No two ways about it – Tekken 7 is a success. Sure, it would be better if the campaign was longer, if it still had Fight Lab training mode and every single character that ever appeared in the series was playable; but still – base roster of 36 fighters, great performance and flawless combat mechanics make Tekken 7 more than worthy to be called an editor’s choice game. [Issue#221, p.70]

New approach to Sengoku period, intense focus on a single popular clan and interesting battles – Spirit of Sanada is definitely worth a look, although it has the same problem as the rest of the series: from certain angles character models may look alright, but everything else is just plainly dated. [Issue#221, p.86]

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 the worst thing that could’ve happened to the film: Big Games didn’t try to remaster, remake or reimage the cult classic. In fact, the game and the film have nothing in common except for names, general setting and mismatched quotes that were used to make new dialogue – and no one gets upset when, say, a new pinball machine themed after their favorite franchise comes out. [Issue#221, p.85]

Music and sounds of the Maw make an already atmospheric game even better. The cry of surprise and righteous indignation that Chef Twins let out once they find Six prowling around their kitchen will surely come to haunt you in your dreams. [Issue#221, p.93]

There’s no cooking, castle-building, marriages and other stuff that nowadays became synonymous with Fire Emblem series, but that oldschool brevity is actually a plus. Personal dramas and love story don’t take the narrative spotlight at every opportunity, cutscenes rarely last more than two minutes, and you don’t spend more time preparing for a combat than actually fighting. In a world of epic RPGs with laundry list of features, it’s nice to have a niche game with a narrow focus. [Issue#221, p.82]

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]

Every race has its own narrative, but it doesn’t work like it did in Endless Legends: tasks feel disjointed and random, and there’s no victory by completing the storyline. Procedurally generated quests are even more arbitrary, and Academy storyline can’t quench thirst for good storytelling on its own. [Issue#221, p.90]

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]

Gearing process works like a charm to keep the player addicted – after all, who wouldn’t want to get new pauldrons for Batman or a whip for Catwoman? [Issue#220, p.40]

Ten years ago no one could think Syberia would ever get a Part III. Second game nicely wrapped up the story, mammoths were found, we’ve got closure – what’s more to talk about? But for Microids the Syberia series is probably the biggest and best thing among its meager assets. So, want it or not, Kate Walker had to have another adventure. [Issue#220, p.64]

Dark Souls success naturally led to appearance of imitators, some of which are worse than others. The Surge inherited everything that was wrong with the original: bugs, sudden spikes in difficulty and general lack of polish, – yet captured none of its magic. There’s no fascinating world, intriguing story or thought-out combat mechanics to find here. [Issue#220, p.50]

Historically, Polish taverns offered a dish called bigos: basically, everything that was left on the plates by richer customers went into a cauldron where it boiled or simmered for some time before being served to poorer clients. Similarly, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 was made from leftovers of Far Cry, MGS5, Call of Duty, The Witcher 3 and many other blockbusters. It’s 100% derivative, there are literally no fresh ideas here. [Issue#220, p.56]

It’s hard to shake the feeling that development time on Prey was seriously (and suddenly) cut. Developers took their time designing a magnificent space station, they worked out the relationships between personnel and outlined various background stories, they begun fleshing out the main storyline and alien ecology when suddenly they received an order to wrap it up and ship the game as it is. At least, that’s the most plausible thing I can think of to explain the staggering difference in polish between various elements. [Issue#220, p.44]

Persona 5 is an incredibly rich, detailed and nuanced fantasy JRPG/school-life sim that may very well take more than 100 hours to complete. A must-see for everyone except people with strongest aversion to Japanese culture. [Issue#220, p.78]

Original Outlast’s setting worked well with its linearity – after all, no nuthouse is built in a way to make it easy for a patient or a visiting journalist to run around. But it’s simply impossible to make a believable rural setting in the same manner, as evidenced by Outlast 2: there’s too many fences and too little everything else. Even the cornfield that was a point of pride for Red Barrels is about as big as your average backyard lawn. [Issue#220, p.68]

Although Narcosis turned out to be pretty monotone, it has its own strengths: limited oxygen reserves make you think twice about stopping to take a breather, while subdued sounds keep you on edge. It probably won’t scare you, but it’s certainly an interesting experience. [Issue#220, p.55]

Despite its direct relation to Wii U version, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is nothing less than gorgeous, with its scintillating colors, varied decorations and abundance of interesting details on tracks. It’s a perfect game for parties, but online championship is where your driver skills are really put to test. [Issue#220, p.74]

