It’s difficult to shake the sensation that Killer 7 is an important production, as paving for future creative leeway if nothing else. But its likely love/hate status is testament to just how adamant it has attempted to be in its flair for extraordinary presentation. [Aug 2005, p.84]

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

In just a fraction of the time it would take another game, The Gunk manages to instil the full sense of exploring an unknown planet to its core. [Issue#367, p.110]

There's less room for creativity than you might think. [Issue#383, p.118]

Vampyr is a set of ideas that cohere on paper but not in practice, coupled with a dreary setting that becomes less atmospheric the longer you spend with it. [Issue#322, p.114]

With just those three levels, though, Rage feels a little slight - more a toy than a full game, even if there's plenty of room to perfect your scores.

It's a shame the drama doesn't punch at the same weight (as the visuals). [June 2010, p.105]

If Below is a game about the single-minded pursuit of a shape, about making your descent at all cots, it is also a test of your ability to find time for appreciation or understanding along the way. [March 2019, p.104]

Its faults are many, but they're magnified by the obvious comparison: this isn't an alternative to COD, but a game in thrall to it. [Apr 2011, p.84]

Until these closing stages, though, Relooted doesn't match its cast's bold determination and flexibility. Despite well-laid plans, the execution isn't as slick as it might be. [Issue#422, p.116]

"Unbearable" is definitely one word for Pathologic 2, but that hides a few others: engulfing, ingenious, profound, invigorating. [Issue#341, p.106]

Tengami’s world is as rich and stimulating as any you’re likely to find on iOS, but there’s something missing. Like an origami crane, it’s an admirable piece of craftsmanship, but the result remains rather flimsy and lightweight.

Solitaire is supposed to be an exercise in patience; we weren't expecting ours to be tested between levels, too. [Issue#352, p.121]

We're very happy with the ending we land on, but it's hard to imagine anyone choosing to stick around. [Issue#364, p.121]

A conservative sequel, one that drills down into the bedrock of what The Sims has always been. [Nov 2014, p.104]

At release, it offers a staggeringly beautiful world filled with unfinished systems, ugly cash grabs, and a string of missed opportunities. [Jan 2014, p.108]

For a series that puts so much stock in its grace and composure, the lack of an intuitive control scheme is hard to overcome. [June 2007, p.86]

Fascinating. [Issue#356, p.106]

Silt remains grimly unsettling, and there's a sprinkling of ingenuity in many of its puzzles, but it's not as powerful as it promises to be. [Issue#373, p.118]

Drill Spirits is a well-rounded introduction to the series, but falls far short of its greatest successes. [Feb 2005, p.82]

While this economy is enjoyably self-perpetuating, the cash economy beside it feels aimless. [Issue#401, p.123]

It's a surprisingly tense juggling act, in other words, and while some will lack the patience required to climb its steep learning curve, the stress is worth it for the soaring sense of accomplishment you'll feel at the end of a hard day's work.

Classes and skills are well-balanced, and even though you’ll cycle through the small map selection quickly, they offer enough possibilities to stave off fatigue until Ubisoft adds more arenas. With more modes and maps, Phantoms would be a formidable offering, but it’s worth dipping into until then.

It's both startling and amusing to see a rival expressing annoyance, befuddlement or smugness. [Issue#387, p.110]

With the FPS realm being crushingly overpopulated, and its upper class becoming so terrifyingly demanding and particular, Pariah's solidity isn't enough to allow it entry into the genre's gentry. [June 2005, p.82]

The short levels, played to a time limit that rarely exceeds five minutes, may be ideal for speed runners, but this lightweight arcadey romp lacks the substance that many might need to keep returning to it. [Issue#420, p.98]

Well engineered and, while unexceptional in almost every fashion, it does boast a superb level of attention to detail. [June 2003, p.104]

A pretty but vapid experience. [Sept 2010, p.98]

Thankfully Richard and Alice do manage to engage, the awkward stiltedness to their early conversations naturally easing into a more flowing rapport. Neither are as a delight to read as Alice’s son Barney, however, whose perfectly captured five-year-old’s speech patterns provide both humour and heartbreaking moments of poignancy.

