Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son is primarily a superb adventure game occasionally stymied by overly finicky – and at times outright broken – minigames. At most times a stellar lighthearted VR romp with some grand heartfelt moments, Groundhog Day's charm subsides at times as players are forced to do minigames over and over to succeed. The superior writing and structure shine through, but expect some moments of frustration.
A technical achievement to be sure, Battlewake succeeds in delivering accessible arcade-style naval battles. But underwhelming depth in the campaign, combined with broken matchmaking and a lack of cross-play with PC VR systems leaves the long-term prospects for Battlewake looking pretty grim.
Engaging, surprising, and hella fun, Zen Studios’ Star Wars Pinball is a must for pinball fans, Star Wars fans, and fans of videogames in general. With tons of features, modes, and options, this is the definitive Zen Star Wars collection. There is something here for everyone, and as a budget title, Star Wars pinball provides amazing bang for your buck. Simply put – this is a must have for Switch owners.
Erica tells a boilerplate story—but tells it very well. With a fresh, intuitive interface and some of the best production values and acting ever seen in a video game, Erica feels very much like what it aspires to be—an interactive film. Erica is perhaps an odd experiment, but one well worth experiencing for gamers that enjoy trips off the beaten path.
Remedy's Control might eventually be one of the coolest games on the market, but upon release framerate, balance, and popup issues are so rampant that players are forced to change their style of play to work around the bugs. While Control's world-building, performances, and writing are all superb, the difficulties in actually playing through the game to see all that cool stuff leads to a deep sense of frustration.
Like the original franchise that spawned it, The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure starts out simple enough but quickly ramps up in difficulty to the point where it where it will exclude its target audience. On its own, Angry Birds 2 is a fine Overcooked clone, but beware if you plan on playing by yourself or with little kids. At least a couple of experienced gamers are required if you want to see any of the late-game content.
Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a game on an epic scale in every sense of the word. Both a world-building strategy sim and a turn-based tactical RPG, Planetfall offers a wealth of content to keep players engaged for a long time to come. While some initial commitment is needed to get past the learning curve, playing becomes smooth and intuitive within a couple of hours. Armchair generals with a penchant for lasers, robots and mysterious planets will find plenty to enjoy in this tremendously deep title.
Elea is a conundrum; a mirror-maze of beautifully rendered but almost indecipherable vignettes, tying together into an arc that is nearly inscrutable. Without a coherent story to tie them too, the puzzles involved become chores, and advancement becomes its own reward. Adventure gamers and fans of deeply surreal sci-fi might find things to enjoy here, but more casual players might want to look closer before buying.
Wolfenstein Cyberpilot will be remembered as a curiosity; a failed side project with cool mechanics and no gameplay. Released without the Wolfenstein name, this would be a slight, middle-of-the-road title with little to recommend it. But with the Wolfenstein name attached, Cyberpilot becomes a debacle. Wolfenstein fans should not play this game. Neither should anyone else.
While an extremely guided and structured experience, Dragon Quest Builders 2 maintains enough of the charm of the franchise to be worth a look for fans. Players accustomed to free-play modes in other building sims will chafe at the story mode, but patient players that don't mind a simple battle system and chatty NPCs will still find plenty of content here to enjoy.
Sairento VR is one of the best games on PSVR. With non-stop action and thrilling acrobatic controls. It delivers an adrenaline shot of pure action straight to the heart. There is simply nothing else like Sairento VR on PSVR or any system for that matter. This is a groundbreaking, standard-setting game that will serve as a waypoint for VR action games for years to come.
Vacations are supposed to be fun and breezy – and that's exactly the way I would describe Vacation Simulator. Full of silly laughs and sunny good times, Vacation Simulator also delivers just the slightest edge of dark humor to keep teens and adults engaged. With a wide variety of puzzles and activities - any of which can be skipped – Vacation Simulator has a bit of something for everyone, while expanding on the original game in interesting ways.
Whether you are a fan of Ark, voxel-based construction games, or survival games in general, you will find something to hate about PixARK. A wild mess of a game, PixARK is one of the most off-putting experiences on PlayStation 4. Avoiding PixARK is imperative.
Mini-Mech Mayhem has all the trappings of a fun game. The colorful visuals, cheery gameplay, and online representation of the player are all top-notch. But the core gameplay is somewhat questionable, due to the fact that it forces the player to strategize on unstable ground. There is a fine line between "anticipating" other players moves and "guessing", and in Mini-Mech Mayhem, that line is fuzzier than PSVR's graphics.
Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted is a great introduction to the franchise, packaging a number of levels from various games in the series. Though the first three games are the strongest, some of the other levels are fun in their own right. Less fun is wrestling with the controls, particularly since a giant demonic chicken is going to scream in your face if you mess up. The scares are there, but the controls could use some additional polish.
Dauntless comes bursting out of early access with one of the best, most original, and most polished games in the free-to-play space. With tons of content, amazing battles, a great matchmaking system, and endless room to grow, Dauntless is going to be around for a long, long time. Beyond highly recommended, Dauntless is compulsory, obligatory, required gaming.
Warhammer Chaosbane is a great start to a new ARPG, but it definitely feels like a "start". The skill system feels too restrictive, the loot drops come too slow, and the environments and enemies are repetitive. That said, the game still manages to be fun to play, but more development is needed to make Chaosbane one for the ages.
Blood and Truth takes known VR gaming mechanics and inserts them into a delightfully well-realized London, sending the player through chase scenes, heists, and gun fights. While there is nothing revolutionary happening with the controls and gameplay, the presentation, story and characters are top notch. Once you get started, you will want to see the action-packed story through to the end, and that's really what we wanted, isn't it?
Trover Saves the Universe is slick, unexpected, and vulgar beyond belief. You likely already know if the sort of humor in Trover is for you, and if its not, you should give Trover a wide berth. But if you are the sort of sicko that likes this sort of stuff, there is a surprisingly solid game lurking beneath the rapid-fire jokes and bizarre imagery.
With a great, intriguing story aimed at adults (but not inappropriate for kids) and a fantastic stable of characters and jobs, Fell Seal is the sort of game that lets you dive in and play around with its systems in any way you like. Clearly crafted with love for the genre, and with almost intimidating longevity, Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark is the heir apparent to the tactics-RPG throne.