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]

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]

Previous game from Logic Artists, Expeditions: Conquistador, didn’t leave lasting impression on me, so I didn’t expect much from Vikings either. As it turns out, I was wrong – developers really nailed the setting and gave some mechanics a much-needed makeover. [Issue#220, p.52]

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]

Beat Cop is less “Dirty Harry” than it is “Police Academy” or “The Naked Gun”, which makes for a good contrast with This is the Police – another “dirty cop simulator” of late. [Issue#220, p.62]

Level design also feels dated: there are a lot of ways to attract player’s attention where it’s needed, but Yooka-Laylee ignores them all: you can spend dozen minutes platform-jumping to reach a door – only to find out it won’t open because you missed something. Sure, it could be called “fair” or “realistic” – but how fun is it to run in circles? [Issue#219, p.80]

Combat boils down to cutting off and devouring everything that can be cut off and devoured. It’s enjoyable for a while, but there’s a lot of missions in the game and not nearly enough variations of monsters, so hunts quickly become very MMORPG’ey in terms of predictability and routine. [Issue#219, p.74]

It’s nice to know that Dave and Sandy from Maniac Mansion are doing fine, but they have no relation to this story. Same can be said for many others: storyline is chockfull of side stuff that ends up going nowhere. It’s also missing an ending – instead of resolving everything, Thimbleweed Parks plays a postmodernism card that leaves an extremely bad aftertaste [Issue#219, p.78]

Styx is a through-and-through stealth game, so scoring system doesn’t approve of murders, and enemy placement always leaves a way to slip by. But, unlike Thief, you’ll feel the desire to cut some throats. There, stealth was like a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse; here, it’s personal. It’s vendetta, where mercy has no place. Also, there are few things as satisfying as pouring acid on still-warm corpse to completely dissolve it. [Issue#219, p.68]

“Think like a snake” – that’s the motto of this game. No, that doesn’t mean you should hide in the sand behind some rock and wait for an opportune moment to snack on eggs of our calibri pal. Instead, you need to guess how many times you need to wrap yourself around some beam to avoid slipping into the abyss. [Issue#219, p.86]

Tasks that you receive before a match push the madness even further: “body-check that player”, “get 5 minutes of penalty time”, “win 3 fistfights”. In our days of sterile, cookie-cutter hockey sims a crazy (in a good way!) game like this one would instantly get a spot in hall of fame if it wasn’t for a number of shortcomings. [Issue#219, p.71]

Every hero chains his attacks, so to make sure that everything goes smooth – fast strikes take out shield while strong one lands on HP bar – you’ll have to juggle them from line to line. Add buffs and abilities to the mix, and you get a lot to think about. Too bad that progression in Has-Been Heroes heavily depends on luck – you can’t even buy a spell that you want, you have to pay for a cat in the bag. [Issue#219, p.67]

It feels like a StarCraft mod where unit models are replaced with Warhammer figurines. Grimdark and gore that are synonymous with Warhammer 40k were carefully gelded. Intro cutscene aside, this game could easily get 6+ age rating. [Issue#219, p.64]

“Gentlemen, if you would completely redo the interface and provide player with more info about choices, consequences and inner mechanics, I’ll gladly get back to it. But for now, farewell” – that’s about all I can say to developers of the game I tried to fall in love with, but failed. Oh, I almost forgot the P.S.: “Fix the English translation, it’s laughable”. [Issue #219, p.82]

The AI employs a few basic schemes with little to no improvisation, so fights are only difficult because enemies have numerical superiority and advantageous positions. Thus, it’s hard to call Codex of Victory a true wargame – at best, it’s a tactical puzzle. [Issue#219, p.87]

During epic battles Berserk fits musou genre nicely, but when Guts’ story gets at odds with game mechanics, things take a turn for the worse. [Issue#219, p.72]

Even the easiest difficulty presents a considerable challenge, since winning a fight in Battle Brothers isn’t the be-all and end-all, it’s equally important to keep your mercs alive and well. [Issue#219, p.90]

Numenera should be played like Call of Duty. Don’t try to make sense of things, don’t try to roleplay anything, just relax and take in the sights. Help a robot deliver his robo-babies, mess around with hi-tech devices, watch the story unfold. It’s not a worthy successor of Planescape: Torment by any measure, but a good enough ride on its own. [Issue#218, p.50]

A game that justifies buying Switch – or, at the very least, renting it for a good while. [Issue#218, p.72]