Where the game partially redeems itself is in its hammy tone, and variety of inventive guns and missions. [June 2015, p.120]

And herein lies Immortals' most fundamental problem: Aveum's skies might crackle with occult energy, but the game beneath them is distinctly lacking in REAL magic. [Issue#389, p.112]

The sport's on-track jousting is potentially some of the fastest and most exhilarating source material around, but by default developers appear to struggle to present it in anything other than a dry and overly technical fashion. [Jan 2010, p.91]

As expectations are put aside and the game is explored for its own merits, it begins to provide a vast sense of potential that few games can muster. [June 2003, p.97]

Once you've wiped away the layer of gore, you're left with an experience that, expectedly, offers limited entertainment. [March 2005, p.85]

This thirdperson actioner spikes the familiar with flavour, and a tired but reliable vocabulary of wall-hugs, circle-strafe, grenade lobs and headshots with an invigorating Nu-Earth twang. [June 2006, p.94]

Singleplayer is weak - despite well-worked tutorial and mission modes it always feels like target practice for combat with friends - and the lack of online support disappoints. But despite a potentially hazardous dimensional switch, it remains as appealing a way of antagonising your friends as ever. [Dec 2003, p.108]

There’s nothing here that wasn’t done bigger, in more detail, and with more options, in Eidos Montreal’s game, while the story so far fails to introduce new ideas or themes.

A Mario sports title that appeals beyond its ready-installed fanbase - strong, clean visuals and animation certainly help - but one that might not entrance them long enough to turn into major league love. [Oct 2006, p.95]

It's often unclear whether or not your shots are hitting, which inclines you to blunder out from your cover and head for close quarters - which in turn destroys the developer's intention of forcing a tactical, cautious approach. [Nov 2003, p.105]

The inadequacies of the PSP camera shatter what little illusion is conjured. At one point, Brian Blessed whispers. All is not right in the world. [Jan 2010, p.96]

Technical issues aside, it shows that a sci-fi action adventure can tell a dramatic, gripping tale by zeroing in on the minutia of the next giant leap, and the weight of uncertainty behind every small step. [Issue#382, p.106]

With handsomely designed environments, and a deviously three-dimensional approach to level design, Kororinpa is exactly the kind of simple, sustaining software that the Wii needs to build on. [Feb 2007, p.84]

A game this difficult, with everything to lose from permadeath, should at the very least feel fair; without any balancing of enemies against your character's progress (something that Upstream Arcade has seemingly done none of) West of Dead does not. [Issue#348, p.100]

It's on Live, though, that Ten Hammers truly explodes into life, the absolute requirement for tactics creating jumpy matches that outgun anything so far on Xbox or its baby brother. [Apr 2006, p.92]

It's a great deal of fun for the first 20 minutes, but once you've mastered your ships and applied your favourite skull decals, there's little to keep you hooked. [Tested with Oculus Rift; June 2016, p.110]

They're gimmicks, sure, but good ones, rounding out another strong title for 3DS. [June 2012, p.126]

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

Driver has escaped near-death with a captivating and colourful return, and one where everything from systems to cinematics is of a quality build. As surprises go, it’s a juggernaut. [Apr 2006, p.84]

The difficulty curve quickly steepens - perhaps too quickly. [June 2017, p.107]

Shiren The Wanderer still has its own charm and deep and lasting individual value that, for all its abstract irritations, surpasses many more modern gaming experiences. [May 2008, p.96]

The purity and quality of Absolver's vision has provided and innovative, constructive take on an often impenetrable genre. [Dec 2017, p.106]

