For $9.99 this isn’t a terribly hard game to recommend but newcomers need to be aware of the hurdles they’ll experience
An unsatisfying shooter brought even lower by an exhausting and all-encompassing script, High on Life can't commit to its satire or ideas long enough to do anything of value.
Ary and the Secret of Seasons might don the aesthetics of grand adventure games but it only ever glimpses the horizon it’s so clearly chasing.
A good heart and strong sense of design can’t elevate Adventures of Chris out of its lacklustre platforming and mixed messaging on body issues.
Mileage is very obviously going to vary on a game like Deadly Premonition 2 and I genuinely believe that should be embraced. For all of my (gameplay) criticisms, there will be another for whom they are points in the game’s favour and to them I say, have a blast.
An initially wonderful return to Max Caufield comes entirely undone with competing narrative priorities and nonsensical attempts to build Life is Strange into a cinematic franchise. Despite the game's stunning animation work and sincere queer writing, Double Exposure is an overexposed mess.
Layers of Fear is an admirable remaster that uses the fresh coat of paint to bring the series' art direction up to modern standards but the bones of the experience remain fractured. Tedious and exhausting gameplay loops and tasteless writing make even this package a nice frame on an ugly painting.
A disappointing take on open-world first-person shooters, Redfall has none of the flavour or mechanical finesse that we’ve come to expect from Arkane Studios.
Sakura Wars is a serviceable entry point for Western audiences but fails to deliver more than a modest take on what could have been a remarkable game.
Overall, Claybook‘s presentation isn’t bad, it’s just completely ordinary. Which is a brand that Claybook never really elevates itself above
Broken Roads is a gorgeous Aussie world undone by incurious writing, ambitious but poorly implemented ideas, and unstable performance issues.
Crash Team Rumble is too lean an experience to foster the community needed for a multiplayer-only experience, trading on the iconography of the series to bolster an otherwise forgettable game.
Breathedge takes an interesting premise and shoves it out the airlock with an overreliance on tired jokes and half-baked survival sim mechanics. An admirable attempt to move the genre forward collapses under the weight of too much self-awareness and not enough polish.
Redeemer: Enhanced Edition is almost the game it wants to be, the game we all want it to be, but even this improved port can't change the fact that it simply isn't.
Ultimately a great soundtrack and immaculate controls aren’t enough to stop 20XX feeling like an overtly repetitive cycle of missed opportunities.
In returning to its narrative adventure roots, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage feels like a retreat for Don't Nod. Draped in nostalgia for both the 90s and Life is Strange, Bloom & Rage struggles to find itself among uneven pacing, tonal inconsistencies, and an uninteresting cast of characters. Despite some neat visual tricks with its VHS overlays, there's little on this first tape worth a rental.
Alone in the Dark marks a fine attempt at contemporary survival horror mechanics but is completely adrift with an incoherent narrative, dull design, and baffling tonal choices.
Atomic Heart has an impressive command of aesthetics and occasionally gives you the tools to enjoy its world, but an unstable console build, unsatisfying systems and complete misfire of a script prevent these atoms from achieving the necessary fusion.
An ambitious blend of genres that winds up a jack of many trades but a master of none, Sunday Gold deserves credit for its aesthetics and goals but it's difficult to recommend this trip to the races.
Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel lifts liberally from the best of the horror genre but its unsatisfying core gameplay loops leave you out in the cold. A nifty camera mechanic allows for some entertaining time-bending exploration and the game has a solid grasp on 2000s grunge aesthetics, even if the story at its heart is a little old hat.