Whether intentional or not, Tank Troopers looks like a wannabe World of Tanks clone; too bad that it missed its mark by about the distance between Tokyo and Minsk. Good tank action needs good balance as well as nice variety of vehicles, maps and modes. Tank Troopers is lacking in each and every category. [Issue#218, p.56]

Do you know why grand-strategy masters, Paradox Interactive, do not mess with XX century after World War I? That’s because the world becomes so complex afterwards, you can’t adequately emulate it. You can still focus on a single aspect, sure (for example, if you choose war – you get Hearts of Iron), but all-around emulation? That’s going to be a fiasco. And Realpolitics proves that point with its every last byte. [Issue#218, p.57]

Anthropomorphic animals of Night in the Woods are far more humane, honest and touching than human-like robots of many other games that try to tell a simple, down-to-earth story. [Issue#218, p.58]

Making a good open-world is a difficult task even for an experienced studio, so what chances did Platinum Games (that has pretty much no experience in this area) have? Better question yet – where was the quality control of Square Enix, that should’ve either postponed the release to let the studio develop their sandbox mechanics further, or told them to cut it altogether? It’s especially sad since at its core Automata is a great action game that easily could’ve been turned into an unforgettable six-hour experience. [Issue#218, p.46]

Original Mass Effect trilogy rests on three pillars: great protagonist, believable universe and dramatic story. For Andromeda, Bioware felled all three of them, raising two new ones in their stead: exploration and combat system. The resulting game is quite engaging – but not enough to overcome the nostalgia for Shepard. [Issue#218, p.40]

Today’s strategy market is dominated by grand-scale games, like Ashes of the Singularity or Total War series. Compared to them, Halo Wars 2 feels like an echo of the glorious RTS past: small cozy bases, tiny unit limit, heavy focus on story in single-player and APM – in multiplayer. [Issue#218, p.54]

Once you stop obsessively “clearing out” a province before moving to the next one, and instead start going after the nearest mission available, Wildlands suddenly becomes very diverse game: one minute you’re burning cocaine, next you’re chasing a convoy, and once you’re done, soon you might find yourself blowing up smuggler submarines. That’s why we weren’t bothered by absence of races, fishing and all other mini-games usually employed by open-world designers to break up the monotony. [Issue#218, p.60]

Despite its certain “been there, done that”, Faeria is quite captivating, especially when your opponent pulls a trick out of the left field, like stealing your cards. So if you grew tired of Hearthstone and you can’t get into Gwent’s closed beta, Faeria might be just the thing for you. [Issue#218, p.67]

Unfortunately, even the best mini-games from 1-2-Switch collection won’t keep you engaged for more than 20 minutes. That’s partially offset by sheer quantity of these games, but still – you probably won’t find yourself playing 1-2-Switch in the same company too often. Maybe once every few weeks. [Issue#218, p.70]

“As is always has been” is a major problem for the series. Just to list a few issues that it lovingly keeps since PS2 era: unwieldy save system, clumsy camera, a separate loading screen for every shop and venue even though the “open world” is so small they could’ve been easily integrated into it, and, of course, abrupt transitions from lovingly rendered cutscenes to plain text dumps. Still, it you can stomach all that, Yakuza is worth a look due to its uniqueness. [Issue#217, p.78]

Sanctus Reach took a lot from tabletop rules, but not everything: for example, action points, square-based grid, abilities with long recharge time – all that has little to do with original Warhammer 40k. Although the game does get some things right: victory depends on control of key points, number of turns is limited, and RNG is just as capricious as dice: misses with point-blank shots and instant kills with lucky crits are par for the course here. [Issue#217, p.82]

Urban Empire tries to work with an intriguing and fresh idea – “mayor simulator” that’s more about politics than budget – but leaves it extremely underdeveloped. [Issue#217, p.68]

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]

Shin Megami Tensei is like Pokemon for a more mature audience. You’ll still be capturing monsters, breeding them and using them in fights – but characters will talk about life and death, freedom and obedience. Another important thing is that you’ll be able to draw your own conclusions and make your own choices with consequences, which are sometimes so severe that you’ll want to replay the entire chapter. [Issue#217, p.72]

Resident Evil 7 is the scariest game in the series since RE1. The change to first-person perspective plays no small role in this: if a nightmarish granny chokes the life out of some figure on your screen, it’s one thing; but when she does the same to you, when you can almost feel her spittle flying in your face – that’s on the whole other level of scary. Not to mention that realistically limited field of vision that allows monsters to creep up from behind or jump from around the corner. [Issue #217, p.56]

