Chandler Wood's Reviews
Darksiders III is a game for fans, but it will struggle to find lasting appeal outside of that audience. It has a slow start that won't do much to sway anyone that's not invested. If you're willing to dig deep and stick with it, Darksiders III can be an extremely rewarding experience that has a lot to offer. It diverges from the first two games enough to feel interesting, but retains a distinct look and feel that fans of the series will instantly be familiar with. Technical issues drag the experience down, but underneath them is a game that people have been clamoring for. While not my favorite of the series, it's good to be back in this world in yet another horseman's shoes. I can only hope that we get to finish out the four with Darksiders IV and Strife.
Beat Saber is among the defining VR titles, pushing the platform forward in fun and unique ways. Driving music underlines a virtual reality experience that's a huge workout. Despite being exhausted, I found myself losing hours at a time to Beat Saber, replaying my favorite tracks to try and master them. Simple, fun, and addictive, Beat Saber has a hook that will immediately grab players and keep them engaged for a long time. Hopefully Beat Games continues to support the platform, adding to what I would consider an essential VR experience.
As many faults as I can find with Turf Wars, it's still a lot of fun to play. Stepping back into the Spidey suit is exhilarating, and this chapter offers up some of the toughest challenges yet. Turf Wars is more Spider-Man, and while it's a lot of fun, it mostly retreads on things that we've seen or done in the main campaign without meaningful advancement.The story has a lot of dark potential, though it's clearly the middle of a three-part arc. It rushes its opening and conclusion, but does touch on some very interesting themes. We've still got one DLC chapter to go that will close out The City That Never Sleeps story arc. I'm hoping that it actually ties up some of these loose story threads, despite each DLC being available individually. More and more, it's looking like the best way to experience The City That Never Sleeps is as one big arc, rather than broken into chunks through the split release (and if you're waiting on all three to release before jumping in, keep an eye out for a giveaway from us next month).
Many video games don't age well, but Spyro Reignited Trilogy feels like the game didn't age at all. Toys for Bob applied the fountain of youth to a 20-year old series, and the little purple dragon is just as perky and fired up as ever. Two decades is enough time for even a beloved classic to lose its magic. Toys for Bob took that into account every step of the way, reigniting nostalgia and memory while making the series feel right at home for new players today. Whether you're hopping back in with fond memories of Spyro or taking flight for the first time, Spyro Reignited Trilogy has a charm that will allow everyone to create new memories with this gaming icon.
Red Dead Redemption 2 redefines the open world genre.
While The Heist has a strong story—or at least the start of one—it doesn't fill out the world or give Peter any additional gameplay growth. Mary Jane gets another boring stealth segment. There's a single requisite set of collectibles. Added suits give visual flair only. Embracing Peter's human side as he swings through the city was always a strong point of Marvel's Spider-Man, but I had hoped the DLC episodes would begin to improve on some of the weaknesses in the main game. Instead, The Heist makes them more apparent than ever. Perhaps the complete The City That Never Sleeps arc should have been released as single robust expansion, rather than three piecemeal episodes that are just giving us more Spidey at a trickle.
Starlink's beautiful worlds invoke the wonder of heading into the deep unknown, and it's one of the best implementations of the toys-to-life genre we've seen so far. Shallow mission and exploration structure can make the game seem repetitive, but exhilarating space combat while being able to customize your ship at any time helps stave off the boredom that might come from ferrying your 20th helium diffuser. While it's not perfect, Starlink is a fantastic base for a new wave of toys-to-life games, innovating on the genre in a special way that further connects players with both the toys and the experience. And even when the game is off, for this 30-year old gamer at least, the spaceships are still fun to play with.
Once you accept that the campaign is gone, you'll realize that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is a game made specifically for the fans.
Evasion is another example of a fast-paced VR game that doesn't seem like it could work in theory, but has been executed with a care and precision befitting of a developer that has a lot of expertise in the VR field. Bullet-hell in virtual reality? Archiact made it work well, despite what naysayers may say about what the medium can handle.
Forsaken won't change your mind if you don't like Destiny. It wasn't made to. It was designed with the people who love Destiny in mind, giving them more of exactly what they want.
Stepping into this classic arcade, I didn't have high hopes. Operation Warcade is the kind of game that's easy to quickly glance at and readily dismiss on visuals alone. I'll by the first to admit that it failed to grab me initially. It was only once I got playing that I realized the kind of potential it held, in spite of its relatively cheap look overall. Operation Warcade isn't looking to compete with top-tier AAA games, but it manages to settle into a spot of being an addictive experience to play on repeat. The brief levels offer a perfect bite-sized morsels, and you may even end up biting off more than just a nibble each time you play, slamming just one more coin into the slot to start another round.
