Guardian's Scores
- Games
For 1,012 reviews, this publication has graded:
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40% higher than the average critic
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5% same as the average critic
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55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.4 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 75
| Highest review score: | The Last Guardian | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest review score: | Hatred |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 684 out of 1012
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Mixed: 250 out of 1012
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Negative: 78 out of 1012
1021
game
reviews
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- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
The idea of a literal battle of the bands is a good one, and I was always keen to see what the next encounter would look like. But the lack of substance to the actual fights was invariably disappointing. Despite some impressive sights and sounds, in the end No Straight Roads has too many potholes to make its musical journey worth recommending.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 25, 2020
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Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is stuck between abstraction and fan fiction, ambition and restraint. At its best, it’s streamlined; at worst, stifling and predetermined. Give me an Alfie Solomons rum-empire management game, and you’d have my attention.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 20, 2020
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Wherever you go, this game captures the wonder of flight, and the spiritual and emotional rush of seeing the world in a different way.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 17, 2020
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While the game’s style is like a Homeric epic seen through the panel of a comic book, the soundtrack of melancholic twanging guitar complicates the theme to something new and unexpected, a kind of undead western. It’s slickly compelling stuff, if repetitive after a few hours and, invariably, punitive. Yes, in West of Dead, death is an inconvenience rather than a sentence, but it’s one that is often delivered quickly and without reprieve, which makes selecting a “New Run” a little bit harder with each cruel setback.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 16, 2020
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This is an unmissable, sugary treat, bursting with kaleidoscopic entertainment, and is available for £15.99 on Steam and free via PlayStation Now. It’s a perfect entry point to battle royale games for those who are intrigued by their structure but put off by their violent undertones. And even though you can’t play against your family, you can all gather around the TV and enjoy the hilarity of 60 bean-shaped critters trying to simultaneously cram themselves through a narrow doorway, or across a rotating platform. It is lovely to see a game like this – so aware of its own silliness and so aware that it is exactly what we need right now.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 5, 2020
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It might be made of papercraft, but Origami King has a lot of structural integrity, and unexpected depth. If you don’t fold at the tricky battle mechanics, the reward is an elevated, postmodern delight.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 4, 2020
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The primal glee that comes from being cast, for a moment, as the Ur-hunter in a world of cringing prey barely diminishes during the course of the game, and it’s deeply pleasing to master the kind of dripping echoic domain which, in most film and fiction, must be merely survived.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 2, 2020
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It is the striking cel-shaded design, though, that elevates Röki just above games such as Year Walk, which is similarly inspired by Scandinavian folklore. The design enhances minor artistic details – whether it’s snow glistening on a treetop or a hostile character’s imposing shadow – to create a more involving experience. Röki’s pleasing aesthetics are well-matched by an absorbing story that always keeps you on your guard.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 29, 2020
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Unfortunately the game has a few logic issues of its own. A handful of bugs, including one that breaks the game and forces you to retreat to earlier saves, threatens the delicate relationship of trust that exists between player and designer, as each time you get stuck, you question whether the fault lies with your reasoning or simply a glitch. Patches will, no doubt, quickly fix the issues, at which point Beyond a Steel Sky will join its stablemates as a modern classic.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 27, 2020
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While you’ll become overly familiar with the limited number of levels, the arrangement of enemies and power-ups is always different. No two fights feel the same. Like the brilliant Tetris Effect, Superhot deftly sidesteps monotony and instead becomes hypnotic, inducing the zen-like trance state of the archetypal action hero when deep in the throes of violence. Ultimately it doesn’t matter who you’re fighting or why. What matters is the fight itself, the spectacle and the flow. Superhot’s self-directed choreography emerges triumphant; stylish, dynamic and gripping.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 23, 2020
