You will not find here the familiar classic DotA gameplay with towers, bases and infinitely spawning infantry. Instead, the CD Projekt RED created the team slasher in the format "3 vs. 3" with the main goal to capture and hold control points. [Issue #195, p.81]

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]

If the first Blackguards was practically rail RPG with a well-developed tactical battles, then the offspring suddenly revealed some features of Jagged Alliance. After capturing the town in the lower right corner of the map the following Cassia’s trip to the capital can be laid as one please: horizontally, vertically, diagonally or as cunning sinusoid. [Issue #195, p.75]

The first seconds of acquaintance with a maze game makes it clear that we are facing an improved and expanded version of Etrian Odyssey – a niche game of good quality from the same Atlus, the Japanese anime relative of Wizardry and Might & Magic. [Issue #195, p.74]

Despite the sharp turn toward pacifism one can easily recognize Croteam style: unusual for puzzles large open locations, majestic architectural forms of ancient civilizations... It seems that you are about to hear the cries of a headless kamikazes. So when a screaming figure dashes nearby you start spinning the mouse wheel in search of shotgun on pure reflex. [Issue #195, p.68]

Night chases are the best moments of the game: a horde of zombies is stomping behind you, much more agile hunters are breathing in your neck and ahead you see the pack of undead, who has not yet realized what is going on. You have a split second to decide if you will try to break through the crowd, or turn to the alley and pray to all the known gods in hope to escape from pursuit. [Issue #195, p.64]

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]

Whenever Randal’s Monday stops pretending to be a classic adventure and forgoes tedious puzzles like "find the hidden switch," it turns into a vicious manifesto that mercilessly tears apart geek-culture. [Feb 2015]

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]

The game doesn’t look finished. I’m not talking about bugs – it’s almost perfect in this regard. But there’s just not enough diversity, even in ship selection. Such meagerness of content is the main reason why spaceflight bliss doesn’t last forever, even though you have 400 billion of star systems at your disposal. [Feb 2015]

Since it was Double Bear’s founder who drafted story of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines and Alpha Protocol, one could expect Dead State to deliver some intriguing characters. But alas, in backwater Texas there’s no place for triple-agents, while clichéd Vietnam vets and truck drivers fail to deliver any surprises. [Feb 2015]

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]

Instead of building upon Guardian of Light’s ideas, Square Enix produced a rushed rehash, turning Aztec pyramids into Egyptian ones. Those who played the original game won’t find anything new here, save for some puzzles with mirrors. [Feb 2015]

It seems that after Hearthstone’s success even Scrolls’ developers have lost all interest in their game. [Feb 2015]

Absurdity reaches its peak when a corpse that’s been lying on the floor for a while gets some new friends and enemies. Looks like the space frontier in Spacebase DF-9 is settled exclusively by deranged people who were booted from civilized worlds. [Feb 2015]

If FIFA 15 seemed too fast and felt wrong for no apparent reason, it’s likely that PES 2015 is your game. [Jan 2015, p.74]

Blitz definitely can be qualified as a success. The seemingly impossible task – to port a thoughtful, slow-paced game to a platform that’s all about instant gratification – was accomplished. And the product is not a Frankensteinian monstrosity, but something new, fast-paced and captivating. [Jan 2015, p.100]

The fact that developers managed to pack the whole country into a game is certainly worthy of respect. But at the same time they managed to screw up in the most important aspect of racing – the behavior of the car. [Jan 2015, p.78]

Herein lies the main problem – Adventure Game has almost no way for players to interact with each other. You might as well gather four people in the room and roll dice for an hour and a half to find out who will get more sixes. [Jan 2015, p.76]

Tales from The Borderlands shows that it has experienced writers behind it. It is interesting, sometimes funny and sometimes bloody – just what the doctor ordered for a good pastime. [Jan 2015, p.72]

A choice between two evils or two truths was a good fit for The Walking Dead because that’s what the series was about. But “A Song of Fire and Ice” isn’t about such decisions; its characters solve rather primitive dilemmas actually, but they solve them wrongly. Therefore, choices that you make in this game just don’t feel right; they don’t leave that “Westeros” impression. [Jan 2015, p.71]

