With interesting mechanics such as "beating" the game for dying at certain times or doing silly things like removing your operating system, or the extremely odd way that some of the enemy machines pantomime the more mundane (or not so mundane) actions of humanity, Nier: Automata is oft-times confusing but the deftness with which the various elements found throughout, miraculously pulls the game together and is anchored by the best music in the business. What results is easily the most under-appreciated game of these last two years.
State of Decay 2 excels as survival sim with zombies strewn about a decaying world and really does provide near endless hours of grinding zombies down, hunting and scavenging for more resource, destroying Plaguehearts in hopes of finding a cure, and managing communities. In more ways than one, State of Decay 2 is the pinnacle of zombie survival, successfully melding numerous genres into a dismal world nigh devoid of hope. Amidst the overwhelming tide of darkness lies a small ray of hope within your community.
Vampyr is to date, 2018's most interesting and ultimately satisfying release. Stunning world-building, detailed and interesting non-player characters, enjoyable RPG level-building mechanics, and an intriguing story mixed with the district management features have yielded an excellent action RPG title that is a bit deeper than your atypical affair. Moody and brilliant, Vampyr is a must-have for any fan of the non-sparkling vampire variety.
With dozens of different selections for technology research, an interesting and almost living personality to your city, and heaps of frozen trouble, FrostPunk will challenge every fiber of your strategic being and it. is. glorious. I am not entirely sure I can adequately define the addictive brutality found in FrostPunk as it is genius in its drive to freeze you out. FrostPunk is worth your time on every level … the visceral struggle of a lost people working their way through the frozen tundra is incredibly relatable and it is terrifying.
Empires Apart is a beautiful mess of a game. Designed with competitive multiplayer in mind, Empires Apart takes the fast-paced action of a professional StarCraft II match and sticks it into a graphically-stunning world that is a near-mimic of Age of Empires. Wear it falls flat though, is in the fact that if you are playing more casually, you will be destroyed, period. Speed is key and the utterly ridiculous keybindings do everything they can to prevent you from efficiently building your empire and destroying your enemies. With a little balance and far more work put into the keybindings and interface, Empires Apart could be an excellent alternative to RTS gamers that are tired of being utterly destroyed in the StarCraft II ladders.
It is no secret that I am a fan of Reki Kawahara's Sword Art Online franchise; when I first saw the anime back in 2012 I was hooked. I was going through a bit of a rough spell on a personal level and it just clicked; in a way the Aincrad arc could be seen as a parallel to my own troubles at the time. It holds a special place in my heart so each time a Sword Art Online title came around I lobbied for the chance to get my hands on them and the case is no different for Bandai Namco's latest dive into the franchise, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet. Eschewing some of the more tedious features of the past games, Fatal Bullet is an excellent, if repetitive third person action RPG.
The Walking Dead Collection is a complete gathering of the entire Walking Dead games; included in the package are Seasons 1 through 3, The Walking Dead - Michonne, and The Waking Dead: 400 Days. Rather than being just a collection though, The Collection includes updated visuals so it looks far cleaner and more vivid on modern televisions and consoles (PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X). Unfortunately though, the biggest issue with the series has not been addressed, and that is the poor performance of the engine… For those, like me, that did not have a complete collection of the five seasons (three primary, two mini/secondary seasons), this is a fantastic collection but it does not offer enough to justify the purchase if you alread own the individual seasons.
A Walk in the Park is 2017's underrated sci-fi action RPG hit The Surge's DLC, adding an entire new amusement park area called CREO World. Unfortunately what is supposed to be a fun-filled amusement park, CREO World has fallen into a bit of disrepair. Not spared from the disaster, rescue teams were sent to recover any who were capable of being saved, but those very rescue teams have fallen to the dark side, have gone insane and now patrol the area looking to batter anything they find into dust. Enter CREO World at your own peril, and though it is juvenile in looks and spirit, it is brutally frustrating at times. At times welcome if immature challenge, at others an exercise in patience.
For all of the success of KOEI TECMO and Team NINJA's Nioh it seems too often that it is brushed aside as "Dark Souls with Samurai" which is a criminal understatement given how good Nioh is.
Forza Motorsports has been THE approachable racing simulator for over a decade now and Forza Motorsports 7 continues that trend. With an obscene number of cars (over 700!), Forza Motorsports 7 is not only the most advanced and graphically impressive, but also the largest and most varied. The downside to the massive scale is that there are a number of things that just do not make sense, which is unfortunate because Forza Motorsports 7 could be the best of the franchise, but a few puzzling decisions by Turn10 take it down a peg from "near perfect" to "good, but not the best…"
Everything about Deer Hunter: Reloaded feels like a mockery of hunting and gamers that happen to enjoy hunting. From the horrific animations to pointless single-track mobility to the fact that you can simply game the system by fast traveling between areas to refresh their animals. Though it may be something of a port of the mobile Deer Hunter, what we have on Xbox One is a mess of bad animations, unrealistic bullet physics, and a near-identical acquisition yet horrific attempt at Rebellion's signature X-Ray slow motion Kill Cam is laughably bad. If you truly despise someone, Deer Hunter: Reloaded would be the perfect gift to give them.
