All of the elements that make up a decent survival horror game are on display here. The monsters, the violence, the simplistic, action-oriented storytelling... They're just so shoddily rendered and assembled that all they add up to is a mediocre experience.

For players who click with these characters, Oxenfree offers between four and six hours of walking around and listening to them hash out issues in their lives. I congratulate the developers on the quality and production of the dialogue, but as a whole, Oxenfree is a weightless slip of a game that left no lasting impressions.

Sadly, my drive to persist was sapped by a series of glitches in one section that led me to replay the same should-have-been-easy bit over and over again. That was bad enough, but combined with the poor controls, lack of engaging gameplay, an inability to manually save and infrequent checkpoints, every session was a slog. Writing a negative review for Spirit of the North is tough because on paper, it seems like something I’d fall in love with. That said, it’s just not a good experience — my appreciation for its non-violent content and environmental themes can’t carry its many shortcomings.

When it works and the quests follow a natural flow, Summer in Mara can be wonderful. At its best moments, I found it to be relaxing and effortlessly charming. Sadly, the horrendous backtracking, time-wasting filler content and frustrating resource management make it less of a vacation and more of a job.

Sadly, while I enjoyed coming back to Raiders, checking out the new character and playing through the new levels once, my original assessment still stands — the multiplayer/replay premise of the game doesn’t make a lot of sense, and I can’t help but feel that the IP would be better served by recycling the assets into a different project. People who’ve put the time in, know what to expect and want more content will get it with Hades Betrayal, but it’s tough to recommend it to anyone.

The characters are there—now someone just needs to figure out how to create some gameplay that makes the experience fun and not a chore.

From Dust is an interesting, original and creative project... unfortunately, it never capitalizes on its promise thanks to too many technical problems and a feeling of unpolished awkwardness. More frustrating and tedious than uplifting and deific, I'd love to see a revamped installment with the kinks ironed out. As it stands, I was all too ready to leave the islands behind and head back to the mainland at the first opportunity.

Unfortunately, F.E.A.R. 3 is a prime example of a game that can't decide what it wants to be. In trying to be an intense horror campaign and an intricate co-op/multiplayer experience at the same time, it winds up being neither and pleasing no one. I see some good ideas in the story and multiplayer modes, but a distinct lack of focus brings it all down.

Although The Amazing Spider-man 2 isn't a catastrophic disaster by any means, there's also absolutely nothing to recommend it.

It's not as pretty as "Splinter Cell", it's not as engaging as "SOCOM 2", and it features a frustration factor that's almost in the realm of "Ninja Gaiden"—without the rewards.

I wish I enjoyed A Fistful of Gun more than I do. There's a lot about its visuals and arcade-style presentation to like, but it never stops feeling disappointingly shallow and overly-chaotic. Exciting and charming in small doses, it's just a relentless slog through hails of gunfire during extended play. Fans of the Western genre might get into it, but I'm riding to another saloon.

The building effects are well developed and its fundamental mechanics prove to be entertaining. The graphics are also a positive talking point, creating a realistic feel that can transport the player a few thousand years back. However, Pax Augusta — at the time of review — remains incredibly unpolished and riddled with bugs, some of them which simply can’t be ignored. It’s clear that the developer put time and passion into this project, and if the bugs can be ironed out, it will be a solid title for history and city-builder fans to enjoy.

I love a good nostalgia trip and I don’t mind a bit of pandering here and there, but Taxi Chaos takes it too far by essentially doing nothing more than replicating the game it was inspired by. Paying homage to one of the greats wouldn’t be an issue if it added its own ideas and flair, but there just isn’t much here that wasn’t already done — and done better — by Sega.

It's well presented and Brave's misshapen but personable face and tape-like hair make him an oddly likeable hero (that one wouldn't necessarily mind seeing again), but for the most part his showcase adventure ranks as an inescapably hollow and forgettable experience.

In its current state, it's a relic with a coat of paint on top, and it's not likely to keep anyone's attention for very long.

Even if I couldn't set my love for the series aside for this review, I'm sure that Def Jam Icon's problems are so clear and inarguable that even if I'd never played any of the previous titles I would have rated it exactly the same.

