Jonathan Bolding
Jonathan Bolding's Reviews
A solid, accessible city builder, Tropico 5 gets out of the way and lets you have the fun you came for without pissing around in fiddly details.
The hand-drawn visuals, interesting combat, and epic story mean The Banner Saga is crafted from flawless pieces - even if the final product is a little rough.
What's here is undoubtedly high quality, but some may find themselves just wanting more of the game. It's a blessing and a curse.
If you're in the mood for some N64 era platforming held to modern standards, or have a bad-at-platformers partner to tag along, Woolly World is just what the doctor ordered.
Though it fails to innovate in an engaging way, the base on which Tropical Freeze is built is solid as a glacier.
It innovates from prior games in the series, and is undeniably fun, but Galactic Civilizations III isn't the clear leader in a packed genre.
This game preaches to the choir - the hunting faithful will love it, everyone else, maybe not.
A rich, interesting, and honest experiment in history-as-game: If you're interested, play it.
Roguebook stands out from the pack on a few qualities, but it's not a must-play.
In terms of core design, turn-based tactics games don't get much better than Phoenix Point.
A sometimes tricky RPG with gorgeous art that's perfect for co-op.
For better or worse, this is a classic hex wargame with updated graphics.
Ambitious in the extreme, Shadow Empire is a unique sci-fi wargame that's a little lost in its own details.
A functional, basic board game port isn't enough to truly shine off the tabletop.
Field of Glory 2: Medieval is the closest to a tabletop miniatures experience you'll get on PC.
Diablo 2: Resurrected brings a beloved classic up today's graphical standards, but it overlooks 20 years of obvious flaws. It's still a very satisfying action RPG, but you couldn't get away with these problems a decade ago, much less today.
Disciples: Liberation is a promising RPG with rich stories and compelling tactical combat, but nothing quite makes it a must-play.
King Arthur: Knight's Tale is a strategy RPG that gets the fantasy of playing as a heavily armored knight exactly right, but it would've been a better game if it didn't pad itself out with so many repetitive battles.
Hard West 2 has plenty of little annoyances, but it's a supernatural western tactics game with a lot of style and the substance to back it.
While the story is good fun, and the mechanical conceits awesome, Contrast's puzzles just aren't as hard as they need to be