Spiders' latest game succeeds in lifting itself from the terrible mediocrity that enveloped The Techomancer, but it does so with an effort that, although commendable, is still not vigorous enough.

The good work done in giving a new form to the myth of Baba Yaga, updating the legendary witch of Slavic folklore through a plot whose ending will be decided by us, is too frequently overshadowed by the structural naiveties of a perhaps overly ambitious production.

While not reaching the expressive heights of Limbo or Inside, Somerville is placed in the wake of Playdead's videogame experiments. Jumpship's first work offers intriguing suggestions on the artistic and thematic front, but fails to translate the amount of stimuli proposed into a truly concrete narrative message. An unsettled contrast between level design, direction and game mechanics is unfortunately the background to the entire experience, which thus fails to fully express its potential. With a total duration of about 4-6 hours and several endings - all equally hermetic - to be gutted, Somerville could still conquer fans of the reference genre, even without representing one of the best exponents.

An imperfect lucid recipe.

Compared to the original, Blue Reflection: Second Light undoubtedly represents a big step forward for the boys of Gust, who have once again synthesized an exciting and frenetic playful formula. However, the progress made on the gameplay front and the unexpected introduction of a more traditional growth system are again offset by an uninspiring tale, sleepy and repetitive side activities, and a technical system that is dated even by last year's standards. console generation. The road to obtain redemption is therefore still long, but it would seem that the majokko of the house Gust and Koei Tecmo have at least taken the right path.

The transition from the novel to the game is interesting, and It feels like a 90's shooter, but it doesn't reach the quality of the old days classics.

By expanding the roster of playable characters and the number of fighters that can be dragged on the front line, the guys at WANIN International have endowed Dusk Diver 2 with a pleasant strategic component completely absent in the first episode. However, instead of conceiving a new growth system reasoned and designed specifically for the team, the studio has kept the leveling system of the original, which allowed you to manually intervene on the parameters of the Yang Yumo alone. Being shared among the various members of the gang, the experience points accumulated through the clashes are not sufficient to simultaneously improve the fighters available to the player, who is often forced to focus on one or two heroes to cope with a balance of difficulty to be reviewed. at most, neglecting the remaining three. Compared to the progenitor, Dusk Diver 2 has in short made some appreciable steps forward, but the road to perfect the formula of the saga and express its full potential would still seem long.

Demon Gaze II evolves the good from the first chapter of the series, but in some cases it simplifies things too much compared to the standards of a genre linked to an underlying complexity that is difficult to give up.

Given the redundancy of activities and the lack of variety of situations, Insanity will offer a good amount of hours of play only to those who will be moved by the desire to improve their records or to those players dedicated to completism. All the others will find themselves in front of a more compelling experience on the artistic side than on the strictly playful one. Anyone who has experienced Jason's epic in Far Cry 3, however, will certainly have an added incentive to explore Vaas' insane mind.

Serious Sam: Double D is an old school game that revives the genre of side-scrolling shooter. Mommy's Best Games is working hard, but the hilarious situations and the nice graphics are not enough for a game much too short and without any innovation.

Despite a rather slow start and a "Dark Souls-like" combat system that also disappoints on the distance, the post-apocalyptic journey of Black Forest Games, at the crossroads between the action-adventure and the management, demonstrates qualities that could be tempting to lovers of the tough and uncompromising challenge.

The absence of truly unforgettable moments and a gameplay that does not always exploit as it should all its enormous potential unfortunately limit its full enjoyment. Nonetheless, if for no other reason than the indescribable thrill of being side by side with Darth Vader himself, this trilogy remains an adventure that shows the full immersive strength of Oculus Quest.

The title is the same as it was a year ago (eternal uploads included, unfortunately): considering that the starting material, from a technical point of view, was certainly not a miracle, one could almost say that the game is more at ease on the hybrid Nintendo.

The game has an interesting storyline and the setting is quite evocative, but the battle system is boring and there is no freedom at all during the progression.

If Descenders teases you, don't worry too much about giving it a chance. Maybe on other gaming platforms.

Moon Hunters is a non consistent game that wants to bravely show a different gameplay, though the intriguing potentialities of the latter were not realized as initially thought. However, it is a quite solid game, funny both in single player and in co-op mode.

