Bogdan Robert Mateș's Reviews
Hand of Fate 2 understands what makes a good sequel. It both improves and expands upon the core gameplay of its predecessor while staying true to its original recipe. Good efforts were made to retain as much freshness as possible with the addition of companions, a more narrative-focused campaign and, naturally, new cards and mechanics.
AER - Memories of Old does what it set out to do. Its world does feed one’s curiosity, to an extent, it flows well, putting no obstacles in the player’s way, and makes for a serene experience fans of exploration titles should have on their radar.
Even without looking at it through a Papers, Please frame, Wunderdoktor suffers from being too straightforward with its story and side-quests and not deep enough in its writing. It misses out on the opportunity of properly fleshing out a world that could have been interesting.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar brings together some really cool character design with a very enjoyable, intense and, at times, punishing combat system. It’s handling of progression is just right, with maybe a slight slip towards the end, thanks to its stream of new abilities and variants of foes that require a different way of going about punching their faces.
Raising and cleansing Hob’s world was, for the most part, a good time. Nicely-flowing puzzles and platforming with a massive result in literally shifting the world around, coupled with combat encounters that were sensibly placed made sure of that.
From an audiovisual perspective, there’s no doubt that Figment is one of the best titles that have come out this year. Its world is greatly built; its puzzles strike a balance between player involvement and reward without being too difficult.
The First Tree is a one-man indie project, so, perhaps some lack of polish is to be expected. However, looking at it as a full package, it does have enough areas that could well benefit from improvement.
Tooth and Tail never overstays its welcome being a good choice for both longer sessions and for moments when you want to play something but only have 15 minutes at your disposal.
Bastard’s Wound is, simply put, more Tyranny. Compared to something like The White March, I found it to have surprisingly few things that end up truly standing out once you’ve left the settlement behind.
You can get through Reaching For Petals in about an hour and a half. It has great writing, narration and a wonderful soundtrack, but it’s dragged down by its handling of character development and its memory sequences that, at least to me, felt strangely impersonal.
It’s commendable the developers aren’t asking money for cosmetic items, especially in the age of orcs-in-boxes. That, however, isn’t enough to justify even its $20 price tag with the quality on offer.
My time with Aztez can be described as a mixture of enjoyment and unwelcome frustration. It has the pieces it needs to be a great title and there were moments when slashing through foes and connecting a long streak of attacks felt extremely satisfying.
Albion Online certainly requires a specific mindset to be enjoyed. That mindset is, indeed, very different from those required in theme park MMOs, mostly because Albion doesn’t hold your hand, nor does it give you a guaranteed tree to chop, a quick way to get back home or a story to follow.
To some, Yonder will be just a drawn out series of fetch quests lacking a worthwhile reward. It didn’t feel that way to me, though. When it comes to carefree, pressureless exploration and discovery, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles does its job properly.
Unfortunately for itself, Super Rocket Shootout has trouble standing out in any significant way. An unimpressive presentation, coupled with a story and characters that are completely forgettable, plus gameplay that ends up becoming stale a little too soon all act against it.
The Crimson Court enriches the game’s aesthetics with its fairly original take on the new, vampiric additions. The Crimson Curse adds another layer of unpredictability, requiring players to work around a mechanic that cannot be avoided.
Drifting Lands is a gorgeous shoot 'em up with aRPG-style skills let down by unmemorable level design and procedurally generated encounters.
Everspace ticks the boxes it needs in order to be a good roguelike, at least in terms of gameplay. The 6DoF control scheme gives unprecedented freedom to combat in the subgenre. Weapons feel satisfying to use and its permanent progression makes it so that you don’t feel your time is wasted.
Two things are dragging Mirage: Arcane Warfare from being a full, easy recommendation: its lack of explaining advanced techniques in game as opposed to an, otherwise informative, Steam guide (this being the lesser of the two) and the small number of players.
Endless Space 2 takes elements from both the first game in the series and its planet-bound cousin, mixing them together into a great package. It has its flaws, as I mentioned when discussing heroes, diplomacy and the bugs that gravitate around quests.