Andrei Dumitrescu's Reviews
Sunset is a video game that dares to create an experience that challenges gamers to carefully consider scraps of information even as they are performing somewhat repetitive tasks, while also focusing on just one character that reacts to an entire universe that evolves around him.
Galactic Civilizations III is a great game, containing a mix of familiar mechanics and new ideas that can keep both fans and newcomers occupied for a frighteningly long period of time.
Order of Battle: Pacific is the best strategy title of the year so far, offering a new take on a period that many gamers believe is no longer interesting from a video game point of view.
Titan Souls can be repetitive, difficult and frustrating, but it can also be the kind of video game in which one solid arrow shot can make a player happy for half an hour.
Pillars of Eternity is a must-buy for anyone who has played classic titles like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights or Planescape, and it will certainly deliver the story, the conversations, the companions, the combat and the big themes that they are yearning for.
Ironcast is a small game that manages to integrate some very cool mechanics in engaging ways and the fact that, at its core, it embraces the impact of dying associated with rogue-like titles makes each campaign unique.
Dragon Age: Inquisition - Jaws of Hakkon is a good sign for the long-term evolution of the most recent role-playing game from BioWare and Electronic Arts, and it will be interesting to see whether the same pace and level of quality can be maintained in the future.
Cities: Skylines is the best experience for a gamer who wants to play a modern city builder that has a solid set of mechanics and manages to avoid all the traps that have sunk the reboot of SimCity created by Maxis and Electronic Arts.
Sid Meier's Starships is a good and replayable turn-based strategy experience that will certainly appeal to lovers of classic science fiction franchises and to those who appreciate the way the leader of Firaxis managed to make player choices relevant.
The Homeworld Remastered Collection offers players access to two of the best space-based strategy titles ever created and allows them to do so on modern machines, with no worries about compatibility or other hardware problems, which means that the fan community should be grateful for the work Gearbox has put in.
Hand of Fate is an interesting game that will certainly appeal to those who want to see how the card-based approach could be expanded in meaningful ways in the coming years.
Sunless Sea is a great video game and the team at Failbetter Games has clearly invested a lot of love and attention into its development.
The first hour of Life Is Strange delivers a number of references suggesting that the development team at Dontnod aims to create an experience which can be compared to Catcher in the Rye or Twin Peaks in terms of core concepts.
Blackguards 2 takes the formula of the initial release and expands upon it, but there's nothing truly innovative, apart from the origin story of Cassia and her frequent moments of near madness.
Company of Heroes 2 – Ardennes Assault is a good standalone package and the campaign that Relic has created manages to capture the tension associated with the Battle of the Bulge, although there are some moments when the company deviates from historical reality in order to increase the dramatic element.
Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon is an interesting mix of the complex universe created by Games Workshop and the mechanics of the Panzer Corps which should offer fans of either of the two products hours of fun tactical engagements.
Starpoint Gemini 2 is a very solid entry in the space simulation genre and a dedicated gamer can spend tens of hours exploring every area of the included Gemini sector, finding cool secrets and battling a range of enemies, some capable and some not.
Football Manager 2015 does not feel like a must-have update for the series and I suspect that many fans will play their copies of FM 2014 for a while longer and will wait to see how the title evolves before they get it.
This War of Mine is challenging from both a gameplay point of view and a philosophical one because it asks gamers to survive and then confronts them with the compromises and outright betrayals of their principles required to reach that goal.
Valkyria Chronicles is an interesting title that certainly takes some of the core ideas of the Japanese role-playing game genre and twists them in innovative ways, but the whole package has not managed to fully capture my attention.