Years of experience in slasher-making helped Team Ninja create captivating, nuanced and difficult combat system, which is good enough by itself – but then they sweetened the deal further with Diablo-style equipment hunt. As a result, it’s really, really hard to put Nioh down. [Issue#217, p.62]

ICEY is as normal of a platformer as The Stanley Parable is a normal adventure game; and though it will take just a few hours to find all hidden endings, Easter eggs and achievements, the experience is more than worth it. [Issue#217, p.84]

Guerrilla Games made their first open world game playing straight every trope in the book. In her time off from story missions, Aloy-from-the-future will do the same stuff as Renaissance Ezio and Stone Age tribal from Far Cry Primal did: she’ll capture towers, liberate camps, look for collectibles, and, of course, hunt to craft bigger quivers and larger bags. [Issue#217, p.48]

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]

Poor matchmaking isn’t the sole reason to dock points off. For example, there’s no deeper layer than “go kill them all” to multiplayer matches, while Faction war is just too global to feel that your actions actually have an impact. Sure, For Honor is a good game still. But it could’ve been a great one. [Issue#217, p.52]

Double Dragon 4 is a perfect solution for people who want to relive every bad design feature of 20th century arcade games. Feel once again that surge of emotions when enemies hit you from offscreen, or when you die during a clunky but merciless platforming section. Not to mention the authentic earworm music. [Issue#217, p.85]

One of the cornerstones of War Thunder is that player’s skill is more important than his wallet. Premium vehicles offer no combat advantages, there is no “microtransaction-only” ammo or consumables, so no amount of cash will buy you a spot on the top of the food chain. [Issue#216, p.56]

Where the season will end up is a question that even developers have no answer for. Media that was shown at E3 has no relation to released product; Clem’s voice actress mentioned that this episode’s story kept being rewritten on the fly, and work on the next one hasn’t even began. What’s even worse is that this special magic which made people fall in love with first season is nowhere to be found in A New Frontier: Telltale no longer delivers unique experiences; every new project seems to be made from the same mold. [Issue#216, p.54]

Instead of an RPG, studio basically made an interactive fiction game with combat, which wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t for the combat system. Typical encounter consists of dozens of enemies that quickly surround heroes and proceed to ineptly poke them. Protagonists are no better – you either have to microcontrol each one of them, or watch as they stand idly while their friends are dying an axe’s swing away. [Issue#216, p.53]

There are so many shortcomings in Steep’s design and gameplay, you can’t help but think it’s still a project, not a full game. The ideas are there, they’re good, they could have been developed into something groundbreaking; problem is – they weren’t. [Issue#216, p.44]

Although some trouble or another always crops up in Half-Genie’s world, it’s still filled with cheer: people look ready to burst into dance at the drop of a hat, and Shantae keeps a huge smile on her face even in combat. To enjoy this upbeat world, you don’t need to know the first thing about it – even if you pay no attention to story and flat jokes, the game won’t lose any of its luster. [Issue#216, p.52]

There are multiple ways to complete each mission, and to spur player’s imagination, developers offer additional challenges – for example, a playthrough with no firearms, or a pacifist one. So, even though Blades of the Shogun only has a dozen missions, it will keep you entertained for a long time. [Issue#216, p.40]

As classic JRPGs slowly die off, usually insular Pokemon brand offers unexpected hospitality. Moon/Sun is about as difficult as its predecessors, but it doesn’t drop newcomers straight into deep water; instead, it helps players get their bearings and offers a story to follow while they grow accustomed to the world. And once you develop an interest in Pokemon, it’s simply impossible to put down. [Issue#216, p.50]

Bloodsplatters, exploding mushrooms, dark humor and being able to bring katana to a shotgun fight – all that helps Let it Die get noticed. Unfortunately, substance doesn’t live up to style, as gameplay turns out to be rather shallow and considerably limited by its free-to-play model to boot. [Issue#216, p.48]

“Yesterday” already showed in broad strokes how John has gained his immortality. Evidently, Pendulo decided that it wasn’t enough; so Origins explains in painstaking detail how exactly that happened. Fans of Spanish studio will probably enjoy it, but everyone else really should ask themselves if they want to make that close of an acquaintance with John Yesterday. [Issue#215, p.72]

