Scott Ellison II's Reviews
Off-Peak City is an off-beat city with a cast of characters of enigmatic proportions. You’ve not lived until you try to get a bartender to open up to you by either telling a joke or dancing, but perhaps jumping over the bar is more your style. This is one of the most surreal gaming experiences I’ve had, and it’s something I want more of. Having achieved four of its eleven endings, I’m contemplating my next run and what I can do differently. Roll the dice, and give Betrayal At Club Low your time and money, because it’s full of so many surprises and sagacious moments.
Isonzo shouldn’t be overlooked, it’s the most beautiful and haunting World War I multiplayer game I’ve played. Each map is distinct from one another, and the careful selection of encounters highlights the trials and tribulations both sides faced during this two-year war. While there’s only six maps, they offer different approaches to offense and defense during the lengthy and endurance-style matches. Isonzo a historically accurate and deadly authentic multiplayer shooter that teaches you about the horrors of war as much as it entertains.
Actoon Studio gets so much right, and it fills me with joy to recount my time. Now if I were to make one complaint, is that it’s too short of a runtime. The Steam page suggests about two hours of gameplay, and I rolled credits in 90 minutes. While accurate, I felt like I just got going when things wrapped up. I certainly hope there’s DLC or a sequel planned, because I’m rather invested in seeing more of Dan and this world that crumbling. Like No Other: The Legend Of The Twin Books really is like no other, it’s just an honest-to-goodness game that you should definitely check out.
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed prioritizes fun first, and everything else after. It repeats a lot of the same notes and themes of the first game, which in turn make it a little less humorous this time around, but it’s hard to deny the charm Crypto exudes. With this being the 16th anniversary of Destroy All Humans! 2, there’s no better time to play this, and I’m likely to go and complete all the side activities for. Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed is offers a sandbox full of toys that compliments its destructive nature, a great way to unwind this back to school season.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is one of the best open-world games out there. While New York City can be bland at times, it’s the playground that makes Spider-Man work so well. The PS4 game remastered for PS5 is now on PC, and it’s the definitive version of such an epic game. Spider-Man has been sorely missed on PC for years, and it’s a great return for the web-slinger. Everything you’ve heard about the game is true, and Insomniac nailed every element of it. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is just incredible, and is one of those games that will stick with you, and you’ll return to often.
Cursed to Golf has solid gameplay, a great soundtrack, a fun retro aesthetic, and even replayability, but it doesn’t have my attention. As it is currently, it just doesn’t come together like it should for a hybrid of golfing and roguelike. I’ve played side-scrolling 2D golf games, but everything is too claustrophobic for my liking, even though it’s essentially a platformer this way. The promise of never-ending gameplay is enticing, but games like Desert Golf just do that better, and the bugs left me wanting to go play something else. Cursed to Golf is far from a bad game, but it’s a game that feels too restrictive and repetitive for its own good that gets in the way of enjoying it to the fullest.
Rollerdrome is simply brilliant, and a worthy contender for Game of the Year. The fact that we’ve gotten two banger games from Roll7 in the same year of this caliber is astounding. The precise controls are what Roll7 does best, coupled with intense combat is pure excellence. The leaderboard chasing among friends and enemies is why you’ll stay, but the Out for Blood mode will be the reason you don’t put it down. Rollerdrome is an exquisite mash-up of maintaining a combo while killing to survive that’s pure kineticism, the de facto “skate or die”.
While the game pokes fun at things or uses a lot of puns for its humor, it’s never at the expense of itself. Fashion Police Squad is not a joke game, it’s actually a seriously cool game with clever parodies and homages to first-person shooters of the past. In fact, it’s innovative for the genre that could offer a dynamic shift of non-violent shooters in the future. It’s witty and smart, and Mopeful Games really have something special here. Fashion Police Squad is Avant Garde, shaking up what a first-person shooter can be for others to follow.
It was hard imagining how running a campus could achieve the wackiness of Two Point Hospital, but Two Point Campus proves that college-level humor will go a long way. It’s a familiar yet wildly different game that carves its own path, a sequel that delivers in every aspect. I laughed out loud at the goings on at these themed universities, I applauded the bespoke animations each prop has, and I love how clever this game is. This management sim cannot be overlooked, Two Point Campus is a ridiculously charming and endlessly playable.
You’ll reap what you sow as you cultivate a cult following towards you goals. While it has many gameplay elements that are introduced over time, it can get overwhelming. This is a bigger game than it lets on, that said, I enjoyed engaging with everything it had to offer me. Cults have never been cuter, and the art style is a perfect match for the personality with such dark undertones that many will flock to. Cult of the Lamb is every bit successful as a roguelike as it is a colony management sim for a truly rich experience.
