Avowed kinda works. The story is bland, but at least dialogue doesn’t make you cringe every time someone opens their mouth. Combat... exists. And level design is actually good: it looks quite nice, and offers interesting exploration opportunities. But it’s definitely not worth the asking price of $70. [Issue#266]

Unlike the deadly hide-and-seek of Alien: Isolation, The Road Ahead leaves no room for improvisation nor gives a chance to rectify your mistake. Either you do everything exactly as the level designer wanted you to, or you die. [Issue#266]

There’s a killer on the loose, there’s a bunch of unlikable teenagers who are about to meet him, and our choices will quite arbitrarily decide who lives and who dies – you know the drill. The only remarkable thing about Frank Stone is the amount of Dead by Daylight references: fans of that game will definitely be pleased. [Issue#265, p.65]

Art deco noir cyberpunk world has a lot of little details that really nail that “high tech, low life” feeling. But with the story so bland and by-the-numbers, it’s hard to recommend Nobody Wants to Die as anything but an interactive artbook. [Issue#265, p.54]

Middle-aged Cutter just doesn’t cut it as a hero. Everything about him screams that he’s old, he’s tired, and instead of going on an adventure, he would’ve preferred to spend the day playing Farming Simulator. [Issue#264,p.54]

The genius of Civilization 3 was in its simplicity. Then Firaxis began piling on additional mechanics and interconnections, losing that spark in the process. Millennia tries to fix that. [Issue#264,p.62]

Music is extremely important for Heading Out: even races last only as long as the accompanying songs. So there’s no excuse for such a bland, boring soundtrack – especially for a game set in the 70s. [Issue#264,p.72]

Slavania offers a foray into Slavic mythology – a rare treat for metroidvania fans. Instead of skeletons and ghouls you’ll be fighting kikomoras and feral koloboks, while birdwoman Gamayun will serve as your guide. [Issue#263, p.45]

It’s a bit weird that a game called “Silent Hill” doesn’t feature the eponymous town. On the other hand, Silent Hill has long since grown into something bigger than just a place; it’s something that germinates within a person – and HexaDrive studio captured that feeing quite well. [Issue#263, p.56]

In this co-op stint, Outlast lost most of its story content, ramped up its difficulty and became repetitive. The game has only a few maps and very little variety in tasks. [Issue#263, p.70]

If you think that Expeditions is just Snowrunner without emphasis on trucks – you are correct, more or less. It also has pretty much the same problems, including collision physics. But considering the perpetual drought in the genre, we’re going to play it nevertheless. [Issue#263, p.58]

Even if you’re a Silent Hunter veteran, it will take a dozen attempts before you sink your first u-boat. And it may take another dozen to learn how to trap your opponent, how to use your bomb to deafen enemy acoustic, and other tricks of the trade. But then – then you’ll be having a one-of-a-kind type of fun. [Issue#263, p.54]

Level design is overly convoluted. No matter where you’re going, the road will take so long you’re likely to forget why you were going there in the first place. Not to mention that the path is so rugged, no ordinary person would ever get there. So how do normal people live here (and they do, ostensibly)?[Issue#263, p.46]

Daedalic knew how to make the adventure part work – and it does work, more or less – but everything else screams “amateur hour” so hard, it borders on naïve art. [Issue#262, p.64]

The world isn’t big, but it’s well lived-in, you can feel for its inhabitants, and it’s nice to see how Delta gives them a bit of hope and warmth. All in all, it’s another good Daedalic adventure game. [Issue#262, p.85]

It’s definitely a step forward compared to basic 1-2-Switch!, but that step isn’t big enough to help the game come out of its (very narrow) niche.[Issue#262, p.76]

It’s almost like Diablo 4 developers are consciously fighting against everything that made classic Diablo fun. [Issue#262, p.80]

The name of the game is “parry”. Whatever the problem is, a well-timed parry will save the day. But if you can’t handle parrying mechanic, you’ll lose, no matter what tactics you use and what your equipment is. [page 52]

High on Life works better as a sitcom about weird aliens than it does as an FPS. [page 46]

Borderlands had its share of bugs, broken abilities and boring levels, but it always made up for it with humor and charm. Not anymore: Gearbox lost its best writers, so in Wonderlands it struggles even with established characters, and new ones fall completely flat. [Issue#260, p.42]

On paper, there’s a lot of variety in The Guild 3. But most of the “alternative” gameplay options either require unreasonable amounts of busywork, or simply aren’t profitable. And if you just want to run a workshop, – The Guild 2 would work just as well. [Issue#260, p.46]

Shredder’s Revenge is one big nostalgia trip that doesn’t even try to do something more – like offering actually good and nuanced beat’em up experience, for example. [Issue#260, p.52]

The quality of fan service is simply breathtaking, so it’s a must for any fan of the cult classic movie. Still, as a game, Terran Command offers nothing new. Even less, in fact: there’s no multiplayer, map editor or even a skirmish mode, so once you’re done – you’re done. [Issue#260, p.54]

A newcomer would be shocked by crude animations, wonky physics and bad gunplay. Fans of the franchise are kinda used to that, but they’ll be disappointed for another reason: while Saints Row 2022 does have a few fun moments, most of them are blatantly ripped from previous games of the series. [Issue#260, p.32]

Solo incursions are definitely the best experience Extraction can deliver – although this isn’t exactly a high bar, considering how mediocre the game is. [Issue#259, p.62]

Two decades have passed since the first Gothic came out, but Piranha Bytes still sticks to the old formula in hopes that once again it will make a miracle. [Issue#259, p.66]

A full playthrough takes about two hours, which is weird, considering that Infinite is advertised as a full game. Still, these two hours are good, so hopefully, next time the developer will get a bigger budget and will finally deliver a full-length game. [Issue#259, p.55]

If you’re a fan of the Gaulish duo, you’ll love it. If not, – it’s a very basic beat ‘em up with typical problems like poor hit registration and no functional difference between playable characters. [Issue#259, p.51]