It’s inevitable that Not Tonight‘s strong political views will put some people off, although it’s hard to imagine who would be offended at such obvious satire unless their own views are a little too closely represented for comfort. Not Tonight made me laugh and feel awkward on a regular basis, often both in close proximity. It has moments of tedium but it’s worth sticking with for the laughs that follow those periods of downtime.
The Messenger has a unique spin that sets it apart from other games and yet, ironically, it lacks an identity of its own. As a modern Ninja Gaiden game it’s excellent, but it only maintains that for half the game. The other half is a faint-hearted attempted at a Metroidvania that never quite works. I thoroughly enjoyed eight to nine hours of my twelve-hour playthrough. The other three or four were a little more tedious than I would have liked but that shouldn’t entirely negate a brilliant platformer with plenty to offer even in a year that’s been chock full of throwback retro platformers.
I spent thirty hours with Thronebreaker and, while a couple of hours were me moving through the motions of easy gwent matches, the vast majority saw me hooked to the screen either listening to the narrator and cast of characters bringing scenes to life or trying to figure out how to stop spies making it from one end of the gwent table to the other. If you want a great story set in the Witcher world, then I recommend Thronebreaker.
GRIS is relaxing and visually stunning. It's like a watercolor painting come to life. Much like any piece of art, what you make of it is going to be intensely personal, however if you enjoyed the experience of games like Flower and Journey, you should probably play GRIS. My three hours with the game flew by and I felt reinvigorated at the end, as if I'd just awoken from a good night's sleep (or so I imagine).
The Evil Within has all the elements of a great survival horror game. There’s a great story… eventually. There’s satisfying tactical combat… sometimes. The world looks suitably grim and foreboding… when it’s not breaking apart before your eyes. It’s a game that needed another twelve months to meet the developer’s vision. That’s what sequels are for. I can’t wholeheartedly recommend The Evil Within, but I can encourage you to keep an eye on the sequel. It could be something special.
Fallout 4 represents a huge leap forward from Fallout 3 in terms of visuals and combat, but it somehow delivers an even worse story, and the reduced role-playing mechanics mean that a Fallout game has never been this shallow. Bethesda Studios Games needs to completely revise how it approaches stories in its games or Fallout 5 won't be worth playing.
Rise of the Tomb Raider represents a graphical leap forward from its predecessor, but the rest of the changes are merely minor tweaks and refinements to a formula that is starting to feel rather tired due to a certain other series having done this many times before.
If you are truly desperate for a System Shock 2 successor then Prey might just scratch that itch. However, my mom always told me not to scratch an itch because it only makes things worse. She might have been right. (NOTE: Detailed analysis video available on the website)
The gunplay in Destiny 2 is excellent. Unfortunately, Bungie still doesn’t understand how to handle an MMO grind—especially in the late game—and the storytelling is atrocious. After about 15-20 hours, the loot stopped rolling in and I realized how tedious the game was without a regular flow of new shiny things. Destiny 2 will sell by the millions, but I’m going to need some huge changes to go back for Destiny 3.
Far Cry 5‘s setting is beautiful to behold, however it’s home to a shallow story, bland protagonist, and repetitive set of missions. You can have plenty of fun sniping helicopters out of the air, but the game never lets you slow down. It constantly cries out for attention as if it knows that once you stop playing you might never return. There was a long gap between Far Cry 4 and Far Cry 5, but judging by the final product, there needed to be a longer one. Ubisoft needs to channel some of the creativity that successfully reinvented Assassins’ Creed; we need more than another by-the-numbers Far Cry game.
When The New Colossus drops the difficulty spikes, boring stealth sections, and lets you out of narrow corridors, it becomes a thrilling shooter up there with Doom and the best moments from The New Order. Unfortunately, Machine Games seems determined to bring you out of the moment at every possible opportunity. Killing Nazis shouldn’t be this frustrating.
Odyssey is certainly not a bad game. While much of the content is boring, Mario controls wonderfully which lets you create your own fun. The 2D sections are entertaining distractions and the nostalgia-bait in Metro Kingdom even made me smile and that hasn’t happened since 2011. However, following a dog around and ground-pounding on the dirt he digs up isn’t what I want from a 3D platformer or a Mario game. Odyssey is there for you whenever you need a moon-generating playground to mess about in. You can pick it up and play it whenever you like. Go ahead, give it a quick go. You’ll get a moon.
Golf Story has so much charm that I feel guilty for being bored. Likewise, I feel a touch guilty for writing this critical review. However, while the dialogue was witty enough to keep me going until completion, it wasn't enough to drag Golf Story out of mediocrity.
My overwhelming thought after completing Ni No Kuni II was of what could have been. The combat system is excellent, but Level-5 didn’t have the confidence to make it challenging. The story is endearing at times, however it seems like the money ran out when it came to doing full voice work for all the cutscenes. There’s a great game under here somewhere, but perhaps not a $60 one. I’d have preferred a twenty-five-hour game without the tedious stuff and perhaps a $40 price point. Far too much of the extra content feels like filler. In trying to include a bit of everything, Revenant Kingdom ultimately mastered nothing.
Iconoclasts took me about fourteen to fifteen hours to complete. Around ten hours was fun. However, it’s the other five hours I’ll remember like the frustration of trying to figure out what obscure mechanic I needed to use to progress or the time spent wandering around aimlessly with no direction. Iconoclasts tries its hand at action, puzzles, and Metroidvania and doesn’t commit to any of them. The end result is mediocre.