The whole package gels together to make a game that stands out, though not always for the right reasons.
But the game, though having a clean and perfectly adequate presentation, doesn’t do very much to put its best foot forward to wow the player presentation-wise, and the finger-numbing clicky gameplay might be just a bit too underwhelming for some to ride this train all the way to its final stop.
Smoke and Sacrifice is certainly different from any other game I’ve ever played, but whether this worked out in its favor is questionable.
For all the things it does right, The Alliance Alive generally feels like a game that wasn’t quite ready to get pulled out of the oven, but was released anyway.
All told, one can do far worse than Oceanhorn for a shot of Zelda nostalgia. The basics are all present and accounted for, and the game offers good presentation values for a ten-hour-or-so stroll down memory lane. It may not quite nail the sense of charm we’ve seen in similar world design or exploration, but it certainly never goes so far in the other direction as to outright disappoint.
While it addresses many aspects lacking during the franchise’s first outing, the overall experience still misses the high-water mark it aims for, with a glut of gameplay systems and wonky mechanics rearing their ugly heads each time a measure of success is achieved elsewhere. It outpaces its predecessor in terms of quality, to be sure, but not enough to make for an emphatic recommendation.
Watcher Chronicles may scratch an itch for those in need, but ultimately fails to leave a lasting impression.
It’s a relatively short ride and well worth taking, as long as one’s expectations are dialed in correctly from the outset.
Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is an entertaining and creative diversion while it lasts. It certainly sets itself apart with relative ease but it does suffer a bit from diminishing returns.
Gamedec presents a rich world that would be worth revisiting again, though perhaps with an extra layer of polish needed for its narrative.
Ghost of a Tale is and does a lot of things, some impressive but not all of them great triumphs.
Underneath it all lies an engaging combat system, though it’s a shame the story and writing under-serve what could have been an interesting world and cast of characters.
While it isn’t a flawless experience and absolutely refuses to hold the player’s hand, it does manage to set itself apart by virtue of its unrelenting difficulty, all while telling a story that comes closer to Lovecraftian fiction than many of its contemporaries.
Labyrinth of Refrain will not disappoint those looking for a thorough first-person dungeon grind.
The repetitive gameplay cycle, taken to its extreme by asking the player to clear the game a total of five times before the true ending is even unlocked, won’t win everybody over.
The game may not manage to surpass what has come before, but, if nothing else, it does manage to hold its own and provide series fans with another fun chapter in the series.
Tails of Iron 2 is the poster child for a game that’s going to have a hard time winning over anyone who wasn’t already sold on its predecessor, not due to any lack of quality but because it essentially is its predecessor.
Darksiders II remains an entertaining, if somewhat by-the-book, romp that leans heavily into the bombastic design elements that fans of the series swear by and arguably contains the most RPG-inspired elements in the franchise.
Despite being a good match on paper, the system’s robustness is directly proportional to the player’s tolerance for Tetris, with plentiful combat encounters that will wear thin for some in the long run. However, the game’s other elements more than make up for any shortcomings here, with beautiful visuals, a jumping soundtrack, and a lengthy and well-written story full of characters that are a joy to get to know over the course of 20 or so hours.
Anybody who enjoys a sci-fi yarn that blends Stand by Me with The X-Files, or grew up in the ’90s, will find plenty to enjoy here.