Everything about Agents of Mayhem screams underdeveloped and underfinanced. Nevertheless, blunt humor and straightforward action work well enough to qualify as a guilty pleasure, just like that junk food you like: you know it’s unrefined and unhealthy, but you just can’t help it. [Issue#223, p.64]

Search for clues in the downtrodden districts of the future turns out to be far more captivating than diving into someone’s memories – which is supposed to be Observer’s main course. In the previous game by same studio, Layers of Fear, developers managed to evoke anxiety before the unknown, but here, all their efforts fall flat. Playing this game is just like fiddling with a jammed mechanism: you keep thinking that if you go just a bit further, something will click and the gears will start to turn – but in Observer’s case, that never comes to be. [Issue#223, p.62]

Developers took their favorite episodes from the first five Sonics, took them apart and made a remix with some special additions: several new elements came from Sonic games that were never released, others – from cut content, and some were made from scratch. So they ended up with a game that’s bursting with secrets and gameplay mechanics. [Issue#223, p.61]

Boring sandbox mode is partly compensated by the campaign: in each mission developers came up with new ways to complicate the life of the colonists, while at the same time unraveling a story about the imminent end of the world and the search for alien artifacts. [Issue#223, p.60]

Alongside old-school features that strategy aficionados were looking forward to, Sudden Strike reanimates some technical atavisms best left forgotten, with interface being the biggest offender. [Issue#223, p.52]

Revolution has little to do with Valkyria Chronicles, as it is not a turn-based strategy, but an action-RPG, so closest point of reference would be Final Fantasy XV. Compared to it, some things in Revolution are better – like being able to control any of the four characters, – and some are way worse, like overly-simplistic gameplay and graphics that make Dynasty Warriors series come to mind. [Issue#222, p.58]

It’s basically a quiz game, so it’s as suitable for a long-time gamer as it is for someone who just happened to drop by: all that it asks of player is to answer questions, take selfies and paint something from time to time. But its main advantage over its direct competitor, Nintendo’s party-game 1-2-Switch, is longevity – there are lots and lots of questions in That’s You! Also, it can be played by any number of people, and the more participants there are, the more fun it is. [Issue#222, p.69]

PvP in Splatoon 2 is so good that Nintendo wouldn’t be Nintendo if they didn’t try to squander it: three of four game types are only available on schedule (isn’t that why we play games – to follow some arbitrary schedules someone in Nintendo HQ came up with?). Well, at least Turf War is always unlocked – and it’s the best one of them anyway. [Issue#222, p.66]

Serial Cleaner has enough tricks up its sleeve to keep you engaged for about two thirds of the way – which is about two and a half hours in gameplay time. Afterwards, it becomes simply tedious: difficulty keeps rising while problems and solutions stay the same. [Issue#222, p.74]

Despite its visual similarities with Wargame series, Steel Division Normandy 44 is nothing like it gameplay-wise. “If a bunch of tanks couldn’t take care of a problem, just send more next time” way of thinking doesn’t work here: two infantry platoons, a reconnaissance unit and a properly placed AT gun can lay waste to a whole battalion. And if you throw some machineguns and a mortar into that mix, enemy’d be hard-pressed to crack this nut without some serious artillery support. [Issue#222, p.52]

No matter what Vasily uses – an ax, a hammer or even bare fists – he does it with that special oomph. Fights are brief and often end with a bone-crunching fatality; and if there is something like a stake or a saw table nearby, the enemy will meet an especially gruesome death. Firearms are also impressive: even a pistol is a weapon to be reckoned with, while shotgun’s effect is outright terrifying. [Issue#222, p.64]

One of the major Pyre’s features is that you can’t die. Sure, a fight to the death is nothing if not stimulating, but death is still a release – and no one escapes Downside that easily. Actually, inability to die is akin to a curse, because, although you can’t die – you still can lose. And you will have to find strength to keep going despite that loss, despite having let down your teammates and friends. [Issue#222, p.56]

Amazingly, endless stream of conversations that has become a staple of Telltale’s products is interspersed with some real gameplay in Season 2. In the very prologue we’re asked to create a lawn decoration, which we do not by mashing Q or choosing an option from a given list, but by placing actual blocks one on top of the other. There’s also non-QTE combat and even an actual puzzle! Too bad that it all goes down the drain due to lackluster story. [Issue #222, p.62]