theHunter: Call of the Wild totes itself as offering "the most immersive hunting experience ever created" and while it has more than its share of charm, to label it as such is a bit steep. Whether you are trekking through the American Pacific Northwest at the Layton Lake District hunting reserve, or you are slumming through the Hirschfelden Hunting Reserve, a digital re-representation of German farmlands, theHunter: Call of the Wild is fun at first, but devolves into a mind-numbing walk through the 50-square mile, Apex-generated environment that tends to drive you to bored wandering. It sure is pretty though.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a love story to 90's JRPGs merged with one of the most recognizable names in comics, Joe Madureira. Based on "Joe Mad's" own Battle Chasers comic line, Nightwar is a gorgeous dungeon-diving affair with a story that is instantly familiar to old fans of the franchise. Unfortunately what would largely be a stunning and extremely approachable game with affable characters, excellent pacing, and tons of replayability due to its randomly-generated dungeon, is a hot mess of technical issues. Given another two or three months of QA testing and Battle Chasers: Nightwar would be a contender for best RPG of the year.
Ruiner has been on my radar for months and how I came about it was a bit different for one being in the games industry. Rather than receiving a press release regarding Ruiner, I actually found it while doing some animated GIF searches for "cyberpunk" and I was instantly hooked. Set in the year 2091 in the fictional cyber-metropolis Rengkok, Ruiner game is a brutal isometric shooter that immediately reminded me of a gritty title pulling influences from sources like Super Smash TV, the Contra series, A Scanner Darkly, and a handful of different Anime. What Reikon Games gives us though, is far, far more than just a run-and-gun action title set in the corporately-run underbelly of a future megalopolis, but rather a wild ride through the mind of someone that has had enough of a corrupt system and aims to bring it all crumbling down.
The Solus Project is a moody title that blends exploration and light survival with stunning graphics and voice acting that is out of this world. Though exploration is a key driving factor in The Solus Project, the real gem is in the audio design; muting the game and running throughout the wet environs of Gleise-6143-C is a completely different (and worse) experience. While the map and littered lore are core bits to The Solus Project, the audio is what makes this a title that many gamers will thoroughly enjoy. Unfortunately though the strange mix between light survival, exploration, and moody lore-driven walking simulator means that while each genre is individually a strong case for a solid game, but together they seem muddied as the game progresses.
Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds is a historical fantasy visual novel set in the Bakumatsu period in Japan and puts you in the shows of Chizuru-san, a young woman determined to find her father in Kyoto. As part one in a two-part series that is the retelling of the original Hakuoki released in 2008, you will romance a number of handsome samurai (some are new to help justify the cost of Kyoto Winds) in search of details surrounding your father's whereabouts. Though it pushes over 80 hours of content with 30 unique endings, Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds feels more like a prolonged cash grab in a genre that is often taken advantage of.
Slightly Mad Studios, the genius team behind titles like Shift 2 Unleashed, Need for Speed, and Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends is back after the success of 2015's overwhelmingly excellent Project CARS racing simulator. In the follow-up, Project CARS 2, Slightly Mad Studios is back at it, bringing full-on racing simulation to the masses on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, but how does it fare when compared to its predecessor? While it is an enjoyable and a must-buy for newcomers to the ultra-realistic driving simulator genre but may feel a bit stale to racing sim veterans.
Darkwood is a brutally atmospheric take on the top-down horror genre. Coming out of Early Access, Acid Wizard Studio's hit title is something of an amazing amalgamation of genres; blending horror with exploration, challenging combat, roguelike-world generations and roleplaying game-like character development, Darkwood is simply put, and awesome title. What shocked me most was that it seemed to be very similar to some of the best board games I have played, not in play style, but in the way it feels. For example, Mansions of Madness, easily one of the best board games ever, leaves you with this dark and foreboding feeling when you are done playing. Darkwood is that, but in video game form, and with rich gameplay and stunning sound design, Darkwood is easily the breakout title of the season.
Observer is a first-person cyberpunk horror title from the minds behind the reputedly excellent Layers of Fear, Bloober Team. Stepping into the cybernetically enhanced mind of Daniel Lazarski, modeled after and voiced by cyberpunk veteran Rutger Hauer, as he investigates the disappearance of his son. Exploring a dark, retro-futuristic world full of dark secrets, "Big Brother" and mind-hacking, Observer is an interesting tale that, more often than not, is an exercise in patience more than it is a horror story.
Killing Floor 2 is the sequel to Tripwire Interactive's 2009 cult hit Killing Floor, which is actually a full release of the popular Unreal Tournament mod that debuted in 2004. With a long and relatively successful history, Tripwire took to the masses back in November 2016 by releasing Killing Floor 2 on Windows and PlayStation 4 platforms to favorable reviews (scoring around 75% on MetaCritic). Nearly a year later Killing Floor 2 has finally come to Xbox One and those of us that prefer Microsoft's home console for FPS games are finally able to join the fray… Unfortunately for us though, Killing Floor 2 feels a bit dead in the water, lifeless, and redundant given the abundance of far superior first person shooters available today.