There is no detail too small to pay attention to, and it’s these little details that help your team succeed – for a management game that’s probably the highest possible praise. [Issue#215, p.56]

You can’t just walk away from a hard fight to grind a little and bruteforce your way to victory, because Masquerada is totally linear. It’s for the best, however: Witching Hour Studios is a small team that had to secure funding through Kickstarter, so adding stuff like open world would definitely become an example of spreading resources too thin. But developers didn’t go that way, and as a linear game Masquerada truly shines, as it manages to successfully blend aesthetics of Italian feuds with a touch of fantasy. [Issue#215, p.73]

A contradictory, heart-wrenching, sometimes even harsh, yet still stunning story about friendship, duty and honor, about deceptive freedom of choice in your actions, and true freedom in choice of your morals – which is both a blessing and an ordeal. [Issue#215, p.64]

For the first few hours KF2 really holds your attention with dynamic gameplay and constant gore-fest. But soon it turns stale, as there’s only one mode (plus a variation of it in which other players can join as monsters), there’s only so many types of enemies, plus, maps don’t offer sufficient variety. So every battle basically follows the same scenario. If Killing Floor 2 was a cheap indie game, it would’ve been forgivable, but at $30 price point players really have a right to expect more. [Issue#215, p.54]

Sometimes, water turns a weird shade of pink, or disappears entirely, leaving fish to “fly” through the air (you can still catch them, by the way). Characters can get stuck. AI may glitch out, causing enemies to just stand around, waiting to be killed. Not to mention the camera, which may take a sudden liking to hero’s back and show nothing but it in the middle of the combat. But even with all these technical problems, there’s no doubt that Final Fantasy XV is a success. [Issue#215, p.48]

Dead Rising 4 does not do enough to deserve a new number in the title; it feels more like an add-on to DR3 than anything else. And what it does change, it changes for worse: DR3 had had very gratifying “zombie genocide” gameplay, but now the undead are so weak, our West didn’t die a single time over the whole playthrough. [Issue#215, p.58]

Money’s always in short supply in Beholder: Karl has to pay for repairs, buy food and medicine, give his kids some pocket money. To stay in the black, Karl can report activities of his tenants to authorities, steal from them or blackmail them. Each decision impacts lives of those around him, and even well-intended actions may lead to unfortunate consequences. [Issue#215, p.57]

It’s obvious how much progress Ubisoft has made in terms of quality of side activities: in Watch Dogs 2 they have their own cutscenes, dialogue and interesting set-ups. Even something as benign as taxi missions isn’t limited to moving someone from point A to point B: for example, you may get a fare who writes a blog about extreme lifestyle, so she’ll want you to make some risky jumps in your car. [Issue#214, p.36]

First two hours of campaign are surprisingly boring, since beautiful Typhon nature quickly gets replaced with dull industrial zones. But when it looks like Respawn has once again screwed up singleplayer, Titanfall 2 suddenly picks up the pace and starts delivering one interesting setpiece after another. [Issue#214, p.48]

What’s the point of building socialism in a lifeless world? [Issue#214, p.47]

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]

Bullets simply don’t cause enough damage for shooting to feel fun: you can unload an entire magazine into some random mob point-blank, and there’s no guarantee it’ll do as much as make it flinch. After a while you realize that you’re not even watching the action anymore, your gaze is fixated solely on enemy healthbar at the top of the screen. On the other hand, bows, shotguns and grenade launchers do pack satisfying bang – they’re not much better in terms of DPS, but fire slowly enough for each shot to deal respectable damage to enemy ranks. [Issue#214, p.64]

What used to be a norm in the 90-s doesn’t always become good material for retro; sometimes it just gets old and stale. Unfortunately, that’s the case with River City. [Issue#214, p.59]

Hardcore fans of action games or tactical RPGs will probably grow bored with Color Splash pretty soon, since it’s mostly about running around and enjoying jokes. But what it lacks in terms of engaging combat, Mario more than makes up in level of detail. [Issue#214, p.62]

Forza developers have formulated a recipe for driving game that’s sure to receive high scores, and now they’re exploiting it for all it’s worth. Those who played 2014’s Forza Horizon 2 won’t find anything new here, even though some areas could really use some improvements. [Issue#214, p.44]

It’s interesting to see how your playstyle affects personality of your character. Low-chaos Emily remains optimistic and somewhat naive; so an alchemical laboratory makes her remember her childhood and lessons she received. The same laboratory, however, would stir some very different feelings in high-chaos Emily – namely, she’ll start musing about pouring acid down Delilah’s throat. [Issue#214, p.40]

Districts are surprisingly autonomous: temples generate faith without believers and campuses don’t require scientists to produce science. Sure, you can take some people off fields and put them to work in factories – but each “pop” will give you only +2 production, while the same pop working a forest hex brings back 3 production and some food to boot. [Issue#214, p.76]

To be able to walk around your own starship, to enter your quarters and study SDF command structure, to choose your new mission yourself – all these possibilities feel so fresh for Call of Duty. [Issue#214, p.68]

Smoke-filled skies, destroyed buildings, ever-present dirt, trenches and heavily armored beasts, clouds of poisonous gas and panicked feeling that you’re being shot at from every direction and there’s not a square inch of ground that’s truly safe. The setting feels not just grim – more like apocalyptic. [Issue#214, p.52]

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]

Looks like Konami managed to create perfect gameplay for virtual football: it has the right tempo, the right AI, and even goalkeepers are great – in terms of realism of the matches PES 2017 came close to perfection. Unfortunately, everything else is just sad. For example, licenses – they were never Konami’s strong suit, but this time there are only three real teams in Bundesliga, and even Juventus was turned into some weird PM Black White. [Issue#213, p.49]

Despite change of scenery, at its core Spirit of Justice is the same as its predecessors. Phoenix Wright has to gather evidence, find contradictions and shout “Objection!” at every opportunity – only to watch case grow more and more complicated as each additional fact is brought to light. [Issue#213, p.60]

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

Mission objectives are rarely limited to simple elimination of opposition: from the very beginning game presents tasks like luring animals into cages or infiltrating enemy base. Not to mention that there are tons of levers or buttons to be pushed and secret passages to be found, which brings back fond memories of FPS from the 90-s, as well as classic Metroid games. [Issue#213, p.56]

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]

Most obvious are the efforts of artists and designers: Sera after two decades of peace looks much more vibrant, and every location – even local mines – is instantly recognizable. Gameplay, on the other hand, hasn’t changed in its core – but it’s much more polished now (which is especially noticeable if you compare it to recent remake of first Gears of War). [Issue#213, p.50]

Because of the story mode, sometimes it feels like FIFA 17 is not a football sim, but a football-themed RPG: there’s family drama, conflict with a friend, press conferences, building rapport with teammates, and many other things. And it’s the story mode that kept us playing FIFA, even though Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 is arguably better at simulating football match itself. [Issue#213, p.46]

Unfortunately, Dragon Quest VII has so many shortcomings it can’t be saved neither by its good story, nor by its charming characters, nor by the fact that its graphics are good by 3DS standards. A game that was originally released in Japan back in 2000 needs a whole lot of work to look adequate on modern market – and Square Enix barely bothered to give it a fresh coat of paint. [Issue#213, p.54]