Aaron Riccio's Reviews
As with Dear Esther before it, it offers up an admirable and atmospheric experience that simply isn't all that much fun to play.
Even at only three-to-four hours in length, Submerged feels padded.
Unsurprisingly, the game runs as well on consoles as its predecessors, and its tried-and-true combat is a clean fit for the MMO format.
It lies somewhere between a fully formed game in which wizards learn to chain elements into powerful spells and a low-rent improv show.
It's aesthetically crisp and ninja-smooth, but the game all but vanishes from one's mind even while playing it.
Experience is earned largely through quests, which highlights the emphasis on thoughtful storytelling over mindless bloodshed.
Unless a player's favorite part of chess is waiting for their opponent to take their turn, S.T.E.A.M. might just end up wrinkling their brain.
A result of the lack of tutorials and handholding is that each bit of incremental, hard-earned progress provides an unparalleled adrenaline rush.
The game is as punishing and uncompromising as the continental war that it chronicles, and it will school you.
The class-based rewards, compendium of achievements, and the adrenaline of capturing and killing a trophy monster makes for a compelling game.
Temple of Osiris is best when it remains focused on the action-oriented gameplay, shining brightest in boss battles that combine puzzles and gunplay.
For those desiring a more focused approach to gameplay, Far Cry 4 offers a lengthy campaign with over 40 missions.
If there's a single downside, it's that with a cast of over 16 characters, only five of whom can physically be in your party, there's very little reason to play around with your party's composition.
It's more interested in showing off just how beautiful (and deep) the multilayered design runs than it is in really elaborating on it
The consequences of brash actions are glossed over, and the last three sequences of the game feel redundant, with back-to-back assassinations occurring first at public guillotines and then private dinner parties.
In short, Advanced Warfare advances every single aspect of the already impressive Call of Duty series.
Lords of the Fallen is trying to Goldilocks it, neither being too hard nor too soft, and that lands it in the rather generic and unadmirable position that last year's Bound by Flame found itself.
The essential gameplay can be reduced to a series of shoot-'em-up fetch quests through hazardous landscapes, but even veterans will have to adapt their FPS techniques to make it through.
GTA may be more graphic, but I'd rather have kids play in that fully realized world, with the wealth of side-missions, beautiful views, and more authentic vehicles, than in this dumbed-down cartoon catastrophe.
There are too many dings on the chassis, from the constant inability to activate promised features and occasionally glitchy effects of current and standard modes.