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]

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]

Despite the cuts, plenty of controversial stuff did make it into the game – for example, there’s a sinner who uses a baby like a mop. But here’s the thing: while unquestionably disgusting, it’s not scary. And coupled with lackluster gameplay mechanics, Agony quickly becomes a chore. [Issue#231, p.64]

Thrones of Britannia must be the first Total War not to have any new mechanic that actually works. [Issue#230, p.36]

Once you find a winning tactic, you’ll be able to stick to it in almost every situation. Only bosses require some improvisation, because if don’t kill them in a rather specific way, they’ll destroy you in their death throes. [Issue#230, p.60]

Graphics, UI, gameplay, combat mechanics, character interactions, story – sequel does everything better than the original Pillars of Eternity. [Issue#230, p.66]

Just like the real car, Jalopy teaches you to always be collected. If you leave your engine running while you’re rummaging through the roadside junk for stuff to sell – it can easily burn through half of your gas. And if you run out of fuel and have to walk to the nearest gas station – don’t forget to take your wallet with you, or your day will get much, much worse. [Issue#230, p.58]

When you push the restart button, you know that it wasn’t a single disaster or a mistake that cost you the campaign, but a whole bunch of wrong decisions you’ve made in previous hours. But when you start over, you’ll discover that path to victory is unfortunately narrow – not to mention that most of the challenges you face will be exactly the same as the last time. [Issue#230, p.40]

Two-minute trailer of Extinction that shows an epic battle against a giant ogre might make you interested in the game, but the thing is – if you’ve seen it, you’ve seen everything the game has to offer. Literally. [Issue#230, p.64]

On Wii U Tropical Freeze was an enthusiast-only game, but thanks to the addition of Funky Kong, now it can be enjoyed by anyone. And portability of Switch doesn’t hurt either. [Issue#230, p.54]

Procedural generation is another thing that’s killing this game. Each level is an agglomeration of rooms, streets and passages with no rhyme or reason behind it. Of course, new types of traps and monsters are being added to the mix all the time, but every new map ends up looking just the same. [Issue#230, p.62]

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]

For the first few hours, Ni No Kuni 2 looks like an ordinary JRPG: it’s very linear, story-centric and rather naive. But as soon as our protagonist gets his new kingdom, it shows its true colors – those of an unholy crossbreed between an Asian grind fest MMORPG and a mobile “strategy” game that’s all about making players wait. [Issue#229, p.62]

Gravel’s cars handle like shoeboxes no matter the surface: mud, snow, asphalt or stream bed – in this game it makes zero difference. [Issue#229, p.56]

Ghost of a Tale’s biggest problem is its quests: the world is enchanting, the characters are charming, but in the end you’ll still be collecting ten bear asses over and over again. [Issue#229, p.44]

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]

Pikachu is shown as an assertive man who can’t live without his espresso, loves to crack jokes and speaks in deep baritone of a hard-boiled detective. In short, he’s charismatic to the point of instantly becoming one of the best characters Nintendo ever made. [Issue#229, p.58]

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]

At first, we were skeptical about the prospect of open world in God of War, but Santa Monica Studio managed to avoid the typical pitfalls. Here, you won’t find a list of watchtowers to visit, outposts to clear, swarms of respawning enemies to kill. Not to mention that side-quests are far better than typical “kill 10 somethings” stuff. [Issue#229, p.38]

Song of Life is one of the best installments in the Yakuza series, mostly because Sega finally switched to quality over quantity mentality. The game no longer weights you down with hundreds of boring little side quests that make you run around so much you end up forgetting what was going on in the main storyline. [Issue#228, p.54]

Frankly speaking, it’s just a collection of short stories. But what it lacks in action department, it makes up for in atmosphere: if you’re longing for campfire tales, pour yourself a big mug of tea and launch this game. [Issue#228, p.45]

Vermintide 2 doesn’t solve the problem that the process is ultimately pointless: you increase the power level of your character just to play the same maps on higher difficulties, with no actual endgoal. In fact, it doesn’t even try to tackle that issue. But it’s still a great game that lets you spend your evenings slaughtering skaven and northmen in the name of Sigmar. [Issue#228, p.40]

This world favors guns and blasters (and rather rare laser swords), so the combat system is quite unusual for the genre: it plays more like anime-styled Destiny or The Division than traditional JRPG. Which is good, because fights make for the most of gameplay in Fatal Bullet. [Issue#228, p.58]

During the middle-game the process becomes blatantly boring: as your colony steadily grows, your biggest struggle will be with interface and lack of automation for certain tasks. After hours of going through the motions, you’ll wonder if moving to Mars was a good idea in the first place. [Issue#228, p.48]