Fairy Tail 2 had the duty to unleash the great latent potential of the first episode, but unfortunately the developer missed the mark, creating a title that is overall inferior to the previous one. Drawing on the lessons and mechanics of the Atelier Ryza trilogy, the turn-based combat system has made huge steps forward, and it is a real shame that all the other aspects of the production have been neglected or at least penalized by decisions that are nothing short of opinionated. We are convinced that fans of the license will love it despite all its flaws, but it is highly unlikely that the title will be able to win the sympathies of those who still do not have a strong attachment to Natsu and company.

The snowy setting is fascinating, but this expansion runs out of new stuff to do really quickly.

Industria is a shooter that focuses on its narrative component and offers the best in situations of pure survival, claustrophobic and perpetually outnumbered. With the arrival of more powerful weapons, the level of challenge undergoes a sharp decline and, although it offers several interesting ideas, the narrative plot fails to provide the answers to many of the questions that arose during the adventure.

Exactly what we were expecting.

Bugsnax is a fun and light adventure, suitable for a young audience but able to intrigue even the most grown up players.

The Swords of Ditto has not succeeded in entering the heart.

The third chapter of the THQ Nordic series feels the weight of a decade spent away from the latest hardware, victims of a decidedly aged technical department.

A hasty and superficial porting.

The cosmic deity imagined by H.P. Lovecraft remains immersed in his eternal sleep, because in the interesting video game concocted by Frogwares it is above all the influence of Arthur Conan Doyle that drives a narrative made up of investigations and common crimes, while the horrors of the astral planes remain hidden and can only be touched in short bursts. The plot of the work - which we remember to have been packaged in a very difficult context for its creators - maintains a good rhythm which leads us to overlook the excessive pathos of some exchanges and, although it does not propose anything original within the vast panorama dedicated to Sherlock Holmes, entertains for the approximately seven hours necessary to complete the adventure.

Where the storytelling is solid enough to take the player along for the ride, the gameplay per se is disappointing, too prone to backtracking and cursed by bad platforming. A shame, because this indie project is pushed forward by sound ideas.

Narco Terror is an honest twin stick shooter that will make the happiness of those who will give him a chance, well aware of the compromises that will have to come down.

A solid and worthy experience, thanks to a worthy sound accompaniment and effective pixel art.

The reality is that Suda51's new work for Nintendo Switch is the shadow of the No More Heroes it once was, where brilliant ideas, follies, memorable moments and the heinous combat system itself are watered down in a mediocre techno-playful context - and devoid of rhythm.

Quotation forthcoming.

It's a crazy graphic adventure about two birds working as lawyers in the '800 Paris, and there's some charm in that, but the storytelling is really too rushed to leave something behind.

Quotation forthcoming.

Quotation forthcoming.

With free updates adding the more interesting stuff, this second map pack doesn't deliver the wow effect we were expecting. Maps are well designed from a strategic standpoint, but they miss personality.

It's the best chapter of a saga that has had quality issues since its very inception. Still, it'll please hardcore fans of the sport, even if it's not really entertaining in most of its aspects.

The restless Rad and foul-mouthed Dusty debut on PC with the first episode of a new series. Their adventure is a classic run'n'gun, like the ones we used to play in the '90s. It puts on the plate six levels and an awful boss-fight, mixing platforming and shooting in a very trivial way.

It's not easy to frame an operation like Once Upon a Katamari, suspended between the desire to renew a twenty-year-old tradition and the fear of losing the true essence of what is a cult PS2 title. The joy of completely destroying the settings, starting from their smallest elements, remains intact, and it's impossible not to be won over by the nonsensical madness of a video game that never takes itself seriously. Yet it was reasonable to expect some substantial additions to a gameplay formula that, while still unassailable, dates back to distant 2004. Bandai Namco has thus played to the nostalgia factor without taking the risk of modernizing its intellectual property, giving longtime fans another chance to roll their Katamari, but without offering any convincing glimpses into the future of the series.

Ultimately, On The Run! it is a dignified product, aware of its limitations and aimed mainly at a very young audience. For this Crash Bandicoot mobile trip, in any case, we would have liked a little more balance and liveliness anyway.

Warframe is a good title if contextualized in the panorama of FreeToPlay, however the high level of competition on this front would make us hope for a more solid and strong product.

Disney Tsum Tsum Festival is a party game that entertains, but for a short time.

This time around the repetitiveness feels somehow heavier than usual, and cameos don't work well as they should. The first sign of the need for some innovation on the future LEGO videogames.

Antihero is a good-looking strategy game with complexity to discover.

