While it’s a bummer for those without VR, the game’s commitment to virtual reality is something the medium could always use more of, even if it comes alongside a foul-mouthed Eyehole Monster who once fucked shrinkle when he thought it was a dinkle.
Blood and Truth’s minor story issues don’t overshadow its widespread successful commitment to VR.
Despite those bumps in the road, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is both a respectful reimagining and a superb, modernized kart racer in its own right. It accurately borrows from its inspirations and enhances their qualities in ways that feel true to what Naughty Dog would have done if it had the hardware.
Addressing more personal mental issues is novel in gaming and that much is admirable but trying isn’t always enough. Storytelling matters as much as — if not more than — the story you’re trying to tell and the game’s clumsy script and amateurish performances demonstrate how one side can spoil the other.
Intentions to do something different are appreciated, but the way these additions sabotage the previously pristine core mechanics will only make your blood boil instead.
From its narrative to its world to its puzzles and combat, Control intrigues its players and invites them to think and rewards them handily for doing so; a true remedy for overly linear and coddling game design.
The charm that covers nearly every inch of this game is also infectious, especially as this medium can better actualize its main characters’ imagination into something playable.
Despite its technical shortcomings, Man of Medan is a decent maiden voyage for Supermassive’s new Dark Pictures Anthology series.
Like its protagonist, The Surge 2 is built from disparate parts from other things, but unlike its protagonist, the game ends up being a boorish abomination that can’t properly combine the various elements that it has directly lifted from other sources. It’s not only one of the worst Souls-likes; it’s also an awful game above all else that should be sent straight to the scrap heap.
After the huge whiff last time around, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is undoubtedly an improvement — a small one, but an improvement nonetheless. But an improvement doesn’t guarantee greatness and this game makes that clear.
Apart from its nuanced storytelling, Indivisible is a brilliant vertical slice of a more fully featured game that doesn’t exist. Almost all of its ideas seem like prototypes stuck in their early phases that are waiting to be fleshed out.
Nothing is particularly extraordinary nor is any one aspect less than solid but there’s a commitment to the vision here that had modest and realistic goals. Concrete Genie paints within its humble parameters and still makes a lovely piece of art even if it isn’t The Starry Night.
Stela is similarly brief but also a fleeting experience that doesn’t make much of an impact while you’re playing or linger once you complete it mostly due to its hollow world.
Like a hero with an arm tied behind their back, Overwatch on the Switch still puts up a good fight. But this scaled-down port makes it a little easier to question whether or not the world needs more hamstrung heroes like this or not.
Hellish bugs might significantly diminish the experience but Afterparty still gives players a convincing enough argument to take an express elevator down to the fiery pits of torment.
Witnessing its wholesome, nearly childlike view of the world through a bunch of nonsequiteurs is pleasant even if playing through them isn’t always quite as enjoyable. And while Wattam seems to want to avoid descriptors and can get away with it at times, that playability is important for a video game.
Stories usually need some sort of momentum and Life Is Strange 2 had trouble maintaining it for multiple reasons.
Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is a strange game that still sticks out because of its unusual but fantastic tone.
The exploration serves as the centerpiece of Journey to the Savage Planet and almost all of its other parts enhance or are enhanced by it.
Mindless co-op shooters can be alluring and Zombie Army 4: Dead War tries be one of those brainless games, but ends up being more braindead instead.