Whether you’ve played Crisis Core in the past or planning to jump in for the first time, there’s really no better way to experience it than with the Reunion Remaster. It does so much to bring a title that released 15 years ago into the modern era, and succeeds on most of it. And with numerous quality of life improvements implemented and the addition of full voice acting, it’s an incredible way to experience this part of the wider Final Fantasy 7 universe.
Overall there’s a lot to like about The Callisto Protocol. It’s a tight and well paced 10 hour experience and looks and runs great on the PS5 and It’s art direction and sound design help portray some really unsettling and horrific moments. It’s held back by some frustrating scare choices, repetitive combat and boss encounters and it’s push towards focussing on action in it’s later half. If the team at Striking Distance decide to flesh out the world they’ve established with a sequel, I’d love to see where they could take these characters and build out the setting next while having the benefit of having this first game to look back on.
Firaxis have another hit on their hands with Marvel’s Midnight Suns. They’ve shown once again that they’re the masters of tactical, strategic combat mechanics and have blended an addictive and deep combat system with the Marvel Universe to create a game that feels rewarding to players of any skill level. While it does have some pacing issues getting going and some inconsistent character models I did really enjoy the card based combat system and that the game highlighted a number of Marvel characters that don’t get enough focus these days. I’m looking forward to jumping back into the game in the months to come as further additional characters get added.
The Devil In Me is another solid entry and a fitting season finale to The Dark Pictures Anthology. It’s focus on real world inspirations helps it feel more twisted and scary and it’s supported well by a small but diverse cast of characters. It does take a little while to get going and does contain a few technical bugs, but once you hit the peak of the drama, the game offers a near non-stop horror experience to the end. Due to the nature of it’s design you can jump back in and replay it to experience different choices and outcomes in the wait for season 2 to kick off, hopefully next year.
Overall, Sonic Frontiers is a great return to form for 3D Sonic adventures. It features a slightly more mature story, an easy to grasp core gameplay loop and multiple islands filled with fun and replayable stages that really make you feel like the blue blur himself. While certainly not a perfect game, it’s the type of game Sonic fans have been waiting many years to get to enjoy and there’s plenty of fun to be had.
Tactics Ogre Reborn delivers a really solid strategy RPG, containing an engaging story and a large and varied cast of characters. If you’ve never played the game before, there’s never been a better time to check it out. It’s now available on more platforms than ever and contains quite a number of balance adjustments and quality of life improvements have been implemented that weren’t part of the original release to provide a more streamlined and rewarding experience for the player. If you like grid based strategy games and don’t mind a bit of a challenge, you’re in for a great time.
The new content that the Winters’ Expansion provides to Resident Evil Village makes it certainly worth the price of entry, especially if you happen to be a fan of the Mercenaries mode. I really liked the new gameplay concepts introduced within the Shadows of Rose expansion, but ultimately was left a little unsatisfied with it feeling more like a teaser for something bigger, rather than a substantial story with a fulfilling beginning, middle and end. Hopefully these seeds that have been planted get the chance to bloom more when the next main Resident Evil game releases.
New Tales From The Borderlands does a great job of capturing the look, feel and humour of the Borderlands franchise. It is far closer to a traditional Telltale game than a game from the mainline Borderlands franchise but does provide a mostly great story and characters to enjoy across it’s 10-12 hour experience. It didn’t quite stick the landing for me but I did appreciate how much the new cast was able to develop over the course of the game and how much better the performance was compared to the previous Telltale entry in the Tales From the Borderlands series. If you’re an existing fan of the Borderlands series, you’re likely going to have a pretty good time with New Tales From The Borderlands.
The team at Santa Monica Studios have caught lightning in a bottle twice in a row now. God of War Ragnarok is an incredible masterpiece, and an experience I have no issue recommending to anyone looking for a great video game. It’s story is driven by a stunning cast of characters and elevated by industry leading art, music and character writing. The game itself bleeds quality. I can only imagine the pressure the team had to follow up the legacy of the last game, but they’ve managed to improve on God of War (2018) in every way, while maintaining true to everything that made the game great. Ragnarok is certainly going to be in the mix when the next ‘game of the generation’ discussions happen again in the coming years.
If you’re a fan of open world superhero games or a fan of the Batman franchise there are certainly a number of individual aspects of Gotham Knights you’ll be able to enjoy. The combat feels nice, the world is there to explore and there are some great character moments and writing throughout the whole game. Unfortunately it falls short as an overall great package due to an RPG loot system that feels like it was forced in and largely unnecessary, and pacing issues with the mission design and boss encounters. When the game focuses on the world and story it’s great, I just wish the game overall was closer to what we got with Arkham Origins rather than the push towards bloated modern grinds that have been injected into far too many games these days.
