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]

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]

Graphics are rarely worth mentioning nowadays, since most games look good or great. That’s not The Surge 2’s case: sometimes graphics are so bad it messes with gameplay, as it gets hard to tell if it’s a puddle of water, poison or a chasm. [Issue#242, p.50]

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]

In this “fantasy California” no one dares to hurt someone’s feelings – not even a necromancer or a hired killer. It’s a shame that dialogues are this bad, because the rest of the developer team was actually working hard: combat is fun (if a bit too simple), and some levels are outright gorgeous. [Issue#266]

Complex and unpredictable board game, numerous mini-games and being able to play as your favorite character – those are the three pillars of Mario Party’s success. Neither of these elements was polished to perfection over the years, but together they offer a very enjoyable experience. [Issue#234, p.72]

Although in the new chapter Rufus is once again alive, well and goofs around as much as ever, don’t expect that he’ll get his “happily ever after” this time. On the other hand – who even needs that “ever after” when you’ve got a time machine? [Issue#208, p.57]

Farming Simulator 22 got a whole bunch of new stuff, which makes the learning curve even steeper, but the payoff is so much more rewarding. For example, the game now has proper seasons, with ever-changing weather to boot. So you need to plan your activities ahead and keep an eye on the forecasts – for example, it’s a very bad idea to harvest the crops while it’s raining. [Issue#258, p.52]

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]

Music is extremely important for Heading Out: even races last only as long as the accompanying songs. So there’s no excuse for such a bland, boring soundtrack – especially for a game set in the 70s. [Issue#264,p.72]

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 one of those cases where it’s really hard to rate a game. It has a great concept and good plot delivery, but actual gameplay is incredibly frustrating. You’re stuck in the loop along with your character, with no way to fast-forward the events, and you have to meticulously try every possible combination, until find the trigger that will open up a new option. And then you re-check it all over again. [Issue#256, p.44]

Combat in Rise of the Ronin is far more nuanced than in Ghost of Tsushima, so even after many hours of gameplay you may discover a new aspect to it that will come as a pleasant surprise. [Issue#264,p.68]

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]

There are plenty of unusual or downright bizarre situations in Get It Together microgames: for example, you might need to shave the armpits of a statue of Zeus when all you have is a robo-singer. But every game lasts only a few seconds, so no matter how weird it is, it never outstays its welcome. [Issue#255, p.64]

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]

What would happen if you take a mobile game concept and scale it up to a PC release? Well, Fishlabs tried it with Chorus, and the results are rather mediocre. [Issue#258, p.62]

You can’t help but feel that Mortal Shell is a fan-made mod for Dark Souls – however, it has accordingly low price. It also shows promise: a few more tries, and Cold Symmetry could make something really good. [Issue#248, p.34]

Great level design, dangerous enemies, good gunplay and intriguing story come together to deliver an unforgettable game. [page 38]

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]

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]

Although each fight has multiple stages, they’re pretty much the same for each enemy: ranged combat, melee clash, bullet hell – and even their order mostly remains the same. For a game that revolves exclusively around boss fights, that’s quite a shortcoming. [Issue#212, p.55]

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]

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

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]

Origins is a surprisingly good successor to the famous trilogy. There’s a big galaxy to explore, choices to make and memorable characters to meet. Dialogues are great, and arcade parts are simple, yet fun. Together, they make a game that will easily keep your interest for a week at least. [Issue#234, p.54]

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]