No matter how salacious things may get, Reflexions never loses sight of the sweetness at the game’s core – fundamentally, this is a game about a girl attempting to overcome her shyness and tell a boy how she feels about him. While I’ll be happy to get back to battling demons and ninjas when the next full entry in the series is released, I won’t say that this is a waste of the franchise or a disrespectful use of its main character – just the opposite, in fact.

Maybe it’s a slow burn and I need more time with it, but Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is so unrelenting in its first act, it left me hanging my head in defeat. It’s a title with a lot of potential, but ultimately, the punishing, repetitive foundation it sits on isn’t enough for me to support continued playthroughs.

Effie is a short, enjoyable 3D platformer that needs more polish on the combat. That said, it’s a kid-friendly alternative to pick up and enjoy for those who’ve already been through the others in the genre.

Cozy Grove‘s time-gated content slowed the pace of play too much for me. I love the art style and bringing color back to the island, but when each session’s content ends up being exhausted after 30 minutes or less, it was too easy to forget the whole thing and divert my attention elsewhere. I do look forward to learning more about the spirits, I just wish it wasn’t so slow!

As this is my first foray into videogame taxi driving apart from Crazy Taxi, I can only guess how it might stack up against others in the same vein. However, what I can say is that I suspect it will scratch the itch of most simulation gaming enthusiasts, and I found it worth the time and effort needed to build my taxi empire — just be prepared for something clearly on the simulation side of things, with no arcade-style action here.

Overall, I enjoyed the concept of Osman more than the execution. There’s a decent action title here, but the steep difficulty and lack of bells and whistles make it a tough sell.

Earthblood does just what it’s supposed to — the developers have done a great job of making a ‘play it your way’ action-RPG that lives up to the player’s werewolf-associated expectations. It lacks any extra spark to make it feel essential, though — sneaking and brutalizing my way through the levels was enjoyable enough, but I wasn’t at all interested in why I was doing it.

In the end, is the ho-hum gameplay worth trudging through just to enjoy the plot? For me it was not, and I’d have a hard time recommending this to anyone other than great fans of these creators’ other works.

Gamers with a special place in their hearts for beat-’em-ups may get several sessions’ worth of enjoyment out of it (and I’d still recommend it to folks who really enjoyed arcade beat-’em-ups back in the day) but Mother Russia Bleeds is not the shot in the arm the genre needed to remain relevant in 2016.

There’s a compulsive, checklist quality to the action in Thief Simulator 2. Once I developed a successful sequence, I found pleasure in its repetition – I dotted every “I” as I deftly picked locks on my way in, and then crossed every “T” as I shut and relocked those same doors on the way out. However, these moments were just base mechanics and never developed beyond that – planning is as simple as planting a camera, and a successful robbery is just a matter choosing the right the time of day. I have to imagine that being a real thief is more complicated than this, and I wished Thief Simulator 2 asked more from me.

Fat Chicken doesn't really succeed either as a reverse tower-defense game or as a political statement. By clinging too tightly to a standard in-level economy that doesn't play well with its twist on the genre, Fat Chicken ends up with play that's overly constrained.

I can’t praise Valkyria Revolution‘s story enough. It’s a clear-eyed meditation on the horrors of war – even, perhaps especially, justified war. If the developers had found a way to make the dreary, repetitive combat as worthwhile as the story that frames it, this would have been an incredible game.

While it seems like Omega Force should have this formula locked down tight, the truth is that Samurai Warriors 4: Empires doesn't quite gel.

Lynked: Banner of the Spark feels like a game that wants to combine several elements into one dynamic package, but the attempts at high-speed action trip themselves up before they can even get started, and the lifestyle sim sections are sleep inducing.

Lacks the cohesion, pacing, and spirit the others possess. All else being equal, those missing qualities put Jak II squarely at the rear of the pack.

Greak: Memories of Azur is an action-platformer weighed down by a complicated multi-character concept that doesn’t feel fully developed, and it’s tough to recommend such an experience when there are so many superior offerings in the same genre. Fixing its issues and ensuring that its main claim to fame works more effectively would do wonders for it, and I’m hoping we’ll see an improved version in future.

