It feels like the most challenging missions are difficult not by design, but rather by design mistakes. For example, one of them gives a very limited time to bomb a number of targets – which wouldn't be so bad if allied fighters actually engaged enemy interceptors. [Issue#236, p.52]

Everyone wants to repeat Hearthstone’s success, but most new CCGs stick to fantasy setting, and the rest go for sci-fi. For people who can’t stomach either (or just prefer something more grounded in reality), KARDS will be a real treat. [Issue#245, p.62]

It’s like TV series: during the first season, actors are still getting to know their character, so the show really kicks into gear only from season 2. Same thing here: original Atom RPG was still searching for its identity, but Trudograd shows that it was finally found, and now Atom is a franchise of its own. [Issue#256, p.60]

Gravity Rush 2 missed its chance to enter major league thanks to its basic story and weak combat system. There’s no arguing it’s an incredibly beautiful “flying game” in an unusual world; you can fly around for hours just enjoying the sights. But all this time we’ve felt absolutely no desire to land and get another ridiculous quest. [Issue#217, p.74]

Is Far Cry 4 worth buying? If you liked the previous game, then definitely yes. Although charismatic madman Vaas is absent for obvious reasons, local dictator Pagan Min effortlessly fills in for him. As for the game mechanics, they are exactly the same, but polished to perfection. Herein lies the main downside as well: Far Cry 4 sticks way too close to its predecessor’s blueprints. You won’t find anything truly new here except Kyrat’s beautiful mountains. [Jan 2015, p.58]

Pokemon Sword/Shield is uncharacteristically user-friendly: now there’s no need to backtrack half across the world to heal your entire team of pokemon or to get to a particular city, for example. [Issue#242, p.66]

When it comes to reimagining decades old games, there are only two options: change the graphics and release it as is, dated gameplay and all, or keep the general idea and build everything from scratch. Not surprisingly, both of them lead to an uphill battle. [Issue#241, p.46]

It’s hard to make sense of the game that’s basically a Switch port of iOS/Android remake of Pokemon Red/Green. Is it a step forward, step backward – or maybe just a shameless cash-in? Turns out, it’s a great remake – the world looks exactly as we imagined it back when we were staring at black and white pixels of original Red/Green. [Issue#235, p.44]

Superstars could be bigger and better than it is. But it’s still the ultimate version of Mario Party. Though I wonder how the next game could possibly surpass it – there’s basically no room for polish, and another volume of “Greatest hits” won’t have the same impact. [Issue#257, p.70]

FreeStyle Games managed to make a good guitar game for people who aren’t all that awed by rock-lifestyle while keeping long-time fans of the series content. [Issue#203, p.84]

Even though people familiar with the original LiS already know how Rachel and Chloe’s friendship is going to end, it doesn’t spoil the game – on the contrary, that shadow of inescapable tragedy adds a subtle but important tone to the story.[Issue#224, p.48]

“Modest” is the first word that comes to mind. Modest graphics, modest story about EEEEVIL, Diablo-esque gameplay... Except it’s not – the amount of skill customization is staggering, and unlike Path of Exile, you can change your build on the fly. [Issue#263, p.48]

Remaster proves that Gravity Rush became a thing on PS Vita mostly because of Vita’s game drought – for home console its gameplay and story are both rather lackluster. [Issue#206, p.74]

Some of the stories may leave you confused, others might make you uncomfortable, but there’s no denying that despite its simplistic appearance, Essays on Empathy manages to evoke some strong emotions. [Issue#253, p.57]

I can’t say that Origami King is a great game – it has too many annoying battles with weak enemies, filler dialogue and trial and error puzzles. But it’s definitely a very original game, and a real treat to anyone looking for new gameplay mechanics. [Issue#247, p.64]