It seems that the Assassin's Creed series came to this stage when new releases should be evaluated not by the novelty of the process, but by the presentation of the game, abundance of events and action. Indeed, what new score can you give to the gameplay that essentially remains unchanged? [Jan 2015, p.66]

Newfound openness of Assassin’s Creed demonstrates just how inadequate its AI really is for a stealth game: pampered nobility usually simply ignores a bloodied body on the dance floor, and guards don’t care much either. At least they’ve learned how to fight: unless you “cheat” with smoke bombs, it’s highly unlikely you’ll survive a melee against a group. [Jan 2015, p.62]

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]

At the very least BioWare managed to present a workable concept of an RPG which is completely detached from the legacy of pen-and-paper RPG. [Jan 2015, 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]

Shin Megami Tensei IV will grab you as firm as any demon and keep you playing your 3DS until it starts to whimper about dwindling battery power. [Dec 2014, p.92]

Missions, new types of attacks and Chronicle mode (that promises almost infinite replayability) changed familiar Warriors’ formula for the better. Even veterans of the series will not get that unpleasant sense of deja vu after playing SW4. [Dec 2014, p.86]

Mercilessly colorful futuristic city where virtually every element can be used for high-speed movement is likely to leave a newcomer more than a little confused. But once you become accustomed to it, mundane walking becomes almost physically painful: you’ll want to jump on the wires, bounce off the roof of some car, slide down the rails and never touch the sinful earth again. [Dec 2014, p.82]

Not even Bayonetta can last forever. First few levels of the sequel are fantastic, but afterwards it’s all about “floating platforms in space” and “featureless corridors”. Nothing here is as innovative or as provocative as the original Bayonetta. It’s still a solid action, mind you. But we hope that third installation will find some other publisher than Nintendo. [Dec 2014, p.80]

Contrary to popular wisdom, Almost Human Games’ lightning did manage to strike the same place twice. Legend of Grimrock 2 is not ideal in any respect but still manages to keep players in front of the monitor with challenging battles and interesting puzzles. [Dec 2014, p.78]

The easiest way to describe Fantasy Life is “Skyrim for children”. The developers were aiming for a game where a world would be as open as possible, and where a player would be offered a variety of interesting activities not necessarily related to monster-slaughtering. And they hit the mark. [Dec 2014, p.76]

After a promising beginning the story slows down to a crawl due to the lack of conflict: our drone cheerfully explores planets, Julia and Rachel hang out in the comfort of her spaceship, everyone is happy. [Dec 2014, p.74]

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]

One shouldn’t be allowed to just cobble together “something Jagged-alliancy”, panting and cursing at every step. Development of an experience like Arulco or Metavira should be approached with a clear head and a clear conscience, otherwise instead of being a holy rite it ends up as a profanation of one of the best games in existence. [Dec 2014, p.68]

2K delivered exactly what it promised: a derivative game which nevertheless deserves to be completed in single-player for the story. And then maybe one more play through with a friend or two, just to shoot stuff and kid around, before setting Pre-Sequel aside until DLCs come. Just as it always is with Borderlands. [Dec 2014, p.64]

Who would have thought that the union of two studios which didn’t have a single prominent game between them will yield a game worthy of all possible attention. This exciting and entertaining Action RPG adopted some Dark Souls’ basic mechanics but managed to preserve its own unique face. [Dec 2014, p.60]

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]

Unfortunately over time it becomes clear that the promised freedom is illusory. The finale does not depend on our actions, puzzles should be solved by all means all, and openness of locations results in monotonous races back and forth. But what is important – creators of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter managed to create photo-realistic frightening world that player does not want to leave. American backwoods is traced to the last crack at the railing of the bridge, to the last blade of grass on a mossy stone in the forest, to the last shingle on the lake shore. And all this is feast for the eyes was developed with the decrepit Unreal Engine 3 and by the tiny studio! [Nov 2014, p.110]

Perhaps the only area where Evolution Studios has not deceived players is the graphics. Attention to automobile details is on the crazy level, and manifested thoroughness for design of salons needs a standing ovation too. At an average speed under 160 km/h and taking into account the sinuosity of local trails one can’t afford to feast of surrounding area beauty but even the catchable details are definitely nice. [Nov 2014, p.108]

