Irish Independent's Scores

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For 136 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 41% higher than the average critic
  • 8% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 79
Highest review score: 100 UFO 50
Lowest review score: 40 Lost Soul Aside
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 97 out of 136
  2. Mixed: 36 out of 136
  3. Negative: 3 out of 136
136 game reviews
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    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Split Fiction
    Split Fiction has an infectious, humorous energy that rarely flags. Even if the gameplay ingredients feel like a greatest-hits compendium, the enforced co-operation brews them into a heady cocktail of entertainment.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Monster Hunter Wilds
    Wilds is a tasty meal but made with a few insipid ingredients that water down its flavour.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Stone of Madness
    The developers build an evocative monastic backdrop using painterly visuals and a cast of eccentric characters, overlaid with stealth mechanics and puzzle solving. Nonetheless, some glitchy animations and wonky interface design hint at a limited budget for playtesting. The Stone of Madness may not have the panache and depth of say, Shadow Gambit, but it’s an unorthodox prison sentence worth serving.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Avowed
    Sure, Avowed has a sense of the familiar in its squad RPG tropes. It draws on a long lineage that stretches from Skyrim to Mass Effect to, more recently, Dragon Age Veilguard. But it playfully weaves its elements into an enthralling fabric that wraps you up and won’t let you go.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sniper Elite: Resistance
    It's not that Resistance is impossible to resist but this war machine has been finely honed over several instalments and offers a thrilling if predictable ride.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
    By aiming for authenticity and committing to character growth by repetition, Deliverance II walks a dangerous tightrope. Its uncompromising nature won’t be videogamey enough for many players and wilfully renders some components such as combat unappealing.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Eternal Strands
    Eternal Strands offers minimal handholding and opens a vast world to explore, so you’re often left fumbling around in empty spaces to discover the path to your next quest. But even this padding just leaves you yearning for the next exhilarating encounter you know will be around the corner.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Donkey Kong Country Returns HD
    Taken in isolation, DKC Returns HD stands as a generously endowed 2D side-scrolling platformer in the grand tradition of the series. Colourful and punchy, it taxes the reflexes and the brain via 80 levels densely packed with hazards, secrets and optional challenges.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered
    Aspyr offers a selection of concept art, lost levels, soundtracks and videos – all of which will be doubtlessly manna to fans of the original. But compared to more rounded remasters from the likes of Digital Eclipse, Legend of Kain might better have been left preserved in aspic than pulled screaming a quarter century into the future.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer
    If Fitness Boxing 3 gets you moving even a little bit more than usual, perhaps that’s job done. But you might just as well look up a few boxercise videos on YouTube and save your money for a new pair of trainers.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
    A steady drumbeat of patches has eliminated the worst excesses of the underlying code. But it will still take a long uphill march for Asobo to crest the summit of its ambitions. For now, this flight is just struggling to get off the ground.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tetris Forever
    Even if the revelations are few and far between here, Tetris Forever always has the game to fall back on – you’re never more than a couple of button presses away from losing hours to another pleasurable round of shape-shifting shenanigans.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    VENDETTA FOREVER
    Think of this as an homage to audacious action cinema – from the likes of Hong Kong director John Woo – but remember you are no passive observer. You will need to practise, practise, practise. Kill or be killed. Repeat to fade. Yet forever irresistible.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
    Perhaps The Great Circle never again quite hits that fabulous high bar of the Vatican locations but as the enthralling remaining hours roll on, you never regret the time spent in Indy’s company – or, more accurately, being Indy.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
    It has constructed a fascinatingly hostile and deliberately unstable environment. But the lack of strong characterisation, the clumsy interface and the sheer anarchy of the world are obstacles to truly enjoying being in the zone.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dragon Age: The Veilguard