The final choice of Clem is the most powerful moment of the second season. All the preceding gameplay (or we’ll better name it "watching") does not affect the outcome in any way: the epilogue is determined by three possible Clem’s actions at the very end of the game. Despite the fact that there are just five endings and it’s so easy to replay the last scene and see other four, it would be better not to do it because the second time you will not cry so heartily. [Oct 2014, p.86]

Total War: Attila clearly goes beyond the usual add-on, but it hardly can be considered as sequel. Despite the serious work on the bugs and several significant innovations it is almost the same Rome II. This is what Rome II should have been from the very beginning – with hard, dynamic and diverse gameplay which is equally alluring both to green neophytes and hardened professionals. [Issue #195, p.58]

It’s as if you traveled to the past, changed some miniscule detail and time went along very similar but different timeline. On one hand, it’s the good old WoT prior to introduction of French tanks; on the other, now the valley on El Halouf map has a lot of vegetation instead of being a barren deathtrap, tank improvements are gained in packs, and weather has an effect on visibility. So even people who are sated with original WoT are prone to once again get that “just one more battle” syndrome. [Issue#207, p.66]

In Tales of Berseria you can find every single thing which caused “traditional” JRPG to fall out of favor: world is almost empty, balance is non-existent and instead of truly intricate story we have a cheap, unbelievable drama. Sure, most of these can be explained away as a JRPG tradition – but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get tired of them. [Issue #217, p.76]

It’s obvious the team didn’t have the budget of Yakuza 6 for this game. But that gives the game its own charm, like those criminal dramas on TV that you would never watch on purpose, but if you stumble upon one, you’re going to see it to the end. [Issue#239, p.52]

Tactical and role-playing variety suffers from imperfect system of procedural generation. Lady Luck may start throwing at you rooms where you can’t build anything, or give pitiful amount of energy, or leave you with no way to improve your technologies. It’s like reversed Russian roulette: you get one balanced gaming session per five ridiculously difficult. [Dec 2014, p.95]

Most importantly, it’s an interactive movie made by professional movie-makers, not by game designers (for example, writer Michael Robert Johnson also worked on 2009’s Sherlock Holmes). Its biggest gameplay shortcoming is that you can’t skip dialogues you’ve already heard in previous playthroughs – but for a 2-hour long movie it’s not that much of a deal.[Issue#220, p.72]

First person perspective is not exactly the best choice for melee combat – it’s hard to keep your bearings when all you see is a mess of rat bodies. Still, this inconvenience is more than compensated by execution: there are few things more awe-inspiring than seeing your sword separate skaven’s head from body, while your pal sends a whole bunch of them tumbling down the stairs with his huge hammer. [Issue#203, p.88]

Yoshi will fight in a sea battle, pilot a mecha-dinosaur, run away from Death, make his way through a ninja castle – and that’s just a tiny sliver of all adventures in Yoshi’s Crafted World. [Issue#237, p.48]

Valiant Hearts is not going to pretend to be a colorful history textbook: gameplay does not allow you to doze off. A leisurely pace of puzzles is punctuated by action at the front line. Playing cat-and-mouse with security guards during the escape from the camp are replaced by blistering chases on clunkers. [September 2014, p. 74]

Unfortunately, not every “branching point” is real. If you’re destined to fail, you’ll fail no matter what you choose. Sometimes your decision will be overruled by others, and once – even by your own character. Still, there’s not a whole lot of those false branches. [Issue#201, p.56]

Most modern AAA games have a photo mode, so there’s no need to buy Snap just to play photographer. But for a Pokémon fan, there’s the appeal of seeing these creatures in their natural habitat. [Issue#254]

LittleBigPlanet is a rather unique game: beneath the bright cover of “platformer for children” there’s a complicated tool for game development, one that doesn’t require special knowledge – just a modicum of good taste and desire to create. [Feb 2015]

It’s hard to make sense of the game that’s basically a Switch port of iOS/Android remake of Pokemon Red/Green. Is it a step forward, step backward – or maybe just a shameless cash-in? Turns out, it’s a great remake – the world looks exactly as we imagined it back when we were staring at black and white pixels of original Red/Green. [Issue#235, p.44]