This new Kirby had the potential to become another great entry in the series, but that didn’t come to be. The blame lies on the difficulty: when you play Star Allies with friends, it’s just too easy, but when you play it with AI-controlled teammates, Kirby basically plays itself. [Issue#228, p.62]

Open world turned out to be a huge letdown as it brings nothing to the table and makes the rather average campaign drag on forever. [Issue#228, p.68]

A great comedy adventure with a hair-trigger tempered, yet still charming protagonist. Chuchel is like a fun-charged battery that’s ready to boost your mood. [Issue#228, p.66]

That doesn’t mean that combat is awful and Ash of Gods isn’t worth playing – but you’ll definitely need to adapt to its rules. Or simply switch to the story mode that lets you plow right through the fights and focus on the story. It’s worth it: there’s a novel-sized interactive story here with loads of characters, unexpected turns and seven different endings to top it off. [Issue#228, p.46]

McGregor’s presence on the cover is symbolic: just as real UFC becomes less about the sport and more about the money and the show, the virtual UFC eschews gameplay in favor of lootbox profits. [Issue#227, p.42]

It feels like interface was developed by a saboteur, while another one was in charge of the tutorial: it barely covers the basics before dumping you right into a sink or swim situation. And even if you do manage to swim, you’ll face a myriad of annoyances. [Issue#227, p.50]

A chopper in this game is just a big paperweight that’s brought to your garage with a note replace part X. You buy that part, take the old one out, place the replacement in, put back the screws – and that’s it, you’re done, time to move on to the next job. You can’t fine-tune it, you can’t take the chopper out for a test drive, you can’t even take an engine apart. [Issue#227, p.45]

Large-scale Monster Hunter works so well, it’s anybody's guess why Capcom waited so long to make this step. [Issue#227, p.58]

It’s hard to find time for heroics in a busy schedule of sleeping, foraging, finding water, walking back and forth to base camp or vomiting in the bushes due to food poisoning. [Issue#227, p.64]

Kingdom Come isn’t perfect, but it’s unique. If its deliberately slow pace doesn’t click with you – skip it, the storyline here isn’t something to suffer gameplay for. But, if it does click, you’re guaranteed to spend dozens of hours in virtual Bohemia, poaching hares and stalking bandits through the woods. [Issue#227, p.36]

It’s easy to see Journey influences in Fe, and there was another forest we’ve been saving not too long ago in Ori and the Blind Forest. Still, even if it’s not innovative, it’s certainly charming. [Issue#227, p.49]

Any genre aficionado will breeze through the campaign in a few hours, and multiplayer skirmishes are simply not worth it. Still, the game has a redeeming quality – if you have a small kid and you want to help him grasp the basics of strategy games, Exorder will be a surprisingly good fit. [Issue#227, p.44]

Beloved characters, fabulous locations and familiar music – all of that makes you want to replay every Final Fantasy that came before. The only thing they fail to do is make you want to play Dissidia itself, at least for long: single player is very weak, and online mode has some game-breaking problems. [Issue#227, p.62]

A fight with an ordinary enemy whose level is slightly higher can drag on for minutes, especially if you’re fighting it alone. The combat itself is also rife with problems: sometimes main character even fails to draw his weapon, or locks onto a far-off enemy, while another already is eviscerating him in close combat. [Issue#226, p.64]

Compared to the original game, digging became a far more linear experience. That doesn’t mean that exploration element is gone, but it’s definitely different: now you need to keep an eye out for cracks in the rock that can be cracked open to reveal secret areas. [Issue#226, p.48]

Unfortunately, Spellforce doesn’t qualify to be neither titular nor spiritual successor of the series. It’s made by different people, on a different budget, and let’s be fair – the times are different too. [Issue#226, p.52]

In original SPAZ you could tell at a glance what enemy ship’s armaments are and what to expect from him. Now, every ship looks like a barn with Christmas lights on it, so the best tactic is to turn broadside to it and just watch HP bars dwindle. [Issue#226, p.62]

Only the nostalgic levels really work, but if you want another run across cult classic Green Hill Zone, you can always launch Sonic Mania that came out back in August. [Issue#226, p.59]

A game that’s far more pleasing to look at than to actually play. [Issue#226, p.67]

Spiritual successor it may be, but Road Redemption does one thing very differently: unlike Road Rash, it offers a roguelike experience with procedurally generated mini-campaigns. [Issue#226, p.56]

