The Park runs on standard-but-efficient horror fuel: whispering sounds and child’s cries, all-enveloping darkness and creaking of abandoned yet living park rides. Hansel and Gretel’s story, intermixed with deeply personal horrors of maternity. [Issue#204, p.85]

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]

Jack of all trades, master of none. In terms of characters and story, it’s not Baldur’s Gate. It’s not a proper construction set for DMs to make their own modules either. It doesn’t even adapt D&D rules properly. And if you simply want to kill monsters and collect loot with friends, any MMORPG will do just as well. [Issue#204, p.76]

For some reason people were worried that DICE would make “a Battlefield with blasters”, both angering Battlefront fans and splitting Battlefield player-base. Of course that didn’t happen – SW:BF is a laid-back shooter that should be played an hour or two between other evening activities. [Issue#204, p.66]

Tombs are the best thing RotTR has to offer. Compared to the previous Tomb Raider, there really are more of them, but not quite as many as we’d want. Plus, unlike the stealth/combat sequences, most of the tombs can be skipped – although the game would’ve been much better off if it was the other way around. [Issue#204, p.62]

Looks like all Codemasters’ effort went into making Fellowship of Evil look like a game. After watching a trailer you might think “Hey, it’s not Overlord that I remember, but it might be a good action-RPG”. But once you launch it, you realize that it’s not a game – it’s a cardboard cutout with zero gameplay value. [Issue#204, p.81]

Echoes of moral ambiguity are still noticeable: for example, supposedly democratic president is definitely disappointed to hear that dictator’s WMD research is getting destroyed. But it seems that Avalanche got scared at some point and tried to cut it all out, so now populace is universally enthusiastic about Rico raising hell in their country. Result is weird, and not exactly in tune with previous JC’s mood. [Issue#204, p.58]

Introduction of Luck parameter, coupled with other mechanic novelties, turns familiar XCOM combat into something rather unique. Other differences aren’t so positive – there’s no procedural generation of missions, and the playthrough will be a breeze on any difficulty other than hard. [Issue#204, p.74]

Seafaring is passable, but on-foot exploration and dialogues evoke a broad range of feelings, from pity to loathing. As for voice-acting, well, it’s sure to cause fits of nervous laughter. [Issue#204, p.88]

Despite all the gameplay faults, Anno 2205 could become a major hit... if it had been a Facebook game. [Issue#204, p.70]

Instead of a triumphant reboot we got a weird game that resembles Most Wanted (2012) with tuning options thrown in. [Issue#203, p.64]

No one does Call of Duty better than Treyarch. [Issue#203, p.50]

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]

The only thing SOMA does well is monsters. If Frictional took a lesson from Alien: Isolation and let them roam the entire map, the game would’ve had a chance to shine. Alas, every encounter is totally predictable, so they fail to sufficiently spice SOMA’s totally bland and predictable story. [Issue#203, p.77]

Fancy Skyhill hotel turned out to be a roach motel. [Issue#203, p.76]

Minimalistic controls. Huge freedom of choice. Loads of fun. The only time something isn’t happening in Rebel Galaxy is when you pause it to go brew another cup of tea. [Issue#203, p.78]

A rare gem that was polished to near-perfection during its time in Steam’s Early Access. [Issue#203, p.87]

This is the first Telltale game to have such an obvious stench of “Nothing personal, just business”. [Issue#203, p.74]

Over the course of 5 episodes Max will find time to play detective, visit alternate realities, fall in love (perhaps), take a lot of photos and make a lot of choices... only to have the slate wiped clean by the final scene. [Issue#203, p.80]

For previous Just Dance games you had to use specialized controllers like PS Move; now you can make do with a smartphone. Problem is, when you’re holding the phone in your hand, it’s very hard for it to know what your left leg is doing, so JD 2016 assumes the best and awards you much more score than you deserve. [Issue#203, p.68]

343 Industries managed to rectify some of Halo 4’s mistakes, but most of its shortcomings are still present. [Issue#203, p.56]

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]