Hell Let Loose keeps fine balance between realism and action: it’s inclined towards hardcore gameplay, but adepts of run’n’gun style won’t feel useless either. [Early Access review - Issue#242, p.52]

The Division’s trump card is setting: it’s an online RPG that doesn’t have elves, dragons, robots, demons or zombies. Sure, these things are popular – but almost every game out there has them; while people who want a modern day setting with no fantasy elements have a much more limited choice. [Issue#208, p.58]

In a game called Dirt, dirt has no effect on car’s behavior, and neither does snow. Only ice forces you to make adjustments to your driving. [Issue#250, page 53]

For some reason, Turbo is being presented as if it’s a party game, which couldn’t be further from truth: most of the time you’ll be running the same track over and over again trying to shave tenths of second from your record time. So it’s best played alone and only if you enjoy difficult arcade racing games. Luckily for Ubisoft, there aren’t many of them this generation. [Issue#208, p.63]

Moderately hardcore, a tad nostalgic, devoid of AAA luster, but engaging nonetheless – Squadrons is a nice choice for those who miss Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance. [Issue#249, p.56]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has made Roadside Picnic famous, but it harshly mangled the book: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s Zone was a zone of armed conflict between various factions and mutants, instead of being a place of mystery and supernatural. Pacific Drive, on the other hand, pays an unexpected tribute to the “feel” of the original book, despite nominally being “a car-driving game”. [Issue#263, p.62]

It’s not bad per se, but so totally unremarkable that no matter how many hours you spend playing it, you won’t have a memorable moment. [Issue#209, p.82]

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]

Let’s treat DoK as a group therapy session for developers who still hung over something unfinished in the old Homeworld. Now that they’ve got it out of their systems, hopefully they’ll make something to rival its fame, instead of retracing familiar steps. [Issue#206, p.66]

Unfortunately, there aren’t that many maps available, but each one of them has lots of details and alternate routes, like basements and balconies. Even the airplane is much more complex than the archetypical “long tube with seats.” [Issue#205, p.48]

Once you get the upgrades rolling and start getting farther with each new attempt, boredom gradually sets it as you realize: story-centric spacesims are better. They have a clear endgoal and missions that give a sense of accomplishment. Sure, Everspace does have a (barebones) story, sometimes you even get a sidemission, but its main motivation – get to the last sector just because – does not motivate enough. [Issue#221, p.88]

After the success of THQ’s UFC Undisputed, EA tried to copy it with MMA – and pretty much failed. Then it bought the license from THQ, but EA’s first UFC wasn’t stellar either. Well, after playing UFC 2 we can say with confidence: the third time is the charm. [Issue#209, p.68]

Monsters look great, but their physical model is severely lacking, which you can’t help but notice every time you just clip right through their tails or necks. Yet, the game somehow manages to overload 3DS’ hardware to the point some older models can’t keep up and drop framerate to unacceptable levels. [Issue#224, p.56]

Combat is rather simplistic, but effective: situations and objectives vary greatly, and each fight requires its own tactics and equipment. Unfortunately, it’s also the best part of the game – although writers managed to draft an intriguing world, they failed to populate it with memorable characters and stories. [Issue#239, p.66]

It’s not as stellar as the original Mafia was, but it’s not like anyone really expected that to happen. Still, Hangar 13’s game offers an interesting take on Mafia’s story – and that is no small thing either. [Issue#248, p.30]

Bullets simply don’t cause enough damage for shooting to feel fun: you can unload an entire magazine into some random mob point-blank, and there’s no guarantee it’ll do as much as make it flinch. After a while you realize that you’re not even watching the action anymore, your gaze is fixated solely on enemy healthbar at the top of the screen. On the other hand, bows, shotguns and grenade launchers do pack satisfying bang – they’re not much better in terms of DPS, but fire slowly enough for each shot to deal respectable damage to enemy ranks. [Issue#214, p.64]

