Alessandro Barbosa's Reviews
With more instalments to come in the Dark Pictures universe, there’s definitely space for improvement. And if the entire package is aiming to build on the surprising success of Until Dawn, it needs to make some adjustments.
Supermash's promise of a limitless supply of genre mashed games can't mask their shallow, repetitive, and uninteresting gameplay.
Overkill's The Walking Dead is a collection of poorly conceived ideas and uninspired gameplay, neither of which help its lifeless narrative and repetitive missions.
Rust's dated survival mechanics and overwhelmingly unwelcoming player base make it an experience more interesting to talk about than actually play.
Fallout 76's mundane quest and lifeless story put too much weight on the aged combat and trivial crafting for them to bear. It's a multiplayer experiment with far too many flaws to put up with, both in its limiting player interactions and its woeful technical polish. Fallout with friends is still an idea that could work one, but that's not what Fallout 76 is serving up.
Bravo Team embodies some of the worst traits in a VR game. It's lackluster gameplay and stale shooting never take full advantage of VR as a medium, and stumble across all the worst hardware pitfalls PSVR has to wrangle with. It's a mercifully short experience that doesn't justify the price, especially when better games that fundamentally understand VR hardware exist already.
Scorn's frustrating combat, unbalanced puzzles, and unforgiving checkpoints make it an infuriating slog through an otherwise intriguing setting.
Predator: Hunting Grounds' lack of variety and shallow gameplay make it difficult to stick with beyond a handful of rounds.
Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem attempts to stand out with deep, free-form character creation, but it has far too many problems with all of its underlying systems.
Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot is an unsatisfying VR shooter that wastes the potential of piloting some of the series' most iconic enemies.
Genesis Alpha One struggles to make many of its survival components engaging while also obfusticating many of its systems to the point of frustration.
We Happy Few's borderline broken systems and unremarkable quest design make it an unentertaining slog through an intriguing world.
Sacred 3 is a complete let down for fans of the franchise, departing from a formula that has somewhat worked in the past in the hope of attracting a wider audience. Instead of building on features, and borrowing some from games that pull off the action RPG genera to a tee, Sacred 3 is disjointed, boring and just downright bad.
The Wizards: Enhanced Edition wrestles with the limitations of PSVR and never wins, deeply undercutting its enjoyable spellcasting with inaccurate motion tracking. These issues are only made worse by uninteresting missions and repetitive combat, making the initial splendour of this spellcasting adventure fade very quickly.
My Time at Portia wears its influences on its sleeve but fails to build both a compelling world and charming inhabitants to engage with when reaching for the same lofty heights. Its loop of resource gathering and intricate building is implemented well, but it lacks the charm to make it all cohesive enough to be alluring.
Rage 2 tries to do so many things in such a small timeframe that it forgets to do anything original or inventive with its many unfocused components. Its combat alleviates these issues in short spurts, but it's not enough to weave a cohesive thread through this confused trip through a familiar wasteland.
Starblood Arena has the mechanics to be a compelling online VR shooter. But the lack of any compelling content and the difficulty of finding other people to play with proves to be one too many obstacles you shouldn't need to be facing for a game this expensive.
Soundfall has an enticing hook of action role-playing mixed with rhythm sensibilities, but fails to capitalize meaningfully on either of them.
Blue Fire's exceptional platforming isn't enough to distract from frustrating backtracking and lackluster combat.
Crucible attempts to do too many different things with the same limited roster of characters, losing its few strengths in the process.