Three Kingdom: The Journey has the makings of a great roguelike deckbuilder, but a number of issues like the harsh difficulty of surprise bosses and minor technical hiccups prevent it from reaching its full potential. However, despite this, the tactical and random nature of play meant that I discovered something new each time. The theme of Three Kingdom makes it stand out by forgoing fantasy tropes for a more grounded military-style affair, and there’s a good journey waiting to happen here… players just might have to power through a few issues to get to it.

Manages to be engaging thanks to its rich storyline, and the typically luxurious cutscenes provided by Square Enix. I found it challenging enough for my level of twitch skills (or lack thereof) in the genre.

The game is easily short enough to finish in an afternoon even if you're doing other things at the same time. Its finale feels even more abrupt than it is, because there's no crescendo of difficulty or complexity, no "boss" puzzle. With little warning, Unmechanical simply ends, and without a strong story or memorable puzzles to hang its hat on, it fails to leave a mark, despite its lovely visuals.

The combat is brainlessly entertaining, but this sort of content only occupies someone for so long, and with no other improvements or expansions to the core play, I can't in good conscience praise this game. That said, I did find it interesting enough to want to find out more about the IP, and I strongly suspect those who are already fans will happily climb aboard this particular pirate ship.

Its stealth is too repetitive, its gunfights too familiar, and its driving too boring to support anything else that’s going on. Despite how clever it manages to be in portraying the conquest and control of a criminal enterprise, the nuts-and-bolts missions feel like busywork, and it never fully explores the most interesting aspects of its setting. It’s better than Mafia II, but that’s damning it with faint praise.

Given the length of the game—around 12 hours or so at Normal difficulty—Brütal Legend gets more tiresome the further in you go. Stage Battles (the official name for the RTS sections) kill the pace, and the side missions are repetitive and boring. Somehow, all these negatives don't counterbalance an amazing artistic style. R

Assault Android Cactus is good, but it used to be great.

Patient racing fans will find things to enjoy, but everyone else should weigh both the game's pros and cons before making a final decision on whether or not this one is worthy of a purchase.

As a new music game, Helix sounded like a fun concept and I wanted to enjoy it more than I did. I just had a hard time staying with it. Taken on its own terms, the game definitely provides a challenge and some sweat—for the gamer that gets into the spirit and avoids cheating with mini-waggles.

Unfortunately for those sticking to the main route, Rise is a repeat of the 2013 title with less character development and several years' worth of mounting standards.

At the moment, Skater XL feels more like a skateboarding and lifestyle simulator rather than a fully fleshed-out game. There’s plenty to try and the difficulty level will keep enthusiasts glued to their screens in hopes of nailing those elusive combos, but as a gaming experience, it comes up short.

I'm always eager to see developers carve new territory in interactive narrative, but I'm not convinced that Her Story's format of chopping up bits of exposition and hiding them behind a nonsensical search engine mechanic is a major step forward for the medium. There's enough solid standalone writing to prevent it from being a waste of time, but I ultimately value Her Story more for its audacity than its success.

As a triple-A holiday blockbuster from a renowned studio and a major publisher released after years of build-up, it doesn’t feel like a product that has justified this much anticipation. Furthermore, as yet another live-service title expecting players to sink who knows how many hours into its ecosystem, it completely fails to convince me that anybody will be playing in a year without a great deal of work needed to elevate it out of mediocrity.

Dungeon Lords provides solid, if glitchy, Action-RPG experience.

While I appreciated the stylish, neon-soaked city and the fantastic soundtrack, No Straight Roads switches between brawler, platformer, and rhythm concepts, but fails to deliver a memorable experience overall.

Ultimately, Biomorph is a serviceable addition to the metroidvania subgenre that I think most fans of the content will enjoy thanks to the appealing look of its graphics and the novelty of the main character’s ability to transform. It might not break much new ground, but a solid experience doesn’t necessarily have to.

Everything in Genesis Alpha One ultimately boils down to being over-ambitious. I appreciate the attempt and see something great beneath the surface somewhere, but in its current state it’s just too rough to recommend. With more assets, more things to do, and shortening the grind of finding resources and blueprints, it might be worth building a spaceship and breeding a clone army. For now, it looks like humanity’s mission to repopulate is a failure.