You’ll have to deal with people who grew up with no understanding of morality and civility, gain their respect (by force, if necessary) and build bright post-nuclear future with them. Wasteland domination is just a step away. [Issue#203, p.46]

It’s the same game as Blood Bowl that came out in 2009, except it’s a tad more beautiful, has a single player campaign and not nearly as many teams. [Issue#203, p.72]

New Assassin’s Creed still belongs to the type of games that are worth beating once and never coming back to them. [Issue#203, p.90]

It’s weirdly fun and funnily weird, it channels some of The Neverhood’s charm, but it’s even shorter (a playthrough will only take 2-3 hours) and nowhere near as funny. [Issue#203, p.67]

In Age of Decadence every problem has solutions that fit your character and solutions that do not. Diplomat should talk, warrior shouldn’t, and thief must remain unseen if he wants to live. Only when you know that you’ll get through alive, you can let minor things like sympathy or morality have an influence on your actions. [Issue#203, p.82]

No matter what stars you have on defense, it always resembles Swiss cheese. So, the most difficult task isn’t to win the match, but to keep score is more or less true to real football – i.e., no more than 4 goals per game on average. [Nov 2015, p.89]

Armello is unpredictable right to the last turn, making it fun to play both on your own and with friends. [Nov 2015, p.88]

This year FIFA had a lot of notable changes, including female teams and new announcers, but most important ones concern game mechanics themselves. [Nov 2015, p.82]

Although you can blunder you way through first few missions, soon Crookz turns into a challenging tactical game that requires careful planning and individual approach to every mission. [Nov 2015, p.81]

On iOS, HoN may enjoy some popularity, but it has no business appearing on PC. [Nov 2015, p.80]

When arcade spin-off Forza Horizon first appeared, it seemed that Motorsport series will steer towards more realistic simulation. Unfortunately, FM6 still hangs somewhere in-between. [Nov 2015, p.76]

Limbic’s creation doesn’t deserve being called “a new Heroes game”; at best, it’s a remake of Heroes of Might & Magic V. [Nov 2015, p.72]

Comeback of a respectable series made be a respectable company – what could go wrong? Turns out, a lot. [Nov 2015, p.70]

There are many games where you can lose your best guys in a second and end up dead in a radioactive ditch, but in BEDLAM such misfortunes often come through no fault of player. [Nov 2015, p.69]

Potentially WoWs has some great gameplay, but problems that were carried over to release version from beta preclude us from giving it a higher score. [Nov 2015, p.58]

Still, an enthusiast of survival horrors might want to pay a visit to undead London – Zombi is one of the few contemporary games that place emphasis on survival rather than slaughtering of zombies. [Issue#201, p.62]

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]

Trine 3 doesn’t have skill improvement system, so no more fire arrows for Zoya, additional crates for Amadeus or special strikes for Pontius. Sure, there’s story reason for that – the Artifact is broken, so it’s not as powerful as before. Still, it’s sad. [Issue#201, p.68]

To increase gameplay speed, Stardock had to sacrifice a lot; perhaps, too much. Building variety went down the drain, you don’t have to balance the budget because concept of money is gone, and tech trees regressed back to Master of Magic-style magic books. [Issue#201, p.66]

Although Hong Kong is basically a clone of Dragonfall, it doesn’t diminish the game’s strengths: solid storyline and interesting missions (only a few, if any, are straightforward or purely combat-oriented). It has only one downside – the game expects players to read. A lot. Crime against humanity, I know. [Issue#201, p.50]

Just like tactical classics of Commando series, you have to take down enemies one by one, dodging patrols and security cameras. Or you can go in guns blazing – might work out too, though enemy has no concept of fair fight, bringing in as much guns as they can muster. [Issue#201, p.70]

There was no need for this lifeless open world; Phantom Pain would work much better as a series of “sandboxy” missions that include only the to-be-infiltrated complex and some space around it, like in Hitman: Blood Money. Still, the most important thing of all – stealth gameplay – is top-notch. [Issue#201, p.46]

