For Souls fans, there's a lot to love about Death's Gambit. There's a multitude of secrets to be found, shortcuts to be unlocked, and lore to be read from the cryptic item descriptions. When the game isn't being held back by the weird boss and level designs or technical issues, it can be charming and sincere in its own right.
After completing all three story acts, I found that I enjoyed the journey the game took me on, but I was also overwhelmingly relieved that it was finally over. At the end of the day, We Happy Few leaves me feeling conflicted.
At the end of it all, Defiance 2050 is fun to muck around in for a couple of hours, but its lack of polish and outdated graphics severely hold it back from even getting close to the level of its current competition. You're probably better off looking elsewhere.
Octopath Traveler feels like a much more personal collection of tales that might go against what you'd typically expect from a JRPG. More than anything else, the way the characters fall together feels like coincidence rather than providence, and the game is far more concerned with telling intimate stories about grief, friendship, adventure, and redemption. You might not get to save the world, but there's joy to be had from just helping out someone in a bind and learning more about the deep history of Orsterra as you go.
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit isn't a long game, and you'll probably take up to three hours at most if you really want to complete everything. The story, despite being on the short side, was warm and heartbreaking at the same time, and it all comes to a head when an epic ending reveal sets up what could be an impressive and unexpected springboard for the story in Life Is Strange 2.
At the end of it all, the Octo Expansion's take on tsukin jigoku and the idea of underground subway purgatory is written into both the story and gameplay. Agent 8's memory loss feeds into the idea of the subway being a kind of limbo that's stuck halfway between the “promised land” and the endless depths of Octarian challenges.
At the end of the day, I couldn't quite become the Avatar I wanted, choosing only to specialize in lightning and air spells, and zapping my enemies to death. Still, Wizard of Legend succeeds in creating a setting that's just full of so much mystery and awe.
Dark Souls Remastered is still a masterclass in level design, and it remains the pinnacle of third-person action games. Longtime fans will be pleased with the improved performance on both consoles and PC. And if you're a newcomer wondering if you should get your feet wet with this entry, the answer is an absolute, resounding ‘Yes.'
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition will be a much more appealing and enticing prospect to those who haven't already played the game. This is one of the most fleshed out and content-filled Warriors games I've seen in a long time, and even if you aren't a Zelda fan, there's still plenty here to charm you if you're not turned off by the repetitive combat.
Atlus hasn't made that many significant changes to the story, and that's fine, considering that the original plot was strong enough on its own. At the end of the day, Strange Journey Redux is still a solid dungeon-crawling RPG that fans of the genre will thoroughly enjoy.
Ultimately, Dragon's Crown Pro is reserved only for newcomers and the most hardcore of fans. As beautiful as the storybook world looks in 4K, it simply isn't enough to justify a second purchase for those who've already played through it on the PS3 and Vita. But if you fall into the camp of people who are intrigued by this charming world, or if you just want more Dragon's Crown in your life, there's no better way to play this game than on the PS4.
Frostpunk is an extremely polished city-builder game that builds upon the genre's core mechanics with meaningful innovations. Despite the steep learning curve at the start, it manages to be captivating every step of the way while never forgoing that rush of adrenaline you get when the game strips away your power and complacency with yet another ethically conflicting challenge.
God of War certainly suffers from a lot of minor flaws that keep it from being a genuinely outstanding action-adventure title, but these feel like kinks that can be ironed out in time, perhaps when the next iteration in the series comes rolling around. Despite all my complaints about Atreus and the game's imperfections, this is still an easy game to recommend to anyone with a PS4. God of War marks the glorious and bloody return of everyone's favorite Spartan, and with the new dive into Norse mythology, there's still plenty of adventures to look forward to as the series evolves.
Despite its issues, episode 5 of Batman: The Enemy Within stands tall as one of the very best and most well thought out episodes we've ever seen from Telltale. Your decisions finally feel like they actually matter, and the story delivers a powerful resolution to the two characters we've been following closely all season.
Having fun in Sea of Thieves is a slow burn at the moment. Most of the game involves you just chilling on your ship while looking for other pirates to steal from, or for the raids to start.
If you're not a fan of linear games, you should probably play A Way Out anyway. The game's presentation of a truly co-operative story is sublime, and it makes full use of the video game medium as a method to punctuate the dramatic moments and develop its characters. Like Brothers, A Way Out presents a unique twist to the cinematic story formula, and it sticks the landing.
Into the Breach is brilliant in how it approaches the strategy game genre. By giving the player all the information they need, it's easy to see where exactly you went wrong, and what you could've done to prevent it.
Looking at my death count at the end of the game, it was a little shocking to see that I’d died that many times. But Celeste constantly reassures the player that it’s not something to be ashamed of. Every death is a lesson learned, and with every lesson comes improvement. As long as you don’t give up, there’s always a path to success. Even if you have to fail 2,649 times to see it.
Every hunt in Monster Hunter: World demands so much attention from the player. There is a 50 minute time limit precisely because your prey are so tough to kill, and the game makes sure that you put in the effort and dedication required to take it down.
To my surprise, Styling Star charmed me a lot more than I initially expected. Though most of the characters in the game felt rather one-dimensional and bland, their in-game animations were always fluid and distinct, and matched their personalities.