Instead of coming up with their own concepts, creators of Oure borrowed ideas from Shadow of Colossus and Journey. Too bad that they couldn’t even copy them properly, much less come up with their own stuff to let their game stand on its own. [Issue#226, p.60]

Nominally, our task is to collect stars, but Ode isn’t as simple as it looks: each planet is filled with music. With a touch, you can make things like mushrooms and corals join your orchestra and throw a party the world has never seen. [Issue#226, p.40]

In an effort to make players shell out for microtransactions, developers ramped up the difficulty, which led to a surprisingly enjoyable result – it’s the first time we get a relatively difficult NFS in recent years. [Issue#226, p.44]

Before the Storm doesn’t feel like a proper prequel – it’s too short for that. For example, Rachel-Chloe relationship progresses too quickly and smoothly, they didn’t even have a big quarrel. Sure, writers did show just how much Rachel meant for Chloe, and we did get some nice family drama, but Rachel’s eventual disappearance and events that led to it are completely sidestepped, leaving kind of an empty feeling. [Issue#226, p.42]

Unfortunately, sequel kept some of the problems. The major one is how luck-dependent the progress is, especially when it comes to food: if you don’t get an encounter with a trader in time, you’ll die of hunger, but if you meet him too early, when you don’t have money to spare – again, starvation it is. If you get robbed at the market... well, you get the idea. [Issue#226, p.55]

Turning Fire Emblem series into a Warriors game should’ve been an ordinary task for Omega Force’s – after all, they’ve done it time and again with other franchises, and more often than not it ended up being a fun fan-servicey game. But Fire Emblem Warriors is nothing short of a fiasco. [Issue#226, p.61]

Echo is basically an experiment that was made on a limited budget. Hence its unique approach to AI, which is offset by monotonous decorum and general lack of variety. To enjoy it, you have to be on the same wavelength as the developers – that is, be excited about exploring new concepts that mainstream industry doesn’t give a damn about. [Issue#226, p.50]

A few jokes really nail it, including the ones that lampshade adventure game tropes. Still, it’s very hit-and-miss, and while the Darkestville Castle can be entertaining, it’s not something to write home about. [Issue#226, p.58]

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]

Hopefully, by the time Machine Games starts work on Wolfenstein 3, they will find a writer who understands that fast-paced action does not mix well with protagonist’s constant complaining. [Issue#225, p.52]

At a glance, Super Mario Odyssey is nothing but a peculiar game. After spending a few minutes with it, you find it oddly fun, and after an hour or two you simply fall in love with it. But even that is just the beginning: any time you think you’ve seen it all, Super Mario Odyssey will find a way to surprise and challenge you. [Issue#225, p.56]

From the first announcement we’ve been asking ourselves: do they have guts to roll with the “hardcore Imperial operative” theme to the end, without the usual twist of having her defect to rebels? Of course not, but what’s worse is that her desertion feels incredibly forced. [Issue#225, p.72]

The story about missing cats and drug dealers comes short in terms of both magnitude and humor when compared to The Stick of Truth. Even the jokes are very hit-and-miss, often suffering from short setups and predictable payoffs. [Issue#225, p.48]

Nemesis is a one-hit wonder of a mechanic. Everything else in Middle-earth is mediocre at best, but Nemesis makes it all worthwhile, since every playthrough is truly unique – a feature none of its triple-A competitors can offer. [Issue#225, p.38]

Track list ranges from Boney M and Queen to Shakira and PSY – about 40 songs in total. Thankfully, each PS4/Xbox One/Switch copy of Just Dance 2018 comes with a 3-months access to songs from previous titles, bringing total count to several hundred – more than enough for a party (and to drive your neighbors completely nuts). [Issue#225, p.66]

After lingering way too long in development, GT Sport came out amongst competitors that spent previous years on constant self-improvement, iteration by iteration. Forza Motorsport 7, for example, is bigger and better in almost every regard. That doesn’t mean that GT Sport won’t find its share of fans, but it definitely lost a lot of luster. [Issue#225, p.46]

Although dialogue writers were burning the midnight oil, the team responsible for combat was obviously slacking off and did nothing to really improve that mess of a close combat which ELEX inherited from Risen. Monster fights are as choppy, unnatural and buggy as ever, for example, enemies slide right up a steep slope if they happen to dodge in that direction. [Issue#225, p.68]

There is one major caveat, and it’s the amount of content. You’ll keep seeing the same dynamic events over and over; same goes for PvP maps. Not to mention there’s only one raid, and it accommodates only 6 people. Still, Destiny 2 remains a fun Diablo-like FPS, and it works surprisingly well on PC, so if you’ve skipped console-only Destiny 1, it’s definitely worth a look. [Issue#225, p.42]

