Leif Johnson's Reviews
The Flame in the Flood is a beautiful procedurally generated survival sim that gains a welcome sense of momentum from the need to stay on the move. Its unwieldy menus and tendency to crash ruins some of the fun, unfortunately, but not enough to diminish the strength of the hopeful, riverbound journey at its core.
It's a little hobbled by old-school stylings and the story could be better, but few modern hack-and-slash RPGs are quite so fun.
Ashes of the Singularity delivers thoughtful real-time strategy with tons of units in play, but drab maps and a poor story.
Dead Star has the basics of combat and ship balance right, to the point that even losses have their fun moments. Its primary shortcoming is that it allows too great an advantage for pre-made groups, which is especially a problem considering the wonky matchmaker.
The Banner Saga 2 doesn't change much of the experience that made the original such a well-loved surprise two years ago, and that's a good thing. The improvements may be small, but they're also substantial: the new combat units, the introduction of a second caravan story to follow, and the obstacles in the battlefield add up nicely. While beautifully written and populated with memorable characters and twists, the story does slightly suffer from a case of the "middle episodes" that may leave you eager for more. On the bright side, we know that more is on the way in a third and final installment.
You could call Salt and Sanctuary a 2D mashup of Dark Souls and Castlevania, and you'd be right. But such a simple pronouncement would be a disservice to the tremendous amount of thought that's gone into Salt and Sanctuary, whether it's in the graphic style that evokes horror through the style of comic strips or in the intricate web of dungeons and castles serves as it map.
Blood and Wine ends the saga of Geralt of Rivia in style, bringing with it a tale of charming vampires and troublesome friendship set in a stunning new landscape that departs from the bleakness we've known until now. The expansion also brings some welcome gameplay enhancements, including mutations, the ability to dye armor, and a vineyard for growing herbs. Most of all, it leaves Geralt in a good place.
With the Dead Island Definitive Edition, Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide have never looked so good. The use of Dying Light's graphics engine means almost every setting looks better and more realistic than it did at the start of the decade, but it unfortunately doesn’t run any better now than it did then. With around 35 hours of gameplay packed in and a fun little retro beat 'em up to complement it all, though, it's the best way to play if you missed these zombie-smashers.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is an RPG that merely fulfills its obligations. It's not awful thanks to a cast of likeable characters and an interesting premise, but an abundance of clichés, uneven polish, and messy combat and AI make it less than memorable. And as its main story only provides around 20 hours of playtime instead of the 60 or more the series usually delivers, some of those obligations aren’t met in full. As for me, I can't say I regret my time with Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, but 20 hours was enough.
There's a hint of a good game in 7 Days to Die's mix of zombie attack preparedness and crafting and cooperative stands against zombies, and it has valuable ideas to contribute to the genre. In fact, you can almost hear them screaming to escape from beneath terrible graphics, barely useable menu controls, and shoddy console optimization. This is an apocalypse amongst apocalypses.
A beautiful JRPG that captures the spirit of the genre's early hits while playing things a tad too safely.
Grow Up doesn't feel terribly different from Grow Home other than its larger world, but its main achievement is to strengthen some of its predecessor's weak points. The drive to climb to the top of everything remains, but here it's improved on with new methods of climbing and flying, and the option to toss down plants that serve as tools for any situation. The camera sometimes complicates this, but not enough to bury the charm of the original.
A fun, serviceable update to the 4X legend that brings little memorable to the genre aside from its personality.
After months of missteps, Legion shows World of Warcraft finding its footing again and asserting its relevance after more than a decade. Many elements make this an expansion worth enjoying, including class halls, gigantic zones filled with memorable stories, better socialization, the actiony new Demon Hunter class, and world quests. The one big question mark is whether Blizzard can maintain that energy after launch, but so far the outlook seems promising.
Mount & Blade: Warband may not have a carefully guided plot or even reasonably attractive graphics, but it recreates the sensation of living in a medieval world like few other games by allowing freedom to decide your own approach to carving out your destiny in a dynamic world of rapidly changing alliances. Controls are awkward at best, making it tough to appreciate how good the combat is, but there's a lot of fun here, especially in the eight multiplayer modes for up to 32 players. As a veteran of the PC version, which I love, I feel bad not being able to recommend the console version more highly, but this port doesn’t fully allow Mount & Blade’s charm to shine through.
Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade's big multiplayer battles create some fun combat that captures the feel of the Warhammer 40K universe enough, but it currently doesn't offer the amount of content I'd expect from a $50 game. Balance and optimization issues also complicate the fun, as do missing elements in the shop and unfinished features that all suggest Eternal Crusade was released a bit too soon.
Wang's stupid wisecracks kept me smiling from start to finish, and the variety of melee and ranged combat and the loot that dropped from it was satisfying enough that I came back with friends for more. It's great fun in solo or in co-op, and its small degree of randomization is enough to keep the action fresh for at least a few runs.
There's a lot to love in the way Clockwork Empires attempts to break up the construction sim framework with Lovecraftian creatures and almost assured destruction, but it often takes too long to get to the best parts and fills that time with dull busywork. For most of the hours spent, it's largely a standard colonization simulator that's hampered with an unwieldy user interface and weak AI.
If you’ve never experienced Skyrim, the Special Edition is certainly an adventure you can’t afford to miss.
Tyranny is a memorable RPG that looks great and feels fresh, even while largely working in the confines of the old Infinity Engine style. It's also the rare sprawling RPG that invites you to replay it, as its comparatively short running time and significant changes based on choice greatly change the experience from playthrough to playthrough, and combat is deep enough to last. With Tyranny, the old feels new again.