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]

The studio took a few liberties with the story, changing some things around and expanding certain segments, but thankfully, they didn’t neuter Crypto’s humor to cater to the easily-offended. [Issue#260, p.50]

For the entire game you’ll have the feeling that something significant is going to happen soon – but it won’t. Story never takes a sharp turn, every interesting character is introduced in the first third of the game and there are no meaningful rewards to find in Oakmont openworld. [Issue#239, p.56]

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]

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

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]

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]

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

Beautiful music, great humor and a lot of customization – Miitopia on Switch proved to be a great remaster of a 3DS classic. [Issue#253, 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]

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]

Diaz brothers undoubtedly have their charm, but they can’t compete with Chloe and Max. Let’s hope that next time developers will focus on actual story rather than current political agenda. [Issue#243, p.50]

The painter had been replaced by an actor, and old mansion morphed into a ship – but the gameplay and scare tactics have changed very little. [Issue#239, p.64]

The quality of fan service is simply breathtaking, so it’s a must for any fan of the cult classic movie. Still, as a game, Terran Command offers nothing new. Even less, in fact: there’s no multiplayer, map editor or even a skirmish mode, so once you’re done – you’re done. [Issue#260, p.54]

Non-combat side of the game is not nearly as diverse. Our PCs don’t play cards, there’s no more than 10 side quests and not even a hint of romance in this cold air. Still, it’s hard to put I Am Setsuna away – not because the story or the combat are that good on their own, but because it really captures that old school JRPG atmosphere. [Issue#211, p.69]

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]

Whether you have to consume 10 bass or 10 human beings to level up, the basic gameplay loop stays exactly the same. [Issue#246, p.52]

Yes, it’s underpolished compared to predecessors. Yes, darksouls-esque mechanics don’t exactly click with traditional combat dynamics. Yes, acrobatics are straight up bad. But let’s give Darksiders 3 a little break – after all, the series did just come back from the dead. [Issue#234, p.64]

Well, the coveted Russian Fallout has finally been made. Hopefully, next time instead of Russian Fallout 2 AtomTeam will make simply Atom 2. There’re plenty of original ideas here that deserve to be developed further. [Issue#235, p.38]

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

There are some minor improvements here and there, but there’s no new big feature that screams – that’s where 3 years of development went. The only one reason to get CMS2021 for the full price is if you somehow missed the 2018 version. [Issue#256, p.56]

Amusingly, Telltale’s Story Mode had more Minecraft in it than Dungeons does: it involved a little mining and crafting, at least. Dungeons features neither, and although its levels are made of blocks, they are indestructible. [Issue#247, p.67]

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

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]

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]

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

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

Like any golf game, Mario Golf is a niche product. But it has that amazing Nintendo magic – even if you aren’t a golf aficionado, you’ll still have a lot of fun. [Issue#254, p.66]