Ultimately, The Thing: Remastered is mostly successful in recapturing the essence of the film, but it just didn’t give me good reasons to care about the characters, nor did it offer gameplay that was engaging enough for me to want to spend more time in such a dreary world without Kurt Russell there to fire things up. Even after being remastered, The Thing may have been better off left in the ice.

Drop Duchy attempts to ease the hard feelings of a busted run with its progression-unlocking Challenges, but the proliferation of new features feels like it dilutes rather than strengthens subsequent runs. As a consequence, Drop Duchy falls too far into the frustrating regime of RNG-dominated games. There’s an interesting concept here, but Drop Duchy lacks the kind of snappy gameplay or compelling aesthetic that would sustain it through the unfairness of waiting in vain for that dang line piece that just won’t drop.

Without the distraction that lovable licensed characters provide, I was faced with the inescapable conclusion that Mercenaries 2 was a mediocre title, suitable only for those who fantasize about using attack helicopters to slay entire countries.

In the end, Desert Child is best played as an interactive tribute album to Cowboy Bebop, where its multitudinous soundscapes can carry the weight of expectations and leave an element of surprise to its various mechanical bits — the soundtrack really is that good. Even without that charitable framing, however, I can squint and see a more cohesive and expressive game hiding in this hard luck heap. Though Desert Child’s eclecticism may not hold up when it’s weighed against the conventional expectations of what makes for a Great Videogame, it’s certainly interesting. For players willing to brush off its rougher edges, that may make it even more worthwhile.

It gets halfway there with an elaborate backstory and interesting premise, but it gets too stuck in standard FPS design conventions to ever really distinguish itself as anything special.

This remolding of the classic action hero was a big departure from the traditional action the series was built on, and stood as a highly enjoyable, solid, and creative game worth getting into.

I never got a sense that I knew what A Hat in Time was about either as a story or as a game. Its various worlds don’t cohere, its plot doesn’t exist, and its systems never really play off each other in an interesting way. No single aspect of the experience is terrible, but the good bits never build to anything. Consequently, A Hat in Time is a cute, breezy little thing that rolls off the mind as soon as it’s completed.

For all its quaint charms, Tesla Effect is held back by all of the flaws that killed its genre in the first place.

Is it more difficult to play than it should be? Absolutely. Did the developers make it more annoying than the 20-year-old games which inspired it? Indeed. However, it still manages to be a charming experience for fans of this content because the care the developers put in is so patently obvious via fantastic locations, a solid story, and a final boss fight that doesn’t try the player’s patience. The developers clearly wanted to bring back retro survival horror in a way that people could enjoy, and while they don’t entirely succeed, it’s good more often than it isn’t — and that’s more than I can say about the glut of Resident Evil and Silent Hill clones out there.

Ultimately, I see a lot of unrealized potential here. Blending cozy gameplay with dark subject matter, Mirthwood offers an experience that is pleasantly familiar, yet distinct enough to stand out from other games of its ilk. That said, it’s not an experience that appeals to me in its current state. Once some changes are made to the combat mechanics and NPC dialogue, perhaps I’ll want to return to the Free Lands and finally see my crops bear fruit.

Although Prototype sports several great ideas and a main character that wows, imagination, inspiration, and a strong guiding hand were lacking in every other aspect of the game.

It’s a shame Hoa doesn’t try to do more with its fantastic art design, as its non-challenging puzzle/platforming mechanics have already been employed more successfully by contemporaries. It might be beautiful, but Skrollcat Studio’s title offers a quietly milquetoast experience that reaches its anticlimactic conclusion before it has time to blossom.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 basically accomplishes what it sets out to do, but doesn't move the series forward in any significant way, even feeling like a minor step back in certain aspects.

Choplifter HD certainly does its predecessor justice, faithfully recreating the original's highs and lows, and offering beautiful graphics to make up for the lack of original thinking. While there may not be much depth or replayability to Choplifter HD, it's certainly an entertaining diversion which serves as a testament to the solid gameplay mechanics of a title from thirty years ago. Maybe Choplifter was never a top-tier game, but it's certainly one that warranted a second look, and inXile gave it the update it deserved.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a good experience, and in parts it can be quite clever-I particularly enjoyed that the game made the existence of its multiple endings an explicit part of its plot. Unfortunately, the weak prose doesn't justify the time investment, and the puzzles don't hold up through the mandatory replays.

