It's not just that it's frustrating to fail but, knowing there's no satisfaction in overcoming that frustration. It says a lot that after stepping away from this game we reinstall the original Super Meat Boy to blow off steam. The real Bob-Omb Battlefield is surely next. [Issue#423, p.112]

Control is also stodgy and unreliable. [Issue#422, p.123]

Every element of I Hate This Place is perfectly functional but nothing stands out, and it ends up feeling like a slasher with no blood, a haunted house with no ghosts, a zombie with no teeth. [Issue#421, p.122]

There are bold ideas floating around Unbeatable's ether, but for the most part it feels like an underpowered B-side. [Issue#420, p.102]

If we're at a point where one way to make COD feel "new" is to revive ideas from more than a decade ago, that is perhaps a sign that the series needs a break, or at least a hard reset. [Issue#419, p.112]

With that, a largely flat Metroid is further degraded, from disappointing to a little bit embarrassing. Nintendo games have tested our patience before, but rarely in so many ways at once, and not without a core brilliance that makes such transgressions forgivable. Whatever ideas swirled in your mind back in 2017, you can't have been dreaming of this. [Issue#419, p.100]

This stylishly rendered open world displays little sense of fun or character. It's a series of beautifully drawn cardboard boxes populated by unthinking automata, one that commits its genre's gravest crime: inviting no curiosity to explore it. [Issue#418, p.118]

When it comes to paper, Tearaway has the aesthetic edge and Paper Trail boasts smarter puzzles, while for inventive transformations, Mario remains the origami king. Next to those three, Hirogami feels flimsy and flyaway. [Issue#416, p.120]

The games it apes work because they're easy to engage with and paced to banish boredom. Here, everything takes ages and is sprinkled with tiny irritations. Appropriately, given its title, the game can offer only a muted reverberation of its inspirations, with the exception of recreating their flaws quite capably. [Issue#415, p.102]

In short, Welcome Tour seems designed more to highlight USB ports and air intake vents than give us a game. The climax of our tour sees us trapped inside our new machine, running laps and poking into every corner, praying we'll find the last stamp to open the exit. At this point, one question about Switch 2 remains: Nintendo, how did it come to this? [Issue#413, p.123]

Its world feels considered. There are decent performances from its cast among the graphical artefacts, and zippy pacing that respects your time and conjures a sense of playing the Schwarzenegger role that never was. But it's been released in a technical state that makes it impossible to enjoy its ideas, with core components of its action left underdeveloped. For the player, that's frustrating. For those who made it, surely, it's heartbreaking. [Issue#413, p.112]

The Precinct may boil policing down to a numbers game, but they never add up to much. [Issue#412, p.116]

MercurySteam's worldbuilding adds clutter, not depth, obstructing a concept that's left feeling embryonic. [Issue#412, p.104]

Where Black Hawk Down bombards you with exasperating shootouts and tedious escort missions set against a background of jingoism, its competitive modes struggle for the refinements of a game made a decade ago. [Issue#409, p.112]

Peering through these layers of disguise, then, what we're left with is a hotchpotch of conflicting ideas, a rickety, if not entirely charmless, hack'n'slash that feels plucked from an alternate timeline. [Issue#406, p.118]

Behemoth seems frozen in time, unable to leave nearly as strong an impression as its predecessor by dint of scale alone, resulting in what feels like a colossal waste of potential. [Issue#406, p.114]

Now, the optimal experience is restricted to the privileged few. [Issue#406, p.112]

With no real way to accelerate victory on repeat encounters, the result is a metal slog. [Issue#405, p.123]

You could also call it derivative and crudely executed, and no transmedia offering can compensate for that. [Issue#404, p.112]

Its particular set of ideas and adornments prove unable to elevate the basic structural charms of this mode of game design. [Issue#402, p.110]

By turns astonishing and insufferable, there is as much here to make your eyes roll as widen. Even the moments when Hellblade II delivers nigh-unparalleled visual spectacle (see 'Giant steps') are soured by the fact that our involvement in these set-pieces so often feels incidental. For long stretches, it's akin to watching someone else play, only occasionally - and always unwillingly - handing back the controller. We can't help but return to that old chestnut about the interactive experience being a conversation between designer and player; there is an irony that in this, of all games, we're scarcely able to get a word in edgeways. [Issue#399, p.104]