The exploration is great, characters and interactions feel special, and left to your own detective skills in some cases to track down the next lead or find a wanted criminal. It’s a game that’s mission-based, but is a cohesive and streamlined to be really enjoyable and kinetic. While it puts the “hard” in hard west, it is a wholly satisfying combat experience. Bravado is going to be a mechanic we see with a different name but used the same across future turn-based RPGs. while not totally new, just remember that Hard West 2 is out here reminding everyone how great it is. Ice Code Games nailed this, and Hard West 2 is a paramount purchase for anyone who enjoys the wild west, supernatural, or turn-based strategy games.
Cuphead – The Delicious Last Course is another triumph of style and substance. At $7.99, you’re dining good at not only is a great price but a great reason to return to the Inkwell Isles. It’s a smorgasbord of content with so much new added, and can now be considered complete with this release. This last morsel of gaming greatness is something that should be savored. Cuphead – The Delicious Last Course is a required and essential piece of DLC that would make the rest of the game feel incomplete otherwise.
While any of Gearbox’s looter shooters are better with friends, the solo experience can be just as fun here. Those not into the futuristic sci-fi setting of Borderlands will likely find solace and endless refuge in the fantasy world found here. This change proves that the Borderlands formula has the room to stretch its legs and do more going forward. Wonderlands’ humor works because it makes jokes on the style it’s emulating rather than making pop culture references. This shows every dungeon master can make a messy, but fun campaign, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands shakes up the Borderlands formula enough to be a exceptionally honed fantasy adventure.
I adored this series on PlayStation 2 and even in the Xbox 360 era, but it seems it regresses more than progresses. I didn’t think this game would be as bad as its predecessor, but it is so bland and uninspired. There are a few redeeming aspects like the controls, the new Trails mode, and the better time of driving ATVs and UTVs. I just can’t recommend this at full price, or even half-price; it’s a game that still needs a lot of work. There’s certainly nothing legendary about MX vs ATV Legends.
While the main quest is rather short in comparison, High Isle still doesn’t disappoint: All the quests are satisfying, the island chain is exciting to explore, the new gear looks great, and a new card game on top of yearly expansion makes this a big offering. For the sixth expansion, there’s never been a better time to play The Elder Scrolls Online. The greatest strength this expansion has, is that it doesn’t have any baggage of being a place we’ve seen in a prior Elder Scrolls game, making it feel wholly fresh for everyone to play. High Isle ensures that The Elder Scrolls Online continues to be indispensable among the MMORPGs available today.
Codemasters put more focus on graphics and presentation into F1 22, adding style to the substance. Make no mistake though, the core gameplay and racing is perfectly preserved and updated as it should be. The F1 Life mode is underwhelming and largely superficial, but it does flesh out the overall experience of the game to not make it as stiff, backed up by the EA Trax soundtrack. It has a few bugs and foibles, but none of them hold it back from greatness. The new rules put in place make racing these incredible machines more exhilarating. F1 22 is a masterclass in simulation, and one of the finest racing games that’s a must play.
You won’t find a more colorful, energetic, or exciting racer than Redout 2, it’s simply radiant. 34BigThings resurrects the style of racer that Wipeout and F-Zero made popular, and it’s a great return to form that succeeds the original in every way. The expanded places you’ll go, the customization you have available, and the plethora of content to enjoy is staggering. Redout 2 more than delivers, it comes in to your house and sets the table for you to feast on its offering. The high-speed, futuristic psychedelia that is Redout 2 is a tour de force, and warrants your attention.
POSTAL: Brain Damaged is far from piss poor, and while I wouldn’t call it essential, it does come recommended. It straddles a weird line of wanting to be something a little more open-world like the mainline series, while being more condensed like an arena shooter. I think if the levels were a bit smaller, Hyperstrange would have nailed what they were going for. As it stands, the pacing and momentum is a bit off as you have so many non-combat sections. As time wore on and the more I played it, the more I liked it. The crass humor and cringey one-liners combined into this boomer shooter just works. POSTAL: Brain Damaged isn’t your dad’s POSTAL.
Rebellion really put a lot into Sniper Elite 5, and it shows due to the well-thought out modes and mechanics. With over twenty hours of singleplayer to do here, and that’s only scratching the surface until you replay them for better scores or tackle the objectives differently. The robust campaign features an unraveling list of objectives that are engaging and rewarding. Invasion mode is a highlight, and a perfect fit for the series for some true cat and mouse action. Sure, there’s a few bugs, and some parts of this that may not wow or excite everyone, but it really offers an enthralling experience that is unrivaled. Sniper Elite 5 is one of the best stealth action games to exist, and is a must-play.
Rush Rally Origins shows its roots in rally games of yesteryear while also bringing modernization to the table. I found that neither camera view made it easier to play for long periods, I still was compelled to come back regularly. I had an absolute blast while playing, and continue to do. There’s a ridiculous amount of content to be found here, that play sessions could be as little as a few minutes or whole hours at a time. I look forward to the developer bringing their traditional and mainline rally games to PC and consoles. Rush Rally Origins embraces its origins to be an accessible, dense, and just plain good rally racer.