There are moments of compelling spectacle...But the stop/start intrusion of missed QTE presses hurts these moments of the game, even as the dramatic visuals start to win over the most skeptical player. [June 2009, p.95]

It's done enough to shake a shambling wraith out of its coffin and render it an elegant, challenging treat.

Whether you're flipping a fried egg or turning a dial, this is tactile and satisfying, if slight, entertainment. [Tested with Vive; June 2016, p.121]

All that may dent its mass-market appeal, but for open-minded players The Far Shore could well be 2021's most captivating videogame destination. [Issue#364, p.102]

Rusty Lake is smart enough to keep things brief. [Issue#378, p.114]

In the end, though there is little average about either its elegant successes or its needless failings, between them they leave Lost Magic hanging in the balance. [June 2006, p.97]

Despite the obvious staying power of the game’s mechanics that has made it a hit in all its various iterations, it strains to push itself beyond its one-note colour-matching principle into truly engaging puzzling. [Aug 2006, p.92]

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]

For the game's opening third, this all works brilliantly as you move through claustrophobic, yet forgiving, urban environments. But a trip to the city sewers further down the line places platforming over survival and reveals that Deadlight's controls just aren't up to the task.

Old hands will still find much of the personality and singular vision of the franchise intact, but it's the newcomers, ironically, who might find Insect Armageddon a jarring mix of old-fashioned thrills and modern gameplay trends.

There's enough charm here for Little Inferno to get by, but sometimes you might consider taking its advice and stop feeding the flames.

The game’s ambition reaches further than perhaps its budget could reach, thus failing to either deliver or explore its ideas as they were no doubt envisioned. [Nov 2008, p.95]

Acclaim's latest manages to tick all the required futuristic race sim boxes, except the one titled 'memorable'. There's one really good thing about XGRA - it's all over very quickly. [Nov 2003, p.109]

An impressively comprehensive, reasonably captivating though ultimately flawed experience. [June 2005, p.95]

As a portable title, Untold Legends knows that its payoff has to be immediate and frequent and it graciously complies, with even the briefest morning commute diversion yielding at least one quest completed, at least one level gained and frequently another full wardrobe change rounding off a constant feeling of accomplishment. [June 2005, p.86]

By the second of third level you’ll feel that Get Even has shown you everything it has. The odd moment of redemption comes with an excellent boss here, a Taito in-joke there, and the invaders. [Feb 2009, p.95]

A curiosity worth looking at. [Sept 2009, p.100]

With the game's over-reliance on backtracking and aimless overworld item hunts, another shooting segment is never more than ten seconds away, resulting in a jarring, disjointed flow... In the end, Sigma Star Saga does justice to neither of its two loosely conjoined games. [Oct 2005, p.95]

Reduced to its simplest terms and stripped of its highly aspiring overtones, Rising is essentially a competent shooter with its heart in the right place, and a ton of ideas that never gel into any cohesive whole. [Aug 2005, p.92]

But if you can ignore the plain looking game world and suspect AI and buy into the mercenary fantasy, there's enough fortune and glory here to give a warlord reason to make it a home.

By the time we reached the end of Outlast 2 we felt drained for all the wrong reasons. In leaving the confines of its predecessor's psychiatric hospital setting for the wilds of southern Arizona, Red Barrels' horror series has somehow become more linear and less pliable. And now, in the long shadow cast by Capcom's excellent Resident Evil VII, Red Barrels' macabre tricks are made to appear somewhat less dazzling. [June 2017, p.102]

A solid and intricate Armored Core with the best online offering yet, lacking only the visual sheen to make the energy and pace of its combat shine. It's still an acquired taste, but once you've whetted your appetite, it's hard to resist.

Fundamentally a little anaemic, lacking the kind of acute design which would either make its stages distinct or its basic operation continually engaging. [Sept 2008, p.94]

Shorn of its accoutrements and sumptuous presentation, Flock's basic appeal remains a little woolly. [June 2009, p.96]

This is a game whose best moments are diluted by a torrent of filler, whose beauty is obscured by its technical shortcomings, and whose obvious potential is squandered by a lack of polish. That weird orange sky is, alas, the least of its problems. [Christmas 2016, p.110]

The waywardness of the physics and AI are easier to forgive in a game with such a taste for ludicrous knock-on effects. [Issue#328, p.104]

There's still much enjoyment to be found in the interim grinding between boss fights, but Lords Of The Fallen's greatest sin is that all feels rather soulless. [Christmas 2014, p.116]

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