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It would have been wonderful to see this team’s giant imagination expressed through the subversion of, rather than adherence to, well-worn puzzle platform conventions, but perhaps that is just plain greedy. It is, after all, such a treat to find a gorgeous narrative game that owes nothing to the culturally prevalent aesthetics of Disney, Marvel or Studio Ghibli. While the puzzle construction at the heart of Creaks is formulaic, that should not be a disincentive to give this short, singular experience a try. No time with an Amanita Design game is ever wasted.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 22, 2020
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Unlike Assassin’s Creed, which always uses its historical settings as stages for its own eccentric stories, Ghost of Tsushima sticks so closely to the tropes and storylines of classic samurai fiction that it sometimes forgets to have a personality of its own. After I caught myself repeatedly checking my phone out of boredom during the story missions, I decided to abandon them entirely for a while and had a great time chasing foxes, bathing in hot springs, composing deeply average haiku and climbing mountains in search of a legendary bow instead. This is the most beautiful version of Japan ever conjured in code, and when running errands and slashing Mongol spearmen to bits gets tedious, you can always just drink in the view.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 14, 2020
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Friends of Mineral Town remains an engaging, warm and homey experience.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 8, 2020
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With real travel compromised right now, tagging along with Signs of the Sojourner’s caravan is one way to experience the sights and smells of new streets.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 2, 2020
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The Almost Gone draws you in with a sinister family mystery, but its aesthetic beauty and strange, succinct puzzles end up carrying it.- Guardian
- Posted Jun 25, 2020
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It’s a bit fiddly on your phone, but guiding Soviet cosmonaut Ivan through lush jungles and forgotten cities is still a lot of fun.- Guardian
- Posted Jun 18, 2020
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This is an unlikely comparison, but now that I’ve had some time to absorb The Last of Us Part II, it reminds me thematically of Shadow of the Colossus, another game about how consuming grief and anger can be. I was similarly poleaxed by that game’s clever manipulation of the player’s power, the way it also used the language of video games to make you think twice about your actions. The Last of Us Part II is another story that could only work as a game, the kind of challenging, groundbreaking work that comes along two or three times a decade.- Guardian
- Posted Jun 12, 2020
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It’s also a shame that we see none of the main game’s focus on player creativity. Between each level you’re returned to your training camp where you can buy new items and practise with fresh weapons, and it would have been a nice touch to be able to build your own little castle there. But as a retro-tinged hack-and-slash jaunt with plenty of Mojang character and humour, Minecraft Dungeons is a hugely diverting treat that’ll provide hours of fun for locked-down families.- Guardian
- Posted May 26, 2020
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Despite its heavy themes, the game exudes fondness for the region it depicts. Wind whips across sandy beaches, chippies host late-night chats between friends, and Kasio gazes at stars through a broken roof while a house party rages below. Gaelic and local slang pepper the dialogue, alongside a helpful glossary. The sense of place, strength of writing, evocative art and elegant interactions make If Found … a moving drama, beautifully capturing the growing pains of early adulthood.- Guardian
- Posted May 21, 2020
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I have become obsessed with this game in the last week, with the moments of quiet, uninterrupted, intense concentration it has given me at a time when focusing is difficult. The game has a simple concept, executed very well, with precise controls and finely balanced difficulty, but it is the magical ambience and an urge towards self-mastery that keep drawing me back, hurtling downhill with my heart in my mouth.- Guardian
- Posted May 14, 2020
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It doesn’t have the exhilarating freedom of movement, memorable score and eye-catching artistic direction of Abzû, 2016’s excellent tribute to ocean life and mythology, but Beyond Blue hews closer to reality, encouraging learning and reflection on the planet’s last unexplored frontier.- Guardian
- Posted May 6, 2020
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Gears Tactics is a triumphant twist on an old favourite, capturing the fury and spectacle of its shooter-based brethren while also offering a more cerebral experience. Gears has always exhibited shades of American football, from the hypermasculine tone to its disconcertingly swole characters. Now it has the conspicuous brains to match its conspicuous braun.- Guardian
- Posted Apr 30, 2020
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XCOM: Chimera Squad is essentially the Agents of Shield to XCOM 2’s Avengers. It gently plays with the formula, and tells the peripheral stories of a much wider world on a much tighter budget and with much smaller stakes. In other words, it’s XCOM but chilled – and, in these desperate times, that’s just fine.- Guardian
- Posted Apr 23, 2020