It's too bad that by over-complicating everything, Touch the Dead gets this simple formula so very wrong.

I do believe that there’s something interesting and unique about Once Alive, but it needs more polish to fully shine — there’s the core of a good story, but the plot falls flat at the end. The setting is intriguing, but it’s dragged down by some of the puzzles. Emotional beats exist, but they’re blunted by poor voice direction. With just a bit more work on the details, I think Once Alive could reach its full potential.

Past Cure isn’t terrible. It has a great visual style, and the combat manages to offer some thrilling setpieces. It’s the lack of a coherent story that really sinks it, though. The way the script gives only glimpses of the big picture before undercutting all the work it’s done right at the end is simply unacceptable. Perhaps a sequel could redeem this effort and let the developers figure out the story they want to tell, but that doesn’t let them off the hook for keeping the player so thoroughly in the dark this time around.

ith inert characters, forgettable villains, and an achingly slow plot, Tears to Tiara 2 never offers a reason for anyone to keep reading.

While I still respect the concept and gameplay at the core, this superfluous follow-up stretches the definition of what a sequel is, and the majority of what it changes isn’t great. More than anything else, Nidhogg 2 is like someone drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa with a sharpie – it was perfect the first time, and ‘touching it up’ has only marred that beauty. I’ll be sticking with the original.

The concepts behind the The Weaponographist are interesting ones, and they incentivize combo-hunting better than most titles I've seen in a while. It's just too bad that the developers weren't able to get a better handle on character progression and combat design. With a lot of tweaking, this could have been a bite-sized little gem. As it stands? The Weaponographist is a drawn-out mess.

Humor and unusual storytelling can't save it from stiff controls and an awkward camera.

The foot chases are a delight, the town of Averno is an interesting location to explore, and there’s a couple of side-cases which actually ask the player to participate in finding evidence and solving a crime. These diversions are wonderful and offer a glimpse of the kind of experience that The Precinct seems to want to be — unfortunately, that potential is let down by too many poor mechanics and a plot that doesn’t do it job.

With the modern ability to patch games, there’s a good chance this review might be rendered completely irrelevant within a few months — that’s one of the perils of writing something in an age where so many experiences are dramatically different months after release. My hope is that someday the Spacer’s Choice Edition will be a great version of The Outer Worlds, but that day ain’t today.

While I absolutely love the concept of Birthdays: The Beginning, the execution leaves much to be desired. It’s too passive and too finicky, and doesn’t do enough with the core concept of life appearing and evolving over time. There’s not much here for seasoned players or curious kids, and as someone who’s been playing games for a while, I can say that this formula was done far, far better on the SNES back in 1993 with EVO: Search For Eden. Look it up!

Hardcore Trials fans have probably already bought and completed this game, but for others who may be curious and haven't jumped in yet, I'd recommend either of the others before this one.

Shelter 3 is hard to recommend, both to fans of the series and newcomers. At best, it plays like an half-finished, repetitive experiment that can be easily completed in an hour. Anyone interested in what the series brings to the table should instead try either of the previous titles for a more accomplished, realized adventure.

The Warrior's Code is a long slog that's guaranteed to kill some free time—and may even entertain newcomers to the genre—but there isn't anything rewarding or enjoyable about it.

While Strike Suit Zero has a solid core, it needs more development time and enrichment in nearly every aspect apart from the combat mechanics. Players looking for a megadose of space shooting will find it, but those craving a well-rounded package offering more than just dogfighting should look elsewhere.

Maybe Ground Shatter will get KITS there after a few patches and updates, but right now, anybody picking this one up is in for a rough knight.

Simply put, the releases in this compilation are not worth the extravagant and loving package Digital Eclipse surrounded them in. In this collection, there’s just one bonafide classic (Crystalis), one game people might remember fondly (Ikari Warriors), and a bunch of basically unknown stuff that ranges from being brief, dated distractions to downright horrific work. While celebrating SNK is a fine idea, the ratio of good-to-bad here make this particular compilation extremely difficult to recommend.

Runers has an interesting crafting mechanic and a truly staggering number of weapons, but beyond that, there's just nothing much to recommend.

It's a shame that given such a potentially provocative issue as the premise of the game, Whiplash chooses to take it nowhere and instead falls back on ineffectual humor, cartoonish violence, and an unimaginative interface.

