Vampyr is not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, but what it tries to achieve is infinitely commendable. Its melding of difficulty with moral decisions as you play a vampiric doctor thrust into an impossible situation is ingenious and the world feels populated with deep characters that you'll get to know. The narrative is certainly its strongest aspect with everything ranging from small domestic disputes to grand schemes that would shake up its early 1900s flu-ridden world. Vampyr is a curiosity that you should at least give a shot.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a perfect fit for the Switch, delivering impeccable platforming goodness with Donkey Kong and his family. It's beautiful both from a visual and auditory standpoint and each level you play has its own identity or unique flavour. The game is as tough as a gorilla in a barrel, but the Switch exclusive features such as Funky Kong and the generous items you can use help to assuage some of that frustration. A must for any Switch owner for sure.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is the modern Yakuza experience that you've been waiting for, with a couple of caveats. It has everything that you can love from a Yakuza game such as the fun activities and wonderfully realised world, but it also has an extremely mature and emotional main narrative that deserves your attention. The combat is its weakspot with it being simplified to the point where it's repetitious and some aspects can be shallow. However, it is a fine swan song for the legendary Kiryu and you still can't find something quite like it out there.
Coffin Dodgers is a game that could have been the indie analogue to Mario Kart, but instead it's a bland racer with almost no variety or attractive concept. It's as bland as it comes and you're better off saving your money and buying a whole host of better split-screen enabled racers. Don't even give it the time of day.
Lost Sphear wants to harken back to the great classic JRPGs of yesteryear such as Chrono Trigger and early Final Fantasy games. However, it falters way too much in its execution by providing characters that severely suffer from being tropes and provide eye-rolling dialogue. While the combat is quite enjoyable and the story picks up steam at around the midway point, it is way too slow on the uptake and delivers an experience that can just be classified as serviceable.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War expands on the unique ideas of its predecessor to varying degrees of success. There are deeper mechanics, the Nemesis system is buffed up and much more prevalent and there are interesting characters that you meet on your adventure. However, it adheres too much on the previous game's mechanics and often feels like a retread. There is a mountain of content to play through and even though much of it can feel the same after a while, the momentum it sustains can keep you engaged. A very solid open-world experience awaits you if you choose to jump in and if you enjoyed the previous game, you will have a lot more of it to play in this iteration.
If you were a fan of Life is Strange and its formula, this prequel will be perfect if you desired more from Arcadia Bay.
While based on the already brilliant Uncharted 4, The Lost Legacy does a fantastic job at creating its own unique identity. The adventure is dangerous, but it's also breathtakingly beautiful and the characters evolve with every step that you take. There isn't much to fault in this masterclass of an adventure game and Uncharted fans will undoubtedly love it even more.
If you’re a fan of rhythm games, you should definitely check it out just for its novelty. Even with the game’s flaws, there is still a classic rhythm experience with a bunch of eyeball creatures waiting to be experienced.
A pure and exhilarating shooter with its own unique twists, SUPERHOT hits many right notes as you partake in its bullet ballet. However, the game struggles to have any lasting power and you will start to grow tired after you have finished the story and played some of the challenges. It's still fantastic to play when you have some time to kill and the level of satisfaction remains remarkably consistent. SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT
A wonderful experience ruined by poor design and baffling gameplay decisions. Get Even is still worth a shot, even with all of these problems, just to experience the story, but I’d highly recommend you wait for a sale and pick it up for even cheaper than it already is.
Persona 5 is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. There is nothing more I can say.
Guerrilla Games, you nailed it. This game should resonate for a while to come and it’s a strong contender for my GOTY already. Just get it already.
Go play Battlefield 1’s tank mission scenario and you’ll get a lot more out of that than in this game.
ou can’t really go wrong with this title and with it being marginally cheaper than most AAA games, it’s a good value proposition as well.
I wanted Watch Dogs 2 to be a continuation of the great ideas they had in the original while making a better experience. My expectations were exceeded. This is definitely worth your time and money.
Farming Simulator 17 was the butt of many jokes. But as I have painstakingly found out, it deserves to be that butt. Don’t buy this.
XCOM 2 is simply exceptional. It has a solid narrative, the mechanics are at the peak of their capability and the game is incredibly addictive to play. You will always want to do one more mission and the emerging gameplay makes sure that everything is fresh and new. However, the console version really lets the experience down.
If you’ve been a long-time Gears fan, you have no reason to worry. This is definitely all you asked for and then some. If you’re a casual Gears fan, I’d still recommend it purely for the fact that it is an incredibly solid package and will last you a considerable amount of time. For those that do not enjoy the franchise, you won’t find anything new to sway your opinion since this is a refinement of the traditional formula and more importantly a continuation of the legacy.
In ReCore's attempt to capture gaming's pervious accomplishments, it failed to create its own personality and be a fun experience.