I find Alder’s Blood in a very strange position. The aesthetic, combat, and ideas drew me into the shadows of its world. However, the bugs, design issues and general lack of polish have killed my drive to continue playing. I might come back to it in the future once it’s been patched, but not until it’s had a lot more time to polish off its rough edges.

Chaos on Deponia has enough charm to salve the wounds of its worst design flaws (a delightful quest to hatch a team of platypus guardians is a great example) but there's no getting around its narrative problems.

Despite its limited ambitions, Citrouille manages to nail the basics, and that’s worth noting. The controls are tight, the systems all work together perfectly, and other than those damned salamanders, when players fail it feels like a lapse in skill rather than unfair design. It may be inessential, but it’s inessential in a winning way.

While Gato Roboto’s frustrations aren’t indicative of its overall quality, they stick with me because the rest of the experience is so by-the-numbers. It’s cute and generally fine, but in a genre this packed, it takes more to stand out than being functional and offering a few solid chuckles.

While I generally enjoyed my time with Xuan Yuan Sword 7, it’s hard to recommend. Those who can deal with the mediocre and sometimes unfair combat may be able to enjoy the world and story, and there is something to be said for games that can wrap things up in around 15 hours or so, but that’s still a significant amount of time to deal with issues that really need more polish.

Lushfoil Photography Sim has a lot of rough edges that need work, and it’s rather unfortunate, as many of the areas offer stunning views and photo titles in general are rare. There’s definitely a vision here, and I can’t deny that this photo safari has charm. However, for a title that only aims to do one thing right, that thing needs to be perfect — and it’s far from it.

In its current state, there’s some joy to be found in conquering a string of Flame Keeper’s levels with a perfect run, but there are just so many other, better roguelites available. Releasing an incomplete build in a market so heavily saturated with outstanding titles just isn’t a solid strategy.

The nicest thing I can say about this product is that Shadows of the Damned still kicks ass, and it’s an inherently good thing that people can play it on modern hardware thirteen years after its original release. This is a functional port that is certainly an improvement over the original iteration, but it’s also one of the more bare bones ports in recent memory, and calling it a “remaster” is a significant stretch in logic. Part of me is disappointed that more hasn’t been done to make this title shine, but the other part of me says Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is still a win merely because it exists.

The Oracle continues Cognition's pattern of uneven episodes. It cleverly uses Erica's powers to get around a major storytelling problem, and in that respect it's a great success. On the other hand, the tight quarters and indifferent puzzles make the game less interesting to play than its predecessors, while the dumb, unpleasant characters make it a less enjoyable story.

The Centennial Case is an engaging FMV murder mystery with a unique vibe, thrilling confrontations, and a main protagonist who I’ll treasure because of her sincerity and undying determination to find the truth. I also felt much for Eiji, whose reserved (yet goofy) presence got me to care about his aspirations. Unfortunately, the lackluster characterizations of side characters and a corrupted save file due to the game’s instability on mobile mean that I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it.

Ultimately, any gamer who loves Harry Potter is going to enjoy themselves immensely with this game. While older gamers might not find many reasons to give it more than a good weekend's worth of play, the younger ones will have hours and hours of spell-casting fun.

Unfortunately, Stitchy in Tooki Trouble might look enticing but my feeling is that it might be a great starter for kids, but will end up being to basic and simple for anyone with even minimal experience in the platformer genre.

There’s certainly an able amount of fanservice in Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity, but it simply wasn’t built to be much more than a knowing nod to a friendly audience, rather than a genuine ambassador for one of Japan’s most beloved gaming brands.

A smart puzzle-driven title, but one that might only appreciated by those with infinite patience and fingers fast enough to endure falling to their death for the 463rd time on the second ball of level 78.

I for one think console gamers can handle a real tactical sim, but I suppose that in this increasingly competitive industry, taking even the slightest risk has become passe.

Frustratingly, Ginga Force is more ambitious than it is good, dragging down its occasional moments of signature Qute brilliance with a glacially-paced story mode in service of a forgettable plot. With much more generous tuning of the progression rewards, this could potentially be an effective gateway title to welcome newer players to the genre. As it is, it’s weirdly perched between the old and new, with too much grind and too much noise to really land for anyone.

