Jason Rodriguez's Reviews
Amazing visuals and stellar atmosphere notwithstanding, The Callisto Protocol is held back by a cumbersome combat system, technical woes, and other issues.
Marvel's Midnight Suns offers a surprisingly complete experience, going above and beyond what you're used to in XCOM-esque tactics games. From the dynamic card combat system, robust customization options, and hilarious banter with teammates to the fact that you've got a fully explorable hub with secrets, it's got everything you could ever want and then some.
With an unsettling atmosphere, gripping tension, and new actions for characters, The Devil in Me is a major improvement for the franchise. It just needs a way to skip scenes during replays to avoid the tedium.
Pentiment's vivid art style, tight narrative, and choice-driven gameplay are a treat to experience. However, the restrictive save system and constant clicking to finish dialogue conversations can be detrimental to your enjoyment.
In any case, I’ll continue progressing further in Floodland. While my first impressions are certainly far from positive, I’m hoping that things become more interesting down the line. You can expect our finalized review score by the end of the week.
The arena combat features in Dying Light 2: Bloody Ties are refreshing for a time. Unfortunately, the clunkiness and tediousness from the base game remains. Worse, there's a litany of crashes, and a game-breaking bug that can cause issues with your save.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force has exciting combat mechanics and a fun traversal system, but it's hampered by poor performance, bland cutscenes, and questionable pacing.
Signalis borrows concepts that made survival-horror games successful. However, the unique twists, quirky style, and abundance of puzzles make it a mesmerizing romp.
Victoria 3 is, without a doubt, grand in scale and scope, and it's downright gorgeous, too. Sadly, the countless mechanics mean that there are too many moving parts, which lead to more questions than answers. The automation and streamlining of battle is, likewise, a baffling change. Even as a veteran of Paradox Interactive's games, this is still one series that I can't get behind.
With gorgeous visuals, well-written characters, stunning atmosphere, and an amazing Photo Mode function, A Plague Tale: Requiem surpasses its predecessor. However, the gameplay and puzzles tend to remain fairly easy and straightforward.
While there are some notable flaws and shortcomings, Asterigos: Curse of the Stars does manage to entertain and provide the necessary thrills.
Moonscars has a lot of promising ideas. Unfortunately, the threadbare plot, questionable level design, and odd execution of mechanics hold it back.
Potion Permit certainly has its own unique charm as you continue shaping the fortunes of Moonbury and its citizens. Unfortunately, it can get fairly monotonous later on.
Circus Electrique has a plethora of intriguing ideas. Unfortunately, most of these don't mesh well with the core gameplay, leading to a tedious romp.
Immortality is Sam Barlow's most ambitious project. It presents an engrossing narrative, with numerous moments that will amaze you as you discover them. The only downside is that you can end up with repetitive scenes without knowing what to do next.
Will the frustrations continue to mount? Will the Saints Row reboot establish its identity? We’ll see. For now, I’ll continue to play more to see the campaign through to its conclusion. I might also try some co-op activities with our Review Editor, Andrew Farrell, and maybe some drop-in multiplayer, too. You can expect a finalized review score within the week.
Thymesia has some refreshing ideas to set it apart among a packed field of Souls-like games. Sadly, many of these mechanics don't mesh well with the action or are completely useless. Exploration also feels generally unrewarding.
Cult of the Lamb relies on its demented humor and zany ideas that add charm. Sadly, some mechanics are either too streamlined or troublesome. You're bound to enjoy it for several hours until it becomes repetitive to a fault.
Hard West 2 has some refreshing ideas to consider, such as perks based on your deck of cards, and consistently refreshing action points by way of kills. Unfortunately, its over-reliance on a puzzle-like, kill-all-in-one-round concept also leads to a repetitive and tedious romp as time wears on.
Stray is a fairly short game with a few notable flaws. Still, it's a joy to experience the wonders of playing as a cat in a marvelously designed world.