Empty Shell is a twin stick shooter with a horror-themed top-down view, similar in gameplay to Hotline Miami but with a less frenetic pace and a completely different look, here entirely in grayscale with various filters to simulate the now ancient CRT monitors. The variety of weapons and enemies is quite good, and when life points start to run low, there is a certain anxiety about opening the next door without knowing what we will be fighting. The gameplay is simple and the story picks up the classic experiment where everything went wrong, however the dark and claustrophobic atmosphere will manage to capture even the most demanding players.
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Last Epoch is a hack and slash isometric RPG that is graphically well made but above all accessible to a non-hardcore audience. You progress without great difficulty and dying does not involve any particular penalties as seen in soulslikes. The few and trivial starting classes can generate thousands of different builds thanks to specializations, crafting, perks and talents to be assigned in the skill tree. History, as always, plays a marginal role, but the introduction of time travel makes it interesting to wander through the same regions in various eras. Handling the Endgame will determine long-term success, but at the moment it's an RPG worth checking out.
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King Quake is alive, and WRATH: Aeon of Ruin is here to prove it to us. Credit to KillPixel who has been able to create very labyrinthine maps full of secret rooms, hordes of enemies that not only count on numerical superiority but also have an intelligence that guides them to surround us and take us from behind, and a series of weapons that really give the impression of doing harm. The only drawback is a certain woodiness in the controls, especially when using the dash in the air to jump farther. Know that it's a very difficult game, and advancing will be a challenge, but isn't that exactly how boomer shooters should be?
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How might Contra: Operation Galuga disappoint fans of the series? Nobody. How could it bring in new players who don't know the arcade? With adrenaline-pumping action through challenging levels where you can fight your way through with a devastating arsenal, advancing meter after meter until the boss challenge. We are faced with a bare and raw run and gun platformer, in which the few extra contents are a real added value and not a formality because nowadays everyone must have them. These are Bill and Lance's best adventures, and the two new characters are also very charismatic. Do you just want to shoot like crazy? You'll love it.
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The Outlast Trials is first and foremost an excellent stealth game in which you have to avoid enemies by hiding in the shade, under the bed or inside a closet, taking care not to make noise. After that, it's an extremely brutal survival horror, in which we have to carry out heinous acts without becoming victims of psychopathic madmen ready to tear us apart in the most gory ways. The atmosphere of the Cold War prison camps with no way out has been recreated to perfection, and it's easy to empathize with the protagonist as he tries to survive, accompanied only by the mad beat of his own heart. Co-op multiplayer with three other friends completes the offering.
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Courage should be rewarded, always. And Pacific Drive is a brave game, offering unique gameplay focused on the exploration of the Zone and the relationship between man and vehicle. We will feel helpless and powerless most of the time, banking on car upgrades to have any hope of surviving in this bleak and hostile environment. The action is slow paced as the protagonist is not an Invincible Super Soldier but an ordinary man in his beat-up car, and this may turn away some fans of driving games, but the high point of this production is the story.
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Survive the Wilds is an open-world survival game that puts us in the shoes of an insect-sized creature struggling with a wild world teeming with dangers, managing to instil a certain sense of discomfort when fighting with ants, cockroaches and various beetles. Basic resources are fairly common, but to get the most valuable ones you have to grind a little and fight, with an overall difficulty above average. The tiny character is charismatic, and the same can be said for the NPCs, and the story holds some surprises, to be discovered little by little as you progress through the game, alone or in company.
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Solium Infernum is a turn-based strategy game dedicated to board game lovers, with a very evocative setting that opens the door to epic battles between hordes of demons. Although there is no shortage of clashes, the lion's share goes to the managerial component, with a very careful management of diplomatic aspects. Difficulty and duration of the matches are widely customizable, but always taking into account a specific target of players, which is certainly not the casual audience. One of the best representatives of its kind, whose only obvious flaw is the miniatures of the Archdemons, which are really too amateurish.
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Anomaly Agent is a debut with a bang for Phew Phew Games, which arrives on our monitors with a beat'em up with Canabalt-style endless runner elements, a charismatic and crazy protagonist, plus music to shoot at full volume that accompanies the action in beautiful pixel art. The attack and dodge combination starts with the simple press of two buttons and gradually becomes more and more complex with combos and special weapons. Sudden gameplay changes and gigantic bosses each one with its own fighting style make this game unmissable for those who love action.
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Howl is a puzzle game in which planning your moves and predicting the consequences play the lion's share. Keeping enemies' reactions in mind for the next six turns can prove very challenging, although with the assisted mode or a healthy dose of trial and error you will be able to complete all sixty levels in two or three evenings. The darkly grim story, medieval setting, and distinctive graphics make this a thoroughly interesting game. Once completed there is no reason to replay it except to try to earn all the achievements, but it remains a recommended experience for lovers of this genre of games.