Call of Duty is built like a theme park ride that goes too fast for you to examine the details closely. That went smoothly with previous installments, but WWII abandons health regeneration in favor of old-fashioned health packs, which forces you to play slowly and carefully – and that lets you notice things you weren’t supposed to. [Issue#225, p.60]

Ubisoft Montreal managed to make Egypt not only beautiful, but extremely atmospheric. When you’re admiring the city and a mounted patrol rushes past you, you always get that urge to step aside to avoid getting trampled, even though you know you can eviscerate them all in a blink of an eye. [Issue#225, p.32]

It’s rather short and there’s no replayability at all (even the loot in chests isn’t random), but if you like the magic of walking square by square, solving puzzles, and dungeon-delving in general, give Vaporum a try – it won’t disappoint. [Issue#224, p.58]

The problem of Warhammer II’s campaign is that it’s not a grand-campaign. Traditionally, numerical Total Wars offered an expansionist gameplay, while intermediate games experimented with things like special victory conditions and new mechanics – and stuff that works best found its way into next numerical installation. With Warhammer II, Creative Assembley eschews that practice in favor of from drawing board straight to the game approach. [Issue#224, p.64]

In time you’ll get a whole network of professionals ranging from a demolitions expert to a hacker, with Sebastian as the leader and the designated point man. Yes, now you’re a predator, not prey. [Issue#224, p.30]

It’s a good thing to have wide range of racing disciplines, but seriously – who would buy Project CARS 2 for its carting or Formula Rookie championship? And no, you can’t just play what you like: more than half of the championships are locked from the get-go. [Issue#224, p.46]

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]

Nintendo brings back Samus Aran with a remake that’s better all-around than the original. Hopefully, N’s next move will be to finally make a completely new game starring her. [Issue#224, p.54]

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]

Of course, FM7 has its share of problems, like shortage of tracks for some car classes, lack of management options in career mode and all-but-braindead AI, but the point is – it’s finally possible to play for the driving experience itself.[Issue#224, p.50]

EA Canada gave their all to story mode. Even though there’s far less leeway for story writers in FIFA than in, say, an FPS game, they’ve managed to weave a compelling story that puts Battlefield to shame. [Issue#224, p.63]

Despite its shortcomings, Original Sin 2 is still a game worth playing, because no other RPG on the market is as comprehensive when it comes to exploration, action and roleplaying options. Sure, the sequel falls short of our expectations – but it’s still miles ahead of its competition. [Issue#224, p.38]

It’s a great hardcore game that can enrage even the calmest person on Earth. Cuphead is difficult and unforgiving, but at the same time you can’t help but come back to it over and over until you learn the patterns of yet another boss and finally manage to knock him on his back. [Issue#224, p.34]

If the developers had packed their unusual fighting system in a linear adventure instead of half-baked openworld, it would’ve been a win-win situation for everyone. [Issue#224, p.57]

There’s only one major drawback for Star Story: one playthrough lasts under two hours. Sure, you’ll probably have to replay it multiple times to understand its story, but what that does for length, it subtracts from fun – there’s simply no way not to get annoyed when you have to click through the dialogue you’ve seen five times already. [Issue#223, p.71]

We can’t say that Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle has no other issues besides graphics: some people won’t like weird scenery of the Mushroom Kingdom, others will be annoyed by somewhat blunt humor. But there’s no doubt about the bottom line: Switch owners got a good brand-new tactic game. [Issue#223, p.68]

You run around for an hour or two, you mine stuff, you cut trees, you deliver packages from one person to another, and then you realize: that’s it. If you bring tavern keeper those flowers she asked for, you’ll get more tasks. You do them – you’ll get invited to a guild that will give you even more grab this, craft that jobs that somehow never start being fun – and Yonder has no combat to fall back to. [Issue#223, p.67]

A good old-fashioned action/platformer with unnecessarily childish looks. [Issue#223, p.66]

Everything about Agents of Mayhem screams underdeveloped and underfinanced. Nevertheless, blunt humor and straightforward action work well enough to qualify as a guilty pleasure, just like that junk food you like: you know it’s unrefined and unhealthy, but you just can’t help it. [Issue#223, p.64]

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]

Developers took their favorite episodes from the first five Sonics, took them apart and made a remix with some special additions: several new elements came from Sonic games that were never released, others – from cut content, and some were made from scratch. So they ended up with a game that’s bursting with secrets and gameplay mechanics. [Issue#223, p.61]

