There are some original and innovative ideas in the game, but in the end, is a very casual experience. Those who love a good story will love Lost Words: Beyond the Page. But those who are looking for deep gameplay, have nothing to see here.
The story is too slow, the card play is not engaging enough, and the gap between the two elements is never actually bridged. Signs of the Sojourner remains a bizarre experiment, that had potential, but where the artists stumbled being tripped by their own feet.
With a little bit more investment in the narrative, Monster Hunter Rise could have been a perfect game. Without that it's just one of the best games in the series, a must-play title for every Nintendo Switch owner. I'm amazed that after two incredible Monster Hunter games, Capcom still finds a way to outdo itself and push out another nearly perfect monster-hunting title.
The biggest problem is that the constant keyboard action can become a little tiring. Keep sessions to a little under an hour to make sure that you do not simply burn out from spelling. Nanotale is also a video game that would benefit immensely from an investment in a very good keyboard.
The story does little to appeal, although the setting has some potential. The presentation is bad. The city is filled with tropes and no surprises. The development team has a good grasp on mechanics and that will keep die-hard fans of the genre playing for a while. But to reach a wider audience they need to improve all other areas of a future release because Black Legend seems impossible to redeem.
Although it targets the whole family, it can be recommended only for those who are looking for the challenge due to the steep difficulty level. Still, El Hijo A Wild West Tale radiates candor and innocence, two qualities that recommend it to everyone.
Paradise Lost is a story worth exploring once, the alternative ending targeting those who were roped in by the story and the character development of Szymon. Sadly, there won't be too many, because despite the strong start, the magic fades and ultimately Paradise Lost proves to be a walking simulator that could have been very interesting in theory, but actually it is just conventional and flat.
Its phone-based origin is clear. The big battles are, at first, fun and exciting. But the fourth or fifth time when almost the same scenarios appear it is hard to summon the energy to do it all again. More variety is needed to make this on-tails space combat experience attractive in the long term.
The deep combat system, the different heroes, the procedurally generated maps, the different difficulty levels all contribute to the high replay value of the game. Star Renegades builds on the nostalgic factor and is targeting mainly the fans of TBT, but it proves to be enjoyable by anyone who decides to try it.
The game does not have the breath or innovation of the best of its class. But the focus on phobia, mental health, and stress make it an interesting experiment. Neurodeck shows how you can create a video game that offers information about the real world without looking preachy while also offering good core mechanics.
Although the learning curve is quite steep, once you get the hang of it, Battle Brothers is actually a very enjoyable experience. I strongly recommend those looking for a challenging turn-based RPG to give Battle Brothers a try, not just for the complexity of building the perfect company of brothers, but also for its stunning soundtrack and art style.
Hot Brass also makes SWAT operators out to be heroes who instantly fail when they do something wrong during a mission, an idealized abstraction that is uncomfortable given the very real harm to civilians that highly trained policemen have inflicted all over the world.
The developers have nailed the sense of progression and the tension that the genre is built around. The presentation is very old-school, which can be a problem for players who have never interacted with MS-DOS titles. It is also integral to the spirit of this game. Loop Hero is a great game for fans of its genre and has plenty of cool mechanics and hooks for those who want to try it out for the first time.
It is only a small improvement compared to the first Monster Jam Steel Titans and even with a more modest price tag and online multiplayer, it is hard to recommend for someone. Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 is way too arcade for the fans of the sport and offers very little to anyone else.
There's no doubt about it, Ryza 2 is the most refined experience you can get playing an Atelier game as long as you're not expecting a top-notch story. Aside from the lighthearted tone, nothing stands out when it comes to Atelier Ryza 2's story; it's as generic as it can be and there's nothing wrong with that.
The development team clearly understands how important is to ground players into a narrative. But they need to make sure that there's deeper integration between the world and the gameplay to create a successful rogue-lite. Right now Sword of the Necromancer is like one of its monsters, intriguing at first but quickly dropped when it no longer seems useful.
Heirs of Alexander is a good paid expansion, even considered apart from the free update. The Diadochi wars are fascinating and complex. I played quite a bit as the Antigonids and I still have options to explore. The other successor kingdoms have the same amount of content. For anyone who exhausts the stories of the Diadochi, there's more to discover and more places to conquer when playing as Rome, Carthage, and the rest, making Imperator a joy to return to.
Unfortunately, there's little to bring in those who simply lack those gaming memories. The pixelated look can easily be judged as hard to understand, stifling experimentation and making it hard to enjoy the exploration. The harpoon mechanics are solid but they cannot sustain the game on their own. More care to make it accessible for a wider range of players would have made the entire experience more attractive.
If you are a point and click adventure fan going through a dry spell, it may be worth picking up Chains of Satinav to fill a winter weekend, when you would just rather stay inside. If you just discover this videogame genre there are far better options out there to immerse yourself in.
Byzantine has a great track record when it comes to delivering free patches and extra content for their titles. In the coming months, they will tweak the mechanics for the better and deliver more nations and army lists to improve variety.