Lee Mehr's Reviews
This may end up as one of R. L. Stine's greatest nightmares yet—for all the wrong reasons.
STONE arrives at an uncomfortable middle more akin to a pile-up than a tightrope balancing act. The anthropomorphized backdrop feigns a more peculiar and memorable adventure, but the story is mostly lifeless and forgetful. It’s another third-person walking sim that’s not bothered to utilize our protagonist’s skills in any interesting or tangible way. Add on a fifteen-dollar retail price and you’re left considering a few rounds at the pub has more value, and I doubt our marsupial lead would protest to that.
Whether it’s in respect to the repetitive gameplay structure, unsatisfying flight controls, or deflating brevity, there’s really no reason to see what the buzz is about. Bee Simulator is a well-meaning edutainment game but its honeymoon period is gone at breakneck speed. You’ve bee-n warned, and I’ve run out of puns.
An unholy union of procedural generation, non-linear narrative design, and a Jonestown-inspired cult backdrop.
Doing everything in its limited power to harm its decent concept, Energy Cycle ultimately becomes a Bohr-ing experience.
Studio Fizbin's first foray into the first-person narrative adventure sub-genre is their most uncreative work thus far.
No copycat should be satisfied in reproducing its inspiration without incorporating a visual, aural, story, and/or mechanical nuance alongside it. None of these four categories are met here, so what's left is a ditto platformer that's content with showing yet another hellish landscape after humans are nearly wiped out.
Between an insanely tedious gameplay loop, inferior writing, avaricious scheming, and more, Suicide Squad ranks among the most villainous & disreputable live-service games.
I can appreciate strapping popular indie horror game templates to The Great War, but when my overriding thoughts vary from boredom to unintentional laughter then appreciation can only go so far.
Kao's first expansion barely packs any punch.
It wants to be a choose-your-own-adventure movie template while consistently disrespecting player choice. This poisons player investment in a story that rarely elevates to fun B-movie shlock, despite some acting & musical talent.
Between the scant content, absent personality, and dry gameplay loop, it's not worth the outrageous fare.
Ironically, Night Book makes a better argument for replaying than ever starting it.
I thought the book was better.
Insatiable Cycle's zeal in tackling dialogue choices is something to appreciate. But that can only go so far when the script is tacky, the game design is clumsy, and the retail price is terribly overvalued.
From storytelling to game design, Those Who Remain's tepid approach to its overabundant tropes made me want to leave Dormont as soon as I arrived. My best advice to horror fans: ignore the exit—even if your tank is running low.
As a series, Hello Neighbor's modus operandi can be seemingly summed up like this: sell a neat concept and then utterly fumble the execution. Hello Engineer sticks to that script, but at least with a dash of panache and actual craftsmanship.
From mechanics to personality, Modus Studios' genre-mashup runs into major trouble by the first chords.
The wishful beginnings to Road 96 quickly veer off-course due to clumsy gameplay, weak writing, inconsistent production values, and transparently purposeless direction.
We Are OFK's glitz and glamour can only do so much for a game so insecure about its format and inauthentic in its intent.