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
    • 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.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    As a VR game, I would say that League of War: VR Arena an interesting concept that was rushed in design and was poorly executed. There's little reason to play the game for more than fifteen minutes, and I honestly can't recommend it to anyone. It's definitely a cool idea, especially if you like strategy games. However, I would wait for a better game to be released in the future that can hopefully stimulate the palette of any seasoned strategy veteran, while also providing an immersive virtual reality experience. League of War: VR Arena simply fails to make itself as thought-provoking as a strategy game should be. It's just not fun to play.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    UFO were just so close. The controls and in-game gadgets are actually OK. Those hacking sections were fine, too! It’s really sad, then, to see them come up so short. With more polish and more work, this game could have been fun. Instead, it’s a grossly frustrating game, too focused on dated mechanics and a misguided stealth element for it to be entertaining.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The developer’s desire to recapture the magic of a previous age clouded their vision of what constitutes good design, and created an experience fraught with antithetical decisions. As a result, Hard Reset offers an average game which becomes particularly tedious long before it ends.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    This game is worth neither your money nor your time.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Overly referential with gameplay that doesn't go anywhere.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    140
    Despite how short the game is, it maybe emphasizes why the other games use this idea to break it up – the concept never really evolves or grows in any way, and with the platforming so basic, there’s really not much else here to dig into. It winds up being a rhythm game with disposable musical elements, a platformer with uninteresting mechanics.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Finding enjoyment in Unity requires a great deal of patience, more than anyone can afford. I want to like the game, and I do to some extent, however I cannot ignore that it’s broken. And there is no patch that can ever save Unity from its tarnished image.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    It really seems like it would have worked better as a middleware physics engine, because it certainly doesn’t work as a game.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Over and over, you think: people fighting dinosaurs! Awesome, right?! Then you come back to the reality of Primal Carnage: Extinction and kind of wish it was just an idea, because in your head it’s all shadowy, mist-filled jungles, stealthy dinosaurs, and soldiers with high-tech equipment and copious amounts of dread, waiting to kill or be killed. Suddenly the raptor’s head clips awkwardly through the tree and you remember where you are what you’re doing: playing a pretty mediocre video game version of a great idea.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    There are a lot of worthy ways for you to spend your $50, and there are a lot more legitimate excuses to turn on your PS4.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    I’d talk about the game’s graphics and expand on the discussion of using VR to expand on the Planet of the Apes mythos but right now? I just don’t care anymore. I'm so frustrated thinking about all the problems that made this game so miserable to play that I’m done. Don’t play this game or, if you have to, wait for a sale. Damn you, Crisis on the Planet of the Apes VR. Damn you all to hell.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Despite its issues, Fable Anniversary is the best way for players to experience the original Fable. Just keep in mind that action RPGs have a come a very long way since then.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sadly, Resistance's debut on the PS Vita is undone by the very concept it proves. In time, we may see first-person shooters thrive on this system, and that's a relief, but Burning Skies doesn't warrant a place among them.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    It is too bad that what was good about AereA did not ultimately find a better game in which to reside. It is a bad game, but it is one that does not feel like a soulless cash grab. On the other hand, it is also not a game that stumbles because it is overly ambitious or because it banks on one or two game mechanics that just don’t work. It is a game that sets a low bar for its gameplay and then fails to hurdle it. It is hard to tell what, exactly was the goal of developer Triangle Studios when they developed this game, which is far too simple and repetitive to compete with any action RPG produced in the past 20 years. What is easy to conclude, however, is that AereA is not good, and regardless of your interest level in action RPGs or classical music, you will likely not enjoy it.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Aside from the hit-and-miss movie, the video game version didn't fair to well, with horribly simplistic combat and grainy visuals leaving you asking - what's the point?
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    In the end, Return to Shironagasu Island is a dull and disturbing visual novel for all the wrong reasons. When illustrations are nothing to shout about and the music sounds like it was recorded during playing lessons, I really can’t come up with any excuses for its existence. If I hadn’t reviewed the game, I would have stopped playing it after half an hour, but on behalf of you, dear readers, I suffered my way through it and I say, don’t you ever bother with it.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    There’s an interesting idea in Oafmatch but the execution is poor. While the game tries to live and die by its main attraction, an RPG overlay to a match-three game, it doesn’t do so in a meaningful or fun way. Oafmatch is a game that could only be enjoyed by absolute fanatics of the match-three genre who have exhausted every other outlet.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Koi
    Sadly, Koi is so easily forgettable and dull that I struggled with finding things to even say about it.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    In the end, I didn’t feel that Bit Dungeon+ respected my time. Much of the gameplay is tedious, and the dungeons are very simply designed. The repetitive and annoying grungy chiptunes and the lack of story didn’t do anything to motivate me either. The roguelike structure is more stressful than entertaining, mostly because death can await at any turn, including via game-crashing bugs caused by errors in the programming. There are better dungeon crawlers and roguelikes out there, so while this is a cheap option, you get what you pay for.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    It succeeds at being scary, but that is about the only part of the game that lives up to expectations. It’s poorly designed and poorly refined stealth mechanics make for a very frustrating experience, and the game gives you no reason to endure that frustration. There is little to reward you for your troubles.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Overall there is a lot of promise in this title, I just wish the mechanics could match up to the story itself.

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