This disappointing reboot is best left, well, alone. [Issue#397, p.118]

From its questionable (albeit largely ignorable) microtransactions to its inconsistent lore, Foamstars feels about as sturdy and enduring as the substance that powers it. [Issue#396, p.118]

This may not suffer the indignity of being delisted, but it's highly unlikely anyone will remember it in a decade's time. [Issue#395, p.122]

It's a pity, since there is the kernel of an engaging hack-and-slash here, but its best ideas are squandered, and eventually bludgeoned into submission by the relentless monotony of the action. With a campaign that barely stretches beyond six hours and minimal replay value here, there's only one person being robbed here, and it's not the Sheriff. [Issue#393, p.114]

There is, at least, a pleasing weight to impacts as you thump enemies into walls or slam them into the floor. Good job, too, since there's precious little else to enjoy here. [Issue#391, p.123]

As the credits roll, and we once again consider what Fort Solis is, the Steam blurb reminds us of another thing it isn't. A "riveting thriller", after all, requires thrills - and those, like the station's employees, are conspicuous by their absence. [Issue#389, p.110]

It's hard not to lament the potential wasted here. [Issue#386, p.120]

And in declining to make any kind of meaningful statement about its environmental themes, After Us only demonstrates that, like its protagonist, it has nothing to say for itself. [Issue#386, p.116]

Fights descend into muddled brawls, as blobs of mobs smack into each other until one side keels over. [Issue#385, p.118]

Feels old-fashioned in the least complimentary of ways. [Issue#384, p.116]

During a late cutscene, we detect a certain wistfulness in the eyes of both fawn and pup - as if both are silently wishing their talents had been employed in a better game. [Issue#383, p.122]

It's true, they don't make 'em like this any more. Unfortunately, Wanted: Dead only demonstrates why not. [Issue#382, p.104]

GORE might have worked had it followed the remit of the original PS2 Gungrave to deliver an intense couple of hours, before focusing on polish and score-chasing replay value. As it is, the moments when you gorge on the excesses of Grave's ordnance are spread thinly between slabs of frustration and tedium. [Issue#380, p.116]

A game that never feels comfortable giving you full command of its star. We're left feeling blue, but not in the way Sonic Team intended. [Issue#379, p.118]

We could have coped with technical issues, curious UI choices and unsophisticated mission design had Saints Row given us even half as many memorable moments as previous entries "The Third" and "IV". We could even forgive a Portal joke that would have felt old hat a decade ago. But this whole enterprise feels misbegotten, even before the story goes wildly off the rails, belatedly introducing a new threat, before wrapping up with an ending that almost feels algorithmically generated. [Issue#376, p.100]

To see it submit to mobile gaming's worst tendencies, rather than make any effort to be different, to be better, is galling. It may be flashy and efficient as both a Diablo game and a mobile game, but Immortal offers little that is bold, ambitious or innovative. Instead, its structure and pacing is designed with one goal in mind: to squeeze as much cash out of every player as it can. [Issue#374, p.110]

Too often feels like a predetermined narrative that's indifferent to your involvement. [Issue#373, p.114]

We struggle through, resisting the urge to trigger the final heist early. [Issue#371, p.114]

Don't let the vibrant colours of this scene fool you: this is the world as seen in Combat Breaker, a brief period in which time slows down. As son as the meter runs out, it's back to the game's usual dusty dullness. [Issue#370, p.119]

This miserable wallow in the psyche of a traumatised young woman isn't so much horrifying, then, as simply unpleasant. [Issue#370, p.112]

An undercooked dish. [Issue#368, p.123]

With all the weaknesses of its beloved inspiration and precious few of its strengths, Praey For The Gods- much like its protagonist - consistently struggles to retain its grip. [Issue#368, p.114]

Watson, the game is a muddle. [Issue#367, p.119]

