From start to finish, Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr is an outstanding dungeon crawler that checks all the boxes I want checked and then goes on to polish up all the other details as well. It might not win over those who aren’t already fans of the genre, but players looking for the next great dungeon crawl can’t afford to miss this one.

The Falconeer is a beautiful game with an intriguing setting that engaged me throughout my playtime, but the dogfighting disappoints and there’s just not much to it otherwise. It was created by a one-man studio so this is quite an accomplishment, but the fact remains that the final experience falls short of greatness.

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

Antigraviator is the kind of game that disappoints by showing the bones to be a great experience, only to fall short of its lofty goals in nearly every aspect.

The main problem is that there is nothing new to see. After a certain point, Obscure shows that there are two sides to maintaining interest in a successful horror game: the lack of early action must be balanced in other areas, and when the action starts it must not dull too soon.

This series simply hit its peak eight years ago, and has been struggling to stay relevant since. Just Cause still has the potential to stand alongside power fantasy franchises like Earth Defense Force and Dynasty Warriors, but this latest entry just feels old, sloppy, and phoned in. The formula can still work and I was kinda-sorta entertained by Just Cause 4, but nothing about it was impressive in the least.

Red Solstice 2 is a bleak ordeal, but it’s not without its charms. There’s a real sense of frantic desperation created as the player scrambles desperately from one mission to the next, helplessly watching the global infection meter always climbing. Whether it’s zombie biomass, sinister corporations, or environmental catastrophe, for the entirety of Red Solstice 2′s play time I was sure that we were only ever a hair’s breadth away from extermination — which only served to make fighting against it feel all the more satisfying. If the developers could ease the repetitiveness from their random mission generator, this would be one of the best successors to XCOM’s legacy, but in its current state it’s just an extremely solid squad-based RTS.

It may not tackle deep, meaningful themes, but Maneater is a great way to shut one’s brain off and chill on the couch for a couple of hours with a simple (but satisfying) power fantasy. This fantasy just so happens to involve a shark who can attack sunbathers by dropping in them from twenty feet in the air…

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.

Fans of the blockbuster might enjoy the set dressing applied to this pinball table, but those looking for a solid pinball board underneath the veneer might be left wanting.

If Mothership Zeta had been half as long and available at half the price, it might have been worthwhile simply for giving players a quick peek behind the origins of the main game's enigmatic alien wreckage. As it stands, this dog-leg jaunt into outer space ends up a giant could-have-been without any real reason to recommend it, save completion for completion's sake.

The game has the energy and vibe of a Roger Corman film, and like Corman's movies, Serious Sam: Next Encounter not only feels like it was created in just a few days on a very low budget, but it's also obvious from the puckish spirit of the final product that the people who made the game had one hell of a time doing so.

The one glaring error in Worms Blast is the overly complicated and sluggish (or, uh, worm-ish) gameplay.

I do like what Trillion's going for, and in the early stages I enjoyed my time with it. However, the grind over the lifespans of several Overlords grows dull, and no amount of amusing writing can stave off the boredom that settles in. When it's good, it's very good, but when it wears out its welcome, that welcome wears out hard.

Being average isn't a bullet-point for the back of a box, and if someone's going to play a potentially punishing, definitely repetitive roguelike, I can't imagine that they'd want to put that kind of serious effort out for something that's just average, at best.

While it’s got some nice aspects, especially the visuals, Steel Seed feels like it never reaches its full potential because it can’t decide between being a stealth or combat experience, and ends up being great at neither.

Despite the gameplay showing its age, it is what it is and I was enamored with it. It’s a wonderful refresh for a classic title like this, and hopefully, we’ll see a similar return of other mascot platformers from bygone eras in the same style.

A solid story and engaging characters go a long way towards justifying a JRPG's existence, and the world of FFF is quite charming.

Having put Poi down for a while to collect my thoughts for this review, I find myself looking back fondly on it, as I would with Banjo Kazooie or Gex, but I’m not sure it will make a lasting impression. Players who own a Switch and want something besides a a chubby Italian plumber on their screen can’t go wrong with Poi, but it’s hard to see it in that massive shadow.

