The learning curve is high and the interface a bit confusing, but in the end Imperator: Rome is a good game for all grand strategy fans.

The multiplayer has the potential to be one of the best in a long time. However, some weaknesses massively ruin the gaming experience.

I am a huge fan of Kingdoms of Amalur. That's why it hurts my soul somewhere to have to write negative about this game in this test.

Yes, the original Warcraft 3 is still a great game, but it is also clear that Blizzard has missed the mark with this remaster. The singleplayer campaign and gameplay mechanics have aged astoundingly well and the visual update is mostly successful. Newcomers will most likely have a great time experiencing the story and its four distinct races, which are still a lot of fun to play. But where are the vastly improved cutscenes that Blizzard has promised? This is simply not the game that has been advertised. Multiplayer comes with its own problems, from missing features (like a ladder or custom campaigns) to small, but irritating technical issues. Most of it can be fixed, for sure, but it appears rather baffling to me that this is a game from the same studio that brought us masterpieces like Starcraft 2.

Although the game is still fun, the updates in the remaster, when compared to the original, are just not enough. This is especially evident when looking at the controls, which have only been marginally optimized. It is also quite hard to keep an overview when there’s a lot going on and the original’s multiplayer mode is missing. If the developers are willing to upgrade the game via patches, we might be willing to give it a second chance.

The Cycle: Frontier is a game that has a great foundation for the future. The PvPvE shooter shows no mercy. Other players will try to steal your loot and the only thing you can do is either run away and hopefully lose them or fight back and kill them before they kill you. The feeling when extracting after a tough run is phenomenal. A recommendation for anyone who’s looking for a free PvPvE shooter. However, the game also has still a couple of issues, which need to be fixed.

Remnant: From The Ashes is a challenging third person shooter with light RPG elements and co-op. Though it lacks in high quality presentation and storytelling, it is still a lot of fun to play.

A solid city builder in the spirit of classics like Caesar and Pharaoh. The complex economic system is challenging but also can get frustrating towards the end. The lack of a sandbox mode is most unfortunate.

Falling down has never been this hard. Or this pixelated.

With its fantastic but simple gameplay, Minecraft Dungeons is not only for fans of the Minecraft universe. The design of the world and the adventurers is great and the multiplayer is fun. Sadly, the story is too flat and the game is too short to satisfy completely.

When it comes to presenting an accurate and impressively detailed version of Tokyo, Ghostwire makes a great first impression. Despite literally being a ghost town, the city feels alive and captures neon-soaked pop-culture as well as ancient mythology and folklore. The two main characters deliver a convincing performance, too, and their story is entertaining, despite being quite short. Everything else, though – the combat system, the progression and the quest design – is the bare minimum of what’s acceptable from a big budget open world game. The combat, while fun to a degree, is especially thin with just three laughable spells and enemies without any special tactics or weakpoints. The unlockable upgrades are boring and unoriginal and the side quests, while having interesting setups, are mostly short and lack satisfying payoffs. Still, there is fun to be had in exploring ghost-infested Tokyo – it’s just not a creative, unique sort of fun, but rather a pretty mindless and extremely familiar one.

Quotation forthcoming.

Despite the muddy graphics, an extremely ambitious port! But the weak performance prevents the medieval experience from unfolding properly. We would have preferred to see the game on the Switch 2!

This coop-shooter is neither really good nor really bad. It borrows different elements out from other games, but ultimately fails to combine them in a way, the majority would like. It’s still worth a look, since some people will like the mixture.

Atmospheric story expansion set in Rome, which only tells a short subplot and offers little new apart from a few puzzles.

If something stupid and wacky is what your’e looking for, Surgeon Simulator 2 is your game! Don’t expect any real simulation gameplay, also don’t expect working controls, long-term motivation or complexity, and you’ll have a lot of fun.

World War Z is a decent Koop-Survival-Shooter, which compensates for its lack of innovation with a lack of major flaws.

Fallen God is a good and lenghty standalone expansion to Spellforce 3, but it does not have the same impact as Soul Harvest did. The new troll faction is somewhat of a mixed bag, the dialogues drag out too much and the rts elements can feel a little undercooked. But Spellforce has always been more than the sum of its parts and if you loved the two previous games in the series, there is a good chance you will love Fallen God as well.

Despite a heavy nostalgic bonus, the snazzy façade does not quite comfort you over the outdated core. [..] In terms of graphics Second Contact appears like a full-featured Remake but in fact it's a remaster.

A lovingly crafted cozy game with plenty of story, but little depth.

The Precinct reminds of old GTA games but on the other side of the law. The story is interesting and the destruction physics in the open world sandbox are fun to watch. Unfortunately driving vehicles feels very clunky and the boring main protagonist is wasted potential. But overall, The Precinct is at the moment the best police simulation out there.

The bottom line is that Assassin's Creed Shadows is not a bad game, but unfortunately it is not really outstanding either. I had more fun with Naoe and Yaskue in feudal Japan than I had with Eivor in England back then. But it doesn't come close to Kassandra's adventure in Greece, for example. The design weaknesses mentioned are too obvious for that. Here, the game unfortunately wastes a lot of potential. And yet I will keep my adventure in Shadows in good memory.

With the usual Dragon Quest charm, Treasures convinces with its main elements: Exploration and collecting know how to entertain despite the simple story and optics. Treasures is a fun and engaging gameplay loop.

Pacific Drive has so much potential. The idea of a survival game with a car as main protagonist is great, the world looks wonderful and the story is interesting. But when we have to escape the radiation, everything becomes unnecessarily annoying. The balancing and some features should get a bit of rework, then Pacific Drive will be overall really enjoyable.

If you are into experimental games, you will find countless things in the desert of Midden that deserve to be found and will burn into your memory. However, if you have some difficulties with rather quiet and minimalistic stories and wish for an intense and huge adventure like Breath of the Wild, you might be disappointed. Sable is a small-scale project with a lot of heart that only works if you are actually willing to surrender to emptiness and peace. But trust us, it’s definitely worth your time.

For the most part, Aliens: Dark Descent is a really pleasant surprise. It combines real-time tactics, solid mission design and a good amount of suspense with some interesting mechanics that fit really well with the movie. If you are a die-hard fan of James Camerons Aliens (1986), you will find a lot to love here. The story however is mostly uninspired, it has its share of bugs and some encounters can lead to some serious frustration, especially with the limited save system, which might be off-putting for newcomers. But even with all these drawbacks, there is no denying that Dark Descent is still one of the best Aliens games ever made. Just keep your expectations in check.

With its repetitive missions and shallow live-service-elements, Suicide Squad isn't nearly as good as Rocksteadys previous Arkham Games. Still, it turns out better than expected, thanks to its over-the-top combat, eccentric characters and fun traversal mechanics.

Objectively speaking, Madden NFL 21 is not a bad game. It is a realtistic representation of the NFL, maybe even the best American football simulation out there. However, it lacks innovation on so many levels that players, who already own its predecessors, will really struggle to find a reason to pay another 70 bucks for it.