Reid McCarter
Resident Evil HD Remaster . . . achieves the same sense of lingering horror as its source material while simultaneously making the entire experience easier for modern audiences to appreciate.
Its developer is afraid of settling down for even a moment, worried that players will grow bored with even a second of necessary peace. This approach works in the meat-grinder of multiplayer and the series of American corpses of its opening moments, but fails elsewhere. The result is a game pulling in all directions, aesthetically coherent, but with a muddled design ethos that allows it to come near something extraordinary without ever quite achieving it.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla's vision of ninth-century England is a beautiful place to explore, populated with a great cast of characters who make up for the bland new protagonist, Eivor. Nevertheless, the tired overarching story of Templars and Assassins, and a design ethos that overstuffs the setting with side activities, add unnecessary bloat and distractions to the experience. Valhalla's a solid action-adventure game that does well to capture the turmoil of its historical era, but it's weighed down by the increasingly ponderous legacy of the series it represents.
Bravely Default is, for better or worse, a pretty good '90s RPG
Though Rise of the Tomb Raider wastes little time in getting Lara into the thick of a brand new adventure, it's still burdened by much of its predecessor's baggage.
Even though Splatoon 2 outdoes the first game in every technical sense, it still feels lesser simply because it's more of the same. What was captivatingly eccentric in 2015 feels safer now, its quirks predictable even though they're still impressive. Get lost in the speed and noise of one of its matches and it might not seem like any of these problems matter, but a slower, sober moment looking at Splatoon 2 as a whole makes it difficult to ignore.
Given its wide scope, it's understandable that it's also a game that succeeds more in concept than execution. Like the subjects of the multi-generational novels whose tradition it embraces, Edith Finch's individual successes and failures are less important than its overall effect. It's a story made of stories, and the results of its breadth seem more important than the fine details.
Not a Hero's ultimate statement is a brutally cynical one, but its political nihilism is always portrayed with such glee and good cheer that the unease is hard to feel until the game is shut down.
When the pieces come together as they're meant to, Evolve is satisfying in a bone-deep kind of way.
There is no shooter quite as willing to prostrate itself before its audience as SUPERHOT while always reminding them that, no matter how tough the game may make them feel, that same sensation can be stolen from them in a heartbeat.
Until Dawn is a game constructed by people who understand how to manipulate its players' sense of control. It's informed by a deep study of horror films and smart in its consideration of how to employ this understanding in an interactive medium. It only fails in its uncharacteristic acceptance of a few outmoded tropes. In some ways that enhances Until Dawn as an attempt to properly translate its genre to a new form, while keeping its spirit intact. In others, it's a disappointingly familiar problem to find in a game with so many novel ideas.
This is Call of Duty coming to terms with itself—pushing and pulling between social responsibility and the joy of instinctual, itchy trigger-fingered chaos. Not since Modern Warfare has an entry to the series felt much more than casually disinterested in humanity.
Ultimate Edition doesn’t represent a drastic change from the Xbox 360 original.
Life Is Strange's conclusion cements its story as one of the more noteworthy in recent videogames.
A Knight to Remember manages to capture the spirit of its predecessors without ever feeling like an empty exercise in nostalgia.
It isn't an overstatement to say that the attention paid to diversifying the look and tactical possibilities of the levels is key to what makes XCOM 2 work.
Wasteland 2 makes a strong case for the revival of a long dormant style of videogame design.
This is as good as Resident Evil 4 has ever been and that will likely be more than enough for anyone interested in the re-release.
Enemy Within [is] not only an excellent expansion, but a more fully formed vision of the base game as well.
Civilization: Beyond Earth is, in many senses, the next logical step forward in a series that has always been about celebrating the human drive to understand, control, and expand our environment.