While Until Dawn lacks complex gameplay, it counters with compelling characters, astounding visuals, and a thought provoking storyline. A masterful fusion of art forms, Until Dawn is a refreshingly self-aware experience that no thriller fan should pass up.
If you can swallow (heh, bird puns) the basic idea, there are a lot of weird and wonderful stories to be uncovered in Hatoful Boyfriend. Just don't expect to do much actual playing.
Hatred is a subpar twin stick shooter whose only claim to fame is its Adults Only rating from the ESRB. The novelty of the rating and some good destruction tech does not make up for the coated-in-molasses control, idiotic AI, and feeling of unease the game puts forth. Worse yet, the game is boring, repetitive, and simply not fun. Save your money for something with more substance.
Stealth Inc 2 might seem like a standard *shudder* Metroidvania experience on the surface, but it actually offers a unique and very entertaining experience. It looks great, it feels great, and it's legitimately fun to play.
All in all, Shiftlings is a passable entry into the platform puzzle genre. The gas shifting mechanic is certainly a novel one, but is relied on almost exclusively in puzzle solving where some more creativity would have been appreciated. If you're itching to bounce around and solve puzzles, you could do worse than Shiftlings – just don't expect a mind altering experience.
Cities XXL is a reasonably good city building game in a vacuum. It offers a decent creative experience, with flexible building options, while looking quite nice. Unfortunately, it performs extremely poorly. Then there's the elephant in the room – the other Cities games. They look the same, they perform the same, and save minor changes they ARE the same. Cities XXL even appears in the taskbar as Cities XL. For that reason, I cannot recommend Cities XXL. Instead, consider picking up a previous entry in the series for far less money to feed your creative self with some city building goodness.
If you have a solid group of five you can count on to play with at all times, Evolve might be worth a look. With some balancing, I could even see Evolve becoming quite popular among the hardcore e-sports types. For the rest of us who just want to jump in and have some fun, I'd recommend looking elsewhere.
While it doesn't reinvent the wheel, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is tweaked sufficiently to warrant being its own entity. The oxygen, new classes, and gravity mechanics make gameplay feel fresh, while the story provides enough of a thread to tie things together. Sure, the missions and environments are repetitive and there are some technical hiccups, but The Pre-Sequel is fun to play, and well worth a look for fans of loot and/or shooting.
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition takes one of the best games last year and makes it better. If you're a platform fan, a brawler fan, an action fan, hell, if you've ever eaten a tortilla, you owe it to yourself to give Guacamelee! a try. It's smart, stylish, and funny, all while being one of the most sharply tuned games around. Better yet, it's free for Xbox One Gold members this month. Go play it.
Although more traditional than previous games in the series, Anomaly Defenders provides a flexible and entertaining strategy-light experience. It looks great, provides multiple options for players and play styles, and is challenging enough to require forethought and adaptation. Though previous Anomaly fans might be disappointed in the traditional approach, it's well worth a try for tower defense fans.
If Zen can hone their tables and create unique experiences instead of attempting to beat the best at their own craft, they'll have something special on their hands. As it stands, the game is a fun romp, but only if you can get past the differences from real pinball psychologically.
While perhaps lacking the impact of the end of Season 1, I can wholeheartedly recommend Season 2 to fans of the series. Perhaps more importantly, I recommend the game to anyone who enjoys a dramatic story – both gamers and non-gamers deserve to enjoy this shining example of interactive media.
Crimson Dragon isn't the worst Xbox One launch game, but it's far from good. The RPG elements have promise but lack the polish, while the gameplay and visuals fail to resonate on any level. It's a title that feels devoid of passion, and not even the great soundtrack can save the game's flying 18 wheelers from utter mediocrity.
The whole experience frustrates me. Driving at insane speeds on a wise cracking sentient motorcycle should be gaming nirvana, but the writing, mechanics, and design of Loc0Cycle are subpar. It's not worth the price of admission, and is one of the Xbox One's weaker launch titles.
The Night of the Rabbit is visually stunning, and will appeal greatly to fans of the adventure genre. It packs interesting characters and design ideas. Although there are some hiccups in pacing and puzzle design, the overall charm of the world makes it well worth a look.