Marvel's Spider-Man doesn't innovate on the open-world genre, but Insomniac doubled down on creating a spectacular Spider-Man fantasy. It simply feels good to travel through Peter Parker's New York as the webslinger, even if whatever Spidey-suit you choose is covering a competent and entirely expected open-world formula. Filled with more emotion, heart, and humanity than we've seen in superhero adventures before, Insomniac doesn't need to reinvent the open-world wheel. Marvel's Spider-Man embraces the man behind the mask and gives us the best interactive Spider-Man experience to date.
If you want a game, there are better music puzzlers out there with heaps more content, and if you're looking for someplace to fire up your musical chops, there are actual music production tools that will serve you in better ways than Track Lab's isolated creation mode. At the end of a long hard day, Track Lab isn't the game that's going to get you to pull out your VR headset for even a brief gameplay session. If you desperately want to use a PS4 controller to produce music, wait for Dreams, which will have a far superior audio production toolset and the ability to take your music outside of "the lab." While a neat concept, Track Lab never polishes any of its strengths enough to shine.
If you're looking for something that will challenge you and twist your brain into knots, this game isn't it. There's no real skill curve, and most of the puzzles are simple enough that you can more or less accidentally stumble on the solutions, with a few rare exceptions. But I assure you that from the first moment you tip something into that hole and see it grow, you'll be hooked. You'll want to consume everything, making the void of consumption grow ever larger. No, I'm not talking about getting addicted to Twitter or Reddit. I'm talking about Donut County. It's brilliant, it's charming, and it's simple, but I would never call this hole shallow. It holds a depth in its tranquil destruction, a surprisingly refreshing and unique experience, on the (w)hole.
While H1Z1: Battle Royale doesn't do anything particularly special yet, it sets up a solid foundation that can be expanded with future events and additions, a la Fortnite. It earns its battle royale name, but never tries to stand above the rest of the crowd, instead opting to play it safe with the basics. Without knowing if or when PUBG might come to PS4, H1Z1: Battle Royale gives players an ample replacement if they'd rather not get into Fortnite. Daybreak just needs to start hosting some interesting events and updates in order to keep players hooked and interested going forward. I wouldn't say no to a little bit of work on those visuals either. Until then, I think I'll just go watch the movie that inspired this whole gaming trend.
Zoink has been branching out on their styling a little bit. Both the recently released Fe and upcoming VR game Ghost Giant are a bit of a departure, but their flat, cardboard-styled worlds and laugh-out-loud writing are what I will always know the studio for. Flipping Death is Zoink continuing to polish that formula and correct the balance of compelling gameplay and dialogue. It's visually striking, earns its laughs, and gives plenty of reasons to re-explore both the living and dead sides of Penny Doewood's little town. It might still lean a little heavily on its dialogue, but it never does so in a way that feels like it takes away from the game being played. You might just find Zoink's latest to be worth dying for.
Anamorphine is a good experience hiding inside of a rough package.
Salary Man Escape is an interesting idea for a puzzle game, but its execution ends up being more along the lines of the very drudgery that it tries to parody, rather than the escape that video games promise. It relies a little bit too heavily in its physics, which creates object collision issues in the more complex later levels. Fortunately, the driving '80s Japanese pop soundtrack helped to drive away the feelings of frustration and boredom that threatened to overwhelm the Salary Man. When object collision isn't getting in the way, Salary Man Escape is an interesting VR puzzler, but like finding moments of respite in the nine to five, those moments are all too rare.
With Conan Exiles, you're either in or you're out. There's a hardcore fanbase out there that loves this game, but there's an exceptionally high learning and enjoyment curve that will keep more casual players from getting invested enough to explore its deepest content or even wade around much in the shallow end. On a quality level, the game simply doesn't feel like it made it out of early access even though this is the full release. Add that the game is hardly optimized for controller and living room TV play, and this is a title that is hard to recommend outright. That said, for fans of survival games, there's a very intriguing game layered underneath walls, road bumps, and cliffs that need to be scaled to get there. And it's easy to lose hours of time simply figuring out how to build a house, or, you know, put on pants, but a lot of that can be chalked up to poor and barbaric design.
Yoku's Island Express is the open-world pinball adventure you never knew you wanted, but that you desperately need to play. The vibrant art, expansive world, and fun story come together with the best elements of metroidvania and pinball games to create a new experience unlike anything else out there.