Tchia is an exotic adventure. Awaceb put a lot of effort into this game. There are lots of nice little things there, but these little things did not impress me.

MKX will last you for a long time. A few variations of the usual Arcade Mode, some dumb mini-games, online multiplayer, a lengthy story campaign, and, finally, Krypt… Not all changes to gameplay mechanics are obvious, but they do make the game more dynamic.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 and 2 Remastered has enough small improvements and nice bonuses for fans. It's the best way to experience the Soul Reaver sub-series.

It's a glint from the gilded age of SNK. Snappy, easy to learn controls, nice tempo, no endless combos, plenty of time to think and react. Hardcore fans will enjoy familiar moves, but will balk at tons of paid DLC and dated visuals.

I see no reason to pay a full price for a mediocre single-player campaign, watered-down (compared to last year's offering) multiplayer and a zombie mode with just one map. I’d recommend trying a free Warzone instead.

Brevity (just 4 hours to credits roll!), serious subject matter, good sound design, easy platforming and accessible puzzles almost balance out the many shortcomings of Inmost, like its non-interactive climax, weird controls and empty talk in lengthy dialogues. But not the mind-numbingly dull knight episodes — those are beyond redemption.

Coldwood Interactive changed a lot of things in the sequel, but somehow failed to add more variety or make puzzles less trivial.

Yep, we’ve already seen everything Fester Mudd has to offer. This game is a well-polished amalgamation of old plots and jokes that doesn’t dare venture far on its own. Although, considering that most modern game developers can’t even match the level of quality set by their predecessors, I think we should forgive Fester Mudd for its slavish admiration of the old classics.

If you believe that the world of Saints Row has been missing things like telekinesis, giant mechs, and cartoonish megalomaniacs, wait until this year’s Christmas sales. The discounted price will better reflect the cheap nature of this «sequel».

A “CryNET Systems 3.0” logo is plastered all over Crysis 3’s menus, but it should’ve said “2.5”. The final instalment in a story of a super soldier versus alien invaders feels like an expansion rather a full-blown sequel. A six-hour long campaign in a familiar setting, one and a half fresh ideas, slightly improved multiplayer. A few years ago studios were more honest when naming their products – take Crysis Warhead, for example.

Imperator attacks confused players with tons of buttons and information, but in reality it’s one of the most vapid and boring strategy games ever created by Paradox Interactive. The world map is very pretty, though.

Rome 2 is one of the biggest strategy games ever made, but right now it’s not worth your money or time. Software bugs, the worst AI in the Total War series, dubious game design elements, crippled multiplayer… The inevitable string of updates will fix some of these problems, and there will be user mods to take care of the rest. Unfortunately, all of this will take months, so, if you are not in a hurry, wait until at least next spring.

All in all, the series could have done without this expansion. It is far cry from last year’s awesome Wolfenstein: The New Order, and if you’re itching to shoot Nazi zombies, better look in Zombie Army Trilogy.

Obduction is a good-looking, mysterious, boring, annoying, sadistic adventure game that doesn't give a damn if you're having fun or not.

For Honor is rife with annoying bugs and design shortcomings. Still, a fighting game with swords is too rare a game to ignore it. If you like memorizing combos and duking it out with other players, give Ubisoft 3-4 months to iron out bugs, fix the balance and lower the price.

If you manage to power through the dull first third of the game and let some of the design limitations slide, Beautiful Desolation will reward you with one of the best post-apocalyptic worlds ever created.

Despite the initial plan to cut The Fall into several episodes, Over the Moon decided not to tease us with a cliffhanger – it’s a self-contained, albeit short, story.

All in all, a good second helping for fans of Persona 5. Still, Strikers is a step down compared to the brilliance of the original game.

This immensely ambitious game promises much more than it’s able to give. By focusing on player agency, Weird West stifles everything else.

Forced gameplay features and pointless limitations are the key problem of The Surge 2. Deck13 refuses to improve and expand its combat mechanics to an acceptable level.

BioWare's worst dialog, trivial puzzles, annoying level design, and tedious combat. My diagnosis: complete apathy.

Dragon Commander is worth buying only if you intent to play it in multiplayer, because the story campaign, even on the highest difficulty setting, fails to challenge to excite.

All good things must come to an end, and in Deponia’s case, they ended with the third game. Rufus fans would be better off thinking that Deponia Doomsday simply doesn’t exist.

