Joshua Kowbel's Reviews
For fans and newcomers alike, Dark Souls III is a magnum opus of From Software design. You'll celebrate as bosses fall to your sword, gaze in wonder at the landscape's snowy hamlets and towering cathedrals, scold yourself for losing souls to a bottomless pit or eldritch beast, then grab the controller to relive the nightmare again and again.
Whether you love fretting over turn-based shoot-outs or watching people become mutant food, Skyshine's Bedlam is an apocalypse of considerable intrigue and polish.
Whether you dive into its meta narrative or rehearse the executions of eight ballroom guards for the sixteenth time, Superhot invents a tactical, first-person shooter genre to call its own. Please, Superhot team, I need more.
Resident Evil 0 HD is a relic of the period before Amnesia's helpless protagonists and Resident Evil 4's over-the-shoulder camera. But that makes Resident Evil 0 an exotic history lesson for horror developers. It takes the right sound cues, splendid visual framing, and one mechanic that most people hate (i.e., inventory management) to produce a game this timeless.
The lenient difficulty, procedurally generated levels, and promises of plentiful loot prove that Quest of Dungeons has something for any roguelike or dungeon crawler fan.
The Beginner's Guide is not lightning in a bottle like The Stanley Parable, nor is it a checklist of graphics and sounds that players should run through. For people that want a taste of the hardships that indie developers endure, however, you can do no better.
The rough-around-the-edges menus and price might pose problems for some people, but The Bug Butcher breaks convention. The cute and vivid insects put phobias to bed, and because anti-hero Harry only fires his weapons vertically, the gameplay reinvents side-scrolling shooter mindsets.
With a solid gameplay framework already in place, Hitman just needed the destination to match. Sapienza may be a glamorous port city that photographers slap on postcards, but its boutiques, apartments, and inhabitants also tolerate hours of murderous fun (and guns) in the sun.
Hitman's pioneer episode does right by the Hitman name. Dozens of challenges and user-generated assassinations offer untold hours of replay value, even when the exotic sounds and sights of Paris lose their allure.
I envy Sony fans that get to experience Super Meat Boy for the first time. Hundreds of levels, pixel-perfect controls, and a brand-new soundtrack cement the game as a must-play 2D platformer on the PlayStation 4 and Vita.
For every character's death etched in stone, The Banner Saga 2 informed me how fragile life can be. But on the battlefield or in branching, possibly deadly conversations, I want nothing more than to revisit this role-playing game's world and tug at the puppet strings again.
Broforce is an ode to gamers that were raised by action movies and 16-bit consoles. Broforce looks the part and plays the part of a run 'n' gun freedom simulator featuring Rambo, Indiana Jones, and Robocop parodies. The technical defects of the PS4 version, however, give the PC original the clear advantage.
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide seems like an eerie, well-done Left 4 Dead mod on the surface. But players that soldier through disheartening dice rolls will find a replacement for their co-op and loot-driven needs, Warhammer fan or not.
Whether you watched Yu-Gi-Oh! a decade ago or still enjoy the card game today, Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist is a nostalgic goldmine of memorable characters and monsters.
With a solid script and fewer unrelenting jump scares than the original game, Layers of Fear: Inheritance offers closure for both the player and characters.
The Escapists: The Walking Dead brings a normalcy to the franchise, with methodical routines and chances to explore, better yourself, or help others at will.
Shovel Knight is still an unrivaled audiovisual homage to Sega and Nintendo consoles. If you like ruthless platformers and already own Shovel Knight, enjoy Plague of Shadows. It literally costs nothing. If you prefer precise controls, however, slightly altered levels and bomb crafting may not justify Plague Knight's momentum-heavy play style.
Punch Club provides a parody-filled look at one man ‒ your man ‒ and his rise to martial arts stardom. Managing his hunger, training regiment, and social life contains all the appeal of The Sims franchise, but punishing stat decay and RNG-heavy fights cripple Punch Club's lasting shot at fame.
The Guest tests an array of mental abilities throughout the three hours it lasts. But when buying into “a first-person exploration game,” you don’t expect this many plot holes.
Hitman retains its strong gameplay core in light of setbacks. The developers fail to capitalize on Marrakesh’s intricately rendered crowds, and performance bugs that were once corrected have returned.