James Berich's Reviews
Outriders combines immense variety, aggressively geared combat and fun abilities to offer a third person shooter like no other. It's filled to the brim quality content – bringing a stellar campaign that's constantly throwing new things at the player and a compelling well-designed post-game experience in Expeditions. Teething issues with online aside, Outriders is poised to be one of the biggest surprises of the year, and you should definitely give it a go.
Bravely Default II is a fun sequel that does it's best to improve on it's predecessor. While the dungeon designs are simplistic and the side quests lack variety, it's hard to ignore what Bravely Default II does well. A combination of great artistic and audio direction and an engaging battle and progression system make Bravely Default II stand out from the rest. Make no mistakes. It's an earnest throwback to an often forgotten era of RPGs and a stellar modernisation of the classic Final Fantasy formula.
Little Nightmares II isn't content with just iterating on its predecessor, instead improving on it in practically every way. The puzzles are challenging and rewarding, combat surprisingly functional, and the imagery is as striking as ever. While trial-and-error design bogs down Little Nightmares II considerably, it's far and away a better game than the original.
The Medium is Bloober Team's most ambitious game in terms of scope and scale. It successfully leverages fixed camera angles and strong sound design to create a horror experience that's unashamedly nostalgic. Despite its successes, the game fails to capitalise on its unique dual reality mechanic and ultimately feels too similar to the studio's prior efforts in Blair Witch and Observer.
HITMAN III is a decidedly epic conclusion to the events established in the first two games. It offers fantastic, well-realised locales with objectives that are unconventional, at least by HITMAN standards, to come out feeling fresh. Though in pursuit of this, it has lost a bit of the breadth we've come to expect from the series. Ultimately, it delivers what it promised to - a strong conclusion to the trilogy.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game - Complete Edition brings together everything that was lost all those years ago to dreaded licensing issues to remind us of why we missed it so much. It's a fun and quirky beat-em-up, though the lack of online in all the modes offered feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
Twin Mirror has an intriguing premise but ultimately fails to do anything remarkable with it. While it's DONTNOD's most impressive game technically, Twin Mirror is a by-the-book thriller that only just manages to scrape through to solve its core mystery that's unfortunately lacking thrills.
Immortals Fenyx Rising is an epic adventure that perfectly leverages the rich, storied history of Greek mythology with a focused and honed version of Ubisoft's now-ubiquitous open-world design. Deviating from the norm, the game's unique design and structure help Immortals be one of Ubisoft's most focused adventures and easily one of their most enjoyable yet.
Demon's Soul is without a doubt one of the strongest PS5 launch titles, providing one of the most challenging, yet rewarding experiences. Bluepoint's treatment, although controversial, is immaculate and represents the best way to experience the classic that started it all.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla blends old and new to create a unique experience and one of the best Assassin's Creed experiences yet. It combines series-best combat, a compelling story, and mesmerising locales to dually offer a definitive Viking and assassin experience.
The Dark Pictures: Little Hope makes an earnest attempt to build upon the formula established by Man of Medan in many ways. It offers an engaging and well-paced story, great characters, and an intriguing yet typical twist that genre fans will no doubt appreciate. Despite numerous improvements to the underlying gameplay and excellent production values, incessant jump scares prevent Little Hope from standing on the shoulders of Man of Medan, instead merely beside it.
Watch Dogs Legion builds upon the solid foundation established by Watch Dogs 2 while adding its own ambitious twist with mixed results. Having literally every character playable is a gargantuan task, and from a gameplay perspective it works to cement Legion as the best Watch Dogs game thus far. Narratively speaking, however, it collapses under its own aspiration to offer an intriguing concept with spotty execution. Regardless, Legion is a triumph for making good on most of its lofty promise and a triumph for the series.
Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part One does a great job of setting up some genuinely intriguing plot points while also committing to the aspects that I loved so much about the base game. In the process, it’s bound to frustrate some players – it’s bloody difficult, has more platforming elements and the Marauders just keep on coming – but it’s still more of Doom Eternal and that’s hardly a bad thing.
Windbound is a beautiful artistic accomplishment in terms of presentation, but fails to make good on its promise of bringing together an open-world single-player game and typical crafting-survival elements. Despite attempts to make it approachable for all, it is an ultimately frustrating affair that squanders its potential with the same rigid survival mechanics that we've seen in a lot of other games and that's a real shame.
Battletoads is a victory for Microsoft, Dlala Studios and Rare. It successfully takes a brand that's been dormant for over two decades, breathing new life into it and updating it for the modern generation ardently. While it's a huge shame that Battletoads isn't playable online, and makes some missteps in it's third act, it's hard to deny that this is the most charming rendition of our favourite videogame amphibians. But most of all it's funny, and that's refreshing.
Destroy All Humans! makes an earnest effort to improve on every aspect of the original, but it’s hard to avoid the issues stemming from the era in which it came from. Despite it’s numerous improvements, Destroy All Humans is still plagued with banal repetition and tedium especially as the adventure draws to an end.
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing In Disguise is an earnest attempt to conclude the story told in the original game ten years ago. It’s engaging, the characters are a joy to observe, and the trademark zaniness is as intact as ever. Unfortunately, it’s hard to deny that the game’s egregious performance issue hinders it from standing on the shoulders of it’s predecessor.
It's hard to deny that Maneater has colossal potential – though the lack of mission variety and some simplistic combat does lend it to feeling repetitious as time goes on. Putting these flaws aside, however, Maneater deserves kudos for an undeniably unique premise and laying a solid foundation for a franchise that developer Tripwire should almost certainly pursue.
Streets of Rage 4 is a solid tribute to the genre it arguably helped shape, but this feels like more of the same with a fresh coat of paint rather than an all-out reinvention. What’s on offer here is reminiscent and nostalgic, and still a great time, but it ultimately lacks the oomph to elevate it beyond the games that came before it.
While some spirit has been lost in translation, Resident Evil 3 is superbly paced and one of the better modern Resident Evil games, and a chapter that any horror fan shouldn’t miss.