Please, resist the temptation to write this game off as yet another survival horror, and give it a chance. You will discover pixel-perfect art, a neat combination of familiar gameplay mechanics, and a great story with a cool twist.

We could only dream of a game like RoboCop: Rogue City in the 1990s. Now it is just a good shooter for a few evenings.

There are many ways to enjoy Kingdom Come: Deliverance: help beautiful damsels, hack and slash bandits, marvel at pretty sunsets… Just don’t expect it to shatter your world. This is a typical case of “my dream game” — a fun, but flawed experience that staggers under a crushing weight of ambitions.

Nice 2D graphics, intense battles, a right degree of ‘hardcoreness’, almost no show-stopping bugs, well-written story and dialogues – that is quite an achievement for an indie studio.

Since 12 Minutes locks us in the confines of a small apartment, one would expect a high level of interactivity and variety, but after a few time loops you realize that you’re given a very limited set of useful actions. The gameplay quickly devolves into repeating the same routine actions with miniscule changes and unskippable dialogue in hopes that you get a new result.

As a strategy fan, I was disappointed. And I can't recommend it even to hardcore fans of the Persona series.

Do you know how much time passes in Episode 2 before the game finally decides to ask you for input? 9 minutes. For whole 9 minutes, Smoke and Mirrors plays itself. This number is more telling than any review.

A fun, original take on the FPS genre that puts randomization to a very good use.

There are two almost independent episodes living under one name. The first one is a beautiful, smart, exciting adventure game that is pure happiness, though it is short and without an ending. The second part is… Well, simply ignore it. Repeat after me: you do not need to play Part Two.

In the music industry, there is a thing called ‘second album syndrome’. Dylan Fitterer could not avoid it, too. He removed all the obvious thorns of the original Audiosurf, but added just a handful of new things, like integration with Steam Workshop and SoundCloud, new color schemes and a new gameplay mode. It’s not enough to entice me to switch from the original game to the sequel.

Stylish presentation and a hefty dose of nonlinearity spark the initial interest, but the humdrum narrative and simplistic gameplay mechanics discourage from exploring the "what if" alternatives.

The developers of Lost Chronicles of Zerzura have Mata Hari and two Black Mirror sequels under their belt already, but this game is an adventure in the same way as a blueprint is an airplane.

A by the numbers turn-based tactics game, Stirring Abyss neither fills you with joy nor makes you resent it. Still, you could do much worse than spend a few evenings on the deep sea floor, especially if you’ve already had your fill of other, more impressive offerings in this genre.

Simon the Sorcerer Origins is a nostalgic adventure set in a vibrant fantasy world filled with jokes. Visually, the game ranges from “acceptable” to “excellent”.

Exciting and original at first, Forgotton Anne quickly loses its steam as the story progresses on its way to the land of forgotten video games.

It's a parody of the entire survival genre on a massive scale and simple, light-hearted adventure wrapped in one game. You probably won’t regret signing up with Kindred Aerospace, but still, this game could have been more engaging.

While other developers of sports video games (namely EA and 2K) develop for PC alongside PS4 and Xbox One, Konami decided to port a past-gen version. So, PES 2016 is pretty much the same as its predecessor — it’s not a piece of old junk yet, but it should have stayed on the sidelines.

Legend of Keepers fools you into expecting a deep game, but in reality, all these numbers and nuances belie primitive battles, while roguelike elements are nothing but a grindfest.

American Truck Simulator is not a completely new game. Despite whatever its developers say, this is just a big stand-alone expansion for Europe Truck Simulator 2, complete with the same engine, UI and all-too familiar problems.

Finally, a worthy successor to Puzzle Quest and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes!

Shenmue and Shenmue II are both very ambitious games jam-packed with many ideas and concepts that were considered groundbreaking at the time of their release, but do not relegate them to the ash heap of history yet — they’re still just as relevant and fun to play today.

Random chance plays a huge role in Armello, and the players rarely interact with each other. It is interesting to discover new strategies at first, but soon, after you stumble upon the optimal winning strategy, you realize that there is nothing more to do. The multiplayer lacks variety (just one mode without any settings), and the single player is just same, only with AI bots.

Thrones of Britannia feels like an expansion of Total War: Attila, released as a separate game for obvious reasons. It relies on mechanics of Rome 2 and Attila and sometimes ditches them without offering a replacement. As a result, despite is epic scope, it’s a tedious, boring game fit for just one, maybe two, playthroughs.