    Some players found Baldur’s Gate 3 intimidating in terms of its flexibility and so Veilguard will be more comforting to many in its tendency towards an on-rails experience. The sumptuous art direction and thrilling combat go a long way to hiding the reality in Veilguard that your influence and choices in the world are often quite limited.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
    There’s a very understandable reason why Black Ops 6 has performed noticeably better at the tills compared to last year’s poorly received Modern Warfare 3 – it’s actually a damn fine game, the best in years.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mario & Luigi: Brothership
    The detailed art style looks gorgeous in handheld mode but forces the Switch to struggle noticeably on a big screen when it’s pushing more pixels. Shackled by the tedious storytelling and tame dialogue, Mario and Luigi feel like the relatives you should visit more but who are frequently annoying when you meet them.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Crow Country
    Crow Country deftly balances a comically grotesque story with some rudimentary combat and brainteasers of variable difficulty. It’s an ironic throwback to the days when games had to dial down the realism because of technological limitations. Your imagination does the rest and you’ll never trust a crow in the real world again.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    New World: Aeternum
    Aeternum still manages to captivate after many hours of gameplay, nonetheless, and it’s encouraging for the future of the game that Amazon has stayed loyal to the project for so long already.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Neva
    Nomada keeps its game tightly focused, leading to a running time of about four hours. But the melancholic exploration of the intertwined emotions of parenthood, death and nature will stay with you for a lot longer.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Silent Hill 2
    Unlike Resident Evil, Silent Hill 2 is sparing with scenes of pure horror, save for the infrequent encounters with unkillable nemesis Pyramid Head. He comes at you every so often with a giant blade, his metal mask shielding him from your bullets until he decides to go away again for no apparent reason. Less is more – in terms of visual style and tension-building – can be effective but the long periods of nothing dramatic happening in drab locations border on monotony. And that’s the last thing you want in a scare-em-up.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged
    Reforged is a puzzle in itself. It’s like the pleasure you get from visiting an old friend you haven’t seen in a long time and who’s never looked so well. But it will also leave you wondering whether you’ve outgrown them after so many years.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Throne and Liberty
    WoW can rest easy knowing Throne and Liberty won’t steal its crown any time soon. But NCSoft’s RPG has a light touch that has clearly taken many lessons from its inspirations, brought some new ideas to the table and won’t constantly nag you to open your wallet.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shadows of Doubt
    This one-man show has demonstrated a hugely imaginative game world, full of depth to be explored. But it’s too easy to see behind the curtain – and indeed to rip the curtain rail down altogether. The logic of the characters’ behaviour can fall apart at the slightest push, leaving your detective with more answers than questions.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    EA Sports FC 25
    For the first time in years, some peculiar animation glitches reared their heads – don’t think we’re supposed to see inside players’ heads during match build-up, nor the occasional melding of limbs in goalmouth clashes. But that foible and some clunky menus aside, FC 25 puts on an impressive performance, albeit one that could be considered level on points with FC 24. What a shame that the game no longer has any credible competitors to keep EA on its toes.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
    This remaster has its moments, blending spoofery and comedic violence, but this 18-year-old now feels a little immature.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    UFO 50
    UFO 50 should be admired for its tenacious commitment to its mission - creating a fake machine from the 1990s and populating it with a diverse and authentic compilation of very real and mostly entertaining games.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
    None of these criticisms should dissuade potential buyers, for Echoes is filled with the usual Zelda-series charm, humour and adventure, while the copy-and-paste mechanic introduces some smart and mischievous puzzles.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions
    The high presentation standard set by Hogwarts Legacy has been maintained here, with customisable characters flying around on broomsticks at locations familiar from the books. Earn enough currency from in-game activities (no microtransactions here, thankfully) and you can unlock heroes or villains such as Harry, Ron and Draco. In contrast with Legacy, however, Quidditch Champions is very finite, with only a few competitions built in and nothing to do outside of the matches. The core of the game feels like barely controlled pandemonium that is often difficult to read and some positions just aren’t as engaging to play as others.
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