The worst thing about Star Wars Battlefront II is that it could have been great. Without the terrible leveling system designed to milk money from players, the multiplayer would be a blast. If the story was expanded and focused on Versio, it could have been worth discussing. Instead, the final product is so cynical and wrongheaded that it’s added fuel to a larger discussion about lootboxes and gambling that’s starting to grab the attention of lawmakers outside the industry.

When all's said and done, Ragnarok Odyssey takes almost all of its major cues from the leader of its genre, and then flatly fails to deliver a commensurate level of depth in combat, quest design, and equipment tinkering.

I just can't imagine a filmmaker putting me in a situation where, once the movie stopped, I was forced to go onto a website to find out how it ended. I also can't imagine how anyone at Microids couldn't see just what a fatal misstep this lack of an ending was.

My time with Starlink: Battle for Atlas was surprising, but that doesn’t mean that it was positive. It’s got lot of potential that goes unrealized since the story and quests are a wash and the toys-to-life aspect is DOA, but the ship mechanics are dead-on and it’s not hard to imagine how some retooling and editing could result in the best Star Fox game ever made. This Battle has been lost, but I believe that Ubisoft can ultimately win this war.

The game is a technical and mechanical mess, with unbalanced combat that’s neither intense nor rewarding.

The bland graphics, clunky controls, and atrocious load times (nearing 40 seconds in some instances) are nearly insurmountable shortcomings.

Roguelikes always involve repetition, but the difference between a good roguelike and a bad one is whether there’s a sense of momentum from one run to the next – some feeling that I’m slowly chipping away at a discernible goal by gaining the right tools or learning the right lessons. Katana Kami occupies that space for a while, but then keeps going for no good reason. Players with the self-discipline to call it quits when the final boss is felled may find value here, but as a whole, Katana Kami is a solid eight-hour roguelike stretched and distorted into a thirty-hour grotesquerie.

In the end, Spectral Force 3 is more disappointing than bad.

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is a tough sell. Dedicated King of Fighters fans and SNK enthusiasts like myself will find the battle system too simple and limiting, and the roster is missing too many of SNK’s finest female characters. Also, anyone hoping to perform a five finger knuckle shuffle while seeing Leona cosplaying as Heidern or a female Terry Bogard will be stymied by the poor graphics and inferior character models.

It's the perfect example of the sort of game that seems to poised to make its mark on the world and then inexplicably proceeds to hang out at the local mall for its entire adult life.

Given the subject matter, Kane & Lynch never had a chance of being a fun game, but it had every chance of being a good one. It's not.

Almost There provides exactly the kind of challenge I want from my sadistic platformers, but the controls drove me away before finishing it, and I can’t imagine ever going back unless it’s fixed – without perfect and intuitive controls, it goes from sadistic to unfair, and no one deserves that.

I was ready to forgive a couple of rough episodes as long as things got rolling by the midpoint, but with only two installments left, it seems unlikely that The Walking Dead, Season Two will be able to muster anything that season one didn't already do better.

Ashen now holds the dubious honor of being the first game I couldn’t bring myself to finish before posting a review. Well done, Ashen — you broke me. It’s just a shame you didn’t do it in a more interesting or cleverly-designed manner.

Until now, I’ve liked each new Ninja Theory game more than the last, and I can never deny the craft on display. Given that this is their first release since the Microsoft acquisition, I credit Hellblade II for not feeling compromised by corporate interests, but that only makes it more baffling that it lacks any real vision that I was able to discern. It’s not an offensively bad experience, and yet I can only offer one of the most damning criticisms imaginable – I have no idea why it was made.

While Suda-51’s trademark style and weirdness is still present, this is perhaps his worst-playing game to date, and this leaves me a bit worried about Grasshopper Manufacture being in NetEase’s hands. Those who enjoy Suda’s work will still manage to find bits of his output that they like here, but it’s a real slog to get to the good stuff, and I suspect that anyone who’s not already a fan of his catalog will find this experience to be genuinely awful.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is the most disappointing kind of game as it’s one that offers so much promise and then fails to deliver on it, even when it comes to the most obvious, low-hanging fruit.