From its Lego-inspired visual style to its deceptive elegance, there's a certain undeniable charm-yet the actual play is disappointingly shallow, not to mention having one of the worst camera setups I've seen in quite a while.

The game's difficulty curve is totally thrown off balance. I can only assume the intent was to provide a greater challenge than player-friendly Armored Core 3, and not outright sadism.

Speaking frankly, there are certain levels of expectation associated with any given piece of hardware, and games which don't live up to that standard will inevitably suffer. Legasista is a solid title that knows what it wants to be and hits that target... It's just that the bullseye isn't hanging in the right place.

Given the Mega Man's recent treatment, I can't help but be a little disappointed to see another incomplete collection, this time omitting almost half the series. Three of the final four entries are more than worthy of being included in any kind of Mega Man archive, and we might as well throw the putrid Mega Man 8 in there. I realize that the NES era was the focus of this particular collection, but leaving out some of the series's best entries is a glaring mistake. I will always love the games gathered here, but I can't help but feel a little shortchanged.

I experienced everything it had to offer within an hour, and even that brief time could have been cut down if not for some of the more punishing jumping sections. Whipseey is cute, colorful and easy to get into, but it isn’t much more than that.

Maybe after the devs squash the bugs and make a few other changes I’ll want to come back and dig some more, but in its current state, Mole Maiden doesn’t feel like it’s quite ready to surface.

While I find it laudable that all of these options are available to players, I just wish they were attached to a better package. The story is too chaotic and comes with a payoff I didn’t find satisfying, and the combat is not spectacular enough to be noteworthy. Completionists can try to find every hidden nook and cranny, but the game isn’t compelling enough to warrant it. This is good work, but it’s lacking that certain something that would push it into ‘great’ territory.

Honestly, I love that Wave Break exists. It’s a delightful homage to what is arguably my favorite series of all time, complete with an interesting aesthetic and an enjoyable story as well — it’s just a shame that I spent most of my time fighting the physics, controls and camera instead of just enjoying it.

Lost Orbit can't make up its mind about what it wants to be, and the result is neither a touching tale of survival nor technically-compelling arcade-style action. It's not a bad piece of work and would certainly shine with better integration of its elements, but design confusion is its most notable characteristic, and that's not a good place for a game to be.

If you’re a die-hard city fan of city builders, and the idea of a new Cities: Skylines that’s 10 percent prettier and 5 percent more interesting has you salivating, you might wanna hop on this one right away. But for the rest of us, we can probably just keep chipping away at some other 2000-hour video gaming time sink. It’s not like this franchise is going away any time soon, after all.

After my time with Rise of the Slime, I was left feeling a bit confused. It’s too simple and the graphics don’t seem like they will appeal to fans of the genre, yet it’s too punishing and difficult for casual players or those unfamiliar with the deckbuilders. I’m not sure of who it’s trying to target, but my guess is that it’s a bit off the mark regardless.

Heaven Dust is an oddity — it’s a game that can’t simply be dismissed as a rip-off of Resident Evil because the developers have made no attempt to hide what they’re doing. This isn’t simply ‘inspired by’ RE, it’s a literal recreation of Capcom’s seminal work in everything but name and a couple of minor plot details. It’s clearly a labor of love from people with a deep fondness for the franchise. I’m not surehow it will land for people who have no nostalgia for the original, but as someone who’s spent untold hours inside Spencer Mansion, I found it to be a delightful bite-sized homage.