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]

Why would a celt undertake a journey to Helheim, which has nothing to do with Celtic mythology? How come a historically correct pict from Orkney islands manages to find a mythological place in the first place? And why there are so many voices in her head? The premise of Hellblade raises a lot of questions, and the game answers most of them in due time. [Issue #222, p.70]

The biggest reason to finish the game is its multi-layered and complex story that’s prone to turning everything you know upside down at the drop of a hat. From medical drama to corporate intrigues to family problems – Get Even delivers what’s expected from a psychological thriller. [Issue #222, p.60]

At the first glance, ARMS is unimpressive: its basic roster is only 10 fighters big, and there are no convoluted combinations of buttons to activate special attacks. But that’s just how Nintendo does things – its games are always easy to pick up. So you can flail away at your leisure against AI-controlled opponents, but once you start playing with other people, you quickly realize that you need to work on your technique. [Issue #222, p.68]

What did Argo inherit from Arma 3? Well, imagine you’re a taxidermist who has a dead wolf. You take its pelt, get rid of everything else... and then throw away most of the pelt as well, only to stitch together a makeshift hamster from the rest. That’s what Argo is – tiny awkward shooter with three game types for 5v5 gameplay. [Issue #222, p.63]

Leisurely exploration of the estate is interspersed with stories about the last days of different Finch family members – and these moments show that developers didn’t just proclaim their love for H.P. Lovecraft, Neil Gaiman and other masters of magical realism, they really know that stuff. Giant Sparrow draws you into the little girl’s dreamworld just as easily as it paints a picture of kingly ambitions of a factory worker. [Issue#221, p.81]

Third season ended just like it began: with no spark or an underlying idea. Stuff just happened. Here are the events, here are your decisions; as for conclusions – draw your own, because script writers have already moved on to Minecraft Story Mode – Season 2. [Issue#221, p.84]

No two ways about it – Tekken 7 is a success. Sure, it would be better if the campaign was longer, if it still had Fight Lab training mode and every single character that ever appeared in the series was playable; but still – base roster of 36 fighters, great performance and flawless combat mechanics make Tekken 7 more than worthy to be called an editor’s choice game. [Issue#221, p.70]

New approach to Sengoku period, intense focus on a single popular clan and interesting battles – Spirit of Sanada is definitely worth a look, although it has the same problem as the rest of the series: from certain angles character models may look alright, but everything else is just plainly dated. [Issue#221, p.86]

Beneath simplistic puzzles there is a story so heart-touching it’s hard not to get misty-eyed. [Issue#221, p.77]

It’s not the worst thing that could’ve happened to the film: Big Games didn’t try to remaster, remake or reimage the cult classic. In fact, the game and the film have nothing in common except for names, general setting and mismatched quotes that were used to make new dialogue – and no one gets upset when, say, a new pinball machine themed after their favorite franchise comes out. [Issue#221, p.85]

Music and sounds of the Maw make an already atmospheric game even better. The cry of surprise and righteous indignation that Chef Twins let out once they find Six prowling around their kitchen will surely come to haunt you in your dreams. [Issue#221, p.93]

There’s no cooking, castle-building, marriages and other stuff that nowadays became synonymous with Fire Emblem series, but that oldschool brevity is actually a plus. Personal dramas and love story don’t take the narrative spotlight at every opportunity, cutscenes rarely last more than two minutes, and you don’t spend more time preparing for a combat than actually fighting. In a world of epic RPGs with laundry list of features, it’s nice to have a niche game with a narrow focus. [Issue#221, p.82]

Once you get the upgrades rolling and start getting farther with each new attempt, boredom gradually sets it as you realize: story-centric spacesims are better. They have a clear endgoal and missions that give a sense of accomplishment. Sure, Everspace does have a (barebones) story, sometimes you even get a sidemission, but its main motivation – get to the last sector just because – does not motivate enough. [Issue#221, p.88]

Every race has its own narrative, but it doesn’t work like it did in Endless Legends: tasks feel disjointed and random, and there’s no victory by completing the storyline. Procedurally generated quests are even more arbitrary, and Academy storyline can’t quench thirst for good storytelling on its own. [Issue#221, p.90]