VGC's Reviews
There is no one that we would recommend Babylon’s Fall to. It’s visually dated, consistently dull and features the most average PlatinumGames combat we can remember. On paper, the concept of a game like this bathed in the studio’s signature style is an appealing one, but sadly there’s nothing about the Platinum shine that’s evident in Babylon’s Fall.
Alone in the Dark's promising atmosphere is let down by annoying and repetitive puzzles, poor combat and frequent glitches. There's a good game in there somewhere but you have to put up with a lot of frustration to find it.
A Call of Duty game of this low quality released a decade ago would have been a scandal. Now, it's emblematic of an approach to a franchise that's in desperate need of a reality check.
A Plague Tale: Requiem is a sometimes compelling adventure weighed down by poor technical performance, and simple, frustrating and repetitive gameplay. While the stealth action can be enjoyable, and the puzzle elements of using the impressive hordes of rats to your advantage can be engaging, it’s a game that introduces compelling ideas but never really capitalizes on any of them. Pair that with some dodgy AI and it’s a game that’s at its best when the characters are simply walking through the world, talking to each other.
Scorn has one of the most beautiful worlds you'll see in a game (if you can see beauty in the grotesque). It's just a shame that world is also home to a frustrating puzzle-heavy adventure filled with aimless wandering.
It’s a below average open world game that’s stuffed to bursting with bugs, and the best thing we can say about it is that making our Tobias Fünke-inspired character crouch over and do the wanker gesture while he walked down the street made us laugh. Probably not quite worth the price of admission.
Good characters, strong performances and well-engineered dual timeline storytelling are let down by pacing that’s utterly arhythmic and gameplay that’s fighting you at every step.
If somehow, inexplicably, you can overlook all of its issues then the three games in GTA Trilogy are undisputed classics. But if you want to revisit them properly, right now you’re far better off doing so on another platform.
Days Gone is far from the worst specimen of its genre but in a year already packed with 50 hour+ endeavours, it rarely makes the case for its own existence.
If you’re interested in another Far Cry game that does the Far Cry stuff the way it’s been doing it for 10 years, you’ll probably have a good time, but if you’ve already hit your limit with this kind of game, Far Cry 6 is the ne plus ultra of why open-world game design is so badly in need of a revolution.
Derivative and dull, Immortals Fenyx Rising’s great visuals can’t make up for a consistently bland experience
Out of the 4 modes available at launch, 2 of them feel redundant and unbalanced. The single-player content is slim and if you want even a crumb more, you’ll have to pay, which leaves Destruction Allstars feeling like a clumsy, hollow product whose fun moments go by in a blur.
For better or worse, Balan Wonderworld feels like an HD take on a PS2-era platformer. As long as you manage your expectations accordingly and accept the limitations that come with this, there's some enjoyment to be had with it. By modern standards, however, the game falls far short of expectations.
Outriders is its own greatest victim. There are some decent ideas in here – an absorbing cauldron of combat variables, some majestic geography, even a few guns worth holding onto – but they're dragged down and suffocated by a game that doesn't want to entertain you but hypnotise you with the prospect of another trinket.
Biomutant’s feature list seems to include everything a successful open-world action RPG needs. But journey through its towns, fields and bunkers, and there’s no intrigue in its exploration or weight in its relationship building. Not even a worthy combat challenge to hold everything together. With so many ideas left under-developed, it wastes a setting that had far more potential.
Endless Ocean's procedural generation keeps its exploration engaging enough for a while, but its Story mode is poor. As long as you're willing to forgo plot (and any meaningful interaction with the species you encounter) in favour of exploring random underwater environments, there's still a good deal of fun to be had here.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU feels like a studio stretching its legs for the first time. Visually inventive, and full of great platforming, average combat and exploration lets it down
Rise of the Ronin is a fine open world adventure that never elevates itself to greatness. Fun Team Ninja combat will drag you through, but pointless open world fluff and questionable visuals sadly result in just another open world game.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong offers a notable step up in visual quality from its 20-year-old source material, but the same can't be said for the gameplay mechanics, which remain largely unchanged. While it will no doubt appeal to purists who loved the GBA original, those discovering it for the first time may find it too easy and not up to the same standards as modern, similarly priced Mario releases.
WarioWare games require precise controls to ensure their microgames can be navigated without frustration. Move It's motion controls introduce inaccuracies that are frequent enough to dampen the experience, turning what should be a brilliant game into merely a good one.