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]

Any genre aficionado will breeze through the campaign in a few hours, and multiplayer skirmishes are simply not worth it. Still, the game has a redeeming quality – if you have a small kid and you want to help him grasp the basics of strategy games, Exorder will be a surprisingly good fit. [Issue#227, p.44]

It’s almost as if there was a lottery among indie developers, with the grand prize being the right to publish their game under Hiroyuki Ito’s name (but without his oversight). Otherwise, we can’t fathom how something like Dungeon Encounters could come to be. [Issue#259, p.61]

Despite the original setting, it’s hard to say that We Are The Dwarves is an engaging game. It has three distinct characters, but their skills don’t lend themselves to interesting combinations. Not to mention that stylized graphic make it hard to tell the landscape features and enemy placement at a glance. [Issue#209, p.73]

We can't recommend Crackdown 3 in good faith. It has its moments, but you need to be a fan of uncomplicated run'n'gun gameplay to enjoy them – and even then, the action takes way too long to pick up. [Issue#236, p.42]

As a shooter, Resistance is rather mediocre. But as a Terminator game, it's great. [Issue#244, p.52]

Extraordinary beauty (and extraordinary bugginess) aside, Wolcen is a run-of-the-mill ARPG that takes "inspiration" from every popular game in the genre and mixes it with its own questionable know-how. [Issue#244, p.64]

Historically, Polish taverns offered a dish called bigos: basically, everything that was left on the plates by richer customers went into a cauldron where it boiled or simmered for some time before being served to poorer clients. Similarly, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 was made from leftovers of Far Cry, MGS5, Call of Duty, The Witcher 3 and many other blockbusters. It’s 100% derivative, there are literally no fresh ideas here. [Issue#220, p.56]

Necropolis tries to incorporate roguelike-elements, but it suffers from lack of content: there’s not enough variety in monsters, weapons, artifacts and other procedural generation elements to make new dungeons feel like fresh experiences. Plus, there’s a considerable problem with setting: some environments end up looking quite spooky, but that tone is smeared by humorous narration and item descriptions. [Issue#212, p.54]

The car physics are more appropriate for a “shoebox on linoleum” simulator than a Dakar racing game. [Issue#234, p.59]

After the WWII ended, there was a rise of certain phenomena among indigenous population of the Pacific, called “cargo cult”. It feels like the very same cultists were in charge of Diablo Immortal: it has superficial resemblance to the real thing, but it lacks any real substance. [Issue#260, p.36]

After a while, suspicion sets in: perhaps EA doesn’t believe in BioWare anymore, and had them release not only unpolished, but basically unfinished product to cut losses and avoid another total rework. [Issue#237, p.44]

The Pillars of the Earth shares many similarities with adventure games from Telltale: there are no puzzles per se, inventory management is simple to a fault, so the player mostly gets to choose responses in dialogues. There are points of divergence, but the differences between story branches are negligible; on the other hand, if the developers began changing events of the novel from the get-go, we would end up with a very different story. [Issue #222, p.55]

As you run along the main questline, building robocompanions and navigating platforms, it feels like Inafune had finally made a top-quality game. But then you hit a literal roadblock: to open a door and advance the story, you have to turn back and collect cores that are hidden all over the world or awarded for completion of dungeons that up until now were optional. That’s when ReCore’s shortcomings, like lifeless world and repetitive combat with respawning enemies, become really annoying. [Issue#213, p.62]

It’s easy to rip into Wanted: Dead. Basically, everything about this game is bad, except for the bloody finishing moves. Which, incidentally, were the main thing touted by the trailers. [page 58]

Unfortunately, even the best mini-games from 1-2-Switch collection won’t keep you engaged for more than 20 minutes. That’s partially offset by sheer quantity of these games, but still – you probably won’t find yourself playing 1-2-Switch in the same company too often. Maybe once every few weeks. [Issue#218, p.70]

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]

Open world turned out to be a huge letdown as it brings nothing to the table and makes the rather average campaign drag on forever. [Issue#228, p.68]

Roster of really colorful characters speaks in game’s favor: besides usual warriors and bowmen you can play as a bard or even an artist that brings paintbrush to a swordfight. But what’s the point, when the main mechanic has aged poorly and Koei Tecmo doesn’t even try to modernize it? [Issue#207, p.69]

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]

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]

It's much more "polisher" than "mechanic" simulator: usually you just need to remove the rust from the tank, then paint it. Even if something is broken, you can easily buy a spare, as if there's a depot somewhere that's loaded with replacement parts for Sturmtiger, KV-2 and StuG. [Issue#244, p.50]

Synopsis of story looks promising: Mars, secrets of technomancers, government conspiracies, etc. – but in practice it’s incredibly bland, lacking both interesting characters and twists. Same goes for tasks: the game will make you protect dumb NPCs, find N spies before time is up, and, of course, complete a truckload of fetch quests. [Issue#211, p.64]

Ridiculous story, shallow gameplay and poor graphics don’t leave Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood any chance. The only imaginable reason to play it – is to remind yourself how bad and absurd games could get. [Issue#252, p.70]

It’s not enough to simply be familiar with the original Deadly Premonition to really get the sequel, you need to be “in” on many things that Swery is into, like music, games and movies. [Issue#247, p.60]

Syndrome wants to be like System Shock, Alien: Isolation and Dead Space at the same time, but these pieces don’t come together to form a pretty picture; instead, they produce a monster not unlike zombies that shamble along Syndrome’s corridors. [Issue#214, p.58]

Only the nostalgic levels really work, but if you want another run across cult classic Green Hill Zone, you can always launch Sonic Mania that came out back in August. [Issue#226, p.59]

If the original game was kind of low-budget and low-grade carbon copy of Call of Duty, then The Revolution – the bricolage of the same quality inspired by Far Cry in its worst forms. [Issue#210, p.72]