Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, at least judging by its first 25 hours, isn’t some grand reinvention of what made the original game so beloved and divisive then. It is, however, an equally as plodding yet enthralling story about the importance of connection – and the beautiful monotony required to make this happen.
If you’re seeking answers, this brief follow-up adventure is well worth a dip. Just don’t expect them to be the exact ones you went in seeking.
Survival Kids won’t win any awards for being the prettiest or flashiest game exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2 at launch, but it largely succeeds in its goal to offer younger audiences a charming and wholesome family-friendly adventure where working together conquers all.
I came away from my Shinobi: Art of Vengeance demo impressed by just how much Lizardcube’s take is less iteration and more evolution. Similar to its work on Streets of Rage 4, the studio has taken the core of what made the original games great and build upon this solid foundation for an all-new generation using an expressive art style, flexible combat, and some supremely tight platforming.
can’t say I ever truly invested in Aran’s personal plight, but I very much enjoyed the way he goes about resolving it, all thanks to one of the most unique and thoughtful melee combat systems I’ve experienced in the past few years. Blades of Fire borrows from the past, but when it comes to combat and creativity it also forges its own way forward.
This bigger, better, sillier sequel easily delivers some of the most fun I’ve had in an action-adventure game this year, to the extent that I’ll keep on investigating savage planets for as long as Raccoon Logic continues to develop them.
This is a story of heartbreak and loss, yes, but also the importance of persevering. That’s not a hard thing to want to do when a game looks and plays as wonderfully as this.
Luckily, a thing can be beautiful and undercooked in its design at the same time, and South of Midnight is certainly that. I just wish that, much like the spiritual weaver at the heart of this journey, Compulsion Games spent a bit more time better tying up loose ends.
In the end, then, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is still an open-world RPG with an Assassin’s Creed skin placed over the top of it, and likely won’t change the minds of naysayers who aren't on board with what the series has become.
Blue Collar Astronaut is an experience that is simply devoid of any merit or creativity, and I very much doubt any player will find it at all fair or enjoyable.
For all of Aqua Moto Racing Utopia’s light sense of fun and nostalgic reminiscence of past games like Wave Race 64 and Jet Moto, the act of taking to the waves is unfortunately tarnished by some frustratingly aggressive AI and a general lack of polish.
The few interesting ideas Zombeer has with regards to art-style, setting and voice talent, are all squandered due to an overall lack of presentation and polish.
I had some amount of fun zooming through Tatooine’s dunes to Jabba’s palace on my speeder, commanding Nix as an extension of myself, and even uncovering fresh threads for Kay to wear. That said, the inconsistency of each open-world coupled with undercooked stealth mechanics, poor technical performance on console, and the frankly odd implementation of the Reputation system makes this not the open-world Star Wars game I was looking for.
David Tennant does infuse this story with a lot of life in the short time he’s featured, and a particular end sequence set on a cybership sets the pulse racing by tapping into the show’s mild horror. However, neither detract from the original experience’s flaws. The chief appeal of playing in VR was being able to immerse yourself into an episode, and even that has now been lost in translation.
In a world plagued by stripped-back indie experiences grasping to evoke an element of nostalgia, I can at least praise I and Me for attempting something wholly original for the puzzle/platforming genre. But what could have been a mighty stride forward disappointingly feels more like a half step.
There is a great adventure game here just begging to be broken out, however for now as Syberia 3 stands, Kate Walker's story is one best left washed ashore.
Even with fairly decent driving gameplay and a somewhat unique career progression system, Moto Racer 4 simply doesn’t do enough to wow veteran racing game fans or woo in newcomers who might be tempted to put pedal to the metal.
If you enjoy score-chasing, levelling and some seriously hard enemy waves towards the latter halves of your games, Castle Invasion: Throne Out is a neat little package.
The world it presents is beautiful and engaging, and the sheer level of weapon variety present can lead to some of the most flexible combat I’ve ever played from a first-person perspective. Full stop. However, beneath such flashy sights lay a deeply problematic and annoying approach to progression that grates more than it satisfies, which, when coupled with throwaway companions and a generic narrative, ultimately leads to a fun but frivolous RPG experience not indicative of Obsidian Entertainment’s best.
Sniper Elite: Resistance is anything but generic, mind you, and will appease anyone left starved for more historical stealth action. I just hope the next Sniper Elite entry is more ambitious in its over execution, instead of what could merely be just Sniper Elite 5.5.