Shawn Zipay's Reviews
Battlefield 2042 is a shallow, feature-lacking mess of a game that appeals to neither long-time franchise fans nor newcomers. Go back to Battlefield V, or Battlefield 1, or Battlefield 4. Just don't play this.
The Medium is quite offensive to those who suffer depression or trauma. It uses people who suffer as a narrative crutch to tell its story. I expected better.
There just is not very much to praise here. If you enjoyed the colorful sandbox action of the original, you will probably find some enjoyment with Crysis Remastered. If you are like me and thought that the original was lacking, even back in 2007, you will not find any reason to pick this up in the here and now. It is also hard to recommend the game in 2020 when so many other games have come and gone that have better stories, better writing, and better gameplay in every conceivable way. It's a very dated game, but at least the water looks pretty.
There are a few sparks of a great game hidden deep within Disintegration. Sadly, none of those sparks ever manage to catch fire.
Close to the Sun is just not that great of a game. The low price certainly works in the game's favor, but even then, it is difficult to recommend without considerable hesitation. The setting, the concepts, and the ideas presented are all fantastic, but the actual execution, the simplified gameplay, and the lack of resolution on multiple plot points left me very disappointed.
Call of Cthulhu had promise but the execution just failed to deliver. The setting and the story deserve so much better than what you can find here.
Priced at just $19.99 (USD), Fictorum is a great idea hindered by extremely poor execution on almost every front. Casting and customizing these powerful, sometimes insane looking spells is neat for the first few times but the novelty quickly wears off when you discover the numerous shortcomings that plague the rest of the game.
Outlast 2 does next to nothing to advance the survival horror genre in any meaningful way. It did very little to craft a coherent experience. It did very little to be anything more than a series of overused horror tropes. I have no doubt that there are people out there that will find the game to be a thrilling and often times scary experience, but I was not one of them.
Coming off of the phenomenal Layers of Fear, the Inheritance DLC lacks the charm and the atmosphere that the original offered in spades. The scares came across as forced and weak. Bundled with the original game, it's not a bad value proposition, but as a stand-alone purchase it can safely be avoided.
As a huge fan of the first three games, the state of this game is honestly depressing. I fully grasp the idea that this is supposedly the first game in a new trilogy and that things are being set up for the next games. I still hope that is the case. There are some decent foundations here that could lead to some really fantastic adventures in the next two games if BioWare plays their cards right and addresses the major issues that plague this game.
Repetitive, bland, broken, and disappointing. It's so difficult to recommend this game to anybody, even to fans of the previous games. The game feels more like a poor attempt at the first entry in a new open-world series rather than the third main entry in a series that has now been around for 14 years.
Over the course of the lengthy, ill-paced campaign, one thing really stuck out for The Evil Within. It's not really a horror game. Yes, there are areas where you are often subjected to intense imagery and situations but they are more shocking than anything else. To put it simply, the game is more like the Saw film franchise than what we have come to expect from a good survival horror game.
Maneater is one of those rare titles that shows a lot of potential but ultimately just fails to deliver. The game is not "bad" per se, but it's not one I would be quick to recommend. As for the game as it stands right now, I would wait for a sale.
Journey for Elysium is a game that does not quite offer enough challenge for puzzle fanatics nor does it quite offer enough pure exploration for fans of "walking sims." It's not bad but it never really excels in any meaningful way.
Last Year: The Nightmare delivers a well-crafted gameplay experience that ultimately comes up short on content.
Windjammers is a blast from the past, for both better and for worse.
At its worst, Agents of Mayhem is an extremely watered down Crackdown and at its best it's a moderately watered down Saints Row experience. The game's positives just aren't enough to make up for the rest of the game's shortcomings.(...) With so many better alternatives out there, some of them even made by Volition themselves already, there just isn't much of a reason to choose Agents of Mayhem.
Through the Woods is a terrific atmospheric adventure title held back from true greatness by some disappointing character work and voice acting. I quite enjoyed my journey through the unquestionably unique environments and I would like to think that I learned a few things about Norse mythology along the way. This game took a chance with its focus on combining an atmospheric horror game with Norse mythology and it paid off for the most part. The price point and lack of "in your face" scares may push away many consumers, but the style and gameplay scored some high marks for my personal gaming tastes. For their first offering, Antagonist shows off a ton of promise and I would love to see what they bring to the table in the future.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is so full of issues that it's hard to sit here and tell you that it's worth the $60 (USD) price they're asking. I would strongly suggest that you wait a few months to see what sort of shape the game is in at that point in time.