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Remaking a universally acclaimed classic was always a fearful responsibility, but like its own sword-wielding heroes, Square Enix has risen to the challenge spectacularly.- Guardian
- Posted Apr 8, 2020
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For the most part, the acting is pretty dismal, as if the cast were exhausted by the number of takes they had to make for each branch path of action. Nevertheless, the always welcome Kate Dickie pops up as the tech company’s CEO and gets to sport a particularly amusing pair of tartan pants – the kind of clothes you dig out of the closet when you have been in isolation for too long.- Guardian
- Posted Apr 2, 2020
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Resident Evil 3 doesn’t quite hit the heights achieved by last year’s reworking of Resident Evil 2 – it fails to gloss over the shortcomings of its forebear. But it is still a well thought-out and nicely executed modern refresh of a survival horror classic – and welcome slab of (almost) escapism to enliven our current house-bound lives.- Guardian
- Posted Apr 2, 2020
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The results of this suffusion are nothing short of spectacular, delivering an expertly crafted Half-Life tale inside a knockout VR experience.- Guardian
- Posted Mar 25, 2020
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Every design detail serves to propel the player forwards with as little friction as possible, with enough surprises and twists to prevent the formula becoming stale. It’s a real delight to be the Doom Slayer: to put everything else aside and focus on just the problem in front of you. Especially if that problem is a swarm of angry demons.- Guardian
- Posted Mar 19, 2020
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Peppered with devious puzzles, Ori and the Will of the Wisp is an irresistible challenge. There is extraordinary attention to detail – the entire world feels alive with excitement and danger. I struggled to put down the controller as I progressed deeper into the game, unable and unwilling to let anything stand in the way of Ori realising his true destiny. A bold and ambitious sequel.- Guardian
- Posted Mar 18, 2020
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Animal Crossing is everything I have been craving: it is gentle, soothing, social and creative, and my group chats are already buzzing with hype about beetles and villager fashions. If there was ever a perfect time for a game such as this, that time is now.- Guardian
- Posted Mar 16, 2020
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Size Five delivers both classic platforming and point-and-click adventuring in this self-aware and deeply anglocentric caper.- Guardian
- Posted Mar 5, 2020
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This comfortable but clunky reboot of the part farming simulator, part dungeon crawler, part life sim is very much a product of its time.- Guardian
- Posted Feb 27, 2020
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Dreams nonetheless still offers a set of powerful, enjoyable tools at a low price and hours of fantastic tutorials. Adults may find the presentation a little too charmed by its own whimsy, especially in light of the tension between an art for art’s sake message and a commercial walled garden. Yet it’s likely to encourage many younger players to bring their own dreams to life.- Guardian
- Posted Feb 20, 2020
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There’s a fine line between playfully obtuse instructions and infuriatingly vague game design. Being unable to complete a task because it’s challenging is one thing, but not knowing exactly what the task is (and being blocked from doing it by bugs) is another. Table Manners has a brilliant premise and provides incisively funny commentary on modern romance but, just like when a Tinder date doesn’t match their profile and then proceeds to behave inexplicably, sometimes you just want to make your excuses and leave.- Guardian
- Posted Feb 14, 2020
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With gruesome visuals and a shameless B-movie narrative, this Nazi-bashing survival game offers little more than mindless mayhem – but that’s what we enlisted for.- Guardian
- Posted Feb 6, 2020
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Strangely, for all the noise Savage Planet makes, its strongest moments are its quietest. There’s an element of silent theatre to the way your character communicates his goofy personality through his hands, while the world design is spotted with pleasing flourishes, such as trees bearing foliage that transforms into butterflies. In the end, it’s little touches like this, rather than the more in-your-face moments, that lend Savage Planet the dash of flavour it spends so much energy searching for.- Guardian
- Posted Jan 30, 2020
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If you have a Switch, Tokyo Mirage Sessions is an essential purchase – and if you harbour a fondness for anime and its aesthetic, it is worth buying a Switch for. This is, simply, the first cult-classic game of 2020.- Guardian
- Posted Jan 24, 2020
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Like Katamari Damacy, Wattam is a feast of visual gags and imagination. But Takahashi’s newest project ultimately doesn’t have the necessary depth of gameplay to transform itself into more than a silly yet loveable romp.- Guardian
- Posted Jan 17, 2020
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Transport Fever 2 doesn’t need to be a firebrand vehicle for climate activism, but having such themes inform the systems more closely would give it a little more personality and relevance. As it stands, this is a pleasant if not particularly distinctive game that may provide frustrated commuters with hours of transport therapy.- Guardian
