Markus Rohringer
In the end, I enjoyed the 40 hour ride through the The Outer Worlds, even though it was sometimes a bumpy one. Still, with the interesting world that was built here, it feels like there was left a lot of untapped potential on the road. Flaws similar to the Fallout series – namely a main story that is little more than a frame holding together the sandbox that the rest of the game is and correspondingly flat characters – prevent it from earning a place in the hall of fame of roleplaying-shooters next to Mass Effect.
Fans of Compile Heart/Idea Factory will find a darker take on the old formula. Death end re;Quest has its best moments when it tells its gripping mystery story during the visual novel segments. The grim tone is undermined by anime tropes and fan service, though. Pacing problems and mediocre JRPG elements drag down the narrative, but at least the billiard-esque combat system is fun.
A solid game, but not for everyone, Everything is all about exploration, curiosity, and looking to what's around the next corner. If you're not worried about scores, the big boss fight, and want a game that you can chill out with while you listen to great music, then Everything is for you.
As fun as NHL Threes might be, it definitely is not reason enough on its own. If you missed a couple of incarnations and your last game is NHL 15 or even an earlier one, then I can recommend NHL 18 without hesitation, as it delivers the whole package in a modern style. Lastly, if you want to play online and are the competitive type, there is probably anyway no way around it.
I cannot emphasize enough how surprisingly fast paced this game is. After playing Scrolls for a while, which has a similar concept of mixing card game elements with a board game, but had the problem of being too slow, I thought this wouldn't be possible. Duelyst proved me wrong, as almost no game takes longer than 5 to 10 minutes, while still offering tactical depth.