The combat system is one of the best features of the series. It has nothing to do with the classic turn-based battles and resemble three-dimensional team fighting. Heroes are free to move around the battlefield, they know how to put the blocks, dodge, and not only execute fierce battle tricks but carrying out deadly team combos. All this looks very spectacular and saves from the boredom in those frequent moments when player runs out of desire for more grinding. Unfortunately local grind is a must – without it one never will be able to kill some bosses. [Nov 2014, p.106]

While holding hand on the sacred Mario cap we should admit that SSB is not the most suitable game for small screen 3DS, even for XXL versions. It is so difficult to follow flickering characters on the background of richly animated arenas. Especially when opponents flee in different corners and the camera drives away. [Nov 2014, p.104]

Hyrule Warriors – not the kind of game that fans of the series expect. But while the new Zelda is forged under strict secrecy in the Nintendo workshops, why not revisit the familiar locations with the sword and bombs? The storyline with clashes during different eras of Hyrule and meeting of the characters who could never meet is rather entertaining and capable to provoke the idea to finish at least a Legendary mode. [Nov 2014, p.102]

The last hope of Ancient Space is the storyline which is called exciting by its creators. In fact it is rather beaten and absurd. There is scientific expedition sent to certain zone that is absorbing human colonies. Some sensors are not working and therefore scriptwriters assume that some pirates should take the blame. So player confronts these abstract leaderless robbers for a major part of the plot. Can somebody explain why scientists should fight pirates? [Nov 2014, p.101]

Indisputable evidence of Ed’s hard work is the appearance of the game: nice graphics with a decent development of the landscape and models and simple but functional interface. However, we doubt that a handful of Meridian nice features will attract anyone but the most devoted fans of game design of the early nineties. [Nov 2014, p.100]

When it comes to the fight the game remains as clueless as before. An attack resembles a mob hit on the madhouse watchman's post: confused fighters run toward the target and drop dead on the way. All three formations are designed to provide a semblance of order, but after right click on the enemy such order immediately thrown into chaos. And, just as before, two dozen archers on the wall solve most of the issues of defense. The visual part of the game just aggravates the impression that ... Oops, there is no impression actually. Nobody creates games in this way anymore. [Nov 2014, p.99]

EA Canada has done an excellent job. Yes, there are some rough edges like too many player errors during throw-ins or kicking the ball over side line in cases where it would be better to kick it to the middle of the field. Too many hits on the goal posts and bar. But developers have managed to conquer new heights where they will sure nest and polish this flagship series, until the time comes for a new breakthrough. [Nov 2014, p.96]

D4 is a silly and frivolous game, but charming in its awkwardness. Part of the charm lies in the fact that it blends the absurd and serious things in equal proportions, so absurd ones look even more grotesque while serious ones suddenly became more meaningful. The selected method of narration with trips in time and space is able to reveal the most non-standard locations, and the author's story can go in an absolutely incredible jungle. [Nov 2014, p.94]

Game has the original setting, the normal economic part, many of the small and large original features and unusually lax battle system. It means unambiguous excess of debit over credit, at least – in absolute terms. But... niche is quite filled today, and everyone can find a game to his liking and suitable for his style of play. And Amplitude Studios definitely should not feel the shame for its creation. [Nov 2014, p.90]

With Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate developers shipped so many game modes and new features that most of the hopeless fastidious fans of the Dynasty Warriors genre just had nothing to complain about. In fact, very rarely under the guise of the new revised and enlarged edition of the old title developers offer as many as three different games. [Nov 2014, p.89]

Styx: Master of Shadows is positioned as a prequel to the barely noticed in the game world and almost useless Of Men and Orcs. It seems that developers cut off about 99% of previous content but left untouched the most essential element – creepy old goblin with a pedigree that is longer than the history of the world. After this surgery the prequel looks much better than original and if somebody will work over next Styx series with a file it will be capable to outdo restarted Thief. [Nov 2014, p.86]