- Posted Jan 9, 2020
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With X-COM, Firaxis took a punishing, impenetrable strategy game and made it slick, cool and thrilling; a dynamic sci-fi beast with muscular jaws. Phoenix Point has double the number of teeth but a less effective bite. The devil may be in the detail, but the drama is in the edit. Phoenix Point feels like it’s a draft short of greatness.- Guardian
- Posted Dec 13, 2019
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With so much emphasis on art and audio, there was always a risk of style over substance. But the almost hypnotic blend of rhythmic tapping and gliding create a compelling flow state experience – at least that’s when you manage to master it.- Guardian
- Posted Dec 6, 2019
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If you played the first two games, the way Shenmue III uses modern technology to restablish the classic lore and gameplay may just bring tears to your eyes. It will certainly remind you of Suzuki’s genius. Certainly, it contains eccentricities that feel old-fashioned, but it also offers epic, immersive and calming escapism. For gamers of a certain age, it’s the ultimate nostalgia trip.- Guardian
- Posted Nov 29, 2019
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In relaunching a much-loved and much-missed Star Wars genre, Fallen Order does exactly what it set out to. It reaches the bar, but then stops, with a set of characters and adventures that are not particularly intriguing or fresh, but certainly feel like they come from that very particularly galaxy, far, far away.- Guardian
- Posted Nov 14, 2019
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Above all, Death Stranding is a sermon on the importance of belief. The power of putting one foot in front of another when hope looks lost, in the belief that things will get better. By working together, a series of small intentional steps can make a difference, and in this often fractured, angry and confusing world; that’s as hopeful as it gets.- Guardian
- Posted Nov 1, 2019
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A slickly produced, well constructed military shooter filled with thrilling set-pieces and moments of fraught tension. It’s also a good run-and-gun online shooter, which wants to bring something fresh to the way online team-based competition works in this genre but isn’t quite there yet – new maps will inevitably follow.- Guardian
- Posted Oct 31, 2019
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Like many of Nintendo’s best-loved franchises, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is imaginative, humorous and highly inventive. It may be nearly two decades old but the series continues to evolve in pleasing ways.- Guardian
- Posted Oct 31, 2019
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More than just Fallout in space, this action-RPG is a delightful sci-fi romp with razor-sharp writing, lashings of humour and enough content to entertain you for months.- Guardian
- Posted Oct 24, 2019
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While wildly ornate, Autonauts is in equal parts playful, welcoming and charming. It is comparable to the cute farming sim Stardew Valley, yet it is very much its own game. And in the taste it gives you of thinking like a creative coder, it is in its own quiet way empowering and exciting.- Guardian
- Posted Oct 17, 2019
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There’s nothing wrong with a game making you work hard before it yields rewards, but Ghost Recon Breakpoint takes that principle so far that, in its early stages at least, playing it is a chore. The latest iteration of Ubisoft’s future-soldier open-world shooter has plenty of good points, but those are marred by basic elements that so broken that the game feels like a backward step from Ghost Recon: Wildlands (2017).- Guardian
- Posted Oct 10, 2019
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We Met in May is done in an hour, but like Freeman’s other explorations of self-conscious longing and ardour, it lingers in the mind.- Guardian
- Posted Oct 2, 2019
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- Posted Sep 25, 2019
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Only two or three hours long, Goose Game doesn’t overstay its welcome, though there is an expanded list of small mischiefs to accomplish post-credits, if you still wish to continue terrorising the innocent. Certainly not fowl, most definitely worth a gander, it’s a whimsical little game full of charm and joy and a wonderful experience for just about anyone.- Guardian
- Posted Sep 23, 2019
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Those new to Borderlands will find some aspects confusing at first – Borderlands 3 is minimal when it comes to tutorials – but if they persist, they will end up luxuriating in the joyous, tongue-in-cheek, comic book-influenced fun it provides. Sure, it fails to turn the franchise into something new and futuristic in gameplay terms. But why would it, when its original conception was already immaculate?- Guardian
- Posted Sep 20, 2019
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Link’s Awakening is a fantastic remake of a game that was fantastic in 1993. Fans must decide for themselves if those two things combine to make it a fantastic game in 2019 – particularly when the glorious Cadence of Hyrule is also on the Switch to scratch the itch you may have for 2D Zelda – and at a third of the price.- Guardian
- Posted Sep 20, 2019
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Sony has sold millions of its PlayStation VR headsets and until now it’s been tough to recommend one experience as a killer app. Soulful, technically proficient and at times almost tearfully beautiful, No Man’s Sky Beyond is as close as we’ll get.- Guardian
