Obviously an effort that the developers poured their heart and soul into, and it shows. Everything about it is high quality and imbued with skill and care.

After completing the campaign, Outlast 2 boiled down to being too repetitive and maddening — it’s a horrific, beautiful disappointment. I can’t help but wish the game was half its length and set entirely in environments filled with the creepy corridors, ghostly apparitions, murderous priests, gory suicides and the demons that it does so well. Those moments are when Outlast 2 is at its very best. Instead, the fear was drained by constant deaths, sequences that are more frustrating than they should be, and an abysmal checkpoint system that only highlights how bad the rest is. Outlast 2 looks amazing and sounds amazing, but the gameplay that would make this dark gem shine just isn’t here.

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.

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

Local multiplayer lacks the narrative trappings of the campaigns, but serves as a solid extension of the core gameplay. Online multiplayer, however, is where Strikers Edge falters. After several attempts to evaluate it, I was never successfully matched against an opponent. So, for six-eyed folks in search of a frenetic couch co-op game, look no further. Strikers Edge is an underdog to root for. The rest of us might be better off renting Dodgeball instead.

Solstice Chronicles: MIA is a breath of fresh air in the twin-stick shooter genre. The threat system makes it feel like nothing else out there, transforming it from just another run-and-gun into something far more strategic and complex. It’s not a complete success, but it manages to add a satisfying amount of strategy without skimping on the action, which is a feat that I’m shocked no one has managed before. The ending promises a sequel, and I can only hope that the developers work the bugs out of their concept by then so that they can establish this as a whole new subgenre of the twin-stick shooter.

That's not to say that it won't provide a few diverting hours of stylus-rubbing and microphone-blowing, but don't expect anything but a standard "part two" effort without a lot of meat to it.

To be fair, Lords of the Fallen isn't terrible in any way, it just fails to measure up to its inspiration by every conceivable measure, save perhaps "easier."

Is Jurassic World Evolution worth the price of admission? That’s tough to answer. On one hand, I look forward to dinosauring (as I call it) every night, especially after I’d unlocked the challenge-free sandbox which allows me to build the park of my dreams without limits, but unlocking every piece of technology and every species of dino means slogging through an uninspired campaign. It’s frustrating, but there’s still nothing like watching a newly-hatched T. rex roar her way out into the world.

With solid JRPG gameplay and surprisingly accessible mechanics, I was shocked by how much I got out of my time with Digimon World: Next Order. I will say, however, that the game will probably be most appreciated by those with a strong affection for whimsical nonsense — two of the game’s main characters are a dignified kung-fu cat and a tiny caveman whose hair completely obscures his features, and the most bizarre transformation involved a spike-shelled walrus evolving into an axe-wielding Frankenstein. This is a solid game, but more than that, it’s a strange one, and that strangeness has to be played to be believed.

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.

Gamers looking for a sizable chunk of new content to burn through should probably steer clear since it’s over in the blink of an eye, but fans of the Saints experience can look forward to something that’s totally bizarre, yet still completely in line with the smart new slant of the series. Also, there are dinosaurs.

Spacejacked is a more than competent platformer/tower defense title that falls short of being truly memorable, but perhaps it's most interesting for its iteration upon and juxtaposition of prominent game ideas, like VVVVVV's gravity-shifting, the retro-cool revival of single-screen arcade games like Woah Dave, and, hell, the main character bears more than a passing resemblance to Gordon Freeman (or am I just going crazy?)

I did not like anything about Wasted. Neither its humor nor its gameplay are adequate to support the irritation of mastering the first dungeon or the tedium of blasting through the subsequent four. I spent many hours beating this game out of sheer spite and didn’t enjoy a single minute of it. Reader, do not repeat my error.

The Complex is good, low budget ride with a lot of heart. Anyone who’s enjoyed the other FMV offerings from Wales Interactive should dive right in.

While I wish the combat was more responsive, Chronos: Before the Ashes more than makes up for it with an interesting setting, a marvelous age mechanic and puzzle content that lends it distinct flavor while keeping the entire experience firmly within the soulslike genre. I’m a huge fan of From’s work, but there’s a lot of room to grow the genre they created, and Gunfire Games has done exactly that here.

While it’s very short, Godstrike concentrates a ton of great moments into its limited running time. The bosses are gorgeously designed, the powers are interesting to mix and match, and there’s even a daily challenge for people to test their skills with randomized powers and perks. It’s visually impressive, it plays well, and just about anyone can jump in and get the hang of things. While I could see some of the truly hardcore scoffing at just how much work Godstrike‘s developers have put in to sand down the bullet hell genre’s rougher edges, the result speaks for itself.

While I wish the developers would give their awful UI a top-to-bottom revamp, anyone who makes it past the initial mess and manages to dig in will find a challenging, persuasive roguelike actioner that delivers an unexpectedly sophisticated good time. The exterior needs a fair amount of elbow grease, but the engine underneath is purring.

Although players expecting a new cast of characters to interact with and another vast stretch of territory to explore may be disappointed, I found this focused revamp to be a welcome change of pace and a very interesting addition to a game already brimming with quality content.

Shootas, Blood &Teef looks fantastic, but unfortunately that beauty comes at a steep price on the Switch. It takes up to two minutes to load into the game proper, with long load times between stages as well. When there are too many foes on the screen, the framerate begins to stutter like a snotling that’s been riddled with dakka. To see if it was a hardware limitation, I played the same stage in the Steam demo version and I encountered none of these issues. The Switch just doesn’t have the oomph to power this beast, and it’s a shame.

Despite how ugly I might find it, there’s no doubt that the gameplay in Session is its strongest suit. The difficulty might not be for everyone, but I urge anyone interested to stick with it and try to embrace what it offers — a sim-like, realistic skating experience. I commend the devs for trying something new and interesting within the genre, and while not as immediately approachable as most games, it’s something that any skating fan should try.

Yes, it feels thin compared to fifty-hour role-playing games and branching platformers that let players choose their own paths. But it's fast and furious; we even get to fly our own spaceships and yell "Ka-pow!" at no one in particular. What more could a ten-year-old boy want?

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.

Monster Monpiece has a few flaws in its design and an underwhelming story mode which caused me to slip into five individual comas during the ludicrously long endgame sequence, but it also provides some thoroughly excellent card battles, especially when taken online against others with a similarly-balanced skillset and deck.

For players who've never had the chance to partake of Metal Slug's particular brand of madness or for those hopelessly devoted to the series, Metal Slug XX will certainly be worth the time invested. For those (like myself) who may still have feelings for the Slugs but can't deny having been there and done that, there's not much reason to sign up for another tour of duty.

Indeed, Fullmetal Alchemist 2 has proven to me that its parent anime is a good show. But I've yet to be convinced that Fullmetal Alchemist 2 is a good game.

Once I recovered from the shock and awe of the T&A, the thoughtful design and satisfying mechanics of Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus had no problem keeping my attention. I'd recommend it to any Vita owner looking for fast action in short bursts, but I'd never let anyone watch over my shoulder, though...

The perfect melding of two genres, Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World succeeds by taking the best elements of both and cutting all the fat. It’s an experience casual enough on both the management and RPG fronts that it’s the perfect game to introduce newcomers to the series. Most importantly, Nelke is in touch with the series’ heart — at every turn, this is a story about how anything can be accomplished if people are willing to work together, and as saccharine as that may sound, the heroine is so guilelessly positive that it works.