As heroine dives deeper, she keeps seeing new undersea wonders. Too bad that many paths are blocked off by various hazards – but for every hazard there is a mean to bypass it, and crab will happily sell Marin necessary upgrades for coins she finds. It’s worth mentioning that there is no predetermined order to this – you can choose which new abilities you want right away, and which can wait their turn. [Issue#212, p.62]

Poor visibility, unremarkable environments and lack of map end up causing a state of perpetual disorientation, so you stumble upon the door to next section purely by chance. And if you stumble upon the monster instead – well, just sprint to the nearest vent, since it’s not scripted to get you out of there. On the other hand, you can’t even throw a piece of junk to attract its attention elsewhere, so you end up sitting there, doing nothing, until it finally gets bored and shambles away. Yes, it’s that bad. [Issue#212, p.60]

There’s only one person around, and he’s more interested in making requests than talking, so you’ll have to get your bearings on your own. Push a button, pull a lever, walk and observe, try this and that – to open a door to a new world, you may need to build a bridge in one dimension, use a laser in another and strike a tambourine in the third. [Issue#212, p.63]

No Man’s Sky is a textbook example of how overenthusiastic PR can hurt a game: in the end, bar was raised so high that fans expecting things that weren’t even promised. To meet such demands, NMS had to be a breakthrough space game with revolutionary procedural generation system and unbelievably advanced AI. Since Hello Games couldn’t conceivably deliver, they should’ve used pre-launch interviews to state, time and again, that it’s just an indie space exploration game with a very routine gameplay loop. [Issue#212, p.50]

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]

It’s obvious that TallTech studio looked at first two Fallouts for inspiration, but all they’ve managed to copy is poor visuals. Character progression is poorly designed and story is linear: whether you want it or not, your character will gain companions, surrender and lose the entire inventory precisely when scriptwriter wills him to. [Issue#212, p.52]

HeadLander is unfortunately uneven: at first, you’re thrust into a parody of the seventies, where robotized populace dances disco and enjoys weird art. But once you get used to the atmosphere, game forces protagonist to investigate some elevator shafts for an hour. Then game picks up the ball and becomes more dynamic and interesting, only to drop it again soon after – and that process repeats itself until the very end. [Issue#212, p.61]

Although each fight has multiple stages, they’re pretty much the same for each enemy: ranged combat, melee clash, bullet hell – and even their order mostly remains the same. For a game that revolves exclusively around boss fights, that’s quite a shortcoming. [Issue#212, p.55]

Last year’s F1 felt like a stepping stone: new version of engine and updated physics came at a huge cost – many important features, including career mode, weren’t up to par. This time Codemasters presents Formula One properly. [Issue#212, p.49]

Champions of Anteria plays almost like Dungeon Siege successor: multiple heroes, real-time pauseable tactical combat, RPG elements that dictate flow of fights. The only thing that’s missing is pack donkey, but there’s no need for it – instead of bags full of loot, champions are rewarded with additional lands that will be settled in Anno manner. [Issue#212, p.56]

Are we going to choose which of two Batman’s signature villains will be saved from predestination? That’s one thing that can keep viewers interested in Telltale’s latest product. And it’s really “viewers” instead of “players” – QTE, that little remnant of interactivity, has almost no bearing of the events. [Issue#212, p.45]

If you grade Master of Orion on its own, not as a part of renowned series – it’s surprisingly alright. For a debut game, such amount of polish and depth could even be qualified as an all-around success. But publisher definitely shouldn’t have touted it as the return of a beloved franchise. [Issue#212, p.46]

Characters have little idea about what’s going on; they may even end up looking for people they’ve killed themselves. The fact that narration is split into episodes that can be played in almost any order adds absurdity to the events. But eventually puzzle comes together and meaning of each scene becomes clear. [Issue#211, p.57]

