Mick Fraser's Reviews
As a follow up to Returnal, Saros is excellent. It builds on the foundations of Selene’s adventure and is a sensational slice of bullet-hell shooter goodness.
As the conclusion to Diablo 4’s narrative, Lord of Hatred excels. It tells a tighter, more personal, and features an incredibly satisfying and powerful final act.
The combat is the star of REPLACED. It’s so satisfying and slick that I couldn’t get enough of it, and when combined with numerous traversal puzzles, stealth sections, and action set-pieces the whole is far more glorious than the sum of its parts.
Despite a few very minor complaints, Pragmata is one of Capcom's most interesting and enjoyable adventures to date.
There’s very little to redeem Legacy of Kain: Ascendance other than the fact that it’s short.
Grime 2 has decent progression and looks amazing, but it loses some of what made the original so weird and unique.
Crimson Desert is frustrating and buggy and can be very player-unfriendly, but it's also beautiful, deep, seemingly endless and monumentally, perhaps detrimentally, ambitious.
The overall package is in incredibly charming despite the steep difficulty, and Soulslike Metroidvania fans would do well to add it Solateria their collection.
Greedfall 2: The Dying World makes an attempt to be a swashbuckling, seafaring pirate thriller, but gets muddled in its own politics and bogged down by too many clashing systems.
With a story that really goes places, a massive roster of monsters, and a stack of interlaced systems that combine to give the player a huge amount of choice and agency, Monster Hunter Stories: Twisted Reflection is the best in a trilogy of superb titles.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered brings the concluding instalment of Crystal Dynamic's gothic, operatic vampire story to the modern gamer.
Where Esoteric Ebb feels new and fresh is in its approach to the fantasy genre.
God of War Sons of Sparta swaps to a 2D plane to show us a glimpse of Kratos's early years.
Despite some of the comedy losing its shock value, High on Life 2 is still a wild, colourful, intentionally silly ride.
Nioh 3 moves beautifully with smooth, glowing, brutal combat and a huge array of special abilities to equip and call upon.
There's a lot going on in Code Vein 2, so much that it arguably loses some of the charm of its predecessor, and yet it's still quite a fun experience.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - From the Ashes is a solid, good-looking, well-paced standalone story that's well worth playing through for fans of the main game.
Death Howl is a tough game that rewards your perseverance with more challenge, and for fans of iron-tough soulslikes and deceptively complex tactics games, it’s a definite gem
If you’re into Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord, then War Sails is a no-brainer purchase.
Once again, as a package, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 provides plenty of throwaway fun and multilayer mayhem.