Making a good open-world is a difficult task even for an experienced studio, so what chances did Platinum Games (that has pretty much no experience in this area) have? Better question yet – where was the quality control of Square Enix, that should’ve either postponed the release to let the studio develop their sandbox mechanics further, or told them to cut it altogether? It’s especially sad since at its core Automata is a great action game that easily could’ve been turned into an unforgettable six-hour experience. [Issue#218, p.46]

Original Mass Effect trilogy rests on three pillars: great protagonist, believable universe and dramatic story. For Andromeda, Bioware felled all three of them, raising two new ones in their stead: exploration and combat system. The resulting game is quite engaging – but not enough to overcome the nostalgia for Shepard. [Issue#218, p.40]

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]

Once you stop obsessively “clearing out” a province before moving to the next one, and instead start going after the nearest mission available, Wildlands suddenly becomes very diverse game: one minute you’re burning cocaine, next you’re chasing a convoy, and once you’re done, soon you might find yourself blowing up smuggler submarines. That’s why we weren’t bothered by absence of races, fishing and all other mini-games usually employed by open-world designers to break up the monotony. [Issue#218, p.60]

Despite its certain “been there, done that”, Faeria is quite captivating, especially when your opponent pulls a trick out of the left field, like stealing your cards. So if you grew tired of Hearthstone and you can’t get into Gwent’s closed beta, Faeria might be just the thing for you. [Issue#218, p.67]

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]

“As is always has been” is a major problem for the series. Just to list a few issues that it lovingly keeps since PS2 era: unwieldy save system, clumsy camera, a separate loading screen for every shop and venue even though the “open world” is so small they could’ve been easily integrated into it, and, of course, abrupt transitions from lovingly rendered cutscenes to plain text dumps. Still, it you can stomach all that, Yakuza is worth a look due to its uniqueness. [Issue#217, p.78]

Sanctus Reach took a lot from tabletop rules, but not everything: for example, action points, square-based grid, abilities with long recharge time – all that has little to do with original Warhammer 40k. Although the game does get some things right: victory depends on control of key points, number of turns is limited, and RNG is just as capricious as dice: misses with point-blank shots and instant kills with lucky crits are par for the course here. [Issue#217, p.82]

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]

In Tales of Berseria you can find every single thing which caused “traditional” JRPG to fall out of favor: world is almost empty, balance is non-existent and instead of truly intricate story we have a cheap, unbelievable drama. Sure, most of these can be explained away as a JRPG tradition – but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get tired of them. [Issue #217, p.76]

Shin Megami Tensei is like Pokemon for a more mature audience. You’ll still be capturing monsters, breeding them and using them in fights – but characters will talk about life and death, freedom and obedience. Another important thing is that you’ll be able to draw your own conclusions and make your own choices with consequences, which are sometimes so severe that you’ll want to replay the entire chapter. [Issue#217, p.72]

Resident Evil 7 is the scariest game in the series since RE1. The change to first-person perspective plays no small role in this: if a nightmarish granny chokes the life out of some figure on your screen, it’s one thing; but when she does the same to you, when you can almost feel her spittle flying in your face – that’s on the whole other level of scary. Not to mention that realistically limited field of vision that allows monsters to creep up from behind or jump from around the corner. [Issue #217, p.56]

Years of experience in slasher-making helped Team Ninja create captivating, nuanced and difficult combat system, which is good enough by itself – but then they sweetened the deal further with Diablo-style equipment hunt. As a result, it’s really, really hard to put Nioh down. [Issue#217, p.62]

ICEY is as normal of a platformer as The Stanley Parable is a normal adventure game; and though it will take just a few hours to find all hidden endings, Easter eggs and achievements, the experience is more than worth it. [Issue#217, p.84]

Guerrilla Games made their first open world game playing straight every trope in the book. In her time off from story missions, Aloy-from-the-future will do the same stuff as Renaissance Ezio and Stone Age tribal from Far Cry Primal did: she’ll capture towers, liberate camps, look for collectibles, and, of course, hunt to craft bigger quivers and larger bags. [Issue#217, p.48]

Gravity Rush 2 missed its chance to enter major league thanks to its basic story and weak combat system. There’s no arguing it’s an incredibly beautiful “flying game” in an unusual world; you can fly around for hours just enjoying the sights. But all this time we’ve felt absolutely no desire to land and get another ridiculous quest. [Issue#217, p.74]

Poor matchmaking isn’t the sole reason to dock points off. For example, there’s no deeper layer than “go kill them all” to multiplayer matches, while Faction war is just too global to feel that your actions actually have an impact. Sure, For Honor is a good game still. But it could’ve been a great one. [Issue#217, p.52]

Double Dragon 4 is a perfect solution for people who want to relive every bad design feature of 20th century arcade games. Feel once again that surge of emotions when enemies hit you from offscreen, or when you die during a clunky but merciless platforming section. Not to mention the authentic earworm music. [Issue#217, p.85]

One of the cornerstones of War Thunder is that player’s skill is more important than his wallet. Premium vehicles offer no combat advantages, there is no “microtransaction-only” ammo or consumables, so no amount of cash will buy you a spot on the top of the food chain. [Issue#216, p.56]

Where the season will end up is a question that even developers have no answer for. Media that was shown at E3 has no relation to released product; Clem’s voice actress mentioned that this episode’s story kept being rewritten on the fly, and work on the next one hasn’t even began. What’s even worse is that this special magic which made people fall in love with first season is nowhere to be found in A New Frontier: Telltale no longer delivers unique experiences; every new project seems to be made from the same mold. [Issue#216, p.54]

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]

There are so many shortcomings in Steep’s design and gameplay, you can’t help but think it’s still a project, not a full game. The ideas are there, they’re good, they could have been developed into something groundbreaking; problem is – they weren’t. [Issue#216, p.44]

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]

There are multiple ways to complete each mission, and to spur player’s imagination, developers offer additional challenges – for example, a playthrough with no firearms, or a pacifist one. So, even though Blades of the Shogun only has a dozen missions, it will keep you entertained for a long time. [Issue#216, p.40]

As classic JRPGs slowly die off, usually insular Pokemon brand offers unexpected hospitality. Moon/Sun is about as difficult as its predecessors, but it doesn’t drop newcomers straight into deep water; instead, it helps players get their bearings and offers a story to follow while they grow accustomed to the world. And once you develop an interest in Pokemon, it’s simply impossible to put down. [Issue#216, p.50]

Bloodsplatters, exploding mushrooms, dark humor and being able to bring katana to a shotgun fight – all that helps Let it Die get noticed. Unfortunately, substance doesn’t live up to style, as gameplay turns out to be rather shallow and considerably limited by its free-to-play model to boot. [Issue#216, p.48]

“Yesterday” already showed in broad strokes how John has gained his immortality. Evidently, Pendulo decided that it wasn’t enough; so Origins explains in painstaking detail how exactly that happened. Fans of Spanish studio will probably enjoy it, but everyone else really should ask themselves if they want to make that close of an acquaintance with John Yesterday. [Issue#215, p.72]

Previous words and actions, reputation with various groups and key people, even party composition – everything matters in the narrative, so dialogues in Tyranny are a real treat. On the other hand, gameplay elements like combat are still “ok” at best, despite considerable improvements since Pillars of Eternity. [Issue#215, p.68]