Gratifying though it is to see your decisions produce such tangible results, Where The Heart Leads is consistently let down by its storytelling. [Issue#362, p.120]

It's rare to play a Nintendo game that feels so fundamentally misguided. [Issue#361, p.118]

This month alone, we have far better alternatives. [Issue#359, p.123]

If you're still wondering whether to give it a go, we politely refer you to the title. [Issue#358, p.120]

In a world where games such as Hades, Slay The Spire and Into The Breach have found ways to elevate the Roguelike to new heights, PixelJunk Raiders sadly fails to make a mark. [Issue#357, p.118]

Haven doesn't lack for heart, but the spark sadly just isn't there. It's not us, it's Yu. [Issue#354, p.116]

Whatever its merits as a brawler, it's safe to say that in years to come no one will be ringing up game shops to preorder this one. [Issue#350, p.104]

This less ambitious, full-priced follow-up is a lesser experience in every sense. [Issue#349, p.92]

There are just 20 team leaders in the game; the 500 subs available from the gacha can only bring so much variety, and pale in comparison to the almost 6,000 available in Puzzle & Dragons itself. We've been playing that game for seven years, and it still finds new ways to excite us. That this barren, boring work should share its name is an outrage. [Issue#343, p.122]

A larger problem: the sense that The Suicide of Rachel Foster is messing around with borrowed ideas it never quite understands. [Issue#343, p.118]

Age of Resistance Tactics would merely be tolerably mundane, were it not brought low by a UI as cumbersome as the game's title. [Issue#343, p.116]

This simply has the air of a development team biting off more than it could chew. [Issue#139, p.118]

The super-soldier fantasy's lost beneath generic mechanisms for grinding. [Issue#139, p.108]

As Ellis crushes his umpteenth fistful of twigs, you're merely reminded of a far superior, far more disturbing journey through the woods near Burkittsville. [Issue#338, p.110]

You'll be more irritated than scared. [Issue#336, p.121]

Nintendo's most boring smartphone outing so far. [Issue#336, p.120]

So sparse is the experience that it takes about four or five bewildered hours for the reality to sink in that yes, this is all there is. [Issue#332, p.114]

The lasting impression is of a game that, for all its charms and potential, simply wasn't quite ready for takeoff - and that what might have been won't arrive for a couple of years yet. [Issue#331, p.102]

This is a game that prizes style above all else, and emerges a mess because of it. [Issue#331, p.118]

Vane is unfinished, its few ideas undermined by its shoddy foundations. If it really were a painting, you'd get Banksy to frame it. [March 2019, p.108]

A game that, while dripping in style, is miserably lacking in substance. [Issue#328, p.118]

If the idea was to get you into Fury's angry mindset, then job done - though in truth you more often feel like one of her lesser-known cousins, Boredom or Irritation. [Issue#328, p.112]

The reality, inevitably, is that you want Fallout 76 to play like a Fallout game, and on those terms it fails to satisfy. After all, how could you not want that from it? [Jan 2019, p.110]

Disjointed and directionless, Croft's descent into darkness is, shockingly, one hell of a mess. [December 2018, p.106]

There are plenty of games with strong visual design and atmospheric settings that don't make you jump through nearly so many hoops to get to the good stuff. [Nov 2018, p.116]

Beyond the odd jolt of panic as your wrench breaks mid-fight, or when the piercing shriek of a spindly screamer attracts a ravening pack, there's little here to quicken the pulse. For a zombie game, that might be the most damning criticism of all. [Aug 2018, p.100]

It's astonishing that Shiver couldn't conjure up a decent party game from such great source material. [June 2018, p.118]

Extinction is mindless, soulless stuff, and a huge disappointment from a reputable studio. [June 2018, p.116]

It's yet another curiously half-hearted side project from Supermassive that, appropriately, won't linger long in the memory. [Apr 2018, p.120]

There are flashes of what might have been, but otherwise Brawlout doesn't feel so much a plucky underdog as a no-hoper, entering a fight it knows it can't win in the hope of a big payday just for showing up. A first-round stoppage to the champion, then, with the challenger being booed out of the ring. [March 2018, p.122]

