Tom Marks's Reviews
All the charm in the universe couldn't save Balan Wonderworld's half-baked platforming and ill-advised one-button design from being a complete bore.
Monster Hunter Rise mixes classic Monster Hunter ideas with some of World's best improvements and a whole bunch of clever new mechanics of its own.
Maquette is an incredibly clever and absolutely gorgeous first-person puzzle game, even if it doesn’t really push the boundaries of its own recursive concept in any particularly surprising ways. That left me feeling like its straightforward story and puzzles were a missed opportunity to do something more, but playing through Maquette’s brief adventure was at least a lovely, mind-tickling evening well spent.
Persona 5 Strikers' simple real-time combat is consistently engaging, and its summer vacation story (while slimmed down) is a sequel nearly worthy of the '2' it lacks at the end of its title.
Cyberpunk 2077 throws you into a beautiful, dense cityscape and offers a staggering amount of flexibility in how you choose to take it from there.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a charming LittleBigPlanet spin-off that trades its creation tools in for a more straightforward Mario structure.
I’m enjoying Godfall, even if it’s not doing much to wow me and the repetition of its missions is wearing a bit thin. It’s got some fun and satisfying combat, a few genuinely novel mechanics, and graphics that range from absolutely gorgeous to a little over the top – but unless its thin story morphs into more than an excuse to go stab stuff, the grindable action-looter structure doesn't seem like it has enough variety to sustain its otherwise expansive customization.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe makes an already excellent game even better with some small but enjoyable content additions and a boatload of quality of life improvements.
Star Wars: Squadrons' single-player campaign tells an entertaining story, while its flight controls hit a sweet spot between accessibility and nuance – and it's made even better by VR and HOTAS support.
Marvel's Avengers' campaign is fun and endearing, but the loot-based post-game meant to be the meat of this meal is unrewarding and overly repetitive.
Spiritfarer's gorgeous mix of an exciting action-platformer and a touching town manager is a journey worth savoring.
Tony Stark's story may not be very interesting, but flying around as his alter ego in Marvel's Iron Man VR is still a lot of fun.
XCOM: Chimera Squad plays with some interesting new ideas, but doesn't bring them together into a particularly graceful whole.
The Room VR: A Dark Matter offers an enjoyable and impressively polished VR puzzler while it lasts.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake's dull filler and convoluted additions can cause it to stumble, but it still breathes exciting new life into a classic while standing as a great RPG all its own.
Murder by Numbers successfully blends a Phoenix Wright-style visual novel with a Picross-style puzzle game by making each aspect great in its own right.
Kentucky Route Zero is a beautiful poetry generator in the body of a point-and-click adventure game.
Wattam is a weird and wild fever dream of a game, but it's the most enjoyable fever dream I've ever had.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne adds loads of impressive monsters and tons of quality-of-life improvements to an already incredible game.
Far: Lone Sails is a gorgeous little game with an incredible soundtrack and a journey packed full of both stressful and serene moments alike.