At the end of the day, Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is a cautionary tale. Jokes are not funny just because you say them. Nor are they funny just because they raised over $450K. But being not funny isn't a cardinal offense for a video game. Being dull and soulless mechanically is.
So here Jagged Alliance Rage is, splashing around in the now dormant waters of that fountain of youth. It doesn't have scope to be the successor to JA2 that much of the Internet seems to want. It also lacks the execution and originality necessary to be the beginnings of a new generation of the long-running franchise. Any charm Rage! has is hidden under thick and ugly jungle, and undermined by its weak execution and a narrative that is at its best boring. Save yourself the rage, and look elsewhere.
This remaster seems only well suited for folks who've experienced the series before. It's tailor-made for folks who want to take a trip down memory lane. Even then, you'll find the same surprise I did—that Onimusha: Warlords is a game remembered as being better than it actually was.
Though heavy on style and creepy vibes, the scariest things going on in Quantum Error are its tepid story and characters, numerous bugs, oppressive checkpoints, and a roster of truly dumb enemies.
Stray Blade tries and fails to free the Soulslike from gloomy settings and opaque storytelling, falling short of both its own ambitions and the genre’s standards.
Ravenbound is a roguelike that starts out promising before being grounded by obtuse systems, frustrating loot, and lots of bugs.
Soulstice is a competent action game with creative monsters, but they're doomed to live in a bland setting with tedious level design.
As it stands now, Achilles: Legends Untold is an undercooked and fairly broken romp through ancient Greece, with underwhelming combat and a world that's full of pretty things to look at but with little to do in it.
Clid the Snail is a twin-stick shooter that's radula-deep in mediocrity. The slimy graphics and sluggish combat keep its decent story and characters from thriving outside of its shell.
1C Entertainment's attempt to reinvigorate the long-dormant series proves two things: its turn-based tactical combat is timeless, and making a compelling open-world experience is harder than it looks.
Alas, if you're coming to Age of Wonders: Planetfall for a brand new angle on games you've played before, then you've come to the wrong place. It's novel to see several different recognizable mechanics blended into one genre soup. The final product isn't better than the sum of its parts, though. It makes the 4X a faster game to play, but not a better one, ultimately.
Death's Gambit had such promise. At its core, it is the blueprint to properly take risks and make attempts to improve a game design that we all take for granted. But it's just surrounded with poor quality of life choices, while missing some things it should have absolutely nailed. Weird animations, strange pacing, counter-intuitive combat, and way too many bugs holds this game back from being something truly great.
Earthfall somewhat succeeds at it's core mission, if it's mission is to try to kickstart the multiplayer subgenre that Turtle Rock started a decade ago. It's biggest failure is convincing people that it is a better alternative to Left 4 Dead 2, which is still very available on limited platforms. There's also Call of Duty's Zombies/Invasion side modes, which are ubiquitous. Not to mention Vermintide, which is a fresh look at the genre. You will absolutely have fun liberating Earth from aliens with a group of your friends – friends make even the most rote experience interesting. But outside of a few sessions with the group, you'll all find something better to do.
As a new interpretation of this almost decade-old formula, Sinner asks some great questions. When we strip away the exploration of the dungeon crawl and the tension of the storytelling, what's the core of Dark Souls? Risky, challenging, and rewarding encounters with larger than life baddies. Sinner may not be the final answer, unfortunately. It's too derivative, both in enemy and environment design. Sinner focused and simple, but over-complicates things with the sacrifice experiment. It's a step in a new and right direction, but it's only a half step at best.
Missed opportunity haunts every inch of Hellboy: Web of Wyrd. It's simple to dive into and play but all too soon you reach the bottom of its shallow gameplay. Its roguelike runs are short and sweet, but its enemies aren't a challenge worthy of Hellboy.
WrestleQuest’s love for wrestling catapults its creative and beautiful landscapes and strong characters into the main event, but isn’t enough to elevate its bloated level design or competent-but-repetitive combat out of the mid card.
AEW: Fight Forever may have the audacity to challenge the current king of wrestling games, but despite its fun-loving spirit, strong sense of style, and solid fundamentals, it fails to execute on a level that comes anywhere close to its potential.
Starship Troopers: Extermination could become the premier bug-stomping romp for big teams, but in its current early state, mobile infantry can do the dying without you.
Thymesia's aggressive combat can be enjoyable, but it's an adventure that's easily forgettable otherwise.
A fantastical setting and solid story can't disguise the fact that Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok has us running through the same motions as the main game a year and a half later.