It's all a little rote - something we certainly don't associate with Final Fantasy. [Issue#315, p.120]

It's a laugh, albeit at the expense of itself. [Issue#314, p.118]

Were it not for the driving model, which against all odds remains a pleasure, and desperately rare moments of imaginative mission design, this would be an abject failure. As it stands, it's simply a serious one. [Issue#314, p.114]

It is especially abhorrent that this should happen in a game with almost unrivalled massmarket appeal...No doubt EA and its trio of development studios will fix this mess eventually, but the fact they deemed it fit for purpose in the first place is unavoidable, and damning in the extreme. Whatever happens next, we're afraid we don't patch review scores. [Issue#314, p.104]

In Agents of Mayhem, the limits are all around you, all of the time - from the moment you start playing to the minute you stop, it feels permanently imprisoned by its own lack of imagination. The result is a game that carries the weight of a litany of sins - a saint that has fallen far, far from grace. [Issue#311, p.116]

Ultimately what was intended as a thoughtful depiction of a terrible mental illness has ended up casting it as something of an asset: a helpful superpower that can give you the strength to soldier on through the darkness, so long as you can put up with the odd breakdown here and there. That, we suspect, was not what Ninja Theory intended. It's certainly not what we had hoped for. [Issue#310, p.112]

The result is a tiresome slog that proves the first casualty of war is not innocence, but brevity. Valkyria Devolution might have been a more honest title. [Sept 2017, p.108]

Sluggish menus, clumsy controls, and an intrusive, atmosphere-scuppering soundtrack mar each excursion, while excessive weather effects will have you straining to see as you awkwardly bump up against objects to find out if they can be ransacked. [Aug 2017, p.122]

This is a cheap game with an expensive price tag, and there's nothing remotely super about it. [May 2017, p.123]

In the areas money can't buy, it stumbles; its driving model, AI, and repetitive mission structure all cry out for more elegant design, and combine to leave Wildlands in the strange position of looking expensive but feeling cheap. Its blithely misjudged tone and directionless structure suggests design on autopilot, and empty bigness is no longer enough to carry an open-world game on its own. The game's premise may come straight from Trump's paranoid playbook, but its hollow extravagance is arguably the more damaging point of comparison. [May 2017, p.106]

Holy disappointment, Batman. [March 2017, p.107]

For the most part, Song of the Deep is content with being pleasantly unremarkable. [Oct 2016, p.119]

We'd much rather play the awful unicorn levels in [Trials] Fusion's Awesome Level Max DLC, which probably ranks among the most damning things we've ever said about a game. [Issue#296, p.123]

This is very much Inafune by numbers, a Mega Man game in all but name, and not a particularly good one. [Issue#296, p.118]

There's little satisfaction in downing an enemy who can't see you, less in getting flattened by an unseen assailant. [Issue#296, p.114]

A messy jumble of broken parts. [Aug 2016, p.112]

Platinum needs to take a little more care when it comes to picking its battles. [Aug 2016, p.110]

A dismally paced and hugely frustrating expansion of a fine core mechanic, and a badly missed opportunity. [Tested with Vive; June 2016, p.120]

Even at its best, Heroes Reborn: Gemini can't hope to be one of those games that breaks out of licensed-game purgatory. [March 2016, p.116]

Astonishingly, there's no replay function for your defensive performances. [Feb 2016, p.122]

Like a fledgling with two broken wings, it would surely have been more humane to put the thing out of its misery than let it limp out in this pathetic state. [Christmas 2015, p.123]

Need for Speed is a disappointing follow-up to the flawed but big-hearted Rivals, and while it's billed as a fresh start for the series, it feels more like a false one. [Christmas 2015, p.118]

It all feels thoroughly pointless...The rumour mill has it that THPS5 has been shoved into stores so prematurely because Activision's Tony Hawk license expires at the end of the year; we suspect that had the Birdman known this would have offered up an extension for free. [Dec 2015, p.118]

A host of inchoate ideas served with a helping of self-importance, Submerged threatens to plumb the emotional depths, but there's little of value beneath its surface. [Oct 2015, p.121]