Cosmin Vasile
Beautiful Desolation raises a lot of questions but leaves the answers open for most of the time. It is an experience that makes you wonder about humanity and what the future will bring. It is fun only for those who are looking for deep-reaching experiences, that will stick with you long after you finished the game.
For a first game, it is not bad. Some things can be improved, but you can lose yourself in the game world and you will have fun with it. Despite the flat jokes and repetitive secondary quests, Biomutant is a game worth a try.
Still, it is hard to forgive the length, the lack of the story, and the fact that after you played or, replayed it once more, there is nothing more to do here. The atmosphere is special, the puzzles are well thought out, and the environment is very detailed, but each player has to decide for themselves how 2-3 hours of fun should translate into a price tag.
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.
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.
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.
Still, the console version remains a fun experience and despite its dated looks, Serious Sam immerses its players completely, transcending them in the middle of the action. You don't need strategies or tactics, just the controller and the mood to blow up everything alien you encounter in the game world. Technically there are no improvements, the fun is still as mindless as ever, and the price of the package is a fair one.
In the end, Mars Horizon turns out to be quite a simple game, despite the initial complex impression. Because of the repetitive gameplay, although the game has replay value, most players will be rather bothered by the end they finish the race to Mars and will not be tempted to try again. It is worth a try if you are a fan of space exploration, but curb your enthusiasm regarding the fun the game can provide.
Moreover, the visuals are outdated, and some technical issues should have been fixed before launch. We expected more from Black Ops Cold War, but I am sure that Activision will rake in enough money from the players to have another Call of Duty next year.
This leaves those who have never played it as a potential audience. But honestly, they are better off with newer games than Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remaster, since this is a remaster only in title, stuck in 2010 practices.
It is unfortunate that Stories Untold builds up such an immersive experience just to ruin it with such a humdrum story. If you are a fan of adventure games you will have to try it, even if in the end you will be left wanting more puzzles and a story that would do them justice.
Gamers who love immersion and emotional experiences should dive deep into the memories and dreams The Signifier offers, even if the gameplay is a little limited and the ending fails to live up to the initial excitement. And I truly hope that a sequel or a spin-off is in development to take advantage of all the solid groundwork that the developers created.
The stale gameplay is probably the biggest issue. Not much has changed, and the concept feels old. The graphics are forgettable, the weapons are not interesting, the animations are not great, and the overall quality leaves to be desired. Playing on our melancholy can only go so far.
As such, just as the tabletop game is based on, Necromunda: Underhive Wars proved that it is not for everybody. You need patience and you need to have passion for the deep tactical approach, to enjoy what the game offers. Still, despite all its shortcomings, the game can be fun for the right audiences and has a lot of potential that shines through especially in multiplayer.
For all these reasons, if you have already played the game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning will offer nothing new, and will prove to be only a minor improvement over the original. However, if you missed the original and you are looking for an action RPG with fun combat, you might want to give it a chance.
But all of these positive aspects pale in front of the technical part that is severely lacking. As such I cannot recommend Ary and The Secret of Seasons until several patches have come out fixing the annoying issues of the game.
But even these moments cannot make me forget about the technical issues, and the sacrifices made to turn the game into a live service. The lack of variety may get addressed by future free or paid updates, but you remain with the feeling that if the effort would have been invested in focusing on a single-player experience Marvel's Avengers could have been truly great. Instead, we received a mixed bag of experiences that vary from great to downright monotonous.
But it feels more like a quite short interactive experience, rather than a videogame. Metamorphosis lacks variety and cohesive gameplay, focusing too much on the story and the atmosphere. As such even the current price may seem a bit high for this unusual game. It is a surreal experiment which despite its intriguing source material, will never become a classic due to its dull inner workings.
Moreover, Darkestville Castle is a great reminder of why we love the greats. It awakes memories about the adventures of George Hobart, of the sleepless nights when we were trying to find out the solution for a difficult puzzle involving Sam and Max, about the endless discussions with friends trying to figure out together how to solve the misadventures of Guybrush Threepwood. Unfortunately for Epic LLama, Darkestville Castle will never be reminisced about as these epic experiences and will be forgotten shortly after finishing it.
Despite these issues, Destroy All Humans! keeps its charm and unique appeal. If you can overlook the obsolete mechanics and level design, the adventures of Crypto are actually fun. Thanks to the budget-friendly price tag, the game can be recommended to those who finished games like Maneater and are looking to a new dose of mayhem.