I don’t know exactly when I fell in love with BattleTech. Maybe that happened when I’ve spotted an incoming Hunchback 4-P. That modification, while not the most widespread, is dear to anyone who’s ever participated in tabletop BattleTech tournaments. For me, such attention to details means that developers tried not only to make a BattleTech for XXI-century, but to keep it within existing context. [Issue#230, p.44]

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]

Although the narrative is fairly linear, there are enough branching paths over the course of the game to make it feel like your actions matter. That allows Detroit to still be fun even on multiple playthroughs – and for an interactive movie, that’s a rare praise. [Issue#231, p.68]

Stellaris would be better if released a little bit later. Could someone say for what reason developers remove traditional Swedish AI aggressiveness’ tuning from the game? After all the boring mid game due to the inactivity of the computer opponents is Stellaris's main problem at the moment. [Issue#210, p.82]

It’s one of the best Omega Force games and might very well bring new fans into musou genre. But it mostly follows the usual Omega Force formula, so if you know you don’t like musou – Age of Calamity won’t change your mind. [Issue#250, page 60]

For those who didn’t fall in love with these games way back when, they’ll look too childish and, at the same time, punishingly difficult. There are no endless respawns on checkpoints, so if you run out of lives – you gotta start from scratch. For a fan, however, that collection is a real treat. [Issue#220, p.77]

They tried to tell a very epic story on a very limited budget. A contrast like this sometimes really grates on my nerves, but, paradoxically, it’s also a part of Scarlet Nexus’ charm. [Issue#254, p.40]

This game from a small independent studio managed to one-up triple-A series like CoD and Battlefield. Insurgency: Sandstorm has a very clear understanding of what kind of experience it wants to deliver, and it doesn’t waste effort on timesinks like lootboxes or unlocks. [Issue#235, p.34]

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s multiplayer is a vivid example of how just one element of classical shooter mechanics is able to tear off many years’ worth of “realistic shooter” deposits and reveal all the primal fury of Quake. [Dec 2014, p.56]

Characters have little idea about what’s going on; they may even end up looking for people they’ve killed themselves. The fact that narration is split into episodes that can be played in almost any order adds absurdity to the events. But eventually puzzle comes together and meaning of each scene becomes clear. [Issue#211, p.57]

Respawn Entertainment still looks up to Dark Souls, but at the same time they try to make a hardcore game with the most softcore experience. For example, there’s always plenty of shortcuts, so Cal never loses much progress after his inevitable demise. [Issue#262, p.58]

Search for clues in the downtrodden districts of the future turns out to be far more captivating than diving into someone’s memories – which is supposed to be Observer’s main course. In the previous game by same studio, Layers of Fear, developers managed to evoke anxiety before the unknown, but here, all their efforts fall flat. Playing this game is just like fiddling with a jammed mechanism: you keep thinking that if you go just a bit further, something will click and the gears will start to turn – but in Observer’s case, that never comes to be. [Issue#223, p.62]

Peter’s flashbacks deserve a special mention. Eidos Montreal went all-out on them, so instead of a cutscene, we get to explore a lovingly detailed place from Star-Lord’s past. [Issue#257, p.48]

The fact that sometimes you just can’t avoid grinding dials back the excitement, but doesn’t kill it. Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a fun game with extraordinary graphics, a real treat to a fan of the genre. [Issue#226, p.36]

The variety of maps, tasks and challenges is one of the strong suits of Part Time UFO. Even though the gameplay mechanics are pretty simple, clever puzzle design keeps the player entertained for many hours. [Issue#251, p.71]

You have to spend hours crawling around, looking for lone enemies that you can gang up on and take out without raising the alarm – because there’s no way you’ll be able to fight everyone at the same time. To put it bluntly – it’s not fun, and Mutant doesn’t have anything else to offer. [Issue#235, p.46]

