By adding a couple more powers that slightly improve frenetic combat and having collectibles and a story that continually outweird themselves in inventive ways, Remedy has shown that Jesse is fit for the job of director and hopefully just getting started.
The Doom Slayer has faced many nightmarish opponents and toppled them all, yet his greatest victory might be slaying the impossibly high expectations set by his genre-defining precursors.
An overwhelming amount of RPG systems, sublime controls, and fast-paced, skill-based combat mixes in with Team Ninja’s own stylistic flair and puts Nioh 2 more than a few cuts above other games that shamelessly ape From’s precious formula.
Playing these titles does not get stale and while it is frustrating that Sega refused to celebrate these classic games with more extras and additional content, they do stand on their own merits even a decade later.
Devil May Cry 3 has aged remarkably well in almost every other area and the Switch port is the best version of this all-time classic.
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.
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.
Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is a strange game that still sticks out because of its unusual but fantastic tone.
Stories usually need some sort of momentum and Life Is Strange 2 had trouble maintaining it for multiple reasons.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Despite its technical shortcomings, Man of Medan is a decent maiden voyage for Supermassive’s new Dark Pictures Anthology series.
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.
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.