Neil Bolt's Reviews
Not only does Two Point Studios manage to successfully build upon everything Two Point Hospital did right, with Two Point Campus it's added a whole new level of learning and given its flavour of sim game a more intimate aspect to management that's endearingly reminiscent of The Sims.
Starship Troopers: Terran Command is a pretty standard RTS game that manages to evoke the feel of Starship Troopers magnificently.
With The Quarry, Supermassive heads back to the woods with mostly positive results. The story is not much to write home about, and the paring back of physical control of characters' actions leaves some empty spaces. Still, the cast is generally likable, the presentation impressive, and there's plenty of joy to be found in manipulating the lives of these poor young souls. The Quarry has plenty of thrills, chills, and kills, but also an abundance of filler.
Spiral Circus creates a spellbinding world of undersea dread and wonder with Silt. From the distinct hand-drawn visual style to the ambiguous mystery of its protagonist and setting, this is an engrossing experience only marred by sparse checkpointing.
We Were Here Forever gives no quarter in its cooperative puzzling, fully trusting players to get on with it and work together. At its peak, the wondrous structure of this game is simply sublime, and perhaps the most invested I've felt in a co-op game since Portal 2. It doesn't always hit those highs, and matchmaking was personally hit and miss, but We Were Here Forever generally dazzles.
We Were Here Forever gives no quarter in its cooperative puzzling, fully trusting players to get on with it and work together. At its peak, the wondrous structure of this game is simply sublime, and perhaps the most invested I've felt in a co-op game since Portal 2. It doesn't always hit those highs, and matchmaking was personally hit and miss, but We Were Here Forever generally dazzles.
It's not the biggest multiplayer experience you could find right now, but Evil Dead: The Game makes use of its streamlined nature to deliver a darkly joyous romp that taps into everything Evil Dead with great success. Saber Interactive follows up its solid World War Z game with another well put together multiplayer horror title.
Saber Interactive has crafted a highly entertaining asymmetrical multiplayer game in Evil Dead: The Game, and a lot of that is down to an understanding of how best to implement the quirks of the source material into game form. With possession, slapstick, gore, violence, chainsaws, and malevolent trees, Evil Dead: The Game is as Evil Dead as it could be.
RiffTrax: The Game has all the tools to be a highly entertaining party game experience. Its simple and streamlined approach will make it an accessible option, even if that does make the whole package feel a little light.
The simplicity of Lego Builder's Journey is exactly why it's the most faithful Lego game of all outside actually putting physical bricks together. A smartly put together little story puzzler that showcases the power of creative thinking and play that is synonymous with the iconic Danish toy. The only thing that betrays its joy is the occasionally clunky controls in tight spots.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga does a fine job of reinvigorating the Lego game formula, even if it continues to be mired in gargantuan amounts of busywork. Most importantly, however, it's a highly entertaining Star Wars spectacle that brings humor and joy in Sarlaac-sized portions.
With Weird West, WolfEye has created an ambitious immersive sim hybrid that sucks you ever-deeper into its gritty, bizarre world of the cults n' cowboys like a particularly impatient quicksand. It occasionally struggles to translate its combat to a controller as smoothly as it could, but the rest of this package is so damn intoxicating that it matters little in the long run. A masterful game with a fascinating set of stories to tell.
With a few of its existing rough edges smoothed out, Death Stranding Director's Cut manages to be a more approachable experience than its previous incarnation, and for those coming back to it, there's just enough new to warrant a second journey across America.
While there's plenty to applaud in ELEX II's freeform open-world approach, it comes at something of a cost. Technical issues, inconsistent dialogue quality, and some wonky combat do much to muddy the good that can be found in Piranha Bytes expansive RPG.
If Dynasty Warriors 9 was the volatile reboot the series desperately needed to endure, the Empires is proof the mixture isn't quite settled yet. What Empires adds in terms of being an engrossing strategy sim, it loses in paring back its open world warfare to something that feels far too much like the series back at its worst. Persevere with its shortcomings, though, and Empires can bring you riches.
A lean and mean addition to the Serious Sam family that experiments with a few new toys, and offers more of the same Serious Sam goodness we've been accustomed to. It has the odd instance of unnecessary padding via one too many gunfights, but overall keeps a breezy, brutal pace.
As a celebration of all things Jurassic, Jurassic World Evolution 2 serves as a worthy successor to the original. As a park management game, it struggles to find a meaningful focal point. Given Frontier's expertise in this exact department elsewhere, that's more than a little disappointing. A light, messy sim that acts as a tribute to the prehistoric pandemonium of the Jurassic Park/World series.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition isn't exactly the disaster it's been made out to be, but it is still a frustrating, underwhelming attempt to modernize three very important games. The quality of life improvements are generally welcome, and in many places, there's a faithful upgrading of the iconic visual style of the PS2 era titles. Unfortunately, not every change is welcome, and in the case of San Andreas, perhaps a little less of it might have done it a few favours.
The strength of Frogwares previous works is retained within more ambitious, freeform packaging. Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One can be abrasive, both in gameplay terms and in its depiction of an iconic character, but it offers such rich and rewarding depth to its detective drama that it's much easier to accept.
Phoenix Point manages to blend the very numbers-based approach of classic X-Com with some of modern XCOM's streamlining. The result is a colossal, cavernous tactical strategy game that struggles to hold its shape at times. Its wealth of information and systems requires patience, but if you can persevere, it's very much worth the time.