Tweet Share Share By Brad Bortone on December 16, 2022 in Reviews Prettier, Smoother, And Frustratingly Familiar HIGH The visuals finally feel worthy of new console horsepower… LOW …until the replays are seen up close. WTF SNES hockey strategy shouldn’t work in 2022. Last year I described NHL 22 as a “mildly underwhelming next-gen experience that still holds promise for the future.” Today, after nearly a month of play, I’m describing NHL 23 as a “visually appealing current-gen experience that needs to start delivering more on its promise.” Visually, it’s clear that EA Sports took past criticism to heart. While previous editions hinted at ramped-up eye candy, NHL 23 seems to make the most of current hardware, from player faces to subtle animations. For example, when taking a faceoff, real-time reflections of the overhead scoreboard are seen on the freshly-polished ice surface. As each period progresses, visible deterioration from skaters dulls the reflection until the next one starts. Details like this don’t affect gameplay, but they do allow for a sense of immersion, even from a distant overhead camera. Likewise, player faces and reactions are far more accurate and situationally appropriate, leaving lifeless expressions on last-gen consoles. The league’s current lighting and concert-like presentations are also well-implemented into each opening segment. It’s clear that EA wants NHL to be a visually arresting series in the next few years, and this year’s edition takes a big step forward by focusing on the nuances that make live hockey such an unforgettable experience. Overall, NHL 23 is a strong visual contender in the sports game arena — at least until replays, when the camera zooms in. Once up close, users will see cracks in the graphical armor, as smooth animations seen from above are revealed to be somewhat janky and stilted. It may not affect gameplay one iota, but it seems odd to see butter-smooth movements from one angle reduced to marionette performances, just from getting a slow-motion view of the action. Thankfully, the controls and gameplay speed are more realistic than ever thanks to improved physics, and an AI that demands more user accountability. Easier difficulties will still see goalies turn to swiss cheese on virtually every breakaway, but moderate-to-hard difficulties are fair, challenging, rewarding, and accurate. Disciplined hockey strategy will always beat button mashing in PvP matchups, which should appease many critics of this series, present company included. At the same time, the often-cumbersome control scheme has been made more accessible to newcomers and old souls alike. Admittedly, I’ve often reverted to the simplified NHL ’94 controls to enjoy the game at my own casual pace. For NHL 23, I never even considered it, as for the first time, using a simplified control made it feel as if I was missing out. The streamlined advanced control scheme still takes some work to master, but once it clicks with users, I don’t foresee many gamers regressing ever again. In terms of modes, NHL 23 delivers the usual deep slate of offerings, from the microtransaction-heavy Ultimate Team to the deeper and more engaging Franchise Mode. None of it is new or revolutionary. but it’s all been fine-tuned to keep the focus on the ice, and not the grind of micromanagement. Unfortunately, there are notable flaws in some of the longstanding modes and features. First, the omnipresent Be a Pro mode continues EA’s downward trend of career mode storytelling. At no point during my avatar’s hockey journey did I ever feel engaged or connected to the narrative, nor the decisions I was making. None of it seemed to matter on the ice, anyway. Maybe a deeper dive would produce a long-term storyline reward, but I felt trapped in a week-to-week deluge of minutiae, rather than feeling the excitement of a pro hockey career. Last year, I enjoyed the online “World of Chel” offerings, praising the matchmaking and overall online gameplay balance. This year, the mode took a serious step backward. While the wide variety of arcade and simulation play options is welcome, I had significant difficulty finding a stable game, and the matchmaking usually placed me with far better players than I could ever hope to beat. Over the course of several weeks, I experienced considerably more imbalance and fickle connections than in the previous edition, and before long I disconnected permanently in favor of the same, reliable offline hockey I know and love. Sadly, I think this is the key problem with the NHL series in its current form — despite all the visual sheen, extensive modes, and unparalleled control depth, this is still, at its core, the same game we’ve been playing for decades. Online and offline, even with the engine rewarding well-executed hockey strategy, most games ultimately devolve into a redundant pattern of “check/breakaway/shoot/repeat.” Even on the most stringent difficulty levels, I rarely saw the game AI slow down and run a cohesive offensive series. Instead, it shot at will, never seeking to set up an open skater. There may only be a few realistic ways to present videogame hockey in a playable form, but once the AI chose to play “run and gun” arcade hockey, I realized I was employing the same tactics I did in my college dorm room, far too many years ago. If this series is going to truly progress and make good on the updated visual presentation, more nuanced gameplay will have to become a reality, not just a promise.

There are kernels of good ideas throughout RAD, and none of my problems with it feel like they can’t be fixed or tweaked to make the experience less frustrating. Unfortunately, its current iteration falls squarely into the Double Fine catalog of work that’s great to look at, but only fleetingly entertaining to play.

With middling gameplay and a questionable story, The Crow’s Eye has only its solid puzzles and a fascinating mixture of genres to recommend it. This is nowhere near the top of the first-person puzzle-platform genre, but it’s certainly one of the strangest and most intriguing I’ve played.

