Taylor Hidalgo's Reviews
Citadel: Forged with Fire is a game that manages to strike powerfully at the impulse to go spend some time in nature. The wild life are fun to watch from a distance, the water lapping on the shores of the lakes and oceans feel calming in the same way lounging at a beach in life can be, and drifting through the skies on the wings of flight potions and fast brooms is an experience that’s hard to find fault with.
Given the lack of novelty in the systems, the limited range of depth out of the Astel system, and the lack of player-class customization as-of-yet in the game, there aren’t a lot of reasons to really recommend Astellia. Excepting a genuinely heartbreaking translation, there aren’t really any reasons to avoid Astellia either. If the game looks interesting, there’s a decent argument to be made to give it a shot. If the game doesn’t look appealing at a glance though, there’s nothing in there that will likely change your mind.
Overall, it's hard to fault Apex Legends, but it also feels like it was trying to be something else too and couldn't quite bridge the gap. It is a fine game, one that will undoubtedly join an inescapable part of the streaming—and undoubtedly eSports—circuit. It just feels like there's potential in all of the polish, just wasn't given enough time to percolate and come out of the gate with something bigger.
Much like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the crust cut off, it's hard to feel anything too strongly about MapleStory 2.
Overall, players who spend money on Defiance 2050 will find a few quality-of-life improvements, but most of the upgrades will be acquired through play.
Subnautica is a beautiful game, only occasionally marred by sluggishness and the odd, errant bug.
Hyper Universe is good, it's worth trying it for sure. Just go in knowing its limits, there are a few more than you'd think at first glance.
Event[0] has the length and teething pains of a tech demo, but tells a story to beautifully to overlook without good reason.
Mighty No. 9 is a trying experience, good when it works but exhausting when it doesn't.
Ultimate Chicken Horse does everything it tries to do very well, but a few quibbles keep it from greatness.
Firewatch is an excellent, tense story, uncanny in spite its numerous beauties, and unmissable despite weaker mechanics.
Spellweaver is a fine game, familiar, polished, and inoffensive.
Like inventing and describing a new color, That Dragon, Cancer tries to describe something indescribable, and does an admirable job of it.
One of the best examples of how good the Japanese RPG can be, even if no single aspect sets the bar for the genre.
Steamworld Heist is an absorbing world wrapped around a decent game whose technical bits take away from a stellar personality.
A beautiful, charming, humbling, and difficult experience that's a good fit for shoot 'em up fans, but perhaps strange and unwelcoming to newcomers.
With a little bit more cohesion and fewer drastic system changes over the course of the campaigns, Hard West could have been amazing. Instead, it's merely quite good.
Galak-Z does everything it tries to do exceedingly well, but it unfortunately tried very hard to be one of the most challenging shooters out there.
Yo-Kai Watch is a good variation on the monster collection genre of RPGs that will definitely please fans and earn a few new fans, but has just enough tiresome elements to keep it from being great.
Assault Android Cactus is frantic, energetic, at times too difficult - but overall fantastic.