The game is not technically astounding, even against the backdrop of last year's Need for Speed Rivals. Horizon 2 is certainly very beautiful, but its beauty comes not from technology, but from artistic field. There are very soft and warm sunsets, refreshing summer rains, and really dark nights – every detail done in the right color and carefully accentuated. Each element works on a holiday atmosphere and you absolutely do not want emerge from it into the dank October evening. [Nov 2014, p.82]

Little by little Wasteland 2 wastes away its charm. It wants to be good, and it tries to be. But sometimes the efforts to make a great game are obvious – and sometimes it’s obvious that someone in the team had really been slacking off. [Nov 2014, p.78]

One of the major Gauntlet’ problems is a small amount of content. Game offers just three locations divided into four levels with three short stages in each that could be finished in a couple of evenings at a leisurely pace. And then Gauntlet asks to repeat the same thing at the next difficulty level. [Nov 2014, p.76]

Fascinating experiments with spheres are clouded by the vastness of locations, the lack of clues and ingenuity of puzzles. And if you get used eventually to the intricate brain-teasers with their dreamlike logic, then boring mumbling narrator keeps you annoyed until the very end. Hero spits stamps like a fifth-grader and cites quotes on about everything. But this is forgivable minus, because Carlos Coronado did programming, game design, script and music himself. And games that made with love are rarely bad. [Nov 2014, p.75]

F1 2014 could be almost a perfect game with a much higher rating if it were not for two things. Firstly, as with any serious simulator, F1 2014 is designed for high-end PCs with the decent wheel and analog pedals that allow precise acceleration and braking. When you try to play on the console or with a gamepad, you’ll be severely disappointed: the game even on the Very Hard setting will became much easier. The second major drawback is the lack of full replays. [Nov 2014, p.70]

Alien: Isolation can serve as an example of a solid adaptation of movie features to the game format: Creative Assembly have managed to recreate the atmosphere of the original film. They did not try to squeeze Alien within the frames of existing genres, but took the events of the original picture as a basis while not limiting themselves to them. [Nov 2014, p.68]

After you get used to the world of Shadow of Mordor understanding comes: there is nothing to do in it. Chieftains – pretty serious opponents at first – in the end due to the lame balance become the whipping boys. Storyline is buried under muddy reasoning about rings, elves and dark lord. As a result you like the Shadow of Mordor gameplay but you do not want to go to the finish. [Nov 2014, p.64]

If you have played the Second Son then Abigail’s trials from the First Light will seem boring and crumpled. Otherwise the First Light will form a wrong impression about whole inFamous series. It would be the best choices for Sucker Punch do not try to squeeze out dull storyline, but offer a set of maps with corresponding trials in the form of common DLC. [Oct 2014, p.91]

The thing that irritates the most is that in The Sims 3 you had the feeling that you're writing a story, and not for a particular family, but for the whole city. But The Sims 4 carved out the lion's share of content and broke a beautiful open world into couple of dozens of tiny paddocks. Therefore, instead of the epic story you are able to write just a pair of episodes for a B-Rate sitcom. [Oct 2014, p.94]

However hard you may try you will not find any reason to play Sacred 3. It is completely unclear why it deserves full price, when its natural place is among the f2p mobile games. There’s nothing left in Sacred 3 that we used to love in previous installments. And there’s nothing new that could inspire our love for the Sacred 3. [Oct 2014, p.92]

Flaws in gameplay and storyline are compensated by the great skill of designers who have managed to deliver the spirit of spy adventure. Each level reminds the satirical Cold War Museum, whose exhibits can be examined for hours, and even angular character models do not spoil the experience. Of course, CounterSpy cannot boast of Evil Genius’ madness or No One Lives Forever’ charm, but it definitely shows the romance of the sixties. [Oct 2014, p.90]

The debut project of the independent studio Xaviant turned viable, albeit boring due to rudimentary plot and rather empty world. Locations turned to be beautiful but no one is found there with exception of few enemies and even in the city you’ll not see a living soul. [Oct 2014, p.89]

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]

