Once you've seen one slope, you've more or less seen them all. Characters don't have much of a sense of personality, and the entire thing feels more like a surface-level experimental photo mode than a fully-formed video game. But, I plan to invest a few more hours into it for the sake of attempting to get a better sense of it before issuing a final verdict.
When stripped down to its core, there's really nothing special about it.
Mutants in Manhattan is so aggressively dull and sub-par there’s little to no joy to be taken from playing it. Like a coloring book, it’s nothing more than a shallow collection of non-stimulating activities and disconnected clichéd references created with the purpose of alleviating mild boredom.
It's a poorly-written experience who places too much of a priority on delivering the absurdity as often as possible…
It doesn't feel new or unique, instead combining key mechanics from more successful games together in an experience that never forms into anything particularly significant.
Divide’s decent science fiction premise is undermined by tedious and repetitive design.
Looking back, the final season thus far feels the direct opposite of the first.
By remaining focused and paring down the extra content, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is a stealth game through and through.
Quest for Infamy is, for better or for worse, a love letter and modern re-imagining of the classic Quest for Glory and even King's Quest games from the golden age of PC adventure gaming.
It definitely has a bold sense of tension and impressive style, but there's a lack of consistency to it that makes things more frustrating than difficult.
Bud is adorable, the world is visually stunning, and the game itself enticingly oozes whimsy. But those pure moments of bliss are undercut by Bud’s frustrating controls in a world filled with moments requiring his best precision.
Furi's beautiful art and interesting ideas are somewhat undermined by obtuse story and janky mechanics.
Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is an enjoyable if easy platformer with a good sense of speed and a handful of fun mini-games.
There's enough tongue-in-cheek dialogue to remind you of how campy and fun the Power Rangers are, but it's often undercut by the game's insistence on being silly.
Clementine's arc is setting up for a spectacular finish in this final season of Telltale's The Walking Dead. Even as we've watched her grow and evolve over the course of three seasons, her interactions with other characters and continued development in this nightmare world consistently allows us to learn new things about her in every new installment. Her relationship with AJ works on multiple levels, both as a callback to her relationship to her original father figure and a mirror image of her own struggle to adapt to her violent world. While some of the exposition-heavy conversations drone on longer than they should, it ends on a powerful note foreshadowing some difficult lessons Clementine has yet to learn about what it means to grow up and lead in a post-society world.
A mixture of quiet, reserved instruments along with dramatic strings and percussion give every moment of Virginia some levity, its change in tone, timbre, and style indicative of the weight of each scene in the game. When mixed with the camera’s specific framing the low-res polygonal visual design and clear progression delineation, Virginia is a marvel of sight and sound.
Titanfall 2 realizes the dreams of its predecessor. It looks amazing, plays fantastically, and is finely tuned in virtually every aspect, from the crisp sound design to smooth platforming.
Most of Stories: The Path of Destinies is hinged upon the idea of discovering the best possible outcomes of its story, no matter how nonsensical it may be at first. It's a clever way to build a narrative, because it's built around the assumption one will fail multiple times while still retaining useful knowledge to apply in a different run.
Enter the Gungeon is a challenging roguelike with awesome ideas that often contradict one another.
A Story About My Uncle is a wonderful and whimsical experience not unlike the movies of Pixar.