Sönke Siemens


27 games reviewed
81.9 average score
84 median score
69.2% of games recommended
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Feb 22, 2024

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth lives up to its name and presents you with the rebirth of a timeless story.

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Jan 17, 2023

"Fire Emblem Engage" turns out to be the hoped-for tactical spectacle with considerable scope. For more than two dozen chapters, you'll experience nerve-wracking battles that are at their best, especially in Classic mode with the permadeath function turned on. The new break and emblem ring mechanics fit perfectly into the proven combat system, the design of the battlefields always holds interesting surprises in store, side missions are regularly linked to the unlocking of new additional characters, and the story is also peppered with some twists that we did not always see coming. Alear's Ring Odyssey is rounded off by a staging that is absolutely worth seeing by Switch standards, a bombastic soundtrack and numerous multiplayer functions that promise a lot of long-term motivation.

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Be it the masterful design of the semi-open game world divided into 13 dye biomes, the continuous introduction of new hero abilities, the thrilling duels with a huge range of enemy types, the challenging puzzles and boss fights, the scope, which is more extensive than many others genre representatives or the variety of accessibility functions - Ubisoft Montpellier undoubtedly delivers one of its best games in recent years! There are minor points of criticism, but in our opinion they are primarily limited to difficulty peaks in some boss fights and the fact that the story doesn't quite as emotionally engage us as that of Hollow Knight or Ori and the Blind Forest, for example.

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Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is not only the biggest game in the series to date, but also a real narrative highlight. Admittedly, it takes a comparatively long time for the story to really get going. But then the developers bombard us with twists and turns that surprise and emotionally thrill. The development studio does not reinvent the basic gameplay concepts, but the bottom line is that Infinite Wealth offers enough innovations and improvements that all make sense and fit nicely. However, the fact that the New Game Plus mode is not included in every version is indeed a disappointment.

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"Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake" elevates the presentation and soundtrack of a true classic to a contemporary level, while also optimizing the precision of the controls and enemy behavior. The most important gameplay innovation compared to the original remains the two-player co-op mode, which, strictly speaking, already existed in the 2019 version of the Switch. If you already know the latter or have already played through the original, you will primarily pay for a nice technology upgrade. However, for those who are primarily interested in catching up on the original in a new guise, the remake is undoubtedly the best option at the moment.

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Sep 22, 2020

Vanillaware manages to tell a complex time travel-plot through 13 different perspectives, while constantly delivering a high amount of narrative tension. All this is flanked by a terrific art style, great voice acting and a solid strategy part. Everyone who loves sci-fi adventures with a twist should give 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim a try!

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Nov 30, 2020

Whether it's the underground puzzle dungeons, constant stamina management or dizzying climbing passages - Ubisoft Quebec took many inspirations from "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild". But, viewed as a whole "Immortals: Fenyx Rising" still manages to do it's own thing. The extremely agile Fenyx is a loveable protagonist right from the start and also the narrator duo provides a lot of fun. The same goes for the many challenging fights. If you liked "Breath of Wild" or if you want to experience something similar on other systems, you will quickly fall in love with this new IP.

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86% - Tunic
Oct 6, 2022

It's just a pity that the story tends to fade into the background over long stretches and is ultimately too much linked to the intensive study of the manual and the analysis of the environment. If you like exactly this kind of storytelling, you will also be fascinated by it.

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What remains is a wonderfully beginner-friendly gem for lovers of the tactical genre - and all those who want to become one. Clear purchase recommendation!

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86% - Humanity
Jun 14, 2023

The level of difficulty is sometimes accompanied by some unexpected fluctuations, but overall there are no real dead ends due to the solution videos that are available at all times. Combined with the splendid level editor and the optional VR mode that grants an even better overview of each level, Humanity is a true puzzle hit that no genre fan should miss.

