I have no qualm with the low-stakes nature of The Mysterious Book. In fact, some of my favorite games are cozy shop and farm sims. There’s a tremendous market for the genre, but I don’t think I want it in my 2D Nintendo platformers. Where Super Mario Wonder hooked me from the first level, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book told me to temper my expectations. This isn’t a fast-paced platformer, it’s a calm and deliberate exploration; a spotlight for creature design. And that’s fine if you go in with such expectations. Not every platformer needs to be a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants experience. But The Mysterious Book definitely could use a shot of adrenaline here and there.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon puts an interesting spin on Arthurian legend and presents a competent world that plays like a love letter to the open-world first-person RPG genre.
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny represents the design tenants of a bygone era, more often for worse than better.
So yes, all the hallmarks of what makes a good Doom game are fully on display in The Dark Ages: overpowered weapons, copious amounts of blood, chaotic combat, a blistering metal soundtrack. Hell. It’s all just been moved around a little bit, remixed to feel fresh. Like spring cleaning. The place may look different, but that doesn’t mean it’s not comfortable. After all, your chair is still your chair, and Doom is still Doom.
I’m hooked once again on the market’s premier strategy franchise. I’m not sure if I like it more than the previous entry, but Civ VII reminds me why I love the genre...
I wanted very badly to love Dauntless, and for a time I think I did thanks to the fantastic combat and weapon variety. But the lack of any real storytelling makes the repetitive questing structure a glaring issue in desperate need of some TLC. If you're looking for a new go-to F2P experience, you could do much worse — just don't expect a world drenched teeming with lore and compelling characters.
Three Kingdoms' first piece of DLC is largely more of the same, but that's no bad thing when the base experience is so good.