Red Barrels built the sequel on the tried more of the same principle, but this is by far is not the worst problem of the second installment.

Scribblenauts Unlimited is a rare opportunity to forget about scripts and usual conventions, to create your own rules instead of playing by someone else's. Turns out, playing God is not as hard as it seems, and it's a whole lot of fun.

Ubisoft Montreal almost made a GTA of their own. On the second try. For those who think that "funny" public group in social networks are actually funny. If you do not subscribe to the idea that you have to entertain yourself rather than be entertained in a video game, better stay in Los Santos.

The excitement gradually wears off as matches turn into grind. Killing Floor 2 can be extremely fun when taken in small doses.

Reus is a math puzzle dressed as a god sim. Do not mistake it for a laid-back economic strategy game - playing Reus is never a relaxing experience. It is too bad that some of the challenges crop up because of the poorly-designed UI.

Mario Tennis Aces holds itself on the tennis court way better than Ultra Smash, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Beholder lacks the elegance and atmosphere of Papers, Please, and you won't be replaying its short campaign too often, but these almost real characters and gut-wrenching decisions you'll make to turn their world into a living hell, are absolutely worth your time.

The second playthrough is better than the first — by then you already know that the story is not scary at all, the dialogue is stale and characters are boring. But still, there is some fun to be had by choosing different options and trying to help the ones you failed to save before.

Having devoted so much time and effort to gameplay mechanics and style, 5 Lives Studios almost ignored the narrative matters, but the game is fun even without a coherent story.

Infested Planet is Crimsonland of the RTS genre, where you shoot aliens by thousands just because it’s fun or you want to take the top spot in the leaderboards. If you prefer your RTS in the more traditional sense, this game is definitely not your cup of tea.

A lot of people were upset to find out that Shadow of War has loot boxes, and they are kind of annoying. Unfortunately, loot boxes is the least of its problems.

Without much words or lengthy conversations, Last Day of June tells a compelling story about destinies, dreams and loss that surround its protagonist Carl. The game needs more work in some technical and visual aspects, but I gotta hand it to the developers from Ovosonico — they know how to work with emotions.

Ziggurat looks amazing, and at first, you can’t even tell that it was made by a small indie studio. Though the lack of resources is apparent in environments that lack variety – both visual and gameplay-wise. Plus, perks grant you only passive buffs, and aside from ‘guns’, your only other weapons are amulets which work for mere seconds when activated.

This remake is so faithful to the original game released in 1994 that it ignores achievements of many successful rivals released over the last 28 years. If you wanted to play Master of Magic with improved graphics and modern controls, this game was made for you.

Tropico 5 has room for improvement, but even in its current state it brings sheer joy.

After so many years, Daedalic still couples technical mastery with silly amateur mistakes. On one hand, there is a story that screams "Shoot me now!", ill-conceived puzzles, and awful QTE sequences. On the other hand, it's an audio-visual feast in an alluring world with cute characters that, sadly, do not have much to do in this story.

Star Wars: Outlaws is a game only for hardcore Star Wars fans. For the rest of us, there's not much point in enduring it to the end.

Jazzpunk is an equivalent of an avant-garde show – it doesn’t have a story or even a point to it. It’s nothing more than a collection of rejected ideas.

If Ubisoft believes that this is a successful attempt at experimental gameplay, I shudder to think of what their failures look like.

Even if its strategic gameplay pretty much boils down to figuring out a perfect combination of actions, Rebuild 3 is incredibly addictive.

Just like in Sunless Sea, at some point, gameplay inevitably gets in the way of enjoying the story. As soon as you master all the elements, gadgets and upgrades, flying through space will become a nuisance.

Onrush is an acquired taste, and you will probably part ways with it after 8-9 of hours of playing. Asking 60 USD for a game in this condition is way too much.

While side stories depend on your decisions, the main storyline relies on smoke and mirrors to make us believe that your choices matter — but they’re not. Unless you manage to bankrupt your country, there is only one ending, and the game's altruistic nature is far too evident. Show fairness, help people in need, be merciful to your enemies, and everything will turn out just fine. Unlike Papers, Please, this game rarely subverts expectations and hits players with tough dilemmas.

Sometimes, being evil is fun, other times it's incredibly difficult. In Evil Genius 2, being evil is boring.

Aliens: Dark Descent is an atmospheric RTS, but it irritates me because of raw gameplay elements, half-baked stealth mechanics and identical mazes.

