Assassin's Creed is one the greatest action-adventure franchises out there, though its hidden blades have been dulled of late from overexposure. After its brief sabbatical, Assassin's Creed: Origins enters the arena glistening in the Egyptian sun with quality and quantity. Whether you're a devout member of the Creed, someone who's fallen off the hay wagon, or even a prospective new member of the Brotherhood, this is the time to dig your blade deep into a succulent new Assassin's Creed.
Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 contains a diverse cast of thoughtfully created superheroes and supervillains, a fun-filled hub with many unique and interesting sites to explore, and a free-flowing campaign not bound by a movie script. The lacking Fox franchises don't hamper the experience. What does, however, are the numerous glitches, many of which stunt the progression of the game, and the disjointed voice and sound editing work. The technical bugs will undoubtedly be fixed and, when accomplished, this will be an epic, fun, and laughter filled way to enjoy the wonderful mashing together of Lego and Marvel.
Despite a strong focus on accessibility and numerous quality-of-life improvements over previous titles, Monster Hunter: World still begs you to muscle through your initial struggles and build a comfort level with the gameplay systems and pacing. Should you find yourself slowly embracing the concepts, you may blink and notice hundreds of hours have been invested, with you now proudly calling yourself a fan. With a great multiplayer element, there are few games that are more fun to play with friends, but even going alone with your purring Palico sidekick, the satisfying routine of taking down monsters and using their bits to upgrade your gear to take on tougher monsters never seems to get redundant. This is the Monster Hunter game for the world. There is no better entry point for beginners and no better magnum opus for the series.
State of Decay 2 is full of improvements and additions over its predecessor, yet strays little from the original blueprint. If you enjoyed the first game, then you will certainly lose plenty of hours in the sequel, scouring the undead ridden lands for supplies to keep your community alive and thriving. However, if you were hoping for groundbreaking changes to the horror survival formula and pristine technical accomplishments, you will be disappointed. Nevertheless, for a bargain retail price, and as a launch title for subscribers of the Xbox Game Pass, it's definitely worth of a look while keeping some change in your pocket.
The Forza family of games continues to excel in technical quality and content quantity, raising the bar each year and giving the series a strong shot at being the best racing series ever. Forza Horizon 4 reinforces that statement with new ways to experience the joy of driving, whether alone, with friends, or fellow enthusiasts you happen to cross paths with in this gorgeous shared piece of Great Britain.
It has enough content to keep you occupied, possesses a decent progression system that keeps you invested, and will receive free future DLC without a whiff of loot crates or microtransactions. However, it follows an expected blueprint that may quickly grow stale for players looking for a fresh FPS experience.
Bethesda claims that the Fallout 76 servers will last “forever” and, while it may not take that long to patch bugs and improve the experience, my foray with the launch version has left me with an abundance of bullet points that need attention. My biggest hope is that Bethesda will take our suggestions and criticisms as a call to action to tweak the faulty mechanics and build more features into a game that has a ton of potential.
A voice to go with Artyom’s soul would have been nice, as well as some AI tweaking, but the thoughtful additions and improvements from previous Metro games gives Exodus a fresh experience for anyone ready for a wild train ride.