Repetitive and simplistic, Alien Breed Evolution may remain true to its inspiration, but this first episode does no more than reinforce Team 17's reputation for serviceable but uninspiring updates of past glories. [Feb 2010, p.91]

While Sonokuni is a flawed action experience, we're grateful for it as a showcase of music we might not well have heard otherwise, and perhaps not appreciated in the same way. [Issue#410, p.122]

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

Gorgeous and silky smooth it may be, but the level design feels like it was made with in-app Continue purchases specifically in mind, hiding enemies cruelly – and punishingly – behind obstacles, preventing the game from flowing and dazzling as it clearly has the potential to. Accomplished and beautiful, then, but Sonic Dash shows that, for Sega, learning from the competition comes at a price – one it’s passed onto its fans.

Within 20 or so minutes, it's all over. [Issue#367, p.116]

The more it seeks to challenge the player, the more likely it becomes for the game to fail to provide either an enjoyable process of trial and error or a legitimate test of aptitude. [Aug 2005, p.97]

As a reminder of the old days of the series, The Serpent’s Curse just about serves its purpose; it sounds the same, works the same and, mostly, looks the same. But as a contender on the modern point-and-click landscape it offers little to drag players away from the new age of superior soirees.

Under the topsoil its functions are often ingenious, improving genre weaknesses with more success than its over-familiar form might suggest. [Nov 2009, p.95]

By tentatively introducing new concepts, The Devil In Me at least sets up an exciting cliffhanger for a second two, where we hope to see their potential fulfilled. [Issue#380, p.118]

It's not so much that less could have been more here, but rather that it fails to replicate what made those classic JRPGs so beloved. [Issue#362, p.118]

If this were a physical card game, we suspect it's be the kind people buy booster packs for solely to admire the art within, and never to play with. [Issue#374, p.120]

Only intermittently better than its predecessor, if still every bit as frenetic. [Aug 2015, p.120]

It’s a unique offering for 360 owners – as it would have been for Xbox – certainly, but one who’s highlights can’t match those of the RPGs currently burning brightly on PS2. [Apr 2006, p.87]

The illusion of epic-scale warfare remains a powerful and entertaining one, broken most significantly by the player’s need to avoid overexposing themselves to its fundamentally tedious nature. [Feb 2007, p.85]

It's engaging and, if the controls can be forgiven, a satisfying sampler of RTS thrills for the uninitiated. [Feb 2011, p.100]

Driver has escaped near-death with a captivating and colourful return, and one where everything from systems to cinematics is of a quality build. As surprises go, it's a juggernaut. [Apr 2006, p.84]

Those seeking strategic depth may find Bulwark wanting, but if you're happy to kitbash without consequence then Sala's atmospheric world is worth a return visit. [Issue#397, p.112]

Some cool things happen to crazy people in A2M's Wet, but unfortunately there are times in between where you're actually expected to play it. [Nov 2009, p.99]

The Callisto Protocol's biggest misfire as a story is in failing to establish a similar rapport between player-character and world. Whatever concluding themes the plot may reach for, Lee is ultimately just a tourist here, clubbing and blasting his way through an edifice that only ever exists as an escape route. [Issue#380, p.104]

Nintendo is claiming that The Conduit might attract Halo fans to its console, but this game isn’t fit to wait Master Chief’s table.

From bedrooms containing clever and mysterious moving panels to a 'Land of the Giants'-style pool challenge, each section delivers something new and exciting to motivate deeper exploration. [Apr 2004, p.110]

Even when its style doesn't get in the way, like its diaphanous hero it's lacking in substance. [Issue#399, p.123]

The game's huge assortment of side missions and time trials, along with Gridnode runs, represent its most appealing offerings as you hone your route and - for the most part - focus on nothing but running. [Issue#296, p.108]

The thrills are just too short-lived, and it simply doesn't stand up as a more boisterous alternative to the razor-sharp focus and freshness of "Project 8" on 360. [Jan 2007, p.83]

Despite the familiarity of the characters and the story, this is strange, exotic territory, and quite like anything else. [June 2016, p.108]

Sparsely scattered save points, un-skippable animations and cutscenes, and repeated locations and boss fights are anachronisms that will frustrate and alienate all but the most ardent traditionalist.