Every level is very small, and no matter where you decide to hole up, it will be easy for enemies to flank you. It’s not bad by itself, but such design makes cover system – which was to become one of Umbrella Corps’ trump cards – redundant. So it comes as no surprise that combat quickly devolves into chasing after one another with one-hit-kill ax in hand. Of course, it’s hard to talk about tactics or teamplay in this lumberjack’s paradise. [Issue#211, p.56]

If this game had nothing but driving, it would’ve been fine. But for some reason Redlynx decided to add on-foot levels that are exemplary bad: controls are wonky, character is likely to get stuck in the ground, and level design is bland at best. You literally have to endure playing through them – and they take as much as a third of the game. [Issue#211, p.60]

Story and setting were made with absolutely no pandering for western tastes. Not everyone will find such a dose of pure, undiluted anime to their liking, but RPG and fighting system make it worth a try. And for hardcore fans of Japanese culture Tokyo Mirage Sessions may very well become one of the best games this year. [Issue#211, p.66]

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]

Combat system is overly simplistic; the most difficult trick here is precise parrying with a follow-up counterattack. Other than that, it’s all about button-mashing – which would be fine for a half-hour arcade title, but not for a six-hour game. And it’s so painfully slow: although each bad guy is getting punched by eight green fists simultaneously, health bars barely tick down.

To uncover the truth, you’ll have to possess not only deductive skills, but a considerable patience as well: puzzles “pull a lever, push a button, try to figure out what happened” and chase sequences are unreasonably long. Even though you’d think that a game about Sherlock would have you play as Sherlock, not as Indiana Jones wannabe. [Issue#211, p.73]

One Day in London only creates an illusion that your choices matter, but it’s so well-written and charming that you can’t help but forgive this deception. [Issue#211, p.68]

It has its ups and downs. On one hand, there’s a lot to do and graphics are top-notch by 3DS standards; on the other – there’s basically no story and virtually no new ideas. It’s up to debate what outweighs what, but there’s no doubt that in its genre Monster Hunter has no real competition on 3DS. [Issue#211, p.61]

Hopefully, Inafune put kickstarter millions to good use, like buying a nice juicy steak for his dog or a fancy gold toilet for his new mansion. It’s hard to believe that even a quarter of backers money was actually spent on Mighty No. 9, since it looks like a bad game from 90-s, and plays even worse. It’s especially shameful since nowadays an indie team can make a good platformer in just a few months and only for a fraction of this sum. [Issue#211, p.63]

Although Inside’s aesthetics are great, its storytelling methods aren’t reprehensible. There’s no narration or dialogues; all information is conveyed through environment and gestures of characters, so unless you’re willing to go on wild interpretation sprees, Inside’s story won’t make any sense. But even if you do, it will still leave a lot of unanswered questions. [Issue#211, p.62]

Non-combat side of the game is not nearly as diverse. Our PCs don’t play cards, there’s no more than 10 side quests and not even a hint of romance in this cold air. Still, it’s hard to put I Am Setsuna away – not because the story or the combat are that good on their own, but because it really captures that old school JRPG atmosphere. [Issue#211, p.69]

The game has good economics system, interface shortcomings will probably get patched and DLCs will add stuff that’s missing right now (like spying mechanics or ability to play in early Cold War period). But that bloody mandatory AI assistance is obviously here to stay, so there’s only two options – either learn to accept it, or wait for a total conversion. [Issue#211, p.70]

Last chapter of a game shouldn’t be “just another adventure”, but a final that nicely ties up all loose threads. Unfortunately, Dreamfall Chapters’ ending leaves enough of those to knit a whole sweater for Christmas. [Issue#211, p.65]

You can’t escape the feeling that story-wise Mankind Divided is just one big filler. It’s well-made, it has great ambient atmosphere, the gameplay is fun – but its events do not alter the status quo of Deus Ex’s world. [Issue#211, p.50]

The Shadow of the Beast remake came out spectacular but dull platformer which would be better as a screensaver or a dynamic theme for the PS4. [Issue#210, p.91]