GameCritics' Scores

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For 4,097 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 37% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 57% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Citizen Sleeper
Lowest review score: 0 Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,967 out of 4097
  2. Mixed: 1,534 out of 4097
  3. Negative: 596 out of 4097
4103 game reviews
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    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Forza Motorsport 7
    It truly bothers me that I had to spend half this review talking about loot crates and in-game economics. I would’ve much rather spent this space talking about the fantastic driving experience, the way the game can be tailored to any desired skill level with the bevy of options, the incredible car customization (when applicable), the beautiful graphics, the astounding attention to detail in the car models, and the sheer, unrelenting car-porn that Forza 7 provides. On the other hand, anyone who’s paid attention to this series already knows this — not much has changed, and the stuff that has changed like the VIP support, currency manipulation and the homologated career mode will leave longtime fans perplexed why this route was taken. Forza 7 is a fantastic driving title that can’t stop tripping over itself, and its majestic driving experience is overshadowed by a lack of new ideas and suspicious economic decisions.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lydia
    While I actually felt sympathy for the monster even though I didn’t doubt the girl’s condemnation of it, Lydia still manages to land a heavy emotional blow with admirable economy thanks to its expressive art and skillful storytelling. It’s a strong, sharp jab of a game, and well worth it for anyone willing to take the punch in the gut.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Let Them Come
    With a better upgrade/weapons system and slightly nerfed bosses, Let Them Come would be a fine experience — the kind of quick diversion players could drop into for a few minutes of alien slaughter here and there. Unfortunately, at some point in development the decision was made to prioritize challenge and droning repetition over playability, and the result is a title that can only be enjoyed by players who like spending time with games that hate them.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
    Dragon’s Dogma isn’t just a fantastic time, full of superb adventuring and uncharacteristically accomplished combat. It’s also one that’s stood up incredibly well over the years, feeling every bit as fresh and unique as when it debuted in the previous generation. It really says something that after hundreds of hours and dozens of completions later, I was more than willing to drop everything and get stuck back in to this remaster. It may have aged a little visually, but its combat and reward-heavy exploration have proven themselves evergreen, standing out from the competition even now.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Perception
    By Perception’s conclusion, I’d witnessed several generations of families who’d lived in this mysterious estate, how they meshed together and found Cassie’s link to them. Some were more interesting than others, but Perception ends up dragging on for too long with too little intrigue to carry it through. Had it been half as long and experimented more with the applications of Cassie’s blindness, Perception could’ve been a fascinating experience. What I actually got was the chance to stumble around in the dark for six hours, which is about as enjoyable as it sounds.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Cuphead
    Playing Cuphead on the easier difficulty reveals that the game’s challenge level is the only trick up its sleeve. Take that away, and all we’re left with is an uninspired and monotonous run-and-gun that just happens to be the most visually-striking release of 2017. Yes, Cuphead’s presentation is magnificent — it’s just a shame that StudioMDHR couldn’t come up with an interesting game to pair with it.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 35 Critic Score
    Inmates
    As an exploration title the environments are dull, and navigating them is a chore. As a puzzle game, it’s a cakewalk. As a narrative, the framework of a solid concept is spoiled by poor presentation and pacing. As a horror game, it’s not scary. What Andreasyan was able to create here all by himself couldn’t have been simple or easy, but tell that to the person who has thousands of Steam games to choose from and a finite amount of time and money to spend on them.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Axiom Verge
    Putting the lack of new content aside, Axiom Verge is just as good now as it was in 2015, and it also pulls off the rare feat of being incredibly imaginative while also paying obvious homage to its inspiration. Thomas Happ clearly loves Metroid a whole lot, but his outstanding art design and musical talents keep the game he spent five years of his life on from feeling like a knockoff. Anyone with a Switch who hasn’t played Axiom Verge yet will find a polished adventure that would be a great addition to their library — just don’t leave it in the backlog pile.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ruiner
    This feeling of style over substance largely describes Ruiner in total — the aesthetics are on point, but style alone can’t carry a game. It’s a shame that it fizzles out so soon after starting, but I’m left with the sense that this studio will be turning out great things in the future… they’re just not quite there yet. If their next project manages to bring gameplay as rich as their visuals, it’ll be a real crackerjack.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    JYDGE
    JYDGE isn’t very long, but it’s incredibly wide, and its winking embrace of ’80s-style ultraviolence should charm both devotees of the franchises that inspired it and anyone who can appreciate a clever shooter.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    SteamWorld Dig 2
    SteamWorld Dig 2 is adorable, polished, smart, and basically nails everything that counts. It’s a joy to spend time with work like this, and all I can say to Image & Form is…. Well done!