- Posted Sep 12, 2019
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Given the lack of subtlety Gears titles have shown so far, the way Gears 5 seeds these ideas into a knockabout action-adventure is impressive. Admittedly, few of the ideas are new, but how the Coalition brings them together under the skull-and-cog banner is surprising and refreshing, making this the most well-oiled Gears in a decade.- Guardian
- Posted Sep 6, 2019
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Knights and Bikes captures the nostalgia of British childhood holidays in worn-down caravan parks and small-scale adventures in seaside towns. Designed to be played with a friend, with both of you tapping a button to careen around on extremely 80s bikes, it is energetic and charming enough to make you laugh all the way through.- Guardian
- Posted Sep 5, 2019
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It’s as though Remedy challenged itself to cram every preposterous paranormal concept it could think of into a single game. But remarkably, it all manages to hang together, providing a meaty, exciting and utterly unforgettable video game experience.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 30, 2019
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Oninaki’s sin, then, is to be so achingly close to quality and yet so far; to have almost everything needed for a top-tier role-playing game – an interesting premise, hauntingly evocative aesthetics, a deep and complex approach to combat – only to be betrayed by fundamental issues that keep it tied to this earthly realm.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 29, 2019
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There’s plenty of intrigue here, and in better circumstances you’d want to spend more time with the characters in order to understand their perspectives. But by the fifth time you’ve opened a lock that could have so easily have opened automatically, all you really want to do is find the quickest possible route to the exit.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 23, 2019
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Telling Lies requires a deliberateness from its players that turns us from viewers to active plot participants. It’s a game that doesn’t hold your hand, and ultimately it’s down to you to decide the truth – another secret of a good mystery done well.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 22, 2019
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This is a game from another time, best enjoyed with your brain switched off, some friends to laugh with, and perhaps a bottle of extremely cheap spirits.- Guardian
- Posted Aug 15, 2019
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An absorbing thriller with a splash of They Live and The Goonies, this spooky multiplayer game has you investigating paranormal goings-on in suburbia.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 31, 2019
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It all adds up to a new lease of life for one of Nintendo’s younger series, bolstered by revised combat and a gorgeous new look that endows these 3D characters with the grace and style of older games’ portrait art. By turns grandiose and silly, but always engrossing, this bubbling school soap opera is a game to spend a summer with.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 25, 2019
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Youngblood is adolescent in all the right ways, anarchic and ferocious on the surface with thoughtful design running underneath. Characters Jess and Soph are loud, goofy and annoying, but that’s exactly as they should be. Some of the writing is a little iffy, and you won’t find much in the way of nuanced storytelling, but to be honest it isn’t required. This a game about two young women blasting racists into goo – for me, that equals a bloody good time.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 25, 2019
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Euphoric is the best word for Tetris Effect. It makes my skin tingle and my mind sink into a state of receptive bliss. It is, somehow, a puzzle game about the extraordinary experience of being alive on this Earth. And if that sounds totally insane: try it. You’ll soon understand.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 19, 2019
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This is a very slow game, and while I enjoyed the gentle journey, the constant stream of new things to learn sometimes made me feel as though I were trapped in an endless tutorial. But breaking up your list of tasks with some independent creation and exploration time makes it a lot more tolerable. After completing a long series of main missions, I unwound by creating my own dream cabin and garden, as the villagers built a huge pyramid. (It was not lost on me that this division of labour seemed entirely unfair.) That gentle back-and-forth between idle creative play and world-saving missions makes Dragon Quest Builders 2 absorbing and likable.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 11, 2019
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This has clearly been a work of catharsis for its designer, blending the two to say something personal and important. By opening up about the lived experience of depression and focusing on the causes rather than the solutions, Cornelia Geppert and the team at Jo-Mei have created something that truly resonates.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 5, 2019
