Maurice Pogue's Reviews
Super Cloudbuilt is an action platformer and labor of love for speedrunner fans, yet it lacks the charm of Super Meat Boy or the flair of Vanquish.
Sundered ambitiously tackles procedural generation, random encounters, roguelike character progression, and emergent storytelling. The end result is a success.
Mother Russia Bleeds is a game that will make you hate yourself for enjoying.
Black: The Fall is a game inspired by contemporary puzzle platformers that struggles to reciprocate inspiration.
While rocking the Unreal Engine 4, and backed with the kind of quality netcode that has yet to be seen in any other fighting game on PC, Tekken 7 is the premiere fighting game experience for those seeking an endless stream of competition.
Those playing Hotline Miami 2 may find themselves engaging in a litmus test for masochistic tendencies.
Adapting the best of emergent gameplay mechanics from the classics like System Shock, Prey raises the bar for the standard of space adventure-thrillers.
Mages of Mystralia is a game that will enchant more than magic spells with its accessible spellcrafting mechanics, sublime soundtrack, and Zelda-like linear progression.
Beamdog's modernization of a cult classic in the form of Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition is an extraordinary novel suffering from the misfortune of being trapped in the form of an underwhelming video game.
As with Bayonetta, content concerns may give modest gamers pause, but those who choose to endure will be rewarded with a game that fits squarely among the pantheon of all-time greatest action games.
Yoooka-Laylee does little to revise the tried-and-true formula of the collect-a-thon, but instead, manages to revive the charm of the anthromorphic furry (or here, reptilian) of yesteryear in a game that should remind the industry that there is indeed demand for some old-fashioned and wholesome slapstick circumscribed by all-too familiar mechanics of running and (double)jumping.
Legacy of the Void is a StarCraft game, which means it is quality by default. Indeed, this is a game that upholds expectations.
Despite its impotent story, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a wonderful return to form that old-school and new-school fans of RE alike of RE should not miss.
Yomawari: Night Alone is a cute, but bone-chilling game that will make players want to never walk their dogs at night, and if they do, have cell phones with flashlights on at all times.
Alluring, but flawless game, this is not.
Seraph conducts a makeover on the old model of side-scrolling platform run-and-guns, blessing gamers everywhere with a fantastic contribution to the SHUMP genre.
Seasons after Fall is a pleasurable exercise in aesthetic finesse, demonstrating how creative indie developers continue to do more with less.
The Hive is a fully released game that feels like demo. At minimum, it hits the mark as RTS for novices in the genre, but it is backed by an attempt at blending StarCraft and Homeworld fanfiction for a story.
Abzû is a nice looking game that will also be remembered as a missed opportunity to surpass or at least achieve a comparative level of greatness that is its inspiration, Journey.
If I am Setsuna stands as an example of what developers would accomplish if they more frequently looked back toward the golden age of RPGs, I enthusiastically urge the industry to continue pressing forward in further modernizing the genre.