    • 79 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Hob
    Does Hob serve itself by obfuscating its path and story as much as it does? I don’t think the experience is better for these choices. Forcing the player to bang their head repeatedly against the walls of the world undercuts, rather than strengthens, the game’s considerable charm. The inability to clearly communicate also interferes with the intended emotion of the finale, giving a supposedly solemn choice a silly prelude that doesn’t lay out the stakes in any intelligible way.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Blue Reflection
    Blue Reflection is incredibly upfront about what it’s trying to accomplish here — it’s explicitly about the real dangers to life and limb that can be caused by depression and negative emotional states, and it’s also about the importance of reaching out to those who are suffering and trying to make their lives better. I can’t say that I’ve seen many games with the same goal, but I enjoyed making the world a better place. The experience is sweet, funny, intense, and one of the most fundamentally good-hearted titles I’ve seen in ages.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    NHL 18
    Though NHL 18 is a solid, enjoyable title that will likely appeal to old and new hockey game fans alike, there’s little innovation on display — the developers only deliver minor improvements and necessary tweaks. In order to make the series relevant again, EA needs to find a way to revolutionize the gameplay. It pains me to say, but it’s not 1994 anymore and expectations have changed. As much as I enjoyed my time with NHL 18, I would rather see the series get benched for a few years and come back with something truly new rather than another installment of more-of-the-same.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Freedom Planet
    The most impressive thing about Freedom Planet is just how good it feels. It feels great to find the correct sequence of actions to send Lilac rocketing through a level at warp speed. It feels great hearing each song on the excellent soundtrack for the first time. It feels great to nail the perfect spin dash on an enemy and absolutely shred it. That type of exhilaration is rare and worthy of praise. There’s no shortage of retro-style games that will charm one’s socks off with beautiful sprites and catchy tunes, but to combine all of that with such a deep mechanical understanding of those old Genesis platformers is a remarkable feat. GalaxyTrail, please take a bow.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Culdcept Revolt
    While it requires a fair time investment to get sunk in and the AI could definitely stand to have its fangs pulled out, Culdcept Revolt offers a wonderfully rich tabletop experience that would be impossible to replicate on a tabletop. It’s unlike almost anything else available today.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Auto Age: Standoff
    Auto Age is a fascinating misfire, making one weird mistake after another. This talented group of developers generate a wonderful setting and engineer great control mechanics for exploring a world, and then cram it all into the most ill-fitting genre possible for the foundation they’ve laid. I don’t know what convinced them to aim so low with their concept, but Auto Age: Standoff is an experience that’s only a shadow of what the intro and tutorial suggest it should be.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Everybody's Golf
    I do love this series and I certainly didn’t have a bad time playing it, but this entry is lacking in the pizzazz that the earlier entries had. The Golf Island overworld adds nothing to the experience, and the amount of grinding to unlock new things is downright ridiculous. That said, the core golfing is still highly enjoyable, it’s nicely priced nicely at $40, and frankly, there’s no competition on the market. As such, Everybody’s Golf is everybody’s golf by default — newcomers will find it solid, but longtime fans like me might wish for days gone by.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite
    As surprising as it is given how unappealing the package initially looks, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite is a decent brawler when all’s said and done. It may look borderline repulsive in spots, have a subpar soundtrack and be sporting a less interesting roster than previous iterations (and no, there’s still no sign of Sheva Alomar or Regina from Dino Crisis) but the fights are enjoyably high-octane affairs with solid mechanics, and as cliché as it might sound, that’s really what it’s all about at the end of the day.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Lion's Song
    While the fourth chapter disappoints with superfluous wrapup and temporal confusion, the three other chapters of The Lion’s Song offer engaging tales of creative struggle and triumph. In their best moments, they convey the sense of being in a city enjoying the full bloom of artistic and intellectual development, where new sciences and new approaches to art might connect and transform each other, and that’s a kind of excitement games rarely capture.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Jettomero: Hero of the Universe
