Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is highly enjoyable because of its classic JRPG roots paired with a fantastic audio-visual onslaught that results in a short but sweet adventure. While I wanted more out of the experience, I very much liked what I got plus it tickled my appetite for more NieR. The adventure was easy to get into and the collectibles kept me around until the eventual end.
House of Ashes is a welcome entry for The Dark Pictures Anthology as the action-horror pivot really works for this series. With the addition of several mechanics, it draws you into the story with its slightly creepy start and goes all out as it escalates the title all the way to its rip-roaring finale. The combination of likable characters and a semi-serious horror adventure leans into many of its tropes and embraces its campy nature, allowing you to have fun with it.
Back 4 Blood provides fantastic action with some of the best shooting offered this year. The card system provides long-term value by allowing players to experiment with the 8 characters to choose from, offering a variety of ways to go about the game. In its current state, the difficulty is a mixed bag, proving to be very inconsistent and impossible at times, especially if you mostly play with randoms. Team play with friends is highly encouraged because Back 4 Blood puts a premium on synergy and communication, which may be hard to come depending on your habits.
Given a chance, Lost in Random is one of the delightful surprises this year, providing a fresh take on an action-adventure combat system by combining it with a deck-building mechanic. It fits with the thematic arc of the story while adding a decent collectible mechanic in the game that efficiently streamlines its main gameplay loop. This results in a tight 12-hour adventure that gives you enough story, gameplay, and extras for a complete experience that respects your time and money.
You have to admire the amount of thought and effort put into the intricate level design of Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania. Yet no matter how much appreciation I have for this genre, it takes a specific kind of player to enjoy this game and it definitely isn’t for everyone. A lot of emphasis is placed on modernizing the game, adding as many accessibility options and extras which newcomers will certainly appreciate.
Unfortunately, Darksiders III is an example of a flawed port, where the hardware deficiency really shows its weak points. If you’re able to forgive its framerate issues and other frustrating hitches, you’re left with a decent adventure that puts a focus on deliberate and thought-out combat.
There’s a lot of fun to be had with BPM: Bullets Per Minute, evidenced by the dedicated cult following from its PC launch. Ultimately, the enjoyment of the game will be dependent on the player and how well they’ll be able to cope with the rhythm-related mechanic on top of its difficulty. There’s always the option to switch to Auto if you can’t quite cope with the beat, but this is the biggest selling factor of the game and turning it off relegates it to being a generic shooter.
Lost Judgment may divide audiences depending on taste and threshold for certain quirks but is a solid title with enough content in this game to entertain just about anybody. Its biggest achievement is solidifying Takayuki Yagami as a mainstay for years to come. He’s no longer a mere skin change from Kazuma Kiryu, boasting of unique mini-games, fighting styles, and perspective only present from Yagami’s point of view.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits makes a strong first impression with its beautiful visuals, engaging soundtrack, and decent combat that you'd mistake for a AAA title making its rounds. After a while though, the many little hiccups that I've experienced in the game wore me down, ending my journey with a whimper.
So here’s the thing – Death Stranding is Death Stranding. It is a highly divisive game that some will love while others will hate with a passion. If you don’t like it, nothing in the Director’s Cut will change your mind about the game. If you do like it? This version simply elevates the experience.
Deathloop is one of the year’s best games and you shouldn’t let the marketing fatigue fool you because Arkane has delivered quite a fresh take using one of the most saturated themes in today’s gaming market. Deathloop has some of the best ways to ease you into a complex world, waiting for you to walk until you can run, but at the same time treating you with enough respect to figure things out.
I deeply loved Life is Strange: True Colors and at a certain point it was fast becoming my personal game of the year. Sadly, with inconsistent storytelling and a really messy final act, it feels that I’ve been emotionally manipulated to like the game until a breaking point. While one could argue that “it’s all about the journey”, a really messy resolution really ruins that journey it built up.
Cris Tales has its fair share of problems, but if you don’t mind a little bit of jank and a full dose of nostalgia, this non-Japanese developed JRPG is definitely for you. It’s a simple game that follows many of its tropes to the letter, sometimes to a fault, but it does just enough to become a charming ride without it overstaying its welcome.
Crown Trick has all the elements to succeed as a roguelite dungeon crawler: addictive gameplay, randomized dungeons and enemies, and a huge variety of monsters and weapons. However, with a market getting saturated by an endless number of similar titles, it does little to make itself stand out with its generic story and presentation.
Golf Club Wasteland has an excellent premise with how it combined golf with the world and overall story. However, when the novelty ended, the frustrations just kept piling on top of each other because of the inefficient and broken controls.
I really enjoyed Psychonauts 2 despite not having played the first game and as someone who generally ignores mascot platformers. The unique visual style may not be for everybody, but the charming and heartwarming story can really get you into the groove. Coupled with an easy control scheme mixed in with a semi-open world enabling you to explore different mind mazes, there's a lot to love about this game.
While I honestly enjoyed the concept, Jessika is quite a difficult one to recommend without many caveats. There are many ways the game is totally innovative, but also it has some issues with accessibility, especially if you’re playing it on the Nintendo Switch. The biggest issue Jessika has is that the content is not for everybody, especially if you’re the type of player who’s easily disturbed as they don’t pull any punches with how the character delivers some of her speech.
There is an audience for The Long Gate and unfortunately, I’m not it, and unless you have an engineering background or enjoy this specific type of puzzle game, it’s a hard sell for the mainstream audience. It’s not a bad game and there’s a lot to appreciate in this puzzler, but appreciation doesn’t necessarily lead to enjoyment.
Foreclosed has many great ideas such as the comic book aesthetic, the film noir mood, and the great use of cyberpunk thematic elements. Yet, when put into practice, it’s a mess. The broken gunplay mechanics, unfriendly checkpoints, and yet another developer jumping on the Dualsense hype train without making it actually work ruins the intriguing premise.
In a time where we’re being bombarded with larger open worlds with endless fetch quests and high-difficulty roguelike combat in every corner, it’s refreshing to have a game that just charms us traditionally, and Greak: Memories of Azur does just that.