I had the feeling going in that I would really like Nier: Automata, but I wasn’t ready for just how much. It’s packed with great character moments, an interesting world and mysteries to uncover that will keep you pushing on. The game itself is designed to be played through multiple times to uncover everything that it has to offer, it’s FAR from over when you hit the credits screen for the first time, so do as the game suggests and jump back in again, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. It features 26 different endings, some far more rewarding and significant than others but all providing another perspective or something new on the story overall. If you’re interested in playing, just jump in and do it, it’s well worth your time.
Return to Monkey Island feels like a real celebration of the series so far by including characters, locations such as Melee and Monkey Islands and plenty of callbacks, but expanding on all of those things with plenty of brand new components to act as a worthwhile celebration and sendoff for Guybrush and his adventures. Guybrush continues to be an engaging, hilarious and believable character that really helps immerse you into the story of himself and his fellow adventurers. The ending may be hit or miss with some fans but will certainly promote discussion and it’s just great to see a new Monkey Island game in 2022. Whether you’re new or existing fan, Guybrush’s latest adventure is well worth experiencing.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is a solid remaster of the original game, packed with brand new features and characters and is a real love letter to fans of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The overall art style is very reminiscent of Hirohiko Araki’s original manga and has plenty of nods to the original manga and anime thrown in that fans of the series will really appreciate.
Whether it’s the first time you’re experiencing this incredible survival story for the first time or the 20th, there really isn’t a better looking or performing version of the game. Whether you believe the game needed to be remade or not is beside the point, when so much has been done to make the game visually impressive while also more accessible, it’s opened up the game to be experienced by a whole range of new players. While I do wish the incredibly fun factions mode of the original had been included, The Last Of Us Part 1 perfectly blends incredible visuals and cinematic story telling in a way that only the technical wizards at Naughty Dog are able to do.
Digimon Survive certainly won’t be for everyone, but it delivered just what I wanted from it. Providing a solid and rewarding story, a fun and strategic combat system and a mature take on a world many of us have loved now for over 20 years. It took a while to finally release but for those of you that are fans of both Digimon and visual novels, it was well worth the wait.
It took almost 30 years to be able to experience Live A Live, but the wait was definitely worth it. Featuring a great, varied cast of characters and settings, the game is seemingly designed around keeping the player engaged by letting the chapters play out in the preference of the player. The remake with the HD2D technology has brought an already unique experience into the modern age, simultaneously paying homage to the era the game came from while also standing up to the most recent of JRPG titles. It an rpg well worth your time.
Although it originally launched during an era when we were flooded with 3D character platformers, Klonoa does feel unique enough to stand up against many of the household names we think of when thinking about the genre, it just seems it didn’t catch on enough at the time to grow as big as Crash, Spyro or Ratchet & Clank for example. Hopefully with the release of this collection it can continue to resonate with existing fans, find some new ones and who knows it could eventually spawn a brand new entry, reviving the series with the first original new game in over 20 years. If you’re a fan of character based platformers, I’d recommend checking out the Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series on your platform of choice.
The Quarry is a great step forward for the team at Supermassive and further refines the systems that form the backbone of many of their recent titles. It plays with some classic horror tropes in some interesting ways, has a great cast of characters and plenty of ways the story can play out. While the playable walking sections do slow the overall pacing and the game featuring some technical problems, I did have a blast playing through the game numerous times and really hope to see many of these features implemented and further built upon again in the future Dark Pictures games we know are planned for the future.
Overall I did enjoy my time with Trek to Yomi. It’s a great tribute piece to classic samurai cinema and has excellent art direction and sound design. It’s combat system did begin to wear a little thin by the game’s end and there were a few bugs encountered during my time with it, but if you’re looking for an interesting samurai tale that can be completed in just a couple of sessions, Trek to Yomi may be just the thing you’re looking for.
Overall LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is not only a fantastic LEGO title, but a truly great and respectful take on the Star Wars stories. It provides hours upon hours of things to do, find and collect But above all, it’s incredible to explore many of the ships and planets we’ve come to love from the Star Wars franchise. Many of which are appearing in video game form for the first time. The sound design, puts you right into the Star Wars universe immediately from the time you boot it up. And just like LEGO, there’s plenty to love here for gamers of all ages.