It’s the best successor to Pikmin’s legacy that I’ve ever encountered. It’s got a great story, endlessly inventive gameplay, and a charming visual style. Yes, it’s gruesome, and yes, it can be a little upsetting at times, but Ray’s The Dead manages to be more than an assemblage of comedic ’80s references and borrowed mechanics — it rises above its inspirations and becomes a truly special experience.

Despite its immediate beauty, After Us doesn’t generate the emotional response I would hope for from a title in this genre. Perhaps if it were a bit shorter and more focused, I would have been more motivated to explore and rescue every spirit. Instead, the unpolished platforming and surplus of unnecessary collectibles diluted its intensity. Though there are certainly some memorable moments here, there are simply other titles in the genre that are much more successful at doing what After Us is attempting to accomplish.

Tweet Share Share By Damiano Gerli on November 11, 2021 in Reviews Bad News For Hedgehogs! HIGH It’s somewhat nice to see Zool back in his original form… LOW …which reminds me it wasn’t that great to start with. WTF The bleeding banana will haunt my dreams for years to come. Back in 1992, the release of the original Sonic The Hedegehog drastically changed the gaming landscape. Suddenly, every software house wanted to work on a fast-paced 2D platformer and create its own mascot — an issue that especially preoccupied developers for home computers like the Commodore Amiga. Following this trend, Gremlin Graphics released the original version of Zool in 1992. The titular ninja from the Nth Dimension crash-lands on an unfamiliar planet and will have to get through various obstacles to escape. While it may be a title that some gamers of a certain age may feel a bit of nostalgia for, the original Zool (along with a conversion for every console imaginable at the time) reveals just how important the level design was in making the Sonic games so memorable and appreciated. Unfortunately, Zool just doesn’t stack up. As it’s now 2021, Zool has received a facelift. This version is the original platformer with a difficulty rebalance, a CRT graphics filter for added fidelity to the original and a zoomed-out view to allow the player see more of the screen. Overall, these changes make Zool a more approachable experience than it used to be, but they do not improve it on a fundamental level. Each level in Zool lasts no more than a couple of minutes, and it’s time usually spent jumping from platform to platform or finding one’s way through the lower sections that require defeating enemies by shooting or jumping/gliding into them. This is a simple flavor of 2D platforming that feels inherently ’90s, and no filter can change that. Also, the end-of-stage bosses are pretty forgettable, some of which I defeated on my first try. Redimensioned comes in two flavors which mainly act as difficulty — the original experience and the Ultimate Ninja mode. I would recommend most ’90s players to try the latter, as I finished the original with 15 lives to spare and never had a problem in most levels. After completing seven stages and thirty-something levels, the Zool Redimensioned experience is basically over and done with. The changes made to ths version were well thought-out, but they do little to hide the fact that the original material was just an okay-at-best ’90s platformer and the intervening years haven’t done it any favors in terms of game design or graphics. Those who have nostalgia for it should check it out — all others should give it a pass.

While it may lack Nintendo’s trademark polish in some areas, Redout: Space Assault is still a good title that delivers several hours of flying and fighting, and the Star Fox nostalgia older players will certainly experience is a bonus.

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!

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.

The fights are long and challenging, and the gameplay has an appeal all its own. With plenty of features, great graphics and sound and a surprisingly well-developed backdrop, Tao Feng's unique gameplay is a welcome step in the right direction.

Adding insult to all of this injury, it just lacks any flair that could set it apart from the competition. The combat is fine if somewhat uninspired, the writing and presentation frequently fall flat, and when it comes to chewing through hordes of enemies, there are plenty of competing titles on the market that offer a more compelling experience — the obvious comparisons are Earth Defense Force and Helldivers 2, and even something bug-adjacent like Exoprimal stands out more. Sadly, as things stand I can’t recommend this to anyone except the most hardcore fans of the IP.

Players who enjoy the adventure genre in its most traditional format will likely be pleased with Secret Files: Tunguska, but my take is that this type of approach is simply past its time.