Boring sandbox mode is partly compensated by the campaign: in each mission developers came up with new ways to complicate the life of the colonists, while at the same time unraveling a story about the imminent end of the world and the search for alien artifacts. [Issue#223, p.60]

Alongside old-school features that strategy aficionados were looking forward to, Sudden Strike reanimates some technical atavisms best left forgotten, with interface being the biggest offender. [Issue#223, p.52]

Revolution has little to do with Valkyria Chronicles, as it is not a turn-based strategy, but an action-RPG, so closest point of reference would be Final Fantasy XV. Compared to it, some things in Revolution are better – like being able to control any of the four characters, – and some are way worse, like overly-simplistic gameplay and graphics that make Dynasty Warriors series come to mind. [Issue#222, p.58]

It’s basically a quiz game, so it’s as suitable for a long-time gamer as it is for someone who just happened to drop by: all that it asks of player is to answer questions, take selfies and paint something from time to time. But its main advantage over its direct competitor, Nintendo’s party-game 1-2-Switch, is longevity – there are lots and lots of questions in That’s You! Also, it can be played by any number of people, and the more participants there are, the more fun it is. [Issue#222, p.69]

PvP in Splatoon 2 is so good that Nintendo wouldn’t be Nintendo if they didn’t try to squander it: three of four game types are only available on schedule (isn’t that why we play games – to follow some arbitrary schedules someone in Nintendo HQ came up with?). Well, at least Turf War is always unlocked – and it’s the best one of them anyway. [Issue#222, p.66]

Serial Cleaner has enough tricks up its sleeve to keep you engaged for about two thirds of the way – which is about two and a half hours in gameplay time. Afterwards, it becomes simply tedious: difficulty keeps rising while problems and solutions stay the same. [Issue#222, p.74]

Despite its visual similarities with Wargame series, Steel Division Normandy 44 is nothing like it gameplay-wise. “If a bunch of tanks couldn’t take care of a problem, just send more next time” way of thinking doesn’t work here: two infantry platoons, a reconnaissance unit and a properly placed AT gun can lay waste to a whole battalion. And if you throw some machineguns and a mortar into that mix, enemy’d be hard-pressed to crack this nut without some serious artillery support. [Issue#222, p.52]

No matter what Vasily uses – an ax, a hammer or even bare fists – he does it with that special oomph. Fights are brief and often end with a bone-crunching fatality; and if there is something like a stake or a saw table nearby, the enemy will meet an especially gruesome death. Firearms are also impressive: even a pistol is a weapon to be reckoned with, while shotgun’s effect is outright terrifying. [Issue#222, p.64]

One of the major Pyre’s features is that you can’t die. Sure, a fight to the death is nothing if not stimulating, but death is still a release – and no one escapes Downside that easily. Actually, inability to die is akin to a curse, because, although you can’t die – you still can lose. And you will have to find strength to keep going despite that loss, despite having let down your teammates and friends. [Issue#222, p.56]

Amazingly, endless stream of conversations that has become a staple of Telltale’s products is interspersed with some real gameplay in Season 2. In the very prologue we’re asked to create a lawn decoration, which we do not by mashing Q or choosing an option from a given list, but by placing actual blocks one on top of the other. There’s also non-QTE combat and even an actual puzzle! Too bad that it all goes down the drain due to lackluster story. [Issue #222, p.62]

The Pillars of the Earth shares many similarities with adventure games from Telltale: there are no puzzles per se, inventory management is simple to a fault, so the player mostly gets to choose responses in dialogues. There are points of divergence, but the differences between story branches are negligible; on the other hand, if the developers began changing events of the novel from the get-go, we would end up with a very different story. [Issue #222, p.55]

Why would a celt undertake a journey to Helheim, which has nothing to do with Celtic mythology? How come a historically correct pict from Orkney islands manages to find a mythological place in the first place? And why there are so many voices in her head? The premise of Hellblade raises a lot of questions, and the game answers most of them in due time. [Issue #222, p.70]

The biggest reason to finish the game is its multi-layered and complex story that’s prone to turning everything you know upside down at the drop of a hat. From medical drama to corporate intrigues to family problems – Get Even delivers what’s expected from a psychological thriller. [Issue #222, p.60]

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]

What did Argo inherit from Arma 3? Well, imagine you’re a taxidermist who has a dead wolf. You take its pelt, get rid of everything else... and then throw away most of the pelt as well, only to stitch together a makeshift hamster from the rest. That’s what Argo is – tiny awkward shooter with three game types for 5v5 gameplay. [Issue #222, p.63]