All things considered, Jyamma Games' Italian soulslike gave us mixed feelings: the bright side of the coin is made up of a pleasant plot, a first-rate artistic component and a quality soundtrack, while the darker side is made up of design issues related to the bosses and a gameplay formula that is not always well-balanced. Even leaving aside the technical uncertainties that could be resolved with a series of targeted updates, Enotria: The Last Song seemed to us to be a half-successful project, but between the lines it is still easy to glimpse the development team's potential.

If approached with awareness and without great pretensions, the pleasant technical sector and the combat system can still give many hours of entertainment, especially in the absence of valid exponents of the role-playing genre.

To enjoy this game you really have to love Japan culture, and forget the graphics, especially on PS4.

A nice spy story locked in a clumsy action game. Too old to impress, and really ugly to see.

We Are Football is a title with some interesting ideas and a good starting point for the future.

A questionable operation.

Akimbot's adventure isn't unpleasant, but its shortcomings are evident. The potential of the combat has remained partly unexpressed, either because of some weapons that are too standard, or because of the limitations of the more particular and powerful ones. Then there's the platforming, which has its moments of brilliance, but is accompanied by phases that are far less successful and with an inconsistent pace. The gameplay structure rests on a story with "forecast" developments, which fails to enhance the game's most interesting characters. That said, if you remember the golden age of action platformers with nostalgia, you could still give Evil Raptor's title a chance.

An undoubtedly captivating chapter.

Defiance fails in the difficult task of merging a TV series and a video game in a convincing and engaging way.

Kong Survivor Instinct is a simple game with a clear mission: to make us experience the tension of being hunted by giant monsters that try to crush us by demolishing everything in their path. A mission that is overall successful, but not flawlessly. The gameplay mix has its ups and downs, also due to the stiffness of the protagonist and the less than brilliant clashes with human enemies. We really liked the dynamic backgrounds, but the experience - if nothing else, better and not a little better than the previous one on King Kong - remains of fluctuating effectiveness.

Lego Brawls is an extremely basic and easy to learn platform fighting game, which does not shine for its combat system or for the level design of the gaming arenas. The title inherits the limits of a production born on Apple Arcade and then transferred to PC and console. However, thanks to the immediacy of the matches and the simplicity of the gameplay mechanics, it could be able to give some carefree fun at least to fans of the iconic bricks but, let's be clear, not for a long time.

It's a decent remaster of a really good game, but noting more than that.

Quotation forthcoming.

Compared to the last eight years, the Osaka company has finally reworked gameplay to refresh some now obsolete features, but not everything has enjoyed a well-deserved restyling. For example, the menus are still the same as they used to be and the pre-rendered cutscenes do not honor the most iconic moments of the adventure.

Quotation forthcoming.

Crazy premises and a great atmosphere will keep you involved for a while, but it really lacks in terms of gameplay depths and rhythm. You are being hunted, and the main solution to that is crouching. Not very gentleman-like.

Despite the considerable ambitions of the project by Raphael Colantonio and his WolfEye Studios, Weird West fails to best express the potential of a creative vision that is as multifaceted as it is unsustainable, at least for the current production structure of the team.

God Mode is a title in which you can find moments of fun and satisfaction, which unfortunately came with technical distraction and repetitiveness.

Quotation forthcoming.

Aesthetically speaking it really interesting, but when it comes to gameplay it really lacks personality.

Mars: War Logs is an action-RPG unfortunately undermined by too many faults and failings to stand out in the now gigantic catalog of PSN and Xbox Live.

Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon isn't a "more of the same": is a "same of the same ". Recommended only for beginners.

Quotation forthcoming.

Necropolis is saved by a strong sense of challenge, and by the resource management system, the only mechanism that meets happily with procedural design of the production.

Quotation forthcoming.

The Adventures of Tintin – The secret of the Unicorn is an average title, with a quite entertaining gameplay but some undeniable flaws, from its short main story to the excessive easiness. Still it's recommendable, providing a funny experience.

Cities XL 2012 is good if you've never played the previous episodes. This version is just adding a few new maps and buildings and nothing relevant to the gameplay.

The adventure of Band of Bastards does not alter in any way the overall budget of production, and fails to provide the public with a sense of continuity and progression that should characterize this kind of additional content.

It's difficult to evaluate the remake of Flashback: old fans will gather in front of a title that remembers the original, but had lost that unique style. Who will approach the game for the first time will find instead a well made title but not so addictive.

