The best Alien-licensed game not made by Creative Assembly. [Issue#387, p.114]

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

It's disappointing mostly because its strongest elements, from its dialogue to its excellent soundtrack (see "Radio ga ga"), are packaged within a limp rerun of its superior predecessor, providing scant few reasons to face the ghosts of the past a second time. [Issue#387, p.112]

The creative aims are clear and well-met: to create a Final Fantasy game with a more serious and grounded story, a more fashionable battle system and more mature world in which magic and monsters exist, and their effects on human ambitions and systems of power. On these counts, Final Fantasy XVI's gamble is a success. But whether this is a game to inspire passion among a new generation, in the way the high points of the series did, is debatable. [Issue#387, p.106]

We don't mind seeing behind the scenes, since in a way the whole game is just that storycrafting system on a larger canvas. [Issue#386, p.123]

It's testament to What The Car? that we're prepared to repeat the majority of challenges until we've earned a golden crown. [Issue#386, p.122]

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

As much as Firmament highlights the skills and importance of industrial labourers, then, it also brings with it some of the tedium of the real work - which surely wasn't part of the blueprint. [Issue#386, p.118]

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]

The bunker thus feels genuinely coherent as a place, and alongside a vividly oppressive monster, that's enough to ensure this latest bout of Amnesia is one we won't easily forget. [Issue#386, p.114]

The game's world of desperate survival is much more effectively painted through its mechanics. [Issue#386, p.112]

This isn't old school for old school's sake, it's a reminder that there's more to reviving classic material than nostalgia. Sometimes, it's about showing the modern industry where it lost its way. [Issue#386, p.108]

This game has not so much been created to advance the beloved series but to prepare the ground for its next generation. As sequels go, think more civil disturbance than raising hell. [Issue #386, p.104]

This is not only a kinetic, exciting and gloriously refined interpretation of the most storied fighting game series, but also the most generous and expansive offering yet. Here is a game that pays tearful tribute to its past, while determinedly seeking out a new and young audience - mindful, no doubt, that its future resides in their hands, be they practised or otherwise. [Issue #386, p.100]

Though perhaps it's the constraints that give this striking noir - the most invested we've been in the Tron universe for 40 years - such a strong identity of its own. [Issue#385, p.122]

Here, though, each death is just another opportunity for a punchline. [Issue#385, p.121]

The most significant addition is Quen marine Seyka, with whom Aloy forms a bond that goes beyond friendship. Yet the two fight more often than they flirt, and the need to either level or stock up between story missions means they don't spend enough time together for the would-be emotional climax to fully land. [Issue#385, p.120]

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

Minus the combat, Benedict Fox is Metroidvania reduced to its most basic form, where all that matters are the platforms you can reach and the doors you can open. [Issue#385, p.116]

In short, Darkest Dungeon II is everything you could hope for. [Issue#385, p.114]

It's a sensitively told story that's brought in to land with a thunderous final chapter, delivering suspense, spectacle, and a deeply moving resolution. [Issue#385, p.112]

Amid those undeniable influences, this emerges as a bona fide original: one that fully merits a place alongside the other gems in Enhance's gold-tier catalogue. [Issue#385, p.110]

Survivor manages to leave us wondering what could possibly be left for a sequel - and surprisingly eager to find out. [Issue#385, p.106]

There's something here: a glimmer of promise, the kind of idea that surely shone bright in the game's original conception. But the realities of development have resulted in a game that, like a misjudged Translocator leading only to a dead drop, falls well short of the imagined outcome. [Issue#385, p.102]

But these rare lows are a fair trade for some of the most stratospheric highs we've experienced in a videogame since, well, its predecessor. In reimagining Hyrule and reshuffling the tools you'll use to explore and to save it, Nintendo may not have quite reinvented the wheel. But this kingdom provides a wondrous space in which to consider how you just might. [Issue#385, p.98]

Ultimately, while the Mikado Maniax reworking of Raiden III may not be abundant in terms of new features or modes, it does provide access to one of the most exciting, distinct and dramatic genre works - which may, with luck, earn it the attention in the west it has long deserved. [Issue#384, p.122]

This might well be one of the finest hint systems (certainly in this type of game) that we've ever seen. [Issue#384, p.120]

It captures moments of messy humanity that cut through the wreckage. [Issue#384, p.119]

It doesn't so much break the fourth wall as move effortlessly through it as a spectre might, leading to conundrums that rival the dearly departed Cing's finest work: one more act of resurrection in an ingeniously constructed ghost story. [Issue#384, p.118]

Dredge draws a line between Animal Crossing's pun-laced fishing minigame and Lovecraft's fondness for a seaside locale, and the two prove a surprisingly natural fit. [Issue#384, p.117]