This should go down in textbooks on marketing as an example of how you can monetize the death of your own kid. [Issue#206, p.72]

JJ has to impale herself, burn herself alive and suffer all other kinds of mutilation in order to progress. Even when you get accustomed to that, The Missing keeps getting under your skin in many other ways. [Issue#234, p.62]

Kudos to Ubisoft for being brave enough to release a full-scale game focused on extreme sports – we definitely need more of these. Now for the bad news: like most Ubisoft games, at least half of the content is either superfluous, or underdeveloped. Only skiing and snowboarding are actually good, bikes are tolerable at best, and skydiving is just meh. [Issue#257, p.68]

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]

Normally, the fact that you can’t play the campaign without another player would be a downside, but A Way Out is an experience that simply won’t work without a friend by your side. [Issue#229, p.66]

The levels are badly designed and uninspired, they don’t spark curiosity or desire to explore them – but you still have to, because new weapons and armor aren’t dropped by the enemies, they must be found in obscure spots scattered across the maps. [Issue#241, p.44]

Rogue Trader has some serious bad luck coming out so soon after Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a good story-driven game with meaningful choices, memorable characters, brutal battles and rich character-building system. But it’s hard to get into it after experiencing the colorful and user-friendly world of BG3. [Issue#263, p.72]

Defiant Development tried to kill three birds with one stone, but managed only to wound one – namely, deck-building concept of Hand of Fate is a quite interesting experiment. But instead of polishing it, developers spent their time chasing after the other two avians – combat and trap-filled mazes. [April 2015, p.71]

There’s a lot of little details that reflect your past choices. You won’t notice them the first time around, of course, but you may very well miss them on subsequent playthroughs – they’re worked into narrative that well. On the flipside, we have same old shortcomings: worn-out engine and QTEs that serve no purpose but to check if the player is still there. [Issue#220, p.67]

DiRT is making a comeback after getting rid of both Ken Blok and dubious car acrobatics. Instead, we get more of classic rally, rallycross, as well as some questionable disciplines like Landrush. [Issue#221, p.74]

Limbic Entertainment just took the reins of the series, so they didn’t change much, but when they did – they made the gameplay better and more diverse. [Issue#237, p.32]

Beneath simplistic puzzles there is a story so heart-touching it’s hard not to get misty-eyed. [Issue#221, p.77]

It’s not as memorable or unique as some of its predecessors, but incredibly detailed open world makes Hope County a destination worth visiting. [Issue#229, p.46]

Apart from laggy menu and modest graphics, UFC 4 is a good finale to the series’ run on current generation of consoles. [Issue#248, p.48]

Simple yet nuanced mechanic, short multiplayer games – it’s all tuned to let you become top dog of financial world once or twice after coming home from work. But OTC’s simplicity is also its shortcoming: there are too few goods to trade. Black market adds a touch of chaos, so no game goes like the previous one – but it would be great if OTC got a sequel that’s similar but at the same time more complex. [Issue#209, p.84]

Pixel games are not everyone's cup of tea, but Olija looks quite good. It’ll be a good fit for people who miss games where you can help those in need, or simply want to challenge their reflexes. [Issue#252, p.53]

A playthrough of Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments leaves little negative emotions. There could be much more positive ones of course, but perhaps that’s a goal that’ll be reached in the next episode. After all, we really are talking about the most rapidly progressing modern quest series. [Dec 2014, p.70]

Outlaw is a throwback to the roots of spacesim genre, a visual aid that shows where it all began and helps to understand just how far the genre has evolved since then. And the lesson to take is this: let the past stay in the past. [Issue#241, p.40]

More dull character for interactive drama is difficult to imagine. The LiS world is documentarily trivial, and the college, where Miss Caulfield will be studying managed to gather all the clichés from American movies for young adults: guys from sport team, kids with rich parents, nerds of all kinds... There is only one thing that is going to crush local routine: Max, for some unknown reason, is able to control time. [Issue #195, p.76]