Previous words and actions, reputation with various groups and key people, even party composition – everything matters in the narrative, so dialogues in Tyranny are a real treat. On the other hand, gameplay elements like combat are still “ok” at best, despite considerable improvements since Pillars of Eternity. [Issue#215, p.68]

You will inevitably end up with a tangled web of lines, some of which are always operating at a loss, yet are necessary to keep the whole system running. It’ll take hours to think out and build this system, but it’s just so incredibly satisfying to look upon your empire and realize that yes, it works just as planned. [Issue#215, p.60]

One does not enter a wonderland by good luck. Last time Noah came to Silentia, he was in deep coma. Now the journey will be triggered by a military-grade explosive. Fortunately, this wonderland is forgiving – it’ll be glad to see Sadwick back and it will welcome little Reny with open arms. But it doesn’t forget anything either – Noah destroyed it last time around, so now it’s time to face the consequences. [Issue#215, p.62]

There is no detail too small to pay attention to, and it’s these little details that help your team succeed – for a management game that’s probably the highest possible praise. [Issue#215, p.56]

You can’t just walk away from a hard fight to grind a little and bruteforce your way to victory, because Masquerada is totally linear. It’s for the best, however: Witching Hour Studios is a small team that had to secure funding through Kickstarter, so adding stuff like open world would definitely become an example of spreading resources too thin. But developers didn’t go that way, and as a linear game Masquerada truly shines, as it manages to successfully blend aesthetics of Italian feuds with a touch of fantasy. [Issue#215, p.73]

A contradictory, heart-wrenching, sometimes even harsh, yet still stunning story about friendship, duty and honor, about deceptive freedom of choice in your actions, and true freedom in choice of your morals – which is both a blessing and an ordeal. [Issue#215, p.64]

For the first few hours KF2 really holds your attention with dynamic gameplay and constant gore-fest. But soon it turns stale, as there’s only one mode (plus a variation of it in which other players can join as monsters), there’s only so many types of enemies, plus, maps don’t offer sufficient variety. So every battle basically follows the same scenario. If Killing Floor 2 was a cheap indie game, it would’ve been forgivable, but at $30 price point players really have a right to expect more. [Issue#215, p.54]

Sometimes, water turns a weird shade of pink, or disappears entirely, leaving fish to “fly” through the air (you can still catch them, by the way). Characters can get stuck. AI may glitch out, causing enemies to just stand around, waiting to be killed. Not to mention the camera, which may take a sudden liking to hero’s back and show nothing but it in the middle of the combat. But even with all these technical problems, there’s no doubt that Final Fantasy XV is a success. [Issue#215, p.48]

Dead Rising 4 does not do enough to deserve a new number in the title; it feels more like an add-on to DR3 than anything else. And what it does change, it changes for worse: DR3 had had very gratifying “zombie genocide” gameplay, but now the undead are so weak, our West didn’t die a single time over the whole playthrough. [Issue#215, p.58]

Money’s always in short supply in Beholder: Karl has to pay for repairs, buy food and medicine, give his kids some pocket money. To stay in the black, Karl can report activities of his tenants to authorities, steal from them or blackmail them. Each decision impacts lives of those around him, and even well-intended actions may lead to unfortunate consequences. [Issue#215, p.57]

It’s obvious how much progress Ubisoft has made in terms of quality of side activities: in Watch Dogs 2 they have their own cutscenes, dialogue and interesting set-ups. Even something as benign as taxi missions isn’t limited to moving someone from point A to point B: for example, you may get a fare who writes a blog about extreme lifestyle, so she’ll want you to make some risky jumps in your car. [Issue#214, p.36]

First two hours of campaign are surprisingly boring, since beautiful Typhon nature quickly gets replaced with dull industrial zones. But when it looks like Respawn has once again screwed up singleplayer, Titanfall 2 suddenly picks up the pace and starts delivering one interesting setpiece after another. [Issue#214, p.48]

What’s the point of building socialism in a lifeless world? [Issue#214, p.47]

Syndrome wants to be like System Shock, Alien: Isolation and Dead Space at the same time, but these pieces don’t come together to form a pretty picture; instead, they produce a monster not unlike zombies that shamble along Syndrome’s corridors. [Issue#214, p.58]

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]

What used to be a norm in the 90-s doesn’t always become good material for retro; sometimes it just gets old and stale. Unfortunately, that’s the case with River City. [Issue#214, p.59]

Hardcore fans of action games or tactical RPGs will probably grow bored with Color Splash pretty soon, since it’s mostly about running around and enjoying jokes. But what it lacks in terms of engaging combat, Mario more than makes up in level of detail. [Issue#214, p.62]

