Tembo takes some notes from Metal Slug, but his closest relative is Sonic. While it’s not strictly necessary to keep your speed at maximum, it’s highly recommended to do so: our elephant may be a badass, but he goes down after a few hits, so speed in his case equals survivability. [Sept 2015, p.82]

First mission greets us with cheesy music, cheap special effects and blocky spaceships from an age long past. Time to file for a refund? Not just yet: despite poor presentation, Star Hammer is a very nice strategy. [Sept 2015, p.78]

Every aspect of the game could stand to be improved a little: economic system is superfluous, leveling is hard at the beginning and much easier towards the end, and it’s always weird to take a castle with just a bunch of soldiers. But the atmosphere trumps everything. After all, it’s been a long time since anyone tried to make an RPG in at least quasi-historical setting. [Sept 2015, p.66]

AKtR avoids usual crutches of episodic adventures: it doesn’t drop endless QTEs on player nor does it pretend you’re making a difficult moral choice every step of the way. Instead, developers fell back to trusty inventory puzzles. [Sept 2015, p.73]

Hatred isn’t half as provocative as moralists claim: it doesn’t emphasize the act of aggression; it cares only about the number of victims. Executions are carried out with about as much emotion as stomping on a Goomba in Mario game. [Sept 2015, p.71]

Engine upgrade gave F1 two things to brag about: prettier visuals and new physics that make driving more challenging and fun. But game pays for that upgrade with poor optimization and all too straightforward AI. [Sept 2015, p.75]

Cradle’s small, but rather open game world includes only our yurt, a spooky abandoned amusement park, an air tram line and endless Mongolian steppe. You’d think it would make a perfect stage for a very personal story, but developers decided otherwise: through newspaper clips, letters and dialogue they chronicle a global epidemic. [Sept 2015, p.85]

Somehow, monotone side activities are a perfect match for the game’s atmosphere of bad dream you just can’t wake up from. Disarm a bomb, secure an outpost, disable a watchtower; disarm a bomb, secure an outpost, disable a watchtower; repeat ad nauseam. After 100% completion you’ll feel as tired as Batman himself. [Sept 2015, p.68]

The fable where innocence is punished, purity of heart is tested, and good guys strive for victory by all means. [Sept 2015, p.79]

Invisible, Inc. is a “flash fiction” of a game. It has great idea, but it’s just too small to become a timeless piece. [Issue#199, p.84]

Brief dialogue, complex, but underexplained plot, practical minimalism in combat and no attempts to toy with 3D – two dimensions is more than enough to navigate ventilation shafts, evade hazards like toxic gas, stealthily take down a guard or break your legs in a miscalculated jump. [Issue#199, p.82]

Endless Legend showed that even basic concepts may be reinvented. I’m not saying Stardock should plagiarize them, but it’s a proof that it can be done. Still, is such reinvention necessary for Stardock? Nope. They have a steady fan base, so GC III’s success was guaranteed. Furthermore, despite how inconsequential the changes are, it’s not exactly a bad game. But it doesn’t reach for the new stars. [Issue#199, p.80]

Carmageddon: Reincarnation is just like a once-beloved pet that came back from the cemetery: it’s kind of familiar, but it stinks, looks bad and falls apart, so playing with it isn’t as fun as it once was. [Issue#199, p.79]

From suborbital flights to satellites to ISS to colonization of Mun and interplanetary travel – creative potential in KSP is basically limitless. [Issue#199, p.76]

A fine procedurally-generated variation on Sid Meier’s Pirates! [Issue#199, p.74]

Surprisingly, not every racing game is about races. Some of them are mostly about cars, or driving with friends, or exploring a nice open world. But Project CARS is, first and foremost, about races and driving. [Issue#199, p.72]

Operations on the surface communicate the idea of “spreading evil” nicely and provide good change of pace from traditional underground war. Not a blockbuster yet, but quite entertaining nevertheless. [Issue#199, p.70]

A very unique MOBA where you can lose most of teamfights, lag behind in terms of levels, and still win the match thanks to map mechanics and NPCs. That’s why HotS isn’t a “simplified Dota 2” – it requires strategic thinking and ability to prioritize tasks properly. [Issue#199, p.68]

Looks like Crazy Monkey Studios sacrificed quantity for quality: Guns, Gore & Cannoli lasts only four hours and doesn’t have alternative modes (besides coop in the same campaign), but the time you’ll spend with it will be a blast. [June 2015, p.85]

For some reason, we believe that if Tim Schafer will launch another Kickstarter project, he’ll describe is as “from creators of Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango”, while Broken Age (if it’ll even get mentioned) will be placed somewhere at the end of the list. And it has nothing to do with chronological order. [June 2015, p.82]

To boil it down to the very basics: Chronicles is a platformer, a reincarnation of old Prince of Persia. There are no famous landmark, no intricate story involving multitude of historical personages. Even the weapons selection is very barebone. [June 2015, p.80]

Developers tried really hard to make sure that battles don’t always go the same way: there are mercs, global strikes, camouflage and sandstorms, not to mention “rocks-paper-scissors” balance and surprisingly competent AI. Of course, Etherium is not David that can bring down Blizzard’s Goliath, but it’s great to see that RTS is no longer a forgotten genre. [June 2015, p.79]

First episode of Chapters turned out to be a huge prologue, aiming to introduce new players to setting and characters, while story stood almost still. There was a hope that Book Two will change pace, and it partially came to be: there are some surprising developments, but Dreamfall still fails to truly engage players. [June 2015, p.78]

As it was with the first game, the future of StarDrive 2 depends on a single man – its main developer known as Zero. If he’ll give the game enough polish, it may become sparklingly brilliant. But the rough-cut diamond we have today deserves 73, and not a point more. [June 2015, p.74]

Russian proverb states that stability is a sign of mastery, but sometimes stability is only a sign of stability. Take Milestone for example: year after year they make games that always get very mediocre ratings. They’re stable to the point that most of their shortcomings can be copy-pasted straight from previous reviews. [June 2015, p.73]

Soulless homunculus, poorly crafted Frankenstein’s monster. [June 2015, p.72]

From the very beginning Subterranean Games was in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. They couldn’t copy Dungeon Keeper without invoking wrath of EA and they couldn’t innovate without angering their backers. But their turn to RTS with distinct multiplayer inclination will hardly please anyone. [June 2015, p.70]

It’s still the same fun and crazy fighting that demands from the player exactly as much as he wants to give. You can gather your friends and simply mash buttons to enjoy bloody spectacle, or you can spend hours perfecting your techniques to compete with professional players. No matter how you choose to play it, MKX will find something to offer. [June 2015, p.64]