Hellraid is an interesting concept on paper, but a dull and monotonous experience in reality.
Just as Mafia 2's riveting story was let down by an uninspired game around it in 2010, it's once again let down by a lazy remaster in 2020.
Back in 2013, The Wonderful 101 was a flawed game, but one with some really good ideas. It's still that in 2020- but seven years later, I was hoping it would be a lot more.
Rescue Team DX's charming story and beautiful visuals aren't good enough to carry the whole game by themselves, especially since the meat and potatoes here – the combat and dungeon crawling – are so repetitive and monotonous.
Red Faction: Guerrilla's central mechanics of destruction are a blast, but in the nine years since the game's original launch, we've played a lot of much better games. What was perfectly acceptable by our standards back in 2009 just doesn't cut it anymore, and as a result, Guerrilla is plagued by a number of major issues. Unfortunately, thanks to a bevy of technical issues, it doesn't even succeed as a remaster.
In spite of solid combat and fun traversal, Rise of the Ronin is, unfortunately, Team Ninja's most underwhelming game in years.
There are bright spots here that genre veterans can and likely will latch on to, but Alone in the Dark feels a bit too rough and unpolished in areas that are too critical to the experience to ever be able to truly meet its full potential.
Though Arkham Asylum and City's inherent strengths are able to shine through on the Switch in spite of some performance issues, the Arkham Knight port is nothing short of a disaster of epic proportions. The flagrant disregard with which WB Games has treated this shoddy mess of a port should not go unnoticed.
Dead Island 2's first of two expansions delivers some flashes of enjoyment, but it feels a bit too repetitive, in spite of how brief it is.
The on-pitch gameplay in FC 24 remains as fun as ever, but its failure to make any real, meaningful changes is a real disappointment, especially because almost none of the few changes it does make come anywhere close to sticking the landing.
Atlas Fallen has legitimate strengths in its quick, snappy sand surfing, its fascinating setting and worldbuilding, and deep and flexible progression mechanics, but with clunky movement, inconsistent combat, lackluster storytelling, and just an all-around lack of polish, it ends up being weighed down by far too many issues to be able to live up to its proper potential.
Layers of Fear is gorgeous to look at, but its beauty is skin deep. From rudimentary, repetitive gameplay to predictable attempts at scaring you, this definitive reimagining of Bloober Team's horror franchise stumbles too often to be able to make a meaningful mark.
There's fun to be had with LEGO 2K Drive's snappy driving mechanics, vibrant biomes, and creation and customization mechanics, but issues such as its inconsistent AI, dull open world implementation, and somewhat grindy progression hold the experience back.
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened blends Cthulhu and Holmes very well, but the strengths of its story and premise are let down by the weaknesses of its meandering and opaque gameplay.
The Callisto Protocol looks stunning and can offer small doses of fun, but from misguided gameplay choices and hyper-linear design to ineffectual attempts at horror and a bland story, it stumbles and disappoints in too many ways to be labelled as anything but a disappointment.
For hardcore genre fans, The DioField Chronicle might be worth looking into, but keep in mind that many probably might not have patience for its considerable flaws.
Industria is rough around the edges, but its solid world, world-building, and storytelling are still worth experiencing.
The Force Unleashed's Switch version is a decent blast from the past, even though it feels a bit too conservative as a port.
Martha is Dead is best appreciated from a distance, because while its narrative premise and setting are certainly impresses, the game itself is slow as molasses and frustratingly clunk.
Cyberpunk 2077 isn't the disaster that it was at launch, but even on more powerful hardware, it's just a slightly more polished version of a deeply disappointing game.