Forza developers have formulated a recipe for driving game that’s sure to receive high scores, and now they’re exploiting it for all it’s worth. Those who played 2014’s Forza Horizon 2 won’t find anything new here, even though some areas could really use some improvements. [Issue#214, p.44]

It’s interesting to see how your playstyle affects personality of your character. Low-chaos Emily remains optimistic and somewhat naive; so an alchemical laboratory makes her remember her childhood and lessons she received. The same laboratory, however, would stir some very different feelings in high-chaos Emily – namely, she’ll start musing about pouring acid down Delilah’s throat. [Issue#214, p.40]

Districts are surprisingly autonomous: temples generate faith without believers and campuses don’t require scientists to produce science. Sure, you can take some people off fields and put them to work in factories – but each “pop” will give you only +2 production, while the same pop working a forest hex brings back 3 production and some food to boot. [Issue#214, p.76]

To be able to walk around your own starship, to enter your quarters and study SDF command structure, to choose your new mission yourself – all these possibilities feel so fresh for Call of Duty. [Issue#214, p.68]

Smoke-filled skies, destroyed buildings, ever-present dirt, trenches and heavily armored beasts, clouds of poisonous gas and panicked feeling that you’re being shot at from every direction and there’s not a square inch of ground that’s truly safe. The setting feels not just grim – more like apocalyptic. [Issue#214, p.52]

As you run along the main questline, building robocompanions and navigating platforms, it feels like Inafune had finally made a top-quality game. But then you hit a literal roadblock: to open a door and advance the story, you have to turn back and collect cores that are hidden all over the world or awarded for completion of dungeons that up until now were optional. That’s when ReCore’s shortcomings, like lifeless world and repetitive combat with respawning enemies, become really annoying. [Issue#213, p.62]

Looks like Konami managed to create perfect gameplay for virtual football: it has the right tempo, the right AI, and even goalkeepers are great – in terms of realism of the matches PES 2017 came close to perfection. Unfortunately, everything else is just sad. For example, licenses – they were never Konami’s strong suit, but this time there are only three real teams in Bundesliga, and even Juventus was turned into some weird PM Black White. [Issue#213, p.49]

Despite change of scenery, at its core Spirit of Justice is the same as its predecessors. Phoenix Wright has to gather evidence, find contradictions and shout “Objection!” at every opportunity – only to watch case grow more and more complicated as each additional fact is brought to light. [Issue#213, p.60]

As a beat’em up, MRB doesn’t exactly shine, but its brutality and style almost make up for it. [Issue#213, p.57]

Mission objectives are rarely limited to simple elimination of opposition: from the very beginning game presents tasks like luring animals into cages or infiltrating enemy base. Not to mention that there are tons of levers or buttons to be pushed and secret passages to be found, which brings back fond memories of FPS from the 90-s, as well as classic Metroid games. [Issue#213, p.56]

In Mafia 3 you don’t play as a person; you play as a big bad guy with a sharp knife who’s out for blood. In other words, it’s not Godfather, it’s a slasher flick where you’re cast as a serial killer – and if you look at Mafia 3 from that angle, it suddenly “clicks”. In a slasher flick victims shouldn’t be smart or relatable, but their deaths should be entertaining and there should be enough of them – and on that front Mafia 3 delivers; that’s why it’s somewhat fun to play. Still, it’s probably not the kind of fun Hangar 13 were aiming for. [Issue#213, p.42]

Most obvious are the efforts of artists and designers: Sera after two decades of peace looks much more vibrant, and every location – even local mines – is instantly recognizable. Gameplay, on the other hand, hasn’t changed in its core – but it’s much more polished now (which is especially noticeable if you compare it to recent remake of first Gears of War). [Issue#213, p.50]

Because of the story mode, sometimes it feels like FIFA 17 is not a football sim, but a football-themed RPG: there’s family drama, conflict with a friend, press conferences, building rapport with teammates, and many other things. And it’s the story mode that kept us playing FIFA, even though Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 is arguably better at simulating football match itself. [Issue#213, p.46]

Unfortunately, Dragon Quest VII has so many shortcomings it can’t be saved neither by its good story, nor by its charming characters, nor by the fact that its graphics are good by 3DS standards. A game that was originally released in Japan back in 2000 needs a whole lot of work to look adequate on modern market – and Square Enix barely bothered to give it a fresh coat of paint. [Issue#213, p.54]