In summary, Owlboy is a near-perfect retro adventure that doesn’t emulate classic 16-bit titles so much as it gives us what we remember them to be. Sprawling and epic, even in the confines of a 2D plane, full of likeable protagonists, nefarious villains, tough encounters, and an uplifting story that you’ll walk away from satisfied.
For all my complaints about the mission structure and repetitive semi-randomised maps, I never once stopped playing thanks to excellent gunplay, and fun upgrade system, and just enough narrative to keep me interested. It is always difficult for developers to create decent narrative in these games and the story in Shadow Warrior 2 seems more ambitious than the game can effectively convey.
If you’re looking for a charming, visually-spectacular, mechanically-satisfying platform-puzzler, that’s exponentially better with friends, Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince offers up tons of content at half the price of a typical big-budget release.
Make no mistake, Resident Evil 2 is still an excellent survival-horror game that modernises the original in a myriad of intelligent ways, giving new players an incredible first experience and continuously surprising returning players.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is a massive expansion that, with some expanded mechanics and refined cutscenes, could have been sold as a fully-fledged sequel and I would still have been impressed paying full price.
The intriguing narrative, fluid action, responsive controls, and phenomenal presentation all come together to create Supergiant Games’ finest to date.
Metro Exodus demands patience and prior knowledge if you’re looking to appreciate every narrative moment, and the control scheme is likely to confound new players, but it’s an essential purchase to fans of the prior games that want to see Artyom’s journey through to the end.
If you’re looking for an accessible, light-hearted platformer with music and rhythm-based challenges, LocoRoco 2 is packed full of content and can be played by just about anyone, regardless of skill.
Overall, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a great sequel that once again demonstrates MachineGames' mastery of combining fun, fast-played gunplay with a serious narrative and complex characters. Is it as good as The New Order? In terms of mechanics and visuals, even better.