Like the chess move it's named after, Alekhine's Gun puts its pieces in the right places, but then it fails to follow through with any quality or grace. It's hard to feel accomplished after pulling off a clean kill when the targets lack the competence to even defend themselves.
Layers of Fear lacks the surprises and subtlety needed to keep things interesting all the way through. It makes a strong first impression, but quickly exhausts its best ideas, making it hard for them to really shine as scary or meaningful moments. It's hard to be terrified when you can see what's coming at the end of every long dark hallway.
Even as a mere horror-flavored rail shooter lacking in any serious scares, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood isn’t terrible. Responsive, arcade-style shooting, the frequency of collectibles, optional side passages that add some sense of exploration to the linear rollercoaster, and an end-of-level letter grade system offer plenty of casual replayability. Coupled with its smooth, motion-based controls, and barring some of its weaker stages, Rush of Blood actually makes for a decently fun ride.
So much of Metal Gear Survive is repeating the same thing over and over again in single- and multiplayer. Defending the same points from the same zombies. Exploring the same zones for the same materials. Mining the same resources for the same small amounts of gear. But after learning the ropes and learning to set your own personal goals within that loop, there's an odd comfort in the formula, and I can see myself returning to expand my end-game base out of my own completionist urges. Survive might not compare well to the tactical espionage action that's defined the Metal Gear series we know and love, but its oddly hit-or-miss combo of some solid old ideas and some clumsy new ones has at least some appeal.
There’s definitely fun to be had in Furi’s fast and frenzied battles against a colorful cast of quirky boss characters. While it finds its strongest moments in its rewardingly rhythmic, precision-based one-on-one duels, an unwelcome level of tedium and occasionally cheap sequences — made even more frustrating by janky mechanics — keep the action from being as consistently strong as it is visually stylish.
A compelling management sim with strong systems, but few customization options make for a visually bland experience
Guild of Dungeoneering is a fun and interesting approach to turn-based dungeon crawlers.
Resident Evil 7 grounds itself in elements that made the original great while still indulging in a risky new shift in style that both helps and hurts the beloved formula in equal measure. But it’s also the closest a numbered sequel has come to recapturing Resident Evil’s slow, but thrilling and atmospheric adventure game roots in a while — a welcome return that I truly hope to see more of in the future.
The amount of action that can transpire within a couple of seconds in Nidhogg 2 makes for two-player combat that's both intense and hilarious to play or watch with friends. Nidhogg 2's visual style might not be for everyone, but its sharp, minimalist duelling is still smart and chaotic enough to allow for endless couch competition.
Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City has found a way to revisit the past without a cheap reliance on nostalgia, wrapping up the story of Dark Souls in a way that will be satisfying for fans who enjoy digging into the rich lore the series has been building for the last few years. But you don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of the Souls series to appreciate the satisfying twists and turns of this short, but exciting adventure, with its abundance of haunting, secret-filled locales and terrifying boss fights.
Despite some inconsequential decision-making and visual roughness, the amount of heart, character, and unflinching honesty in 1979 Revolution’s short two-hour tale is impressive. As an Iranian-American myself, it’s incredibly refreshing to not only see this subject matter explored, but done so in a smart and sensitive way that succeeds in educating as much as entertaining.
Virginia shows instead of tells, with a raw, understated power and a calculated nuance that make even the smallest, most mundane details brim with narrative and emotional significance. While I never found a way to impact or change significant story events, the tale of family, friendship, career, and identity that Virginia tells (without uttering a single word) was enough of a reward for my limited input. The mysteries that remain by the end especially justified a second and third visit, and even now I can feel the secrets of Kingdom, Virginia and the two women whose lives changed there luring me back for another.
Quadrilateral Cowboy’s puzzles are mostly a joy to play. Its command line hacking is surprisingly accessible and pleasingly tactile, and when combined with its many interesting gadgets it allows for plenty of creative problem-solving and freedom in tackling all manner of whimsical cybercrime. While not all of its levels shine as brightly as the rest, I’m already feeling beckoned back by its replayability and charm, eager to experiment more with the futuristic, hacker-themed playground it so stylishly constructs.
Devil Daggers' stripped-down and distilled essence of first-person shooter intensity will take up a lot of my time in the weeks to come. Every second longer that I survive in its hellish arena is a new record for myself to break, over and over again. It's a brutal, but brilliant shooter that finds strength in its minimalism, stretching a few seconds of action here and there into endless hours of dreadful fun.
Gorogoa crafts its inventive, sliding-tile puzzles and magical world with a graceful simplicity across a compact but fulfilling adventure. The excitement of solving each puzzle may be lost on a repeat playthrough, but its hand-drawn art and clever payoffs are no less satisfying to watch unfold again and again. Gorogoa manages to say so much without uttering a single word, endowing it with a mystery that invites a more attentive, thoughtful revisit — and one that I was more than happy to accept.
Night in the Woods captures the fears and anxieties of being a young adult with surprising clarity, but brings it into new and interesting territory thanks to its developers’ deep understanding of rural America’s economic hardships. Branching, well-written dialogue made me feel closer to Mae’s story as I helped build out her history and reignite friendships, encouraging a second playthrough to uncover the scenes (and even a few secrets) I know I missed.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is a relentless, rhythmic, and brutal game of killing fast, and often dying even faster.
Thumper’s brutal, breakneck speed and precision-based musical action kept me entranced for all nine of its bizarre, nightmarish stages, which contained enough nuanced high score-chasing tricks to demand several replays already. To really master Thumper’s many layers of rhythm-based mechanisms would take much more time than the 10 or so hours it takes to complete the first time – and that’s a challenge that I eagerly accept.
Thumper’s brutal, breakneck speed and precision-based musical action kept me entranced for all nine of its bizarre, nightmarish stages, which contained enough nuanced high score-chasing tricks to demand several replays already. To really master Thumper’s many layers of rhythm-based mechanisms would take much more time than the 10 or so hours it takes to complete the first time – and that’s a challenge that I eagerly accept.
Battlefield 1 does an amazing job of transplanting the fantastic chemistry of the series’ traditional multiplayer action into the weaponry and vehicles of World War I. The era brings with it not only a visually striking backdrop for classic game modes like Conquest and the compelling new Operations, but a distinct personality that touches everything from its rich lineup of archaic and distinctively designed weapons to the somber anthology of character-driven stories in its brief but surprisingly poignant single-player scenarios. While maps are not its strong point, Battlefield 1’s dynamically destructible environments and the minutely balanced mechanics of its classes and gadgets keep the moment-to-moment first-person shooting varied and engaging.