Dying Light 2 is safe in some respects, and bold in others; like its propensity to lean into some arcadey notions. The sandbox is the true heart of Dying Light 2. Not the characters, or the story, but the mere act of running around like an idiot, whether you’re doing errands or not.
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage.
While it doesn’t execute fully with its foundation, it does take more risks than I expected, to the point where it’s going to be worth a look for some folks — but only just so.
I was a bit skeptical about Nobody Saves the World pulling off everything it tried to do, but it won me over very quickly. While the main questline lacks some meat on the bones at times, a lot of people will barely notice it as they unlock new transformations and start to mix and match old ones.
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon might turn some people off with its roguelite framework and randomization, but there’s a deep puzzle game at work here; one that’s worth exploring if you’ve grown up on the action-puzzle genre. This is something I can see myself playing again in the years to come, especially with versus mode augmenting some of the leaner elements.
As usual, Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is worth playing through in full if you’re into the story. I still hope that one day — I’m talking a decade-plus from now — Square Enix preserves this tale by any means necessary, even with a single-player rework. It’s timeless, and exceeds the quality of many other mainline games in the series. Whether you stick around for the theme park rides afterward is entirely up to you. The rides I’m going on still have some life left in them.
If I had one piece of advice for people on the fence with Halo Infinite, it would be to not worry about the open world and embrace how it’s handled here. I was incredibly worried at first that 343 wouldn’t be able to resist the siren’s song of other major publishers, but the restraint here is appreciated. This is an extremely 2021 Halo, and I think it’s going to win over both lapsed players and diehards.
The ease of access of Hextech Mayhem ensures that if you’re coming off of Arcane, you can immerse yourself in the League world with a lot less strife than the MOBA.
If you haven’t experienced Pokemon Diamond or Pearl yet and don’t have access to Platinum, then the Gen 4 remakes on Switch might be worth exploring. Sinnoh has its own charm to it, and completionists will likely enjoy the endgame that is Grand Underground collecting. I just hope that when the time comes to remake Black and White, whatever team handles it is a lot less conservative.
Bright Memory Infinite gets in its own way, and occasionally takes the focus off of its strongest quality: the core mechanics. I wish that Infinite was just a full extension of the action-packed prologue and was a little more polished, as it would be easier to recommend. If you can deal with that headache, you might like it.
The seemingly endless possibilities of Shin Megami Tensei V directly fueled my desire to play it from the moment I got my copy. It’s overwhelming, but compartmentalized. The world is technically finite, but feels limitless. It’s just what a lot of people want out of an RPG, and the strong personality-driven throughput helps propel it past a lot of its competition.
When it gets going and it’s firing on all cylinders, it’s fun. But it’s also exceedingly linear and many of the choices it offers are surface-level at best. Treat it like an arcadey weekend romp and you’ll be fine: bonus points if you already adore these lovable little bandits.
Still, you’re getting the entire campaign, and that’s an important thing to circle back on. You know how the Wii version came out, and pointer use changed the way you played an already fantastic game? It’s like that all over again, but on a bigger scale. At this point I want all of the Resident Evil games to get this treatment. Hell, bring Dino Crisis back like this, so I can look backward and see a T-Rex running at me while hoofing it. Port Onimusha and add real-time swordplay. The sky is the limit!
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles is another decent brawler adaptation that asks you to already have a bit of background on the source material to truly enjoy it. In that sense, it joins a very crowded space of many other anime games before it, and many of you out there know where you stand on these.
Metroid Dread doesn’t take a lot of big swings, but it rarely bats a foul ball.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania was a pleasant surprise, in that it doesn’t mess too much with a formula that works and it makes strides to welcome newcomers into the fold. Not all of its stages are created equal, but this is a great entry point into a series that’s been lacking one on modern platforms for a long while.
Castlevania Advance Collection really showcases a side of Konami we don’t see very often anymore. On one hand, they trot out old franchises with low-effort projects and try to essentially trick people into buying them. On the other, they are capable of putting out old games in a format that’s not just well crafted, but also seeks to preserve classics that you can’t easily find. The company is an enigma.
Diablo II: Resurrected did what it was supposed to as a re-release, and it managed to simultaneously preserve the original game. It’s a shame that the talented studios behind it have to deal with the failure of Activision leadership overshadowing their work.
Judgment may have been an acquired taste in many ways, but the sequel makes some of the bitterness go down easier. Given that you can basically dive in here and feel sufficiently caught up with a new case as the focus, it’s for the best. I really hope we haven’t seen the last of this subseries, because the creators seem to really care about it.