Paul Broussard's Reviews
The Salt games are in an awkward spot now, having mish-mashed several wildly successful ideas from other titles, but being unable to make them fit together into an identity of their own. Hopefully, if we get a third entry, Ska Studios will be able to make it all coalesce.
The price point is unreasonable, the games on display don't have nearly enough new content, and what is new has some charm but ultimately lacks staying power.
Citizen Sleeper is a very compelling experience, with an enticing story supported by some solid strategy gameplay and barebones but still competent RPG mechanics. If you’re open to a Disco Elysium-esque visual novel that’s a bit lighter in tone (despite the dystopian setting) and emphasizes resource management more, it’s safe to say you’ll enjoy this.
It’s a perfectly functional game, if nothing else, and for only $12 you’re certainly not risking a lot by purchasing it.
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the road to a boring video game is lined with safe design choices, and that really is FixFox’s problem.
If you come at it looking for a strategy game first and foremost, I suspect you’ll be disappointed. However, if you’re willing to view it more as an experience rather than a real test of your decision making chops, you’ll likely find yourself very engrossed.
There’s no question in my mind that Elden Ring is a great game, and an early leading contender for game of the year. The pertinent question may be "how great?", and that’s a little tougher to answer.
For what it’s worth, Babylon’s Fall is not the worst AAA game to ever release... it runs properly, doesn’t have any major glitches, and is functional without having to spend any extra cash. It’s just a very boring, uninteresting game that doesn’t work or engage without such a substantial time commitment that I don’t think it would be worthwhile to even the most diehard of Platinum Games’ fans.
There are very few original ideas on display in Project_Hel, outside of the new meter management system, and too many poor decisions that undermine the core ideas of the original, so it fails to reach the highs of the base game.
If you want something to play almost exclusively as a standard person vs. person fighter, particularly if you’re focused on doing so online, then KoF XV is one of the better options available today. If you’re more interested in a title with a variety of options and gameplay modes, then this isn’t it.
In the midst of a number of popular open world games that seek to reinvent the wheel, Horizon has instead chosen to polish and refine the typical open world format. And that’s not a bad thing at all; while innovation is important, I’d argue iterative improvement is just as important.
It likely won’t win any awards, but if you’re in the mood for a competent movement shooter and don’t feel like replaying Titanfall 2’s campaign for the 30th time, this is an acceptable choice.
As far as what a remake/remaster should accomplish, it's hard to view Brilliant Diamond as anything short of an absolute failure.
The core combat is slow and lacks variety, the story and artistic elements of the game don’t add much, and the mission design makes this an experience that's about as enjoyable as being thrown into the pathway of an oncoming 18 wheeler.
Between the rock solid exploration and atmosphere, the incredible boss fights, and the solid tension building of the EMMIs, Dread is probably the definitive 2D Metroidvania of the 21st century.
Lost Judgment has, perhaps fittingly, somewhat lost itself. It’s focused so much on cleaning up the gameplay that it forgot what really gave Yakuza its appeal to begin with; the charm and soul of the writing, setting, and characters.
Deathloop is a good game that's just a little too afraid to fully take its hands off the wheel and let the player drive.
Iki Island is a solid and vastly improved product over the base game, featuring an excellent aesthetic, some solid content, and much-needed improvements from patches made to the original material.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite is probably what I deserve for getting my hopes up. But just like my plans for Summer of 2020, my hopes have been taken from me and ejected into the cold vacuum of space.
Blightbound is a title without much of an identity to flaunt; it’s utterly devoid of anything that could make it stand out amidst the usual crowd of Steam dungeon crawlers, and it features numerous technical issues that hold over from its long stay in Early Access.