Mark Delaney's Reviews
Unlike the nightmare realm out of which Six is desperate to escape, Little Nightmares is a dream of a game that, upon completion, you may wish you could experience anew.
Controversially written and unflinchingly scary, Outlast 2 is a remarkable game that solidifies itself and its franchise as one of the greats in the genre. Although it gets slowed down by infrequent issues with AI and sequences that will feel familiar to series veterans, the end result is an atmospheric, dread-inducing, and contentiously biting narrative horror. Even more, above all of those attributes it needed to be terrifying, and holy hell is it terrifying.
To say Thicker Than Water is the season's worst episode is both true and deeply misleading. It does take a step back from the extreme highs of the first three episodes, but this is still a story well worth seeing through to the end. Hopefully enough of the Garcia clan survive this season because they're worth another of their own. Some gripes with dialogue aside, the thematic elements remain strong, the characters are some of the best the studio has born, and this episode contributes to the still very high expectations for the season finale.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is misguided by the unending trend of games going open-world. The idea may have been born with good intentions, but blatantly copying all of another series' structure is a bad look, undone much further by the fact that it does all of those same things very poorly. It's unclear for whom this game was made as it feels more like a middling title we rarely see anymore, possessing neither the polish of AAA nor the admirable quirks of an indie.
Narcosis is neither a great nor terrible horror title — it's simply fine. The premise is so strong but the full experience only partially achieves that potential. Its place as a quick completion will attract many of this community, but if you need more than narrative from your games, look elsewhere. It delivers a brief but interesting story with a greatly memorable ending, but in several other ways, most notably atmosphere, Narcosis is dead in the water.
NBA Playgrounds follows in the footsteps of games like NFL Blitz, FIFA Street, and (of course) NBA Jam. It takes a simple premise — over-the-top arcade sports — and nearly perfects it. It misses an easy layup by excluding invitation options online, but hopefully the promised patch arrives to bring this game closer to an all-time great. Everything else, from the aesthetics and the music to the gameplay and the special wrinkle of wallet-free card collecting, is an uncontested slam dunk.
Having the right expectations with Skylar & Plux is the key to enjoying it.
A New Frontier could have been the beginning of the end for Telltale's The Walking Dead. Risks were taken but they paid off brilliantly. Players will still be chasing the summit reached by the first season's teary final moments, but this episode closes a season-long arc that is Telltale's most thematically satisfying and emotionally resonant to date. It's a tale of family, responsibility, atonement, and inevitably, loss. It captures what this whole season stood for and breathes new life into the series.
If Illfonic and Gun Media can rein in the many issues seen in Friday The 13th it will go down as a classic multiplayer game. Until then, it's simply wishful thinking.
Horror and walking sims are my two favorite genres in the medium, but Kholat serves as another unfortunate reminder that they don't belong together.
If you play games for story and can forgive some forgettable shootouts and visuals, Get Even may someday be a fond memory of yours.
If you're interested in preserving the shiny aura that surrounds the brand name, don't play Micro Machines World Series.
Perception tells an intriguing story and if that's enough for you, it's worth playing. Its audio-visual experience is also unlike anything else and if you're looking for a fresh idea, The Deep End Games' debut is worth supporting. It's important to keep in mind, however, if you expect the game to also scare you, there's nothing to see here.
Little Nightmares is a pick for Game of the Year right now and its first DLC chapter, "The Depths", enjoyably builds on the intoxicating and mysterious mythos of The Maw.
In some ways, games are the successor to movies and we've seen plenty of cinematic games that crib the format of feature films. To take nothing away from such games, What Remains of Edith Finch is a shining example of what video games do uniquely well.
Most aspects of the game come with caveats, but none of them go to lengths that unforgivably diminish its entertainment value. Fans of local or online multiplayer games, especially those that can be as casual or competitive as you want them to be, owe it to themselves to check out Infinite Minigolf.
The first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within is yet another great debut that does most of the things you'd want it to do.
The question at the heart of a new sports game in an annualized series is twofold: What does it do for yearly players and what does it do for those who may have been away for a while? If you haven't played in a few years, this year's Madden makes for a good time to jump in with the most diverse game modes ever on offer.
The singular lasting impression of Don't Knock Twice is one of bewilderment that it somehow exists at all.
If this is truly the last chapter, Death of the Outsider cements Dishonored as one of the best new franchises of the last ten years and places it among the most consistent trilogies ever seen in video games.