What it adds to the original formula is essentially redundant, and everything it does that is successful was already in place in the original. [Feb 2008, p.93]

Evolution's successes entertain your mind's-eye view of what running a dinosaur theme park might be like, but its failures encourage you to imagine the game that could be made with this premise. [Issue#322, p.110]

While many players will tire of the gamelong before its last secrets are handed out, its simplicity makes it a strangely compelling experience. [Jan 2008, p.87]

Action Forms’ moments of ingenuity and the sophistication of its writing demonstrate that it could do great and yet more terrifying things with a more intimidating budget. [Apr 2009, p.124]

While there are some interesting mini-games to break up the wandering, Grunty's Revenge is mainly an abject lesson in breadcrumb following game design. [Dec 2003, p.106]

As tightly designed and finely balanced as it is, it's hard to shake the feeling that you're endlessly replaying a tutorial.

While Once Upon A Katamari is too similar to its predecessors, then, a lot of the new ideas simultaneously also work against the classic sensations of fun and flow. [Issue#418, p.123]

The engagements of Red River are a nuanced and precise art, one entirely at odds with the hollow cockiness of the cast and one that underscores the real war going on between Operation Flashpoint's essence and its new macho attitude. [June 2011, p.90]

Heroes consistently relies on its cartoon charm to plaster over its messier elements. [Sept 2009, p.92]

Sharper humour would have helped make these folk more endearing to us, too. [Issue#397, p.108]

There’s a fine-line between rote-learning frustration and seat-of-the-pants glee in on-rails arcade games, and Secret Rings wobbles either side of it perceptibly, but seldom stays on the wrong side for too long. [Apr 2007, p.81]

The real art of Shuten Order isn't in the puzzle pieces, then, but the finished picture. A shame constructing isn't a more well-rounded journey. [Issue#415, p.98]

Tactics lacks what it needs the most, which is the seemingly limitless potential achieved by its predecessor. [Feb 2008, p.94]

The possibility of this all coming together in a more flexible and engaging manner is still a welcome one. But, for a game based on a culture of reputation, craftsmanship and leaving a mark, Getting Up is one that’ll pass by largely unnoticed. [Mar 2006, p.86]

The possibility of this all coming together in a more flexible and engaging manner is still a welcome one. But, for a game based on a culture of reputation, craftsmanship and leaving a mark, Getting Up is one that’ll pass by largely unnoticed. [Mar 2006, p.86]

Knack II improves on its predecessor in just about every department, which is to say it is merely flawed, rather than deeply so. Yet for all its foibles and frustrations, it's all pleasant enough. [Issue#311, p.112]

There are neat touches: you've got infinite ammo, brilliantly, and inhaling gas leaves you with a temporary cough that ruins your aim … but it needs a few more tactics to make it more than the sum of its admittedly solid parts. [Christmas 2003, p.116]

What Dynamic Hunting captures is the back-and-forth rhythm of Monster Hunter fights, the swings between danger and all-out attack, the wounds and the frenzies.

Without a greater degree of authorship - a few lightly scripted cases in predesigned cities to complement the sandbox mode - Shadows of Doubt is too prone to be bewildering or illogical red herrings, shrouding the experience in uncertainty. [Issue#403, p.113]

Swarm will provide a stern test of both skill and patience.

It’s still a classic, then, but one you’d be wise to play in brief installments. And with no real plot to lose yourself in, no breadcrumbs to follow, and very little else to bother yourself with besides headshots, perhaps this is Serious Sam as he’s always meant to be encountered – as a palate-cleansing blast of pure four-colour chaos to enjoy between other courses.