If an RPG is measured by the temptation to explore elsewhere before heading to the next objective, this is as great as any. We stall for hours finding and investigating one magical environment after another. It's bliss. [Issue#411, p.100]

It may not linger in the mind for too long once it's over, but it provides at least an evening's worth of quiet magic. [Issue#410, p.123]

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]

When those big swings connect, just as when we manage to knock several bottles off a wall with a single shot, Despelote offers an exhilarating reminder of the narrative ground games have yet to cover. [Issue#410, p.120]

As the clear standout elements in a shooter that otherwise feels like it's been drafted out of pre-existing parts, we'd like more change to actually play with our cards after tearing the packet open. [Issue#410, p.118]

There's also a sneaking sense that Origins is stuck in the past. As a reimagining of the original game with modern visuals, it's a triumph, but it doesn't do much to move the realtime tactics genre forward, with little of the innovation seen in, say, Mimimi's Shaodow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. [Issue#410, p.116]

Crucially, we never lose our will to continue. [Issue#410, p.114]

The end-of-stage bosses remain something of a saving grace. [Issue#410, p.112]

This is a vision of immense craft and feeling. Should there be more behind the curtain? [Issue#410, p.110]

Atomfall isn't always a brilliant game, then, but it's often a surprisingly comforting one. [Issue#410, p.102]

In Assassin's Creed, the bloodthirsty are typically punished. For all its breadth and splendour, there is still not quite enough room to condemn its two most murderous inhabitants. [Issue#410, p.98]

As paradoxical as the thing itself, this single-storey mansion is a towering achievement. [Issue#410, p.106]

It's a game that wants to take games apart piece by piece - and is happy to use you as a screwdriver of sorts. [Issue#409, p.122]

Omega 6 has value as a curio and as part of Imamura's legacy, but only mildly as entertainment. [Issue#409, p.121]

For too much of your playtime, then, the game's charms seem like nothing more than a distant fantasy. [Issue#409, p.120]

Through design or serendipity, maybe the best thing to do after finishing Wanderstop is make yourself a cup of tea, take a seat, and mull it over for a while. [Issue#409, p.118]

A step forward over both previous entries, combining those elements with meticulous campaign craft and a gallery of inventive ideas. [Issue#409, p.116]

What begins with a potential murder, then, may end with the deconstruction of a way of seeing the world. [Issue#409, p.114]

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]

For the most part the game's worldview is surprisingly progressive. [Issue#409, p.108]

We can't shake the sense that we've trodden these paths before. [Issue#409, p.104]

While the script spills plenty of ink on questions of fantasy, sci-fi and prose fiction, Split Fiction's most compelling statements are made without a word, in the shape of the game itself. [Issue#409, p.100]

There's substance, too. [Issue#408, p.123]

With its celebration of the little things in life, which rarely affords neat resolutions, Afterlove EP is a beautiful tribute not only to Jakarta but to its dearly departed creator. [Issue#408, p.122]

At least no one can accuse Brace Yourself of staying in its lane, even if you sometimes wish its monsters would. [Issue#408, p.121]

Arlo may have the grimace and mane of Geralt, but his game needs to be more than a series of narrow squeaks. [Issue#408, p.118]

If Keep Driving isn't the Kerouacian roman-a-clef you might hope for, every trip will leave you with something to remember it by. [Issue#408, p.116]

If you want to know what unites all players, though, it's the sheer glory of the wide-open world that is brought into being here. [Issue#408, p.114]