Evan Norris's Reviews
Killing Floor 2 isn't the prettiest or the most feature-rich shooter around. It doesn't have the polish of Overwatch or the mechanical audacity of Titanfall. Yet it's one of the more addictive shooters on the market today, one that consistently begs for "just one more match."
Patience is required to overcome an initial learning curve and a cheat sheet necessary to decode its mythology, but those willing to persevere will reap a nice reward.
Overflowing with charming personalities and buoyed by a deep and rewarding combat system, Exist Archive is a nice addition to the Vita library. It's just too bad that recycled dungeons and tedious grinding show up to spoil the fun.
Judged only by its single player campaign, this latest Call of Duty is game-of-the-year material. Judged only by its multiplayer, the game is a jumbled, crowded mess with inferior matchmaking and unbalanced guns — cardinal sins for a competitive shooter. Somewhere in the middle is Zombies mode, which boasts a great sense of humor and lots of replay value.
Despite a scarcity of game modes, Pirate Pop Plus is a winner.
Rich in content and a joy to play, Gears of War 4 is one of the year's best games and, arguably, Microsoft's greatest eighth generation exclusive so far.
Ninja Usagimaru is the definition of a sleeper: low price, niche genre, little to no fanfare. Well, consider this your wake up call. Fans of puzzle platformers will find in Usagimaru a hidden gem with a healthy amount of content and some truly devilish puzzles.
Two Tribes promised RIVE would be their last and best game. It's certainly the best. Let's hope it won't be the last.
Federation Force isn't what Metroid fans expected, or wanted. It's not a 2D Metroidvania or even a slow-burning, atmospheric first-person action game focused on exploration, in the style of Metroid Prime. Yet it stands as a solid spin-off from a legendary franchise, rich in content and fun to play.
Shiren is not for everyone. Anyone craving an accessible or user-friendly RPG need not apply. Fans of challenging rogue-likes, however, should snatch the game up immediately.
It suffers a bit from recycled ideas and mechanics, but in terms of music, art direction, and combat it carves out a corner all its own.
Headlander is neither Double Fine's best game nor its most ambitious. Yet it's a solid, quirky, funny, and bold experiment in a genre new to the developer.
Zero Time stands as the weakest of the trilogy, but still a satisfactory visual novel in its own right.
Insomniac proves with Song of the Deep that it can make a gem with a small team, on a tiny budget, and in a previously-unexplored genre.
When it's not sending you into cardiac arrest, it's bending your mind with plot twists and challenging your reflexes and brain power with a series of platforming and puzzling challenges. In the end, lightning strikes twice for Playdead. Six years was worth the wait.
Uncharted 4 is a roller coaster of a game, one with incredible action set-pieces, tactical gunplay, and emotional moments. It's a triumphant send-off for one of the most beloved series of the last ten years.
In the end, Platinum didn't need to do much to make Mutants in Manhattan a worthwhile experience. All it had to do was respect the source material, create some satisfying combat mechanics, and honor the series' local multiplayer origins. It failed largely at all three.
A creative, open-ended game rich in emergent gameplay that's sadly spoiled by technical problems.
Paranautical Activity is a mixed bag designed for a niche audience. If you like twitch shooters, permadeath, and high difficult levels, this is a game that's worth considering. If you're a shooting fan who wants more structure and predictability, Paranautical Activity is probably a skip.
If this is to be the Vita's swan song, so be it. It's arguably DrinkBox's greatest work, and it's an early contender for game of the year.