Concrete Genie is held back slightly by its reluctance to trust us with more freedom of creation, and its third act combat feels somewhat out of place. Still, it still manages to do a wonderful job of giving players a reason to explore its eerie and beautiful town and interact with its colorful genies, and its narrative is successful in merging two very different tones to tell a tale that bounces admirably between somber and lighthearted.
Trine 4 is a love letter to fans, providing a fully-realized puzzle game rife with experimentation, quality-of-life features, and utterly breathtaking visuals, all but guaranteeing a bright and beautiful future for the franchise.
Code Vein invents as much as it mimics, and while it doesn't pull everything together perfectly, it manages to be an exceptionally fun Souls-like romp through a post-apocalyptic anime world. It's just a shame the developers didn't spend a little more time polishing the game's balance and less time on its unstimulating story.
The Surge 2 builds on what made the original a sleeper hit, but it regrettably maintains some of the visual and design foibles that deserved to be improved on in a second outing.
From a gameplay perspective, there's no denying that NBA 2K20 reigns supreme as the best basketball game you'll want to play this year. Sadly, 2K Games seems to be expanding its microtransaction plague throughout the experience to a point that it feels oppressive. Still if you're able to wade through the muck and deal with the advertisements and pay-to-win modes, you won't be disappointed by the stellar updates and excellent presentation you've come to expect.
NHL 20 brings enough new to the table that it feels like a worthwhile upgrade over last year's entry, bringing the incredibly fun new Eliminator mode and revamped commentary that breathes some new life into the experience. Sadly, the AI remains occasionally nightmarish, and the game's consistently-growing collection of modes means EA is leaving some older modes out to die, resulting in a lot of fluff to sort through to get to the good stuff.
Gears 5 is a beautiful balancing act of new and old, and it manages to offer the franchise's trademark action and gore while telling a compelling story that sets up the future of the series in a big way.
Despite a few disappointing presentation issues. WRC 8 is an otherwise solid outing for the franchise. Improvements to car handling and physics set WRC 8 well above its predecessor, and the new career mode is a hugely appreciated addition for anyone looking to get the most out of a simulation racer.
Astral Chain constantly impresses with its enthralling premise, frenetic action, and abundance of content. Even in its quietest moments, it exudes heart and intrigue, and for those willing to dig deeper, The Ark and its mysteries are a joy to discover. Beautiful visuals and incredible presentation values round things out to make it one of the Switch's must-own titles.
In its quest to mimic other successful franchises, Amplify Creations has created the Frankenstein of video games. Decay of Logos is an unbalanced, unresponsive mess with little soul to pick up the slack. There are far too many better alternatives to waste any time with this fundamentally broken adventure.
There is some fun to be had piloting the robots in Cyberpilot, but the mission brevity and padding really dampens the experience and steals away control right as you're settling into a groove. There are worse ways to spend a few hours of your day, but there are much better ones too.
Sea of Solitude isn't a bad game, but it's one that could've been far more profound if it handled its delicate subject matter with more care. There's an engaging story to be told, but all of its compelling narrative ideas are constantly undermined by its cringe-inducing voice acting and bad dialogue. Meanwhile, gameplay suffers from a general lack of things to do or discover in its beautiful world, leaving players with a sense of fatigue as the game wears on.
Layers of Fear 2 has some mildly redeeming qualities, but there are too many better horror games available to waste your time and money on something that requires you to dig so hard for fun.
Not everything works flawlessly in Blood & Truth, but pushing past its quirks grants a rewarding, action-packed romp fully equipped with a great crime story and movie-quality acting from its lovable characters.
Sonic Team Racing is possibly the most consistently fun kart racer since Mario 64.
Observation combines an excellent narrative and presentation with some often cumbersome gameplay elements that really drag the experience down. It's absolutely worth seeing through to its conclusion, but it may not come easy to the impatient and unforgiving.
Sniper Elite V2 Remastered is a conflicted game. It's one part phenomenal sniping experience and one part clunky, run-of-the-mill third-person shooting gallery full of awful AI. If you're able to overlook its glaring faults, there's fun to be derived from its attention to realism in its sniping and its brilliant bullet cam gore, but overall, the one's best left in the past.
Yoshi's Crafted World brings together everything that makes the series so amazing to begin with, and expands on it exponentially with new mechanics and design decisions. It's not perfect, but it's a magical adventure in creativity from beginning to end and a textbook example of Nintendo's dedication to pure fun.
MLB The Show 19 is both improved in some important spots and disappointingly unimproved in others that really need love. But though it may not be perfect, it's still the best baseball game money can buy and well worth any baseball enthusiast's time.
There's just not much to The Lego Movie 2 Videogame that stands out as original. The core mechanics are mostly sound, but the rehashed movie story is told in a disjointed, unappealing fashion, and most of the things the game does well were done even better in previous games in the series.