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Recent unfortunate events led us to think that the Commandos-like genre would struggle to come up with new quality games, but here comes Stargate: Timekeepers to turn the tide, while rehabilitating the SG-1 IP that had fallen somewhat into oblivion. Vast and highly structured levels filled with enemies to avoid, overcome or eliminate by taking advantage of the environment, an AI that knows when to turn a blind eye and charismatic characters with exclusive abilities make this game a must buy for all stealth RTS lovers.
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Blood West is an FPS with a strong stealth component and a difficulty worthy of soulslike that will see you try and try various ways to eliminate enemies. The penalties given every time you die can make your character almost unplayable in the long run, but once you've tamed the insane difficulty curve, the various builds you can do are very different from each other and you'll definitely have fun experimenting. The sound is excellent and the lowpoly graphics are good, although it would have been appropriate to make the maps a little richer. Some will find it very punishing, and the absence of difficulty levels doesn't come to its aid, but the Wild West is an unforgiving world.
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Hirilun doesn't mess around and immediately presents itself for what it is: an extremely fast, difficult, and punishing first person runner where even the smallest error can make the difference between a great and a failed run. It takes a long time to memorize the optimal route, only to have you bitterly discover that there is actually a much faster way to the finish line, although it requires even greater precision. Definitely intended for hardcore audiences who are not scared to try the same jump hundreds of times before finding perfection. A game for the few, but those few will like it.
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Sociable Soccer 24 is fun and reintroduces the arcade spirit of 16-bit soccer games at its best, while also trying to keep up with the times with unlockable players, daily rewards, and various other mechanics typical of mobile gaming, strictly without in-app purchases – you dare! The 1990s are long gone, however, so exceptional depth and gameplay for that era can now aspire to the title of "casual" at best. It's not a criticism, but that Sensible Soccer capable in its day of filling a lot of afternoons, today is just a game to get in a quick game or two from time to time.
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Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a huge game in which exploration plays a very important role, as every corner of the Western Frontier is full of plants to catalog, ingredients to collect and materials to use to improve our equipment. The fights are very addictive and it is essential to combine stealth actions with raids based on the surprise effect. The proprietary Snowdrop engine offers us a beautiful graphic representation, which combined with a quality soundtrack guarantee an almost cinematic experience. Those looking for non-stop action might find a few too many dead moments, but it remains an open world shooter adventure of extreme quality despite never trying to introduce any novelty to the genre.
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Iron Marines Invasion is a Real Time Action Strategy that despite offering a casual approach, with very few options compared to most popular RTSs, manages to provide an excellent level of challenge. Colorful and fast-paced, with missions that hardly last more than ten minutes, it entices you to experiment thanks to the ability to change troops on the fly, although after a couple of defeats you will already know which soldiers to start with. A pleasant confirmation that even games initially designed for smartphones can be appealing on PC. Those looking for hardcore strategy, however, will prefer to skip it.
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Astral Ascent offers the usual roguelite gameplay where you have to die a ton of times before you have a decent build to progress, with a somewhat nebulous system of spells and power-ups at first. After the first couple of hours without any particular emotions, however, the game explodes showing all its potential, especially once all four heroes are unlocked. At that point it becomes one of the best video games of this genre, despite the fact that not much attention has been given to the platformer component. If you love characters to grow with thousands of combinations, you've come to the right place.
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Berzerk is a timeless classic whose gameplay has aged very well, in fact it is even more popular now than it was then, thanks to advances in hardware. This Recharged edition brings back the spirit of the original in a modern way, but it doesn't manage to turn it into a more complete game than a simple casual score attack. While the desire to maintain a certain fidelity to the original concept is understandable, there has been a real misstep in the offer of additional content, with only a handful of extra challenges that are not at all challenging. So it risks not even pleasing fans of the original.
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WarioWare: Move It! is a masterpiece of minimalist gameplay where a level is completed in a couple of seconds. Incredibly, all the more than two hundred challenges are very distinct from each other and all of fine quality, without any of them seeming to be added to make up the numbers. The Story Mode is already a lot of fun, but the challenges designed specifically for local multiplayer are small strokes of genius. All with a graphic design that highlights the insaneness of the production. At first, it's not so easy to understand what the various mini-games ask of us, but it's all a matter of practice.
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Wandering Sword is a journey into an ancient China to be explored from top to bottom, meeting wonderful characters and engaging in pitched battles in which tactics, party members and character build are crucial. Progression is quite fast-paced and debunks the cliché that would have Eastern games to be based on grinding. The main campaign is fairly linear, but there are enough side quests that provide variety to the adventure, meticulously narrated with plenty of text. The HD-2D graphics are particularly well-chosen in this genre of games and are another selling point.
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