Brett Makedonski Avatar Image

Brett Makedonski


Favorite Games:
  • The Witness
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
  • Valiant Hearts

100 games reviewed
71.1 average score
70 median score
40.0% of games recommended

Brett Makedonski's Reviews

Managing Editor at Destructoid
2 / 10.0 - Past Cure
Mar 5, 2018

Past Cure wants to be something great, and that ambition is the only thing it has on its side. This is a game that is flawed to its core. The mangled story and shoddy design prevent any single aspect from ever sticking out as something special. Don't even risk taking a bargain bin flier on this one. You'll only end up frustrating yourself.

Read full review

2 / 10.0 - Ghostbusters
Jul 25, 2016

Those two ideas that come with gigantic BUTs attached to them are the kindest things I can muster about Ghostbusters. The rest is a vapid, hackneyed slog that feels incredibly long despite being rather short. Ghostbusters does the bare minimum required, and it's apparent that this is a project that nobody cared about. It's ironic that a game so entrenched in specters and spooks is so completely lacking in spirit.

Read full review

4 / 10.0 - Fallout 76
Nov 29, 2018

There's no sugarcoating it: Fallout 76 comes up short at nearly everything it aims to be. It's not a good role-playing game and it's not a good multiplayer experience. It never really feeds into the gradual RPG power fantasy but it's also inadequate as a survival simulator. In wanting to be so much, Fallout 76 doesn't amount to much at all.

Read full review

Jun 22, 2016

Truly, the best thing to come out of Trials of the Blood Dragon is that we get a continuation of the Blood Dragon story and a setup for a possible proper sequel. Other than that, it's a forgettable jumble of things that don't live up to either the Trials or the Blood Dragon names. It's kind of ironic that Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is one of the best-executed novel gimmicks in recent memory, because taking that idea and tweaking it to a new extreme has made Trials of the Blood Dragon one of the worst.

Read full review

Feb 6, 2016

Those are the qualities that make the game more tolerable than it would otherwise be. Without much option of anything besides leaning on the NES version's method of using Blob (a non-playable character) as the means of gameplay execution, WayForward's take on A Boy and His Blob is frustratingly imprecise and inaccurate. But, by deviating a bit and adding the jellybean wheel, it killed any momentum and turned the game into a slog. That is truly the worst of both worlds.

Read full review

4 / 10.0 - ReCore
Sep 12, 2016

It's all a shame because ReCore shows so much promise in its opening hours. It's easy to envision a way in which all those ideas could manifest into something great. They don't, though. Instead, it's just a jumble of mechanics that never jell, gameplay that grows stale far too quick, and insulting design. System failure.

Read full review

Sep 20, 2016

Still, some people will find meaning and depth in what Dear Esther delivers. I envy that. The linchpin of these games is to develop a connection with the player. Along with that connection comes emotion. Dear Esther is simply too disconnected from itself to ever connect with me.

Read full review

That exact design decision is emblematic of most everything wrong with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan. It does its best to spread little content as far as it can possibly go. It's a very short game that still manages to be far too long. The anchovies on the pizza is that it doesn't even necessarily succeed where Platinum Games usually excels. Cowabummer.

Read full review

4.5 / 10.0 - F1 2015
Jul 23, 2015

As centuries of racing have taught us, no one remembers the guy who finishes toward the back of the pack. That will be F1 2015's legacy: a forgotten one. 

Read full review

5 / 10.0 - Tyler: Model 005
Aug 17, 2018

There's a cute little story about rewriting the past at the heart of Tyler: Model 005. It's a shame those robots can't revise history and trim this game's excess so that it can focus on what's important.

Read full review

5 / 10.0 - Fe
Feb 15, 2018

For a game that leans so hard into the feeling of discovery, Fe has shockingly little to say about anything. It has no clear goals or worthwhile revelations. The idea of mystery is more alluring than any of the actual mysteries in this forest. It's certainly pretty, and the platforming and light puzzle-solving are adequate enough. But Fe very obviously aims to evoke a certain emotional response, and it fails to evoke much of anything at all. That's nothing short of disappointing. Sometimes the trees are just trees.

Read full review

Jul 3, 2017

There's something genuinely charming and interesting to Micro Machines World Series, but whatever that is quickly drowns in repetitive tedium. Bolting Overwatch's sensibilities onto a game like this is a novel idea but Codemasters never leans far enough in any one direction. As a result, this feels like a shell of a few different possibilities -- none of them ever making good on their individual promise.

Read full review

5 / 10.0 - Tron Run/r
Feb 19, 2016

Under all of this is the framework of a great runner. There are times when it's pleasing in almost every conceivable way. But, the unnecessary is too much to ignore; it bogs it down into the waters of mediocrity. The cliché fits perfectly here: More isn't always better.

Read full review

5 / 10.0 - Mafia 3
Oct 18, 2016

Like the era it paints, Mafia III feels like a relic. It's dated, has obvious flaws, and doesn't hold up particularly well when compared to a lot of modern works. Most damning, it's rarely in tune with itself, often contradicting itself in big ways. It's tough to not feel like Lincoln Clay deserved better than this.

Read full review

Jul 9, 2015

I don't usually rely so literally upon Destructoid's scoring guide when assigning a number for a review, but it feels so apt in the case of Spectra. It's like a boring meal that did nothing more than chew up a little time. It does lack any real flavor. It didn't leave me any different than it found me. It's tolerable, but not anything special. Well, the music is special, but it turns out that Spectra can't stand on the merits of its music alone.

Read full review

Feb 26, 2015

However, impressive aesthetics and weighty mental gymnastics aren't enough to compensate for puzzle design that becomes a slog before long. It's a shame because Pneuma boldly asks questions about player agency, but in ways that are bogged down in tedium.

Read full review

Mar 4, 2019

Still, DreamWorks Dragons: Dawn of New Riders is the rare movie tie-in that doesn't flagrantly lean into a reliving of the film. Dawn of New Riders tries to do something else entirely, and that's admirable in its own way. There's a decent time to be had -- especially for youngsters -- and its flaws and shortcomings don't grate too much, thanks largely to a relatively short runtime. But, because it forges its own path, Dawn of New Riders won't make a lasting impression on the How to Train Your Dragon canon.

Read full review

5.5 / 10.0 - TurnOn
Jun 1, 2016

Despite these shortcomings, I still find myself drawn to TurnOn. The majority of its levels are slow-paced and exploration-based, and there's something surprisingly cathartic about gradually lighting up the entirety of an area. It's just too bad that Brainy Studio wasn't comfortable enough to stick to TurnOn's strengths and had to turn to alternative sources for its energy.

Read full review

Nov 13, 2014

Those who yearn for a return to Black Flag's sandbox will take comfort knowing this is "more of the same," as the clichéd review expression goes. But, Rogue's systems do nothing to move Assassin's Creed forward, leaving it fittingly stuck in the past like the last-generation consoles it graces. Anyone who expects more will be disappointed. Anyone who just wants another open-world adventure replete with sailing, exploration, and killing might find comfort in its familiar ways.

Read full review

6 / 10.0 - Twin Mirror
Dec 1, 2020

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Twin Mirror is the rare game where I love the world, premise, and characters, but can't actually professionally recommend it. The foundation was laid, but a good story needs more than just the building blocks. In hindsight, following Life is Strange's episodic model might've worked wonders here, as it would've bought Dontnod extra development time along the way. All throughout Twin Mirror, people complain that Higgs abandoned Basswood and won't spend any time there. As it turns out, we need to spend more time in Basswood too.

Read full review