Damien King's Reviews
After pushing through the first two hours of few interesting upgrades or weapons, The Mummy Demastered becomes an above-average title that tickles the fancy of those missing classic Metroid gameplay. It's not perfect, but certainly enough to whet the appetite of metroidvania fans.
For a patient gamer willing to look past flat voice acting, awkward controls and a slow first act, Neofeud presents an enjoyable dystopian adventure with great concept and solid soundtrack. Look up some gameplay footage to gauge whether this one'll be right for you.
With a gorgeous look and some surprisingly taxing boss battles, Cuphead stylishly combines adorableness and adversity in equal measure, difficult enough to take multiple attempts while fun enough to warrant the repeated efforts. Take a look if you enjoy challenging and unusual titles.
Destiny 2 manages to take the criticisms of the first title — a non-engaging story, lackluster PVP UI — and improves upon them immensely, forging a fantastic journey that's essential for any gaming fan to dive into and experience.
SteamWorld Dig 2 improves upon its predecessor in every way imaginable, crafting an engaging journey that keeps you playing until the end. Dig 2 proves to be the definitive mining/adventure title, and we can't wait to see where the franchise goes next.
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is the strongest game of the series so far, evolving both investigation and class trials nicely. The trials are a lot of fun and do offer more challenge than before, especially when looking for the alternative routes. If you're looking for a quirky, eccentric murder mystery title, Killing Harmony is a fantastic choice to dive into.
If you can look past the uneven difficulty curves, Pankapu is a relatively enjoyable platformer with fun class-switching mechanics, especially if looking for one for a younger (8-15) audience.
If you can look past the awkward animation, poor dialog and condescending tone, Zero Time Dilemma offers a short but interesting mystery murder experience and set of puzzles, if only to fill the gap between other new decision-heavy (or Danganronpa) titles.
Once past the inital hurdle of learning the game and its myriad intricacies, The Escapists 2 offers a solid prison break vibe that lets you explore and try out multiple grand (or subtle!) escape plans in a solid variety of prisons. The addition of a fun multiplayer experience, much requested by fans of the original, is icing on the cake.
Sudden Strike 4 is that grizzled veteran you sometimes see downtown — stubborn and tough to warm up to, but full of rich tales and a welcome new friend for those willing to put the work in. Perhaps a little too tough for casual RTS players, but WWII aficionados and hardcore RTSers will find plenty to love.
Aven Colony is a solid, enjoyable city builder with a number of interesting and difficult mechanics that will make or break the experience depending on whether you're looking for a peaceful builder (Sim City) or enjoy the occasional challenge (Banished).
Master X Master is a fresh take on the stagnating MOBA genre, with character switching offering a fantastic level of depth to PVP and a decent chunk of available PVE instances to grind and loot. Definitely worth taking a look at.
The Sexy Brutale is a well polished, engrossing 6-8 hour adventure full of fun puzzle solving and sneaky snooping.
Yooka-Laylee mixes classic 3D platform exploration with eccentric, self referential humor and fluid movement to create a fantastic title that charms and engrosses a huge audience, casual or hardcore, young or old. Definitely worth looking into.
If you're a fan of Telltale's other titles, you owe it to yourself to dive into Batman: The Telltale Series — the original storyline and narrative excellence make this one not to miss, especially for Batman fans.
Tyranny is an excellent first step into RPGs, with an enticing storyline that manages to continually surprise and excite. While hardcore RPG fans may dislike the simplified combat and shorter core game length, these factors help the storyline shine and keep it accessible for more people. Definitely worth a look, especially for Pillars of Eternity fans.
Thumper packs a punch, taking you on an audiovisual trip and demanding absolute focus. It's a fun, adrenaline pumping journey, though its extremely high difficulty isn't for everyone. If you don't mind failing repeatedly, you'll find an exciting and satisfying rhythm racer in Thumper.
Seasons after Fall is a beautiful game that focuses purely on exploration as adventure, requiring you to make smart use of changing seasons in order to progress. While not a long game, it certainly is engaging, keeping you locked into the game from start to finish.
Featherpunk Prime is a tough, visually saturated twin-stick shooter that takes the essence of games like Contra and Metroid, imbuing them with retrofuturistic neon color and procedurally generated levels. Fans of games like Metal Slug or Super Time Force should find a comfortable new home here.
Fans of the franchise will love rediscovering Firetop Mountain in this adaptation, bringing the world to life in a gorgeous and interesting new way. Players unfamiliar with the gamebooks will still likely enjoy the game in its own right, though retracing steps and repetition can be a little problematic.