The most damning thing I can say is I felt like Crackdown 3 knew I didn’t care about what I was doing—and never went out its way to even try pulling me back in.

Despite these gripes, it’s clear that 4A Games has sacrificed none of Metro’s survivalist spirit. Amid all the ruin, murder, and mutation, there’s a humanity to this game that few other shooters ever reach. What started out as a cast of generic white guys (and a few POC) has become a family—people I’d reach out to, sit and drink with, make merry with until our throats became sore.

Striking black-and-white visuals looks great on the Switch’s handheld screen, and the vibrant sound design often reveals hidden clues and cues. My Memory of Us stands out as an accessible throwback, and it commits fully to its message. This journey won’t take you very long to complete, but it’s one worth seeing through to the end.

As it stands now, Battlefield V is a beautiful depiction of an ugly war that offers only a few fleeting chances to reflect on what it meant...And then the bullets start flying.

The detective role-playing conceit makes Call of Cthulhu more than competent. Coupled with a compelling, unnerving take on Lovecraft mythos, the majority of the game is quite enjoyable.

A lack of cohesion hurts Black Ops 4. Playing through every mode is rewarding in its own right, but it doesn’t feel like you’re working toward anything in the long run. Unlocking skins and parts in multiplayer has no effect on the other modes. Blackout only dishes out rewards to the most skilled players who can pull off a victory. And Zombies is full of so many extraneous options that only hardcore fans will get invested in.

This isn’t the most expansive or intense game you can play on the Switch, but brings great local multiplayer features and enough innovative mechanics to justify the price of admission.

Generations Ultimate is a greatest-hits collection that doesn’t go out of the way to re-contextualize why the hits are so great in the first place. While it still provides the thrills that made Monster Hunter huge, it’s hard to argue the series isn’t ready for something else.

Just like a show, the second season has to contend with the apparent success of its predecessor, and it’s clear that the writers on Yakuza 2 may not have known how to extend that deeply personal tale for another 40 hours.

It’s impossible not to recognize the polish and promise held in this short-but-sweet package. Especially as a first project, the game lays a great foundation. Fans of the genre will absolutely have a delightful, worthwhile time with Semblance.

Your first impressions of Sushi Striker probably won’t do enough justice to the surprising depth hidden within. While it can feel derivative of the genre at times, there really is a great hook hidden in the core systems.

State of Decay 2 is simply so full of bugs that it would make even Bethesda on a bad day blush, and it routinely puts a damper on its players’ investment, whether it be through architectural glitches, poor A.I. (like in the case of Mandy), or just a failure to load the appropriate materials to finish an objective.

I wish the makers of Detective Pikachu made more bold choices, especially early on. I wish they would have infused every scene with even more personality. But when the plot works, it works. Reading-age kids will probably enjoy it, as will Pokémon diehards. But for everyone else, other games offer more pleasures more quickly and more often. Sorry, Detective. Maybe your story will turn out better on the big screen.

This lack of confidence is the ultimate undoing of Survive’s story. For every unique idea the game presents, it almost immediately backpedals into a generic, played-out conceit.

The experience is meditative and relaxing, with no real combat, and Fe feels unlike anything else because of it.

With beautiful maps and strong shooting gameplay at its core, there was potential for this experience to be fantastic. But without serious work and a fundamental relaunch of the progression system, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is an incredible disappointment.

Ultra Sun and Moon‘s new features are great, but nothing groundbreaking.

Ultra Sun and Moon‘s new features are great, but nothing groundbreaking.

It plays as a great mix of both, though lacking some of the tactical strategy of a Fire Emblem title. Warriors is a strong addition to the Nintendo Switch’s library of action games, though it suffers a few technical issues in handheld mode. The thick of a battle can be frantic and stressful on the player and the console, but never too much to ruin an exciting, fast-paced experience.

For fans, there are plenty of surprises to uncover and tons of references to even the most obscure episodes of the show. Thanks to a strong level of personalization coupled with South Park’s distinct atmosphere, The Fractured But Whole makes wandering around the faithfully recreated and detailed map of the town a constant delight.

The game is far from unplayable, but the persistent problems make it impossible to recommend for people who plan to play alone.

After playing over 30 hours of ARMS, it is hard not to be excited to see where the community grows from here. Still, players need to understand that they are coming in on the ground level of an experimental fighting game that will only feel more rewarding as time goes on.

A game of inconsistent highs and lows. The simple joy of interacting with a colorful, childish world serves to remind us of a different time for video games. But when stuttering camera angles send you plummeting off a high platform, the lack of polish is painfully obvious.

Despite some flawed execution, the core concept of Has-Been Heroes is strong enough to recommend the $20 downloadable title. It isn’t quite the endlessly re-playable adventure implied by constantly changing maps and a rotating cast of characters, but the bite-size dungeon crawling action is perfectly suited to a portable option like the Nintendo Switch.

It’s a shame that the central narrative of Mass Effect Andromeda is deflated by this burdensome gameplay, because the crew of the Tempest is worth meeting. The mystery of the Kett is a fresh spin on the apocalyptic war of the original trilogy, and following the stories of people in the Heleus cluster often leads to surprising developments with tough decisions waiting at the end. Ryder’s tale and the thrill of colonizing a new star system set Andromeda apart from other Mass Effect games, but it often plays worse than a game from five years ago.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is the definition of a decent game. It’s fun in short doses and will keep you amused for just long enough to make you feel like you got your $60’s worth. That said, it’s definitely a step back from last year’s Black Ops III, which impressed in almost every regard, and despite being packed with features, modes, and more futuristic fanfare than any Call of Duty before it, a world of laser guns and space battles might not be where the franchise’s time is best spent.

Victories in ReCore, whether they were rooted in platforming or combat skill always felt satisfyingly earned, and that for me was enough to balance all the frustration along the way. But if I hadn’t enjoyed the Disney-like tone of ReCore’s story and had not genuinely liked the game’s characters, my patience for ReCore’s shortcomings would probably have strained to the breaking point.

Playing No Man’s Sky is very similar to my experience of playing Minecraft. I will spend months exploring a Minecraft world, gathering coal and iron and diamonds to make the weapons and armor, brewing the potions and enchanting the gear I need to keep me alive. I go on mapping expeditions to chart the entire world. And then I invariably spin up an entirely new Minecraft world so I can start over again from scratch and enjoy the thrill of discovery.