Bogdan Robert Mateș's Reviews
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is very much so a Monster Hunter game. Its main focus still falls on the core loop of battling monsters, gathering materials, and using them to craft badass gear suited for different situations. Infused with a rock-paper-scissors turn-based combat system and creature collection elements, it does, nevertheless, provide a different spin on things that adds extra reasons to sink your teeth into its inherent grind.
A Bounty You Can Safely Skip
Biomutant's strong presentation and beautiful world invite exploration, while its combat makes you feel like a badass magic-flinging, gunslinging, Kung-Fu warrior. Sadly, its tedious missions and weak story make it increasingly harder to stick with the game the more of it you play.
Lovers in a Shattered Land
Bugsnax is a feel-good adventure with a lovable cast, a rich variety of tasty prey to hunt, but thoroughly unremarkable gameplay.
Atomicrops’ mixture of farming sim, bullet-hell game and rogue-lite make it a compelling indie title that’s well worth giving a shot.
They all laughed, except for the king; choking on his food, he had lost his voice
As awesome as it is, the arcade action in Destroy All Humans! is only a part of the experience, struggling to carry its rudimentary stealth missions and hit-or-miss writing. It's definitely a blast to level entire neighborhoods and disintegrate humans; we just wish we had to spend less time impersonating them.
Carrion’s concept of playing the evil, inhuman creature that’s out to eat everyone is definitely interesting and, at times undoubtedly visceral despite its distant 2D perspective, letting you bloody up rooms and leave halves of corpses lying around for later consumption. Its movement enforces the foreign nature of its protagonist but frequent frustrations like repeated difficulty spikes during combat and getting lost in its unremarkable facility do chip away at its awesome parts. Nevertheless, if you can weather some frustration, you’re in for a lot of delicious dismemberment and many horrified screams as you take Carrion’s flesh beast on its bloody journey.
Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break undoubtedly treads familiar ground, although not without showing that, nine years on, Ace Team’s concept still has juice left in it. Aside from a couple of technical issues and cutscenes whose humor miss the mark, its unique hybrid gameplay that mixes boulder racing and strategic defense segments remains captivating while the majority of its hilarious Monty Python-esque skits act as welcome interludes in between its action.
Superhot: Mind Control Delete's focus on improvisation and rogue-lite elements excellently complement its "time moves only when you move" core gameplay loop and distinctive aesthetic, making it a first-person shooter that fans of the genre shouldn't miss.
West of Dead is constantly at odds with itself and, while that doesn’t make it a bad game, it does make it harder to love.
Attention to detail that extends past its strong tactical core makes Desperados III a must-play, despite its niche appeal.
Beyond Blue struggles as a narrative adventure game but shines as an educational tool that brings awareness and reveals some of the ocean’s secrets. Its few characters don’t quite stand out and the simple core gameplay loop of swimming, scanning and following waypoints comes off as rather bland.
Maneater sinks under the weight of repetitive quests and shallow systems
Hell hath no fury like a Doom Slayer pissed off
Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem's lack of polish detracts from the great hack-and-slash ARPG found at its core.
Darksiders Genesis' action-packed combat and gorgeous visuals prove that the franchise still has plenty of juice left.
Phoenix Point’s great aspects do eventually shine through, as long as you’re willing to weather some fairly harsh storms and deal with lackluster onboarding and presentation.
Mosaic paints all its scenes with great care and, while it might be a slow burner, it’s as cerebral as it is emotional and tells an enthralling story.