The first three Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters are a somewhat solid remastering effort that could have been so much better with a few tweaks. While the amazing rearranged soundtracks sound great and the balancing tweaks make the three games still feel great to play, the divisive overhauled visuals reminiscent of the 16-bit entries, technical issues like the lack of a V-Sync toggle and display settings not saving and lack of additional content found in prior remakes make these remasters a truly worthy purchase only for those who live and breathe Final Fantasy.
With masterfully crafted action combat, charming characters, and a very interesting setting, Scarlet Nexus is a game that action RPG fans should definitely not miss. While the game lacks any real innovation, as it features themes and mechanics lifted from other Japanese RPG series, and it is a little too linear, the high quality of the experience makes it easy to look past these few issues, making Scarlet Nexus a memorable, and extremely enjoyable game.
While it is the same game at heart, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade brings the first part of the remake to new heights with a 60 FPS gameplay option, some quality of life enhancements, much improved visuals, and a very fun new story episode starring Yuffie. The new tweaks and additions do not alter how the game feels and play, but there is no denying that they do make Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade the best way to enjoy one of the best role-playing games put out by Square Enix in the past few years.
With a new engaging story nicely integrated with the main campaign, excellent writing, and new combat mechanics, Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown is a more than worthy purchase for all those who have loved the game. The new campaign's high challenge level and relatively short length of the main quest may put some off, but, everything considered, The Battle of Steeltown is the perfect continuation of an already excellent experience.
With its extremely faithful rendition of the Dungeons & Dragons 5e ruleset, Solasta: Crown of the Magister is a dream come true for all those D&D fans who also happen to love video games. However, strict adherence to this ruleset is also the game's main flaw, as it results in an overwhelming experience for all those who do not live and breathe Dungeons & Dragons. Those who power through the initial difficulties, though, will find a solid cRPG featuring great tactical combat and amazing depth.
Biomutant is a competent open-world role-playing game featuring a charming atmosphere and some solid RPG mechanics. Sadly, it fails to stand out due to its by-the-books open-world formula and the sluggish combat system. While the game does work for the most part and there are some interesting ideas here and there, there isn't a lot that Biomutant does better than most open-world games out there, resulting in an experience that is somewhat forgettable.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Wrath of the Druids is a more than worthy expansion to the latest entry in the series, featuring a new beautiful map to explore, an engaging story, charming characters, new abilities, and plenty of other new content in the form of new gear, abilities and cosmetics. The new mechanics don't fundamentally change how the game plays, so those who didn't like Assassin's Creed Valhalla to begin with will not change their mind with the expansion. Everyone else, however, will love every second of their time in Ireland as they did with their time in Norway and England.
With a new top-down view, solid world design, and much better pacing, Immortals Fenyx Rising - The Lost Gods is, without a doubt, the best expansion released for the open-world game by Ubisoft. While the experience it's not fundamentally different from that introduced in the main game, the tweaks to exploration and combat make the new journey enjoyable, especially if one hasn't had enough of Fenyx's universe.
Trials of Fire is an amazing blend of RPG, turn-based, and roguelike mechanics that manages to be both deep and accessible at the same time. With a great storybook presentation, tons of different options to customize the experience, and the multitude of builds made possible by the great deck-building system, even those with a passing interest in roguelike and role-playing games will find plenty to like in the game.
With an excellent stage and puzzle design, an engaging story that takes some unexpectedly dark turns, and a great presentation, Oddworld: Soulstorm is as good as the first entries in the series if not even better thanks to some new gameplay mechanics. The high challenge level and some other issues here and there may put off some players, but don't let them stop you, even if you just have a passing interest in the series, or the genre as a whole: a game like Oddworld: Soulstorm hasn't been released in a very long time.
With its ancient China setting, Immortals Fenyx Rising: Myths of the Eastern Realm could have expanded the main game's experience in a lot of meaningful ways, but Ubisoft Chengdu preferred to play it extremely safe, presenting an expansion that, in reality, expands very little. Lacking the good writing and the hilarious characters of the main campaign, and any major gameplay change, this DLC expansion is a worthwhile purchase only for those who haven't had enough of the puzzle-solving seen in Fenyx's adventure. Everyone else will find this adventure in the Eastern Realm a little stale.
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is a more than worthy new entry in the series, thanks to its gripping story, great exploration mechanics, solid combat, and a very tight pace that keeps players interested and leaves them hungering for more. The low difficulty level, dated visuals, and a hit-and-miss soundtrack impact the experience slightly but in no way tarnish the quality of the game, which is, everything considered, even slightly better than its excellent predecessor.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is as straightforward as an action-adventure game can be. None of its features are broken, but the shallowness of the entire experience makes it a very hard game to recommend for those who are not into the setting to begin with. It does provide moments of fun here and there, but its linear, derivative experience does not stand out in any way.
With a huge amount of content and a tightly designed action role-playing challenging experience, Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition is a game that can keep those willing to delve deep into its gameplay systems engaged for hundreds of hours. Despite some issues, like incorrect button prompts for mouse and keyboard controls, optimization problems and visuals not much improved over the PlayStation 4 release, the PC version is a solid port that's worth your money, especially if you have the system capable of taking advantage of exclusive features like Ultrawide resolutions and up to 120 FPS gameplay.
A New God is a worthy expansion of Immortals Fenyx Rising, bringing some new gear and abilities to play with, and some more excellently designed puzzles that challenge the player's knowledge of the game's mechanics in interesting ways. Sadly, the expansion lacks the wealth of activities found in the main campaign, making the new one a little more repetitive in the long run. Still, a worthy purchase for fans of the puzzles seen in the main game.
Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition is every bit as good as the original release, if not even more, thanks to the many additions like playable Vergil, Turbo Mode and Legendary Dark Knight difficulty. While ray tracing and DualSense support are not massive game-changers, they round up the package nicely and help making it a worthy purchase for every Devil May Cry fan and for those who did not have yet the pleasure to experience one of the best character action games released in recent years.
Released as both a remaster and an expansion, Observer: System Redux manages to fully deliver its promises, improving the original's experience with new meaningful content, quality of life changes, and massive visual improvements that leverage the power of the new consoles. The game hasn't changed a whole lot since the original, so those who did not like it in the first place will not change their minds with Observer: System Redux, but those that did will find the remaster to be a worthy purchase.
Despite a huge lack of innovation, bearing more than a passing resemblance to Zelda: Breath of the Wild's central mechanics, Immortals: Fenyx Rising is a great open-world game featuring a light-hearted, humorous tone, great combat, tons of content, and a well-designed main quest. It's also reminiscent, in a good way, of 3D puzzle games from the PlayStation 2 and GameCube era. Sure, the game does suffer a bit from the usual Ubisoft open-world design bloat, but do not let this put you off: Fenyx's journey to save the Greek Gods and restore the world to its former beauty is one worth experiencing.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a definite step up for the series, thanks to the many tweaks made to the RPG mechanics that powered the previous two entries in the series, better storytelling, great atmosphere, and meaningful side-content. Even with the tweaks, however, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is still an Assassin's Creed game at heart, so those who are not into the Ubisoft open-world game design will hardly change their opinion with the game. Everyone else will probably love every second of Eivor's adventure, especially if they are into Vikings and ancient Norse culture.
Ghostrunner is a very well-crafted first-person action game featuring a lightning-fast pace, a very smooth parkour system, and tight platforming in addition to weighty, satisfying combat. The high challenge level and the one-hit-kill system, however, can lead to some serious frustration, as it requires a level of effort that not all players may be willing to put in the game. As such, Ghostrunner is a game that only the most hardcore of action games players will fully appreciate.