Conception II just offers tedious repetitive fights and a lot of useless features, not mentioning the plot with a predominant theme of teenage promiscuity. As a result, if the endless wandering around the randomly generated dungeons will not force you to throw the cartridge away, then most likely you will be finished off by endless dialogues of "coffee, tea or me" type and discussions on the anatomical aspects. [Oct 2014, p.84]

Implementation of difficulty levels gives an unpleasant aftertaste: on easier modes developers forcibly cut from the game some locations and puzzles, leaving a lot of useless items that litter the inventory starting from the second hour of gameplay. [Oct 2014, p.83]

In regard to the real-time strategies there is one sure sign: if you defeat real opponents much easier than the AI - there’s something wrong with this game. If you ask yourself what’s wrong with this gamma-version pretending to be final release, you have to admit – anything bad with exception of engine. We are convinced that after the current gamma version the delta version will follow, then epsilon, zeta, and so on until the omega one. There will never be a final PA release because developers have no idea about the final state of their game. [Oct 2014, p.80]

Even at first glance, it is clear that it is an expensive and very ambitious project from a team of highly skilled professionals. But the lack of an exciting plot and thoughtful combination of RPG and FPS can’t be compensated for by just a huge budget. [Oct 2014, p.76]

Risen 3 is not just a game for the RPG fans, but for the inexperienced ones. You can enjoy a long and happy run over the mountains and forest trails, killing monsters by hundreds, solving the unpretentious quests. But if you look closer at all of these actions the guileless magic will suddenly dissipate and you’ll discover rather primitive gameplay. [Oct 2014, p.72]

The only Big Mistake that could plunge the Earth into chaos in three hundred years would be to never develop or publish Civilization: Beyond Earth. Thank God it had passed. Firaxis fully succeeded where only Gollop bros were successful before: it brought the role-playing element as influential as the strategic one into the turn-based strategy. [Oct, 2014, p.68]

We've got a game that is easy to learn, but hard to master. It offers exciting entertainment for a couple of evenings, but developers did not manage to fully unfold its features. A greater variety of opponents and a wider range of equipment would be appreciated. [September 2014, p. 81]

The game is incredibly boring. All you can do is crawling with the speed of turtle to nowhere, overcoming obstacles and cursing at each bump without having any global goal. Every puddle is a personal enemy, because the chances to get stuck are significantly large. The only things that give a certain aspect of fun are the physical models and graphics. [September 2014, p. 79]

MotoGP 14 is a real lifeline for all fans of the main motorcycle racing championship. To learn all the hardships just switch physics to Pro mode, turn on the tire wear and disable all sorts of helping options like Ideal Trajectory. [September 2014, p. 70]

Frankly speaking, we did not expect much from "The Dark Side". Therefore, the adventure of dark trinity – orc, vampire and she devil – became a pleasant surprise primarily due to the unexpectedly well-designed questing system. More good news – tactics have remained virtually unchanged. [September 2014, p. 68]

Numerous combo chains are simply useless – dummy-enemies could be scattered effortlessly. If you are really tired from crowd pummeling you can combine efforts with two other characters to depopulate surrounding area quickly. Bosses are the only worthy opponents, especially those who greatly exceed Luffy in size. [September 2014, p. 66]

Just as in GRID 2, gloom of single player races diluted by adrenaline of online modes. They offer not only the same five career disciplines, but also essential management, easy tuning, leveling and weekly competitions on the RaceNet site. [September 2014, p. 62]

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]

The blame is on the poor assortment of weapons and primitive dungeon generation. The next floor is easy to be confused with the previous one, if you do not pay attention to the fine details. Traps often can’t do any harm to the heroes, and add to that the lack of a sane storyline. [September 2014, p. 65]

A lack of new ideas is compensated by solid design and the simple story is diluted by charming humor. Yacht Club Games managed to create a distinctive game in intriguing world offering old-fashioned exciting adventure for a few hours. [September 2014, p. 80]

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]

It may seem that SE3 is absolutely hopeless, but it is not. After all there are not so many games around where you have to lie on your belly for half an hour and methodically perforate your enemies’ heads. If you prefer that kind of gameplay then Sniper Elite 3 will be the right choice in spite of all the bugs. [September 2014, p. 72]

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]