate for fans of Touhou or racing games. The story doesn’t have much charm in it to justify getting it for the campaign and the character dialogue is forgettable gibberish. The racing is unappealing due to the often abysmal track design as well as the driving that feels clunky and simplistic. Gensou Skydrift is a title that’s only worth playing for the sheer novelty of playing a Touhou racing game where characters ride on top of each other.

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