This is the exact lack of interaction that makes games bad. This is the recipe for failure, and in the future, it should be used as a road map of precisely what not to do in game design.
While Symmetry has an appealing art style, and an intriguing story, it doesn't have the gameplay to hold attention
Doctor Kvorak picked some good influences but doesn't come close to matching their quality.
Ultimately, I’m here to compare Pangeon to the best version of itself, and figure out if it’s reached its full potential. And it hasn’t, not even as a diversion.
But, now, there are other turn-based strategy games. You can assemble a squad of mechas, a coven of mages, an elite military unit, or even a heavily armed pig and duck. You can fight aliens, fish-men, soldiers, pirates, and existential dread. What I mean to say is that I like the ideas in Black Legend, and I applaud the devs for remaining true to their vision. Although, this is an environment with stiff competition, and it wasn’t long before I felt my attention being pulled elsewhere. Black Legend will doubtlessly have its fans, but the magic simply isn’t there.
The Long Journey Home is bound to drift to the far left side of my Switch home screen, but I hope it’s not forever. I will keep my eyes peeled for an announcement promising “drastic changes.” In the meantime, I will dream of a better game.
Warbanners becomes quickly unplayable. It's not pretty to look at or listen to, the story isn't all that engaging, and the interesting tactical elements are hard to find under all the tedium. I would say that only a die-hard of the genre would appreciate it, but then, a die-hard would be turned off by the design flaws. It looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for the next turn-based masterpiece.
It is certainly a pretty game. The minimalist polygon planes are very evocative, the sound design is lovely, and the abundant bloom lighting creates a mood. There's sort of a goal (get to the next triangle) and when you achieve it, the art style shifts. But I didn't really find it relaxing, I found it boring. And I never got over feeling perplexed.
Fear Effect Sedna is sort of an interesting artifact; a game out of its own time. If only playing it was any fun.
So I turned off my Switch and booted up my PC. I started a new game of Battle Brothers on that. And you know what? It’s as good as it ever was. A truly superlative strategy game made better with mods. I could not recommend Battle Brothers enough, but do yourself a favor and avoid the Nintendo Switch version. You’ll avoid one tragic end to meet a much more satisfactory one.
The gameplay is fun for a time, but once you see what Curious Expedition 2 has to offer, you will start to look beneath the surface. If you do that and you still like what you see, maybe you’ll have a new indie favorite. Or maybe you’ll find that your curiosity is quickly sated, and you’ll move on to the next thing.
But there’s still a question of why. Why remake these games? Why put a fresh coat of paint on this weird little action shooter that is not so fondly remembered? I’m sure there are compelling business reasons, but nothing that makes sense to me as a gamer. Mafia II is an imperfect fix to a game that was already pretty flawed. Now it’s just as flawed, but in a way that can be appreciated by modern audiences.
It's beautiful and enchanting. If only there was something more to do there.
I would recommend Siege Survival: Gloria Victis to players who like difficult management games and muddy depressing fantasy. I know you guys are out there. I’m one of those people. And despite my many criticisms of the game, I intend to keep playing it after this review has gone live. That’s not necessarily always the case! But there is a spark of something at the core of Siege Survival: Gloria Victis. It’s a puzzle, and if I can just line all the pieces up, I know I’ll feel the satisfaction of solving a difficult gaming challenge. But I will not be able to help imagining the game this could have been; brighter, sleeker, and more imaginative.
While Dark Train is a beautiful game, its largely atmospheric experience is hard to engage with.
With a couple more years of open-world games behind us, I think it’s clear that Mafia 3 is middle of the pack. It looks good and sounds good, but the core gameplay tasks aren’t as tight as they should be. The story is well presented but lacks the spark you find in more straightforward RPGs. The documentary framing device is brilliant, but beyond that, there’s not much happening that you won’t find done better elsewhere. Mafia 3: Definitive Edition is exactly that – the definitive version of a so-so 2016 action game.
Wytchwood isn’t a bad game because it’s easier than Dark Souls. Difficulty is not the only reason to play a game. But Wytchwood does let the player down with such a vague and uninteresting story. A game needs a hook, and this story ain’t it. Crafting games make me uniquely aware of how much time I am wasting by playing them. But in the end, I like to look back at the little work of art I made by building a house, or a city, or a space station. In Wytchwood I am just collecting ingredients because the game told me to collect those ingredients. It’s an attractive enough game, but it needs something else substantial.
Diehards of the genre will find a love letter to all things big and clanky, and if your dream is to pilot something big and fast and humanoid shaped, Project Nimbus will make you feel great.
Ultimately, MachiaVillain needs a lot of cleaning up, explanations and balance fixes. Then maybe we can all come together to have a bloody good time.
All that said… Into the Pit is still relentless. It’s a fast paced shooter, that feels really tight as a first person shooter. It’s meant to be played in fast bursts, so maybe it’s the perfect exciting thing to get you pumped while commuting on the bus. Or the kind of game where you breeze through the dialogue, turn off the sound and play while listening to a 25 hour audiobook. Into the Pit is a well-constructed roguelike shooting game and if you’re the kind of person who hears those words and yells, “I’m sold!” then you will probably have a lot of fun. But it’s not going to make believers out of genre-skeptics.