    In its current state, it’s about 15 minutes’ worth of gameplay stretched out into a bland, lifeless four hours, and it faux-finishes with a blank stare when the content runs out. I hate to see something so promising get rushed out the door when it is so clearly not ready for prime time, but it is what it is. And it’s a shame.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    X-Morph: Defense
    While X-Morph: Defense may not reinvent its wheel, nearly every decision it makes is a smart and correct one, and this out-of-nowhere project with a dull-sounding title really hums. It’s fast and furious, yet this wonderfully-crafted tower defense/shmup hybrid does everything it can to be a welcoming, player-positive experience that doesn’t sacrifice the quality of its strategy or the intensity of moment-to-moment play. X-Morph: Defense might need to spend a little more on PR, but don’t let the lack of buzz disguise the fact that it is absolutely worth the of the price of admission.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Don't Knock Twice
    I would have rated Don’t Knock Twice a little higher if the weird dwarf bug hadn’t forced me to switch to a television, but even setting that flaw aside, there’s not much special here. As a haunted house simulator it delivers a few high-quality scares, but never really challenges the player with its mysteries or makes them feel involved in the story. It’s creepy enough for anyone looking to be unnerved as Halloween season creeps closer, but that’s all it has to offer.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Darkest Dungeon: The Crimson Court
    Darkest Dungeon: Crimson Edition is a great version of a great game for those who haven’t already experienced it, and fortunately, specific elements of the DLC can be turned on or off to allow new players to ease their way into the new material of the added DLC after becoming familiar with the base game. For those who enjoy a challenge, Darkest Dungeon delivers.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Warriors All-Stars
    On one level, it’s incredibly satisfying just to see popular characters from various franchises hanging out with one another. Especially when the franchises are as incredibly different as these – what could William from Nioh possibly have to say to Ayane from Ninja Gaiden? A lot more than one would think, apparently. Beyond the fan-friendly concept, the developers have put together one of the strongest and most playable musou titles, ever, and is a beautiful thing that will satisfy both genre fans and newcomers alike.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 35 Critic Score
    Defenders of Ekron
    As the game progressed, the boss battles I enjoyed turned into chores, and while it’s possible to replay levels to earn resources and improve the ship, this type of grinding isn’t something I want in a shmup. Ultimately Defenders of Ekron just didn’t do enough to keep me interested despite great artistic direction and strong beats early on. My desire to defend Ekron ended well before the republic could be saved.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire
    Fallen Legion‘s combat is fast without being overwhelming, and the timed choices added an emotional depth to the decisions I made. While I wanted control over the story in places where I didn’t have any and I wasn’t quite sold on some of the twists, that’s only because I was so fond of the character — it’s more a weakness of overambition than an actual failure. I enjoyed my time in Fenumia, and would enjoy some more.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Tooth and Tail
    The concept is great, I love the aesthetics, and the goal of streamlining the RTS genre and making it more approachable is one that I can get behind. And in truth, Pocketwatch has been largely successful! However, I’d recommend it only on the strength of the multiplayer. The campaign’s lack of in-game information, AI with too much advantage, and spiking difficulty curve make it tough to embrace. Perhaps RTS vets will disagree with me, but as a mostly-console player coming to this project, it’s got to go a little further to meet me halfway.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    WindJammers
    In the end, Windjammers is a mechanically interesting experience that still feels fresh 23 years after its release, but this PS4 edition doesn’t include much to enhance the original. As it stands, Windjammers is enjoyable for an afternoon with friends, but it doesn’t offer much to hook players for the long term.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Last Day of June
    Despite Last Day of June‘s slightly boring mid-game errands, its breathtaking art style and narrative payoff left a lasting impression on me. If it were streamlined a tiny bit more and had some fat trimmed, it would be a truly remarkable work. Although I do recommend it, there’s some room for improvement here.
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