Janky in all aspects, King’s Bounty II can be a worthy new entry for long-time fans or a terrible idea. If you’re considering this, just keep in mind that it’s rough around the edges.
Garden Story is not actually about gardening, in the Stardew Valley sense, and that’s great. The story is about growing friendships and the organic development of communities. The mechanics are good enough to keep players engaged with the world. The stakes are never high. Concord doesn’t shine as a protagonist but the world around him is colorful and fun, a good reason to spend 15 minutes at the end of the day doing a little work to make it even better for everybody else.
It has succeeded in that and in creating a very competent strategy experience, but I sometimes wished for Humankind to aim for more innovation and more surprises.
Review code provided by the publisher.
Review code provided by the publisher.
Sure, the story is nothing impressive. There are moments when the generated levels do not make too much sense. Progress sometimes hinges on the placement of one health chest or one group of enemies. But, despite the randomness, Jupiter Hell feels fair and there's a lot of depth to discover in this surprising mix.
The idea of creating a game world built around knowledge is a good one. But the developers at Souris-Lab should try to better define their mechanics if they expand on the world of Hemeide and to make clear what kind of players they target. Their puzzle design ability is solid, A Tale of Synapse is a good debut title, and it will be interesting to see what kind of experience they can create next.
The developers do have good ideas. I like the fact that players can start to explore a historical situation (or a big political incident or the state of a country) through the mechanics of this genre. I appreciate the mix of serious subject matter and sometimes silly romance encounters. But Ambition: A Minuet in Power needed a little more focus to convince me to play through it more than one time, even if I appreciate what it is trying to achieve.
I wish that the game could have created a better shell for the entire experience. I like the look of the characters and the world, but it does need a little more variety. And the fantasy-driven story feels a little undercooked. The gameplay in Unbound: Worlds Apart is good enough to keep fans of the genre entertained, especially if they love the occasional challenge. But future titles from Alien Pixel Studios need a little more when it comes to narrative to deliver a truly great gaming experience.
Although you have other means at your disposal, the strongest suit of The Forgotten City remains its slower gameplay focused on problem solving. For a small group of people, putting together The Forgotten City is no small feat, and they deserve the praise.
Blightbound does not need only bug fixes, but a complete overhaul, because it is not a fun experience by any means. It tried to walk in the footsteps of the great classics, but it fell on its face in the most embarrassing way.
The team at Dinosaur Polo Club clearly has a knack for creating stripped-down but beautiful graphics and for simplifying mechanics down to their essence, which is a clear strength for a title that aims for success on mobile devices. But in order to make Mini Motorways engaging on other platforms, they needed to introduce a new mechanic or a new way to tackle the traffic challenge to add to the depth of the experience.
You can feel that the team poured their heart and soul into the game making it a game that will convince everyone willing to try it, even if they usually do not like JRPGs. It has some issues and for some, the visuals might be too colorful or cheerful, but it is an adventure worth playing through.
If you have played Four Last Things, The Procession to Calvary is mandatory. But even if you have not played Richardson's previous game, this one is worth every minute of the roughly four hours you will need to finish it. It does not care if it offends, as long as it entertains.
The developer clearly is a fan of some classic experiences and knows how to take their spirit and bring it to the present. The challenge is to update the core mechanics interestingly and choose the right concepts for the world he is building. Guild of Darksteel is ultimately a shallow experience that does not offer much more than its demo but I am curious what Sandman can create in the future.
There are rough edges but I expect all of them will be solved via patches. The Farm 51 has created an atmospheric and challenging game that mixes plenty of inspirations in a cool new way. More variety in terms of locations and more options for combat would have made Chernobylite an instant classic.
That being said, I would recommend the game to those who aren't looking for overly complex puzzles and a deep, meaningful story. Out of Line is one of those games that won't challenge puzzle enthusiasts nor appease players looking for an appealing narrative.
The coarse and uninspired humor does not work as the developers have intended, and in the long run, it becomes annoying. The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos has a lot of untapped potentials, unfortunately, due to the countless technical issues it is hard to recommend the console version to any players.
Review based on a copy of the game purchased by Softpedia.
Review code provided by the publisher.