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

Yes, the planet looks prettier than it did before we arrived, but this is a rare act of beautification that leaves a bitter aftertaste. [Issue#384, p.114]

Death himself is an amusingly grumpy fellow, in constant need of a cup of coffee to stay motivated. [Issue#384, p.112]

While Rockfish has created an accomplished open-world experience among the stars, then, it really needn't take up quite so much space. [Issue#384, p.110]

The trappings of high society barely conceal the violence yet to come, and the air crackles with anticipation. [Issue#384, p.108]

The game is as interested in making you laugh as making you think. [Issue#384, p.104]

But if, as the end nears, its unswerving focus seems less of an asset than in its early hours, Dead Island 2 has emerged from development hell in more robust shape than we could have expected. Certainly, there is enough potential in a refined and updated version - one that finds room for more immersive sim-style experimentation - to leave us pondering something that seemed unthinkable going in. Dead Island 3? It doesn't seem quite such a terrible idea after all. [Issue#384, p.100]

Part fishing simulator and part Lovecraftian adventure but while the two concepts work together surprisingly well, they both feel disappointingly undercooked.

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]

So while in some ways it's a pity this most malleable of heroes should be forced to return to old haunts instead of breaking new ground, this 2D homecoming is more invigorating than we could have anticipated. [Issue#383, p.121]

It's a decent enough excuse for some very good times. [Issue#383, p.120]

Whether you're into funk fusion or not, there's no denying that the musical rewards all that fastidious work behind the mixing desk. [Issue#383, p.119]

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

Scars Above bears all the hallmarks of a game that was overscoped and steadily scaled back as development went on, with many of its more intriguing ideas sidelined as the story progresses. [Issue#383, p.117]

The genre brings something new to VR, too, the constant cycle of long-term goals and short-term urgencies making it one of the few games that can keep us playing for hours. [Issue#383, p.116]

That's clearly how Call of the Mountain has been designed: as a technical showcase first and foremost, pushing visual fidelity further that we're used to seeing in this medium, and taking players on a tour of some of its most tried-and-tested mechanics. Taken as such, this is an all but essential companion to PSVR2. As for whether it's enough to convince people to adopt the technology in the first place? Well, that might prove a steeper mountain to climb. [Issue#383, p.114]

A game of pleasant surprises. [Issue#383, p.112]

With the RTS genre on the back foot in recent years, it's hardly surprising that it should choose to crib from its turn-based cousins - and it has annexed those ideas without sacrificing the heart of its well-oiled war machine. [Issue#383, p.110]

It's hard not to think how much more memorable and rewarding it would have been had the writers made the effort to intertwine these stories from the outset, instead of making its characters spend so much of their journey walking in parallel. [Issue#383, p.108]

Wild Hearts has inherited just enough from Monster Hunter to keep us on the hook - and when it does sporadically come together, it feels like a worthy rival. [Issue#383, p.106]

Leaving this sun-kissed escape behind really does feel like returning from a holiday. [Issue#383, p.104]

In time, however, it is the parry system that reveals itself to be the game's core point of difference and strength. [Issue#383, p.100]

But perhaps the greatest compliment we can pay to Capcom is that the players who don't have the original permanently branded on their memories and their thumbs will merely have to settle for a supremely varied and expertly paced action game - one that doesn't quite supplant, but makes a fascinating companion piece to, one of the greats. [Issue#383, p.96]

Deftly capturing both the low-key horror of loneliness and the ways we might attempt to deal with it, Birth is a quiet triumph for this compassionate creator. [Issue#382, p.114]

The result, Llamasoft's best game since Polybius, is dazzling in every sense of the word. [Issue#382, p.114]

What emerges from the emotional wreckage is a paean to human resilience in the face of catastrophe, one that amply rewards your own perseverance. [Issue#382, p.113]

The Hellfighters' story is one worth hearing - even if Valiant Hearts hits a few bum notes in its telling. [Issue#382, p.112]

Fascinating. [Issue#382, p.110]

More striking are the zero-gravity sections. [Issue#382, p.108]

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]

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

Away from its story missions, Forspoken feels short of ideas, and even the narrative runs out of steam. [Issue#382, p.102]

In its still somehow unique blend of humour and heart, spectacle and introspection, that Like a Dragon roars loudest. It may be nine years late, but we're glad it got here in the end. [Issue#382, p.94]

Settling into Hi-Fi Rush's groove might require a recalibration - in your head, if not the latency settings - and the rewards are more intermittent than we'd like, but when they come, they're considerably greater than the occasional cheer from a non-existent audience. [Issue#382, p.98]