The adrenaline-fueled action of Mad Max is marred with grind for scrap, all-too-similar side activities and flaws in game logic. [Issue#201, p.52]

Later this year Devil’s Third will be ported to PC, but single player campaign won’t make it – DT Online will be a free-to-play multiplayer-only shooter. And it’s one of those rare occasions where cuts made during porting process are strictly beneficial. [Issue#201, p.60]

The final part of the trilogy should be called a DLC at best, and a rather short one at that. [Sept 2015, p.82]

While everything of interest is taking place on the streets, we stay indoors and clean up stuff. [Sept 2015, p.83]

Game’s derivativeness doesn’t diminish despite developer’s diligence: the humor is noticeably stale, and game situations lack variety. There’s just no progress in the series, which in itself is a step backwards. [Sept 2015, p.83]

Although Victor Vran lacks traditional character statistics, some customization options are present – for example, there’s a bunch of passive perks in form of cards. Still, the action itself is closer to twin-stick shooters than action-RPGs. [Sept 2015, p.84]

Tembo takes some notes from Metal Slug, but his closest relative is Sonic. While it’s not strictly necessary to keep your speed at maximum, it’s highly recommended to do so: our elephant may be a badass, but he goes down after a few hits, so speed in his case equals survivability. [Sept 2015, p.82]

First mission greets us with cheesy music, cheap special effects and blocky spaceships from an age long past. Time to file for a refund? Not just yet: despite poor presentation, Star Hammer is a very nice strategy. [Sept 2015, p.78]

Every aspect of the game could stand to be improved a little: economic system is superfluous, leveling is hard at the beginning and much easier towards the end, and it’s always weird to take a castle with just a bunch of soldiers. But the atmosphere trumps everything. After all, it’s been a long time since anyone tried to make an RPG in at least quasi-historical setting. [Sept 2015, p.66]

AKtR avoids usual crutches of episodic adventures: it doesn’t drop endless QTEs on player nor does it pretend you’re making a difficult moral choice every step of the way. Instead, developers fell back to trusty inventory puzzles. [Sept 2015, p.73]

Hatred isn’t half as provocative as moralists claim: it doesn’t emphasize the act of aggression; it cares only about the number of victims. Executions are carried out with about as much emotion as stomping on a Goomba in Mario game. [Sept 2015, p.71]

Engine upgrade gave F1 two things to brag about: prettier visuals and new physics that make driving more challenging and fun. But game pays for that upgrade with poor optimization and all too straightforward AI. [Sept 2015, p.75]

Cradle’s small, but rather open game world includes only our yurt, a spooky abandoned amusement park, an air tram line and endless Mongolian steppe. You’d think it would make a perfect stage for a very personal story, but developers decided otherwise: through newspaper clips, letters and dialogue they chronicle a global epidemic. [Sept 2015, p.85]

Somehow, monotone side activities are a perfect match for the game’s atmosphere of bad dream you just can’t wake up from. Disarm a bomb, secure an outpost, disable a watchtower; disarm a bomb, secure an outpost, disable a watchtower; repeat ad nauseam. After 100% completion you’ll feel as tired as Batman himself. [Sept 2015, p.68]

The fable where innocence is punished, purity of heart is tested, and good guys strive for victory by all means. [Sept 2015, p.79]

Invisible, Inc. is a “flash fiction” of a game. It has great idea, but it’s just too small to become a timeless piece. [Issue#199, p.84]

Brief dialogue, complex, but underexplained plot, practical minimalism in combat and no attempts to toy with 3D – two dimensions is more than enough to navigate ventilation shafts, evade hazards like toxic gas, stealthily take down a guard or break your legs in a miscalculated jump. [Issue#199, p.82]

Endless Legend showed that even basic concepts may be reinvented. I’m not saying Stardock should plagiarize them, but it’s a proof that it can be done. Still, is such reinvention necessary for Stardock? Nope. They have a steady fan base, so GC III’s success was guaranteed. Furthermore, despite how inconsequential the changes are, it’s not exactly a bad game. But it doesn’t reach for the new stars. [Issue#199, p.80]