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Mar 12, 2024

Unicorn Overlord is a real tactical role-playing heavyweight with a variety of gameplay mechanics that intertwine very thoughtfully. The countless 'who should I let live and who not' decisions and the characters associated with them make the campaign very attractive and increase the replay value considerably. Other strengths include the early freedom when exploring the game world and the successful German on-screen texts. The twist-filled story also serves its purpose, although Vanillaware often follows familiar narrative paths here.

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Oct 26, 2021

Age of Empires IV does have it’s rough edges, especially regarding specific control and comfort options. Map editor and mod support are also still missing. But apart from that it’s already a very entertaining package with eight very different factions, nice mission design ideas, thrilling multiplayer and great insights for history enthusiasts.

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Oct 21, 2022

If you currently only have one Switch, prefer to play solo and wanted to try out the title anyway, you will undoubtedly be thrilled what Hello Games delivers here. But also all Switch owners with a penchant for space exploration should quickly take "No Man's Sky" to their hearts.

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Mar 20, 2024

With Dragon’s Dogma 2 Capcom is offering a mammoth action role-playing game that will delight fans of classic fantasy RPG genre. Driven by missions that can often be solved in a variety of ways, sometimes even pleasingly puzzle-heavy, and an atomically staged game world made up of very varied biomes, you will experience a story full of twists and turns and challenging fights against huge monsters. Sadly, performance-wise 30 fps is the limit here on consoles. Also, sometimes you encounter smaller logical errors and minor visual bugs, but overall it’s a very entertaining title.

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Feb 9, 2021

Despite some rather annoying trial-&-error sections and puzzles which feel a bit too easy, Little Nightmares 2 managed to excite us from start to finish. Visuals are great, sound design is awesome, gameplay offers a fair amount of variety and the environmental story-telling again works excellent. Sadly this scary adventure is already over after roughly seven hours.

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Oct 2, 2020

Both the campaign and the multiplayer mode of Star Wars: Squadrons are a whole lot of fun and both feature full VR support on PS4 and PC. Another thumbs up goes to the great cross play functionality on all systems. Sadly, the multiplayer of this otherwise great experience only offers two game modes, eight ships and half a dozen maps. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the developers with expand this offering in the near future.

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It's just a pity that Farah is not available as a playable figure, trial & error passages get out of hand at times (especially in the vehicle convoy level), the plot was constructed a bit too predictably, the variety of enemies is quite low, there is no jungle level despite numerous Mexico detours and the campaign can not be tackled in co-op mode. If you can put up with all these quirks, you will still experience seven to eight hours of leaded video game escapism.

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Jun 20, 2023

However, it is also a fact that not all the gears of "Park Beyond" are running smoothly yet. The road construction system sometimes leads to quite strange results, which can often only be ironed out by demolition and terraforming measures. Some challenges that have already been met are not correctly recognized, in some places the balancing seems half-baked, and if the Ferris wheel occasionally stands still for no reason despite high maintenance values, it is quite necessary to shake your head. However, if you overlook these hopefully soon patched teething troubles, what remains is a motivating construction simulation with damn cool rides, a terrific roller coaster editor and the graphically as well as playfully creatively implemented impossification mechanics.

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Nov 15, 2021

In order to survive in the hotly contested multiplayer shark tank in the long term, DICE now has to optimize and expand the core pillars of "Battlefield 2042" step by step, eliminate bugs, further increase performance and server stability, and set a higher pace than was the case with "Battlefield V". If this succeeds, "Battlefield 2042" has a rosy future ahead of it. If, on the other hand, DICE loses sight of the concerns of the community, the tide could turn in a completely different direction.

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Feb 27, 2024

Admittedly, in the first one or two hours of play, "Inkulinati" still feels quite unwieldy. However, once you have worked your way through the numerous tutorial lessons and internalized the basic principles, what is offered ignites a consenting pull effect that turn-based strategy lovers will find difficult to resist. Not least because the balance has reached a nice, fairly even level after the Early Access phase on PC on all difficulties. The Monty Phython-inspired humor also knows how to please and graphically "Inkulinati" is something very special anyway due to its grandiose medieval style.

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