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The intrigues that play out between its often bizarre but always interesting characters and factions, and underwater sequences that see Reed in a 1920s diving suit, are highly absorbing. Its narrative puts the boot into religious cults, and Lovecraft would surely not have approved of its ruminations on racism. It also tackles Depression-era deprivation, which is pretty apposite in today’s world. The Sinking City is original, commendably thought-provoking and deliciously gothic, but aspects of it feel either half-finished or ill thought-out. Had it pruned just a little of its ambition, it could have had more than cult appeal.- Guardian
- Posted Jul 2, 2019
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As befits the official Formula One game, F1 2019 is certainly up there with the very best serious motorsport games. You won’t find one that looks better or provides more convincing car-handling, and yet its optional driver aids mean you don’t need to be as skilled as a real F1 driver to feel like the next Lewis Hamilton.- Guardian
- Posted Jun 27, 2019
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My Friend Pedro offers the syrupy concentrate of Hollywood’s most epic fighting movies, with you as the star stunt performer.- Guardian
- Posted Jun 25, 2019
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Cadence of Hyrule is a potent combination of nostalgic looks, creative takes on emotionally charged Zelda music and unusual, rhythm-powered moment-to-moment play. Stylish and excellent fun, this tribute captures the excitement and sense of discovery that makes Zelda what it is: a real adventure.- Guardian
- Posted Jun 20, 2019
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- Posted Jun 13, 2019
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This game is an idiosyncratic joy – a brash, clever, juvenile head-trip, messy at the edges but all the more likable for it. It is loaded with brilliant pop-culture references, channeling not just Adams, 2000AD and Tank Girl, but also anime and 90s industrial dance music. Void Bastards is Cowboy Bebop meets Trainspotting, on a night out, in a galaxy of death.- Guardian
- Posted May 29, 2019
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There are still moments when you unfairly plummet from first to sixth in three seconds, but that frustration is as much a part of this genre as cartoonish platforming heroes looking for a lucrative side gig. Just go with the flow.- Guardian
- Posted May 22, 2019
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- Posted May 22, 2019
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It successfully pays homage to a fondly remembered old game while adding something meaningful, making you think like a con, plan your crimes and improvise escapes when those plans go awry.- Guardian
- Posted May 21, 2019
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Total War: Three Kingdoms is a wonderfully torrid period epic that understands the greatest stories are written about people, not empires.- Guardian
- Posted May 16, 2019
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Rage 2 suffers the same fate as many other open-world games. It tries to lure the player in with the size of its world, then needs to conjure an abundance of content to fill it. But, when you mix up every colour, you always end up with brown, and the impact of Rage 2’s scintillating shooter action is dulled as a result.- Guardian
- Posted May 14, 2019
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If anything, this fictionalised version of his life is less dramatic than the reality, but it’s a lively and surprising comedy that portrays a weird slice of Shakespeare’s London with modern wit.- Guardian
- Posted May 9, 2019
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Yet this is comfortably the best Mortal Kombat in a long time. Played competitively against another person, it’s great, and the single-player experience is the most accomplished of any recent fighter.- Guardian
- Posted Apr 30, 2019
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Days Gone is a derivative but enjoyable action-adventure with a beautiful environment, using AI and physics to create exciting moments of procedural entertainment. But its familiar tale of mankind struggling to re-create society after the end of the world and its romantic through-line are haphazardly structured and under-written, and the characters are too busy calling each other sons of bitches and assholes to say or do anything moving, original or profound. This is a game of fun and fury – it’s thrilling at times, but it signifies nothing.- Guardian
- Posted Apr 25, 2019
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If you’re at a point in life where you have frequent long evenings or empty weekends to throw at its mountainous challenges, you will find here an exquisite game whose subtle themes, gradually unfurling mysteries and beautiful samurai-period sights reward the determined and skilled player. Otherwise, Sekiro is a stubbornly locked treasure chest. It’s as if the Lord of the Rings had only been published in Tolkein’s own Elvish, unreadable without long hours of gruelling study.- Guardian
- Posted Apr 12, 2019
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Telltale’s The Walking Dead might not have invented this style of meaningful narrative adventure, but it certainly popularised it. It is tragic that its popularity led the studio’s leaders to run it into the ground, badly overstretching its staff on endless similar projects from Batman to Borderlands to Minecraft. The circumstances of this final ending are disappointing and unfair. But if The Walking Dead has taught us anything, it’s that things don’t always end well.- Guardian
- Posted Mar 26, 2019
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- Posted Mar 19, 2019
