You could argue that Squadrons breaks no fresh ground, that it is merely the latest in a prized patch of genre; but the ground, fresh or otherwise, was left behind long ago, and being the latest is no bad thing.
If you're hoping for a sombre tale of lives brought low by the touch of darkness, my advice would be to go for a ride and take in the sights instead.
There may well be the feeling of a missed opportunity here, but no matter. Almost worthy is still pretty good.
The more I played the less the goings-on of the narrative bothered me, and the more I relished the wavelike rhythm of the action: the roll and crash of sailing and breaking to alight for supplies.
What's on offer here is a version of what would only have been available, back then, from a top-flight studio; a haven for those who crave a hit of Tartakovsky; and a hack-and-slash hardly ahead of the curve but happy to polish the past.
I would recommend the remake to anyone with a nostalgic thirst for the original, but so, too, to those that like their laughs with a dark bite.
As with the rest of the game, outside of the more focussed platform sequences, I was boosted through by the breezy mood more than anything else. Skelattack is a masterpiece in the art of the pleasant.
The chief pleasures on offer are those of the power fantasy and of the newly burgeoning subgenre that we might call the zoological misadventure.
Does it succeed? Well, I don't know—I'm not an astronaut—but I can report that it has a pleasing gravity.
The mood wafts above it all, overpowering any laughable suggestions of plot or character—neither of which fuels Zombie Army 4.
It's a game of MacGuffins, so to speak—what you're doing and why you're doing it is inessential to the joys and the juice on offer.
It's easy to be skeptical of Ubisoft, but I happen to find much to revere in reliability. It's a solid shooter, with a happy churn of loot, elevated by Jon Bernthal. Fun for the few days it holds your attention.
A Plague Tale: Innocence has some clunky writing in places, and its play gets stale after a time, but it prevails with a compelling mystery and a beautiful world.
Metro Exodus injects life and light into the series, but its mechanics are still starting to creak; it's a good end to Artyom's journey, even if the story seems muffled.
Tanglewood presents you with a beautiful world to platform and puzzle through, and delivers a potent rush of nostalgia, but it's merit is tied inseparably to its hardware, and risks gimmickry.
The originality of its vision and the thrust of its narrative more than excuse some sci-fi clichés, and you're left with a breezy adventure game which compels with its ideas, if not always with its play.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider takes the series' formula and pushes it, polishing the platforming and bolstering its tombs, but the game's power ebbs as the main quest is bloated with distraction, and the writing is still patchy and dull.
An intriguing taste for what's to come in Life is Strange Season 2. The series' formula shows its age here and there, but what shines, as ever, is sensitive writing, and an excellent setting.
A powerful central relationship, an enigmatic plot, and terrific writing all elevate Before the Storm above the original series. This is fantastic adventure gaming, and some of the best writing in games at the moment, held back only by slightly shallow mechanics.
Sega reminds us that, with Yakuza Kiwami, not only is its heart in the right place, but it hasn’t missed a beat.