I wish All Possible Futures luck in their future ventures, but here, in today’s hyper-crowded indie scene, there are dozens and dozens of games that deserve to be plucked up ahead of this Squire.

One could argue that my boredom was an intended result of Flat Eye‘s ludonarrative theming, but I just don’t buy it and that diegetic UI just wasn’t enough — I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.

The sad part is that with some real work put into it, Payday 2 could have been awesome on the Switch. If some of the old problems had been solved, motion controls included and the graphics updated, that would have been a great start. Instead, I’m left with poor visuals, glitching enemies, terrible AI and no way to coordinate with anyone who wants to play. As it stands, it’s extraordinarily difficult to recommend this version of Payday 2 when better versions of this broken game exist at half price on other platforms.

While M2’s emulation work is spectacular as always, the Darius Cozmic Collection suffers from a failure of imagination. It envisions the history of this eclectic, evocative franchise as a commodity to be fastidiously repackaged and sold as’ content’ rather than taking the opportunity to explore and appreciate one of the strangest sagas in gaming. It’s a frustratingly narrow view that leaves the Darius story untold, and Taito has ensured that these collections will blend in with countless others on a shelf, struggling to be found in the crowded marketplace.

With its relatively small menu of uninspired puzzles and cast of irritants, One Against All fails in its attempt to capture the Layton magic.

Alekhine's Gun stole from the best, but didn't know what to do with the spoils of its crime. The story is interesting and the levels are playable thanks to the source material being just that good, but it's missing the spark and attention to detail which made Hitman such a phenomenon. The copycat locations may look better than the originals, but the gameplay simply isn't there.

While M2’s emulation work is spectacular as always, the Darius Cozmic Collection suffers from a failure of imagination. It envisions the history of this eclectic, evocative franchise as a commodity to be fastidiously repackaged and sold as’ content’ rather than taking the opportunity to explore and appreciate one of the strangest sagas in gaming. It’s a frustratingly narrow view that leaves the Darius story untold, and Taito has ensured that these collections will blend in with countless others on a shelf, struggling to be found in the crowded marketplace.

So, the levels in ICFSaAOB are long, but the lack of meta play or any incentive to replay means its lifespan is short — paradoxically, it’s too long in the short term, and too short in the long term. It is also repetitive to the point of tedium and the answer in almost all situations is ‘use the shotgun’.

It's tough to recommend Sacred Citadel when there are so many superior side scrolling fighters already on the market.

This apparently is the first entry in a planned trilogy, and while the high production values suggest that the developers are staffed by talented visual stylists, I can’t see any value in coming back for more unless something can be done to completely overhaul the terrible combat of this combat-focused game.

My son was interested enough in The Legend Of Kay to play it for a few hours. However, even at the relatively inexperienced age of six, it wasn't long before he tired of its mediocrity. Once he put the game down, he had absolutely no interest in coming back. For a game whose major audience is ostensibly children, failing to keep a game-loving little boy entertained is a pretty damning indictment.

A mildly diverting shooting gallery, a mediocre FPS, and a slap in the face to those of us who have been waiting for seven years for a decent western-themed shooter.

Sadly, the latest incarnation of that landmark effort doesn't have the personality, lush animation or blisteringly fast pace that made the original such a hit. What it does have is...not much.

Coming from someone who adored the first Layers of Fear, I was ready to love this sequel. Instead, I was disappointed by the dearth of creativity, an overreliance on ineffective audiologs and documents, and multiple insta-kill chases that frustrated me until the end. I used to considered Bloober Team to be the best up-and-coming horror developer around, but either the horror genre is evolving beyond them, or the last three too-busy years have burnt them out.

I hate to be critical of something clearly inspired by someone’s personal journey and their hard-won life lessons, but simply sharing such things does not equate to a compelling experience. With a lack of focus, unconvincing voicework and gameplay that runs out of steam halfway through an already-brief running time, Sea of Solitude is like sitting through a few hours of a stranger’s therapy session — it certainly means a lot to someone, but I walked away unaffected.