Broadly speaking, Lone Ruin's stern challenge feels broadly well-pitched, but it's unfair just often enough to gradually sap your will to continue - and when a bug leaves us outside a room's boundaries with no hope of return, our patience evaporates with it. [Issue#381, p.107]

When the climactic concert rolls around, you'll be unlikely to complain about the touching yet hopeful note on which it goes out. [Issue#381, p.106]

This is the finest alternative sports game since Windjammers 2. [Issue#381, p.105]

Not quite a serious Pokemon challenger, then, but with pressure on The Pokemon Company to bring in an experienced development partner for future titles, this is a fine calling card for Tose. [Issue#381, p.104]

As it currently stands, the charm of those inventive crafting mechanics can wear off, with progression in the later stages stretched particularly thin. With some further additions stirred into the mix, Potion Craft could yet get closer to reaching its full, heady potential. [Issue#381, p.102]

It can be hard to separate what is ironically bad and what is just, well, bad. [Issue#381, p.100]

There is a lingering sense that Jett's ultimate form lies somewhere between The Far Shore's guided storytelling and the hands-off puzzling here, but this generous and welcoming expansion is deserving of any time given over to it. [Issue#381, p.98]

There's no denying that the fire burns a little less brightly than before. [Issue#381, p.92]

When was the last time a game managed to pierce your heart with its third or fourth dialogue choice? [Issue#381, p.96]

The game's first half in particular demonstrates real clarity of vision. [Issue#380, p.123]

Capturing the seat-shifting tension of cinema's finest vehicular pursuits, Swordship perhaps lacks the longevity of other Roguelikes - though this sprint isn't a marathon, but an exhilarating sprint. [Issue#380, p.122]

None of this is nearly enough to spoil everything Scarlet and Violet get right, such as some of the best (and downright strangest) monster designs in some time, and absorbing final act and postgame, and a soundtrack that could well be a new series peak. [Issue#380, p.121]

None of this is nearly enough to spoil everything Scarlet and Violet get right, such as some of the best (and downright strangest) monster designs in some time, and absorbing final act and postgame, and a soundtrack that could well be a new series peak. [Issue#380, p.121]

Evil West has no delusions of grandeur; it simply wants to give you a thumping good time, and on that front it fully delivers [Issue#380, p.120]

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]

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]

Unbound is ultimately and encouraging statement of intent, demonstrating that Criterion is not afraid to tinker with established formula. [Issue#380, p.114]

In its moment-to-moment play, Darktide is the closest any game of its ilk has come to replicating the original cooperative joys of Left 4 Dead. It's ferocious, frenetic and often very funny. But without Left 4 Dead's advantage of novelty, Fatshark must find other ways to hold your attention through its relatively few missions. [Issue#380, p.112]

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]

Midnight Suns deviates from the XCOM format in many ways, the biggest of which is eschewing dice rolls in favour of a deck of cards. [Issue#380, p.100]

What should be a straightforward tale of coming to terms with loss introduces a few too many complexities and characters, muddling its attempts to explain what happens when we shuffle off this mortal travelator. [Issue#379, p.123]

It's an irresistible way to spend two minutes. [Issue#379, p.122]

The game simply folds in extra complications. [Issue#379, p.121]

Playful touches abound. [Issue#379, p.120]

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]

As much as The Chant contains a solid action adventure, then, it could do with more suitable clothing. [Issue#379, p.116]

Between a legacy it can't quite shake and a jumble of borrowed mechanics that fit neither the format nor the fantasy, Gotham Knights simply isn't it. [Issue#379, p.114]

Modern Warfare II's problems are old ones, then, as are its strengths. But there are fewer of the latter than in 2019's reboot, and that should concern fans. [Issue#379, p.112]

A coup de theatre that leaves us bowled over. One for gaming's history books? That's something upon which Pentiment's players can surely agree. [Issue#379, p.108]

Outbursts of light and colour and shape, simple enough that they have the potential to become iconic. [Issue#379, p.104]

The combat is beefy enough to carry you through the slower stretches, but even when you're lopping heads off dragons it can feel like what you're really killing is time. [Issue#379, p.100]

Beneath this joyously aimless frolicking flows a gentle undercurrent of melancholy, which comes to the fore during the game's bittersweet finale. You're asked beforehand whether you're ready to go; it says much for this fuzzy, wistful daydream of a place that leaving it behind proves a surprising wrench. [Issue#378, p.123]

With a wealth of weapons, unlockable characters, hidden relics and buff-providing cards, Galante has adopted the kitchen-sink approach to fleshing out his game. [Issue#378, p.121]

The triumphs, however, will have you punching the air: accept that they are sometimes extremely hard-won and you might well consider this a keeper. [Issue#378, p.120]