This is a solid remaster of a classic of the action-adventure genre. Even today Tomb Raider 1, 2 & 3 are fun to play.

The Medium deftly ties all loose story ends and shows impressive art direction, but it lacks wholeness. The game feels like an artist who has too many ideas at the same time; he would grab a brush, then a pen or a piece of coal… but still cannot finish his masterpiece.

Despite a slew of comparisons to Myst, TRON 2.0 and Portal, Fract OSC is an incomplete game at best. Right now, it’s nothing more than an interesting way to visualize music.

A decent remaster of a great game. I just hope the devs will squash all the remaining bugs, tune-up AI, fix pathfinding and add mod support.

Maybe, a year from now, adventures in Zagoravia will become much more interesting, but for now, even the co-op mode and the PvP arena can’t help Victor Vran.

Weak storytelling and some technical issues are the only problems detracting from a great experience. This is one of the best games about zombie apocalypse.

The Night of the Rabbit is great for the newcomers to adventure games – this fairytale will open up a whole new genre for them. Veteran players can safely skip it, and the only thing they’ll miss is a couple of mice peddlers – two of the best supporting characters ever made by Deadalic.

Skills and arsenal are the only bright spots in this otherwise uninspired linear romp.

It would have been more honest to call this release a “Preview” or “Early Access” while the developers listen to feedback on several controversial gameplay features, add new levels, fix bugs and deal with server outages. It is easy to get annoyed at all these problems because they spoil a good game.

A beautiful adventure with a weak story rife with boring fetch quests and pointless sneaking.

While full of ambitious ideas, Chernobylite is incoherent and at times ludicrous, like a three-legged mutant with a fish tail.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.. is a terrible remaster of a great game. There's almost nothing to do in single-player, and the developers didn't bother to polish the multiplayer before the release.

Telltale should have just removed all the filler from In Sheep’s Clothing and attached all remaining good story bits to the final episode of the season.

Road Not Taken is an endless stream of puzzles and a mysterious world which you just can’t stop exploring. Every new secret you solve brings up new exciting questions.

As an abstract total conversion of Total War, Troy is a passable game, but it does very little to convey the atmosphere of Iliad (or that movie with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom, for that matter).

RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is an example of an excellent remaster. It's a shame that such a serious overhaul was given to a game that is far from the best.

Iron Harvest is a typical KING Art production, intriguing and appealing at first, but having spent some time with it, you notice the shoddy workmanship and a heap of technical problems.

Black Book holds a lot of promise… not as a game, but rather an interactive guide to local myths and legends. In all other aspects it’s an exercise in mediocrity.

It feels like they conceived this game on a remote island or in a fallout shelter; it is absolutely devoid of any modern ideas, but offers many wild mutations of outdated ones.

Yet again, Stardock did not produce a perfect 4X fantasy game, but Sorcerer King is much better than all their previous attempts. Right now, it is a bit boring, but, fingers crossed, things may change after an expansion or two.

Guardians of Middle-earth is reminiscent of a different LotR-based game, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Its creators also took a popular gameplay mechanic, turned it into a mess, and then tried to bury their failure under a bunch of licensed characters and locations. Monolith was luckier in its endeavor than the late Pandemic Studios, because you can at least play Guardians of Middle-earth.

If you are a fan of the original game, get ready to hold back tears after watching a brief post-credits scene, and it will give you a deeper appreciation of that scene in the scrapyard from LIS Episode 4. I think this is the whole reason why Before the Storm exists, and that is good.

Carrion has a handful of annoying shortcomings, but it perfectly depicts everyday life of a scary alien creature from a horror movie, and that’s a monumental achievement by itself.

"You don't want to be the guys who messed up and ran into the ground one of the absolute, top-rated franchises of all time. You don't want that at the top of your CV. 'Yeah, I'm the guy who turned a 96 into a 60, that's my claim to fame,’ said Arkham Origins’ producer Ben Matts a couple of days before the game’s release. Turns out, they did exactly that.

There is no reason to buy the compilation, except for a lot of extras. Instead, you can only buy games you'd like to play on modern platforms, such as MGS 3.

By betting everything on just one gameplay feature, Acid Nerve eschewed the story and role-playing elements, so the resulting game is just a string of 19 boss fights, awkwardly crammed into the game's world.

The Thaumaturge is a supernatural detective with good dialogs, strong characters, and a fun battle system.