Great parkour, gory combat, improved story and beautifully detailed open world make Dying Light 2 the best game of the last few months and a very strong contender in game of the year race. [Issue#258, p.38]

Humankind offers a fresh take on historical 4X strategy genre, with a lot of creativity thrown in, but the team sorely lacks a lead designer who could tie everything together. So even though each innovation is really cool on its own, the whole turned out to be less than the sum of its parts. [Issue#255, p.40]

Since you can’t have more than a dozen units at any time and defensive buildings can only be placed in pre-determined spots, your tactical options are extremely limited – and no matter what you choose, you’ll end up playing whack-a-mole with enemy troops. [Issue#231, p.72]

If you extensively use time powers, battles will be quick and colorful – but Quantum Break doesn’t actually encourage that playstyle. Even on the highest difficulty, only one enemy type requires you to teleport around; everyone else can be killed with standard cover shooter routines. What’s even worse is that there’s a considerable lag between the button press and actual use of the ability, which further discourages playing fast and loose. [Issue#208, p.68]

To be honest The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II rather looks like a decent add-on than a sequel. But is this so important given that the game is still interesting just enough to keep us entertained till final credits? [September 2014, p. 60]

One step forward, two steps back, couple steps to the side with some awkward shuffling thrown in-between – that’s how Back 4 Blood feels compared to Left 4 Dead. Card-based power-up system is the only interesting thing about it. [Issue#256, p.40]

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]

It would be wrong to consider World of Tanks Xbox 360 Edition as repetition or a simplified copy of the PC-version. Wargaming West made a little miracle and slipped between Scylla and Charybdis: depth of gameplay is not inferior to the original game, it looks fresh and dynamic to appeal to the habits of console players. [September 2014, p. 76]

Top games of survival genre, alas, are all built from an action or platformer base, which are rather constraining for a thoughtful (or just not-so-agile) player. So NEO Scavenger offers a unique experience: surviving with the luxury of turn-based gameplay. [Feb 2015]

At the first glance, ARMS is unimpressive: its basic roster is only 10 fighters big, and there are no convoluted combinations of buttons to activate special attacks. But that’s just how Nintendo does things – its games are always easy to pick up. So you can flail away at your leisure against AI-controlled opponents, but once you start playing with other people, you quickly realize that you need to work on your technique. [Issue #222, p.68]

Although Genesis turned out to be a bit glitchy and buggy, and its parkour sequences are straight-out torturous, all in all it it’s a pretty successful experiment. [Issue#243, p.48]

Lara’s new adventure is definitely the best in trilogy, but it still lags behind the leaders of action-adventure genre, such as Uncharted 4. [Issue #233, p.44]

It’s hard to call Conquest of Eo a sequel, because it’s so different from its predecessors. But at the very least, it’s a great spiritual successor, and it knows how to keep player’s interest. [page 60]

Most horror stories focus on the monster, while this one is about people. There won’t be any insights about cosmology or biology of the impossible creature threatening the oil rig; neither is there an abundance of diaries with innermost thoughts of our colleagues. But that down-to-earth approach is exactly what makes this story so believable and relatable. [Issue#265, p.60]

Compared to other projects based on Games Workshop tabletop games, BGA is closest to the ancient dilogy of Shadow of the Horned Rat and Dark Omen. Just like these, BGA sacrifices turn-based gameplay in favor of real-time, but sticks to the spirit and letter of the source as closely as possible. [Issue#209, p.78]

While new XCOM lost in scale, it makes up for it in style. It’s great that agents now engage in friendly banter both in and out of missions, and room-scale shootouts are far more intense than hunting for enemy pods in a city block. [Issue#245, p.64]

Tales of Zestiria isn’t a blockbuster and it won’t appear as a “Game of the Year” nominee, but if you like JRPGs, you’ll spend about 40 hours in it, and won’t come to regret a single one of them. [Issue#204, p.73]

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]