The Chant is a horror movie with some interesting ideas. The narrative intrigues the user and encourages him to venture into the darkest corners of Glory Island. The story, however, loses its bite at the end, failing to keep up with what was shown in the first hours of the game. The combat, the survival component and the vital parameters of Jess, are elements well amalgamated with each other, although they do not manage to affect the gameplay in a fully effective way. In short, we are talking about a first discreet test for Brass Token, which we hope can return with a more refined and scary horror in the future.

Without being able to tell anything relevant or particularly interesting, and with an artistic direction devoid of any importance, Healer's Quest still uses a fun concept to stage short comedy sequences and satisfying from the playful point of view.

The playful offer tends not to want to take off in a decisive way, lending itself more to providing an entry level option for those wishing to approach the genre for the first time.

Infinity Blade 3, strong because of outstanding sales, remains perched on his positions: the result is a game that does not arouse any particular enthusiasm.

Shinobido 2 is, at the end, a good stelth game. Playing it, however, gives you the sensation that the dev team could reach far better distances in terms of game design.

Despite numerous technical problems, Tower Wars, thanks to some original features, is a worthy exponent of the Tower Defense genre.

Quotation forthcoming.

The investigation of our electric rodent turned out to be rather "elementary".

Contrast is a title that lives of lights and shadows: the good character design and attractive setting collide with an inconsistent gameplay.

This Next-Gen version of the last Tecmo-Koei's musou adds few scenarios and game modes, and shows a crisper graphics. But it doesn't change the substance of the game.

The experiment of division into individual contracts is therefore not entirely successful, but lovers of the genre will certainly find bread for their teeth.

The beating heart of Yurukill is to be found in the visual novel component, intriguing even if at times verbose and repetitive, while the point and click inspiration from the escape room fails to affect with its bare backdrops and the boyish simplicity of the puzzles to be solved.

Blackgate is a minor spin-off of Batman Arkham Origins. It was more comfortable on portable devices, but even on home consoles will please "metroidvania" fans.

Strike Suit Zero wasn't a great game, and this Director's Cut edition does not solve its problems.

Seeking Down offers a mix of successful elements and others absolutely subdued or out of context.

OddBallers presents itself as a potentially very fun title, but with an all too simplistic realization, which would certainly have benefited from greater care both in the expression of one's cheeky style and in the polishing phase. Since the idea behind the gameplay is so simple, we expect that in the future, with the right support, the Ubisoft title will be able to expand its already decent content offer, coming to constitute a good alternative in the field of party games.

Overall, we are faced with a product that can attract the attention of Asterix fans and those who love the genre, but which could have turned out to be much more enjoyable with several more tricks.

A nice kid game, and an unusual tie-in.

It was reasonable to expect more from Firewall Ultra. The legacy of Zero Hour is only partially taken up, given that the production alternates steps forward with inexplicable steps backwards on the interactivity front. The new tactical shooter from First Contact Entertainment keeps its playful qualities intact, starting from the strong emphasis placed on team play, but has to deal with long matchmaking times and a progression system that is not stimulating enough. Then there is the problem of the lack of variety in terms of game modes, which we hope will be expanded in the future.

It's an interesting spin off for true fans of the saga, but everyone else won't be involved enough in the lore to get what's going on.

Destiny 2: Destiny's Edge isn't exactly what fans expected from the debut of what was previously called Frontiers. All the enthusiasm and desire to experiment that emerged when it was announced has unfortunately been lost on this expansion, which introduces weak mechanics and adds very little replayable, albeit valuable, content. We truly hope that fan feedback can somehow help the Seattle team straighten out the situation and catch up with upcoming expansions or, perhaps, with the update coming in September that will introduce a new activity on Earth. In the meantime, we can only say we're minimally satisfied and, above all, concerned about the game's future.

Customizing your mech is pure fun, and there are a lot of options, but the combat system is quite lame, as is the technical side.

Boxing Star is a title so funny, but also extremely repetitive, to the point to entice pay-to-win.

Unfortunately, the definitive edition of Outward did not manage to redeem the original work in its entirety, because it basically kept its same strengths and weaknesses. At the dawn of the new generation, unfortunately, the latter weigh a little more, net of the fact that the great innovations in terms of content variety have proved to be appreciable.

Chamber of Time is in fact a runaway-style dungeon crawler with good arrows to its arch, sliding and light, but very rigid in structure and decidedly elementary in its construction of gameplay.

A rather weak remaster on the technical side, but to which it is impossible not to recognize a certain intrinsic cultural value, closely linked to his respectful love for the cinematographic saga.

Starvoid is an RTS direct and simple. It's mostly recommended for all RTS lovers who need a lightweight title with witch to pass a few hours.