Aaron Riccio
- Chrono Trigger
- Virtue's Last Reward
- The Stanley Parable
Aaron Riccio's Reviews
It feels odd and slightly insulting to be given the option to rate missions, as it implies that the designers still don't know what works or, worse, that they want to better pander to gamers.
These mechanics aren't broken so much as literally insane, in the sense that each chapter requires you to do the exact same things, somehow expecting different results.
Save for the extremely rare glitch or two, nothing ever gets in the way of this pure, intellectual gameplay. Even after 50 levels, the puzzles still seem fresh and never tiresome.
The game treats its themes with such absurdity and reductive PSA qualities that there might as well be a planet named Glee.
Quote not yet available
As befits a game funded through Kickstarter, The Banner Saga doubles down on risk/reward mechanics throughout its rather lengthy journey.
Even basic exploration quickly becomes more trouble than it's worth, thanks to a scarcity of waypoints, overly lengthy transitions between areas, and the lack of an overall map.
[T]he game itself is far from a fully realized one. Its main mission can be completed in an hour, tops, and the story does little more than bridge the gap between 2010's Peace Walker and the upcoming The Phantom Pain.
Reaper of Souls improves so much, so quickly, that gamers may too engrossed to remember to resent Blizzard's requirement that players remain connected to the Internet while playing.
The game appears to be a product of magical thinking, as if throwing together watered-down tropes from games like The Witcher might somehow yield a finished product.
All the requisite violence of the genre is there, but there's a well-considered style and grace that elevates it beyond its mindless, dime-a-dozen brethren.
As in Bastion, you'll gain the option of increasing the difficulty in exchange for more experience, and the soundtrack and narration is surprisingly on par with the previously high bar set by Supergiant Games.
[P]laying through all of The Walking Dead at once makes it clear that, perhaps for the sake of the various properties in this franchise, there's no real beginning or end to this saga; it's just one infinitely echoing middle.
Once you crack the 20,000 rhythmia mark, Curtain Call interrupts whatever you're doing in order to introduce one final medley that celebrates the history and evolution of the series.
If you embrace the tactical nature of its combat, which is rarely resolved on a single battlefield, then Shadow of Mordor stands largely without flaws.
Over the last decade, Frogwares has been steadily eliminating the impossibly bad elements from their games, and what remains is the closest anyone's ever come to an authentic Baker Street experience.
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.
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.
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.
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.