Nirav Gandhi's Reviews
Road 96 Mile 0 is a wildly disappointing follow-up to one of my favorite indie games of all time. Unless you love poor writing, acting, animation, dialogue, controls, and gameplay, pick another route.
While very well written and highlighted by some excellent fourth-wall breaking horror, Paranormasight far outstays its welcome with hours of unskippable rehashed and replayed text.
The beautiful art and relaxing music of Outlanders can't save it from totally busted systems, constant softlocking, and exceedingly poor UI design choices.
You can’t see rhythm. No one can. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Whether you can read music or not, whether you’ve mastered an instrument or can’t manage to play Hot Cross Buns, you are a rock star. You may not know it, you probably don’t believe it. But you’ll tightly navigate those progressions, finesse those pull-offs, and slice through those harmonies until you do believe it. Hi Fi Rush is going to make you believe you are a rock star.
Overall, if you’re looking for a solid 3D platformer with next gen graphics and great performance, you found it. The humor is similar to the humor found in the show in the last few years, which is to say not nearly as good as the first few seasons of the show, but there are some great jokes here and there. It’s always nice to see Spongebob and Patrick on another adventure, and I really had a blast with all that positive energy. While it didn’t recapture the magic of its predecessor, I think the $40 price tag is right, and if you’ve been looking forward to it I heartily recommend it!
The frame rate is constantly dropping, the visuals are abysmal, and there is no excuse for the unfinished state of the game. But underneath the hood are the best characters the franchise has ever had, an adventure you can tackle your own way, and the best mainline Pokemon game in decades.
Sonic Frontiers is a mess of ideas from other, better games. But when the music swells and Sleeping with Sirens is blasting your eardrums with a guttural scream while you plunge a 300 ft sword into a titan the size of a skyscraper, none of that will matter. The heights of Frontiers are the highest highs Sonic has ever seen, and i had more fun in this mediocre game than i had in all the many, many better games i played this year.
There are strokes of a masterpiece in here, with excellent music, whimsical characters, starkly themed visuals, just enough narrative push, and management tools that allow for the player to really experience their own story. If you don't optimize the fun out of Cult of the Lamb, there's an incredible amount of it to be had.
With beautiful visuals reminiscent of Warcraft, the smartest and most versatile city-building I've ever seen, and addictive mechanics will keep you up til 3 AM, Against the Storm is city-building, rogue-likes, and real time strategy at their heights.
While a little overburdened with systems and a glaring glossing over of the rampant sex trafficking and drug deaths that are a direct result of the real cartels, Cartel Tycoon is a polished management sim with intuitive UI and great visuals. If you want to feel like you're the star of Netflix's Narcos, you've come to the right place.
The Nirvana Initiative improves on its predecessor in every way, bringing in twice as many interesting, layered characters that all get their time in the sun, crazy mysteries with twists i never saw coming, intelligent writing, vastly improved puzzles, impeccable voice acting and the best soundtrack of the year. I am shocked to say this, but I think the package as a whole outdoes Spike Chunsoft’s previous works.
The Quarry manages to, after all these years, harness the things that made Until Dawn a classic and replicate that feeling almost perfectly. Besides a few story hiccups in the last act, these characters and performances are going to keep you and your friends' eyes glued to the screen all night long.
The original Doki Doki Literature Club is a phenomenal horror title, but loses a lot of the elements that made it so impressive on its translation to consoles.
While the cute creatures and whimsical art are enough to make it somewhat enjoyable, Alekon falls short of its direct inspiration Pokemon Snap on every single note.
I loved Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and so I loved my time with Wrath of the Druids. But after a 55 hour base game, a change of pace would have been very welcome.
Blind Drive offers a solid and funny arcade romp that can be played just the same by blind and sighted gamers, but the fun wears off pretty quickly with repetitive gameplay.
The Medium presents intelligent horror and innovative gameplay inspired by Silent Hill, but far overstays its welcome and fails to provide closure. The split screen mechanics work wonders for new kinds of puzzles, but a myriad of technical issues hinder immersion.
Airborne Kingdom is a cozy, comfortable delight that mixes management and exploration flawlessly; the focus is not on keeping your citizens alive while crossing the open world, but keeping them fulfilled and thriving.
Twin Mirror's concise narrative and innovative detective gameplay is heartfelt and earnest, though the small-scale, personal story is left open-ended.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla streamlines the best parts of Origins and Odyssey while trimming the fat, though is hampered consistently by bugs and technical problems. Still, it's a journey well worth taking.