Honestly, I’m glad The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered exists. I know longtime fans will rejoice at playing on newer hardware and the story is still to be relished. I am truly hopeful that this reappearance will entice a new generation of fans and perhaps inspire the creation of a true finale for the series overall. As for me, I’ll be content with my memories of playing these games new, as I find them too frustrating on multiple levels to genuinely embrace them today.

Bunker could have been a decent adventure title had the devs shown some follow-through, but the diminishing lack of effort kills the game's potential long before it ends.

The Castle Of Shikigami, while known and appreciated in the shmup community, is definitely not a top-tier bullet-hell. Its sequels are better and available on other consoles, so anyone who appreciates its bizarre aesthetic can get their fix elsewhere. It’s a noteworthy entry in the genre, but at this point it’s hardly a necessary one except for the most serious of shmup fans — in 2017, this game is obsolete.

There’s a good experience buried beneath all the issues in Astor: Blade of the Monolith, I think. There’s no reason why some reworking of the combat, reordering certain elements to speed up the pacing, and putting some duct tape over the narrator’s mouth wouldn’t do wonders, but in its current state these flaws are simply too glaring.

The repetitive hack-and-slash gameplay has nothing in common with the earlier incarnations of the series and will surely alienate the Fallout faithful. Meanwhile, the newcomers to the Fallout universe aren't likely to be sucked in by the uninteresting and flat characters nor the nonexistent story.

I write this review with a fair bit of sadness. This can and should be a good title, and despite all the difficulty I had, the interesting premise of Loading Human kept drawing me back in. The story, true 360 degree movement and ability to manipulate almost every object in the space provide a cool experience — the mechanics are just too nauseating — literally. Only the most devoted players with iron stomachs might be able to suffer through in hopes of seeing light at the end of this virtual reality tunnel.

I was ready to love Days Gone, and in some ways, I still do. It didn’t love me back, though. If SIE Bend had cut the length by a third, cleaned up the technical problems and had more variety in level design, it could have been one of my favorite games of all time. It’s tragic in hindsight, because I can feel the love and passion flowing through it. Unfortunately, the shared appreciation of our homeland pales in comparison to the astoundingly long list of problems on display here. It’s heartbreaking, but only homesick Oregonians like myself need apply.

Cognition fails not from a lack of execution, but from a lack of imagination.

What is disappointing about Musashi is that I expect more from Square-Enix. The company seems to be mired in a bit of a rut as of late, and churning out average, if uninspired, games like this one doesn't seem to be a good way to get back on course.

J&M was released on Earth Day, and includes information on two nonprofit organizations aiming to preserve the world’s oceans. Between that and its jubilant presentation (aided by a bouncy main theme that briefly fooled me into thinking that the game would be much more enjoyable than it turned out to be) J&M is too well-intentioned to get angry at. Unfortunately, I imagine most players will be too bored to be persuaded by its important message.

Topatoi Episode 1 delays its payoff for too long, and in the end exists mostly as a suggestion of a game that might be good to play when (and if) it makes its way to the PSN store. Add the fact that the characters of Topatoi lack any of the charm or personality of your typical platformer cast—their in game models look a little revolting even—and it's a hard game to recommend.

An essentially generic nature is why Grandia Xtreme winds up being such an empty experience overall.

I’m fine with gut-wrenching violence if it’s taken seriously or if there’s a point to be made, but Rise & Shine’s over-the-top carnage is constantly being interrupted by some of the laziest and most ill-timed humor imaginable, all in service of a message that isn’t particularly original or insightful. These uncomfortable tonal shifts would be enough to tarnish even a good game, but the frustrating and underwhelming Rise & Shine isn’t worth putting up with it.

With its bleak atmosphere and intriguing story, Dying: Reborn is an acceptable effort, bringing the escape room experience to consoles in an interesting, if often disturbing fashion. The PSVR version, while a little more viscerally effective, just doesn’t feel like a complete experience to recommend. Add in some weird glitches that make examining items in VR exceedingly difficult, and the result is the opposite of Resident Evil 7 – this is a VR-enabled game that’s much more satisfying when played on a standard television.

While the story may be uninspiring and some mechanics don’t quite stick the landing, I found myself returning to Shadows Awakening mostly for the amusing stories of the puppets. Even so, the characters alone can’t carry the game — maybe fans of this IP will be happy to jump in and will find the mediocre gameplay enough, but for those like me, it’s hard to recommend this title as a starting point to the Heretic Kingdoms world.

Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart is both too similar to and too different from its parent series to hold my interest. Trying to “fix” the lackluster battle system with more minutiae has only made it less tolerable, and worse, I just don’t care about these characters anymore. I’ve played worse games—far worse—but Hyperdevotion Noire has lost the soul of a franchise I once loved.

The first half of War Tech Fighters is a light, silly ‘blow everything up and look cool’ sort of thing, but the second half is weighed down by developers who apparently felt the need to offer a ‘real challenge’ that wasn’t necessary or welcome.

Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story offers an interesting Chinese-themed ghost experience and there were moments when I could feel my heart race while trying to escape the deadly spirits chasing me. However, those chills are dulled by excessive backtracking and slow progress — and in the end, those were scarier.

Frankly, I think HunterX would make an much better side-scroller with linear progression than the subpar Metroidvania that it is — I may come back to it after a few more patches and when my frustration dies down, but I really can’t HunterX right now, especially with so many other better titles to choose from.

A game like Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing is courageous for presenting a story that confronts our real-world pandemic rather than providing escapism from it. The setup of the narrative and the overall tone befits its ambition, but it’s ultimately unsuccessful in offering significant takeaways or in-depth character studies due to its surprisingly brief length. If it were twice as long it would have likely had twice the depth, and probably twice the score.

There’s no denying that Riot: Civil Unrest is earnest in its attempt to bring game mechanics to a complex, weighty topic, but ultimately it fails to execute on its ambitions, delivering neither a satisfying strategy game nor a novel exploration of its chosen topic beyond its evocative and memorable art style. And as we’ve learned from political movements throughout history, enacting lasting change is about more than presentation.

Dull, mediocre games… well these games are like a painter's palette filled with nine shades of gray. There isn't much to work with, so the end result is as lifeless and flat as a Midwest landscape study in wintertime.

It's a shame that Strider eventually grinds down into such life-sapping monotony because it starts off reasonably strong. The controls are sharp and responsive, and cutting enemies in half while dashing around at lightning speed feels damn good.

Hardcore item-management fetishists might find some joy here, there’s simply not enough balance or content for Phantom Crash to stand on its own, much less measure up to the competition (I’m looking at you, "Armored Core 3").

To see a series falter so badly after years of doing everything right is distressing.

While I can imagine how Portal may have inspired the team to expand on its concept, in the end, all I wanted to do was play more Portal.

Dead Rising was never a great game — it’s perverse and didactic in equal measure, and an exciting concept delivered with almost no artistry or craft. Why not put in a little extra effort to fix it, rather that just running it on superior hardware? The sequels offer a clear roadmap for the experience that Dead Rising could have been, but apparently Capcom had no interest in following it. It’s too bad, because even as a budget title, this reissue is just too rough to recommend.

Nights of Azure’s a disappointing game for sure, but it’s not exactly awful—the mindless combat is balanced by the tremendous art and sound design, and despite the negative tone of this review it’s not offensively bad at anything it does. It’s just aggressively bland and tough to recommend when the action’s too toothless to keep players engaged.

This underwhelming finale to the rebooted Doom saga would be limp enough when judged on its own merits, but the fact that the developers went back and screwed around with what made The Ancient Gods, Part One work so well is criminal. This expansion is more Doom Eternal, which should be a good thing, but turns out to be the weakest and most disappointing that Doom Eternal has ever been.

It’s tough to see Etherborn as anything but a misguided project and a missed opportunity. It’s frustrating to play without the ability to look around, the story has zero weight or impact, and apart from some wonderful visuals, it’s got little to offer.

Retro players starved for a Shinobi-like title who also relish mastery through repetition will surely see this as the perfect opportunity — just be sure to get anything other than the Switch version. For everyone else, Ganryu 2‘s try-and-die learning curve is repulsive, and the trial-and-error design harshly punishes the player for every little mistake. It’s one of those rare titles that I do not wish to go back to.

After Burner may be spiritually true to Sega's seminal 1987 hit, but game design has progressed by leaps and bounds since then. Cleaving so closely to its dusty, outdated forefather hurt more than it helped, I'd say.