Toast Time is a good fit for the Switch. It’s nice to play in bursts, the humor is amusing, and the levels available give the game plenty of challenge without being unfair. However, it would be better served by offering more missions for the singleplayer campaign instead of putting resources towards the lackluster multiplayer mode. Even so, I’d call it a worthwhile addition for the Switch library — it’s a simple arcade experience, but does what it does well.

No game in recent memory serves as a better example of style over substance.

System Shock is haunting and lonely, has an expertly-crafted oppressive atmosphere, intense combat, and a strong sense of immersion. Unfortunately, the obtuse nature of the campaign makes it to navigate and generally understand what to do. Returning vets may appreciate the upgrade, but I suspect that new players like myself will feel excluded and put off by the steep difficulty.

Overall, it’s a shame that the final game feels like a missed opportunity to bring the survival horror genre back into the spotlight. Between the poor story and characters, familiar elements from other games and the problems I had during my playthrough, it seems as though The Evil Within is content to live in the past instead of than drawing inspiration from it and moving forward.

The obvious incoherence of many of the design decisions allows the player to see past the realistic graphics and to observe the unrealistic logic that underlies the game.

It’s a shame that Aeterna Noctis stumbles in both difficulty and design because it feels like it comes so close to greatness. Unfortunately, the demanding challenge and an obnoxious amount of backtracking overshadow what it gets right.

While I’ll probably never know what a zarvot is, this project offers a solid arcade shooter and a decent campaign — it just needs a little more polish.

Tales of Mathasia should prove a good teaching aid for beginning mathWhile the player is free to replay levels, there’s no dedicated endless mode that might allow players to simply drill themselves with math problems without the extra context. It seems like an egregious oversight, especially since the main story only takes about an hour to complete. Hopefully if they make a sequel, the developers will better understand the importance of repetition and memorization in early childhood education. Until then, Tales of Mathasia remains a solid, if unimpressive educational game.

Regardless of its visual design, The Franz Kafka Game fails to deliver a satisfying experience. Literary devotees of Kafka may find plenty of Easter eggs that reward their esoteric knowledge, but the average player will likely find irritating puzzles that are only slightly palatable thanks to the game’s appealing aesthetic.

A glimmer of the first game's superb design and balance remains underneath these missteps, but the bottom line is that instead of building upon the solid foundation from the first game, they undermined it.

Transcripted's mashing of genres does work despite its hiccups. As a game to play here and there, it is a nice distraction with plenty of ways to change how it's played.

The song selection is a great change of pace from the standard rock fare found in Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but in the end the controls just don’t cut the mustard.

Dawn of War III isn’t a bad game — it’s just not a good one either. By trying to chase what’s popular, Relic lost a lot of what made this series so great in the first place. With the promise of more factions to come, there could be more to this game a few months from now, but as it stands right now, it’s too basic to dance at the ball.

Overall, it’s more than a little eyebrow-raising to see how closely Vermintide has followed the template set by Valve, and disappointing to see that it hasn’t improved or advanced the precedent that was set — it’s just a not-as-good version with rodents in place of the undead.

I met King’s Bounty 2 more than halfway by fighting every monster, completing every quest and searching out every bit of treasure, but at the end of the day, I was left broken, bankrupt, and frustratingly unable to roll credits on a title that was almost great.

Gamers looking for an art-house experience would do well to spend a couple of hours soaking in what Suda 51 has served up. Those more concerned with gameplay they can chew on might want to think twice.

This leaves TurnOn in a tough spot. More than 90% of the game is a high-quality, quirky, relaxing exploratory platformer. Unfortunately, that game is broken up and gated off by runner levels that add a disconnected (and possibly fatal) element of challenge, so I can’t recommend it for that strength.

In many ways, Battlefield V feels like a big step backwards for the franchise. The campaign is boring and frustrating, multiplayer is unbalanced, and bugs keep popping up in every mode to ruin the experience. The fortification system is a good shakeup, but the good it brings is tempered by the cumbersome and murky Grand Operations. With some patches, balance changes and bug squashing, BFV could be a fantastic game, but at the moment, this soldier needs to go back to basic training.

It's sublimely complex and bursting with potential on one hand, unbelievably limited and shortsighted on the other.