Carmageddon: Reincarnation is just like a once-beloved pet that came back from the cemetery: it’s kind of familiar, but it stinks, looks bad and falls apart, so playing with it isn’t as fun as it once was. [Issue#199, p.79]

From suborbital flights to satellites to ISS to colonization of Mun and interplanetary travel – creative potential in KSP is basically limitless. [Issue#199, p.76]

A fine procedurally-generated variation on Sid Meier’s Pirates! [Issue#199, p.74]

Surprisingly, not every racing game is about races. Some of them are mostly about cars, or driving with friends, or exploring a nice open world. But Project CARS is, first and foremost, about races and driving. [Issue#199, p.72]

Operations on the surface communicate the idea of “spreading evil” nicely and provide good change of pace from traditional underground war. Not a blockbuster yet, but quite entertaining nevertheless. [Issue#199, p.70]

A very unique MOBA where you can lose most of teamfights, lag behind in terms of levels, and still win the match thanks to map mechanics and NPCs. That’s why HotS isn’t a “simplified Dota 2” – it requires strategic thinking and ability to prioritize tasks properly. [Issue#199, p.68]

Looks like Crazy Monkey Studios sacrificed quantity for quality: Guns, Gore & Cannoli lasts only four hours and doesn’t have alternative modes (besides coop in the same campaign), but the time you’ll spend with it will be a blast. [June 2015, p.85]

For some reason, we believe that if Tim Schafer will launch another Kickstarter project, he’ll describe is as “from creators of Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango”, while Broken Age (if it’ll even get mentioned) will be placed somewhere at the end of the list. And it has nothing to do with chronological order. [June 2015, p.82]

To boil it down to the very basics: Chronicles is a platformer, a reincarnation of old Prince of Persia. There are no famous landmark, no intricate story involving multitude of historical personages. Even the weapons selection is very barebone. [June 2015, p.80]

Developers tried really hard to make sure that battles don’t always go the same way: there are mercs, global strikes, camouflage and sandstorms, not to mention “rocks-paper-scissors” balance and surprisingly competent AI. Of course, Etherium is not David that can bring down Blizzard’s Goliath, but it’s great to see that RTS is no longer a forgotten genre. [June 2015, p.79]

First episode of Chapters turned out to be a huge prologue, aiming to introduce new players to setting and characters, while story stood almost still. There was a hope that Book Two will change pace, and it partially came to be: there are some surprising developments, but Dreamfall still fails to truly engage players. [June 2015, p.78]

As it was with the first game, the future of StarDrive 2 depends on a single man – its main developer known as Zero. If he’ll give the game enough polish, it may become sparklingly brilliant. But the rough-cut diamond we have today deserves 73, and not a point more. [June 2015, p.74]

Russian proverb states that stability is a sign of mastery, but sometimes stability is only a sign of stability. Take Milestone for example: year after year they make games that always get very mediocre ratings. They’re stable to the point that most of their shortcomings can be copy-pasted straight from previous reviews. [June 2015, p.73]

Soulless homunculus, poorly crafted Frankenstein’s monster. [June 2015, p.72]

From the very beginning Subterranean Games was in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. They couldn’t copy Dungeon Keeper without invoking wrath of EA and they couldn’t innovate without angering their backers. But their turn to RTS with distinct multiplayer inclination will hardly please anyone. [June 2015, p.70]

It’s still the same fun and crazy fighting that demands from the player exactly as much as he wants to give. You can gather your friends and simply mash buttons to enjoy bloody spectacle, or you can spend hours perfecting your techniques to compete with professional players. No matter how you choose to play it, MKX will find something to offer. [June 2015, p.64]

No one can avoid their fate, especially if they happen to be a witcher with a very particular destiny. Of course, the end of this story depends on your choice between personal happiness and world’s stability, duty and destiny, selfless love and mutual one – but we all know what Sapkowski’s Geralt would’ve chosen. [June 2015,p.56]

For the freedom of choice, quality of writing and enjoyable tactical combat a lot of Pillars of Eternity’s blunders can be forgiven, even the lackluster core RPG mechanics. [May 2015, p.82]

