It’s almost as if we’re watching Prince of Persia evolution again. Just a bit more, and we’ll see a fully 3D Assassin’s Creed, where our hero will finally be able to climb any roof he wants. Oh, wait… [Issue#206, p.68]

It’s a very odd release. Sure, it’s the first official release in English of the series’ first installment. But, despite some minor improvements, the game itself aged like milk. [Issue#251, p.70]

A newcomer would be shocked by crude animations, wonky physics and bad gunplay. Fans of the franchise are kinda used to that, but they’ll be disappointed for another reason: while Saints Row 2022 does have a few fun moments, most of them are blatantly ripped from previous games of the series. [Issue#260, p.32]

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]

John and Brenda proved that they still have the skills to make a passable game, but with a duet like that, we’ve expected a lot more creativity. [Issue#251, p.60]

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

Turns out GSC Game World was too busy making shooters to keep up with all the advancements in RTS control schemes that were made in last ten years. Perhaps in 2001 it felt fun to micromanage each soldier, but it’s 2016 now, and that amount of micro is welcome only in games like StarCraft 2, where you have no more than a few dozen units at a time. In Cossacks 3, however, battles are of much greater scale, and player should have been provided with adequate tools. [Issue #213, p.58]

In this extremely niche genre, studio should’ve paid very close attention to physics and car’s inner workings; as it is, Overpass is too difficult for an arcade racing game, but way too shallow for a proper sim. [Issue#245, p.59]

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]

In an effort to make players shell out for microtransactions, developers ramped up the difficulty, which led to a surprisingly enjoyable result – it’s the first time we get a relatively difficult NFS in recent years. [Issue#226, p.44]

No matter what you do, it’s the RNG that will ultimately decide whether you win or lose. Instead of playing Warsaw, you might as well just roll the dice and punch yourself in the face every time it doesn’t show six. [Issue#241, p.55]

The content is scarce, progression is unmotivating, and after ten or so rounds you’ve seen pretty much everything Destruction AllStars has to offer. [Issue#252, p.54]

Necromunda had every chance to become a sudden summer hit. Great gunplay, nice parkour, gory finishing moves. But it lacks one crucial thing: good enemies. As it is, they’re basically training dummies. [Issue#254, p.60]

Gravel’s cars handle like shoeboxes no matter the surface: mud, snow, asphalt or stream bed – in this game it makes zero difference. [Issue#229, p.56]

Back in 90’s, not all shooters had a tough guy with big guns as their main character; some of them focused on a weird vehicle instead. Since then, that subgenre had gone extinct, but with Disintegration, it suddenly makes a comeback. [Issue#247, p.48]

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]

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]

Procedurally generated world is undeniably big, but it’s also bland to the point it hurts the story. It’s hard to stay invested when every plot advancement requires you to walk along the indistinctive streets for dozen minutes. [Issue#232, p.74]

Will the initial spark of interest last? Hardly. Bleeding Edge is a nice little time-killer that probably will never evolve into something bigger. But if it helps Ninja Theory earn some money for their next project – it’s cool. [Issue#245, p.60]

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]

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]

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]

This world favors guns and blasters (and rather rare laser swords), so the combat system is quite unusual for the genre: it plays more like anime-styled Destiny or The Division than traditional JRPG. Which is good, because fights make for the most of gameplay in Fatal Bullet. [Issue#228, p.58]

To add insult to injury, we’re towing a city with thousands of colonists, and it’s paramount to build them all kinds of morale-improvement buildings. They’re the last hope of humanity – and they will get depressed and start to rebel if they don’t get a new VR entertainment center! Too bad it’s not an option to just hurl these guys straight into the nearest star. [Issue#208, p.50]

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]

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]

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]

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]