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As I sat late into the night, clicking through strange websites, discovering secret pages and file-sharing boards, reading about online fallouts between made-up strangers, I was reminded so strongly of my teenage late nights on the weird internet that I felt temporarily unmoored. It is an extraordinary feat of scene-setting, and totally unlike anything I’ve ever played before.- Guardian
- Posted Mar 14, 2019
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DMC5 is a lot like Dante himself: older, grizzled, more experienced, yet still unapologetically juvenile in the best possible way. It’s bloody, spectacular and irresistible, all cheesy one-liners, guns, swords and explosions while guitars scream in the background, and it plays like a dream. Director Hideaki Itsuno and his team have delivered: Devil May Cry is back.- Guardian
- Posted Mar 6, 2019
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Those who have enjoyed Dead or Alive games in the past will love Dead or Alive 6 – it looks and feels like it always did, but with state-of-the-art graphics and engine technology. Unfortunately, the fact that it has also preserved the tone of its predecessors will limit its appeal.- Guardian
- Posted Mar 4, 2019
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On the bike, though, Trials Rising is close to flawless, a demanding, absorbing and occasionally rage-inducing game that will serve you up an exciting challenge for as long as you can take it.- Guardian
- Posted Feb 28, 2019
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Even where it is strongest, Anthem rarely stretches beyond the derivative. The combat, while well-designed, is little more than Gears of War with jetpacks, and narratively it veers between inconsequential and downright irritating. This anthem is, sadly, a tedious and conservative dirge that we’ve all heard before- Guardian
- Posted Feb 21, 2019
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The Stillness of the Wind is not quite as elegant as it could be; the writing is heavy handed and confusing dream sequences don’t contribute much to its atmosphere of contemplative loneliness. Yet this unusual game encourages thinking about old age in a unique and provocative way.- Guardian
- Posted Feb 18, 2019
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This is the battle royale genre pitilessly trimmed to its wildest moments, where every encounter is a riot of explosive jump-cut hyper-violence. It is not for the faint of heart or slow of trigger-finger.- Guardian
- Posted Feb 15, 2019
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Really, it’s the kind of game that’s best enjoyed when you don’t think about it very hard. It’ll make 12-15 hours disappear in an ever-escalating sequence of rooftop-spanning leaps of faith, easily conquered shootouts and cartoonish face-offs against supervillains and giant robots. It’s as moreish as popcorn, and exactly as substantial.- Guardian
- Posted Feb 14, 2019
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As Exodus’ story draws to a close and the pace picks up, the world becomes narrower and more directed, and a final chapter takes players to the most dangerous Metro location yet. Here Exodus exposes you to the full horror of the apocalypse, as the experience takes on a surreal, otherworldly quality. It’s an excellent conclusion – haunting, frightening, and desperately sad. Yet even in this dead and desolate place, faint embers of hope still linger.- Guardian
- Posted Feb 13, 2019
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Perhaps it was inevitable that after such a long time, the conclusion to this story would ring slightly hollow, even rather facile, after all the prior build-up. I’ve been through 13 years of life, but it turns out that Sora got to skip all of that. Kingdom Hearts III plays it extremely safe, ultimately banking on nostalgia and delivering more of the same. Its charm is only skin-deep.- Guardian
- Posted Feb 6, 2019
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Sunless Skies doesn’t paint an entirely convincing picture of interplanetary travel. Your locomotive, for instance, sails between points on a flat surface, giving it the feel of seafaring with a cosmic paint job. But better to compromise there than in style, imagination and atmosphere. Sunless Skies has that in spades.- Guardian
- Posted Jan 31, 2019
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For veterans who remember the original (and I reviewed it at the time), it is an unmissable nostalgic treat. For those who don’t know their T-Viruses from their Code Veronicas, the experience is easily vivid and entertaining enough to stand on its own merits. This is horror game design as true craft.- Guardian
- Posted Jan 22, 2019
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Comfort would increasingly slip into boredom as I watched the timers on my machines creep down. More than once I left my PC to make a cup of tea, letting the game run and the timers tick by themselves. I could feel the game’s pacing jarring with my own tempo of play, but, despite that, I’m constantly drawn back to Portia. This kind of relaxing escapism is exactly what’s needed when the real world feels like such an endless mess.- Guardian
- Posted Jan 16, 2019
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The further you delve into New Super Mario Bros U, the more rewarding it becomes. Its final worlds hold some of its best levels, and there are plenty of fun secrets to enliven the second or third attempt at a level. But it’s hard to summon the motivation to devote that much time to it. It’s typically well-made and enjoyable, but next to the best of the Mario series, it’s unmemorable.- Guardian
- Posted Jan 9, 2019
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Though its narrative could use more teeth, as a sensory experience GRIS is hard to beat and the most striking looking game of 2018.- Guardian
- Posted Dec 21, 2018
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