It doesn’t look like a lot of effort went into porting a 2011 PSP game to current gen home consoles, as we got the same low-quality character models, cardboard box levels and ubiquitous loading screens of the original. Still, Final Fantasy fans definitely shouldn’t miss Type-0, if only to get a feel of FFXV’s director style. [May 2015, p.76]

Worlds of Magic invades your life like a hungry spirit of a Christmas long past due, its eyes alight with blue flame, its bony fingers grasping the autobiography of Master of Magic. In a few hours, after it’ll disappear in a puff of glitchy smoke, your head will ache and you’ll have trouble remembering the events of your time together. Still, you’ll have a feeling that it wasn’t all that bad. [May 2015, p.74]

Starships is, first and foremost, a mobile game. It’s way too simple and flat (in every sense of the word) for PC, but is OK for a tablet. [May 2015, p.72]

At first, Ori looks like a very easy game. But that’s a deception: the further you go into the forest, the louder cracking of your thumbs will become. Our condolences go to anyone who will try to beat Ori on keyboard+mouse combo instead of gamepad. [May 2015, p.71]

On its own, HM2 could be classified as an ‘indie hit’: it has challenging gameplay, great soundtrack and even a nuclear blast, – but it cannot hold its ground when compared to the first Hotline Miami. [May 2015, p.70]

Capcom doesn’t fund Revelations series properly, so Revelations 2 at times looks too old-fashioned and underpolished, – yet it still manages to be sufficiently tense, difficult and interesting for a series’ fan. [May 2015, p.66]

Veterans of From Software games may find Bloodborne a tad too easy, as it lacks input hiccups, weird hitboxes and other oddities that noticeably raised the difficulty in Souls-series games. [May 2015, p.62]

The game made its debut at a very fortunate time, when its closest competitors are at their weakest: new iterations of Cities XL content-wise are closer to a DLC, and SimCity remains a total disappointment. While Skylines doesn’t offer any groundbreaking novelties, it does genre’s basics very well and tries to make city-building interface as user-friendly as possible. [May 2015, p.60]

As it always is with Battlefield, Hardline relies on multiplayer to push its rating and sales. But, in contrast to its predecessors, Hardline’s online battles are much more dynamic and more akin to Call of Duty’s shootouts. [May 2015, p.54]

Attempts to crack a joke about every single thing lead to a humor overdose, while overbranching dialogues become a burden. But even if you’ll get bored, it won’t last long: something unexpected will definitely happen to jerk you alive. [April 2015, p.73]

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]

About half of the mechanics don’t work as before and some are simply absent. As a result, people who’ve played the original Homeworld get confused by the remake: it looks like the same game, but the gameplay isn’t. [April 2015, p.68]

Every port is a unique and unforgettable adventure that comes together from pieces of past events and always gives the player a real, tangible choice. But the process of traveling between the islands is unfortunately lacking. [April 2015, p.66]

Ostensibly a sandbox. Ostensibly an RPG with pirates. Ostensibly was in development for a long time – since July of 2012. And a lot of other “ostensiblies” that brought forward a radically new quality for the final product: “ostensibly a game”. [April 2015, p.64]

We take the role of Christopher Raven, who became a pirate captain after his family... ah, screw it. The game is terrible. I say that as a guy who honestly tried to become enamored of it for a week straight. [April 2015, p.62]

Did Turtle Rock succeed in laying the foundations of 4vs1 genre? For the most part yes, yet they have too much riding on a person playing as monster – basically, he’s the one who ultimately determines how interesting the game will be. [April 2015, p.58]

During the development someone probably should’ve raised an alarm when it turned out that the game about monster-hunters doesn’t have interesting fights with monsters. [April 2015, p.54]

Of course, as with any episodic game, it is difficult to predict where do plot twists lead or how will we perceive this adventure once we’ve seen it in its entirety. But right now it’s very difficult to believe that this is Dreamfall we’ve been looking forward to for the last eight years. [Dec 2014, p.72]