Aaron Riccio's Reviews
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.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
As befits a game funded through Kickstarter, The Banner Saga doubles down on risk/reward mechanics throughout its rather lengthy journey.
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The game treats its themes with such absurdity and reductive PSA qualities that there might as well be a planet named Glee.
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.
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.
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.